Books and films

Ruhrgemüse, polnisch

A family story set in the Ruhr region, a tale of arrival in a foreign land, of solidarity, and of the struggle against exclusion, injustice, and poverty – from the end of the 19th century to the 1930s. As Polish immigrants, Adam and Zuzanna experience Dortmund at the heart of its enormous industrial development.

Science Fiction und Labour Fiction / Science Fiction and Labour Fiction: Visions of the Future of Work and Labor Struggles

Science fiction invents fascinating futures – but it also shapes the present, not least through technological inspiration and pop-cultural socialization. What we expect and fear from the future is often something we have previously read or seen in science fiction stories.

Siegfried Aufhäuser / Siegfried Aufhäuser: Trade Unionist, Politician, and Jewish Socialist. 1884–1969

An impressive biography marked by political struggle and persecution from the German Empire to the Federal Republic of Germany. Siegfried Aufhäuser is considered the most prominent representative of the free-trade union movement for white-collar workers.

Streik doch einfach mit! 138 Tage Arbeitskampf beim DuMont-Konzern

For 138 days, workers at the Kölner Bundesanzeiger publishing house were on strike. The authors of this book tell that story — and also of the company’s refusal to negotiate, of the reprisals the strikers had to face, and of the attempts to break their will by all possible means.

Tage aus Glas / Days of Glass

Düsseldorf in 1901. Glassmakers across the German Empire are on strike.

The Work of Music: Labor and Creativity in Germany's Long Nineteenth Century

In The Work of Music, Celia Applegate examines the cultural history of Austro-German music through the lens of labor from the 1648 Peace of Westphalia to the Third Reich. She explores the working world of music and musicians, the various jobs they performed, the work music did in society, the observations and commentaries of contemporaries on the shape…

Unter Kameraleuten: 100 Jahre Kameraverbände in Deutschland / Among Cameramen: 100 Years of Camera Associations in Germany

In the autumn of 1925 – when the new medium of film was just 30 years old – German cinematographers formed the first professional association. They were among the leading figures of this new art form, alongside their American counterparts, and films like *The Cabinet of Dr.

Von meiner Gesellenwanderung (1900–1902) / From my journeyman's travels (1900–1902): Notes of the important politician as a young man.

Robert Grimm (1881–1958), the organizer of the Zimmerwald Conference (1915) and the Kiental Conference (1916), as well as president of the strike committee during the Swiss general strike (1918), embarked on a journeyman's tour as a young printer's apprentice from 1900 to 1902. He kept a diary of his journey back to Switzerland.

When trade unions learn to innovate

Trade unions across Europe now mainly represent a shrinking workforce in the public sector and traditional manufacturing, while struggling to organise low-paid private service workers. Even in countries with strong institutional support, unions risk stagnation if they fail to adapt.

Willi Bleicher. Texte eines Widerständigen / Willi Bleicher. Texts of a resister

Willi Bleicher, born in 1907, was unemployed for many years during the period of the Great Depression. Yet he fought for a just world and against the brown menace.

Wir lernen im Vorwärtsgehen / We learn by moving forward: The Austrian workers' movement: For interested parties and activists who want to learn from history

We learn by moving forward: The Austrian workers' movement. For roughly 200 years, workers in Austria and its predecessor states have fought for a better life.

Shankar Guha Niyogi: A Politics in red and green

The industrial worker has been portrayed in environmental and technological discourses as unconcerned with environmental questions, a passive recipient of technology or as harbouring an illogical aversion to modern technology. Shankar Guha Niyogi: A Politics in Red and Green delves into the rich ideas and experiences of a movement born in Chhattisgarh in…

केदार दास और मजदूर आन्दोलन “Kedar Das and the Workers’ Movement”

The story of the martyrdom of labor leader Kedar Das. Kedar Das was an ordinary worker living in a small village.

For a Beautiful Life / Per una vita bella

If the struggle loses its meaning—in both senses of the word—it also loses its strength. If any demand concerning wages or work is not situated within a broader constellation, it is doomed to fail.

10 años de SiPreBA, 50 años de lucha / 10 years of SiPreBA, 50 years of struggle

Ten years the formation of the Buenos Aires Press Union ( SiPreBA ).

A 50 años del Golpe de Estado en Antofagasta / 50 Years After the Coup in Antofagasta

This week marks the launch of the book by Antofagasta-born author Felipe Godoy Lepe, a young worker and historian who compiled the history of Antofagasta during the dark days of the coup and how political forces responded to the historical events.

Crónica de una muerte obrera / Chronicle of a worker's death

Editorial Forja presents Chronicle of a Working-Class Death by Joaquín Rodríguez Soza, a work that recounts the story of José Ricardo Ahumada Vásquez, a young worker murdered in pre-coup Chile, whose story inspired the song When I Go to Work by Víctor Jara.

