BY PETER THIERJUNG
GREENSBORO, North Carolina - "The Uprising of `34," a documentary about the largest single strike in the history of the United States - the general textile strike of 1934 - will air June 27 on Public Broadcasting Stations across the country at 10 p.m. Eastern Time. It will be shown in North Carolina on July 1. The film will prove interesting for readers of the Militant.
More than 400,000 textile workers, mostly in the South, participated in the strike, writing a heroic chapter in the history of the working-class movement in the United States. Misled and betrayed by union officials, the three-week strike ended in a horrible defeat that set back organized labor in the South and the struggle to overthrow Jim Crow racial segregation.
The film features interviews with workers, unionists, employers, and other participants who tell the story in their own words. Archival film footage brings the strike alive for viewers.
The documentary has been shown in North and South Carolina, stirring up some controversy. Matt Redinger, a local academic, charged that officials of the Greensboro Historical Museum rejected showing the film because some of the institution's most generous patrons are textile mill owners.
George Stoney, a producer and director of the documentary, charges that a teacher was fired by Spartanburg Technical College in South Carolina for planning a noncredit course that would have included a discussion about unions and a showing of "The Uprising of `34." College president Jack Powers defended the firing "in the interest of providing a neutral, academic setting," according to the January 24 Greenville News.