Films & Multimedia

Own The Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time

A documentary that shows the potential of a networked worker co-op movement, created by GRITtv and TESA to help form new alliances and turn conversations into action in many communities.

The explosion of worker cooperatives in recent years has social justice organizers talking. Transitioning to a people-powered economy will require the work of many different social movements and worker co-ops have come to the center of the conversation due to their ability to address multiple issues at once. read more »

Living Utopia

A documentary film about the generalised anarcho-syndicalist collectivisation and self-management of the economy during the 'Spanish Revolution' of 1936.

Living Utopia (Original, 1997: Vivir la utopía. read more »

Los Fralibos - A song by and for the workers of Fralib

The workers of Fralib sing about their struggle.

"Thé de l'Eléphant was born in Provence, it must stay in Provence"

The workers of Fralib (the Elephant Tea) in Géménos spent 1336 days of struggle against Unilever, the giant multinational behind the Lipton brand. Their collective strength finally managed to make the multinational cave in, and thus SCOPTI coop was born. Their struggle is recounted here by the workers themselves, in French, to the rhythm of the Los Fralibos protest song. 

Social Waste - "At utopia's fiesta"

A video clip by Greek militant hip-hop collective Social Waste, filmed at the recuperated factory of VIOME.

Captions available in English, Spanish, Italian, Greek. read more »

Occupy, Resist, Produce – Officine Zero

The second in a series of short documentaries on the recuperated factories of Europe.

Officine Zero, former RSI (Rail Service Italia) was dedicated to the maintenance and repair of sleeping cars. When in December 2011 Italian train services decided to stop the night train service and invest in fast track trains, RSI closed. Some 20 workers out of the almost 60 employees strong work force did not accept the closing and took up the struggle. They found support among the activists from the nearby social center, “Strike.” In February 2012 they occupied their work place. Together they started a laboratory on reconversion, organizing public assemblies attended by hundreds of people. read more »

Occupy, Resist, Produce – VIOME

The third in a series of short documentaries on the recuperated factories of Europe.

VIOME is a building materials factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, which was abandoned by its owners at the peak of the Greek crisis, in 2011. Subsequently it was occupied by its workers, and has been producing natural detergents under workers' control since 2013. Despite being an emblematic and inspiring struggle, today VIOME is under imminent threat of eviction. read more »

Heart of the Factory / Corazón de Fábrica

Argentina 2008 - 120' - English subtitles

In a poor country looted by its own governments and businessmen, the workers of Zanon Ceramic take the factory in their own hands when the owner closes it. They start to produce ceramics again, but without bosses. Now, they feel free. They’ve found in their work a way to grow humanly. But at the same time, they have to assume a series of responsibilities and challenges. Usually, this provokes serious arguments among them or with themselves. During that process, the workers had to study and to overcome themselves in order to solve all the problems linked to the areas of production. Through the democratic assembly, they found a way to support their organisation and learn how to take their own decisions in the management. 

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Crisis and workers' control: Speech at the Athens Biennale 2015-2017

As consequence of the crisis, workers occupy their workplaces to prevent their closure, adopting mechanisms of collective decision-making, taking the initiative and becoming protagonists.

Dario Azzellini is an assistant professor for sociology at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.

He has published several books, essays and documentaries. His latest books are 'An Alternative Labour History: Worker Control and Workplace Democracy' (Zed Books 2015) and together with Marina Sitrin 'They Can’t Represent Us. Reinventing Democracy From Greece to Occupy' (Verso 2014). read more »

The Story of the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Alternative Corporate Plan

This film, "The Story of the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Alternative Corporate Plan" was made in 1978 for the Open University. It documents an unusual episode in British corporate history. Shop stewards from Lucas Aerospace, facing massive redundancies, developed their own plan to safeguard their jobs by moving the business into alternative technologies that would meet social needs, as well as new methods of production.


The Take

Canada, 2004 - 87'

Click on the CC button (bottom right) to enable the English subtitles.

The Take is a Canadian documentary film released in 2004 by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis. It tells the story of workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina who reclaim control of a closed Forja auto plant where they once worked and turn it into a worker cooperative.

Summary

The plant closed as a result of the economic policies of the Carlos Menem government under the watchful eye of the International Monetary Fund. read more »

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