If anyone's interested, UMW is currently running a water drive. I can share details of how you can help. But the mining companies, particularly the Danish ones, have escalated the war against the union since Hurricane Helene devastated the southern coal fields. They have been without clean drinking water for nearly 2 years know and two days ago several ecological disasters all occurred at once:

1. A breaking of a slurry pond, unleashing 50k gallons of coal slurry into the Kanawha River in Nitro, WV
2. A 10k gallon soybean oil spill into into the East River in Glen Lyn, VA (officials report this has had no impact on drinking water. The funny thing is this is because the water was already not drinkable)
3. A 10k gallon nitric acid spill into the New River in Radford, VA causing two nearby elementary schools to be evacuated
4. Flooding in eastern Kentucky where the aforementioned Harlan County is (I used to run cross country there about 3 times a year)

I know one organization in particular that's been doing a lot to help. The people who are most directly impacted by this live in places where the median income is ~$13k/yr and are themselves the most marginalized in these places. We also need help supporting the immigrant families who are the lifeblood of our community, as well as the Cherokee families who are particular risk of ICE detainment.

It is also worth knowing that the recent reclassification of a border town to any town 250 miles from a border, coast, or international airport, means that not only does Glen Lyn have ICE raids and no drinking water, now they have BORTAC on the loose, too. Like the song says. Us poor folks haven't got a chance unless we organize. That is why ICE is run the way that it is. They have to maintain the status quo through violence because the rising union movement in the United States is a threat to them. That's why they've reclassified being in position of anarchocommunist zines as terrorism. They're even trying to restrict what clothes you wear in public, again, under the guise of terrorism and enforcing it through the threat of violent detention.

We want to do more, but we've been on the backfoot trying to regain control of the UMW in particular since the 1970s when the union bosses and the mine bosses made an alliance to ignore worker health to keep the mines open. These days though what the union lacks is support from other nearby people. The workers have control of their union again but the nearby towns don't trust it anymore after its internal war. We're working to fix that by bringing water, bread, and clothing to people regardless of who they are because deservingness hierarchies are bullshit.

I'll leave you now with some redneck slogans:

All wealth is the product of labor
Arm in arm, stronger together. Stronger than ever (this is my favorite)
Buy worker owned products
Child labor laws sent your kid to school, instead of a coal mine (this one in particular is big around here because we got our child labor laws after a war in Price's Junction for them)
Direct action beats inaction
Don't mourn, organize!
Freedom, Democracy, Unions
Happy Days are Here Again
I want ham and eggs, not a pie in the sky
It's your union too