Books and films

The Blue-Collar Trap

NBC documentary highlighting the dissatisfaction & restlessness of the younger generation of blue-collar workers.

The courage of the people

A documentary reenactment of the government-ordered massacre of striking tin miners and their families at the Siglo XX Mines in 1967 in Bolivia.

My Uncle Antoine

The film depicts life in the Maurice Duplessis-era Asbestos Region of rural Québec before the Asbestos Strike of 1949. Set at Christmas time, the story is told from the point of view of 15-year-old boy Benoît (Jacques Gagnon) who is coming of age in a mining town.

Crónica del salitre

A narrative of the history of the labor movement in the nitrate offices of northern Chile. The voices of workers are heard, accompanied by images of mining operations.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven

A grotesque pamphlet about a working-class guy, a simpleton, whose soul and body are contested between leftists and revolutionaries on one side and factory authorities longing for order on the other. The satire was so sharp, and the hero's portrayal as a worker so ridiculous and pitiable, that the film's director, Elio Petri, faced a storm of accusations…

Joe Hill

The film tells the tragic fate of Joel Emanuel Hägglund , famous worldwide as Joe Hill. Hill emigrated from Sweden with his brother and tried to make a life in the USA.

The Rank and File (Play for Today)

This Ken Loach film is dedicated to the two-month-long "wildcat strike" of 6,000 workers at the Pilkington glass company in Lancashire. The workers had not gone on strike for 100 years, their union did not support them, and they faced persecution.

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders

A campaign film supporting workers at Glasgow's Upper Clyde Shipyards who developed a new weapon to fight to retain their jobs: the occupation and the work-in. The film was screened at meetings attended by more than 25,000 workers.

Ramparts of Clay / Remparts d'argile

The workers of a small village in Tunisia, employed in a salt mine, go on strike to protest poverty wages and brutal working conditions. In response, troops are sent to deal with them.

La Califfa

Kaliffa's husband was killed during the strike, and afterward, Kaliffa takes the side of the strikers and enters into conflict with the factory owner, Doverdo.The conflict turns into a love story, with passion and tenderness gradually replacing the initial tensions. A hauntingly beautiful and bizarre film.

Sagina Mahato

The film is based on a real episode of the workers' struggle on tea plantations in the Himalayas, in Northeast India, during 1942-1943. The main character, Sagina, is an honest and combative yet politically inexperienced union leader, who organizes the workers' fight at a factory in Siliguri.

Metello

Metello Santini didn’t remember his father, but he followed in his footsteps, becoming a worker and a labor movement activist (the film mentions workers, the Chamber of Labor, and the mutual aid society). The plot of the film revolves around two main themes: Metello and the workers' question, and Metello and his women.

Finally Got the News

I Am Somebody

Sometimes a Great Notion

Set in the Oregon forests, by the banks of the great Wakonda-Augi River, life in the town of Wakonda resembles an ancient Greek tragedy that allows no mistakes. In the midst of the slush, autumn, the desperate logging race, and the doomed strike, the Stamper clan—stubborn drifters and loners—exists by its own rules.

Taylor Chain - I, II

The Molly Maguires

The film is set in Pennsylvania in 1876 and is based on real events. "Molly Maguires" is a secret society of Irish immigrants who fight against the mine owners.

A weakling (novella №7)

A brilliant five-minute adaptation of a short story by A.P. Chekhov.

Apollon: una fabbrica occupata / Apollon: An Occupied Factory

A docu-fiction created through collaboration between a group of intellectuals coordinated by director Ugo Gregoretti and the workers who occupied the Apollon printing factory on Via Tiburtina in Rome. The film reconstructs the long occupation, which began on 4 June 1967 and ended in December 1968.

Burn! / Queimada

In the early 19th century, Sir William Walker arrives in the Portuguese island colony of Queimada to incite a slave uprising among the workers on the sugar plantations. He acts not only in the interests of the British Royal Sugar Company but also on behalf of the leaders of the rebel slaves, José Dolores and his comrades.

Ådalen 31

The story takes place during a historic strike at a paper mill in Adalen, northern Sweden, in 1931. Alongside it unfolds a touching love story between two teenagers.

"The Big Flame" The Wednesday Play episode

This play presents in a dark and energetic manner the story of an unusual form of collective action—the "reverse strike" in Liverpool, when 10,000 dockers occupied the docks and continued working against the will of their employer. Their struggle was further complicated by the union's stance, which did not sanction the action.

À bientôt, j'espère / Be Seeing You

The major strike broke out at Rhodiaceta, a textile factory owned by the Rhone-Poulenc company in the city of Besançon, France. The strike was unusual in its forms because the workers refused to separate the labor dispute from a broader social and cultural agenda.

Why is Mrs B. happy? / Warum ist Frau B. glücklich?

A film representing the movement in German cinema known as "proletarian cinema," which aimed to depict life through the eyes of the exploited classes. Directed by Erika Runge, the story spans 40 years (1928–1968) in the Ruhr region, told from the perspective of ordinary people—miners, workers, and union members.

¡HUELGA! / Strike

An emerging solidarity community on strike: In 1965, Mexican farm workers stood up against the unregulated capitalism in the agricultural sector and the racism of the white land owners.

Troublemakers

A documentary about the organization of New Left. In the film, Tom Hayden and a group of students from the Students for a Democratic Society movement are being followed.

Those Who Wake up in the Dark / Karanlıkta Uyananlar

The film deals with the struggle of labor of the paint factory workers. Ekrem is a worker in the paint factory.

The Inheritance

The film unfolds a panorama of the struggle for workers' rights—both American and immigrant—ranging from the early 20th century to the 1960s. Many scenes are unfamiliar to contemporary America—sweatshop labor, the darkness of coal mines, textile factories filled with children; the years of the Great Depression and the bloody battles for workers' rights…

Germinal

Yves Allégret, the director, who was once part of Trotskyist circles, is familiar with the theme of solidarity. In the cast: Soviet favorite Jean Sorel ("Belle de Jour") and Claude Brasseur (César winner; "Even Elephants Can Be Unfaithful").

The Organizer

The story of the workers' struggle in a city in northern Italy for better working conditions, revealed through archival material from the late 19th century. Exhausted by 14-hour workdays and social injustice, the weavers of a factory begin a strike.