Books and films

Twenty Years Is Nothing / Veinte años no es nada

The experience of workers’ self-management at the Numax factory, in the late seventies, was captured in a documentary that the workers themselves decided should be made, and which they commissioned Joaquim Jordà to direct at the moment when the factory was about to close. It was titled “Numax Presents…” (1980).

North Country

After her marriage falls apart, Josie Aimes returns to her hometown in Northern Minnesota in search of work. She has two children, and to support them, she is forced to take a job at a mine where nearly all the local men, including her father, work.

Fasinpat

Zanón was a ceramics factory in Argentina's Neuquén Province that went bankrupt after its owner laid off half the workers during the 1999-2002 crisis. When it closed in 2001, former employees took control and reopened it as FaSinPat (Fábrica sin patrones - Factory Without Bosses), becoming one of Argentina's worker-run factories.

Entreatos

In 2002, the Brazilian director João Moreira Salles followed with his crew the candidate Luís Inácio Lula da Silva in his campaign for President of Brazil. The collection of footages in meetings, debates, hotels, airplanes and other places with his political allies and friends and acquaintances have been edited in an interesting documentary about the…

PEÕES / Pawns

The documentary delves into the search for ABC region metallurgists from São Paulo who participated in the largest strikes of the 20th century. The movement changed the face of Brazilian trade unionism, provided the basis for the creation of the Workers Party (PT) and made emerge the figure of leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The Take

It tells the story of workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina who reclaim control of a closed Forja auto plant. By doing this, they embodied the anarcho-syndicalist model.

Tejedores de la revolución: Los trabajadores de Yarur y la vía chilena al socialismo / Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism

Weavers of Revolution vividly captures the spirit of Allende’s government through the experiences and voices of the workers at the Yarur textile factory, whose actions helped set Chile on its road to socialism. Yarur was the first factory occupied by its workers after Allende’s election and Chile’s first modern cotton textile mill.

Rebel Frontier

Of all the immigrant groups that arrived in the United States a century ago, the Finns and the Irish were among the most restless. Both groups moved westward in search of a better life.

Murdered Coca-Cola Unionists in Colombia / Ermordete Coca-Cola-Gewerkschafter

Every year, trade unionists are murdered in Colombia. Corporations such as Coca-Cola and Nestlé play an important role in this.

History of Trade Unionism in Turkey / Türkiye Sendikacılık Tarihi

Waging a Living

Waging a Living is a 2004 documentary film that addresses the issue of the American dream and whether or not hard work will invariably improve your condition. Examining the lives of four Americans in California and the Northeast who work full-time jobs but are still having trouble making ends meet

Where Do You Stand? Stories from an American Mill

The long struggle of textile workers at Cannon Mills in Kannapolis, NC to unionize.

West of the Tracks

Wang Bing’s striking three-part documentary West of the Tracks (French title: À l’Ouest des rails) observes the gradual decay of Tie Xi, a vast industrial zone in Shenyang that had flourished during China’s socialist period. Filmed from 1999 to 2001, as the country underwent far-reaching economic transformations at the beginning of the twenty-first…

Eila

A cleaning lady, Aila, is focused on helping her son—she needs money, not trouble. That’s why she didn’t join her colleagues when they went on strike.

History of the Turkish Working Class and Trade Union Movement / Türkiye İşçi Sınıfı ve Sendikacılık Hareketi Tarihi

A Single Spark: The Biography of Chun Tae-il

This is a biography of Chun Tae-il (1948–1970), an activist and a symbol of the South Korean labor movement, who sacrificed his life in the struggle for workers’ rights.

An Injury to One

An experimental documentary exploring the turn-of-century lynching of union organizer Frank Little in Butte, Montana.

The Wire (2 Season)

The Local 1514 of the International Brotherhood of Longshoremen (IBS) leadership, headed by Frank Sobotka, is in Baltimore, Maryland, selling stolen cargo from the port to the Greek mafia and trying to bribe officials to secure funding in the city budget for the expansion of the port terminals. Their lobbying campaign is on the verge of success.

La Huelga de los Locos / Crazy Strike

Documentary about the so-called "Crazy Strike", a strike carried out by members of the Federation of Workers in Naval Constructions-Autonomous (FOCN) between October 1956 and November 1957, the largest of the Argentine working class in the century XX.

Globalizacja a konflikty lokalne

Local communities in Poland experience the effects of globalization on a daily basis, but they also try to resist this process. The conflicts that erupt do not take as violent a course as the events on the streets of Seattle, Prague, or Genoa; nevertheless, they are a direct result of globalization processes, including the emergence of new technologies,…

Labour Relations in Turkey during the Multi-Party Period: 1946–1963 / Türkiye'de Çok Partili Dönemde Çalışma İlişkileri: 1946–1963

Los lunes al sol / Mondays in the Sun

Spanish film offers a raw and realistic portrait of a group of unemployed workers in a coastal city in Galicia. The story follows the lives of these men as they struggle to find work in a collapsing economy, exploring themes such as unemployment, labor alienation, and solidarity among comrades.

10,000 Black Men Named George

During the Depression, jobs were catastrophically scarce. The only job available to Black men was as porters for the Pullman Royal Company.

American Standoff

In this 95-minute drama, we follow the months-long strike of members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (the truck drivers' union) against the freight delivery company "Overnite Transportation." The situation is complicated by the fact that most of the company's workers are non-union, and within the union itself, there is a tense struggle…

Miss Fiat / Signorina Effe

Documentary about Maria Teresa Arisio, employed at Fiat in Turin for 33 years, from 1961 to 1994.

McDonald's: Smile on the Conveyor

The McDonald's Corporation is a global leader in the fast food industry. What is the secret to its success?

The Navigators

Paul, Mike, Len, and Jerry work as railroad repairmen in Yorkshire. Jerry, a union activist, aims to improve the everyday lives of the workers, but management isn’t welcoming.

Dr. Dolittle 2

The film stars Eddie Murphy in the title role. The Black doctor has a miraculous gift—he understands the language of animals.

Live Nude Girls Unite!

Documentary look at the 1996-97 effort of the dancers and support staff at a San Francisco peep show, The Lusty Lady, to unionize. Angered by arbitrary and race-based wage policies, customers' surreptitious video cameras, and no paid sick days or holidays, the dancers get help from the Service Employees International local and enter protracted bargaining…

FIAT, AUTUMN '80

Sounds of the workers' struggle at Fiat in the autumn of 1980, thirty-five days of hard mobilization to defend their jobs. "This is the first step of a more ambitious and broad project dedicated to the other history of Fiat, that of the workers who worked there, from the birth of the Turin industrial giant to today.