The Dead Miners in Sago
Versions of this article appeared in Revolution newspaper and Counterpunch, January 2006
The Dead Miners in Sago
Dying for The Bottom Line
By Mike Ely
“With all these roof falls and everything that has happened over the multiple months, not weeks, MONTHS, that this has happened, and they STILL send men in there?”
John Bennett, son of a Sago miner, confronting West Virginian Gov. Joe Manchin Today show, Jan. 4, 2005
The miners knew the Sago Mine was unsafe. And their families in the surrounding towns knew it too. The slap-on-the-wrist fines of the mine inspectors left an unmistakable paper trail for everyone else — serious violations jumped four times in 2005 over 2004.
I went into the coal mines in the early 1970s–as part of a whole generation of revolutionary youth taking communism to the working class. And over the following years there would be times–when the rock was breaking up, or water was pouring through the mine roof, or when gas built up–and you would lie there just dreading the next day. Not wanting to go in. But not wanting to leave your crew to face it all alone. Or you’d watch as someone you knew was carried out, broken up or dead, and taken to a waiting ambulance. While we wrestled with that, together and alone, there is constantly that hard pull of working class life–the bills that need to be paid, the way danger just becomes part of life, and with that, the fact that working people are treated like this is all our lives are worth.
The miners of the Sago mine knew there was danger–but still went back, day after day, because for most, there was nowhere else to go.
Then disaster struck on January 2.
Creative-i / Blasted in a West Virginia Mine: First by Explosion, Then by Lies By Mike Ely said
[...] 1970s. There are violations daily, and dangers constantly. But it has to be said that the rise of non-union conditions is part of the transformations that have touched everyone — and worsened conditions [...]
Ed Sears said
I agree with you as far as these disasters being man made. I have worked in the corporate world for some time and I have been on the bottom climbing the corporate ladder. The higher you go up the less the top dogs are concerned about you and those beneath you down the chain of authority. I no longer live that life. However, I do disagree with you according to your phrase, “The life and death of these miners was never in the hands of some non-existent god.” God does exist and is very aware of man’s destructive power. He is not to blame. It is man thirst for power and prestige’ that has caused the chain of events that we now see. A thirst of pride called sin that destroys the lives of othrs so unexpectedly.” If people will repent and change their direction and have a little more integrity and compassion for their fellow man,then put God in his rightful place again,”then will you see change.”
Blasted in a West Virginia Mine: First by Explosion, Then by Lies By Mike Ely « William Bowles.info said
[...] 1970s. There are violations daily, and dangers constantly. But it has to be said that the rise of non-union conditions is part of the transformations that have touched everyone — and worsened conditions [...]
Communist journalism: Investigation, exposure and analysis by tribunes of the people « Kasama said
[...] and present a powerful truthful narrative that people are seeking. One example is our piece on the dead miners of Sago — where an exposure had legs, and traveled beyond our own media, and showed an ability to [...]