An important topic for Marx was alienation. Marx believed that money produced a situation in which we alienated ourselves from each other. Before money was produced, the first way to exchange goods was through barter. Barter was the original economic method used by individuals to make direct trade with each other. Here the individual was the channel of exchange and the means of communication would be open between them. Money now turns out to be the medium of exchange for goods and not the individual. Since the individual is no longer the medium of exchange, communication no longer exists, thus creating mutual alienation. This also creates a problem with an individual's credit. Marx said that today we judge a man by how much he has in the bank, or by how much he himself is worth. The individual has now become the medium of exchange, as society will judge him based on his ability to pay his debts. In the film Harlan County, USA we can see how Marx shows what he calls the bourgeoisie and the proletariat throughout the entire film. . An organization called UMWA was formed to help coal miners and families improve working environments and to help with benefits for the working class. The proletarians are for the UMWA and the bourgeoisie are against the UMWA. The bourgeoisie was trying to create better, difficult working environments for the proletarian miners, since the bourgeoisie was the only one to benefit. They had nothing to worry about since they were the ones who got all the benefits from the coal miners. However, proletarians only get adequate benefits to keep a roof over themselves and have no constancy for family or work. Together with... half of paper... he will have to continue working for forty years before he can retire. The police officer in this scene reveals that he can retire before the age of forty and with a better pension. The most interesting feature of Kopple's work is that she uses gender as a category of study in documenting the organization of the strike. The film focuses primarily on women as active participants and not just as wives or allies of the strike. Kopple uses a gender study in which miners' wives form themselves as women and establish a collective identity. At the same time, Harlan County, USA may paint a critical portrait of Appalachian women, but it also rejects various stereotypes attached to them. The group of women who took an active part in the strike turns out to be the main focus of the film because they seemed to be the main participants in the conflict and the push for the cause..