Books and films

On the Waterfront

The film focuses on union violence and corruption among longshoremen. There is a trade union mafia and brotherhood, as well as beliefs in gods and love.

Salt of the Earth

One of the main characters in the film, Ramón, is a committed union activist and one of the driving forces behind the strike. Throughout the film, the owners of the company managing the mine try every possible means to suppress the strike—provocations, strikebreakers, tear gas, arrests—but the united struggle of the miners and their wives ultimately…

Dues and the Union

The importance of the regular payment of union dues and how they keep a union going is told through the story of a young pipefitter. New to the trade and to his responsibilities as a union member, Frank Weston found there was much to learn about both.

Rudá záře nad Kladnem

Red Glow over Kladno is the third novel by Antonín Zápotocký, published in 1951. It deals with the history of the workers’ movement in Kladno in the years 1918–1920.

Attention! Bandits!

Despite General Alexander’s call for the partisans to retreat to the mountains until spring, Commander Vento and political commissar Lorenzo lead their group to Pontedecimo, near Genoa, to reconnect with the city. Lacking weapons, they plan to seize them from a factory.

The Man in the White Suit

The protagonist of this sci-fi comedy, young chemist Sidney Stratton, is obsessed with creating an indestructible fiber. His research doesn't sit well with textile manufacturers, leading to his dismissal from one factory after another.

Professori Masa

Professor Mathias Kaarivaara, driven by his views on justice and social structure, wanders around the port, trying to find a way to observe the working conditions of laborers. Unable to get a job at the port, he spends the entire night unloading a ship alongside a team of dockworkers...

With These Hands

Worker Alexander Brodie is retiring, and while his paperwork is being processed, he reflects on his life and the lives of his comrades. Funded by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), the film chronicles the history of garment workers, their sentiments, and tragic disasters—such as the 1911 factory fire that claimed 146 lives.

The Rising Tide

This 10-minute film tells the story of poor fisherman Willy Leblanc and his comrades surviving the hungry 1920s and collectively working toward better times. Fishermen's cooperatives, which emerged in Canada's Maritime Provinces, brought them hope.

Bitter Rice

Passion, betrayal, intrigue, and crime set against the backdrop of a struggle between legal and illegal ("scabs") rice plantation workers and their owners. The film's sharp social issues and eroticism have shattered the restrained Italian cinema.

The Language of the Third Reich: LTI—Lingua Tertii Imperii: A Philologist's Notebook

Written from observations made during the Nazi period and published after the war, this philological notebook traces how propaganda reshaped everyday German and political thought.

Captain Boycott

This historical drama is centered on one of the most prominent episodes in the struggle of Irish tenant farmers against English landlords at the end of the 19th century, who had seized all the best land in Ireland. Led by Hugh Devin, a farmer, and Father McKeogh, a priest, the farmers organize a campaign against the pompous Captain Charles Boycott, the…

The Valley of Decision

Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1870s, it stars Greer Garson and Gregory Peck (Oscar for Captain Newman). Mary Rafferty takes a job as a servant in the wealthy home of steel magnate William Scott.

A Century of Co-operation

A history of the British co-operative movement, from its early pioneers, including Robert Owen and the Rochdale Pioneers, to its development into a major social and economic force.

Dumbo

The film shows the story of a little elephant, his hardships, and his strong character. It was created during a prolonged strike by most of the studio's employees for recognition of their union.

How Green Was My Valley

It tells the story of the Morgans, a hard-working Welsh mining family. A key storyline in the movie involves a labor conflict at a recently opened mine, where the Morgans are employed.

The Devil and Miss Jones

The hero of this comedic film is millionaire John Merrick, who owns a big department store. To check on the discontent among his employees who have organized a public hanging for a dummy of their boss and reached out to the unions he disguises himself as an ordinary shoe salesman.

The Stars Look Down

The story is set in a dark mining town in northern England, where Robert and Martha Fenwick give up everything to provide their son David a chance at a better life and a university education.a chance at a better life and a university education. Robert works at the mine alongside his younger son and attempts to organize the rest of the miners.

The Grapes of Wrath

Forced by the crisis, the bankrupt farmers from Oklahoma look for a better life in California, but in their new home, they do not find happiness or peace. This film is considered in America to be the first non-sentimental motion picture about ordinary people.

Dawn in the Nordic countries / Gryr i Norden

Film is about the first major strike in Norway, the match worker strike in Kristiania in 1889 . On the morning of October 23, 1889, the match workers at Bryn and Grønvold Tändstikfabriker in Oslo went to strike.

United Action Means Victory

The links are broken / Lenkene brytes

The film raises the issue of alcohol abuse that also threw shade far into the organized labor movement. It is about life in the working youth teams, the work of the abstinence movement, about friendship, unity and love between young people.

A Boom through the Valley / Det drønner gjennom dalen

An exciting time image from 1931 - the year of unemployment and misery in the forest settlements in Norway. The film is important both as film history and social portrayal.

Redes

Redes is a Mexican film, released in 1936, about the fishing community of Alvarado on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, near the city of Veracruz. The film's title comes from the Spanish word redes ("nets") in reference to fishing nets.

We build the country / VI Bygger Landet

A young unemployed man finds his place in the working class and the union workers. Propaganda movie made for AOF.

I Love

A long time ago, Ostap's father left a poor village and went to work in the Donbas. The shack built by Nikanor laid the foundation for the mining settlement of Sobacheevka.

Siréna

Siréna is a generational novel by Marie Majerová, published in 1935, about the life of the Hudec family, a working-class family, set against the backdrop of the development of the industrial city of Kladno. It is a foundational work of socialist realism that, in terms of its quality, significantly surpasses thematically similar works from the 1950s.

Unity must be to / Samhold må til

A young man throws the trade union book into the table and says he can thank it for being unemployed. The father -in -law Øyvin Dalen presents his trade union books on the table and tells of the young homestead boy Øyvin who travels from home to seek work.

Black Fury

The film is based on real events. A naive and cheerful Polish immigrant, Joe Radek, works in a mine, dreams of buying a pig farm, and is about to marry his neighbor, Anna.

Love and Hate

Set in Donbass in 1919, the miners abandon the village with the retreating troops of the Red Army. White Army soldiers have moved into the miners' shacks.