The classic epic labor epic film Salt of the Earth, filmed on location by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers, immortalized the strike for the benefit of all who seek to throw off their chains. Salt of the Earth Labor College was founded in the early 1990s in Tucson, Arizona in the copper mining belt.

I was introduced to Abraham Polonsky through two films on late-night television that aired around 1957. The films were Body and Soul and Force of Evil. Both starred John Garfield at the peak of his powers, both were written by Polonsky, and he directed the second, darker film as well. Abraham Polonsky was a filmmaker and novelist whose work consistently critiqued the violence and corruption of capitalism.

We have been too long deluded by those who live in ease and grow rich by our productions, and have been blindly led to support men for office whose interest in the present state of society is directly opposed to our own. All our legislators and rulers are nominated by the accumulating class and controlled by their opinions. We have too long been deceived by designing men of both political parties … How long, my fellow workingmen, will we allow ourselves to be deceived?

So spoke William Heighton in an address to workers at a Universalist Church in Philadelphia in 1827.