Formed after the expulsion of the Save the Union Committee from the U.M.W.A., leading Black militant miner William Boyce urges joining the new union.

‘Why Every Negro Miner Should Join the National Miners’ Union’ by William A. Boyce from The Daily Worker. Vol. 5 No. 328. January 21, 1929.

(Vice-President, N.M.U.)

NO longer than a year ago the sentiment among the miners was “Something must be done.” All those of a militant spirit were urged to do that something. I, for one, felt that I owed it to myself, to my fellow workers and to my Negro race most especially, to do something which might be of benefit to us all. When the fighting Save the Union Committee began to spread its news the majority of miners listened with anxious ears—for the message of the committee was genuine and correct. We entered that movement heart and soul, and remained in the front until the tide turned and the National Miners’ Union, fighting, determined and militant, appeared upon the horizon.

Hail New Union.

The Negro miners can well hail, together with their white fellow workers the National Miners’ Union as an organization that means more to the Negro miner than any that has ever existed in the U.S.A. before. Every Negro should join the National Miners’ Union because it fights vigorously for full economic, political and social equality for them. It fights discrimination, segregation, Jim Crowism and disenfranchisement. In the N.M.U. the Negro miners have a valiant defender.

The old and dead United Mine Workers of America had in its constitution this clause: “There shall be no discrimination against a fellow worker on account of creed, color or nationality, etc.” There isn’t a Negro miner in America that doesn’t know the above words didn’t amount to anything, were not worth the paper they were printed on, for in deeds discrimination was rank everywhere.

Boss Discrimination.

When a Negro looks for work in the mines, many of them cannot stick their heads in, while those that do get work usually receive the worst place in the mine, dangerous and unfit to work in. In the old days, when he would apply to his U.M.W.A. local for redress, the local would send him to the district, the district would send him back to the local, which in turn would refer it again to the district, which then might say they would take it up with the International office! So went the ducking and shifting. And that was the last ever heard of the “grievance.” If you asked a convention delegate anything concerning these conditions, he would reply that Lewis would not permit any racial questions to be discussed. Why, I ask, should the Negro miner be a part to, or support a machine, or help support an organization in which he finds no voice or protection?

Worst Houses, Same Rent.

In the mining towns where there are company houses—the Negroes get the worst, but pay the same amount of rent. The dirtiest, filthiest of work is given to them. They are hounded, persecuted, ostracized and discriminated. Is it a wonder the Negroes are bitter? But my Negro brothers must learn, as the white worker must learn as well, it is the tactic of the employer to keep the black and white separated for then he can beat down both at will.

An article in the U.M.W.A. Journal referred to the Negro miner as a strikebreaker from the cotton fields and bore the sentiment that he was a habitual scab. Negroes are not habitual scabs. They are not habitual strikebreakers, but are used cleverly by the employers against the white workers because of the resentment in the hearts of the black workers over the hounding, discrimination, etc., accorded them by the white workers. Not all the Negroes in the scab fields are from the cotton fields. Thousands of them are from organized territories, driven from there because of the discrimination and suffering accorded them.

Lewis and Company did not and do not want the Negro miners. It is a matter of record that U.M.W.A. hoodlums broke up various N.M.U. meetings in the Pittsburgh district, shouting “You have n***rs with you, yes,” because there was a Negro speaker on the platform (Isaac Munsey, vice-president, N.M. U., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

But the N. M. U. wants the Negro miners. We are all workers, our sufferings are alike, our division is because of the tactics of the employers and the stupidity of some white workers. The N.M.U. has its face set like granite against wrongs to our people. To build the N.M.U. means building a bulwark of defense for the Negro miners.

Full Rights in N.M.U.

The Negro miner is an integral part of the mining industry. It is the policy of the N.M.U. that he should not only be a part of the industrial division, but of the Executive Department itself. A special representative of the Negro miners sits as a member of the Executive Board of the N.M.U. to guarantee our people representation. In the N.M.U. the Negro is not just a dues paying member, silent, bulldozed, discriminated, but an active, leading part of the directing councils of the organization itself.

I have faith in my Negro brother that when he is convinced the above is the actual situation, then he will be as good, if not a better, union man than the next one. When he sees representatives of his race in the field organizing them, in official capacities and otherwise, standing shoulder to shoulder with the white workers—then he will know a new day is here for the Negro miner. So it is, in the N.M.U. The N.M.U. is asking him not only to help build, but help control.

Negro brothers! Join our ranks! Build the union to defend yourselves. Help us fight against the wrongs done to our people. Join forces with the militant, class-conscious white miners in the N.M.U. Help make it strong and powerful for your own protection.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v05-n328-NY-jan-21-1929-DW-LOC.pdf