É o verão de 1984 - Margaret Thatcher está no poder e da União Nacional de Mineiros (NUM) está em greve. Na Parada Gay, em Londres, um grupo de ativistas gays e lésbicas decide arrecadar dinheiro para apoiar as famílias dos mineiros grevistas. Mas há um problema. A União parece envergonhada de receber o seu apoio. Mas os ativistas não se sentem impedidos: decidem ignorar a União e encontrar os mineiros. Eles acham uma aldeia mineira meio escondida, nas profundezas do País de Gales, e partiu em um mini ônibus para fazer sua doação pessoalmente. E assim começa a história extraordinária de como duas comunidades extremamente diferentes se reúnem por uma causa comum.
Billy Elliot um garoto de 11 anos que vive numa pequena cidade da Inglaterra, onde o principal meio de sustento são as minas da cidade. Obrigado pelo pai a treinar boxe, Billy fica fascinado com a magia do balé, ao qual tem contato através de aulas de dança clássica que são realizadas na mesma academia onde pratica boxe. Incentivado pela professora de balé, que vê em Billy um talento nato para a dança, ele resolve então pendurar as luvas de boxe e se dedicar de corpo e alma dança, mesmo tendo que enfrentar a contrariedade de seu irmão e seu pai sua nova atividade.
Este filme documenta a greve dos mineiros de carvão contra a mina de Brookside da Eastover Mining Company no condado de Harlan, Kentucky, em junho de 1973. A recusa da Eastover em assinar um contrato (quando os mineiros se juntaram aos United Mine Workers of America) levou à greve, que durou mais de um ano e incluiu batalhas violentas entre os capangas/escabinas da empresa armados e os mineiros que faziam piquetes e as mulheres que os apoiavam. A realizadora Barbara Kopple coloca a greve em perspetiva, dando-nos alguns antecedentes sobre a situação histórica dos mineiros e alguma história da UMWA.
A man wanders into a seemingly deserted town with his young son in search of work. But after a bit of bad luck, he joins the town's population of lost souls.
Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.
Pawel, a Polish man in his early 30s, makes a living with his father Zygmunt importing second-hand clothing from the North of France to Southern Poland. On his way back from one of regular "business trips", Pawel is shocked to discover his father's picture on the cover of a Polish tabloid newspaper. The headline "traitor" is written next to his name. Zygmunt is a genuine hero of the struggle against totalitarianism and a recognized member of the "Solidarnosc" labor movement of the 80s. But now, Zygmunt is suddenly accused by the paper of having acted as a secret informer called THE MOLE by the communist regime.
Lançado em 1933, na Bélgica, este documentário expressa as misérias e as dores vividas pela classe trabalhadora. O filme retrata um momento de grande efervescência política, na qual culmina na deflagração de uma greve geral que paralisou cerca de 210.000 mineiros na região do Borinage. Nas ruas, a violência policial toma conta e os operários marcham com o retrato de Karl Marx.
For 200 years, coal mining had been a way of life in Cape Breton. By 1920 things were looking up: miners were unionized and paid decent wages. Then the British Empire Steel Corporation arrived and bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. BESCO cut wages by a third, setting off a bitter labour dispute. The miners settled in for a long strike. Finally, in 1925, the military ended the unrest with brute force. But the miners, in one sense, had won. They broke up the monopoly and provided an example to workers across the country.
This film is the true story of the creation of Labin Republic in 1921. When Italy annexed Istria, Labin area that is very rich in coal became strategically important for the new government. Domestic Croatian and Slovene population were disappointed by the method of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia of selling foreigners. Accumulated social problems and the growing terror of Italians lead to great miners' strike, led by favorite union leader Ivan Pipan. The strikers will be join young miner Ive Blazina, who as commander of the Red Guard workers struggles for the mining republic and the love of beautiful Mary Brezac. The sudden intervention of the Italian army destroys their dreams, and resigned Pipan surrenders. But not everyone agrees with his behavior.
The inside story of Polmaise Colliery and the miners who were the first to walk out and the last to go back to work during the miners' strike.
In their own words, this is the story of six women from the South Wales valleys and how they helped sustain the bitter year-long miners' strike, changing their lives forever.
OUT OF DARKNESS: THE MINE WORKERS' STORY is a documentary by Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple (HARLAN COUNTY, USA). Historical film footage and photographs are integrated with first-hand accounts of UMWA history and of the Pittston strike of 1989-90.