Books and films
Books and films that help us understand collective action.
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"Work, give us work": Jacob Coxey and the Industrial Army Movement of 1894
In late March 1894, other "armies" of the unemployed mobilized on the Pacific Coast and in the Rocky Mountain states to begin their own pilgrimages to the nation's capital. Confronted with distances farther than those covered by European crusaders to the Holy Land, western marchers had to improvise.
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20 ans d’Unia / 20 years of Unia: the strong voice of workers
Since its creation, Unia has become the largest trade union in Switzerland. Unia successfully fights for social justice, strong collective bargaining agreements, wage protection, and equality.
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Aan deze kant van de rivier / On this side of the river
It's only a small plot of land, triangular in shape and bordered by the Adda River. But in 1877, it represented the future for Cristoforo Crespi.
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A bas Biribi / Down with Biribi: Albert Aernoult and Émile Rousset, the "Dreyfus" affair of the workers 1909 - 1912
In pre-1914 France, the Aernoult-Rousset affair revealed the hellish conditions of the disciplinary battalions in Africa, where young, condemned workers suffered harassment, torture, and sometimes death. After Albert Aernoult died from beatings, soldier Émile Rousset dared to break the code of silence, but it was he who was condemned.
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Algériens au travail, une histoire (post)coloniale / Algerians at work: a (post)colonial story: An investigation into immigrant workers in the automotive industry during the "Thirty Glorious Years" in France
Through the case of immigrant workers from Algeria, the aim here is to trace the history, to date little documented, of the (post)colonial condition in factory territory in the France of the "Thirty Glorious Years". Based on research conducted at the iconic Renault factory in Billancourt, this book shows how these colonial migrants came to embody the…
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Bosse, tais-toi et crève / Work, shut up, and die: the fight of the century for our pensions
We are being lied to, again and again. The Arizona government is trying to pass off the dismantling of our pensions as inevitable.
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Companeros De La Emigracion / Companions of emigration! Emigrated workers ! : Immigration and workers' struggles in French-speaking Switzerland (1968-1974).
The book "Compañeros de la emigración! Lavoratori emigrati!
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Défendre les travailleur·euses en gérant les entreprises ? / Defending workers by managing companies? When unions and cooperatives meet
While the history of trade unionism and that of production cooperatives have been extensively explored, the history of their encounter remains to be written. This book explores the practices and perceptions that arise at their intersection, examining both the emergence of emancipatory possibilities and the difficulties encountered.
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De Onzichtbaren. Opvattingen en emoties van praktisch geschoolde arbeiders / The Invisibles: Perceptions and Emotions of Practically Skilled Workers
Based on 73 conversations, this book paints a picture of the Dutch working class under pressure.
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De vergeten staking van Amsterdam / The Forgotten Amsterdam Strike
The 1950s are known as the years of collective satisfaction, guided wage policies, and the reconstruction of the country. Yet, that's not the whole story.
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Dire "nous" après l'esclavage / People of Guadeloupe - Saying "we" after slavery
Guadeloupe belongs to us, Guadeloupe does not belong to them, we will not let them do what they want in our country." During the strike that paralyzed Guadeloupe in early 2009, this anthem served as a rallying cry for the collective against "profiteering" (LKP).
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Een mens is geen machine – de Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie 1890-2025 / A human is not a machine | The Dutch Labour Inspectorate, 1890-2025
In 2025, the Labour Inspectorate will celebrate its 135th anniversary. Timon de Groot describes how this institution attempted to create a fair, healthy, and safe working environment in the Netherlands, while facing obstacles.
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Een stakingswet voor deze eeuw / A Strike Law for This Century: Chronicle of the Collective Action Right After the Enerco and Amsta Judgments
The right to strike is not enshrined in Dutch law, but in the European Social Charter (ESC). About ten years ago, in the Enerco and Amsta judgments, the Supreme Court provided a decision-making model based on that treaty for assessing the (un)lawfulness of collective action.This book provides a detailed description of how judges have assessed strikes…
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En guerre et en grève. Enquêtes dans les cités minières britanniques. / At War and on Strike . Investigations in British Mining Towns (1939-1945)
Based on her doctoral thesis defended in 2018, historian Ariane Mak's book, *At War and on Strike* , challenges the notion that "there were no strikes during the war!" (p. 9).
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Gli scioperi del '43-'44 / The Strikes of '43-'44. Activists and Militants from Anti-Fascism to Liberation
The strikes of 1943-44 were the largest strikes ever seen in Europe, and proved decisive in catalyzing forces against the regime during the most difficult years of the war. This volume is a valuable contribution to the historiography of the Resistance.
