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Category Archives: Labor History

The Triangle Fire

13 Jun

52m; U.S.

Director: Roy Campolongo

Synopsis: The Triangle Fire documentary chronicles those remarkable times, when the rising forces of industry converged with the greatest mass migration in history. We explore the dramatic events of the late 19th, and early 20th century labor movement, that reached a crescendo with the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire of 1911. This film examines the relationship between New York’s rapidly growing metropolis, corrupt political infrastructure, an industry’s desire for profit, and the human rights of its workers. Furthermore, the documentary investigates how we have adapted today, to those epic events that would forever change the fabric of our nation.  Part of PBS’ “American Experience” series.

Contact: View online here: http://video.pbs.org/video/1817898383

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Labor History, Safety & Health, Textile Industry, Women

 

The Twenties (1969)

13 Jun

25m; U.S.

Synopsis (IMDB): Analyzes the forces which arose after World War I and wre at work in the 1920s. Describes the conflict between those who accepted the complexity of the twentieth century and tried to cope with it, and those who rejected the new and tried to live according to past values.

Contact: Project 7 Productions

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History

 

Union Maids (1976)

13 Jun

48m; U.S.

Director: Julia Reichert, James Klein and Miles Mogulescu

Synopsis: Traces the organizing activities of three working class women in the laundry, meat packing and garment industries in Chicago in the 1930s. Features the oral histories of 3 women labor activists involved in the workers’ movements in the early 1930s: Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, and Sylvia Woods. The women are figures of dignity and beauty amid their experiences of social injustice.

Nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for best feature documentary, and winner in 1978 of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics’ “Critics Award” for Best Short.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History, Organizing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Textile Industry, Women

 

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Union at Work (1949)

13 Jun

30m; U.S.

Director: Textile Workers of America

Synopsis: Describes how the CIO organizes textile workers.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Textile Industry

 

Union with a Heart (1974)

13 Jun

18m; U.S. 

Director: Brewery Workers Union

Synopsis: Celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Brewery Workers Union

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Labor History

 

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Unionism: From Journeymen Associations to the Teamsters (1980)

13 Jun

29m; U.S.

Synopsis: Educational film tracing the history of labor and the Teamsters.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History

 

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United Action: Story of the GM Tool & Die Strike 1939 (1940)

13 Jun

33m; U.S.

Director: Michael Martini

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

 

Valley Town (1940)

13 Jun

27m; U.S.

Director: Willard Van Dyke

Synopsis: This social documentary that premiered at the Steel Workers’ Organizing Committee’s convention in Chicago in May 1940 portrays life in New Castle, Pa., during the Great Depression. Unemployment and poverty transformed the town and its people as automation made its impact in the steel industry. Because of what was considered an anticorporate view, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which funded the film, withdrew it from release and redid the film. Two very different versions, the original director’s cut and the remake, exist.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Unemployment-Wages

 

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Viva Zapata! (1952)

13 Jun

113m; U.S.

Director: Elia Kazan

Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Peters and Anthony Quinn

Synopsis (IMDB): In 1909, Emiliano Zapata, a well-born but penniless Mexican Indian from a remote province, Morelos, comes to Mexico City to complain that their arable land has been enclosed, leaving them only in the barren hills. His expressed dissatisfaction with the response of the President Diaz puts him in danger, and when he rashly rescues a prisoner from the local militia he becomes an outlaw. Urged on by a strolling intellectual, Fernando, he supports the exiled Don Francisco Madero against Diaz, and becomes the leader of his forces in the South as Pancho Villa is in the North. Diaz flees, and Madero takes his place; but he is a puppet president, in the hands of the leader of the army, Huerta, who has him assassinated when he tries to express solidarity for the men who fought for him. Zapata and Villa return to arms, and, successful in victory, seek to find a leader for the country. Unwillingly, Zapata takes the job.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Drama, Farm & Food, Labor History, War

 

West Virginia Authors: Kenneth Fones-Wolf (2007)

13 Jun

30m; U.S.

Synopsis: Host Gordon Simmons interviews WVU professor Kenneth Fones-Wolf about his new book, “Glass Towns – Industry, Labor, and Political Economy in Appalachia, 1890-1930s” ( University of Illinois Press).

Contact: Host Gordon Simmons interviews WVU professor Kenneth Fones-Wolf about his new book, “Glass Towns – Industry, Labor, and Political Economy in Appalachia, 1890-1930s” ( University of Illinois Press)

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History

 
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