Episode 25: Harlan County, USA (1976)

We're talking labor unions! Hal and Craig watched Barbara Kopple's HARLAN COUNTY, USA, the ground-breaking 1976 documentary chronicling the struggles of coal mine workers in Harlan County, Kentucky as they fight against coal barons, police, and scabs in an effort to join the United Mine Workers of America. Discussions also include:

• Abortion rights winning at the ballot;

• Weaponizing the Civil Rights Act against student protestors;

• A round-up of our recently watched films: The Killer (2023), The Flash (2023), Serial Mom (1994), and The Conformist (1970); and

• The state of labor unions in Kentucky today;

Sources & Links:

• National Labor Review Board

• "The Search for Order 1817-1920" by Robert H. Wiebe (1967)

• "Democracy for the Few" by Michael Parenti (2002)

• "Subterranean Fire: A History of Working Class Radicalism in the US" by Sharon Smith (2006)

• Nyden, Paul. 1978. Rank-and-file organizations and the United Mine Workers of America. The Insurgent Sociologist. 8(2): 25.

• Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner's Struggle

• "They'll Never Keep Us Down" by Hazel Dickens

• "Which Side Are You On?" by Florence Reese

• "The Yablonski Murder" by Hazel Dickens