In the drab coal-mining towns of the Ruhr and the Saar, the mood was as grey as the fall weather that lay over the countryside in a chill and foggy blanket. The roll of muffled drums echoed through the streets as thousands of miners and their families silently marched in protest, bearing black flags and signs pleading for government action to save their jobs. Their protest was too late. Last week the German coal industry announced plans to close down 36 mines that produce a quarter of West Germany's coal and employ...
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