Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike

Holding the Line is the first book Barbara Kingsolver wrote, though this non fiction work was published after her first novel, The Bean Trees in 1989. Over 40 years later, her UK publisher, Faber, has reissued it with a new introduction by Kingsolver.

In 1983, Barbara Kingsolver was "fresh out of grad school", working as a science writer, seeking to break into journalism. She landed work covering the Phelps Dodge copper mine strike for several news outlets, driving for several hours from her home in Tucson, Arizona to several small mining towns in the south of the state.

The book details the background to the strike, the responses from Phelps Dodge and from state and national government including the machinery of state represssion, show more police and troops. Kingsolver's focus is on the many women and their families - female copper miners, wives of strikers organised in the Miners Women's Auxiliary, who took on organising pickets. She also details the historical context - many of the copper miners were Mexican Americans and their unions had organised against discrimination at work and beyond, extending to local schools, services and other businesses in copper mining towns. But also, she mixes writing about the history and the before and after with lots of interviews, and we hear the voices of a whole range of women involved.

There is no happy ever after in this story - the workers lost their jobs and more in these towns entirely owned or very dominated by Phelps Dodge. But the stories of resistance and determination, and of how women developed and grew - some travelled to take their campaign and their story beyond Arizona - is really inspiring. While this is a story from the US, there are many parallels with the Miners Strike in the UK which also took place from 1983 to 1984.

This is non fiction as gripping to read as any novel. show less

WHAT A FANTASTIC BOOK!!!

Thank you Left Book Club; this is another book that I would have missed without you!

This is the story of a US copper miners' strike. The comparisons between this and the UK coal miners' strike are obvious. The timing is similar and the unacceptable use of force is comparable but, the tactics of the American company were FAR worse than those of Thatcher and the Coal Board in the UK: miners were summarily sacked for going on strike, untrained scab labour brought in and picketing by the miners forbidden.

The strikers wives went from dutiful lackies to their men to pickets, supporters of destitute families and all round heroes.

The strike was lost, in terms of the miners getting their jobs back, a decent pay for the show more new miners, etc. but, the women grew and their outlook on life, trust in their politicians and their view of their o=place in society changed. The children of those miners will not be taught to 'know their place', they will go out and, some, will do great things. The human spirit is indomitable.

A GREAT read!!! show less

This was Barbara Kingsolver’s first book, written during her work as a reporter while living in Arizona. She covers the 1983 strike at the Morenci Copper Mine where women played a key role. The union workers began striking at the end of their contract with corporate giant Phelps Dodge, and thus began a standoff that lasted a year and a half. The company brought in “scab” labor to try to break both the strike and the union itself.

Kingsolver states in the preface that she personally knew the strikers and was on their side. There are many interviews with women involved in working the picket lines, organizing strike-related events, making food for the strikers, and maintaining morale. Some of the women were employed in the mine and show more others were there in support of their husbands.

There are many power plays and abuse of human rights documented in this book. The police and National Guard were called in. The situation escalated. The media coverage focused on sensationalistic headlines. It is hard to believe this all took place in the 1980s. It reads as something you might expect in the early days of unions.

One of the main themes is how these women found a sense of empowerment. Barbara Kingsolver uses her strong writing skills in portraying the anger, frustration, determination, and accomplishments of these women. There are probably a few too many interviews and long quotations. It is fairly obvious this is an early work, but definitely shows Kingsolver’s potential, which she has since developed into a successful writing career. show less