Books and films

The Uprising of '34

A grim account of the 22-day General Textile Strike in September 1934, which involved 400,000 workers across the southern United States and ended in bloody suppression and the crushing of the union. This defeat left such a profound mark on the textile workers of the South that the very word "union" became a curse, and veterans of the strike refused to…

Bread Peace Freedom 1943/1945

Passionate testimonies still emerge from the memory of the Resistance: the film, made in collaboration with the trade union movement, collects some of them to delve deeper into the history of workers' participation in the liberation of Italy from Nazi-fascist rule. It is a struggle that explodes from underground already in 1943, with fascism still in…

Fredriksson's factory - The Movie

Norwegian feature film based on the same role characters as the comic book Fredriksson's factory , which went on NRK TV in the early 1990s. The film was launched in Norway on December 26, 1994 .

Death Like a Slice of Bread / Śmierć jak kromka chleba

The film is based on the events of December 16, 1981, which followed the imposition of martial law by the communist regime in Poland against the Solidarity trade union. On that day, numerous police and military units brutally suppressed a miners' strike at the Wujek coal mine in Silesia, resulting in violent clashes that left 9 miners dead.

Reverted

Set in autumn 1981 in Katowice, Tomasz, a worker at a thermal power plant, is sent by the director to a large "Solidarity" demonstration as a party observer. Tomasz is swept up by the scale of the rally and the singing of songs.

Germinal

The movie was directed by Claude Berri, it stars famous actors Gérard Depardieu and Miou-Miou.

The Cloak of Casanova

A Soviet trade union delegation arrives in Venice. Among the "best workers," the film's heroine stands out as a "white crow." The Russian intellectual Chloe falls in love with an Italian named Lorenzo, unaware that he is a con artist and a gigolo who courts wealthy women...

At the River I Stand

Daens

Father Adolf Dans, a Catholic priest, comes to the textile town of Aalst. Here, child labor is widespread, working conditions are awful, the pay is meager, the poor have no voice, and the church stands with the bourgeoisie.

Wanted: Dangerous Criminal

Wanted: Dangerous Criminal (Russia, 1992) – A feature film about a tank regiment commander who did not go against his people and refused to carry out the command to suppress a workers' revolt at a factory. However, he went against the Soviet system, for which he lost everything—his rank, position, awards, and freedom.

Harry Bridges: A Man and His Union

Hoffa

Jack Nicholson stars as James R. Hoffa, the president of the truck drivers' union.

Newsies

This retro musical is based on real events. In the late 19th century, two major newspaper publishers in New York, the Journal and the World, conspired to raise the wholesale price of their publications.

Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story

Bill Presser decides to leave the truck drivers' union council, but before that, he chooses to nominate his son Jackie as the new union leader in place of the suddenly missing Jimmy Hoffa. Jackie faces resistance from the leadership, but by establishing contacts with the FBI and the mafia, he begins to consolidate power using any means necessary, even…

Women's strike 1991 Switzerland | Women's strike day of June 14, 1991 / Der Aufstand gilt dem Patriarchat. Frauenstreik 14.Juni 1991

A short film about a campaign organized in 1991 by the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions to combat discrimination against women in the workplace, income, social security, and education. The campaign's slogan is particularly striking: "If women want it, everything will stop" (or, in another translation, "Everything will fall into place").

Riff-Raff

The film is dedicated to Britain construction workers who have come to London in search of a better life: migrants, homeless individuals, and guys recently released from prison. They all work, have fun, and try to survive in any way they can.

$4 a Day? No Way!: Joining Hands Across the Border

The story of Mexican Ford workers in Cuautitlán, whose fight for union democracy in 1990 was met with violence.

ABC OF STRIKE / ABC DA GREVE

A detailed look at the events that led to the continuous strikes that shut down many factories during the still repressive days of the military regime. The workers union, led by syndicalist Lula, demanded better work conditions and better payments, fighting not only against their exploitative bosses but also the political establishment of the time.

My Macondo

Inspired by the people and landscape of Colombia's Banana Zone, Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez created the Buendia family and the village of Macondo, placing them at the centre of his acclaimed novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Among the events described in Marquez' novel is the 1928 Banana Strike and the subsequent murder of 3 000…

María Cano

Colombia receives compensation from Panama and accepts foreign credit to undertake development projects, which leads to an increase in the number of workers, albeit with poor wages and terrible working conditions inherited from the colonial era. This is where María Cano emerges, a political activist who begins her struggle for the conditions of salaried…

Fredriksson's factory

The series is about the small Norwegian clothing factory "Fredriksson's fashion", which is run by the stated Swede, director Fredriksson. His seamstresses are four Norwegian women, who are more concerned with scrapping and pursuing their own things than working.

American Dream

The film is about the 6-month strike at Hormel Foods (Austin, Minnesota) in 1985-86. Local union P-9 rejects the company's decision to cut wages and declares a strike.

Imperfect Union: Canadian Labour and the Left (4-parts)

Imperfect Union: Canadian Labour and the Left is a three-part NFB documentary series tracing the evolution of Canada’s labour movement. It covers the movement’s early roots shaped by international socialist ideas, its explosive growth during the Great Depression through strikes and organizing, and its wartime transformation, which led to stronger unions,…

Santosh

An Indian intrigue. The ruthless Kamla falls in love with a poor man, marries him, and gives birth to Santosh.

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Set in New York, 1952. A six-month strike by the metalworkers' union at the Brickman Metals Co.

Roger & Me

The film masterfully directed by Michael Moore tells the story of how the American dream was buried in the town of Flint, Michigan, with the help of the auto giant General Motors. The plant was closed, leaving thirty thousand workers out of work.

Amor, mujeres y flores / Love, Women and Flowers

A documentary film that portrays the harsh working conditions on Colombia’s flower farms, where the workforce consists almost entirely of women.

To Kill a Priest

Warsaw, 1981. The "Solidarity" trade union movement takes a course of confrontation with the authorities.

Good faith - 50 years of peace agreements in the machinery and metal industries / Treu und Glauben - 50 Jahre Friedensabkommen in der Maschinen- und Metallindustrie

A short film exploring Switzerland's labor relations system, known as the "Labor Peace." The plot is simple: a journalist is assigned to write an article about the anniversary of the "peace agreement" between industrialists and trade unions in the metalworking and engineering sectors. She interviews workers and managers, shares her findings with the…

The Luddites

This historical drama, based on documents (except for the emotional scenes of negotiations and the execution of John Butt), focuses on the Luddite movement in the early 1810s in the Northwest of England. Textile workers, who called themselves Luddites, destroyed mechanical looms in factories, as the spread of these machines led to mass unemployment and…