Unpaid miners have been blocking coal on a Kentucky railroad track for 37 days, rekindling questions about the future of communities that rely on the fossil-fuel industry. Inside the Harlan County coal miner protest
“Because of propaganda in Appalachia, it’s always about, ‘Well, do you support coal or do you not?’” says Lill, 29, a transgender activist from the county adjacent to Harlan who showed up on day two of the protest preaching a doctrine of mutual aid among working-class people. “And nobody wants to talk about how complicated it is, how maybe the same industry that allows you to feed your family also lays you off, breaks your back, causes you to get black lung.
“I didn’t know who they were at first, but I kind of got used to them,” says Sarah Kelly, 43, the wife of a Blackjewel miner. Kelly says she lost the support of her church community when her child came out of the closet. “We haven’t had the support [from our church] we thought we’d have out of all of this. You don’t never know where your help is going to come from. You don’t know who’s going to be preparing your meals.
“I remember the Bloody Harlan stories and all that, and all those picket lines, and I thought, man, that was some crazy times,” says Cress. “In a sense, it’s kind of awesome to be a part of it. I just hate that it had to be a mess like this in order to be a part of something like that.” “If I knew for a fact that coal mining would last, I’d do it for the rest of my life,” says James Brown, 30. “But I’ve got three kids, a wife, a motorcycle, a truck. I’ve got to pay for them. My little boy asks me to take him to Disney World all the time, and I’m going to take the little bastard to Disney World.”
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