The Power Sruggle in the Film, Matewan The film Matewan brings to life the workings of a small West Virginia coal-mining town in the 1920's. Stone Mountain, as the town was called, existed for mining exclusively. Every resident of the town worked for the Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company was the dominant force in the community, acting as a feudal lord. It owned all the land, residential areas and restaurants. In this particular town residents had no other choice than to work for the Coal Company because it had monopoly control over all the resources thus creating a feudal economic system. The miners were forced into a bondage contract with the company, because of the lack of choice they had regarding their employment, which is a fundamental element in a feudal system. The owners of the Stone Mountain Coal Company who profit from the coal generated never actually stepped foot on the Stone Mountain mine land. They had no idea who worked for them and what their situations were. The workers never knew their employer instead the owners sent two representatives to ensure the excavation of the coal happened. The representatives became a third force necessary for the existence of feudal economy in Matewan. They were sent from the company to manage the organization and production of the mine. The representativesÕ primary job was to enforce the rules that the company had established in order to maintain power of the town, mine and essentially the workers. They used threats to induce fear in the miners as a way to stimulate and motivate them to work, because the miners had little significant reason to work besides basic survival. The Coal Company exploited the workers by underpaying them and restricting their freedom as consumers. The miners were forced to buy their own tools, clothes, food, etc. from the Ôcompany storeÕ many times at higher prices than necessary. This created circulation of money from the company to the laborer back to the company. The miners worked for obvious reasons: to supply themselves and their families with shelter, food and clothing. They relied on company power to supply a means of employment. However, the company in turn relied on the laborers, because without them the company would have no means by which to excavate the coal and continue the production process.
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
All levels of protection for the miners failed them. Every agency that was entrusted with their safety had other concerns as priority. Mr. Scanlan submitted true and honest reports of violations over a long period of time but never went that extra step to enforce the law. State authorities should have acted when the initial reports were made. The Union membership was at risk and yet the Union never represented Local 52 nor gave it support when it tried on its own to get state assistance with their grievances. Politics and profit motivated elected officials appointees and the coal company.
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
Writer and Director John Sayles movie Matewan, portrays the town of Matewan, West Virginia during their historic struggle out of feudalism in the 1920's. Because a single large company owned everything in Matewan, it was nearly impossible to rise out of the feudal relationship, especially since preaching the ideals of capitalism could easily result in losing all of one's property and material possessions. While feudalism can easily be written off as a economic and social structure of the past, this notion is easily proven false in Matewan; the people of Mingo County had no choice but to follow the orders of The Stone Mountain Coal Company. Hence, when the ideals of capitalism were introduced to the Matewan people by Joe Kinnehan they were stunned and shocked by what he was suggesting. Of course, The Stone Mountain Coal Company were more than shocked, they were outraged and adamant about not letting the workers of Matewan be part of any union.
Conditions included horrible housing, taking women away from their husbands, and punishments including death. Several rules had to be followed. One of these rules was that the workers had to buy all supplies from one store. “In this store we were charged all sorts of high prices for goods, because every year we would come out in debt to out employer” (25). Ending the year in debt meant owing the contract holder something. Since they had no money, they were forced to pay with their hard labor.
As the citizens of Matewan attempt to break free of their feudal chains, they are not only attempting to change their economic situation, but also their current social state as well. Rebelling against the all-powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company, the workers are fighting against a socially and culturally accepted norm- a feudal economic system professed as "right" and "just" by their oppressor. The clash between the company and the striking, pro-union workers is but one historical conflict that attempted to bring about positive social change. As the miners struggle to break free from thier economic oppression and form a union, they push forward a preferred economic state of capitalism.
