[BEST OF] The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Largest Labor Uprising in U.S. History

Revolutionary Left Radio

Breht O'Shea

Communism, Politics, Liberalism, Society & Culture, Philosophy, News, History, Leftwing, Socialism, Marxism

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2025

⏱️ 180 minutes

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Summary

ORIGINALLY RELEASED Jul 28, 2020

Chris and Dave from the Mandatory OT and IWW join Breht to cover the fascinating and crucially important history of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in American history and the largest armed uprising in America since the Civil War.

In this powerful episode, we dive deep into the largest labor uprising in U.S. history—the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. This was no metaphorical struggle: 10,000 coal miners, armed and organized, rose up against brutal exploitation, corporate tyranny, and state violence in the heart of Appalachia. It's a story of working-class militancy, raw courage, and revolutionary spirit—one deliberately buried and whitewashed by history. We bring it back to light.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Coal mining is the most dangerous work in our land today, with plenty of dirty slave and work and very little pay.
0:14.0	Coal miner won't you wake up and open your eyes and see what the dirty capitalist system is doing to you and me.
0:26.8	Dear miner, they will slave you tell you can't work no more.
0:33.1	And what'll you get for your living? But a dollar in a company store.
0:39.7	A tumble-down shack to live in, snow and rain pours in the top.
0:45.6	You have to pay the company rent.
0:48.4	You're paying never stop.
0:51.0	I am a coal miner's wife. I'm sure I wish you well.
0:57.4	Let's think this capitalist system in the darkest pits of hell.
1:08.9	Hello everybody and welcome back to Revolutionary Left Radio. Before we get into this wonderful
1:14.4	episode with Mandatory OT on the Battle of Blair Mountain, I want to cover a couple things up
1:19.3	front. First things first, we have finally some high quality unique designed shirts for supporters and listeners of RevLeft Radio.
1:30.0	A previous guest, I think it was our episode entitled something like Rebel Music a couple
1:34.4	years ago. Our guest from that episode has recently started a communist clothing line called
1:40.0	Goods for the People. And as they were sort of launching their clothing line, they reached out to
1:44.7	me, wondered if we wanted to do some sort of collaborative design with them. And I obviously
1:49.5	jumped at that opportunity. So we do have shirts. I will link to the, to the shirts in the show
1:55.2	note so you can go check it out. At first, I wasn't sure that I didn't think we were going to get
1:59.2	any money from it. It was just about making these high quality shirts available to our listeners, but then they
2:03.4	reached out and said, actually, yes, we'll give you $2 per shirt.
2:06.7	So this is a perfect way for people who want to support the show, but for whatever reason
2:11.6	might not want to do it through Patreon.
	...

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