“Jock” Yablonski was a coal miner fighting the corrupt leadership of the United Mine Workers union. He was murdered for his trouble. Blood Runs Coal recounts the FBI investigation and much publicized trials of the killers and their bosses in the early ‘70s. The author links Yablonski’s labor activism to the wider movements of the ‘60s—he took part in the 1968 Chicago protests outside the Democratic National Convention—and the reform movement that swept across the Teamsters and many other unions in the ‘70s. Alas, union membership plummeted in the ‘80s, as Reaganism diminished social awareness and the American economy was globalized. Yablonski was largely forgotten. Blood Runs Coal is a reminder that the struggle over who gets a decent life—and a say-so—is never won and always ongoing.
