Books and films

Books and films

Books and films that help us understand collective action.

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  1. Attention! Bandits!

    1951 Carlo Lizzani Italy

    Despite General Alexander’s call for the partisans to retreat to the mountains until spring, Commander Vento and political commissar Lorenzo lead their group to Pontedecimo, near Genoa, to reconnect with the city. Lacking weapons, they plan to seize them from a factory.

  2. The Man in the White Suit

    1951 Alexander Mackendrick UK

    The protagonist of this sci-fi comedy, young chemist Sidney Stratton, is obsessed with creating an indestructible fiber. His research doesn't sit well with textile manufacturers, leading to his dismissal from one factory after another.

  3. Professori Masa

    1950 Matti Kassila Finland

    Professor Mathias Kaarivaara, driven by his views on justice and social structure, wanders around the port, trying to find a way to observe the working conditions of laborers. Unable to get a job at the port, he spends the entire night unloading a ship alongside a team of dockworkers...

  4. With These Hands

    1950 Jack Arnold USA

    Worker Alexander Brodie is retiring, and while his paperwork is being processed, he reflects on his life and the lives of his comrades. Funded by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), the film chronicles the history of garment workers, their sentiments, and tragic disasters—such as the 1911 factory fire that claimed 146 lives.

  5. The Rising Tide

    1949 Jean Palardy Canada

    This 10-minute film tells the story of poor fisherman Willy Leblanc and his comrades surviving the hungry 1920s and collectively working toward better times. Fishermen's cooperatives, which emerged in Canada's Maritime Provinces, brought them hope.

  6. Bitter Rice

    1949 Giuseppe De Santis Italy

    Passion, betrayal, intrigue, and crime set against the backdrop of a struggle between legal and illegal ("scabs") rice plantation workers and their owners. The film's sharp social issues and eroticism have shattered the restrained Italian cinema.

  7. Captain Boycott

    1947 Frank Launder UK

    This historical drama is centered on one of the most prominent episodes in the struggle of Irish tenant farmers against English landlords at the end of the 19th century, who had seized all the best land in Ireland. Led by Hugh Devin, a farmer, and Father McKeogh, a priest, the farmers organize a campaign against the pompous Captain Charles Boycott, the…

  8. The Valley of Decision

    1945 Tay Garnett USA

    Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1870s, it stars Greer Garson and Gregory Peck (Oscar for Captain Newman). Mary Rafferty takes a job as a servant in the wealthy home of steel magnate William Scott.

  9. Dumbo

    1941 Ben Sharpsteen USA

    The film shows the story of a little elephant, his hardships, and his strong character. It was created during a prolonged strike by most of the studio's employees for recognition of their union.

  10. How Green Was My Valley

    1941 John Ford USA

    It tells the story of the Morgans, a hard-working Welsh mining family. A key storyline in the movie involves a labor conflict at a recently opened mine, where the Morgans are employed.

  11. The Devil and Miss Jones

    1941 Sam Wood USA

    The hero of this comedic film is millionaire John Merrick, who owns a big department store. To check on the discontent among his employees who have organized a public hanging for a dummy of their boss and reached out to the unions he disguises himself as an ordinary shoe salesman.

  12. The Stars Look Down

    1940 Carol Reed UK

    The story is set in a dark mining town in northern England, where Robert and Martha Fenwick give up everything to provide their son David a chance at a better life and a university education.a chance at a better life and a university education. Robert works at the mine alongside his younger son and attempts to organize the rest of the miners.

  13. The Grapes of Wrath

    1940 John Ford USA

    Forced by the crisis, the bankrupt farmers from Oklahoma look for a better life in California, but in their new home, they do not find happiness or peace. This film is considered in America to be the first non-sentimental motion picture about ordinary people.

  14. Dawn in the Nordic countries / Gryr i Norden

    1939 Olav Dalgard Norway

    Film is about the first major strike in Norway, the match worker strike in Kristiania in 1889 . On the morning of October 23, 1889, the match workers at Bryn and Grønvold Tändstikfabriker in Oslo went to strike.

  15. United Action Means Victory

    1939 Michael Martini USA
  16. The links are broken / Lenkene brytes

    1938 Olav Dalgard Norway

    The film raises the issue of alcohol abuse that also threw shade far into the organized labor movement. It is about life in the working youth teams, the work of the abstinence movement, about friendship, unity and love between young people.

  17. A Boom through the Valley / Det drønner gjennom dalen

    1937 Olav Dalgard Norway

    An exciting time image from 1931 - the year of unemployment and misery in the forest settlements in Norway. The film is important both as film history and social portrayal.

  18. Redes

    1936 Fred Zinnemann, Emilio Gómez Muriel Mexico

    Redes is a Mexican film, released in 1936, about the fishing community of Alvarado on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, near the city of Veracruz. The film's title comes from the Spanish word redes ("nets") in reference to fishing nets.

  19. We build the country / VI Bygger Landet

    1936 Olav Dalgard Norway

    A young unemployed man finds his place in the working class and the union workers. Propaganda movie made for AOF.

  20. I Love

    1936 Leonid Lukov USSR

    A long time ago, Ostap's father left a poor village and went to work in the Donbas. The shack built by Nikanor laid the foundation for the mining settlement of Sobacheevka.

  21. Unity must be to / Samhold må til

    1935 Olav Dalgard Norway

    A young man throws the trade union book into the table and says he can thank it for being unemployed. The father -in -law Øyvin Dalen presents his trade union books on the table and tells of the young homestead boy Øyvin who travels from home to seek work.

  22. Black Fury

    1935 Michael Curtiz USA

    The film is based on real events. A naive and cheerful Polish immigrant, Joe Radek, works in a mine, dreams of buying a pig farm, and is about to marry his neighbor, Anna.

  23. Love and Hate

    1935 Albert Gendelshtein USSR

    Set in Donbass in 1919, the miners abandon the village with the retreating troops of the Red Army. White Army soldiers have moved into the miners' shacks.

  24. Revolt of the Fishermen

    1934 Erwin Piscator, Michail Doller USSR

    The film was about a workers' solidarity. The German revolutionary union organized a strike of sailors on the trawlers of the fishery owner Bredel.

  25. Pity in the Borinage

    1933 Joris Ivens Belgium

    Shot after the hottest moments of the strike, and without official authorization, the film alternates sequences of contemporary newsreels, real shots and reconstructions in which the workers play themselves. The film today retains its original strength and the same power of indignation.

  26. The Deserter

    1933 Vsevolod Pudovkin USSR

    The workers at German Shipyard No. 1 go on a long, difficult strike that ends in defeat.

  27. Comradeship

    1931 G. W. Pabst France, Germany

    After the end of World War I, due to the new border, a German mine was divided between France and Germany. One day, an accident occurs on the French side.

  28. ¡Que viva México!

    1931 Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov USSR

    This masterpiece by Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein is a visual exploration of Mexican history and culture. Although it was never completed according to Eisenstein’s original vision, the film contains a powerful sequence about the massacre of workers during the 1907 Tarpeya Rock Strike, depicting the brutal repression of laborers by the government…

  29. Brothers

    1929 Werner Hochbaum Germany

    The film was made with the financial support of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the German Transport Workers' Union (DTV). It tells the tale of the dockworkers' strike that was lost in Hamburg in the winter of 1896-1897.

  30. His Excellency

    1928 Grigori Roshal USSR

    The film is based on real events. On 5 May 1902, shoemaker-laborer Hirsh Lekert, a member of the Jewish party Bund, attempted to murder the governor of Vilnius, Victor von Wahl.