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Labor
(General)
- LaborNet : An organization
working to support human rights and economic justice for workers
by providing labor news and information.
- Labor
Links : An extensive list of links to other unions on the
Internet.Labor Online
: More links to labor information.
- AFL-CIO : The official
site of the AFL-CIO.
- Connecticut AFL-CIO :
Home page of the Connecticut AFL-CIO.
- Union Web : AFL-CIO sympathetic
site.
- IWW : The Industrial Workers of
the World. Official site of one of the most storied labor unions
in US history.
- Union Democracy
: Organization devoted to increasing democracy in the labor movement.
- Labor Notes : Since
1979, Labor Notes has campaigned to "put the movement back
in the labor movement".
Labor
Movies
- Matewan (1987): Accurate and dramatic
depiction of the real-life struggles of striking coal miners in
post-WWI West Virginia. A union organizer struggles to bring white,
African-American, and Italian immigrant miners together in the
face of murderous company opposition. Based on a true story.
- Brassed Off (1997): Touching and humorous
look at British miners and their community during the attacks
of the Thatcher era. The movie centers on the local colliery's
brass band as it attempts to bring back some pride to the dying
town and it's workers. Starring Ewan McGregor.
- The Full Monty (1997): Unemployed
steelworkers transform themselves into the British working-class
Chippendales (almost!). As with Brassed Off, a touching and hilarious
film that evokes the courage and humor of British workers in the
wake of Thatcherism.
- Harlan County,USA (1977): Excellent
pro-union documentary that follows the entire course of a miners'
strike in Kentucky. Shows confrontations with scabs, cops, and
armed company thugs. Guaranteed to get you motivated.
- Norma Rae (1979): A rare bird! A pro-union
popular movie. Depicts an organizing drive in a hostile Southern
textile mill. Sally Field won an Oscar for her powerful performance.
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940): John Ford's
Oscar-winning classic from 1940 is a powerful movie interpretation
of the poignant John Steinbeck novel. The story follows the peregrinations
and travails of the Joad family as they move from the Dust Bowl
of Depression-era Oklahoma to the migrant labor farm camps of
California.
- Salt of the Earth (1953): Made on
a shoe-string budget, this gritty classic used real-life union
activists who were involved in a New Mexico copper miners' strike.
The scenes depicting picket lines and altercations with scabs
are the "real deal". Made during the height of McCarthyism,
the film was banned and many of the participants were blacklisted,
and the lead actress was deported to Mexico.
- Business As Usual (1987): Glenda Jackson
plays the manager of a dress shop in Liverpool who is fired for
standing up for one of her employees. The women at the store join
a union and strike, bringing about their persecution by the authorities
- including unwarranted drug-searches of the workers. The activities
of the police only generate public sympathy for the workers.
- The Killing Floor (1984): Set against
the backdrop of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, this film follows
two young African-American men who head north to look for work
in Chicago's meatpacking industry. One quits his job and joins
the Army, while the other stays and becomes active in his union.
Management try to break the union by fomenting tensions between
white and black workers.
For the more adventurous movie viewer, we'd recommend investigating
the work of Soviet cinema pioneer Sergei Eisenstein (Strike, Battleship
Potemkin), and French New Wave director, Jean-Luc Godard - both
of whom made classic pro-worker films.
Labor
History
Alternative
News
- Labor
Beat : An independent rank-and-file labor forum. Producers
of labor television and radio.
- FAIR
: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. FAIR is the national media
watch group that offers well-documented criticism of media bias
and censorship. They seek to invigorate the First Amendment by
advocating for greater diversity in the press.
- The Nation :Venerable
alternative news source in print or on the Internet.
- In These Times
- Mother Jones
- Z Net
: an independent political magazine of critical thinking on political,
cultural, social and economic life in the US. Features such luminaries
as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.
- Institute for Public Accuracy
- Adbusters : Sick of
banal and/or dishonest advertising? This is definitely a site
to visit.
- Public Citizen :
Watchdog organization founded by presidential candidate, Ralph
Nader.Left
Business Observer : Alternative economics for the masses.
Find out what the Wall Street Journal and presidential candidates
really stand for with their economic beliefs.AlterNet
: More alternative news.
Election
2000 (Go see what the candidates had to say on their websites)
Labor Reading
- The Iron Heel by Jack LondonThe Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The Abolition
of Work by Bob Black. The full text of this important and
humorous book is available online by clicking on the title.
- John
Zerzan: A wide variety of texts by anti-technology guru John
Zerzan is available online by simply clicking on his name.
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