De huelga a pandemia en Puerto Rico: una década de intervenciones periodísticas internacionales / From strike to pandemic in Puerto Rico: a decade of international journalistic interventions

In the midst of the fervor of civil action to retain or reclaim what is ours, we know we have the support of Maritza Stanchich's columns for the American press. When the neoliberal impoverishment strategies promoted by local leaders follow scripts established by the U.S.

De las huelgas por la jornada de 8 horas a la Reforma Social. Forjando el cambio: los trabajadores de la madera 1890-1943 / From strikes for the 8-hour workday to social reform. Forging change the timber workers 1890-1943

In recent years, Costa Rican society has witnessed an acceleration of the neoliberal counter-reform process driven by an alliance between old and new political (some even appealing to progressive rhetoric) and economic power groups. These groups have focused their efforts on eroding and weakening the labor rights won over decades by organized workers'…

Disturbio. Huelga. Disturbio. La nueva era de los levantamientos / Riot. Strike. Riot

Baltimore. Ferguson.

El movimiento obrero en Rosario. Clase, organización y lucha en torno a la Federación Obrera Local Rosarina (1870-1915) / The labor movement in Rosario. Class, organization and struggle around the Rosario Local Workers' Federation (1870-19

The early history of the labor movement in Rosario has repeatedly been placed on the Procrustean bed of national historiography, its edges forced to fit into a bed that is not its own. While common structures exist, much of the Rosario labor movement's trajectory was marked by its unique characteristics.

Entre la espera y el asentamiento: Migración y desplazamiento en la frontera México-Estados Unidos / Between waiting and settling: Migration and displacement on the Mexico-United States border

Between Waiting and Settlement: Migration and Displacement on the Mexico-United States Border is presented as a collaborative work coordinated by Laura Velasco Ortiz, Óscar F. Contreras, Marie-Laure Coubés, and María Dolores París Pombo, published in 2025 by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte.

Fueling Development: How Black Radical Trade Unionism Transformed Trinidad and Tobago

Despite Trinidad and Tobago’s economic dependence on oil and gas production and its history of colonial exploitation of labor and resources, it enjoys relatively high democratic and redistributive development compared to other nations in the global South. In Fueling Development, Zophia Edwards draws on archival data, historical analysis, and Black…

Hablemos de Sindicalismo / Let's Talk About Trade Unionism

Rodolfo "Tito" Cerdán and his daughter Victoria, both deeply immersed in the Argentine trade union world (he as a leader, she as a lawyer), announce the imminent publication of their book "Let's Talk About Trade Unionism".vThe book stems from the need to reignite the debate about a key institution in society, noting a worrying lack of knowledge and…

Huelga en el “Gran Molino”. Conflictividad obrera y estrategias de lucha en la yerbatera Martin / Strike at the Gran Molino

Labor conflict and struggle strategies at the Martin yerba mate factory. Rosario, 1935, Prohistoria Ediciones ISHIR CONICET, Rosario, 2025, 118 pp.

Huelgas laborales y revitalización sindical en Chile / Labor strikes and union revitalization in Chile

As in many countries around the world, unions in Chile have faced an unfavorable political and economic environment. Despite this, since the mid-2000s, the Chilean labor movement has been experiencing an emerging and heterogeneous revitalization process—that is, a diverse, incomplete, and unconsolidated one.

La reforma laboral con zapatos viejos / Labor Reform with Old Shoes: A Book Every Worker Should Know.

Dr. Manuel Fuentes compiles all his research, critiques, and relevant data on what has happened since the implementation of the mexican labor reform and how it continues to affect us today.

La Senda De Un Obrero / A worker's path

Álvaro Arenas' life continues along unusual paths. His choices lead him to countries like Australia, Algeria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia, giving him a worldview and perspective that few people from his background could possibly have.

La vida infausta del negro / The unfortunate life of the black man

Apolinar Mosquera has grown old, his strength waning, but he still has the courage to write to an old friend, from whom he had become estranged, asking him to fulfill the promise he made long ago to tell his story. He wants him to accompany him on this final adventure and be his witness.

Luchas migrantes en tiempos pandémicos y de crisis: una mirada desde las Américas / Migrant struggles in times of pandemic and crisis

Migrant struggles in times of pandemic and crisis: a view from the Americas , coordinated by Amarela Varela-Huerta and Soledad Álvarez Velasco, “helps us to reflect again on what changed and what remains the same in terms of human mobility, immobilization and migrant struggles in the Americas as a result of the first pandemic of the 21st century, COVID 19.