WEBVTT

00:00:04.083 --> 00:00:08.999
[gentle music]
[clock ticking]

00:00:40.626 --> 00:00:46.125
[gears clinking]
[gentle music]

00:00:52.959 --> 00:00:58.459
[clock ticking]
[gentle music]

00:00:59.459 --> 00:01:00.334
For nearly 200 years,

00:01:00.334 --> 00:01:03.999
we\'ve been living in a
world inhabited by machines.

00:01:03.999 --> 00:01:07.626
They are magnific,
obedient, and resilient.

00:01:07.626 --> 00:01:09.999
Working for us day and night.

00:01:10.834 --> 00:01:13.542
But they need women and
men to keep them going.

00:01:13.542 --> 00:01:17.999
And humans and machines are
not made in the same way.

00:01:17.999 --> 00:01:20.209
[gears clanking]

00:01:20.209 --> 00:01:21.375
The entire history
of labor is imbued

00:01:21.375 --> 00:01:26.125
with this uneasy cohabitation
between machines and humans.

00:01:26.125 --> 00:01:27.751
The story of a struggle between

00:01:27.751 --> 00:01:29.000
those who want to turn workers

00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:30.999
into perfectly integrated cogs

00:01:30.999 --> 00:01:33.209
in the mechanisms of production

00:01:33.209 --> 00:01:35.375
and these human cogs themselves,

00:01:35.375 --> 00:01:38.375
who try as best they can to
maintain a minimum degree

00:01:38.375 --> 00:01:41.000
of physical and
mental integrity.

00:01:46.125 --> 00:01:49.667
[machinery clanking]

00:01:52.876 --> 00:01:55.250
In a 1974 French documentary,

00:01:55.250 --> 00:01:57.209
\"Avec le Sang des Autres,\"

00:01:57.209 --> 00:01:58.667
directed by Bruno Muel,

00:01:58.667 --> 00:02:01.834
a car worker at the
Peugeot factory in Sochaux

00:02:01.834 --> 00:02:04.834
talks about working
on an assembly line.

00:02:07.334 --> 00:02:11.999
[Christian speaking in French]

00:02:48.626 --> 00:02:50.751
His name is Christian Corouge,

00:02:50.751 --> 00:02:53.834
and he worked at
Peugeot his whole life.

00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.167
[Christian Interpreter] The
memories that families have

00:02:59.167 --> 00:03:01.375
of assembly line work are awful.

00:03:01.792 --> 00:03:03.834
And yet, the men
never talked about it.

00:03:03.834 --> 00:03:06.709
And very few of their
children either.

00:03:06.709 --> 00:03:07.292
I asked around.

00:03:07.292 --> 00:03:08.918
I used to visit schools.

00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.209
And when I asked kids
what their father did,

00:03:14.709 --> 00:03:16.751
they would say he
works at Peugeot.

00:03:16.751 --> 00:03:17.999
Okay. But where?

00:03:17.999 --> 00:03:18.999
Well, they didn\'t even know.

00:03:18.999 --> 00:03:20.125
And what does he do?

00:03:20.125 --> 00:03:21.209
What does he tell you?

00:03:21.209 --> 00:03:24.876
He doesn\'t talk about it.

00:03:24.876 --> 00:03:25.751
And that\'s exactly it.

00:03:25.751 --> 00:03:28.876
There\'s nothing to say about
working on an assembly line.

00:03:28.876 --> 00:03:29.792
It\'s not a worthy job.

00:03:29.792 --> 00:03:31.167
It\'s not gratifying.

00:03:31.876 --> 00:03:33.959
You just don\'t feel like
telling your son or daughter

00:03:33.959 --> 00:03:36.959
that you spent all day
tightening nuts and bolts.

00:03:36.959 --> 00:03:38.999
And you don\'t really
know why you\'re doing it.

00:03:38.999 --> 00:03:40.125
What can you say?

00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.792
And that\'s the problem
with the assembly line.

00:03:43.792 --> 00:03:46.375
In the end, all it does
is damage your body

00:03:46.375 --> 00:03:47.999
and damages your mind.

00:03:48.292 --> 00:03:50.167
You know, it,
you\'re aware of it,

00:03:50.167 --> 00:03:51.918
and there\'s nothing you
can pass on to anyone

00:03:51.918 --> 00:03:54.876
because there\'s
nothing to pass on.

00:03:54.876 --> 00:03:56.083
Nothing.

00:03:56.083 --> 00:03:57.209
It\'s thankless work.

00:03:57.209 --> 00:04:00.876
You can\'t even say, I\'m gonna
leave you a trace of my work.

00:04:00.876 --> 00:04:01.792
If you\'re a lathe worker,

00:04:01.792 --> 00:04:03.626
you can make a skittle
for your retirement.

