Books and films

Books and films

Books and films that help us understand collective action.

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  1. Grêvons / Let’s strike

    2019 Francine Lemaître France

    Action, determination, resistance, debate, moments of humor and solidarity, the film skilfully retraces a good part of the strike the postal workers’ strike in 92

  2. “Little invisible hands” / «Les Petites mains invisibles»

    2019 Nessim Chikhaoui France

    This film reports on strike by cleaning workers employed by Onet, a victorious strike carried out in 2017 in stations in the North of Île-de-France.

  3. The rebels: images and words from May 1968 /

    2019 Michel Andrieu, Jacques Kébadian France

    Workers, students and young people opposed, in May 1968, morality and the power in place. The faculties and factories are busy.

  4. Air to Breathe: 40 Years of Opposition at Opel in Bochum / Luft zum Atmen: 40 Jahre Opposition bei Opel in Bochum

    2019 Johanna Schellhagen Germany

    In 1972, several workers and revolutionaries at Opel Bochum founded the Group of Oppositional Trade Unionists (GoG). The GoG existed for more than forty years and strengthened the spirit of resistance among the Bochum workforce through its radical workplace organizing.

  5. Casas viejas 1933 / Old houses 1933

    2019 José Luis Hernández Arango Spain

    On January 8, 1933, a general strike was declared throughout Spain. The strike was quickly suppressed, except in Casas Viejas, a small village in Cádiz.

  6. Resistance, patience, struggle / Direnç, Sabır, Mücadele!

    2019 Turkey

    The film present the story of resistance, patience and struggle to our audience as solidarity in this process where trade union rights are under intense attack. In our documentary about the trade union struggle given by workers from 5 different cities and different sectors, the determination and transformation of the insurgents are reflected.

  7. Yellow helmut / Sarı Baret

    2019 Turkey

    Miners… Miners with the yellow chair, lighthouse, digging, shovel and of course labor… We heard their name with disasters and business murders. We witnessed their struggles to the tooth.

  8. American Factory

    2019 Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert USA

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Factory

  9. Betrayal: When the Government Took Over the Teamsters Union

    2019 George Bogdanich USA

    Examines the consequences of the 1989-2020 federal government takeover of the Teamsters.

  10. Mine Wars

    2019 Mark Dugas USA
  11. The Irisman

    2019 Martin Scorsese USA

    In a nursing home, elderly Irish-American World War II veteran Frank Sheeran recounts his time as a hitman for the Italian-American Mafia. In 1950s Philadelphia, Sheeran works as a union delivery truck driver, where he starts selling some of the meat shipments to a local Philadelphia Italian-American gangster known as "Skinny Razor", a member of the…

  12. The Revolutionist: Eugene V. Debs

    2019 Kim Jacobs USA
  13. El Caso Fischer-Bufano

    2018 Ernesto Gut and Dionisio Cardozo Argentina

    The film is based on the kidnapping and murder, by a death squad of the Triple A (Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance), of young labor activists Jorge Fischer and Miguel Angel Bufano, aged 25 and 23 respectively, in December 1974. Forty Bullets, by narrating the life stories of these socialist activists (who were also close friends), aims to help us…

  14. Chão de Fábrica - A História do Novo Sindicalismo / Factory Floor

    2018 Hidalgo Romero, Renato Tapajós Brasil

    Factory Floor is a film based on a TV series about the history of the new Brazilian trade unionism. It begins with the major strikes of 1970/1980, which took place in the ABC region of São Paulo.

  15. At War / En Guerre

    2018 Stéphane Brizé France

    A gripping drama by Stéphane Brizé, showcased at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May, tells the story of French factory workers at "Perrin Industrie." For five years, they agreed to salary cuts to keep the company afloat. However, the German headquarters, dissatisfied with the factory’s insufficient profitability, decided to shut it down and leave…

  16. Nae Pasaran

    2018 Felipe Bustos Sierra UK (Scotland)

    Story of the Scottish machinists who refused to repair plan engines for Pinochet’s Chilean dictatorship in the 1970s & the impact of their solidarity.

