Norma Rae: Southerner Reuben Warshowsky

The movie, Norma Rae, presents a female Southerner named Norma Rae who forms a platonic relationship with northerner Reuben Warshowsky, a labor union organizer. Norma Rae is a widow who works to the bone at a textile mill in a small southern town and lives with her parents and her two young children. The conditions of the workplace are loathsome. There is no respect for employees. All the workers, including Norma, are underpaid and overworked. Rae's parents also worked at the mill and it took a great toll on both of them. So in addition to working hard, she had to take care of her sick parents. Norma becomes frustrated and appalled by  the treatment of the workers at the mill and the sickness which it bestowed on her parents. Out of nowhere, a labor union organizer Reuben Warshowsky shows up and suggests that a union should be formed. Warshowsky was willing to help the textile workers do whatever was necessary to help them form a union to better their conditions. However, he first needed a leader that was opinionated, action-oriented, and hardworking to start the unionization process. Reuben realizes that he

needs someone with a strong voice and sees that Norma fits the bill. When Norma’s father died at work from the poor working conditions, Norma decides to help Reuben, and they ultimately successfully form a union.
Karl Marx believes that history was defined by class struggle, and this class struggle, was an economic one.

Under capitalism the class struggle was between the bourgeoisie (owners) and the proletariat (workers). He argues that capitalist society is only interested in money and the only way to  profit in this type of economic system was by controlling and exploiting the proletariat. Marx predicts that under capitalism, the class struggle will reach an all time high, and the workers will no longer be able to sustain their terrible conditions. In response, the workers will begin to unionize to decrease the amount of exploitation they undergo. But for Marx, this itself does not remove the source of their oppression, but only reforms it. As the workers grow more and more conscious about their conditions, they seek more radical approaches to protect

themselves.  
The movie “Norma Rae” parallels Marx’s analysis of class struggle. Both Marx and Norma Rae discuss how the bourgeoisie (factory owners) treat the workers terribly, by putting them in terrible working conditions for very low pay. Marx analysis of exploitation, directly complements the scenes in Norma Rae which show the owners of the mill exploiting the workers. This exploitation along with the poor working conditions that Marx says are a result of capitalism, led to the death of Norma Rae’s father. Karl Marx claims when the workers grow conscious of their terrible conditions, they will start to mobilize to change them. So when Reuben Warshowsky talks to Norma Rae and other workers, they begin to grow more and more conscious that they are working under unhealthy and unfair conditions. Marx’s prediction that about the formation of unions after the workers grow conscious, was instantiated in the movie when Rae finally mobilized the workers and created a successful union to better their conditions and wages.