Theme: Labor

Labor

The Killing Floor

Film. Directed by Bill Duke. 1985. Digitally restored in 2020. 118 minutes.
Set during World War I, two African-American men deal with racism in the workplace and the labor union.
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Maquilapolis (City of Factories)

Film. Directed and produced by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre. 2006. 68 minutes.
The impact of globalization as told through the lives of the women who experience it in Tijuana, Mexico.
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Echando Raices/Taking Root

Film. By Rachael Kamel/JT Takagi. 2002. 60 minutes.
The struggles of immigrants through the personal stories of families in communities in California, Texas, and Iowa.
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Kids on Strike!

Book — Non-fiction. By Susan Campbell Bartoletti. 2003. 208 pages.
Describes the conditions and treatment that drove working children to strike, from the mill workers' strike in 1834 and the coal strikes at the turn of the century to the children who marched with Mother Jones in 1903.
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Uprising

Book — Fiction. By Margaret Peterson Haddix. 2007. 352 pages.
Three young women march against unfair labor practices in the Shirtwaist Strike of 1909-10, only to find themselves engulfed in the raging flames consuming the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
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The Bobbin Girl

Picture book. By Emily Arnold McCully. 1996. 36 pages.
Historical fiction for upper elementary based on a true story about the Lowell textile workers.
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Sacred Leaf

Sacred Leaf

Book — Fiction. By Deborah Ellis. 2009. 206 pages.
A story based in Bolivia about a group of peasants who organize against the military.
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Fasanella - The Great Strike | Zinn Education Project

Bread and Roses

Song. Reprinted from Labor Notes 2007.
Links issues of economic security and quality of life, also addresses the role of women in the struggle for justice.
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Union Maid

Song. By Woody Guthrie. 1940.
A union song written by Woody Guthrie in response to a request for a union song from a female point of view.
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The World Turned Upside Down

Song. By Leon Rosselson.
The story of the 1649 revolt of the dispossessed in England who fought against the vested interest of the propertied. A vision of society that is cooperative and in harmony with the earth.
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Union Songs

Digital collection. Developed by Mark Gregory. Over 700 union songs in an easy to search and regularly updated online collection with lyrics and audio.
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Labor Matters

Teaching Activity. By Learning for Justice.
Introduces students to the role of the labor movement in securing contemporary benefits such as the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, and workplace safety regulations.
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