The Rehabilitation of Tony Boyle: A Contextual History of the United Mine Workers of America

By Michael Huff

Missing from all accounts of the murder of Joseph 'Jock' Yablonski after his failure to win the election for president of the United Mine Workers of America in 1969 is the context in which his murder was ordered and carried out. Existing histories of this event are more akin to true crime stories: focused on the protagonists, antagonists and the details of the crime.

This book is an organizational history of the United Mine Workers of America and a record of the context of this history as it relates to the murder of Jock Yablonski in 1969. American coal miners were among the most exploited workers in the nation's history, subject to ferocious violence at the hands of employers and the state. Their struggles and self-organization attracted the attention of political actors like revolutionary socialists and liberal elites, who sought to dominate, or at least influence, their organizations. In the daily life of capital accumulation, coal operators sought to undermine the coal miners' unions by bribing organic leaders from among the miners to switch sides and fight for the coal companies. Each group of outside interests had varying levels of success in influencing America's coal miners and their unions.

The murder of Jock Yablonski is not just a true crime story. It was a natural result of the dynamics of exploitation and violence that permeated America's coal country. In this context, it's revealed that many inconvenient truths about the case have been ignored, while many characterizations of it were not true.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0G2BRTBCC
• ISBN13: 9798271550447
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"