Ep 5: Unions on screen

Labour Days: a labour movement podcast

How have unions been portrayed in film and TV, and why aren't there more representations of unions and class struggle on screen? The Labour Days crew attempts to answer these questions, with (mostly passing!) reference to TV shows and films including The Simpsons, The Wire, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Days of Glory, Matewan, Pride, Made in Dagenham, Newsies, Our Friends In The North, GBH, Boys From The Black Stuff, Coronation Street, Brookside, and many more. Joining us to discuss the issues was screenwriter Clive Bradley (writer of Trapped, W-Delta-Z, and much more), a veteran socialist activist and member of Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners (LGSM), whose story was told in the film Pride. Research referred to included the work of Steven J. Ross (Professor of History, USC) and Victor G. Devinantz (Professor of Management, College of Business, Illinois State University), and the documentary Class Dismissed: How TV Frames The Working Class (2005, dir. Pepi Leistyna). We gave shout outs to the Barts NHS Trust cleaners/porters strike, which you can read about at http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/striking-workers-from-barts-stage-protest-outside-serco-investors-meeting, and the new picturehousefour.org website, building support for sacked Bectu reps at the Ritzy cinema. We also mentioned Dead Ink Book's 'Know Your Place' project, a symposium of essays on working-class experience which you can read about and support here: https://deadinkbooks.com/know-your-place-on-kickstarter/ We don't own the rights to any of the clips featured in this episode, which are all the property of their respective creators (obviously).