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Guerre, grève et pandémie: La Suisse dans la Grippe / War, Strike, and Pandemic: Switzerland in the 1918
What do we really know about the most serious pandemic to hit modern Switzerland? The Spanish Flu of 1918, responsible for 25,000 deaths in Switzerland, remains to this day the worst-case scenario for public health policy.
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Gueules noires et tristes mines / Black faces and sad expressions
Twenty years before May 68, this cry would spring forth from the fighting mining villages.The coal miners have voted to strike and are blockading the mine shafts, which the police are tasked with clearing. Behind the barricade at the Fanchon shaft, they are waiting for them, sometimes with fear in their hearts, but determined to retaliate.The reader is…
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Indispensables et indésirables
A few months after the outbreak of the First World War, the French government decided to mobilize tens of thousands of workers in the colonies to address the severe labor shortage in metropolitan France. This involved organizing not only their recruitment throughout the Empire – in Indochina, Madagascar, North Africa, and even China – but also their…
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Instruire, manifester, démissionner / To Instruct, to Protest, to Resign: A Brief Sociology of the OFPRA on Strike
Between October 2023 and February 2024, the French Office for Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) experienced an unprecedented period of strikes. Amidst the news surrounding the vote on the immigration law, the negotiations of the "asylum and immigration" pact in Brussels, and the publication of the new "performance objective report," protection…
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La Fabrique des insurgées: 1869 / The Making of the Insurgents: 1869: The First Women Workers' Strike
Lyon, 1869. Camille works in a silk mill, where she endures 12-hour days for a pittance.
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Le joint français: 1972, une usine en grève / The French Joint 1972, a factory on strike
"Le Joint Français," a subsidiary of CGE, was originally a factory located in Bezons in the Val d'Oise region. It relocated to Saint-Brieuc in 1962.
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Les chantiers de la mort / The death camps: Mortality of workers from Antiquity to the present day
The author critically examines the deadliest construction projects in human history. He shows how millions of men and women, from antiquity to the present day, have lost their lives building towers, walls, pyramids, railways, stadiums… The history of worker mortality goes back several millennia, during which they were exposed to various dangers, first…
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Les merdailleux / The shitty ones: 1913, working-class childhood in the suburbs of Paris
In Plaine Saint-Denis, in working-class Paris during the Belle Époque, three kids invent their own world… until reality shatters it. Félicien, Désiré, and Félix-Marcel, inseparable friends, spend their time between the public school, flea markets, industrial wastelands, and the slaughterhouse.
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Les mutins du goulag et du quotidien / The Mutineers of the Gulag and Everyday Life: Followed by a Chronology of the Main Events in the History of the USSR
In the USSR, in the Gulag, “during 1945, 51 insurrectionary groups were discovered and liquidated,” according to a secret report to Stalin. To the stubborn resistance of the Gulag prisoners—the Gulag was abolished in 1960—was added that of the workers who opposed brutal labor legislation: “We will stop pretending to work when they stop pretending to pay…
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Les origines de l'internationalisme ouvrier / The origins of workers' internationalism: From the Communist League to the International Workingmen's Association (1847-1872)
The Communist League, for which Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto in late 1847, brought together German revolutionary workers and intellectuals. The League framed its actions within the context of internationalism, as the Manifesto emphasizes in its impassioned "Workers of the world, unite!" conclusion, The repression of the 1848 revolutions…
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Les syndicats de l'Éducation nationale: Des acteurs en mutation / National Education Unions: Actors in Transition
The education system has historically been one of the most unionized sectors of the French workforce. Yet, the unions within it have undergone significant transformations over the past two decades.
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Les syndicats - La dérive / Unions - The Drift: When Those Who Were Supposed to Protect Us Become the New Oppressors
For decades, trade unions have courageously defended workers' rights. But today, a sense of unease is setting in: authoritarianism, manipulation, intimidation of members, repeated strikes… and a population held hostage.
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Libération-Nord ou le syndicalisme résistant 1940-1944 / Libération-Nord or Resistance Trade Unionism 1940-1944
The history of the Resistance possesses a beauty and grandeur that fascinate. The history of Libération-Nord, one of the largest movements in the occupied zone, is no exception.
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Libres d'obéir / Free to Obey
Free to Obey, or How Modern Management Finds Some of Its Roots in Nazi Organization. The authors recount how Reinhard Höhn, a former jurist of the Third Reich, influenced managerial thinking by advocating autonomy under control, from the post-war period to the present day.
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Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva: L'ouvrier qui a osé / Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva: The Worker Who Dared - Journey of a Brazilian Son
From the dusty, impoverished roads of northeastern Brazil to the opulent presidential palaces, the life of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a testament to his courage, vision, and the power of hope. Born into poverty, Lula worked as a shoeshine boy and factory worker before becoming one of Latin America's most influential leaders.