Video
Pawtucket's First Strike Movement Based Storytelling
Transcript
The most significant part about this first strike for me is that it was all women in a time where women didn't really have a first anything. I was born and raised in Rhode Island and had no idea that Pawtucket was the place for the first strike. The resolution of this strike was, we don't know what it was. How the community rallied around these women, because oftentimes women were not supported by communities or their towns, they were just hidden away, and to have them realize their own worth and say no we're not going to do this anymore. Those women were resilient and they had to be resilient to get what they wanted. It's such a huge staple of American history and more people should know the story. It's very relevant to today. Not much has changed. Everybody in our world is overworked and underpaid. Control. Power. The equality is still not there. Women are still not valued. It makes me think a lot about the #metoo movement, I wonder how we'll look back at that in years and years from now.
[Music]
Someone's asking you to work longer hours for less pay and not think anything of it because they think you're disposable, when in reality you're the only one who knows how to do this job. Learning how to work on these machines took time and not anybody could just come in and do it. These women were looked down on because they worked in a factory so that makes them less desirable, and in a sense you would think that would make them less important to their community, but that's the complete opposite of what happened.
[Music]
I just don't understand why women throughout history have always been lesser. You could learn so much from me and you won't even listen to what my opinion is. And with each thing that I told him he treated me like a nagging wife and talked down to me and got angry with me and eventually told me to just be quiet and do my job. Knowing when it's time to leave.
If you are willing to work they will work you, and they will overwork you. Being able to stand up for yourself and value yourself better than anyone else could. I have learned the value of speaking up when you are being objectified at work. How long do you put up with something before you decide you're worth more than that? What's worth the risk? And then one day recognize the only person coming to save me is me and I deserve every ounce of respect that those women did.
[Music] The citizens of Pawtucket have for a few days past been in a state of excitement and disorder in consequence of a resolution adopted on Monday week last at a meeting of the manufacturers to reduce the wages of those who worked by the piece, and to require the mills to run an hour longer each day. The street is literally filled with men women and children making a mob of very daring aspect but for the purpose of hindering or preventing the entrance of those willing to work - no force, however, was used. There appears to be a general stir among the working people on account of the new arrangement and most of the laborers refuse to comply with these terms.
They visited successively the houses of the manufacturers shouting, exclaiming, and using very imaginable terms of abuse and insult, and broke a window - a window - in one of the Mills. The factory owners appear to persevere in these new ways of oppression.
Description
A dance film depicting the story of the first industrial strike in the United States, led by women in Pawtucket, RI.
Duration
10 minutes, 20 seconds
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