CFP Twentieth Century Communism journal : Miners and Communism.

Miners played a major role in the international communist movement. They often provided its most important activists and leaders, from Edvard Gierek to Mick McGahey. Coalfields often became political micro-climates where embattled Reds enjoyed genuine popularity, from the ‘Little Moscows’ of West Fife to Germany’s Saarland and Blackball, New Zealand. What’s more, the promethean figure of the miner occupied a special place in the communist imaginary. In 1946, French Communist Party leader Maurice Thorez, himself a miner from Artois, declared: ‘What grandeur in this ferocious struggle against matter, in this perpetual hand-to-hand combat where man, crouching or often lying down, in all fighting positions, tears coal from the rock’s grasp’. Miners also played a role in resistance to communist regimes, notably in Romania, while the closure of mines in much of Europe heralded the end of a communist tradition.

Contributions are therefore invited for an international and interdisciplinary special issue of Twentieth Century Communism on the rich and complex relationship between miners and communism. Please send a 300 word abstract and a short bio to TCCeditorialboard@gmail.com by 1 February, 2021 (with full draft articles anticipated to be due in late 2021).