All language subtitles for Barbara.Kopple.Harlan.County.USA.1976.English

Fire in the hole!

Fire in the hole!

Fire in the hole!

All clear.

Come, all you young fellers

So brave and so fine

Seek not your fortune

Way down in the mines

It'll form like a habit

And will sink in your soul

Till the streams of your blood

Runs as black as the coal

Where it's dark as a dungeon

Damp as a tomb

Where the danger is double

And the pleasures are few

Where the rain never falls

The sun never shines

It's dark as a dungeon

Way down in the mine

- She out here smilin'?
- Yeah. Smile for her.

Why do them girls
got them car clothes on?

Whew.

For 42 years

Been a mighty long time

I labored and toiled

Down in a coal mine

Down in a deep hole

Where the bright lights did glow

Back in a dark room

A- spadin'up coal

My bones, they did ache me

My kneecaps got bad

Down on a hard rock

On a set of knee pads

The motors were shiftin'

I got sand in my hair

Both lungs were broke down

From a-breathin' bad air

Coal mining was rough.

Eighteen and 20 hours.

Get wet, come outside,
and your clothes'd be froze to stiff.

It would sound like a fire broom hit 'em �
make a rattling noise.

They worked you like
workin'a mule or a brute.

I heard the boss man to say one time �

He said, "You be sure...

"don't get that mule no place
where the rock'll fall in on him.

Don't take that mule to no bad place. "

I said, uh, "Well, what about me?"

I was drivin' mule then.

"What about me,
if a rock had fallen on me?"

He said, "We can always hire another man,
but you gotta buy that mule."

In other words, he thought more
of the mule than he did a man.

My grandfather was a coal miner...

and belonged to the union �
the U.M. W.

And, uh, he died with black lung.

Uh, I can remember sittin' around,
you know, when we were younger...

And him talkin' about
bein' on picket lines and organizin'.

I mean, that was � that was
mostly what we talked about...

Sittin' around the table
after supper and all.

Most of our conversation was his union �

You know, when he was
organizin' for the union...

And things that happened on the picket line
and things that the company did to you.

So I began to hate the company,
you know, uh �

I mean, seemed like I just always did.
I knew they were our enemy, you know.

And then, uh, when I watched him die...

And suffer like he did
with that black lung disease...

I knew that something
could be done about it.

I told myself then, if I ever get the opportunity
to get those coal operators, I will.

'Cause I thought, you know...

They was the enemy.

So when this strike came up,
I saw the opportunity and I jumped right in there.

Let's get up there at 5:00
in the morning and fix you a good cup of coffee.

Let's be there and show these Brookside workers
what we can do for 'em.

Let's stand on our two feet and show these boys
we can help 'em get a contract.

Let's show the people of Harlan County
we stand together.

'Cause you filed for this contract.
We gonna get it.

Hey, the fire's done hot now.
There ain't much they can do.

All you boys on that football field,
I want you to be there in the mornin'.

Let's show Carl Horn that we stand on two feet
here in Harlan County.

We'll sit there and sweat
when it's snowin'.

We'll stand right there until that
U.M.W.A. contract is signed at Brookside.

All you people here on Black Mountain,
we'd highly appreciate it...

if you'd be there at 5:00 �
sunrise revival at Brookside, Kentucky.

Let's don't back off.
Let's don't let one man run us out of Harlan.

Yeah, boys, that's where it's happenin' �
Brookside at 5:00, Monday mornin'.

Let's be down there to support
the Brookside workers.

I got hurt down there
about a year ago at Brookside.

I had about 300 pounds of steel
on my head.

They took me to the hospital,
sewed my head up.

Had a hole cut through my nose here.

I was off one day and the superintendent
sent a feller over, said, uh...

"Get him to come on back up here and work.
We'll make it easy on him so he won't lose no time."

Went back up there, and then it
knocked me out of compensation or anything.

Come back with my head busted open.

That's the way they want you
to work down there.

Protect your family. U.M.W.A.

Join now, boys.
Need your support.

Take some letters for a buddy.
It's on the house.

Now you're a real pal.

- Need your support, buddy.
- May the good Lord take a likin' to ya.

- You know I will.
- I like that. I like that.

- Hey, I'll put one on the car if you want me to.
- U.M.W.A. all the way.

Here, give me one.
I'll put it on his car for him.

Right on the bumper there �
"Tennessee is a U.M. W.A. State."

We're out of Kentucky stickers.
We need more of them.

Organize the unorganized.

With organization,
you have the aid of your fellow man.

Without organization...

You're a lone individual...

Without influence...

And without recognition of any kind.

An exploitation...

Of you and your family...

When it pleases some industrialist...

Who desires to make money
from your misery.

Well, we'd like to have every man
that'll walk this picket duty with us �

To get his name before he leaves,
and we'll break it up.

