Harlan County, U.S.A Page #3

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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.

Sh*t, 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 sh*t 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,

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