Working Class Love Notes #4: Rednecks
The "Redneck Army", updates from Socialism 2024, and a ton of recommendations
Dear Friends,
Happy Labor Day! I hope all of you are finding a moment to rest and enjoy time with loved ones doing whatever your heart wants to do today. I’m grateful for all the workers who fought for our rights and still. I’m carrying them with me today.
I’m grateful to be off work today resting up after a really beautiful weekend at Haymarket Books’ annual 2024 Socialism conference in Chicago. It was lovely being there with friends, especially some I’ve never gotten to be in person with, hanging out with my editor and other rad Haymarket Books folks, buying too many books, and being a writer doing writerly things which is a new thrilling experience for me.
I was there repping Showing Up for Racial Justice speaking on a panel titled “Not In Our Names: Organizing Against Supremacy and Towards Solidarity” alongside Rebecca Vilkomerson and Rabbi Alissa Wise from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Pranay Somayajula with Hindus for Human Rights. The panel was moderated by Aline Baratseh, Executive Director of Visualizing Palestine. Rebecca, Alissa, Pranay, and I are all organizing within our own communities to fight back against systems of violence and oppression that our identity is used to justify. For me, and for SURJ, we are white people who are organizing our own to fight against white Christian nationalism and white supremacy.
As a working class Appalachian, there is no greater symbol of solidarity to me than my red bandanna. I wore mine for our panel and told the story of the Battle of Blair Mountain and the 10,000 strong multiracial “redneck army” who fought for their right to unionize in the largest labor uprising in this country’s history, a story that shows me as a white person what it means to be in unbreakable solidarity.
Many of you might have found this newsletter because of the red bandanna. In 2020, I wrote a viral essay called Rednecks for Black Lives. And just last week, my friend John Russell gave a powerful, fiery speech at the Democratic National Convention challenging the Democratic Party to deliver for the working class by sharing the story of the Redneck miners of the West Virginia Mine Wars. In fact, many of you new readers found me because of John’s referral through his substack The Holler, so I thought Labor Day might be a great time to share some of my favorite resources to learn about the Battle of Blair Mountain so I listed some below, plus a lot of other links, resources, and things that are capturing my heart right now.
Happy Labor Day, y’all. Remember: There’s nothing too good for the working class.
Love, Beth
Learn about the Battle of Blair Mountain and The “Redneck Army” this Labor Day:
Check out my original viral essay Rednecks for Black Lives which is also the title of my forthcoming memoir from Haymarket Books. This gives a brief overview of the story and a political call to action for working class white people.
The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, WV. I’m a card carrying member and you should be, too! The museum is an incredible movement history museum working to keep this history alive. It’s full of historical artifacts, photographs, and even one of the original red bandannas (photo above). The staff and board members are brilliant, kind, and many of them are descendants of the redneck army miners, United Mine Workers of America members themselves, and come from generations of mine workers in Appalachia. We have them to thank for keeping our history alive.
You can purchase your very own replica original redneck bandanna from the museum’s online shop designed by the museum’s creative director Shaun Slifer.
The film Matewan written and directed by John Sayles is one of my favorite films of all time and is regarded as a classic film by fans and critics alike. Watch it immediately.
The PBS West Virginia Mine Wars documentary: The Desire for Dignity Runs Deep is excellent.
For historical fiction fans you can check out Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina, a beloved Appalachian book and writer, and a new novel in my to-read pile Rednecks by Taylor Brown. For poetry, I cannot recommend Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam enough. Beautiful.
Scroll through the West Virginia Mine Wars museum shop to their booklistings to find so many brilliant nonfiction historical books on the West Virginia Mine Wars. Some notable mentions are the biography of Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America by Elliott J Gorn, The Devil is Here in These Hills by James Green, Gun Thugs, Rednecks, and Radicals by David Alan Corbin, and When Miners March by William Blizzard, the son of one of the Mine Wars’ leaders Bill Blizzard. Their shop is also full of titles about workers all over Appalachia so dig into all of them.
Pre-order the PM Press graphic novel Black Coal and Red Bandannas by Raymond Tyler and illustrated by Summer McClinton in collaboration with the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum and Working Class History. I cannot wait to get my copy!
Check out my co-panelists writing and buy their books! Rebecca Vilkomerson and Rabbi Alissa Wise are the co-authors of Solidarity is the Political Version of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing. Aline Baratseh is the editor of Visualizing Palestine. You can read Pranay Somayajula’s writing on his substack culture shock.
Loved that SURJ and I got a shout out alongside John Russell in this Guardian article “Democrats can win this election by championing the working class” by Katrina vanden Heuvel
And speaking of John Russell again, this piece about Elliot County, Kentucky, the county right next door to where I grew up, that he pitched and reported on for More Perfect Union captures the nuance, the working class history, and politics in Eastern Kentucky around the political shift that’s happened as the Democratic Party has abandoned places and people like my family and neighbors. It reveals the struggles people are facing trying to make it day-to-day and the ways that authentic relationships and open hearted conversations across differences are how we can transform our relationships, our hearts and minds, and our political analysis to build working class power in this country. I saw the story of my family in this piece, as well as our strategy at SURJ.
I’m so beyond late to the game on this, but for those of you who love folklore, Appalachia, and horror, I recommend the horror anthology podcast Old Gods of Appalachia. It’s so fun and well-done. Cannot stop listening!
My tarot teacher Shea in the Catskills is co-leading this six session online tarot and astrology course Getting Thru It Together: The Living Language of Divination #inthesetimes with astrologer Cory Nakasue. Shea is also opening the doors of her online monthly Study Tarot Series cohort starting in December. I’m in one of the cohorts now and I love it. If this is your thing, it’s truly transformational and it has brought some of my favorite new friends into my life.
Art from friends! My dear friend and fellow redneck Jamie Miller made me an incredible pillow featuring so many things I love (see the photo below). You can follow Jamie’s art on Instagram (she does commissions) and check out her online thrift shop Collage WV on Instagram. My friend Elena Solano created these beautiful prints of quotes from Octavia Butler’s incredible, visionary sci-fi book Parable of the Sower that I purchased immediately (see photos below). Check out Elena’s website and Patreon Feeling and Dealing to check out her art, writing, grief work, and more.
Two of my favorite panels at Socialism was a reading by Alexis Pauline Gumbs from her new Audre Lorde biography Survival is a Promise: The Immortal Life of Audre Lorde and a panel on grief led by Sarah Jaffe celebrating and creating political conversation for her new book From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution from a World on Fire. I got both books signed and I treasure them. Getting to hear and meet these two writers I admire so much fills my little writer political book nerd heart. Truly heart on fire emoji energy over here.
Watch panels from Socialsim 2024 on Haymarket’s YouTube page. I’ve gotta go watch sessions I missed, including Hanif Abdurraqib’s panel on the poetry of June Jordan. I had to catch a flight so couldn’t make it, but I’m thrilled I can go watch and rewatch these sessions online and so can you!
What a read, Beth!! Thank you for sharing my art work among all of these beautiful resources! ♥️♥️♥️
YEAH!