A group of soldiers on horses ride up to a crowd of striking workers who are blocking their path and tell them to disperse. A small child gets away from his mother and walks under the horses. The mother notices the child sitting under one of the soldiers’ horses and runs to retrieve him. The soldier hits her several times with his baton, and she calls out to her comrades for help. The other strikers then charge the soldiers while the mother flees, as shown in the image. This long shot allows us to see all of the chaos of the scene unfolding at once: the mother fleeing with her child while the strikers confront the soldiers behind her.

I chose this scene to analyze because I think it epitomizes everything that Strike is about: the abuse of power, the mistreatment of the strikers, the power of the collective, and resistance. The abuse of power in this scene is the soldier attacking the mother who posed no threat to himself nor anyone else. The abuse of the mother and child also demonstrates how the strikers are mistreated simply because they are fighting for better conditions. Finally, the other strikers running to defend the mother shows collective strength and resistance. They are unified in charging the soldiers and it is because of their strength as a collective that they are able to succeed in fending off the soldiers for a little bit. The strikers are resisting the mistreatment of the mother and the mistreatment and exploitation that they face at the factory.