In the fall of 2016, a group of chemical workers decided to go on strike. About seven hundred largely white and male members of IUE-CWA Local 81359, located in the small upstate town of Waterford, New York, suddenly drew attention from labor, the Left, and national media as the 2016 election came to a close.

At a time when media attention had turned to the “forgotten” rural industrial workers whom both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump courted in the sagging small towns of the United States, the rowdy picketing and glowing burn barrels of this strike made headlines far beyond Waterford.

With labor’s power near an all-time low, any example of organized workers eking out a victory is worth examining. And Momentive strikers’ tactics were the old ones of militancy, solidarity, and political independence. Their success shows that these tactics can still work — even among a group of workers who might sympathize with the rising right-wing populism of Donald Trump.