{"id":24109,"date":"2019-09-15T00:42:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T08:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=24109"},"modified":"2019-09-15T00:42:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T08:42:51","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-wildcat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-wildcat\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: WILDCAT!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back!<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Pro-Beijing<\/p>\n

Nationalist Hong Kong protesters clash with pro-Beijing counterparts<\/h1>\n

Skirmishes reported at a pro-Beijing rally in Kowloon district as Hong Kong enters its 15th week of unrest.<\/p>\n

Clashes between pro-Beijing demonstrators and\u00a0Hong Kong<\/a>‘s pro-democracy protesters have broken out in a crowded shopping area, the most recent skirmishes in months of protests in the city.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of pro-Beijing demonstrators waved Chinese flags and chanted slogans on Saturday at Amoy Plaza in the densely packed Kowloon district.<\/p>\n

Counter-protesters, who have been for months rallying against the government, quickly gathered there, sparking tension as the two camps heckled each other.<\/p>\n

The standoff underlined the increased polarisation in the city as protests entered their 15th week.<\/p>\n

The pro-Beijing demonstrators chanted “Support the police” and “China<\/a>, add oil”, while also adapting a line used by the opposing pro-democracy protesters, loosely meaning: “China, keep your strength up.”<\/p>\n

In one instance, a woman shouted “Hong Kong is China” at an angry passersby, who yelled obscenities in return.\u00a0 www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/09\/hong-kong-protesters-clash-pro-beijing-counterparts-190914140138713.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Appalachia\u2019s Long, Proud Tradition of Labor Militancy<\/h1>\n

Harlan County, Kentucky, may be one of labor\u2019s most hallowed<\/a> battlegrounds. Its soil has been soaked in the blood of union men and women time and time again since the early 20th century<\/a>, when major labor disputes between miners and greedy mine operators roiled the area. Now, almost a century after the infamous Battle of Blair Mountain in neighboring West Virginia, one of the biggest and bloodiest<\/a> class war uprisings in U.S. history, suffering Appalachian coal miners have taken matters into their own hands once again.<\/p>\n

On July 29<\/a>, about 50<\/a> coal miners in Cumberland, Kentucky, banded together to stop a moving train.<\/strong> They blocked the tracks, refusing to allow the train, carrying $1 million worth of coal, to pass, according to Newsweek.<\/em> They did the same thing the next day, and the next \u2014 literally putting their bodies on the line. Their protest began because Blackjewel, the company where they had until recently been employed, filed for bankruptcy in early July without paying the approximately $5 million<\/a> in back pay the company owes to 1,700 miners, an attorney for the group told CNN<\/a>. The standoff has now stretched on for weeks. The miners are not only dealing with financial hardships, but are also in legal limbo, unable to access health care benefits or file for unemployment, Cumberland mayor Charles Raleigh told CNN. The community<\/a> and local churches have pitched in<\/a> to help,\u00a0 www.teenvogue.com\/story\/why-harlan-county-kentucky-miners-blockading-coal-trains?fbclid=IwAR1UXwxHG4jDrHsVfsOnqSvZqR9OG-pHE1w3v24xej4RSfogOdMBTgC__YU<\/a><\/p>\n

\"No<\/p>\n

The Battle for a Paycheck in Kentucky Coal Country<\/h1>\n

…The origin of the blockade dates back to Monday, July 1st, when about a hundred men arrived to work at a mine, known as Cloverlick No. 3, up a narrow hollow in the small town of Cumberland. The miners were suited up, ready to go underground, when their superintendent informed them that Blackjewel had declared bankruptcy that morning. The men were untroubled. They were, at this point, accustomed to mass layoffs, to coal companies going belly-up. Apart from Blackjewel, half a dozen other coal companies have filed for bankruptcy since Donald Trump took office. In the last three decades, Kentucky has shed<\/a> eighty per cent of its coal-mining jobs<\/a>. (At last count<\/a>, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, about sixty-six hundred coal-mining jobs remained in Kentucky, and fifty-three thousand remained nationwide.)<\/p>\n

But, three hours after the miners started their shifts, they were unexpectedly called back outside and sent home. By Wednesday, their bank balances were negative. They had cashed their paychecks from the previous Friday to pay mortgages, utility bills, and medication costs, and to buy food and gas. When banks realized that the checks were cold, they deducted the money from the miners\u2019 accounts. Some miners discovered that the checks had bounced when they heard from ex-spouses that their child-support contributions\u2014withheld automatically from their paychecks\u2014had evaporated.<\/p>\n

At the time of the Chapter 11 filing, Blackjewel was the sixth-largest coal producer in the country, with underground and surface mines in four states, including two huge surface mines in Wyoming and Cloverlick No. 3. The company had about three hundred and thirty thousand dollars in the bank, and it owed about two hundred and forty million dollars in debts. Blackjewel, like almost every other coal company in Kentucky, had not been in compliance with a state law<\/a> requiring coal companies to post a bond to cover workers\u2019 wages in cases of sudden insolvency.\u00a0 www.newyorker.com\/news\/dispatch\/the-battle-for-a-paycheck-in-kentucky-coal-country<\/a><\/p>\n