Summary Of The Movie Matewan

Part A

The movie Matewan takes place during 1920 in Mingo County, Matewan, West Virginia. The theme of the movie is laborers unionizing across race and national origin in the face of strikebreakers, infiltrators, accusations of communism and violence. The men of the town are employed by the Stone Mountain Coal Company as miners. The miners dislike the treatment they receive from the coal operators and try to form a union to address their wages. The townsfolk create a union when the the price per coal goes down to 90 cents a tonne. The miners go on a strike. The coal company brings in strikebreakers who are African American men from Alabama. When the strikebreakers arrive in town, they are attacked by the union members. A worker for United Mine Workers witness the attack and decides to take up residency in

A preacher from the local church says everyone that wants to be in a union is a communist. The miners recruit the strikebreakers and immigrants from Italy into the union. Two men from a private security firm come to the town. The men are sent by the Stone Mountain Coal Company to break up the union by kicking out miners from company owned housing. The miners and their families pitch large tents in a clearing in the woods in response to the men’s efforts. A infiltrator in the union that is working with the men holds a meeting off camp. The men ambush the camp at when all the union men are away and people were injured. The town is at a boiling point and there are often small battles between the union and the security firm. On May 19,1920, the Matewan Massacre occurred. The union and the security firm have a shootout in the middle of the town. Through unionizing, the town of Matewan resist the company's efforts to control them and secured more money and better working