Some of Europe’s best mines are being shuttered; the Dutch State Mines are diversifying, already earn more from chemicals than from coal, and are retraining miners to make Daf cars.

Europe’s coal miners, who are as politically potent and as well protected as America’s farmers, are in a querulous mood. In past months, miners have staged angry protest marches in Germany’s Ruhr and battled against truncheon-swinging police in Belgium (toll: two dead). Behind this unrest is an upheaval in theā€¦