“Inheritance”, “RL 1&2”, “H Mayer Long Version”,

““The Inheritance” is an Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of the union, by showcasing improvements in labor conditions in the textile industry. It combines archival footage, reenactments and modern folk music to display life and working conditions in the USA from the turn of the century, as immigrants flooded Ellis Island in the 1900’s and through the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. New York’s Lower East Side sweatshop workers, children of the textile mill and the Memorial Day Massacre.

00:00 A note explains the formation of the ACWA in 1914 (:15). The title screen (:57) and Ellis Island (1:11). Shots from within the Main Immigration Building appear (1:26). In spring of 1901 (2:00) immigrants explains trials and tribulations experienced travelling to the US (1:46). Immigrants undergo rigorous processes in the Registry Room (3:34). Youth are checked for tuberculosis (4:08). Last names are altered (4:13). Many had unrealistic expectations (4:48). A Broadway trolley car runs in front of a paper boy (5:05). Businessmen of the Gilded Age are photographed (5:18) including the Vanderbilt’s (5:50). Surveys from New York housing in 1905 unveiled harsh living conditions (6:09). Images pass around a home on Mulberry Street (7:05). Expectations of wealthy female socialites (7:25) are relayed. A segment discusses low wages and poor working conditions (7:42). Coal miners are pictured (8:07). Female textile workers work for a dollar a day (8:43). Images show children textile workers (10:26) and children mill workers (11:11). Pickett signs demand better working conditions and wages (12:05). The first unions are formed (12:18). A female immigrant takes a position at the Hart Schaffner Marx manufacturing plant (13:47). Close shots show a punch card and pay (14:14). Workers go on strike (15:14). The movement gains momentum (16:04). A laborer is shot in action (17:29). Jane Adams (17:49) interrogates a foreman about working conditions of his laborers. The 1912 Bread and Roses Strike (19:03) including actions from Labor lawyer Fiorello La Guardia (19:19). Strikes in Baltimore (19:49) and Rochester (19:55). Ida Brayman’s death (20:06). Webster Hall’s First Ball took place in 1914 (22:01). Various antitrust acts are mentioned including the Corrupt Practices Act (24:09) and Child Labor Laws (24:14). Headlines detail the sinking of the Lusitania (24:56). WWI’s effect on USA economy is explored (25:55). The rise of racist groups such as the KKK, shown burning a cross (26:18) and Palmer Raids (26:38). The “lockout” of 1920 (27:34). A laborer details his experience beginning work underage and gaining an education during lockout (29:50). The East Side Sweatshop workers put on a show (30:20). The Amalgamated Cooperative Dwellings in New York (32:11). Union efforts lead to low income housing (32:18) and unemployment insurance programs. The economic boom of the stock market (32:44) and subsequent Wall Street crash and Great Depression (32:56). The Bonus Army’s movement began in Portland (34:11). The impact of the New Deal follows (35:49). Picket signs promote the CIO (37:20); cotton workers organize for a textile worker union (38:18). Coal miners (39:13) strike. Gunfire breaks out during the Republic Steel strike (40:35) Memorial Day 1937. Police fire into the crowd during the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 (40:41). Protestors are stuffed into the back of a 1936 Ford police car (41:25). The GM Sit Down Strike of 1936 to 1937 (42:18). Hitler came into power in Germany (44:27). The burning of the Reichstag signals an end to democracy (44:46). Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering (44:51) and a Junkers Ju-88 (44:52) German howitzers (45:03). Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (45:59). Soviet in Stalingrad (46:51). Industry boomed on the home front (47:00). FDR introduces a “second Bill of Rights” (47:35). Modern textile workers sew seams (50:32) as new standards working conditions and wages were established. A female seamstress talks benefits protected by the union while working on a Singer sewing machine (51:11). Tags are stamped with the Amalgamated seal (51:51). Future generations enter work with protections won by former generations (52:15). The final segment discusses the continuing battle to spread the union and ensure worker rights (53:35). The Civil Rights movement (54:50). Produced by Harold Mayer (56:42). “