Man Alive

The Mood of America: Clarkesville, Pennsylvania (1970x27)

Air date: Oct 14, 1970

Jo Yablonski, his wife and his daughter, were killed in their Clarkesville home. Yablonski, a trade union leader in this troubled coal-mining area, stood out as a lone voice against unjust management and corrupt trade union practices. He was silenced by a gang of hired killers in the most savage moment of a long and angry history of industrial strife and corruption. Sympathisers for his cause fight on against callous employers and a suspect union. Wild-cat strikers picketing for the resignation of their own union president carry guns. Union officials protest their innocence, and Yablonski's grown-up sons insist on their guilt. The mood on both sides is one of anger and fear; and in the middle the vast majority of mineworkers who want only to earn their money in peace.