20m; U.S.
Director: Julian Roffman
Synopsis: Discusses the need for unions for agricultural workers to help maintain price and wage control.
Category Archives: Labor History
Shots on the Docks (2003)
28m; U.S.
Synopsis: The stepped up repression of anti-war demonstrators and trade unionists took a new turn in the U.S. on April 7, 2003, when Oakland, California police attacked a peaceful picket on the docks. The Labor Video Project was there when Oakland police fired over a hundred shots of rubber bullets and wooden projectiles as well as concussion grenades to attack the anti-war protest. This video interviews the workers on the picket line as well as ILWU longshoremen who were standing by and were also targeted by the police and the company. It goes behind the pictures to expose the reasons that trade unionists joined the line and the reaction of ILWU Local 10 members to the attacks and arrests of their business agent. There is also an international campaign to defend ILWU BA Jack Heyman and the Oakland 25 who face criminal charges for the April 7 incident. – http://www.reelwork.org/archive/2004/films2004.htm
Contact: “Shots on the Docks” is also being streamed at: http://www.brightpathvideo.com/Labor_Video.htm purchase info: lvpsf@igc.org Photo credit: Labor Video Project Photo caption: worker holds wood bullet fired by police http://www.laborbeat.org phone: 312-226-3330 mail@laborbeat.org
Sit Down and Fight: Walter Reuther and the Rise of the Auto Workers Union (1992)
55m; U.S.
Director: Charlotte Mitchell Zwerin
Synopsis: Chronicles the sit-down strikes that led to the growth of the United Auto Workers and the Reuther brothers rise to prominence.
Contact: PBS; WVLC has a VHS copy
Sounder (1972)
105m; U.S.
Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield and Kevin Hooks
Synopsis (IMDB): The Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. After some weeks or months, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, who is about 11 years old, to visit his father at the camp. The trip becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey he stays a little while with a dedicated Black schoolteacher.
Stories From The Mines (2004)
57m; U.S.
Director: Thomas M. Curr and Greg Matkosky
Synopsis: Stories from the Mines chronicles the struggle of these miners to earn a decent wage, alleviate dangerous working conditions, and gain respect. The perilous work the miners performed for extremely low pay laid the foundation for America’s Industrial Revolution and the modern labor movement. Great Strike of 1902; United Mine Workers; anthracite coal; strikes.
Contact: http://www.aptonline.org/catalog.nsf/GenreLookup/A561F47E25B2B94885256C440059138E http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=231727
The Corporation (2003)
145m; U.S.
Director: Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott
Cast: Mikela J. Mikael, Rob Beckwermert and Christopher Gora
Synopsis (IMDB): Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of “person” typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
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