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Category Archives: Labor History

The Spirit of ’45 (2013)

14 Feb

directed by Ken LoachSpiritOf45
UK
Documentary

An impassioned documentary about how the spirit of unity which buoyed Britain during the war years carried through to create a vision of a fairer, united society

1945 was a pivotal year in British history. The unity that carried Britain through the war allied to the bitter memories of the inter-war years led to a vision of a better society. The spirit of the age was to be our brothers and our sisters keeper.

Director Ken Loach has used film from Britain’s regional and national archives, alongside sound recordings and contemporary interviews to create a rich political and social narrative. The Spirit of 45 hopes to illuminate and celebrate a period of unprecedented community spirit in the UK, the impact of which endured for many years and which may yet be rediscovered today.

Distributor: Dogwoof
Patrick Hurley
patrick@dogwoof.com

The Spirit of ’45 – first look review (The Guardian)

The Spirit of ’45: Berlin Review (The Hollywood Reporter)

Ken Loach’s ‘The Spirit Of 45′ An Effective But Conservatively Presented Doc About Radical Social Change (IndieWire)

 

 
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Posted by on February 14, 2013 in A: New/Just Added, Documentary, Labor History, Public Sector, Safety & Health

 

1934 San Francisco Longshore Strike

30 Aug

1:39; U.S.

Synopsis: Newsreel footage on the 1934 longshore general strike in San Francisco which helped to birth the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union (ILWU).

 

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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Strikebreaking During the Depression (1934)

30 Aug

5:06; U.S.

Director: March of Time newsreel

Synopsis: Newsreel footage about Pearl Berghoff, the owner of the Berghoff Agency which was one of the premier strike-breaking companies through the 1930s.  The newsreel both gives an overview of Berghoff, and looks specifically at his company’s involvement in strikes in Georgia in 1934.

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

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The Creation of the CIO (1935)

30 Aug

7:18; U.S.

Director: March of Time

Synopsis: Newsreel documentary focusing on John L. Lewis and accounting for the reasons behind and early conflicts over the split of the American Federation of Labor in 1935 and the creation of the rival federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).  Film is clearly pro-CIO and contains fantastic footage of Lewis, Sidney Hillman, and other major organizational leaders of labor in the Depression years.

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Politics, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

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Labor Unrest in Coal During and After World War II

30 Aug

4:16; U.S.

Director: United Mine Workers of America

Synopsis: Newsreel about the UMW’s fights with the Roosevelt administration during World War II.

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Labor History, Politics, Safety & Health, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

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AFL and CIO Merge (1955)

30 Aug

6:34; U.S.

Director: Universal International News

Synopsis: Newsreel footage about the merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955 to create the current AFL-CIO.

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

Woodrow Wilson Speaking at Labor Convention (1918?)

13 Jul

6m; U.S.

Synopsis: National Archives footage of Wilson at Labor Convention in Buffalo; footage of Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor.

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Available Online, Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

Michael Harrington and Today’s Other America, Corporate Power and Inequality (1999)

13 Jul

84m; U.S.

Director: Bill Donovan

Synopsis:
This video is based on the writings and speeches of Michael Harrington, who was the pre-eminent spokesman for socialism in the United States. More than thirty interviews with people as diverse as William F. Buckley, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Gloria Steinem, discuss the important issues raised by Harrington and the Democratic Socialist Party. Ordinary people struggling to earn a living or dependent on food stamps and other social services provide viewers with a glimpse into their every day lives and the choices they must make. Cities shown include Youngstown, Ohio, where 60,000 jobs in the steel and coal industry were lost and never replaced, and San Diego, where farm workers live in shacks without running water or a sewage system. Also discussed is the domination and control of many areas of life in the United States by large corporations and the failure of the public school system and health care. This brief history of socialism in America and the changes in the past few decades in American life presented raise many questions. - http://emro.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=819

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Biography, Documentary, Labor History

 

1913 Massacre

13 Jul

U.S.

Director: Ken Ross & Louis V. Galdieri

Synopsis: 1913 Massacre follows singer/songwriter Arlo Guthrie to the town of Calumet, a once-thriving mining town on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula still haunted by the tragic events that inspired Woody Guthrie’s ballad, ’1913 Massacre.’

On December 24, 1913, the striking copper miners of Calumet were gathered with their wives and children for a holiday party at the Italian Hall. After the festivities had begun, someone — to this day, no one knows who — yelled Fire!

Despite efforts to keep the Hall under control, panic took hold of the crowd. The miners, their wives and children made a mad rush for the stairs. In the ensuing chaos, seventy-four people were crushed and suffocated to death on the stairway. Fifty-nine of the dead were children. There was no fire.

In the version of events that found its way into Woody Guthrie’s song, the “copper-boss thug-men” had plotted to yell Fire! and were holding the door of Italian Hall shut, so that the miners and their families could not escape.

The town itself is still divided over exactly what happened. And no one can explain why they tore down the Italian Hall in 1984.

1913 Massacre captures the last living witnesses of the 1913 tragedy and reconstructs Calumet’s past from individual memories, family legends and songs, tracing the legacy of the tragedy to the present day, when the town –out of work, out of money, out of luck — still struggles to come to terms with this painful episode from its past.

Contact: http://1913massacre.com/about/

Trailer

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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Southern Patriot (2010)

13 Jul

77m; U.S.
Director: Anne Lewis & Mimi Pickering
Distributed by California Newsreel and Appalshop

Synopsis: “Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006)” is a first person feature documentary completed May 1, 2012. Braden rejected her segregationist, privileged past to become one of the civil rights movement’s staunchest white allies. In 1954 she was charged with sedition by McCarthy-style politicians who played on fears of communism to preserve southern segregation. In 1963 she became one of only five white southerners whose contributions to the movement were commended by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” A relentless labor and political organizer, she fought for transformation and liberation throughout her life.  - http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/06/15/18715481.php


Trailer

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Biography, Blacks, Class, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Politics

 
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