The variables that affect performance can be mostly classified into three major domains: motor active, affective, and cognitive. Some variables are internal, while others are external. The externalities, or outside factors that affect a performance, vary from situation to situation; nonetheless, they need to be dealt with in some way, so that the show can go on. The motor active domain is the one that is involved with the physical aspect of a performance; in tennis that refers to practicing all the shots that exist; synchronizing the bending of knees with having the right angle for a swing and hitting the ball a certain way (e.g: with topspin, flat, slice); as well as doing conditioning exercises to increase physical strength and endurance. The affective domain is the one involved with the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspect of a performance. In tennis, the way a player prepares himself in those areas depends solely on his style. I usually use self-talk and tell myself that I’m going to play great and going to have fun; I also take my mind off of tennis completely by doing something productive like homework for example so that I don’t think too much about the match to exhaust my mind, but I’m also doing something that requires my mind to focus on one thing. In fact, I’m writing this paper right now when I have a match in 5 hours. The cognitive domain is the one involved with the neurobiological aspect of a performance, or the changes that occur in the body as a result of the other variables. In order to deal with this domain, the player needs to deal with the variable that causes the change in the body. For example, if in a match I start feeling very tense and start sweating from being nervous, I might find out that instead of using positive self-talk, I was letting my mind worry about the people that are watching me rather than stay focused on playing. Biochemically, my brain is sending signals to cells that prompt them to make me feel tense and nervous. In order to reverse that, I’d have to convince myself that there is no real reason for feeling nervous and that there is no point in worrying about whoever is watching me. It’s all about perception in the end.
It is the worker’s condition that he truly focuses on. Many of the problems that people faced during this time include: tenement housing, poor working conditions, child labor, monopolies of business, social and political inequality, and most importantly people putting profits over lives. It is around the same time that a terrible fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The unsafe working conditions made the employees escape nearly impossible.
Rebecca Harding Davis wrote “Life in the Iron Mills” in the mid-nineteenth century in part to raise awareness about working conditions in industrial mills. With the goal of presenting the reality of the mills’ environment and the lives of the mill workers, Davis employs vivid and concrete descriptions of the mills, the workers’ homes, and the workers themselves. Yet her story’s realism is not objective; Davis has a reformer’s agenda, and her word-pictures are colored accordingly. One theme that receives a particularly negative shading in the story is big business and the money associated with it. Davis uses this negative portrayal of money to emphasize the damage that the single-minded pursuit of wealth works upon the humanity of those who desire it.
Child Labor caused many problems and the breaker boys strike had a big affect on the end of child Labor. Child Labor was a horrible thing and cause kids to be very uneducated and most kids would end up being severely sick or even dying. Parents would force their children into child labor because they needed more money. This caused many problems and struggles and needed to be stopped. The breaker boys worked in coal mines with a big risk of dying, they could not live like this anymore so they put a stop to this.
Parents and their children are constantly arguing about the way students dress in school. This debate has become a national conversation which has been going on for more than a decade. However, there still hasn’t been a final resolution. The questions “Why do I have to wear the uniform today?” or “Can I wear this t-shirt because the color matches with my school t-shirt?” have become part of our everyday lives. Before we go any further, we have to understand the difference between uniforms and dress codes. A uniform is simply a garment worn that is the same in all cases and at all times. Whereas, a dress code is a set of rules regarding the required manner of clothing in a certain context. For instance, a school might not allow students to wear
Did you know that there are 800 million players worldwide who play volleyball at least once a week every week. In 1895 William G. Morgan created the game volleyball for the people who could not keep up with the fast pace of other sports. Soon following, in 1900 the special ball was perfected for the sport, the volleyball. Since 1900 the game has had many changes and so has the ball itself. In this essay I will be telling you about some cool history, interesting facts about how volleyballs are made and some of the weird materials.
VOLLEYBALL TODAY: The rules for volleyball Today, people play volleyball all over the world as a pass time, a school sport, and even as an Olympic sport. The game can consist of two to twelve players. Volleyball combines power, speed, and finesse (Dearing xi). Six players play on the court on a volleyball team, who each must rotate one position clockwise every time their team wins back
The issue of wearing school uniforms has been subject to debate over a number of years. It is important to note that initially, the concept of students wearing school uniforms was not widely embraced. Initially, the concept of wearing school uniforms was mainly practiced in private schools and public schools begun to apply the concept as recently as 1994 (Chen, “Public School Uniforms: The Pros and Cons for Your Child”). This move was mainly implemented to address safety issues that have been affecting academic institutions. However, there are still different schools of thought that have reservations when it comes to the issue of wearing school uniforms. This boils down to the question of whether school uniforms are beneficial or they have
I have decided to focus this mathematical investigation on volleyball. I have always enjoyed playing volleyball as a sport and I wanted to see if it would be possible to use mathematics to predict if I could win after being a certain amount of points behind my opponent. After doing some research, I noticed that even though it is possible to calculate the basic probability of winning after losing for a few points, there are still many variables that may affect the actual outcome of the game. Thus, I decided that I wanted to focus on one specific aspect of volleyball that would actually help me become a better volleyball player. The technique that I ended up choosing is serving because serving is one of the most basic ways that can