TOM PIERSCIONEK recommends a remarkable series of interviews with those few and brave Israeli citizens who refuse to do military service
Miners’ strike: the US story
SUE TURNER is fascinated to read of another miners’ strike of the 1980s, told through the voices of women
Morenci Mine in Arizona, United States. Morenci represents one of the largest copper reserves in the world, with estimated reserves of 3.2 billion tonnes. From 1983 to 1986, workers at Morenci and three other mines went on strike due to layoffs impacting most of the workers at the mine following a large drop in the price of copper. The strike involved numerous violent confrontations between workers and hired strikebreakers. The strike completely failed in 1986 after the NLRB rejected appeals by the unions to halt the campaign of decertification against them.
[Stephanie Salisbury/CC] 
The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses
TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain
Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET
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.
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SUE TURNER is appalled by the story of the only original colonising family to still own a plantation in the West Indies
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
A book whose positive message and clear-eyed sense of purpose make it an inspirational read is recommended by SUE TURNER
SUE TURNER recommends the first ever English edition of a memoir of Abraham Sutzkever, a poet turned resistance activist in the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania
