MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes the valiant defiance of two gay Scottish painters whose example resists both collectors’ taste and historical fiction

Holding the Line – Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike
Barbara Kingsolver, Faber & Faber, £16.99
THE 1983-84 Phelps Dodge Coppermine Strike may not be well-known here but it gained a significant place in American labour history.
Phelps Dodge ran four copper mines in Arizona; Morenci and Ajo were company towns where all municipal functions, services and housing were run by the company, who even vetted the books in the library.
Mexican-Americans comprised about 40 per cent of the population of Morenci. Hispanic miners could only achieve the status of “labourer,” earning less than their non-Hispanic workmates. The segregation of Mexicans was felt in housing, education and social venues; Ajo’s swimming pool was only open to them late on Wednesdays just before the weekly change of water.

PAUL BUHLE agrees that a grassroots movements for change in needed in the US, independent of electoral politics

STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves

