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4/29/2024 Review: Angela Harris – Strike Story: A Dramatic Retelling of the Little Falls Textile Strike of 1912 (2013). By: J.N. CheneyRead Now To highlight the more obscure pieces of labor and socialist history is a noble feat. Though the academic realm is vital for such an act, artistry is of similar significance. Not every piece can be a grandiose display of dense intellectualism full of jargon with highly specific details, sometimes a more colloquial, entertaining piece is necessary in spotlighting a particular history. The play Strike Story: A Dramatic Retelling of the Little Falls Textile Strike of 1912 by Angela Harris is one of those pieces designed to fill the gap between dense academia and the simplification of say, a blog post. Now for clarification’s sake, this is purely a review of the written form of the play. I was fortunate enough to be kindly gifted a copy of the play by Angela Harris herself, however I have not yet had the opportunity to view the actual live production in person or in video form. As the title implies, Strike Story is a dramatization of the events that unfolded within the Little Falls Textile Strike that went on from early October of 1912 to early January of 1913. This strike was primarily made of working immigrant women employed by two different textile mills in the city of Little Falls, New York. A three act play, the production is structured with a chorus outlining the happenings of the strike as fictionalized versions of the strike’s historical actors provide further details from their perspectives. Numerous important strike figures are represented in this piece, including Matilda Rabinowitz, an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, George Lunn, the first and only socialist mayor of the city of Schenectady, New York, and Helen Schloss, a socialist and public travelling public health nurse. Of all of these significant figures, none of the “characters” in this strike are of more importance than one known only as the “Woman Striker,” a representative of who this strike is really all about; the workers fighting for a fair wage. It is of our own importance though to understand what exactly brought about this fight in the first place. Act one of the play is the only one broken up into two scenes. The first two scenes are designed to provide a brief explanation as to why exactly the strike came about in the first place. In act one, scene one, various characters are introduced using the chorus as a framing device. The chorus gives the context of the introduction of a law in New York limiting the amount of time women and children were allowed to work in certain industries, going down from 60 hours a week to 54. This reduction of hours would lead to a reduction in pay for the workers in the Little Falls textile mills, ultimately being the primary reason for the strike. After this bit of exposition, the reader is given a further glimpse into some of the conflict encapsulated within the strike conflict itself, with an exchange between George Lunn and the Little Falls Chief of Police James Long over the issue of free speech being highlighted. In act one scene two, the reader receives even greater context regarding the history of the textile industry in Little Falls and what would be the catalyst to initiate the aforementioned law. This second scene touches upon the financial straits of the textile industry in this area, Helen Schloss being brought into the city by a group of well-off women called the Fortnightly Group to help fight tuberculosis in the city, and the horrifically catalyzing power of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 in bringing about what would become known as the 54-Hour Law. The introduction of Helen Schloss in particular helps in painting a picture as to what exactly the immigrant population of the city was dealing with, that being abysmal living and working conditions on top of an antagonistic management. Crowded, poorly ventilated homes, rickety, dangerous structures, pollution, exposure to harmful chemicals, mistreatment by mill foreman, all things that Schloss witnessed in her investigation of the root causes of tuberculosis in the city. When the strikers eventually went on strike, Schloss would send a letter of resignation to the Fortnightly Club so that she may support them in various forms. Act two of Strike Story further explores the battle for free speech encompassed within the strike battle, soon after providing a deeper dive into the strike proper. The involvement of socialists from Schenectady, the formation of the strike committee created with the help of the Industrial Workers of the World, and the mass arrest campaign against the strikers carried out by the police and their privately hired deputies. As important as the events in the first act are, act two is where the historical narrative of the strike reaches at the least comes close to a climax as things begin to ramp up in this microcosm of class warfare. Act three is where the game truly begins to change, as the strikers and the strike committee look for new leadership in the aftermath of the mass arrests carried out only a few weeks after the strike began. The introduction of Matilda Rabinowitz as the new leader of the strike committee, the fight against the American Federation of Labor as they tried to undermine the efforts of the IWW, the involvement of labor legend Bill Haywood in garnering support for the strikers, and efforts to protect the children of the strikers are among several integral developments at this point in the story. Act three would ultimately bring us to the end of the strike, with a resolution officially being made between the mill owners and the strikers with the help of the New York State Labor Department in early January of 1913. Though legal battles would proceed for a number of the following months, the strike itself would come to an end. Something that needs to be appreciated about this play is that it’s based almost entirely on the factual history of what happened in this strike. Angela Harris thoroughly researched the proceedings of the strike and the relating preceding events, aiming for as much historical accuracy as possible while taking certain creative liberties, at least with the presentation of the events. Harris provides a bibliography of her sources, utilizing significant pieces such as first-hand accounts from Helen Schloss and Matilda Rabinowitz, works by Philip S. Foner and Little Falls native Richard Buckley, as well as a myriad of newspapers throughout New York State. Much of the dialogue of the prominent figures is taken directly from the speeches and articles of said figures, further sticking to the prospect of historical accuracy. The creative liberties come in the form of the character of the Woman Striker and the chorus. For the Woman Striker, her presence is for the purpose of personifying the collective struggle that these immigrant woman faced. The strike was, ultimately, all about her and those like her. This single character is made to encapsulate the pain and the determination of the masses of women who fought to ensure that she and her children could eat, that they could have even somewhat decent housing, and that they could improve conditions for their fellow workers. Elsewise, the creative liberties come in the form of the chorus. The chorus adds a new layer of storytelling to the strike, providing details that would feel rather awkward if explained directly by individual characters, such as listing off how much debt the mill owners were in prior to the strike or listing off the names of strikers and supporters who were arrested. The framing device of the chorus aids in explaining how this fight between labor and industrial capitalism came to be, serving as a welcome and a creative method of helping to inform the reader of the greater context of what this strike means. There’s even a musical element to this piece of theater. Throughout various points of this play, the chorus will sing brief sections of both popular music of the early 20th century, as well as various pieces of labor, socialist, and strike music. More notable pieces featured in this play include On Moonlight Bay, Bread and Roses relating to the Lawrence, Massachusetts strike that some tactics of the Little Falls strikers were borrowed from, Solidarity Forever, The Internationale, and The Marseillaise, one of the staple songs of the strike. This brief synopsis doesn’t do this story justice. The Little Falls Textile Strike is an event with a deep history that goes well beyond the confines of the story told in this piece, however what is being told here is well-structured, thoroughly researched, and as far as a written piece goes, an interesting and engaging read. Despite being a dramatization, there is much to learn from in reading Strike Story, and the same can likely be said for an actual theatrical production of this extremely significant story. There are several texts written about particular historical actors of this event, and the strike has had a handful of chapters dedicated to it in certain pieces, many of them being used as a reference in my own research and this play, however there’s a severe lack of pieces focusing solely on the strike. While my work aims to fill that gap as robustly and rigorously as possible, Angela Harris’ Strike Story holds the distinction as of the spring of 2024 of being one of the very few pieces dedicated to the strike as a whole, dramatic or not. This is an important piece that helps keep a relatively unknown piece of labor history alive, sharing a goal that I aim to contribute to with my upcoming book, and it deserves more attention. Copies of this play can be purchased on Amazon for just under ten dollars. AuthorJ.N. Cheney is an aspiring Marxist historian with a BA in history from Utica College. His research primarily focuses on New York State labor history, as well as general US socialist history. He additionally studies facets of the past and present global socialist movement including the Soviet Union, the DPRK, and Cuba. Archives April 2024
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