Those of us born in the anthracite region of eastern Pennsylvania are invested with a strong and complex identity. There is pride: the coal of our region powered the US industrial revolution, turning a nation hardly 100 years old at the time into a world leader. Coming from Great Britain, Ireland and Germany, later from Eastern Europe and Italy, immigrants flowed into the region and found work in the mines. They built homes and communities and became Americans. Without the coal, without their hard work, the United States would not be what it is today, one of the leading industrial nations in the world, surpassed only by China.
There is also shame. What happened? How could things have changed so fast? How does a thriving downtown become a stretch of smoke shops and empty storefronts? What happened to the industries, the mines, the well-paying jobs, the unions (in 1868 John Siney organized one of the first miners’ unions in Saint Clair), a strong sense of community?
I don’t have the answers and I know what I have just described is not limited to mining regions, yet the men who wrested coal from the tortuous Mammoth Vein, which runs west from Carbon County into Schuylkill and beyond, were doing one of the hardest jobs in the world and had every reason to be proud. Have we recognized the depth of their courage and sacrifice, doing a job where death was always at their side?
That lack of recognition has produced a legacy of injured pride.
In 2012, the coal fields of northern France, in a region bordering the English Channel and Belgium, were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. In many ways this part of France resembles the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. In both, coal mining was once the dominant activity and most industry revolved around it. Also, immigration was essential to its growth.
The Arenberg Pit, part of UNESCO World Heritage Site c. H. Bouvet
Geographically, however, the two regions could not be more different. In northern France, the coal fields stretch across 75 miles of plains. Mining activity, now over, was limited to underground mines, their presence marked by impressive redbrick collieries with massive steel headframes for transporting men and material underground. Company towns, experiments in creating an ideal environment for workers, were also built of brick.
Another difference with the Pennsylvania fields, those French mines were located near important urban centers, the city of Lille (population: ± 232,700), once the heart of France’s textile industry, Valenciennes, known for its lace, and the port of Calais. In the early 19th century, the Allegheny Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania were considered hostile and inhospitable territory. Many early mining operations failed and many investors lost the shirt off their backs.
Forests, though, were abundant and the collieries, the mine shafts and the company towns were built of wood. Such was the case of the first Saint Nicholas Breaker of Mahanoy City, built in 1861, torn down in 1928, replaced by the monumental steel and glass Saint Nicholas, razed in March 2018. There was once talk of making it a heritage site, but the plans never panned out. I remember the breaker, as I’m sure many readers do. It is a shame that more of that mining heritage has not been preserved with pride.
Destruction of the Saint Nicolas Breaker in 2018
As for politics, northern France and Schuylkill County are in synch. In the 2022 French presidential elections, Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally, a far-right movement, came out on top, though Emmanuel Macron won nationally. In the first round of legislative elections this past June, Le Pen, representing northern France, was easily reelected to her seat in Parliament.
In Schuylkill County, in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Donald Trump won almost 70% of the vote.
Today, many towns in the mining region of northern France are held by the National Rally. One such town is Hénin-Beaumont, whose mayor, Steeve Briois, until recently a member of the party’s national committee, has been in office since 2014. That year, he won the first round of elections with a little over 50% of the vote. In 2020, his score increased to 74%.
Briois’s supporters claim the town has become a better place. The downtown has been beautified; the façade of city hall, cleaned; a new swimming pool, built (privatized since, though paid for with taxpayer euros). Yet unemployment has increased and the poverty level, 24%, is among the highest in France.
19th century miners' housing in Hénin-Beaumont
Critics say the mayor has prettied up the surface but deep problems remain, beginning with a clampdown on all dissident voices. Municipal authorities have removed subsidies from local clubs and organizations that critique Briois’s politics. Stridently anti-immigrant, the mayor calls for “national preference” for jobs and housing, a position that runs contrary to the French constitution.
Many ask if Hénin-Beaumont, once an important coal town, is a microcosm of what National Rally politics would look like if the party held power at the national level, power that slipped through its fingers in legislative elections earlier this month.
Now, in US politics, a grandchild of the mines has reached national prominence. Here I refer to J. D. Vance, whose grandparents moved to Middletown, Ohio from the coal fields of southeastern Kentucky. In his acceptance speech at the recent Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, Vance claimed he would bring jobs back to the United States, fight for American citizens, produce American energy, build factories, sink mines. He promises to protect the wages of American workers, help them build a better future and buy affordable homes.
Strip mining in eastern Kentucky
Yet J. D. Vance, for his successful 2022 election bid for the US Senate, received 10 million dollars in campaign funding from tech giant and PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Vance opposes Pro-Act, the bill that would allow workers to freely form unions and bargain collectively. He supports free medical care for childbirth but is against free daycare, which he considers a boon for the affluent, overlooking the working-class moms who need it most.
Perhaps we’ll see how those promises play out on a national stage. Perhaps we’ll find out if this man truly stands for the working class. Perhaps he’ll surprise us if, after accepting millions in funds from the super-rich, he proves he can still fight for the little gal and guy.
Perhaps. Perhaps not.
