The Passaic textile strike

Duration: 70

Year Published: 1926

Creator: Museum of Modern Art

Format: 16mm

Color: B&W

Sound: silent

Description: A film that interweaves documentary and narrative film techniques to tell the story of 16,000 unorganized workers who went on strike against merciless wage cuts and found strength in the union. Participants include the actual textile workers of the New Jersey mill town. In the prologue, the workers enact a drama about the Breznac family, Polish immigrants and textile workers who are the victims of the mill's oppressive working conditions. The following sections, entitled The Strike and Building the Power, utilize documentary techniques to chart the growth of the textile workers' union, their cooperation with the American Federation of Labor, the brutal retaliation of the Passaic police and the institution of martial law.

Complete Record: A film that interweaves documentary and narrative film techniques to tell the story of 16,000 unorganized workers who went on strike against merciless wage cuts and found strength in the union. Participants include the actual textile workers of the New Jersey mill town. In the prologue, the workers enact a drama about the Breznac family, Polish immigrants and textile workers who are the victims of the mill's oppressive working conditions. The following sections, entitled The Strike and Building the Power, utilize documentary techniques to chart the growth of the textile workers' union, their cooperation with the American Federation of Labor, the brutal retaliation of the Passaic police and the institution of martial law.