Camp Solidarity in Southwest Virginia

The night is cold and damp as our weary group finishes a day-long drive. We follow the beaten pickup through back roads for several miles, then up a winding dirt road. We pass a check-in point staffed by camouflage-clad volunteers and finally arrive at the camp. No, this is not South Africa or El Salvador; it’s “Camp Solidarity” in Saint Paul, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in rural southwest Virginia.

The similarities are not lost on the United Mine Workers (UMWA), who have been on strike against the Pittston Coal Group/Clinchfield Coal Company since April 5, 1989. Before that, they worked more than fourteen months without a contract. The National Labor Relations Board found Pittston guilty of unfair labor p...