Salt of the Earth is the story of a labour dispute which is based on an earlier 1951 strike in New Mexico.
Deemed "culturally significant" by the US Library of Congress, it is now preserved in the National Film Registry.
On its release in 1954, the American Legion called for a nationwide boycott, it was denounced in the US House of Representatives, investigated by the FBI and the film set was attacked by vigilantes. Salt of the Earth itself was also blacklisted and cinema's refused to show it.
Due to financial constraints, a few professional actors such as Rosaura Revueltas as Esperanza Quintero took roles. Will Geer played the Sheriff, he was a socialist, a comrade of Woody Guthrie to whom he introduced Pete Seeger. (he is better known to Irish audiences as Grandpa in the Waltons). They were joined by miners from Local 890 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter workers and their families in the cast. Juan Chacon who played Ramon Quintero was a union local official.
Crucially it embraces a unique feminist approach to union politics which was rare in the early 1950 cinema. The wives, family and widows of the miners rally to offer hope for the future of migrant workers.
In spite of production difficulties and the quality, this film remains long in one's mind due to its honesty, its realism and the common human story of labour injustice.
That it survives and endures almost 70 years later is testament to the everlasting story of workers organising to fight injustice. Running time 90 minutes.
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