Books and films
Books and films that help us understand collective action.
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No Name Ceuta
No Name Ceuta is a documentary about migrants trapped at Ceuta, one of the most militarised and least visible borders in southern Europe. Filmed in Ceuta in January and February 2026, it follows migrants and activists from No Name Kitchen and shows the consequences of European border-control policies: barriers to international protection, administrative…
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Agregados obreros / Labor Attachés
The documentary explores the figure of the “labor attaché” as a diplomatic position that emerged during Perón’s first government in Argentina. This initiative created a cultural conflict by opening spaces in Argentine politics—such as the Foreign Ministry and international relations—to workers.
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"Huelga en el fin del mundo
The historic metalworkers’ strike of May 2025: ten thousand workers brought production to a halt and stood their shifts in front of burning barrels to withstand nine degrees below zero. In those ten days that shook the island, they made it clear who truly operates the levers of the most powerful electronics hub in the country — and the southernmost in…
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Semana Santa del 95
In the 1980s, the Continental factory arrived in Ushuaia, driven by the Industrial Promotion Law, transforming the city with the arrival of thousands of workers. In the 1990s, economic liberalization led to its closure, leaving the workers without jobs or severance pay.
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Retazos de historia obrera
The film was born from a six-song album produced by Palo Pandolfo and blends history, music, and cinema. It is an audiovisual production that traces elements of Argentina’s labor history from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century.
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Power to Forge (Pouvoir oublier)
Quebec, spring 1972. The workers’ struggle is at its peak.
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Die Mutigen 56 - Germany's longest strike
It was different for the employees. The workers did not want to put up with this unequal treatment anymore.
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We Only Want the Earth: The Life and Ideas of James Connolly
An iconic presence on the landscape of Irish socialism and republicanism, the name of James Connolly looms large in the trade union movement and wherever radical left-wing politics are espoused. The film tries to place Connolly’s radical ideas and many political achievements against the landscape of the contemporary world as well as documenting his more…
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Het stof daalt! / The Dust Settles
Following 'Het water komt' (about Zeeland and the consequences of the North Sea Flood) and 'De aarde beeft' (about Groningen and the consequences of natural gas extraction), the history program Andere Tijden (NTR) presents a series about Limburg and the scars of the mining industry, fifty years after the closure of the last coal mine: 'Het stof vallen'.…
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Orgullo de clase
Orgullo de clase is a documentary tracing a century of workers’ struggles and union activism in the region of Castilla y León, Spain. The film highlights key episodes such as mining strikes, resistance against multinational companies, and workers’ contributions to democracy.
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Segertåget / The Victory Train
As purple trains roll through the rapeseed fields of southern Sweden, anger is growing among railway workers. The train company is planning yet another round of cuts — but this time, the staff are ready to stand up for one another.
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Baristas vs. Billionaires
Starbucks baristas in Buffalo unite against corporate exploitation, sparking a generational uprising among working-class Millennials and Gen Z as they challenge a powerful billionaire CEO and fight for their rights.
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Motown South: Organized Labor In the Battery Belt
The electric vehicle industry is booming in the American South; so much so that the region has earned the nickname the “Battery Belt”. But why are producers setting up shop in states such as Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee?
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Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution
When a group of baristas in Buffalo, New York, announced their intention to form a union, Starbucks responded with an elaborate, illegal anti-union campaign. Featuring on-the-ground footage from workers and organizers, Partners takes us to the front lines of the historic campaign.
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They Called It the Butcher Shop: The Fleck Strike In Images
In 1978, in Huron Park, Ontario, the women of Fleck Manufacturing walked off of the job and into the history books. Fighting for better wages, safer working conditions, and union security, the strikers embarked on what would become a pivotal strike for both feminism and the labour movement.
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Bargaining Forward: The story of the 2021 CUPE Strike in New Brunswick
This documentary showcases the unity and resilience of 22,000 public sector workers in New Brunswick as they strike against wage suppression. It explores strategic mobilization and collective bargaining efforts by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), culminating in a province-wide movement that successfully challenges austerity and sparks…
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Sugar Island
The movie explores the life of Makenya, a pregnant young woman living in a batey community in the Dominican Republic. The film interweaves Makenya’s story with her sugarcane-worker grandfather’s struggle for labor rights and the mechanization of the sugar industry, as well as with the island’s ancestral and mystical wisdom.
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11 Underground
In 1984, the hard-fought protest of 11 Spanish mercury miners made the national news as they barricaded themselves hundreds of meters below ground in a mining shaft for 11 days and 11 nights in protest of poor working conditions and pay. Thirty five years on, the mine is closed for good; the world in Almadén has changed, but the problems kept growing.
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If they touch one of us: the class struggle at the heart. / S’ils touchent à l’un d’entre nous : la lutte des classes au cœur.
This documentary of just over an hour follows the intense struggle, widely publicized elsewhere, against the union repression which this year targeted Christian Porta, worker and CGT delegate at Neuhauser, an industrial bakery in the east of the France.
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Nos hommes
One November morning, the mobile phones of Sarah, Frédérique, Ludivine, Lise and other women ring. A text message delivers the same news dozens of times: Prysmian-Draka, the factory where their partners manufacture fibre-optic cable, is going to close.
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To work / Au boulot
They are delivery drivers, cooks, care assistants or farmers, French and immigrants, men and women, live and work in the four corners of the country but are all on minimum wage or in the process of reintegration. Despite the harshness of their living conditions and even their health, they not only seek to get by but show solidarity which quickly makes…
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When women stopped Iceland
Discover the fascinating story behind the first and legendary Icelandic women's strike of 1975, in which, for an entire day, they refused to work, take care of their children or cook. When 90% of Icelandic women walked off their jobs and walked out of their homes one autumn morning in 1975, refusing to work, cook, or look after children, they brought…
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The Miraculous Transformation of the Working Class Into Foreigners 2024
Samir uses private family photos, animations, music clips and unseen archive material to tell the story of migration from Switzerlands southern neighbours in an entertaining way, from the post-war period to the present day. While the SP and trade unions led the Swiss workers' culture until the 1950s, these institutions became less and less important and…
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3 Women 1 Strike / 3 kadın 1 Grev
The film '3 Women 1 Strike' tells the fictional story of women around the strike of immigrant women workers from all over the world at the Pierburg factory in 1973. The story of friendships that developed around the workers' strike...
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Strike: An Uncivil War
The Miners' Strike of 1984/85 was the most divisive, violent industrial dispute Britain has ever witnessed. With personal testimony, formerly hidden government documents and unseen archive, STRIKE tells the story of the Battle of Orgreave
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How crane operator is fighting for her rights
The immediate appearance of new residential complexes that emerge from the maze of green fences like mushrooms after the rain may no longer attract the attention of city dwellers. Yet, the people who build housing and create profits for developers through their work are even less visible.
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COVID Sourdough
A short subject documentary about the union organizers at Tartine Bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area who successfully won a tight NLRB election despite a brutal anti union boss fight that began just weeks before the worldwide closures of March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
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COVID Sourdough
A short subject documentary about the union organizers at Tartine Bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area who successfully won a tight NLRB election despite a brutal anti union boss fight that began just weeks before the worldwide closures of March 2020 dude to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Empty Chair
A documentary chronicling the Starbucks unionization campaign which has swept the nation, following the workers behind the union as they navigate victories and defeats, and in the process breathe life into America's labor movement.
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Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_(fil