Synopsis: This film contains the history of the 1919 Seattle General Strike in the context of the life of Anna Louise Strong, a partisan and a journalist, who reported on the strike and also on the Everett, Washington Massacre, which also took place in the same year. The film provides a close up look at why the strike took place and how it affected the working people of Seattle and the world.
89m; U.S. Directors: Stewart Bird, Deborah Shaffer
Synopsis: Documentary chronicling the history of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), including interviews with many former Wobblies who were in their seventies, eighties, and nineties when the film was made.
“Solidarity! All for One and One for All!” Founded in Chicago in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) took to organizing unskilled workers into one big union and changed the course of American history. This compelling documentary of the IWW (or “The Wobblies” as they were known) tells the story of workers in factories, sawmills, wheat fields, forests, mines and on the docks as they organize and demand better wages, healthcare, overtime pay and safer working conditions. In some respects, men and women, Black and white, skilled and unskilled workers joining a union and speaking their minds seems so long ago, but in other ways, the film mirrors today’s headlines, depicting a nation torn by corporate greed. Filmmakers Deborah Shaffer and Stewart Bird weave history, archival film footage, interviews with former workers (now in their 80s and 90s), cartoons, original art, and classic Wobbly songs (many written by Joe Hill) to pay tribute to the legacy of these rebels who paved the way and risked their lives for the many of the rights that we still have today. Restored by the Museum of Modern Art and recently inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Synopsis: Inspirational short doc portrays women organizers across the U.S. who are involved in global struggles for racial, social, and economic justice. MB Maxwell (former JWJ Exec Dir) and Tracey Conaty (AFSCME) are featured.
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