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Norma
Rae
(1979)
- Information at Internet
Movie Database
- Themes
- Confrontation with
Evil, Doers of the Word
- Norma Rae standing on the table with
the sign, "Union"
- Reuben Warshawsky (Ron Leibman) speaks to a meeting
of poor, unorganized mill wporkers in the deep South: "On
October 4, 1970, my grandfather, Isaac Abraham Warshowsky, aged
eighty-seven, died in his sleep in New York City. On the following
Friday morning, his funeral was held. My mother and father attended,
my two uncles from Brooklyn attended, my Aunt Minnie came up from
Florida. Also present were eight hundred and sixty-two members of
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and Cloth, Hat and Cap Makers'
Union. Also members of his family. In death as in life, they stood
at his side. They had fought battles with him, bound the wounds of
battle with him, had earned bread together and had broken it
together. When they spoke, they spoke in one voice, and they were
heard. They were black, they were white, they were Irish, they were
Polish, they were Catholic, they were Jews, they were one. That's
what a union is: one ... Ladies and gentlemen, the textile industry,
in which you are spending your lives and your substance, and in
which your children and their children will spend their lives and
their substance, is the only industry in the whole length and
breadth of the United States of America that is not unionized.
Therefore, they are free to exploit you, to cheat you, to lie to
you, and to take away what is rightfully yours -- your health, a
decent wage, a fit place to work. I would urge you to stop them by
coming down to room 207 at the Golden Cherry Motel, to pick up a
union card and to sign it .. It comes from the Bible -- according to
the tribes of your fathers, ye shall inherit. It comes from Reuben
Warshowsky -- not unless you make it happen." (Quotation is
from Numbers 33:54. Submitted by Jeff Massie)
- Institutional
Evil
- Moses type
- Norma Rae leads the other workers to form a
community/union and leave the slavery of the unsafe mill.
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