Looking at the role of working class consciousness in society, the transformation of the heroine from "free" to "self-made".In 1954, American director Herbert Bippolmann's "The Stalwart of Society" was released in the United States, which was jointly produced by the International Union of American Mining, Rolling and Metallurgical Workers and the American Independent Film Company. The film is based on the real events of the 15-month-long strike of the "890 Union" miners at the Yincheng Imperial Zinc Mine in Grant County, New Mexico, USA.
The story mainly takes place in Silver City, New Mexico, USA in the 40s of the 20th century, and tells the story of a group of miners represented by Mexican-Americans who fight against the Dereville Zinc Company and defend their rights and interests. Miners such as Ramón Quintero live in a dangerous environment and an unreasonable corporate system for a long time, but they are not guaranteed their lives and basic rights.
Faced with the ignorance of the capitalists, the workers went on strike to defend their rights, but were resisted by the Alexander mine manager, the company's representative, Hartwell, and the Silver City Police Department. These individuals colluded with each other to threaten the miners into violating the Taft-Hartley Act.
When the strike was caught in a dilemma, the women stepped up and continued the struggle as "non-miners" in place of the men. Although women's activism has been questioned and even opposed by men, they have not given up fighting for workers' rights.
Eventually, the men put aside their gender rivalry and joined the women in their quest for equal pay and living conditions for Mexican-Americans and Caucasians, and led to the activism of other mine workers.
In the end, the strike achieved a phased victory, but the script of the movie "The Backbone of Society" was polished for more than a year, and Bippolmann, Wilson, Giarico and others successively went to Yincheng to understand the local situation, coordinate the trade union, and organize the film committee. They had to recruit blacklisted workers and African-Americans, breaking with Hollywood's long-standing convention of limited staff.
In terms of casting, the crew adopted a combination of professional and non-professional actors, with Rossola Revere Tess, a famous Mexican actress as the heroine, the president of the local union Juan Chaiken as the male lead, and some members of the "890 Union" participated in the performance.
On January 20, 1953, when the filming began, the actions of the film crew attracted attention in the local area, and newspapers supported by the mining companies began to publish arrogant news and editorials, and labor columnist Victor Richel interfered with the filming with slanderous and provocative words such as "several truckloads of black people were transported", "beating them in some scenes", and "damaging the reputation of our country overseas". Walter Piggin, president of the Screen Actors Guild, received a letter from June Kuhl, a teacher from New Mexico, who "exposed" that the film crew was filming a communist-promoting film in Silver City, and that it turned out to be "impossible to be good American propaganda."
"Social Backbone" has encountered political repression and boycott by right-wing forces in the United States, and its distribution and screening in other countries have also been twists and turns.
Overall, "The Stalwart of Society" has encountered some major obstacles to its overseas screening, including the monopoly of the U.S. state distribution system, the control of the economy by Northern conspirators, and the divergence of political positions.
The political and economic dominance of the United States has led to considerable resistance to the screening of "The Stalwart of Society" in developed countries and relatively few in socialist countries.
In Canada, the United States controls almost all distribution systems and operations, resulting in a strong boycott of the film, which can only be shown in theaters where it is poor**.
In the UK, the major projection systems have a strong connection with Hollywood. When the crew of "Social Backbone" planned to participate in the Edinburgh Film Festival and release it in London, the director of the festival was not only criticized by some of the producers, but American conspirators secretly contacted the local film union to try to mobilize workers to boycott the film's release.
In the United States, Rep. Donald Jackson urged the Commerce Department and the Justice Department to use all possible means, including prosecuting the film under the Foreign Persons Registration Act, to restrict its exports.
Despite this, "The Stalwart of Society" caused a huge social sensation despite being severely restricted by the US authorities.
In Europe, with the rise of state monopoly capitalism, the contradictions between capitalism and the working class have intensified. In the early 60s, the black civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement in the United States indirectly contributed to the deepening of social problems in Europe, stimulated the awakening of the European working class, and the labor movement emerged like a tide.
The general strike of workers in Liverpool in England, the "May Storm" in France, the "wildcat strike" in Italy, the bloody incident of workers in Novocherkassk in the Soviet Union, and the appearance of the film "The Stalwart of Society" just reflected the agitation of the workers' movement and the labor movement in Europe on a wide scale.
In Germany, the Neue Deutsche Zeitung compared "The Stalwart of Society" to Pudovkin's "Mother," arguing that it "heralded a new America to mankind."
In France, the newspaper "Humanitarian" regarded "the backbone of society" as "the glory of the true America" and called the heroes and martyrs who were ** and imprisoned for denouncing the evil "Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg".
In addition, Soviet diplomat Andrei Vyshinsky and the Soviet delegation invited hundreds of representatives of the communist bloc to a special exhibition on Park Avenue in New York.
When the screening ended, there was a long silence, then a standing ovation, and an excited Vyshinsky shook Giariko's hand and said, "A billion people will watch this film." ”
In The Poverty of Philosophy, Marx expounded the concepts of "class in itself" and "class in itself", the "class in itself" is limited by economic conditions, and "the rule of capital creates an equal status and common interests for this group of people."
Thus, capital has molded this group of people into a class, but they have not yet become an autonomous class. The latter are classes that consciously break free from economic constraints and pursue unions, organizations, and long-term historical goals, defending class interests rather than individual interests. It is only when the proletariat stands on the side of the political struggle of class to class that they become an autonomous class.
Observing the class consciousness of workers in the movie "The Stalwart of Society", the most significant is the transformation of the heroine Esporanza, from "passive" to "active".
She initially revolved around family life, reluctant to fight for sanitation and did not want to welcome her third child. But then she began to fight for women's voting rights in trade unions and joined women's pickets to fight for the interests of workers.
Eventually, she told her husband, Ramon, that "I don't want to be inferior anymore" and that "I want to stand up and overthrow everything". Esporanza's story reflects the dual oppression of class and gender. From self-pity and blame for fate to active resistance, becoming a working-class female fighter, she has experienced the transformation from "passive" to "active".
Two factors played a decisive role in this process of change: first, the trade unions, which transformed the workers' strike from a scattered, blind confrontation into a conscious, organised struggle. At the same time, trade unions have given both women and men a sense of "class as a whole". In the film, women transcend gender cultural biases and norms, and establish the subjective feelings of women and the working class as a whole.
Men have changed the traditional androcentric thinking and transformed women from a master-slave relationship to a cooperative relationship. The traditional social division of labour and economic structure is broken by the consciousness of the "total class", thus creating the conditions for the working class to be self-conscious. At a time when the working class was being oppressed, the film repeatedly featured portraits of Benito Pablo Juárez García, the father of the Mexican nation.
As a national hero of Mexico and the first Indian**, his advocacy of democracy and the rule of law, freedom and equality echoed the plight of the working class and the struggle for rights. Juarez's portrait is seen as a sacred faith, rooted in the hearts of Mexican-Americans and guiding the revolutionary practice of the working class.
Marx believed that the key to the formation of a "self-constituted class" lies in having "its own party organization and leading the practical activities of its own class", and the Mexican Liberal Party led by Juárez practiced the concept of "a democratic society with a republican form of government" in the struggle against the rule of feudal warlords and reactionary churches, and played a spiritual role in the emergence of self-consciousness of the working class.