  17. Sorry to Bother You

    2018 Boots Riley USA

    The film follows a young African-American telemarketer who adopts a "white voice" to succeed at his job, after which he is swept into a corporate conspiracy and must choose between chasing profit or joining his activist friends who are attempting to unionize.

  18. Triangle Fire

    2018 Jamila Wignot USA

    PBS documentary examining the infamous Triangle shirtwaist fire in 1911 that killed 146 mostly women immigrant workers.

  19. Red clothes

    2017 Lida Chan Cambodia

    A film about the hard labor of Cambodian garment workers, who produce cheap clothing for pennies. They went on a demonstration to demand higher wages.

  20. Crónicas de trabajadores en lucha por la libertad sindical

    2017 Confederación Sindical de los trabajadores y trabajadoras de las Américas (CSA) Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, the Dominican Republic

    The production of six documentaries on Trade Union Freedom and Collective Bargaining in the six focal countries of the Campaign—Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and the Dominican Republic—helped raise visibility for the demands of the working class in these countries. The films denounce employer and government abuses, and highlight the…

  21. Mémoires d’un condamné / Memoirs of a Convict

    2017 Sylvestre Meinzer France

    This tells us through fragments of testimony and journey in the city of Le Havre the story of Jules Durand, secretary of the port coal workers' union, wrongly accused and convicted at the beginning of the 20th century and which is today quite a symbol in the working world. A striking film because of its echoes with current events and because it tells us…

  22. Prendre le large / Catch the Wind

    2017 Gaël Morel France

    Edith, a 45-year-old textile worker, sees her life overturned by a restructuring plan. Rather than face unemployment, she is the only employee to accept a transfer to the company’s relocated factory in Tangier, Morocco, where she must confront the harsh reality of offshoring, unfamiliar working conditions and a new social environment.

  23. Working Melancholy

    2017 Gérard Mordillat France

    This is the story of Lucie Baud (1870-1913), a silk worker in Dauphiné who led strikes in Vizille and Voiron

  24. La historia es nuestra: Pascual, lucha obrera y cooperativismo

    2017 Carlos Alberto Mendoza Aupetit Mexico

    A collective account of one of the most remarkable episodes of the contemporary Mexican labor movement; an example of unity and class consciousness embodied by men and women who turn their struggle into an everyday act of homage. This feature-length film recounts the fight waged by the workers of the Pascual soft-drink company between 1982 and 1985…

  25. The Light and the Strength / La luz y la fuerza

    2017 Alejandra Islas Mexico

    The Light and the Strength documents the struggle of the Mexican Electricians’ Union (SME) after the 2009 government decree that dissolved the public company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC). Portal Insurgencia Magisterial+2laizquierdadiario.mx+2 The film follows, over several years, how nearly 16,599 electricians resisted, maintained their union…

  26. La Matamoros

    2017 Delfina Vidal Panama

    From a factory seamstress to an international union leader, the life of Marta Matamoros was devoted to defending the rights of Panamanian women and workers. Her struggle brought her persecution and imprisonment—bitter moments that were transformed into great victories: the achievement of the minimum wage and maternity protection, benefits that today are…

  27. The Nothing Factory / La fábrica de nada

    2017 Pedro Pinho Portugal

    One night, a group of workers realizes that management is stealing machinery and materials from their own factory. When they get ready to organize the equipment and production themselves, they are ordered to do nothing, as retaliation, while negotiations for their dismissal are underway.

  28. Strike a Rock

    2017 Aliki Saragas SA

    After a massacre shakes their poverty-stricken mining community, Marikana, two grandmothers lead their community in a historic fight for justice. In an intimate story where the personal becomes political, how will they take on Goliath-enemies and make their voices heard?

  29. Our time is now / Vår tid er nå

    2017 Harald Hamrell Sweden

    The Swedish series "Our time is now" has been for three seasons at NRK and can still be seen. There is genealogy from the post -war Stockholm, where the establishment of a trade union in the restaurant industry is an important side story in a very nice series.

  30. American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs

    2017 Yale Strom USA