00:04:03.626 --> 00:04:04.709
But you have nothing to show

00:04:04.709 --> 00:04:06.292
from working on
an assembly line.

00:04:06.292 --> 00:04:07.709
What can you bring
home from work?

00:04:07.709 --> 00:04:09.918
A handful of defective screws?

00:04:09.918 --> 00:04:11.876
A punitive work station?

00:04:12.083 --> 00:04:13.334
No, you just don\'t
wanna talk about it.

00:04:13.334 --> 00:04:15.876
And apart from your
aches and pains,

00:04:15.876 --> 00:04:17.999
you\'ve got nothing to pass on.

00:04:19.999 --> 00:04:21.209
Christian Corouge, nevertheless,

00:04:21.209 --> 00:04:23.999
brought home something
from his life as assembler.

00:04:23.999 --> 00:04:27.999
The pliers he used to
staple the seat coverings.

00:04:30.083 --> 00:04:31.334
[Christian Interpreter]
This pair of pliers

00:04:31.334 --> 00:04:32.542
is an instrument of torture

00:04:32.542 --> 00:04:34.834
which still gives me nightmares.

00:04:35.626 --> 00:04:36.250
I mean, well,

00:04:36.250 --> 00:04:37.584
I kept them because I
think it\'s interesting

00:04:37.584 --> 00:04:42.584
to keep a souvenir or
something that\'s done you harm.

00:04:46.125 --> 00:04:48.542
[birds chirping]

00:04:48.542 --> 00:04:49.334
The upper middle classes

00:04:49.334 --> 00:04:52.959
have a different relationship
to memory and transmission,

00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:55.125
as shown by the
ostentatious tombs

00:04:55.125 --> 00:04:56.834
in the Glasgow Necropolis,

00:04:56.834 --> 00:04:59.999
the cemetery for
the city\'s well off.

00:04:59.999 --> 00:05:03.000
[birds chirping]

00:05:03.999 --> 00:05:05.999
Outside the entrance
to the cemetery,

00:05:05.999 --> 00:05:08.501
among the statues of the
city\'s great and good,

00:05:08.501 --> 00:05:11.626
is the figure of James
White, Baron Overtoun,

00:05:11.626 --> 00:05:15.751
and owner of the largest
chemical factory in Scotland.

00:05:15.751 --> 00:05:18.042
[birds chirping]

00:05:18.042 --> 00:05:20.834
In 1899, a left-wing
newspaper published

00:05:20.834 --> 00:05:23.792
a series of articles about
the working conditions

00:05:23.792 --> 00:05:25.167
in this factory,

00:05:25.167 --> 00:05:27.125
whose toxic dust was so deadly

00:05:27.125 --> 00:05:30.959
that its workers were
called White\'s dead men.

00:05:32.667 --> 00:05:34.999
Historian Arthur MacIvor.

00:05:35.417 --> 00:05:37.876
I wish I could adequately
describe a day\'s work

00:05:37.876 --> 00:05:41.709
so that my readers could
fully understand the horrors.

00:05:42.584 --> 00:05:43.999
The men in the day shift go in

00:05:43.999 --> 00:05:46.709
to begin work at
six in the morning.

00:05:46.999 --> 00:05:48.999
The vapors and fumes
from the chemicals

00:05:48.999 --> 00:05:51.751
are all about them all the time,

00:05:51.999 --> 00:05:54.584
eating away the
cartilage of the nose

00:05:54.584 --> 00:05:56.250
and poison the blood,

00:05:56.250 --> 00:05:57.209
so that the stomach, in time,

00:05:57.209 --> 00:06:00.999
will only contain
certain kinds of food.

00:06:02.042 --> 00:06:03.250
In some cases,

00:06:03.250 --> 00:06:05.375
the men observed the
hard piece of gristle

00:06:05.375 --> 00:06:08.292
when it came away
while blowing the nose.

00:06:09.167 --> 00:06:10.000
The men examined told

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.000
there was not an employee
working inside in Messrs Whites,

00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:17.250
but as a chrome hole in the
gristle partition of the nose.

00:06:18.375 --> 00:06:20.209
The majority of them could pass

00:06:20.209 --> 00:06:22.292
such an article as
a common lead pencil

00:06:22.292 --> 00:06:26.459
right through the nose,
from one side to the other,

00:06:28.626 --> 00:06:29.334
In some cases,

00:06:29.334 --> 00:06:32.918
workers reported to pay
colleagues to masticate

00:06:32.918 --> 00:06:34.959
their food for them.

00:06:35.709 --> 00:06:37.999
Unfortunately we know
little about these workers

00:06:37.999 --> 00:06:42.626
in the aftermath of working
in these kinds of conditions.

00:06:42.999 --> 00:06:45.792
Some of them lost
their employment.

