What ethnic communities is your area known for?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

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Given the fact that there often really were no ordinary settlements to begin with and that large parts of the area were just unused Heath, most of the miners were housed in artificial communities, the so called 'cités'.

Ah, so (and thinking just of 20th century developments) more like the Donny area or the newer parts of the Notts coalfield than certain parts of the Midlands. Less militant than the various Walloon coalfields, or not?

[Insula Dei]

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Given the fact that there often really were no ordinary settlements to begin with and that large parts of the area were just unused Heath, most of the miners were housed in artificial communities, the so called 'cités'.

Ah, so (and thinking just of 20th century developments) more like the Donny area or the newer parts of the Notts coalfield than certain parts of the Midlands. Less militant than the various Walloon coalfields, or not?

Party political this certainly is the case, several of the Limburg mining communities being CVP strongholds. But, while Trade-Unionism never really took hold here in the same way it did in Wallonia, it was the closure of a Limburg mine (Zwartberg in 1966) that provoked some of the heaviest miner protests in Belgian political history, climaxing with the gendarmerie shooting into the masses to kill, and that also triggered 3 or 4 years of political turmoil in Belgium, in the runup to May 68 and Leuven Vlaams.

And I shouldn't overdo the weakness of the socialist party in the area, after all Limburg traditionally (and certainly in the last decade ) has been the SP(.a)'s strongest non-urban area.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

But, while Trade-Unionism never really took hold here in the same way it did in Wallonia, it was the closure of a Limburg mine (Zwartberg in 1966) that provoked some of the heaviest miner protests in Belgian political history, climaxing with the gendarmerie shooting into the masses to kill, and that also triggered 3 or 4 years of political turmoil in Belgium, in the runup to May 68 and Leuven Vlaams.

So serious tensions (and legit collective identities) that were not expressed through conventional working class politics (at least not to the extent of large coalfields elsewhere in Europe), presumably because of the weakness of working class institutions?

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Yeah, the SP(.a) certainly isn't weak in Limburg within the context of Flemish politics.

[Insula Dei]

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As always in post-1900 Belgium, there's also the linguistical angle to be taken into account. Closing Zwartberg was widely seen as an example of the 'Waffle-Iron' politics that were emblematic of the era. Mines in the Samber-Meuse field were losing money and had to be closed, but it was impossible to only hit Wallonia's economy with a hammer. Or that was the idea many on the street had of the way things were decided. (And it should be noted that other mines that were within a couple of kilometres of Zwartberg were kept open well into the 1980s). It's difficult to think of any case of legitimate class tension in Flanders that's completely lacking that linguistical background noise.

But yes, the lack of real working class institutions or strong unions must have played a role in the way that particular event unfolded, and in the way it hit society as a whole. In fact, and bear in mind that I'm not an expert on the issue, the only really strong insitution I can think of that can be said to have bound together the miners must have been their church. In the 1960's most miners still were either Italian, Flemish or Polish. This meant that when they came together, they did so on Sunday morning in mass at their local parish church, or in one of the large 'Mine Cathedrals", which dominated their surrroundings.

[Smash255]

^

Long Island: Jews and Italians- more specifically "guidos".

^^^^^

this, especially considering the area I grew up is has been called Mahtzo-Pizza though heavier on the Pizza.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Tourists.

Speaking of which , we have a sizable community of Irish Travellers to my west in Aiken County.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Tourist, and New Yorkers.

[Јas]

Chewa and ex-pats

[Heimdal]

Mostly WASPs, but also a lot of Italian-Americans and Irish.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Indians, Iranians, Chinese.

Plus, a diminishing number of Whites (like me! )