Run by William Wood and owned by J.P. Morgan one of the three richest men in the world, the battle has become one of denial by the bosses and constant struggle by the workers. Standing against the mass of workers is a racially motivated police force, the State Militia, Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor, the U. S. Secretary of Labor and a hostile U.S. President, William Howard Taft. Due to the fact that the mass of workers is divided along ethnic lines and less than ten per cent of them speak English, Wood and the other mill owners believe them to be "un-organizeable". However unbeknownst to Wood the I.W.W. has sent a representative to help organize the workers. When the situation escalates Mayor Scanlon, siding with the mill owners, advises Wood contact Governor Foss. Foss, having been put in power largely by Wood's and other industrialist's money, agrees to help and calls out the militia who illegally declare a state of martial law. Strongly suspecting the impending violence based on the police and militia's past attitudes and actions the women mill workers gather the children and with help from New York press find temporary homes for the children in New York City until the strike is over. An incident at the train station leads to worldwide sympathy for the strikers who ultimately triumph.  is a prominent member of the Industrial Workers of the World, and the man who first helps in organizing the strike.  is a long time member of the I.W.W., poet and writer.  is one of the handful of I.W.W. members in Lawrence, who initially cables New York for help.  is a lifetime activist, prominent I.W.W. member and who is rising to prominence due to her fiery rhetoric and passionate speeches.  is an unyielding patriarch and veteran of the Haymarket Bombing Disaster. Haywood is the head of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union who are in direct conflict with the American Federation of Labor both of whom are vying to control all labor in America.  is the senior police official in the City of Lawrence who greatly resents the 'foreign rabble' now flocking to the shores of the U.S.  is the elected Mayor of the City of Lawrence.  is the CEO of the American Woollen Company headquartered in Boston but built and operating out of the mill complex in the Lawrence area.   is the Head of American Federation of Labor, or the AFL, and harbors great disdain for the unskilled, foreign workers believing them to be easily replaceable cogs in a wheel due to their numbers.