Tonight we’re watching “Matewan,” a film directed by John Sayles, filmed by Haskel Wexler, and released in 1987. The film is about attempts to organize coal miners in West Virginia in the 1920s. It is based on real events; a small war broke out in Matewan in 1920 resulting in the deaths of four townspeople and seven company representatives.
Chris Cooper plays the union organizer who tries to unite the white miners and black and Italian replacement workers brought in by the company. Some things have not changed in the last 90 some years. Union organizers are still called socialists and harassed by company goons. Companies still try to divide blacks and whites and immigrants against one another. The huge power differential between the companies and the workers is still with us. And Chris Cooper’s words still ring true: There are only two sides--those that work and those that don’t.
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