These boys on this committee'll
break it down...

And we'll get somethin' goin' here.

Come on up and sit around.
It ain't no big thing.

You ain't gonna be doin'nothin'no way,
cryin'about how broke you are, like I am.

We'd sure appreciate that.
Would you like a sticker?

We're protesting.

We're protesting Duke Power's
control over these men...

that voted in the U.M. W. Contract...

and Duke Power says,
"No, you can't have that contract. "

We have made them...

Dozens and dozens of proposals...

Of different language...

In these areas of disagreement.

They read 'em and throw 'em back.

They have no counterproposal.

If you could settle it quietly,
I would think maybe you'd do it and say...

"Well, maybe they won this battle,
but we've got 'em off our back. "

Well, I would agree with you to this extent �
I'd like to have 'em off our back.

They're treatin' us
like we're animals, dogs.

Well, we aren't.
We're American citizens.

And they are violatin'
our constitutional rights...

when they tell us that we can't have
the union of our choice...

that those men voted in.

If you looked on TVthe other day,
you seen women goin'up there, and men �

"Impeach Nixon.
Impeach Nixon."

But you let us get up there
with pick � uh, with protest signs...

Against Duke Power...

And they're sendin' their gun thugs
to intimidate us.

What do you think when unions
are destroying our whole country?

Mm-hmm.

Mr. Hoffa's in the penitentiary...

The Teamster Union
are known communists...

The Longshoremen
are known communists.

Every union in the country strikin',
what will happen to our country?

The men wants higher wages.
They're gonna strike for it.

The union is backing 'em.

They stay on strike
till they get their higher wages.

Like I explained to my daughter, I said,
there's a spool of thread there.

That thread might have been 15 cents.

A man goes on strike, I said, if they want 30
more cents on an hour � They get their 30 cents.

When they go back to work,
they got to raise that price to cover that wage.

The unions is what's doin'it.

The unions is ruinin'
the United States.

I went to work when I was 10 years old
pickin' slate in the coal burner.

Well, at that time
we were workin' 10 hours a day...

And we were gettin'
six-and-a-fraction cents an hour.

Well, we breaker boys...

we'd have our feet in the chute
and we'd be pickin'the slate out...

when the breaker boss
would sneak up behind us.

And ifhe'd see a piece of slate
comin'through...

he'd pick up the slate and hit you
in the back with it, and hit you hard.

And he'd said, "Pick that slate up."

Well, they used to abuse us, actually.

Well, finally we got to a stage where we figured
that, well, we was gonna strike.

That was when I learned
my first real political lesson...

About what happens when you
take a position against the coal operators...

Against the capitalists.

Well, the first thing that happened...

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?

You wanna get a shot of somethin',
get a shot of this baby hangin' off him.

That's what I been lookin' at.

It's the same diameter as this right here.

Once a scab �

There ain't no healin'for a scab.
You know?

- Hell, that's some nerve.
- Here they come.

There's the damn guy drawed that gun on me.
Right there. Right there.

You son of a bitch, you.

Hey.

Get 'em outta here.

- Hey. That's goddamn wrong.
- That's the kind of goddamn law we got.

- Donny.
- They ask, you tell the people.

They'll set a while out back,
your two families.

Hey. Hey.
What in the hell you think you're doin'?

Scabbin' bastards.

- Go on, sucky.
- Hey, scab.

Hey, go on. Hey, go on.

Excuse me. Have some of my hand.

- Goddamn bastards.
- Goddamn scab sons ofbitches.

Hey.

Scabs.

All you guys on this injunction,
all 36 of you, remember this � it's a court order.

You can't block the traffic,
and don't call 'em scabs.

- Why not?
- 'Cause if you do, you'll be behind bars.

I don't think
you'll never win a strike...

By havin' six people
on the picket line.

There's no way, I mean, that you can
win a strike with six pickets.

So you gotta violate these injunctions.

Lawyers are made to
get you out of trouble after you get in...

Not to get you out of trouble
before you get in.

I'll put it like this �
you do what you wanna do.

Women all over the country
are interested in what their husbands are doin'.

They're interested in the safety laws
that the United Mine Workers have...

And they want their husbands
to have their pension funds.

They don't want their husbands
goin'into these scab mines...

with the rock a-fallin'and runnin'
these here motors with no brakes.

So, they want to participate.
They're ready and willing.

The good thing about our club is that now
we're giving them the chance to participate.

You see?

When their husbands goes in the mines,
they're prayin'that they'll get out.

I think that they feel like maybe their prayers
would have been answered sooner...

If they were workin'
under a U.M.W.A. contract.

Well, I went down there
in support of the miners...

For the miners...

And in support of my own children too
that I'm raisin' up.

Now, sit down real easy.
Sit down. Now, it's runnin' over.

