Matewan

For the town in West Virginia, see Matewan, West Virginia. This article is about the 1987 movie based on events in that town that took place in 1921.

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Matewan is a 1987 movie by John Sayles, illustrating the events of a coal mine-workers' strike and attempt to unionize in 1921 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia. Based on a true story, Matewan stars Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, David Strathairn and Kevin Tighe.

Related Topics:
1987 - Movie - John Sayles - Coal - Mine - Strike - 1921 - Matewan - West Virginia - Chris Cooper - James Earl Jones - David Strathairn - Kevin Tighe

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As the movie opens, in response to efforts by miners to organize into a labor union, the Stone Mountain coal company has just announced they will cut the pay miners receive, and will be importing replacement workers into town to replace those who join the union. This is followed shortly by the arrival of an organizer for the United Mine Workers in town. Most of the houses in Matewan are owned by the coal company, and two agents from the Baldwin-Felts private detective agency who have been hired by the coal company to evict miners from company-owned houses arrive in town. The sheriff and mayor, however, sympathize with the coal miners and block the Baldwin-Felts agents from carrying out the eviction by deputizing the entire town and telling them to go home and come back with their guns.

Related Topics:
Labor union - United Mine Workers - Baldwin-Felts

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Meanwhile the union organizer, understanding that any strike will fail as long as replacement workers don't join the strike, undertakes the task of bringing the replacement workers, who are Afro-American and Italian, into the union. At first this meets with resistance from the other union members but they later spontaneously join the strike and are accepted into the union.

Related Topics:
Afro-American - Italian

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The Baldwin-Felts agents step up their campaign of harassment against striking miners, who by then have been evicted from company housing and are living in a makeshift camp outside of town. During one incident in which armed Baldwin-Felts agents enter the camp to demand that all food and clothing purchased at the company store with scrip be turned over to them, area hill people whose land was earlier taken by the coal company side with the miners and enter the camp with guns to drive the Baldwin-Felts agents away.

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Eventually the Baldwin-Felts agents with the help of an agent for the coal company who had infiltrated the union succeed in planting a false story of sexual harassment against the union organizer to turn the other miners against him. This is thwarted after a teenage boy in town, who is a union sympathizer and preaches at one of the local churches, overhears the agents talking about the scheme. He preaches a sermon which convinces the miners that they have bought into a false story, and the company infiltrator flees town.

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The film ends with the Baldwin-Felts agents and newly arrived reinforcements attempting to carry out another eviction. The sheriff and mayor try to stop them but to no avail; at this point the armed townspeople open fire on the Baldwin-Felts agents. In the ensuing gunfight, many on both sides are killed.

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Although not depicted in the film, the town's sheriff, Sid Hatfield, was later assassinated by Baldwin-Felts agents for his role in helping the striking coal miners.

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