Class, Gender, and Power in the Mining Communities of the Americas?

From the Canadian rockies to the Chilean Andes, mining has dominated the economies and lives of many ofthe people inhabiting the mountainous backbone of the Americas. Although isolated from the main centres of national trade and industry, mining communities shared characteristics with cities rather than the rural areas that surrounded them. They were densely populated, industrial, and their residents worked for wages and sought the mutual associations and pleasures associated with urban life. Some of these communities were rigidly controlled company towns; others alternated independence from and loyalty to the employers who guaranteed or threatened their survival. They experienced booms and busts as companies responded to global market prices, the quality and quantity of ore reserves, and technological demands. Residents endured the harsh climates of high altitudes, difficult and dangerous working conditions, and powerful corporations. Mining has been one of the most exclusively gendered occupations in the hemi sphere and, until the 1980s, it has produced some ofthe feistiest unions.