"Which side are you on?"
Florence Reece wrote that line in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1931. The miners were trying to organize and the sheriff worked for the coal company. His men came to her house looking for her husband and tore the place apart while her kids watched. After they left she wrote the words down on a calendar hanging in her kitchen. People have been singing it on picket lines ever since.
Forty years later that county was still fighting the same fight, and that is what the critically acclaimed documentary Harlan County U.S.A. is all about. In 1973, the miners at the Brookside mine voted to join the United Mine Workers and Duke Power, which owned the mine, would not sign a contract with them. So the miners went on strike and it lasted thirteen months. Barbara Kopple went down there with a camera and stayed for the whole thing. She filmed the picket lines and the company men and there is a scene where one of them fires a gun at the camera. When the men were put under a court injunction the women took over the picket line and got beaten and arrested for it. A miner named Lawrence Jones was shot in the head and killed, and that is what finally got the company to sign. The film won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1977.
The Sioux Falls Regional Labor Federation is sponsoring two showings at the State Theatre around Labor Day.
- Saturday September 5 at 1:30
- Wednesday September 9 at 6:30
The State Theatre is running the new 4K restoration for the film's 50th anniversary and it runs an hour and 43 minutes. Rated PG.
We think it is a fair question to ask ourselves now. There is no shortage of people working to divide us every which way, and what they do not want is us talking about class. They do not want us talking about wages or working conditions or who actually holds the power where we work. It is time we started.
A union is a contract and a voice in your workplace. That is all it is and that is why it matters. If you want to organize one where you work, get ahold of us. If you just want to learn about the labor movement and how to get involved, come to the movie and stay after. We will be there to talk about organizing here in Sioux Falls and about the other ways people organize where they live, like neighborhood associations and tenants unions. You do not have to be in a union to come.
Union members get a dollar off at the box office with a union ID.
Tickets are at https://tinyurl.com/3sr38jhk
Want to get involved with the labor movement in Southeast South Dakota? Visit sfregionallabor.org.
We are also putting on a free Labor Day picnic at Covell Lake Park on Sunday September 13 from 1 to 3pm. Family Friendly and open to all.
