Books and films
Books and films that help us understand collective action.
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11 Underground
In 1984, the hard-fought protest of 11 Spanish mercury miners made the national news as they barricaded themselves hundreds of meters below ground in a mining shaft for 11 days and 11 nights in protest of poor working conditions and pay. Thirty five years on, the mine is closed for good; the world in Almadén has changed, but the problems kept growing.
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If they touch one of us: the class struggle at the heart. / S’ils touchent à l’un d’entre nous : la lutte des classes au cœur.
This documentary of just over an hour follows the intense struggle, widely publicized elsewhere, against the union repression which this year targeted Christian Porta, worker and CGT delegate at Neuhauser, an industrial bakery in the east of the France.
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Nos hommes
One November morning, the mobile phones of Sarah, Frédérique, Ludivine, Lise and other women ring. A text message delivers the same news dozens of times: Prysmian-Draka, the factory where their partners manufacture fibre-optic cable, is going to close.
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Tapis rouge et lutte des classes / Une autre histoire du Festival de Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival, the red carpet, its parade of stars and the crackle of camera flashes… Who could imagine that behind the glittering façade of the most prestigious event in the world of cinema lies a completely different story? To understand it, we must go back to the very origins of the Festival.
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To work / Au boulot
They are delivery drivers, cooks, care assistants or farmers, French and immigrants, men and women, live and work in the four corners of the country but are all on minimum wage or in the process of reintegration. Despite the harshness of their living conditions and even their health, they not only seek to get by but show solidarity which quickly makes…
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Klassensolidarität, Autonomie, Selbstorganisation: Erfahrungen und Reflexionen von unten
Striking delivery drivers in Brazil, organized logistics workers in Italy, grassroots groups in Switzerland and Germany, covert protests by Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan, an occupation in Greece resisting touristification, burning construction sites, and collective expropriations in the United States: across the world and in very different ways,…
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When women stopped Iceland
Discover the fascinating story behind the first and legendary Icelandic women's strike of 1975, in which, for an entire day, they refused to work, take care of their children or cook. When 90% of Icelandic women walked off their jobs and walked out of their homes one autumn morning in 1975, refusing to work, cook, or look after children, they brought…
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हड़ताल कल होगी The Strike Will Be Tomorrow
Mauritian writer Abhimanyu Anat has established a distinct place for himself in modern Hindi fiction, and this novel adds a new dimension to his literary personality. The protagonist of the novel, Amit, is sensitive and contemplative, a leader of workers, deeply disturbed by the internal and external divide between the rich and the poor.
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শতবর্ষে চা-শ্রমিক আন্দোলন ডেডলাইন ২০ মে ১৯২১ A Century of the Tea Workers’ Movement: Deadline 20 May 1921
Shreyasi Gangopadhyay. May 20, 1921 marks the tea workers’ movement in Bangladesh, and the legacy of the struggle of plantation workers and coolies remains just as significant even after a century.
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This Work Is Not Life: Class Struggle in the 21st Century — The GKN Case / Questo lavoro non è vita. La lotta di classe nel XXI secolo. Il caso GKN
On 9 July 2021, the 422 employees of GKN in Campi Bisenzio, Florence, a factory producing drive shafts for the automotive industry, received an email announcing collective-dismissal proceedings due to the closure of the business. The workers refused to remain resigned: they immediately went to the factory gates, guarded by private security, and managed…
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Una alianza que transformó el país / An alliance that transformed the country: The unions and early Peronism
An eruption, a magical and mysterious moment, the emergence of an undercurrent that swept everything away. A leader who interpreted and shaped history to his liking.
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عمّال على طريق يناير: قراءة لثلاث معارك عمّالية مع نشرات الحركة Workers on the Road to January: A Reading of Three Labour Struggles with the Movement’s Bulletins
In his book Workers on the Road to January: A Reading of Three Labour Struggles with the Movement’s Bulletins, published by Dar Al-Maraya, Hisham Fouad offers a panoramic view from inside the workers’ operational room. The book is not a dry academic study; rather, it is a “living documentation” and “close-up observations of three pivotal labour struggles…
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Judul Buku: Berpencar, Bergerak!: Pergolakan Perlawanan Harian Buruh di Delapan Sektor Industri
In the book “Berpencar, Bergerak”, Sudiyanti recounts her experience of resistance in an electronics factory that produces earphones. In great detail, Sudiyanti explains how she, together with several comrades who were members of a factory-level labor union, transformed workers’ complaints about poor working conditions into concrete demands directed at…
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The Labor Movement and Its Role in Society and Politics / ขบวนการแรงงานกับบทบาททางสังคมและการเมือง
This book is a collection of academic articles based on the author’s research work, reflecting her role as a key scholar closely connected to the Thai labor movement over the past three decades. The volume brings together three major articles: The History of the Thai Labor Movement Toward a Decade of Fragmentation (1977–1987) Trade Unions as Social…
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Por qué el obrero vota a la derecha: La deriva suicida de la izquierda / Why the worker votes for the right: The suicidal drift of the left
What's happening to the left today? Why does it seem more concerned with issues like environmentalism (a false environmentalism) or a feminism that is anything but equality, instead of with the problems faced by an increasingly suffocated working class?
