2019; 16m
Short documentary that tells the story of the Chicago Hotel Workers strike, from the strike vote to the settlement with the last major hotel chain
Eve Saxon
eve@answersmediainc.com
312 209.1208
Category Archives: Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts
The Great Strike 1917
Trailer
70 minutes.
Documentary about events which shaped Australian society and the labor movement for a century and beyond.
Synopsis
Thousands had stopped work, the government recruited volunteers to break the strike, allowing them to bear arms; unions were deregistered and union leaders charged with conspiracy. It was a time of violent emotions, state violence and individual acts of violence by and against strikers. A striker was shot and killed. A filmmaker had his film embargoed. It was Sydney, 1917.
The world was in the grip of “The Great War”. Rail and tram employees had been forced to work longer hours, with reduced wages and conditions. With the introduction of a new American ‘timecard’ system, tramway and railway workers in inner Sydney walked off the job in protest, triggering the strike.
The stoppage became the biggest industrial upheaval Australia has seen before or since. At its height the strike stopped coastal shipping, mining, stevedoring and transport, and involved tens of thousands of workers in Australia’s eastern states.
Despite being a crushing defeat at the time, it had lasting consequences for the Australian labor movement. It was 100 years ago, but personal stories rarely spoken about were to filter through, reflecting on both the trauma and the positive legacy of the event, which still strongly resonate today.
Mandy King
cavadini@tpg.com.au
M: 0410 633 503
Labor Wars of the Northwest
2019; Directed by David Jepsen; djjepsen@comcast.net
Three decades of labor strife in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the 20th century.
This one-hour documentary reveals the plight of working class men and women who battled for better wages, reasonable hours, and workplace safety.
ABC da Greve (The “ABC” of the Strike)
A film by Brazilian director Leon Hirszman called ABC da Greve [The “ABC” of the Strike, a pun on São Paulo’s ABC region, where the strike began], about the Brazilian metalworkers strike of 1979.
Lula, The Rhetoric of the Image, Past and Present
They Don’t Wear Black Tie (1981) Eles Não Usam Black-Tie
2h | Drama | 18 April 1982 (USA)
Brazilian drama film directed by Leon Hirszman, based on Gianfrancesco Guarnieri’s play of the same name. Union leader’s son doesn’t want to engage in a strike, because his wife is pregnant, thus disregarding his father’s tradition of political activism. The film revolves around a working-class family in São Paulo in 1980. Otávio, a syndicalist leader, and Romana are the parents of Tião, whose girlfriend, Maria, becomes pregnant. Fearing to be fired and thus unable to support his now fiancée, Tião does not participate on a strike, which starts a series of family conflicts.
Brothers under the skin (1989)
Based on the book: The Hilo Massacre by William Puette.
Originally aired on KHET, Channel 11 (Honolulu) on Aug. 24, 1989.
Credits: Senior producer, Chris Conybeare ; writer, Tremaine Tamayose ; directors, Joy Chong, Tremaine Tamayose.
Description: 1 videocassette (60 min.) : sound, color ; 1/2 in.
Details: VHS.
Dramatization of events surrounding the Aug. 1, 1938 “Hilo Massacre,” when a group of 51 longshoremen on strike against a steamship company were fired upon by police.
Stevedores — Labor unions — Hawaii — Hilo — History — 20th century — Drama.
Labor disputes — Hawaii — Drama.
Massacres — Hawaii — Hilo — History — 20th century — Drama.
Brothers Under the Skin (1912)
Drama, Short | 2 October 1912 (USA)
Jack Adams, spokesman for workmen in a factory, pleads with the owner, Griscom, against a twenty percent cut in wages. Griscom refuses to consider the men’s side, so the men walk out. Jack, seeking work at another factory, is “black-listed.” He leaves in an ugly mood. Unable to find work anywhere, he is reduced to starvation. His wife needs a doctor. Jack sends a note to Griscom pleading to be taken back. Griscom answers, “Glad to see you so humble, but you can’t work for me.” Jack, irate, determines on vengeance. Outside Griscom’s mansion Jack is overcome by weakness. Elsie, Griscom’s favorite child, finds Jack, and has him taken into the house. Griscom comes in, suspects Jack’s intentions, and accuses him. Jack tells of his terrible suffering. Elsie tries to console him. Jack is overcome. Griscom relents and offers food. Jack refuses. Elsie puts her arms around Jack, and he accepts the food. The touching scene penetrates the armor of Griscom’s selfishness, and he offers his hand to Jack, who accepts it.
The St. Louis Kid (1934)
Drama directed by Ray Enright and starring James Cagney as a truck driver who gets mixed up in a union dispute after a union leader is killed and his girlfriend is kidnapped after witnessing the crime.
Trucker Eddie Kennedy gets involved with the law when he has an car accident with Ann Reid and knocks the owner of a dairy out. He evades a penalty when he claims, that he had done it as an act of solidarity with the farmers. The farmers start an boycott action against this dairy, so the owner has to bring milk from elsewhere to his dairy, but the farmers closed the road, and Kennedy is arrested once more. He leaves jail at night to meet Ann, but meanwhile the owner has asked some mobsters to deliver the milk. One of the farmers is murdered, Ann Reid is missing and Eddie Kennedy is accused of murder.
163 DAYS (163 DÍAS. LA HUELGA DE BANDAS)
Larraitz Zuazo
Spain | 2017 | Documentary | 68 minutes
In 1966, 800 workers from the Biscayan company ‘Laminación de Bandas en Frio’ carried out the longest strike of Franco’s dictatorship. In a tumultuous historic moment within the framework of growing organisation of the working class and antiFranco sentiments, hundreds of residents of Etxebarri, Basauri and Otxarkoaga launched a political struggle that would end up being an example for the entire labor movement that would follow. Through the main characters and their stories, anecdotes and experiences, we create an image of the 163 days of strike that made the dictatorship’s foundations shake.
A Feeling Greater Than Love
Mary Jirmanus Saba
Lebanon | 2017 | Documentary | 93 minutes
Dreams of popular revolution, erased by civil war. A young girl martyred at a factory strike in Beirut in 1972 – her identity shrouded in mystery. A meditation on revolution, cinema and their possibilities, past and present.
In her directorial debut, Mary Jirmanus Saba deals with a forgotten revolution, saving from oblivion bloodily suppressed strikes at Lebanese tobacco and chocolate factories. These events from the 1970s, which held the promise of a popular revolution and, with it, of women’s emancipation were erased from collective memory by the country’s civil wars. Rich in archival footage from Lebanon’s militant cinema tradition, the film reconstructs the spirit of that revolt, asking of the past how we might transform the present.
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