Books and films
Books and films that help us understand collective action.
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Grêvons / Let’s strike
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
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“Little invisible hands” / «Les Petites mains invisibles»
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.
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The rebels: images and words from May 1968 /
Workers, students and young people opposed, in May 1968, morality and the power in place. The faculties and factories are busy.
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Air to Breathe: 40 Years of Opposition at Opel in Bochum / Luft zum Atmen: 40 Jahre Opposition bei Opel in Bochum
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.
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Casas viejas 1933 / Old houses 1933
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.
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Resistance, patience, struggle / Direnç, Sabır, Mücadele!
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.
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Yellow helmut / Sarı Baret
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.
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American Factory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Factory
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Betrayal: When the Government Took Over the Teamsters Union
Examines the consequences of the 1989-2020 federal government takeover of the Teamsters.
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The Irisman
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…
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El Caso Fischer-Bufano
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…
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Chão de Fábrica - A História do Novo Sindicalismo / Factory Floor
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.
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At War / En Guerre
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…
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Nae Pasaran
Story of the Scottish machinists who refused to repair plan engines for Pinochet’s Chilean dictatorship in the 1970s & the impact of their solidarity.
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Sorry to Bother You
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.
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Triangle Fire
PBS documentary examining the infamous Triangle shirtwaist fire in 1911 that killed 146 mostly women immigrant workers.
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Red clothes
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.
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Crónicas de trabajadores en lucha por la libertad sindical
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…
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Mémoires d’un condamné / Memoirs of a Convict
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…
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Prendre le large / Catch the Wind
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.
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Working Melancholy
This is the story of Lucie Baud (1870-1913), a silk worker in Dauphiné who led strikes in Vizille and Voiron
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La historia es nuestra: Pascual, lucha obrera y cooperativismo
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…
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The Light and the Strength / La luz y la fuerza
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…
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La Matamoros
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…
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The Nothing Factory / La fábrica de nada
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.
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Strike a Rock
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?
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Our time is now / Vår tid er nå
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.
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