Matewan: A John Sayles' Film

Matewan: A John Sayles' Film

John Sayles, the writer and director of the film Matewan, demonstrates an understanding, albeit possibly an unconscious one, of the struggle between two economic systems. This work depicts the historical events of 1920 in the Mingo County, West Virginia town of Matewan, a place that came to be known as "Bloody Mingo". Although many people are accustomed to viewing feudalism as a social system from the past, history is not such an orderly, linear progression of societies and ways of life but is, rather, a dynamic, chaotic process. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that in the 1920s in this part of the United States there was a clash of two different economic systems—capitalism and feudalism.

Economic systems are attempts to solve the following questions: Who does the production? Who controls the profits? And what is the social arrangement by which the two previous questions are resolved? There is an interlocking triad of considerations: economic relationships; political relationships; and cultural relationships. We see these relationships brought to life in the events of Matewan. Feudalism exists when free people have to work for a single employer, or not work at all. Capitalism, in contrast, allows free people to choose their employers. There is often in history a struggle between feudal and capitalist structures. The story of the coal miners is the story of one such clash.

The Stone Mountain Coal Company owns everything in the town of Matewan. Its owners, the economic elite, could be likened to a collective feudal lord presiding over the estate of Matewan. Theirs is the only game in town and the miners have no choice in where they work This monopoly is feudal because of the absence of free choice. Capitalism requires competition over capital, not just capital. The total lack of competition is exposed in the train scene. The new men are told that they are beholden to the company for expenses—their tools, their train fare, tool sharpening, and even their fuses, caps, and powder. What little pay is left over is issued in company scrip, which is only good at the company’s store. We, the audience, are told at the onset of the film that the pay rate per tonnage has just been lowered. The company’s grip is vise-like; it can charge more and pay less. This combination is the scissors effect, and it leaves the miners in a subservient position.