Books and films

Dolores

The Egyptians: A Radical History of Egypt's Unfinished Revolution

On January, 25, 2011, a revolution began in Egypt that succeeded in ousting the country’s longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. In The Egyptians, journalist Jack Shenker uncovers the roots of the uprising and explores the country’s current state, divided between two irreconcilable political orders.

The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone,

How did the iPhone transform our world and turn Apple into the most valuable company ever? Veteran technology journalist Brian Merchant reveals the inside story you won't hear from Cupertino-based on his exclusive interviews with the engineers, inventors, and developers who guided every stage of the iPhone's creation.

Liquidation

This film retraces the entire conflict between the management of Goodyear and the employees of the Amiens-Nord factory. The result of a long investigation, it looks back at the struggle of these workers to defend their jobs.

Thank you, boss! / Merci patron!

Jocelyne and Serge Klur worked at a factory near Valenciennes that produced Kenzo clothing for the LVMH group. After production was relocated to Poland, the couple lost their jobs, fell into debt, and faced losing their home.

Like lions / Comme des Lions

The film about the workers of PSA Aulnay, fighting against the closure of their factory.

7 minuti

The textile company Varazzi, with a female workforce, is bought by French partners. The new owners propose that the factory council reduce the lunch break by 7 minutes in order to optimize production.

Panamerican Machinery / Maquinaria Panamericana

It seems like any other Friday at Maquinaria Panamericana S.A., a company specializing in the sale and repair of construction and destruction machinery. The employees prepare for the coveted weekend, wasting time on little rituals and routines, until an unexpected twist snaps them out of their peaceful monotony.

The Mechanics of Trade Unions

An anti-union film about MPRA.

Blood on the Mountain

In Dubious Battle

In 1933, two union organizers go to the California valley intending to initiate a strike among the apple pickers. But to encourage the workers to rise up, it is necessary to wait for the opportune moment…A powerful and conflicting film that could be read as sharply anti-union.

Union Time: Fighting for Workers' Rights

Union Time: Fighting for Workers’ Rights follows the story of workers at the Smithfield Pork Processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, who fought for safe, fair working conditions – and won. It goes beyond hype about unions (from both sides) to show how people standing together can break the cycle of poverty and injustice.

Bunt

A gripping, multi-threaded story of a rebellion that changed Poland. It begins at the moment when, after the bloody suppression of the strike in December 1970, the authorities promised a better life; access to consumer goods increased and the world seemed closer, and yet rebellion came.

Strike

To mark the 100th anniversary of free trade unions in Luxembourg (1916-2016), the OGBL commissioned director Andy Bausch to make a documentary film tracing the remarkable history of the free trade union movement in Luxembourg over the past 100 years.

Ditching the Fear: The Logistics Workers’ Movement in Italy / Die Angst wegschmeißen: Die Bewegung der Logistikarbeiter_innen in Italien

Since 2008, northern Italy has been the scene of extraordinary events. Companies, politicians and the media are using the crisis to further erode workers’ already fragile rights.

Worker Control and Workplace Democracy: An Alternative Labour History

Edited by Dario Azzellini, this 352-page volume examines historical and contemporary forms of workers’ control, self-management and workplace democracy. It argues that the global financial crisis generated new shop-floor militancy, radical protests and workplace takeovers.

Fighting for Total Person Unionism

During the 1950s and 1960s, labor leaders Harold Gibbons and Ernest Calloway championed a new kind of labor movement that regarded workers as "total persons" interested in both workplace affairs and the exercise of effective citizenship in their communities. Working through Teamsters Local 688 and viewing the city of St.

Superstore

The NBC series Superstore starts its fifth season this week, and you should be watching it. This good-hearted workplace comedy about a big-box store in St.

Greves no Brasil / Strikes in Brazil: From 1968 to the Present Day. Testimonials from leaders.

This work contains the testimonies of twelve leaders from various professional categories and regions of the country, who played a leading role in important strike movements, starting in the late 1960s. Its reading is essential for all those who wish to reflect on the struggles of workers for a society with greater justice and equity.

Two Days, One Night

After treatment and returning to work, Sandra, a mother of two children, finds out that the employees' meeting decided to fire her to to avoid losing the yearly bonus of one thousand euros. Only two colleagues did not vote "yes." Juliette, Sandra's friend, convinced the supervisor to repeat the vote due to the pressure placed on the workers.

Battlegrounds: Eastern European Workers and Social Dumping in Construction

Based on documentary accounts of conflicts at six Danish construction sites, the book examines the scale of social dumping and the conditions faced by Eastern European workers. It follows struggles over wages and working conditions involving construction workers, trade unions, foreign intermediaries and contractors, placing these conflicts in the context…

The Precariat and the New Class Struggle: Transformations of the Contemporary Working Class and Its Forms of Struggle / Przeobrażenia współczesnej klasy pracowniczej i jej form walki

Around the world, the situation of workers is deteriorating. Attacks on trade unions, the destabilization of labor relations, the dictatorship of flexibility, and pauperization are becoming widespread.

Lotta senza classe (A Classless Struggle)

Three different ways of being metalworkers. Three different ways of dealing with the crisis, three different life prospects.

Occupy, Resist, Produce – RiMaflow / Occupare, Resistere, Produrre – RiMaflow

The film follows the workers of RiMaflow, a former Maflow car-parts plant in Trezzano sul Naviglio near Milan. After the factory was closed following a fraudulent bankruptcy, former workers occupied the plant and began to reinvent it as a self-managed project.

Senzachiederepermesso

The story of the worker Pietro Perotti, employed at Fiat Mirafiori from 1969 to 1985, who took part in the workers' struggles by dealing with communication within the factory, making stickers, wall newspapers, writings and drawings in the bathrooms, papier-mâché and foam rubber puppets, turning the marches into "street theater". With his camera Perotti…

Bread, Freedom, Social Justice: Workers and the Egyptian Revolution

Accounts of the Arab Spring often focus on the role of youth coalitions, the use of social media, and the tactics of the Tahrir Square occupation. This authoritative and original book argues that collective action by organised workers played a fundamental role in the Egyptian revolution, which erupted after years of strikes and social protests.

Workers of Glass – The Making of Class among Paşabahçe Workers / Camın İşçileri – Paşabahçe İşçilerinin Sınıf Olma Öyküsü

Miners shot down

In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days into the strike, the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more.

Cart / Kateu

Sun Hi, a mother of two children, works as a cashier in a large supermarket, believing that hard work will secure a good future for her children. However, the company suddenly announces the dismissal of her and other temporary workers.

ReMine, the latest workers' movement

“There’s a fire burning in Asturias that’s warming all of Spain, because the entire mining region has risen up there.” More than a fire, as Sánchez Ferlosio said, it was a blazing inferno that erupted in the 2012 Asturian miners’ strike: the last workers’ movement, a display of epic courage and kamikaze integrity. The road blockades, the miners’…