It was with great sorrow that we at the People’s Tribune learned of the passing of Chuck Nelson of Glen Daniel, West Virginia, a true leader of the people. Chuck was a fourth-generation coal miner who worked underground for almost 30 years, a proud UMWA member, a fighter for workers rights, a defender of Appalachia’s land, forests, water and air. An educator, unifier and strategist who spoke out fiercely against government-corporate collusion, Chuck has rightly been called “an American Hero.”
Chuck Nelson died before his time on June 25, 2021, from kidney and heart problems, complicated by Black Lung disease, at the age of 65. Despite his failing health, this courageous, fiery man never missed an opportunity to speak out strongly against an industry that has “. . . taken our health, and promised, ‘don’t worry, we will take care of you.’ We have made these companies billions and billions of dollars. And what do they do, they take our lungs, they take our dignity and have always said, ‘The mule is always more important than the man.’” (Quoted in a 2017 article by Jeff Biggers.) Chuck traced the rise of Black Lung disease in the new generation of miners to their labor in non-union mines without the safety net of unionized mines. He exposed corporate-government collusion at every level and fought to his last breath to call a halt to the mountain top removal environmental and health disaster, and for an end to the destruction of the forests, land and waterways he loved.
When people ask, “What can we do,” the answers are few,” said Chuck in a 2017 interview with the People’s Tribune. “We can raise Hell, protest, shut ‘em down, burn ‘em out, but whatever we choose to do, the fact is, we are very limited to what we can do. It will take extreme measures, to stop these bastards. But the worst thing that we can do is, Nothing. The first thing we must do is to unite as one, and start strategizing, as one, on what our actions will be. . . It’s going to take an effort much like the effort of those 10,000 miners, and Mother Jones as they marched across Blair Mountain back in 1921, to bring justice to the communities like Matewan, Paint Creek, and Cabin Creek. These are desperate times!”
Chuck had countless friends and supporters from around the world. His work inspired millions of people to action. His work is profiled in the award-winning films, “Coal Country”, “Blood on the Mountain”, “Knock Down the House”, and the most recent, “The Both of Me.” Chuck was a Mother Jones Community Foundation Board Advisor/ Volunteer (motherjoneswv.org).
The People’s Tribune is honored to have had the opportunity to meet and interview Chuck Nelson over the past several years. When we last spoke with Chuck shortly before his death, he again said that the government study exposing the dangers of mountain top removal, (a study that he said was thrown out under Trump) must be revived. For that reason, we are reprinting below one of Chuck’s interviews from 2018 about mountain top removal, with a link to a second interview on Appalachian communities demanding that the government study restart. Please visit peoplestribune.org to read his other articles.
Mountain Top Removal:
‘We must unite as one and start strategizing’
Chuck Nelson speaks below in an interview with the People’s Tribune in 2018.
GLEN DANIEL, WEST VIRGINIA — Mountaintop removal is waging war on communities, up and down the Coal River Valley. Every day, more, and more communities are pleading, “What can we do to fight this monster?” With reduced regulations, and more permits being filed every day, and with the blessing of the present administration, it’s getting harder, and harder, to hold these companies accountable. Those workers on these [mountain top removal] sites are getting just what they paid for, to this criminal enterprise: “You give us your lives, and we’ll supply you with a payday.” These workers, along with surrounding communities, are breathing in toxins, from the dust from blasting agents, and the thick billows of poisonous particulates, that are affecting people’s lives for miles. Health studies being abandoned; it doesn’t take a scholar, to understand what’s going on. These companies are saying, “If we can’t buy them out, we will just kill them off.”
Birth defects, kidney disease, lung disease, cancers, are also raging in the valley, with unexpected illness, well above that of non-extractive areas. Those people in communities that are near these sites, are paying the true costs of the criminal company’s profits, and they’re paying for it with their lives and their properties.
When people ask, “What can we do,” the answers are few. We can raise Hell, protest, shut ‘em down, burn ‘em out, but whatever we choose to do, the fact is, we are very limited to what we can do. It will take extreme measures, to stop these bastards. But the worst thing that we can do is, Nothing.
The first thing we must do is to unite as one, and start strategizing, as one, on what our actions will be. One thing for sure, before we start, is to make sure NO OUTSIDE entity comes in and tells us, “this is what we’re going to do,” and it will happen, believe me. It’s going to take an effort much like the effort of those 10,000 miners, and Mother Jones as they marched across Blair Mountain back in 1921, to bring justice to the communities like Matewan, Paint Creek, and Cabin Creek. These are desperate times!
The article can be found here.
Also view, “Communities Hurt by Mountain Top Removal Demand Government Restart Health Study”.
Sandra Reid is co-editor of the People’s Tribune, serving as Production Manager. She is also the founder and coordinator of Speakers for a New America, a speakers bureau affiliated with the People’s Tribune and its sister publication, the Tribuno del Pueblo.
