The Pittston Coal strike was a United States strike action led by the United Mine Workers Union (UMWA) against the Pittston Coal Company, nationally headquartered in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The strike, which lasted from April 5, 1989 to February 20, 1990, resulted from Pittston's termination of health care benefits for approximately 1,500 retirees, widows, and disabled miners. The strikers also cited the refusal of the company to contribute to the benefit trust established in 1950 for miners who retired before 1974 and the refusal of the company to bargain in good faith as grounds for their action. The company cited declining coal prices, decreasing demand, and recession as its reason for limiting health care benefits.
The strike affected production in mines mostly in Virginia, but a few in West Virginia and Kentucky as well. Mine workers and their families engaged in acts of civil disobedience, work stoppage, protests, and rallies. At its peak in June 1989, the strike involved approximately 2,000 miners daily staying at Camp Solidarity with thousands more sending donations and holding wildcat walkouts that involved around 40,000 people. The participation of women in the labor action through the ad hoc formation of the Daughters of Mother Jones—reminiscent of the early days of union organization—proved an essential element of the successful strike.
This is a really good thread from mastodon about the counter culture scenes of the 1980s and 90 and how they were destroyed and what we can do to rebuild them.
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Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize y'alls neighborhood. And whosoever shall be found… Without the soul for getting down, Must stand and face the hounds of Hell… And rot inside a corpse’s shell. The foulest stench is in the air, the funk of 40,000 years. And grizzly ghouls from every tomb... are closing in to seal your doom. And, though, you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver, For no mere mortal can resist the evil of… THE THRILLER. - Vincent Price
Credit to and edited by Mark & Chris Wournell (2008)
Did you know there was a show in the 1980s called Werewolf? It's basically like the show, The Incredible Hulk, but the guy is werewolf instead. You can watch like six hours of it on youtube.
All you ever wanted and all you ever needed from Diallo and LUXXURY is here in this episode. Okay, well, not *everything,” but in Part Two of our Depeche Mode special, the guys break down band’s biggest hit, “Enjoy The Silence.” Get ready to learn Depeche Mode’s techniques for crafting moodier, darker, and more atmospheric sounds, why this song took them to global superstar status, and how they paved the way for countless bands to create synth-driven, danceable music.
thoughtportal reblogged
heres the bandcamp for download
If you’re looking for a good way to spend the rest of your week, Archive.org has unearthed a gigantic collection of cassettes from the mid-80 into the mid-90s.
According to their notes, the 30GB collection was saved from the archives of noise-arch.net and donated by former CKLN-FM radio host Myke Dyer in August 2009. Due to its size and obscurity, the collection hasn’t been properly notated but is said to include cassettes ranging from “tape experimentation, industrial, avant-garde, indie, rock, DIY, subvertainment and auto-hypnotic materials”.
Head to Archive now to download the free collection. [via Electronic Beats]
We’re still going through Archive’s insane collection of in-store background music, the essential Attention Kmart Shoppers.
Palestine 1983
If you're tired of watching the mismanagement of a pandemic in real time watch the mismanagement of one in hindsight And the band played on
Someone on tiktok posted a video of the muppet babies theme song with the caption:
therapist: When did you start dissociating?
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Keith Haring painting a mural at the Montreux Jazz Festival, July 1983.