Books and films

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.

American Factory

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

Betrayal: When the Government Took Over the Teamsters Union

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

Mine Wars

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…

The Revolutionist: Eugene V. Debs

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…

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.

Solidarność 1980 - 1989. Polska droga do wolności

The 1980s were the most important decade in the history of modern Poland. It was then that a great uprising of Poles took place and a movement emerged which, after many years of difficult experiences, led to the end of the Polish People’s Republic, a communist semi-colony of the Soviet Union, and to the rebirth of a free Republic of Poland.

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…

The Soviet Factory in an Era of Change: The Labor Collective of the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill between State and Civil Society

This dissertation examines the socioeconomic dimensions of the Soviet factory at the end of the Soviet era and during the accelerated market reforms of the final decade of the twentieth century. It is an extended study of conditions and relationships at the Vyborg pulp and paper mill over almost two decades.

Can the Working Class Change the World?

In his timely and innovative book, Michael D. Yates asks if the working class can, indeed, change the world.

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.

The Lucas Plan

The book tells the story of the Lucas Aerospace workers’ campaign to defend their jobs and transform the company from largely military production towards socially useful products. It traces the creation of the Shop Stewards’ Combine Committee, the development of the Alternative Corporate Plan, collective bargaining for employment security, wages and…

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.

Triangle Fire

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

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.

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…

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…

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.

Working Melancholy

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

Die ideologische Ausrichtung der Lehrkräfte 1933–1945

The National Socialist Teachers’ League organized 97 percent of all educators. One third of them were members of the NSDAP.

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…

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…

De vuist van de vakbond / The union fist

When 300,000 people flock to Museumplein on October 2, 2004, for the largest trade union demonstration ever, the power of the trade union movement seems great. Although the demands to retain the schemes for early retirement are met, it turns out to be primarily a Pyrrhic victory.

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…

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.

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?

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.

American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs