Plutocracy Film: U.S. Labor History, Fighters Advocating For Workers Rights

[appalachiablue]

Full film 1:50 mins. 4-part documentary produced by Scott Noble, Metanoia Films, 2015- 2019, available online.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/14/scott-nobles-history-of-resistance/

- Plutocracy: Political Repression In The U.S.A. (2019) Plutocracy, by filmmaker Scott Noble, is the first documentary series to comprehensively examine early American history through the lens of class. Part I focuses on the ways in which the American people have historically been divided on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex and skill level.

- Plutocracy: Divide et Impera (Divide and Rule) includes sections on Mother Jones, the American Constitution; the Civil War draft riots; Reconstruction; Industrialization; the evolution of the police; the robber barons; early American labor unions; and major mid-to-late 19th Century labor events including the uprising of 1877, the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead strike and the New Orleans General Strike.
- The introduction examines the West Virginian coal wars of the early 20th Century, culminating in the Battle of Blair Mountain. Part II, "Solidarity Forever," covers the late 19th Century to the early twenties.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6644332/

- Amazon Warehouse Workers In NY Walk Off The Job; Instacart, Whole Foods Employees To Follow, March 2020
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142459651

- Nurses Are Being Evicted Across The US By Property Owners Over Coronavirus Fears, Daily Beast

Link to tweet

[zentrum]

1. Thank you so much for posting this.

Will watch for sure.

I'm sure you know the 1950's film called Salt of the Earth? It used to also be on Netflix.

BTW—the current Ken Loach film, "Sorry We Missed You"—is a fantastic labor movie. About a worker's family who is working at an Amazon type mailing facility. A masterpiece, really.

[appalachiablue]

2. I like older films but I didn't know about 'Salt.' An impt. film

and I'll look for it, thanks also for the Ken Loach work. So many people don't know about the labor mvmt. by intention.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/10/salt-of-the-earth-labour-workers-blacklisted-filmmakers

[zentrum]

4. Actual miner families---

...were cast in Salt. With a few professionals actors. When released, it was blacklisted and allowed only one viewing in select theaters--policed by law officers.

The blacklist is probably why you never heard of it.

[appalachiablue]

6. Major disturbances occurred even during the filming after certain

groups got hold of the script/story; what I've read about political repression in that era is numbing. Glad to know that actual miner families were cast in the production.

Sorry to say I venture that tactics used during those difficult times could reappear here and in Europe under the right conditions. It could keep me up at night if I let it.

On the Brit film, we know it's about corrupted capitalism but whether the Post would tolerate that term who knows. We're living in a very dangerous period.

[zentrum]

7. Agree completely, all points.

[appalachiablue]

3. Trailer, 'Sorry We Missed You,' WaPo good review today, gig economy.

Trailer, "Sorry We Missed You" (2020). Review, Washington Post, March 31, 2020, by Ann Hornaday:

..Ken Loach’s new film is an unsparing look at the human costs of the gig economy. As small catastrophes cascade into bigger ones, “Sorry We Missed You” takes on the usual contours of a Ken Loach film. He’s too honest to deliver false happy endings, but he doesn’t slather on the melodrama for sentimentality’s sake. In this unsparing but deeply compassionate film, viewers get a chance to see the fatigue, stress and bewilderment of modern life for what they are: not the regrettable side effects of market-driven progress, but the results of cynicism and greed, and the unfathomable human cost of wanting what we want, right now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/sorry-we-missed-you-movie-review/2020/03/31/4758bcb8-6f8f-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html

[zentrum]

5. WP kind of trivializes...

...the real themes Loach is addressing. It's not about just stress of "modern life". It shows the crushing effects of unregulated Capitalism without ever saying the word.