00:06:45.792 --> 00:06:48.334
We know they were thrown
onto the Poor Law.

00:06:48.334 --> 00:06:52.584
Others were thrown onto the
support of their families,

00:06:52.584 --> 00:06:56.000
disabled and maimed for life.

00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.042
[ominous music]

00:07:01.999 --> 00:07:03.292
At the end of 19th century,

00:07:03.292 --> 00:07:05.292
there was a new awareness
of both the extent

00:07:05.292 --> 00:07:09.042
and cost of occupational
accidents and illnesses.

00:07:09.584 --> 00:07:10.292
Up to that point,

00:07:10.292 --> 00:07:11.999
they were just
considered inevitable

00:07:11.999 --> 00:07:14.000
and only the Virgin
Mary or a saint

00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.417
could protect an unlucky worker.

00:07:16.792 --> 00:07:18.459
Faith as a form of prevention,

00:07:18.459 --> 00:07:22.918
as seen in these extraordinary
Italian ex-votos.

00:07:28.834 --> 00:07:30.292
[eerie music]

00:07:30.292 --> 00:07:33.999
The most dramatic accidents
were explosions in coal mines,

00:07:33.999 --> 00:07:37.584
which led to hundreds of
casualties every time.

00:07:44.999 --> 00:07:47.125
The first statistics
that were compiled showed

00:07:47.125 --> 00:07:50.167
that industrial accidents
caused tens of thousands

00:07:50.167 --> 00:07:52.250
of casualties every year.

00:07:54.999 --> 00:07:56.999
Germany and France
voted in the first laws

00:07:56.999 --> 00:08:00.125
in the area of
social protection.

00:08:00.584 --> 00:08:02.125
In response to
defiant employers,

00:08:02.125 --> 00:08:04.999
the irrefutable argument was
that protecting the workforce

00:08:04.999 --> 00:08:08.167
was vital since they
should be considered assets

00:08:08.167 --> 00:08:10.792
in the same way
as the machinery.

00:08:12.792 --> 00:08:15.834
[steam hissing]

00:08:16.751 --> 00:08:18.626
In the middle of
the 19th century,

00:08:18.626 --> 00:08:21.125
steam engines became a standard.

00:08:21.542 --> 00:08:23.459
Through observation,
scientists realized

00:08:23.459 --> 00:08:26.999
that they only produced as
much energy as they consumed.

00:08:26.999 --> 00:08:30.709
The first law of
thermodynamics was thus deduced

00:08:30.709 --> 00:08:32.999
and immediately applied
to the workforce,

00:08:32.999 --> 00:08:34.751
who were considered
as a sort of machine

00:08:34.751 --> 00:08:36.999
which needed to be
fed and looked after.

00:08:36.999 --> 00:08:40.792
And renamed the
human motor engine.

00:08:40.792 --> 00:08:46.375
[gear creaking]
[person sighing]

00:08:56.999 --> 00:09:00.999
Even more revolutionary was the
discovery of worker fatigue.

00:09:00.999 --> 00:09:02.999
Up until the middle
of the 19th century,

00:09:02.999 --> 00:09:06.584
it was simply considered as a
moral defect due to laziness

00:09:06.584 --> 00:09:09.667
or unwillingness on
the part of the worker.

00:09:10.709 --> 00:09:13.751
[gear squeaking]

00:09:13.751 --> 00:09:14.834
From 1880 onwards,

00:09:14.834 --> 00:09:17.999
new measuring equipment enabled
the study in laboratories

00:09:17.999 --> 00:09:20.834
of how much physical
resistance the human motor

00:09:20.834 --> 00:09:23.501
could exert before
breaking down.

00:09:23.501 --> 00:09:26.626
[gear squeaking]

00:09:28.751 --> 00:09:29.375
[hammer tapping]

00:09:29.375 --> 00:09:32.459
Fremont, an assistant of
French scientist Marey,

00:09:32.459 --> 00:09:34.459
had another innovative approach.

00:09:34.459 --> 00:09:37.999
He applied photographic
analysis of movement to work,

00:09:37.999 --> 00:09:40.751
in order to calculate
the optimal trajectory

00:09:40.751 --> 00:09:42.999
of the hammer in the hands.

00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:52.999
This is Joseph Ponthus, interim
worker in the food industry.

00:09:53.501 --> 00:09:55.999
[man speaking in French]

00:09:55.999 --> 00:09:57.999
[Joseph Interpreter] The
most efficient movement

00:09:57.999 --> 00:10:01.459
is not necessarily the
most spectacular one.

00:10:01.459 --> 00:10:02.709
So a really simple example

00:10:02.709 --> 00:10:04.542
is the flattening
of cardboard boxes.

00:10:04.542 --> 00:10:06.375
How to fold them once
they\'ve been opened

00:10:06.375 --> 00:10:07.834
so that they can
be placed easily

00:10:07.834 --> 00:10:09.542
on the pile of used boxes.

