Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Harlan County U.S.A.
Workers are exploited - that's Marxism 101. What do workers do about it? For that, you'd have to read labour history, pick up a collective agreement and delve into social movement theory. Or you could just watch Harlan County U.S.A., the best primer on working class power I've ever seen.
Harlan County U.S.A. documents the battle of the coal miners of Brookside, Kentucky to win a union contract. And it is a battle. The company refuses to recognize the union. Conditions in the mine are awful. 'Black lung' disease from coal dust and deadly explosions take their toll; the work itself is physically debilitating. The miners don't have running water and live in shacks; at one point the company president promises to 'upgrade' them to mobile homes!
Coal dust - the great leveller.
So far we're in traditional Sunday afternoon 'Save The Children' territory: victims living in misery. But salvation doesn't come from the donations or the church. The miners take matters into their own hands and fight back. They blockade the minehead; when scabs get through they blockade the highway. The company hires thugs to clear the road; the miners aren't scared, they bring their own weapons to the line. The situation keeps escalating, but they don't back down.
This could still be just an inspiring story of people fighting against the odds, no different than a thousand Hollywood dramas. But the workers understand their situation politically.
The media portrays working people as dupes, racists, and most importantly, idiots. As much as I love Homer Simpson, he plays to a vicious stereotype: that 'middle America' is too dumb to figure out who the enemy is. And this sort of elitism gets repeated throughout our culture. (And, I might add, in grad school, where the working class gets the same respect as phrenology.)
But the workers of Harlan County are smart. Why shouldn't they be? They're the ones who have to deal with their exploitation. Early on, one of the old miners recounts his role in a strike of child (!) coal pickers:
He didn't learn that from a book. His own experience had taught him that, if you push the stakes, all the forces of authority will line up against you. The workers have to take things into their own hands.
Those workers can't be understood solely as the miners themselves. The miners' wives are the backbone of the strike. They don't just 'support their men', they form their own picket lines and tell the men, in no uncertain terms, they'd better come out with them. They're the first to organize armed self-defence squads. They have their own organization. They suffer - but they resist.
What the film shows is a vanguard: a militant working class community which has learnt the historical lessons of class struggle and passes it along through generations. They aren't afraid of the company, its goons or the police; they ridicule suggestions of non-violence; they stick together. It's a beautiful vision, and it brought a lump to my throat to watch them fight.
Please see this film, you won't regret it. (Download the torrent here.) When Marxists urge workers to "bump against the whole combination of them", we're not just spinning a theory. We're generalizing the experience of workers like those from Harlan County.
Harlan County U.S.A. documents the battle of the coal miners of Brookside, Kentucky to win a union contract. And it is a battle. The company refuses to recognize the union. Conditions in the mine are awful. 'Black lung' disease from coal dust and deadly explosions take their toll; the work itself is physically debilitating. The miners don't have running water and live in shacks; at one point the company president promises to 'upgrade' them to mobile homes!
Coal dust - the great leveller.
So far we're in traditional Sunday afternoon 'Save The Children' territory: victims living in misery. But salvation doesn't come from the donations or the church. The miners take matters into their own hands and fight back. They blockade the minehead; when scabs get through they blockade the highway. The company hires thugs to clear the road; the miners aren't scared, they bring their own weapons to the line. The situation keeps escalating, but they don't back down.
This could still be just an inspiring story of people fighting against the odds, no different than a thousand Hollywood dramas. But the workers understand their situation politically.
The media portrays working people as dupes, racists, and most importantly, idiots. As much as I love Homer Simpson, he plays to a vicious stereotype: that 'middle America' is too dumb to figure out who the enemy is. And this sort of elitism gets repeated throughout our culture. (And, I might add, in grad school, where the working class gets the same respect as phrenology.)
But the workers of Harlan County are smart. Why shouldn't they be? They're the ones who have to deal with their exploitation. Early on, one of the old miners recounts his role in a strike of child (!) coal pickers:
That was when I learned my first real political lesson about what happens when you take a position against the coal operators, against the capitalists. Well, the first thing that happened, the union officials came to us and told we had to go back to work, that we were violating the agreement. We said, "To hell with the agreement, we're going to stay out on strike until we get our demands." Well, then the politicians began visiting us and putting pressure on us. Then the parish priests.
Well, finally the coal company did agree to meet with us... and they agreed to raise the hourly pay... Well, this was my first lesson - that if you stuck to your organization and stuck together in solidarity... you could defeat them. Besides that, I learned that the politicians worked with the coal companies. I found out that the union officials were working with the coal companies.I also found out that the Catholic hierarchy was working with the coal officials. Here was a combination of the whole thing, see - that you had to bump up against the whole combination of them.
He didn't learn that from a book. His own experience had taught him that, if you push the stakes, all the forces of authority will line up against you. The workers have to take things into their own hands.
Those workers can't be understood solely as the miners themselves. The miners' wives are the backbone of the strike. They don't just 'support their men', they form their own picket lines and tell the men, in no uncertain terms, they'd better come out with them. They're the first to organize armed self-defence squads. They have their own organization. They suffer - but they resist.
What the film shows is a vanguard: a militant working class community which has learnt the historical lessons of class struggle and passes it along through generations. They aren't afraid of the company, its goons or the police; they ridicule suggestions of non-violence; they stick together. It's a beautiful vision, and it brought a lump to my throat to watch them fight.
Please see this film, you won't regret it. (Download the torrent here.) When Marxists urge workers to "bump against the whole combination of them", we're not just spinning a theory. We're generalizing the experience of workers like those from Harlan County.
