As the film progresses and Norma Rae fights for her rights, it is difficult to believe that economic system under which she works is that of capitalism. Yet, the very idea that she is able to advocate for her self and for others, as workers in a factory with the support of a union organizer, demonstrates the role of the worker in a capitalist society. Norma Rae was able to form a union because the system maintained that she had the authority to do so. The formation of the factory was based in capitalism.
Financial capital is used to gain access to resources.
The textile factory that employed Norma Rae may not have been a purely capitalist environment, but the society in which it was constructed was fundamentally capitalist. That society permitted establishment of a union in the factory to ensure workers rights. The Textile Workers Union of America sent a representative to the factory to ensure that the company was obeying the laws of the greater capitalist society. The representative, Rueben Wychofsky, understood the provision of this law and its subsequent amendments and used his rights and the rights of the workers to create a union. This process occurred with the help of Norma Rae, an employee who rallied the other workers to exercise their rights.