There’s a lyric in the Bob Seger song Against the Wind that goes, “Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.” Amazing.
During my research on the strike of 1967, I found this interesting article by Janet Finn on the relationship between Anaconda and Chuquitacama, Chile. I guess I always knew that the Anaconda Copper and Mining Company (that’s the ACM to you and me, kids) had operations in South America, but I never really understood the extent of the relationship. (I still don’t, but the article helped.)
Here’s the deal: There was a whole lotta shit going down that nobody in Anaconda even knew about, that’s for sure. So how much did I know? I knew nothing about Chile until the ’80s. But in 1967, I knew that my friends and neighbors were in trouble. I was only five or six years old, but the absolute, crushing effect it had on that town, well … I remember that very well. I’ll bet all of you Anacondans do, too. If you don’t, I’m willing to bet even more that it’s closer to the surface of your psyche than you might know.
Consider this for just a second. July, 1967: the summer of love, the balance of union power had just shifted from the Mine-Mill Workers Union to the Steelworkers Union, and the contracts were due to be renegotiated. The resulting strike would be the longest, most devastating stoppage of work in the history of copper production in the United States. That very year, as the local economies of Butte and Anaconda were collapsing around us, the ACM had a banner year in Chile. The company didn’t need to settle that strike. They were producing all the copper they needed (hell, they even controlled the demand for the copper … they owned the American Brass Company.) Plus there was a war in Vietnam, and the women’s movement was just starting to percolate.
An interesting vortex of unrest, don’t you think? That’s where my story begins. There are similar occurrences in the 70s and 80s too! That’s the line, I think. Finding that line is all I’m after.