- I can't get my foot �
- Angie.

- I couldn't get my foot outta here.
- You're messin'.

- When will we be goin' to jail again?
- If the scab starts to cross the picket lines �

We went because we was tryin' to protect �
The scab was gonna take your daddy's job.

When they sign the contract,
Daddy's gonna have hot running water...

And a big ol' bathtub.

Let's help the striking miners now.

Come, all you coal miners

Wherever you may be

And listen to a story

That I'll relate to thee

My name is nothin' "extree"

But the truth to you I'll tell

I am a coal miner's wife

I'm sure I wish you well

They take your very lifeblood

They take our children's lives

Take fathers away from children

And husbands away from wives

Oh, miner, won't you organize

Wherever you may be

And make this a land of freedom

For workers like you and me

And we have to fight for our rights.

You gonna have to fight for that.

If you have more safety in the mines,
if you get your portal-to-portal pay...

If you have your doctor card
so you can be doctored.

Because if you get disabled
and you don't have any backing...

Then some home will get you...

Or your family will starve.

For, you see, I know what it means.

And this club means a lot
to pull us all together.

Everybody stand together in it...

And everybody goes together...

Everybody go out on the picket line...

And we'll win their contract...

If they'll all stand up.

That's good, Sudie. That's real good.

All the police were lined up
there when we got there.

It was early. We must've got there
at quarter after 5:00, maybe 5:30.

But they were there already.

And by that time all this big crowd
had gathered � you know, supporters.

One car went through with three men in it.
They kinda slipped through.

And, uh, the next car that come through,
we were able to get in the road and lay down.

- No work today, fellers.
- Come on, girls. Lay down. Lay down.

Now let's see what kind oflaw
we got in Harlan County...

what kind of state police we got.

Look at them bastards, manhandlin'women.

We didn't give 'em
any resistance whatever.

We just laid down in the road because they
were there to escort those scabs through to work.

And that's been goin'on
for a whole month.

And we'djust come too far for that.

Take pictures, boys.

You're havin' fun, right?

Honey, they gotta stay on that picket line.
They start scabbin' � They gotta go back there.

They can't let me down.
Shit, just bring me a gun, for �

I- I'd rather be dead...

I- if I have to know
that there's scabs at Brookside.

I can't stand it.
I can't stand the thought of it.

So just don't let 'em, you know �

Stay on the picket line
Always on the picket line

I really mean it.

If they'll just keep on the picket line,
we'll � we'll �

then they'll just beat hell
out of them scabs.

Beat the shit right out of'em.

- That's mine there.
- Which one ain't took?

I don't know, but I got this un.

This top one ain't took yet.
This a double mattress. I'll take this un.

- Hell, I was legally on the picket line.
- I knows he was.

I tried to show 'em in court down there,
and they wouldn't accept a damn thing.

Let's go violate one more time.

Then let 'em put us right back.

'Cause you're a prisoner out there anyway.
You might as well be �

Might as well just be in jail.

It is the judgment of the court...

that Bill Doan, George Eldridge,
Lois Scott, Betty Eldridge...

Bessie Cornett and Melba Strong...

Be incarcerated for
a period of 60 days from this date.

Could I say � Because I haven't had
a chance to give any testimony today.

I knew we weren't gonna get anyjustice.
You say the laws were made for us.

The laws are not made
for the working people in this country.

There's a person missing here today,
and that's Carl Horn.

The law was made for people
like Carl Horn, not for us.

I knew when I came here,
without offering any testimony or gettin' up...

I knew what I was doin' at Brookside,
because that's what I wanted to do.

For once I was able to take the offensive
instead of coming down here...

To take a step backward
to try and defend what we did.

What we did is right,
and we all know that.

I resent the fact...

That they � thatJudge Hogg is a-tryin' me,
and him a coal operator...

And that sittin' beside him
is circuit court clerk Mary Lou Coldarn...

Is sittin' up there,
and her son is up there �

He's the photographer up there
takin' the pictures for 'em...

To blacklist the men on the picket line �
I resent that.

I resent the fact that he can make a law
that can tell me that I can't go where I please.

He's violatin' my constitutional right.

My name is Norman Yarborough.

On my right is Mr. Logan Patterson...

Who is an attorney who has been retained
by the Eastover Mining Company...

As chief negotiator.

I'd like to ask you what you think...

about the role the miners'wives...

have played in this strike.

Well, they've certainly
played a big role in it.

I would hate to think that my wife
would play this kind of role.

Why?

Well, there's been some conduct...

That I don't like to think that our
American women have to �

to revert to.

Is it a fact that the Duke Power Company...

maintains housing for its employees
that has no water and no indoor plumbing?

Yes, sir. We were attempting to move our people �

And these are our people.
They're my people.

