The Paterson Strike Pageant

The Paterson Silk Strike of 1913 was a major struggle in the history of American labor. Over 25,000 Italian and Jewish workers shut down Paterson's 300 silk mills and dye houses for almost five months over the issue of workers' control of the rate of production. It was the biggest strike in Paterson's history. Workers overcame their differences in craft, nationality, and gender; and their democratic self-organization became a school in self-management. The workers invited the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to aid them. The IWW included a stress on the active role of workers in the strike and this revolutionary vision of workers' control reached its fullest expression in the Paterson Strike Pageant performed by the workers themselves in Madison Square Garden. This was a revolutionary innovation in theater and labor struggles which remains an inspiration to labor and the Left.