The recently released hit movie PRIDE was inspired by an extraordinary true story. In the summer of 1984 in Great Britain the National Union of Mineworkers were on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a Continue readingWeekend Video: All Out! Dancing in Dulais
Videos
Music Video in support of Coffee Shop Workers and promoting the organizing of (especially) low paid and precarious work. . This video was produced by the Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council in support of coffee shop workers and others trying to make all work, decent work with a living wage. Everyone who worked on this video Continue readingWeekend Video: Hey Baristas!
Over the course of a decade Brooks, Alberta, transformed from a socially conservative, primarily white town to one of the most diverse places in Canada as immigrants and refugees flocked to find jobs at the Lakeside Packers slaughterhouse. Centring on the 24 days of the first-ever strike at Lakeside, 24 Days in Brooks is a nuanced Continue readingWeekend Video: 24 Days in Brooks
This documentary film captures Canada’s labour movement at the cusp of major change. In 1975, the Cominco lead-zinc smelter dominates the local economy of Trail, BC. But changes in the global economy were on the horizon meaning that one-industry towns were no longer a sure thing for jobs. Meanwhile, the Steelworkers union at Cominco is Continue readingWeekend Video: Where You Goin’ Company Town?
El Contrato is a 50 minute film documenting the journey of a worker from central Mexican to the greenhouses of Leamington in southwestern Ontario. It is about the struggle of agricultural foreign workers for dignity, respect and rights. After its release, employers in Leamington threatened legal action against the film’s creator Min Sook Lee and Continue readingWeekend Video: El Contrato
Final Offer is a documentary film examining the 1984 contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) and GM. Ultimately, it provided a historical record of the birth of the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) as Bob White, then head of the Canadian sector of the UAW, led his membership out of the International Continue readingWeekend Video: Final Offer
Although May 1 is the workers holiday declared by workers themselves, Labour Day is the government-sanctioned holiday for workers. In this week’s video, RankandFile.ca presents “As Friend and Foe”, a National Film Board short film from 1980. It is a brief look at the Canadian federal government’s relationship to workers: “as friend and foe” in Continue readingWeekend Video: As Friend and Foe
On April 26th Solidarity Against Austerity hosted a dayschool, “On past and current struggles.” The fourth panel at the dayschool, entitled ‘Organizing Beyond Current Struggles.’ The panelists: Brian McDougall an organizer with the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) and member of Solidarity Against Austerity. Jeremie Bedard-Wien an activist with Quebec Solidaire, and was an Continue readingWeekend video: Organizing beyond current struggles
Rob Fairley, director of strategic services, Toronto & York Region Labour Council, Benoit Renaud, a labour activist in Quebec, and Michelle Robidoux, a Labour Activist in Toronto, and discuss “Taking on the Anti-Union Threat in Ontario and Quebec.” This panel was part of the conference Resisting a System in Crisis: Marxism 2014, that took place on Continue readingWeekend Video: Taking on the anti-union threat in Ontario and Quebec
This past week, 15-year-old Chris Lawrence was killed on the job at a gravel pit near Drumheller, Alberta. As the Alberta Federation of Labour points out, health and safety laws in the province remain weak and inadequate. The problem of workplace safety remains a deadly problem across the country. The federal Tories have recently rolled Continue readingWeekend Video: Can’t Take No More!
Work, Labour, and Democracy: Searching for the Next Labour Movement a talk by Elaine Bernard At Congress 2014, Brock’s Social Justice Research Institute (SJRI) created a transdisciplinary space fostering dialogue and galvanizing colleagues from the social sciences and humanities around themes of social justice. This video is a talk given by Harvard University labour scholar Continue readingWeekend Video: Work, Labour, and Democracy
RankandFile.ca is starting a book club. The first book we are reading is Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs. This book examines the 1934 Teamster strike wave in Minneapolis from the perspective of a union activist. This labour battle was one of the high points of the 1930s union movement in the United States. If you Continue readingWeekend Video: Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934