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Estamos Aquí
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) initiated a one-day strike at all University of California campuses in April of 2005. The impact of the strike at the UC Santa Cruz campus was especially strong due to the support the union received from the student body. Together students and workers physically shut down the campus for hours as thousands blocked the two entrances. Blending interviews with custodians and dining hall workers and on-the-ground footage at the picket line, Estamos Aquí gives an inside look at the historic events of April 14, 2005 and the militancy of UCSC students and workers that made the strike successful. Its first wide-scale debut was in April 2006 at the Reel Work Labor Film Festival.
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Trying Days
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast thousands were left homeless and in desperate need of emergency assistance. The government's inaction prevented adequate aid and support from reaching the area, highlighted particularly in the city of New Orleans. In response grassroots community organizations formed to pick up where the government had left off. Trying Days is a look at the many points of government failure and how the people of New Orleans have come together to fight the injustice at the heart of the rebuilding process.
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When Capital Flies We Remain
When Capital Flies We Remain is a provocative look at the changes in the life of Sarah Lopez, who emigrated from Mexico and began working in the agriculture fields of California at age 12. Sarah is one of 1,000 factory workers laid off in the past year due to the numerous plant closures in Salinas, California. While the town's development projects bring in shopping malls and track homes built on farmland, the increasing globalization of the market diminishes jobs in the factory and the field. Sarah's story of struggling and coping with these changes is one that exemplifies an experience common to much of the working-class in the Salinas Valley. In April 2006 the film debuted at the Reel Work Labor Film Festival in Santa Cruz.
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Producing Just Garments
Producing Just Garments documents the struggle of Salvadoran garment workers to make a dignified living in a sweatshop turned unionized-workers' collective in Soyapongo, El Salvador. The film covers the history of struggle for union recognition with the textile union STIT, and the union’s initiative in taking over the day-to-day production of the factory after management pulled out in hopes of destroying the morale of the workers. The film further documents the continuing struggle of one of the only unionized factories in El Salvador, now a workers' cooperative, called Just Garments to survive in the face of financial crisis and anti-union repression. The anti-union practices of the international capital to which Just Garments poses a threat are further illuminated through the struggle of the 550 workers of the former Evergreen factory in their intense battle against an illegal firing and for the compensation they are due.
Purchase These Films
All of these films are available for purchase on a compilation DVD for $15 (S&H Included). All proceeds will go towards Media Insurgente's next project Rebellion From Below: The Struggle in the Andes