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The Miraculous Transformation of the Working Class Into Foreigners 2024
Samir uses private family photos, animations, music clips and unseen archive material to tell the story of migration from Switzerlands southern neighbours in an entertaining way, from the post-war period to the present day. While the SP and trade unions led the Swiss workers' culture until the 1950s, these institutions became less and less important and…
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3 Women 1 Strike / 3 kadın 1 Grev
The film '3 Women 1 Strike' tells the fictional story of women around the strike of immigrant women workers from all over the world at the Pierburg factory in 1973. The story of friendships that developed around the workers' strike...
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Strike: An Uncivil War
The Miners' Strike of 1984/85 was the most divisive, violent industrial dispute Britain has ever witnessed. With personal testimony, formerly hidden government documents and unseen archive, STRIKE tells the story of the Battle of Orgreave
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How crane operator is fighting for her rights
The immediate appearance of new residential complexes that emerge from the maze of green fences like mushrooms after the rain may no longer attract the attention of city dwellers. Yet, the people who build housing and create profits for developers through their work are even less visible.
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COVID Sourdough
A short subject documentary about the union organizers at Tartine Bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area who successfully won a tight NLRB election despite a brutal anti union boss fight that began just weeks before the worldwide closures of March 2020 dude to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
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COVID Sourdough
A short subject documentary about the union organizers at Tartine Bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area who successfully won a tight NLRB election despite a brutal anti union boss fight that began just weeks before the worldwide closures of March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
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Help Wanted
Every day at 3:55 a.m., members of Team Movement clock in for their shift at big-box store Town Square in a small upstate New York town. Under the eyes of a self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty the day’s truck of merchandise, stock the shelves, and scatter before the store opens and customers arrive.
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People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal
At a moment in which our everyday practice of democracy has atrophied, and political, economic, and technological forces have weakened our capacity for collective action, People, Power, Change is a once-in-a-generation book for anyone who wants to create real and lasting change. Marshall Ganz is one of the world’s leading authorities on democratic…
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The Empty Chair
A documentary chronicling the Starbucks unionization campaign which has swept the nation, following the workers behind the union as they navigate victories and defeats, and in the process breathe life into America's labor movement.
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Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_(fil
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Jusqu'au bout. Vieillir et résister dans le monde ouvrier
Bruno, Christian, Clairette, Christiane, and Viviane are former Peugeot employees from Sochaux-Montbéliard. Battered by factory work, these retirees place union activism and friendly solidarity at the heart of their lives.
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Harvesting Anger: Lemons in Tucumán / COSECHANDO BRONCA: El limón en Tucumán
The documentary "Harvesting Anger: Lemons in Tucumán" exposes the harsh reality for citrus industry workers in Tucumán. Argentina is the world's leading exporter of industrial lemon products and the eighth largest exporter of fresh lemons.
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MADYGRAF: Traces of a Future / MADYGRAF: Huellas de un futuro
The documentary Madygraf: Footprints of a Future offers a glimpse into the history of the iconic worker-run factory Madygraf, formerly the multinational RR Donnelley and before that, the Atlántida printing plant. It was one of the largest printing facilities in Latin America, located in the heart of the Garín industrial park in the northern part of…
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Building Power to Shape Labor Policy: Unions, Employer Associations, and Reform in Neoliberal Chile
During Chile’s transition to neoliberalism, Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship established a body of pro-business labor legislation that later democratic governments found difficult to reform. Pablo Pérez Ahumada examines why, focusing on collective labor law and on the unequal capacity of workers and employers to influence public policy.
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Sindikati kroz izazove prošlosti i budućnosti / Unions through the Challenges of the Past and Future
The book "Unions through the Challenges of the Past and Future" recording the testimonies of trade unionists about the transition in Serbia, about strikes and bad privatizations, with details that are little known to the public. The authors of the book are journalist Jelena Ranković and long-time leader of the union of the "Zastava Arms" factory and the…