Against Red-Baiting

THE 47th UNITED MINE WORKERS convention ended last Saturday on a surprisingly positive note. Arnold Miller, the union's embattled president, emerged victorious if not unscathed from the parley, which his opponents in the UMW had called for the express purpose of bringing him down.

The leaders of the anti-Miller forces were UMW vice-president Mike Trbovich and secretary-treasurer Harry Patrick. In 1972, Trbovich and Patrick had joined Miller in a successful campaign to oust former UMW president W.A. "Tony" Boyle, now serving a prision term after his conviction on charges that he ordered the murder of UMW insurgent leader Joseph "Jock" Yablonski. Recently, however, Trbovich and Patrick have broken with Miller and joined the UMW international executive board's pro-Boyle majority in attacking the reformist president's administration.

The criticisms levelled at the Miller administration amounted to little more than red-baiting. Although he admitted he could not prove his charges, Trbovich alleged that Miller had permitted "radicals, socialists, and Communists" to infiltrate the union, and that they were "running the president like a puppet."

Placed on the defensive, the Miller administration took a number of questionable actions in its attempt to demonstrate the scurrilous nature of Trbovich's charges. Undoubtedly the worst of these was the administration's decision to exclude selectively certain members of the press.

Miller press aides cancelled the credentials of Frank Martin, a reporter for the Trotskyist Workers League's twice-weekly Bulletin, and informed Workers Vanguard reporter Mark Lance that he would be denied credentials to enter the convention hall, explaining that the union could not guarantee his physical safety. Prior to this, union officials had advised five other reporters for left-wing newspapers that they should leave the convention "for your own sake."

Although the union officials involved may well have felt they were acting in the excluded journalists' best interests, the action sets a dangerous precedent. The diversity of the American press is instrumental in preserving the first amendment's guarantee of the public's right to know. Widespread adoption of a policy of selective exclusion of the news media could effectively abrogate this right.

It is disappointing that a small faction of the UMW, whose members have one of the highest group mortality rates in the country, should have unconscionably distracted public attention from this and exacerbated union divisions by raising the false issue of Communist infiltration. Still, the confrontation may have produced one beneficial side-effect: Mr. Miller's victory should strengthen his hand in negotiating a new contract with mine-owners this November.