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Category Archives: Politics

Indentured (2010)

19 Mar

10m; U.S./Iraq

Director: Cy Kuckenbaker

Synopsis: “Indentured” investigates the living conditions of South Asian laborers working on US military bases in Iraq. Thousands of nameless workers, called “Third Country Nationals” because they’re neither American nor Iraqi, toil inside US bases in Iraq as food servers, custodians, construction workers and more. But unlike American contractors who often make six figure salaries in Iraq, these men typically make less than two dollars an hour. Nepalese custodians talk about the illegal broker’s fees they had to pay to get their jobs on the base. Inside a company-run camp a Nepalese supervisor explains how they are brought into Iraq against Nepalese and Iraqi law.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Outsourcing, Politics, War

 

The Inheritance (1964)

19 Mar

58m; U.S.

Director: Harold Mayer and Lynne Rhodes Mayer

Synopsis: The Inheritance shows what life was really like for immigrants and working Americans from the turn of the century through the fight for civil rights in the 1960s. This stirring history of our country shows their struggle to put down roots, form labor unions, survive wars, and finally, create a new and better life for themselves and our nation.

Our film explores a landscape largely unknown to the present generation—the dim sweatshops, coal mines and textile mills filled with children; the anxious years of the depression and labor’s bloody struggle for the right to organize; the battlefields of WW I and II; the seldom seen newsreel footage of the Memorial Day massacre at The Republic Steel strike in Chicago; the civil rights struggle— as every generation fights again to preserve and extend its freedoms. This is the film’s theme.

Contact: The film is available in 4 parts on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWDPHQX0S0w

Harold Mayer and Lynne Rhodes Mayer

Harold Mayer Productions

New Milford, CT

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2012 in Available Online, Blacks, Children, Construction Trades, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Organizing, Politics, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Working Class

 

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Beynelmilel/”The International” (2006)

19 Mar

106m; Turkey

Director: Muharrem Gulmez & Sirri Sureyya Onder

Cast: Cezmi Baskin, Özgü Namal and Umut Kurt

Synopsis: One of the most popular films in Turkey about military rule and resistance.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Politics, Working Class

 

Intolerance (1916)

19 Mar

163m; U.S.

Director: D.W. Griffith

Synopsis (IMDB): The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2012 in Children, Class, Drama, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Women, Working Class

 

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006)

19 Mar

75m; U.S.

Director: Robert Greenwald

Synopsis (IMDB): Documentary portraying the actions of U.S. corporate contractors in the U.S.-Iraq war. Interviews with employees and former employees of such companies as Halliburton, CACI, and KBR suggest that government cronyism is behind apparent “sweetheart” deals that give such contractors enormous freedom to profit from supplying support and material to American troops while providing little oversight. Survivors of employees who were killed discuss the claim that the companies cared more for profit than for the welfare of their own workers, and soldiers indicate that the quality of services provided is sub-standard and severely in contradiction to the comparatively huge profits being generated. Also depicted are the unsuccessful attempts by the filmmakers to get company spokesmen to respond to the charges made by the interviewees.

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Politics, War

 

Hunger: The National March on Washington, 1932 [1933]

09 Mar

40m; U.S.

Director: Workers Film and Photo League

Synopsis: Documents the historic national hunger march to Washington DC in December 1932.

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2012 in Documentary, Organizing, Politics, Working Class

 

Hyenas (1992)

09 Mar

110m; Senegal

Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty

Cast: Ami Diakhate, Djibril Diop Mambéty and Mansour Diouf

Synopsis: A once-prosperous Senegalese village has been falling further into poverty year by year until the village’s elders are reduced to selling town possessions to pay debts. Linguère, a former resident and local beauty, now very rich, returns to this, the village of her birth. The elders hope that she will be a benefactor to the village. To encourage her generosity, they appoint a local grocer, Dramaan, as mayor–who once courted her and will now try to persuade her to help. In fact, Linguère has returned with the intention of sharing her millions with the village but only in return for an unexpected action. This plot twist brings human folly and cynicism into sharp focus.

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Farm & Food, Global Economy, Politics

 

Granito de Arena (2005)

01 Mar

Mexico

Director: Jill Freidberg

Synopsis: Resistance to attacks on public education in Mexico as result of globalization.

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2012 in Documentary, Education, Global Economy, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks (2006)

01 Mar

U.S.

Director: Haskell Wexler

Synopsis: A filmed version of a Ian Ruskin’s one man-play covering the life of International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union founder and labor radical Harry Bridges.

Contact: Ian Ruskin, theharrybridgesproject@comcast.net; http://www.theharrybridgesproject.org

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2012 in Drama, Global Economy, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Transportation, Working Class

 

The Great Swindle (1948)

01 Mar

36m; U.S.

Synopsis: A presentation of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers position versus the National Association of Manufacturers in the latter’s successful campaign to force termination of government price controls. It explains the relationship between wages, prices, profits and monopoly control.

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2012 in Documentary, Politics, Working Class

 
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