- published: 19 Jun 2015
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Coal miners have been hard at work for centuries, but they became increasingly important during the Industrial revolution when coal was burnt on a large scale to fuel stationary and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coal's strategic role as a primary fuel, coal miners have figured strongly in labour and political movements since that time. After the late 19th century coal miners in many countries were a frequent presence in industrial disputes with both the management and government. Coal miners' politics, while complex, have occasionally been radical, with a frequent leaning towards far-left political views. A number of far-left political movements have had the support of both coal miners themselves and their trade unions, particularly in Great Britain. In France, on the other hand, coal miners have been much more conservative.
From the mid-19th century onward, coal miners have often built strong connections with the organized labour movement, and sometimes as well with radical political movements. Coal miners were among the first groups of industrial workers to collectively organise in protection of both working and social conditions in their communities. Beginning in the 19th Century, and continuing through the 20th Coal Miners unions became powerful in many countries, the miners becoming leaders of Left or Socialist movements (as in Britain, Poland, Japan, Canada, Chile and (in the 1930s) in the U.S.) Historians report that, "From the 1880's through the end of the twentieth century, coal miners across the world became one of the most militant segments of the working class in the industrialized world."