115m; Sweden
Director: Bo Widerberg
Synopsis: Drama revolving around 1931 Swedish sawmill workers’ strike.
Category Archives: Working Class
The Agitator (1945)
85m; U.K.
Director: John Harlow
Synopsis: A socialist inherits the ownership of a major firm and begins wrestling with his beliefs.
Acla’s Descent into Floristella (1992)
86m; Italy
Director: Aurelio Grimaldi
Synopsis (IMDB): Brutal film about the exploitation of a young Italian boy, who is virtually sold to the operators of a sulphur mine where he is beaten and sexually molested.
Alambrista or “The Illegal” (1976)
110m; U.S.
Director: Robert Young
Synopsis: A dramatic feature tells the story of a young Mexican farmworker who crosses the border into the US illegally.
All That I Love (2009)
95m; Poland
Director: Jacek Borcuch
Synopsis: Set in 1981, just as Poland’s Solidarity movement was about to become an active force for social and political change, writer-director Jacek Borcuch’s film blends elements of an American ’80s teen sex comedy, a Romeo and Juliet-style romance and raucous punk rock into a thoroughly winning story. In an industrial port town on the Baltic coast, Jacek (Mateusz Kosciukiewicz), the teenaged son of a navy captain, and his friends court controversy by forming a punk rock band. Jacek begins a tentative romance with schoolmate Basia (Olga Fryz), whose father is a union leader. As events come to a head, and the young lovers find their families in opposition, Jacek and his band, backed by the town’s youth, take a stand for freedom.
All American Wants to Know (1962)
30m; U.S.
Director: Arthur Rosenblum
Synopsis: 30-minute shows on labor issues. (Episode 21: Automation: Are Strikes the Only Answer?; Episode 17: These Labor Abuses Must Be Curbed; Episode 35: The Union that Automation Built)
Aliquippa: The Union Comes to “Little Siberia.”
30m; U.S.
Synopsis: This half-hour documentary, part of the PBS “Great Depression” program series, tells the dramatic story of the struggle at J&L Steel that led to the famous Supreme Court decision to uphold the constitutionality of the Wagner Act. After the win at Aliquippa extended the union beyond U.S. Steel surrendering without a shot in secret negotiations between John L. Lewis and Myron Taylor, the steelworkers’ union hit up against Tom Girdler’s extreme resistance. The Memorial Day massacre of 1937, just weeks after the victory at Aliquippa, kept the unions inside “Little Steel” without a contract until 1941.
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
128m; U.S.
Director: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil , Ruby Dee
Synopsis (IMDB): A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
American Dream (1990)
98m; U.S.
Director: Barbara Kopple
Synopsis (IMDB): Chronicles the six-month strike at Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, in 1985-86. The local union, P-9 of the Food and Commercial Workers, overwhelmingly rejects a contract offer with a $2/hour wage cut. They strike and hire a New York consultant to manage a national media campaign against Hormel. Despite support from P-9’s rank and file, FCWU’s international disagrees with the strategy. In addition to union-company tension, there’s union-union in-fighting. Hormel holds firm; scabs, replacement workers, brothers on opposite sides, a union coup d’état, and a new contract materialize. The film asks, was it worth it, or was the strike a long-term disaster for organized labor? Won the Oscar in 1990 for Best Documentary.
American Job (1996)
90m; U.S.
Director: Chris Smith
Synopsis (Wikipedia): American Job is a narrative film about Randy Scott (Randy Russell), a youth caught in the dismal confusion of living and working in the world of minimum wage. The film follows Randy through a number of low-paying, menial jobs including fast food dishwasher, custodian, telemarketer, and factory worker. It highlights the sheer boredom of minimum wage work and is a slightly comical and occasionally depressing look at what life is like in the US minimum wage arena.
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