Move our people,
upgrade our people into trailers...

Upgrade our people into better housing...

Better conditions in all directions...

Because they'll make us better people
when we are able to do this.

Larry. Come on to supper.

It's a feudal system, I think.

There's a very rich class of people,
and then there are the coal miners.

And then there are the people
who are on relief.

And that's about it in Harlan.

They wanna keep it this way.

The way they keep it that way
is keepin' a monopoly on the labor market.

They do that by keepin' other competitive �

or industries that will be competitive...

You know, for the labor �
keep them out.

There are a few little places to work,
but they don't pay nothin' but the minimum wage.

Maybe two dollars an hour.

You can't make a livin' at that no more.

And if it don't go United Mine Workers,
me and him'll have to leave Harlan County.

That's for sure.
Or maybe Kentucky.

We'll have to go
where it's a union state to get a job again.

Duke Power is a Southern,
conservative company.

Less than 10% of their employees
in their power plants...

And their line crews...

Are organized.

And they feel that if we �

if they give in to a contract here...

It will encourage union organization
in their home state of North Carolina...

And South Carolina.

They say in North Carolina

Duke Power runs the show

Carl Horn would like
to break the strike

But the miners tell him no

Which side are you on, boys

Which side are you on

Goin'up to New York City

We've got to spread the news

Been fightin'hard for many months

And we're not about to lose

Which side are you on, boys

Which side are you on

- You from the South?
- Can I have one of those? Thank you.

You all look like y'all from �

We're gonna let people know...

That if you buy Duke Power stock,
it's risky.

We've had several this mornin'...

said they had Duke Power stock,
but they wouldn't have it long.

They said,
"We're gonna get rid of it."

And that sounded beautiful to me.

- The tunnels here is just like a mine.
- Yeah.

Only ours is about 42 inches high.

I think � I think these are more secure
than a mine, sir.

I wouldn't mind going under here,
but your mines �

- Yeah. You wouldn't wanna go in the mines?
- No.

They could make good profit off the mines
if they had a union. They won't give us one.

Make good profit, but they
keep it all themselves. Right?

- Yeah.
- They don't spread the wealth.

I thought you guys got paid
a little more than you do.

You don't get paid a bad salary,
but I thought it was a little more.

- We get paid real good, but, you know �
- No, it's not.

What's real good?
Five dollars, six dollars an hour?

- Yeah, we �
- That's not real good. I make more than that.

- Yeah?
- Sure, I do.

The policeman makes less down there.

- We make about seven.
- God. That's good money.

We draw union strike benefits.

And it's real hard, you know,
to live on a hundred.

Is your job real dangerous, though?

- Look at me.
- I mean �

This is all I do.
It's a lot of bullshit.

A lot of people don't understand
that that electricity burnin' over there...

Takes somebody dyin'
every day for it.

There's one man dies every day.

- You probably got medical coverage.
- Free.

Free medical coverage.

I'd save up, buddy, buy a house.

- Kids all get sick, I'd have to spend every penny �
- What about dental?

No dental.

- You got dental?
- Dental.

- Goddamn.
- We got dental. We got all kinds of health.

We got drugs.
I could retire at 36.

Half pay � 10,000 a year.

They don't want us to ever be able to retire.

- That's bad.
- That's the reason we're here.

That's the reason we're on strike.
Been on strike nine months.

- Nine months?
- Nine months.

- I thought this was the first day.
- No. This is nine months.

- We can't get a � They won't sign a contract.
- It's good you came here to bring some publicity.

Yeah. Yeah.

The outstanding issues...

Between Duke Power's coal mining subsidiary...

Eastover Mining Company...

And the United Mine Workers...

in the opinion of
the management of Eastover...

and the management of Duke Power,
its parent, are...

the absence of a no-strike clause �

the refusal of the union to agree to not strike
during the life of the contract.

If there are questions on the content
of my report to the stockholders...

I will entertain those questions.

How come you hire gun thugs
to harass us around with?

You sayin'there that the issue is
for a no-strike clause.

Well, if we had a no-strike clause in there...

Norman Yarborough
could kick us off that hill...

And there wouldn't be
a thing we could do about it.

But I tell you,
we in Harlan County...

All of our life
we've been kicked around...

We've been put in jail...

We've been shot at,
we've had dynamite throwed at us...

And then you don't want us
to have nothin'.

Well, I tell you, Mr. Horn...

I'm gonna be standin' right there
on that picket line lookin' at you...

Just as long as it takes.

Thank you.

Coal companies are not
theJ.P. Morgans or the Hannas anymore.

It's Occidental Petroleum...

And Exxon and Sohio.

The oil companies control the coal industry.

Seventy percent of all the domestic coal
reserves are owned by oil companies.

There just can't be any question...

That the health and the safety...

Of our employees...

In the mining industry...