Books and films

Retrato de Teresa / Portrait of Teresa

Teresa is overwhelmed: with a husband, three young sons, a job as a crew leader in a textile factory, and volunteer commitments as cultural leader of her union. Her husband, Ramón, wants more of her attention; her feelings are mixed, wanting domestic peace, feeling responsibilities to the revolution, and wanting to control her own life beyond doing dirty…

Railway / Demir Yol

Railway workers are on strike. The worker in the strike committee, Hasan, his brother Bülent and his friends miss a supermarket's food truck.

Norma Rae

Norma Rae worked in the South at a textile factory. Norma began fighting for her rights and the rights of her fellow workers alongside the union.

The Wobblies

A film that sheds light on the Industrial Workers of the World, whose strikes thundered across America. The film contains archival footage as well as interviews with members of the IWW.

Union Maids

With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women's Emergency Brigade

The film focuses on an episode from the sit-down strike organized by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union between December 1936 and February 1937 at two General Motors plants. Specifically, it highlights the role of a support group formed by female workers and the wives of strikers, who provided aid to the workers occupying the factories.

12,000 Men

The fight for decent wages and improved working conditions took on an urgency when the British Empire Steel Corporation, or BESCO, bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. When the Montreal-based company cut wages by a third, a long and bitter dispute began.

Cananea

The film is based on real events that occurred just before the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917. It follows the story of the mining magnate Colonel Gringo William Green, his profitable business, and his shady dealings with local authorities, including President Porfirio Díaz.

Now We Really Have to Win! / ¡Ora sí tenemos que ganar!

Set in the final years of the Porfiriato, the film follows miners in Real del Monte who endure harsh working conditions under foreign-owned companies. After a devastating mine collapse, the workers unite to rescue their trapped comrades—an experience that awakens their collective consciousness and strengthens their resolve to fight for better conditions.

Roots of Blood / Raíces de sangre

Workers at the Morris clothing factory in a Mexican border town attempt to form a union but face fierce resistance from management, led by Mr. Flint.

The Mine / Maden

Discontent among the miners over their working conditions begins to grow, fueled by the agitation of a revolutionary named Ilya. Initially, a yellow union tries unsuccessfully to intervene, followed by the coal company, alarmed by the unrest, which attempts to pacify the mining town with an amusement park.

The Story of the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards’ Alternative Corporate Plan

In 1976, facing rationalisation and redundancies, shop stewards at Lucas Aerospace approached Tony Benn, then Secretary of State for Industry in the UK Labour Government, to discuss their future in the context of Labour’s plans for the nationalisation of the aerospace industry. Benn, a high-profile supporter of the Institute for Workers’ Control,…

Blue Collar

Three friends, factory workers tired of the rudeness of their supervisors, the union’s indifference, and constant poverty, decided to rob the safe in their office. However, in the stolen safe, instead of money, they find some useless documents and...

Convoy

The truck drivers come into conflict with a state sheriff who fines them for even the smallest violations. In protest, they form a convoy — a massive line of trucks speeding across America’s highways.

F.I.S.T.

A ordinary working-class immigrant Johnny Kovak from Cleveland rises to the leadership of a powerful truck drivers' union, fighting for a better life for himself and his fellow workers. In its struggle against the bosses, the union relies on the support of the mafia.

Artem

A two-episode film is centered on Bolshevik leader Fedor Sergeev (Artem), who led the Kharkiv Metalworkers' Union in 1917 and the All-Russian Miners' Union in 1921. Even though the film is filled with ideology and we don't know much about the hero's work in the unions, it depicts a brave, engaged, and creative leader from whom unionists can learn a lot.

Leila and her sisters / Leïla et les autres /

The story of Algerian women trying to live in 1970s Algeria where the society is between conservative values and progressive modern Algeria. Also it depicts strike of workers.

Potiche

Set in 1977, France. Robert Pujol is the owner of an umbrella factory where the workers are on strike.

La experiencia viva. Historia del Sindicato Minero

La experiencia viva is a documentary that recounts the 1950–1951 miners’ strike, which began in Coahuila. The film follows the conflicts, organizing efforts, and solidarity built within the Miners’ Union during key moments of labor repression and resistance.

The Price of Coal (Play for Today)

A two-part drama about miners in the fictional town of Milton Colliery in South Yorkshire. Part One: The Price of Coal: Meet the People focuses on the town’s preparations for an upcoming visit by Prince Charles.

Class Struggle: Film from the Clyde

A documentary made with shipyard workers during the 18-month occupation and work-in at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders from 1971 to 1972. After the government announced its decision to liquidate the company, the yards were occupied and managed by a joint shop stewards' committee.

The Struggle of Hospital Workers / La Lutte des travailleurs d'hôpitaux

Short Quebec film that documents a pivotal moment in the labor movement within the province’s healthcare sector. Through testimonies and on-the-ground footage, it follows hospital employees—orderlies, nurses, and support staff—who rise up against poor working conditions, understaffing, and government austerity measures.

Cantata de Chile

The film is set in 1907 in northern Chile, where workers from the nitrate mines, controlled by British capital, organized an economic strike. The strike was brutally suppressed by the army, and the event became known as the "Bloody Massacre of Iquique." The director used an allegorical language to depict the history of the exploitation of the country's…

Kanavan Manaivi

The film, originally made for the Tamil audience of Indian cinema, later had remakes in Telugu ("Sita Ramulu" in 1980) and Hindi ("Haisiyat" in 1984). Shankar is the leader of the workers' union, and Chitra is the owner of the factory.

Letters from Marusia / Actas de Marusia

The film sheds light on one of the shameful chapters in Chile's history – the brutal suppression of a workers' uprising at the saltpeter mines in 1907. The screenplay for the film by Chilean director Miguel Littín is based on a novel by Patricio Manns, written from the accounts of eyewitnesses to the mass killings and torture of workers.

Roots of Blood / Raíces de sangre

On a roadside in Texas, a man wipes away his traces and abandons a truck containing the bodies of undocumented Mexican migrants. Elsewhere, a young lawyer named Carlos—who at first only wants to make money through his profession—joins a group of Chicanos who are fighting for the rights of undocumented workers employed at the Morris factory, owned by Mr.

Tillitsmannen

The film is roughly about Norwegian political history in the period 1907 - 1963 . Gerhardsen talks about how the Norwegian Labor Party during this period grew and gained a political leadership position in the labor movement and in the Norwegian parliamentary system.

Man of Marble

A film student, Agnieszka, decides to make a documentary about the former worker Mateusz Birkut, once revered as a skilled stonemason, but later forgotten. A man of labor, Birkut became famous and believed he could help his fellow workers, thinking that his voice would be heard.

Three Days in Szczecin

A 90-minute drama by Leslie Woodhead focuses on the January 1971 strike and the intense three-day negotiations between the strike committee of Szczecin's Warski Shipyard, led by crane operator Edmund Baluka, and the top brass of Communist Poland, including Central Committee Secretary Edward Gierek, Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz, and others. The film…

Bound for Glory

Set during the Great Depression. In 1936, he left his devastated hometown of Pampa, Texas, in search of work, discovering the suffering and strength of America's working class.