Don Blankenship is DONE

From his start with A.T. Massey Coal, Don Blankenship has been breaking the union and poisoning peoples' water.  Through the years he has been the face of the coal industry and political corruption in West Virginia.  His coal company has been the culprit of everything from disregarding worker safety to destroying our mountains to poisoning our people.  He has been the visible head of corporate greed in our state for far too long, and now he's done.

Don Blankenship will retire on December 30th, 2010.  In the same year that the people of West Virginia have won a new Marsh Fork Elementary and are winning regulation of the coal industry - we will see the retirement of the most visible coal baron in the state.  He has surrendered to angry workers and residents and is leaving his seat in the company. 

We must remember, that as bad as Don Blankenship is, the problem is deeper than any one man.  We will start 2011 another step ahead of where we started 2010, but we will still have mountains being stripped, communities with poisoned water, workers working in unsafe conditions and a need for coalfield communities to decide our own future.  We will start 2011 with another victory under our belts, and with a need to keep fighting the coal industry for justice.  We must keep growing and we must continue gaining power.

Be proud and celebrate, but for heaven's sake, keep organizing.  Please donate to keep us organizing and winning victories like this.