Harlan County, U.S.A Page #3

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The union officials came to us

and told us we'd have to go back to work...

That we were violating the agreement.

We said, "To hell with the agreement.

We're gonna strike until we get our demands."

Well, then the politicians began

visiting us and putting pressure on us.

Then the parish priests.

Well, finally the coal company

did agree to meet with us...

and they agreed

to raise the hourly pay...

from six-and-a-fraction cents

to eight cents an hour.

So we thought

we got big concessions.

Today that wouldn't mean anything.

That's only peanuts.

But it meant a whole lot to us

and our paycheck at that period.

Well, this was my first lesson

that if you stuck to your organization

and stuck together in solidarity...

You could defeat them.

Besides that, I learned that the politicians

worked with the coal companies.

I found out that the union officials

were working with the coal companies.

I also found out that the Catholic hierarchy

was working with the coal officials.

Here was a combination

of the whole thing, see

that you had to bump up

against the whole combination of them.

When the coal and iron police would find out

who was trying to instigate a union...

well, they'd abuse them.

The miners figured, well,

the only way they could fight back...

was to abuse them,

pay them for what they was doin'.

So they began to use, then, violence...

in retaliation of the violence

that was bein'used against them.

This kind of a struggle

went on to such a degree...

that there was many of the mine foremen

gettin'killed...

there was many of the police

gettin'killed...

and, of course,

there was many miners gettin'killed.

It was regular guerrilla warfare.

And some of the early ideas of guerrilla warfare

developed out of that kind of struggle.

The coal company gets every dollar

which he can chisel out of some coal miner...

through oppressive management tactics.

So why wouldn't the coal operators

be satisfied?

The government is acting

as their muscleman.

Tax money of Kentucky at work...

breakin'the organized labor.

Organized labor.

Organized labor.

Well, hell, I don't think they're in here

for anything except break the strike here.

They are for the company all the way,

for the operators.

I don't have any feelings one way or the other.

Just have a job to do.

- And why are you here?

- To keep the roads open.

Enforce laws, keep the peace,

try to keep people from gettin' hurt.

Move down here, please.

- Don't put your hands on me, hoss.

- All right.

"Bailey." You know, my name's Bailey,

and you're a damn disgrace to the Bailey family.

Boy, this is a damn shame.

A Bailey, y'all, a state cop. Ain't that a shame?

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