Courtesy of upcoming documentary: Coal Fired

www.fireflypix.com

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Courtesy of Haw River Films

A miner’s daughter stands up for Appalachia’s mountains

by Jennifer Hattam

Deep in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, the town of Whitesville clings to life along State Route 3. Its three-block downtown is marked by empty lots, boarded-up windows, and two funeral homes, and there’s scarcely a person to be seen. The outskirts seem cheerier, with laughter bouncing out of the swimming pool and across the baseball field. But in a state wracked by turmoil since it was torn out of Virginia during the Civil War, even the bright spots are haunted by their past.

In the early 1900s, the coal industry sponsored baseball teams in company towns like Whitesville, which fostered competition between communities and distracted miners’ attention from poor working conditions. Efforts such as these eventually failed, and by midcentury union organizing had improved the local quality of life. The Big Coal River ran strong and deep, and the Big Rock, a swimming hole just about where the pool is now, was a favorite spot for a dip. But these days the river sometimes turns black with mining sludge, and the concrete pool cracks when the landfill beneath it shifts.

Coal built Whitesville, and other towns like it throughout Appalachia, but now coal is ripping the region apart. “My people have had to live with oppression for over 130 years,” says Julia Bonds, 51, whose family includes three generations of coal miners. “But this new type of mining is more aggressive than ever. The coal industry is destroying our culture and our environment.”

The new type of mining, aptly called “mountaintop removal,” has claimed nearly a fifth of southwestern West Virginia’s peaks. Before the early 1960s, getting coal out of the ground meant sending men down into it. Then companies found that they could get at more coal, for less money, by simply tearing off the earth on top. Surface (or “strip”) mining accelerated after the oil crises of the 1970s increased demand for domestic fuels, and again in the 1980s as earthmoving machines grew bigger and more powerful. With the latest removal techniques, hundreds of feet of dirt, plants, and rock above the coal seam are blasted off and dumped over the side of the mountain. This “overburden” smothers streams and pollutes the air, and the resulting erosion has led to some of the worst flooding in state history.

In May, a study by five government agencies calculated the toll mountaintop removal has taken in the Appalachian coalfields: 724 miles of streams buried and over 300,000 acres of forests obliterated. The deforestation is expected to double over the next decade. But instead of tougher regulations, the Bush administration proposed to “streamline” the review of new mining permits. It has also revised the Clean Water Act to legalize the already common practice of dumping mountain remnants into waterways as “fill.” A local bumper sticker sums up events pretty well: “I have been to the mountaintop, but it wasn’t there.”

Julia Bonds is fighting to end coal’s ruinous reign. A former Pizza Hut waitress and convenience-store clerk, for the past five years Bonds has been the community outreach coordinator for a tiny grassroots organization, Coal River Mountain Watch. Scarcely five feet tall, with dark hair, soft features, and a preference for baggy T-shirts, leggings, and sneakers, Bonds doesn’t seem very intimidating. Until she opens her mouth. “We are living with domestic terrorism from these coal barons,” she told me 15 minutes into our first meeting. “And our lapdog politicians are working hand in hand with the corporations that put them in place to destroy our children’s world. They think we’re a bunch of ignorant hillbillies, but you don’t have to be very smart to figure that one out, do you?” (more…)

By Judy Bonds
Coal River Mountain Watch

As a child growing up in the coal fields of Southern West Virginia, I felt nurtured and protected by my family and these ancient mountains. Protected from the outside world that I would later find—considered me an ignorant hillbilly.

It has taken a lifetime to fit together the pieces of the puzzle– the people that exploited Appalachia–the coal and land barons–stereotyped us in order to justify the treatment of my people–to make us the “national sacrifice zone” for America’s cheap energy. I have denied it many times but, my people are the unwanted bastard children of America! It took the sturdiest, hardiest people to settle the steep, mountainous region that I call home. A testament to the men and women of central Appalachia.

Then came the great “land grab”– coal and land barons came to steal. cheat, and murder — to take our land — take our coal, timber and the money out of state to their homes –for their well dressed children and their well kept mansions. Appalachian women stood strong — we watched our mates and our young male children, some age 10 — slave in the masters’ mines.. beside their fathers — they died like flies in inhuman and unsafe working conditions.

The land grab and the unsafe working conditions left many women widows — to raise their families as single mothers– as best they could. We endured! These masters put us in shanties to live and when my people cried out for justice –the coal barons evicted our families. We set up tents and we endured the agony of our children freezing to death…many many of our children died in the mine wars.

We survived “Bull Moose Specials”– When coal companies used hired “guards” and security agents to shoot into our tents and murder our men, women and children. Appalachian women stood strong and faced the “beast” that invaded our land. We stood and fought beside our men for basic human rights. We finally won a Union — better wages — safer working conditions — but coal mining still a dangerous job — maimed our men, shortened their lives, broke their bodies and spirits and blackened their lungs.

Born in 1952, I barely remember the twice weekly foraging at night, my mother, older sisters would sometimes take me to forage for coal that had fallen off the train — along the tracks — in our hollow, we did this so our family would not freeze. Work stoppage was frequent still in the coal fields –the union helped, but the inhuman treatment from the coal companies still happenened. The women walked picket lines and went to jail with the men. Through my mothers and community elders storytelling I came to realize that all this coal was OURS– these companies had stolen our coal, our land, our heritage, our humanity!!!!

Stories of hardship, strife and of Mother Jones and strong women that fought back by merely living and staying put in our homeland—we stood strong, we endured.

Now we have come almost full circle with those that would erase the last of my people–my history, my heritage and my children’s future. Today we fight the final battle–Appalachia’s last stand!!!!

Four men and a dragline is taking ALL that we have left. Mountaintop removal is Mountaineer Removal. Removing all — Our culture, heritage, home, communities, streams, forests, our children’s future and our beloved mountains. These mountains sustain us — hunting, fishing, medicinal herbs, berries, food and abundant water..we didn’t and wouldn’t need anything — if only these mountains and hollows stayed intact. These mountains give us FREEDOM!!!! We are part of these mountains and they are part of us–We are one!!! We are connected to this ancient reverent land and the women of Appalachia, again, stands strong and like the “ironweeds”, our roots run deep — TRY AND MOVE US !!!!

I have been asked many times — “Why the women in Appalachia are leading this battle”? I can only suggest the answer is our STRENGTH — from our ancestral mothers and grandmothers - -the nurturing instincts to protect our children — their future — our homes–our culture. WE WILL FIGHT WITH OUR LAST BREATH TO PROTECT!!!! This is GOD’s land and HE leads us.

Judy Bonds
Coal River Mountain Watch
(304) 854-2182

Taken courtesy of

Sierra Club