Labor Unions History Films (1930s – 1940s) 3DVDs

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Labor Unions History Films (1930s - 1940s) 3DVDs

Included Films:

Newsreel: AFL’s William Green Speaks at Washington DC conference

Produced: 1945

Length: 2 Minutes

Newsreel: NY meeting of CIO and AFL for Merger

Produced: 1955

Length: 2 Minutes

Swindle: to cheat under the pretense of fair dealing. The greatest swindle of 1946 was the price gouges and production limits the OPA governmental agency implemented. While the war was ranging in Europe, high prices were justified, but after a year of peace the economy should have begun to return to normalcy. The Great Swindle, is a governmental promotional film aiming to get people to join their local union and end price gouging. With a slightly expressionistic quality, the film steps into the concerns of post World War II America, offering a simple, but effective way to improve the cost of living: join the union!

Seed for Tomorrow

Produced: 1947

Length: 20 Minutes

Farming is an fundamental part of American industry, yet the number of independent farmers is declining with each passing year. That was no less true in the 1940s, when small farmers were facing pressures from larger, wealthy establishments to sell their land. The spirit of farming is a hardy and persistent. Highly capitalized large commercial farms with lawyers and lobbyists, began threatening to end a way of life and an American tradition for many small farmers, during the late 40s. To challenge the bullying of the small farmers, the Farmers Union distributed films like this one, The Seed of Tomorrow, to encourage farmers to unite and join the Union where there was not only support, but effective legal help. The Union was there for the farmer, by the farmer. The film explores the beginning of a problem still plague the independent farmer today, large commercial farming operations, and is a brilliant propaganda piece for the National Farmer’s Union of America.

Working Together: A Case History in Labor-Management Cooperation

Produced: 1951

Length: 22 Minutes

Big business has long struggled against the collaborative, powerful influence of unions. This is a story of one plant’s dealings with the newly organized workers and the level of cooperation by both sides to end with a peaceful resolution. The interesting thing about this 1950s film, on better cooperation between workers and employers, is they used real workers at a pencil plant in New Jersey, recreating real scenarios that occurred in their plant. In the spirit of encouraging peaceful negotiations, the use of real meetings of unions and businesses, portrays a level of authenticity that otherwise would be lost. Even-though the workers wants varied significantly from upper managements, both parties were able to come to an agreement. A Case History in Labor-Management Cooperation, al though propaganda, is a brilliant look at the human spirit of cooperation.

Deadline for Action

Produced: 1946

Length: 37 Minutes

A full length feature produced by the International Union Of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, this film tells the story of the struggling mine workers efforts to gain a safer working environment and higher pay.

Make Mine Freedom

Produced: 1948

Length: 9 Minutes

This phenomenal classic animated propaganda film has the basic Cold War anti-communist theme, but talks about it in a unique and entertaining way. A traveling salesman called Dr. Utopia, selling bottles of ISM (communism), takes in four unsuspecting dopes who believe his promises about the powers of ISM to solve all their problems. They sample his wares, falling into a waking nightmare where they get a nasty taste of the lack of freedom they would face after relinquishing control over their factories and farms to the parent state. When a lone politician dares speak up, he is brainwashed and later shown with a phonograph for a head that plays Everything is fine! over and over. In the end, the character John Q. Public declaims about the way communists try to incite race hatred, class warfare, and religious intolerance, and the townspeople drive Dr. Utopia out of town, pelting him with bottles of ISM as he flees. This is must-see vintage animation with hilarious political themes.