00:10:09.542 --> 00:10:11.542
You\'re holding a box cutter.

00:10:11.542 --> 00:10:13.375
The box is taped
along the bottom.

00:10:13.375 --> 00:10:14.999
And to begin with,

00:10:15.834 --> 00:10:17.209
you\'re fumbling around.

00:10:17.209 --> 00:10:19.042
Turning the box in
all sorts of ways.

00:10:19.042 --> 00:10:22.167
And then, after
six hours of work,

00:10:22.167 --> 00:10:26.125
you realize that you only had
to do this, this, and that.

00:10:26.125 --> 00:10:27.999
Hold it like this and fold it.

00:10:27.999 --> 00:10:31.000
So you found the right movement,
the efficient movement.

00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:32.417
And so then you can
go a bit quicker.

00:10:32.417 --> 00:10:35.501
And after a while, you do
this, then this, then this.

00:10:35.501 --> 00:10:36.417
And you\'ve got it.

00:10:36.417 --> 00:10:37.584
You can do it automatically

00:10:37.584 --> 00:10:38.876
and put your mind
to other things

00:10:38.876 --> 00:10:40.709
and not worry about what
movements you have to make

00:10:40.709 --> 00:10:43.999
because you\'ve found
the right ones.

00:10:44.542 --> 00:10:45.792
So it could be cardboard boxes,

00:10:45.792 --> 00:10:48.000
but it could also be
cutting off a cow\'s tail

00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.167
and attaching it in its place.

00:10:50.626 --> 00:10:52.999
An eight kilogram
piece of prime rib.

00:10:53.459 --> 00:10:55.959
It could also be about
shifting carcasses

00:10:55.959 --> 00:10:58.959
and realizing that, when
going around a corner,

00:10:58.959 --> 00:11:00.959
it\'s better to push
with one\'s back

00:11:00.959 --> 00:11:04.584
with the hands here like
this because it\'s less heavy.

00:11:05.250 --> 00:11:06.542
So you have to find the simplest

00:11:06.542 --> 00:11:08.083
and most productive movement.

00:11:08.083 --> 00:11:10.125
The one that constrains
the body the least.

00:11:10.125 --> 00:11:13.667
And most of the time, the
simplest is the most efficient.

00:11:13.667 --> 00:11:14.542
And from then on,

00:11:14.542 --> 00:11:15.999
you can save time and
think about other things.

00:11:15.999 --> 00:11:16.999
rather than always worrying

00:11:16.999 --> 00:11:20.375
about what the most
effective movement might be.

00:11:20.375 --> 00:11:23.959
[suspenseful music]

00:11:26.167 --> 00:11:28.626
In order to study
workers\' movements,

00:11:28.626 --> 00:11:29.542
the American Gilbreth,

00:11:29.542 --> 00:11:31.584
who used both
photography and film,

00:11:31.584 --> 00:11:34.250
came up with the idea
of attaching light bulbs

00:11:34.250 --> 00:11:35.334
to their hands.

00:11:35.334 --> 00:11:38.918
[suspenseful music]

00:11:52.667 --> 00:11:54.999
Indifferent to the
poetry of the movements,

00:11:54.999 --> 00:11:56.999
he drew practical conclusions

00:11:56.999 --> 00:11:59.918
in the name of
improving productivity.

00:12:01.542 --> 00:12:04.292
Rather than that way,
this way is better.

00:12:04.292 --> 00:12:05.918
It\'s quicker and more efficient,

00:12:05.918 --> 00:12:08.042
as proved by this special clock,

00:12:08.042 --> 00:12:09.667
designed by the inventor.

00:12:09.667 --> 00:12:11.999
Which is always prominent
in the foreground of films

00:12:11.999 --> 00:12:16.501
intended to sell the Gilbreth
Method to industrialists.

00:12:16.501 --> 00:12:19.918
[suspenseful music]

00:12:19.918 --> 00:12:20.999
Both Gilbreth and Fremont

00:12:20.999 --> 00:12:25.459
were searching for ways to
optimize the workers\' movements.

00:12:28.584 --> 00:12:29.876
But the human body had to adapt

00:12:29.876 --> 00:12:32.375
to this new way of doing things.

00:12:36.083 --> 00:12:37.999
This was why
gymnastics for workers

00:12:37.999 --> 00:12:40.834
was introduced at the
end of the 19th century

00:12:40.834 --> 00:12:43.834
as healthy exercise
and training for work.

00:12:43.834 --> 00:12:47.334
A cross between hygienics
and productivism .

00:12:47.334 --> 00:12:50.417
[frantic music]

00:12:54.959 --> 00:12:57.959
These are miners in and
Donbass in the ex-Soviet Union,

00:12:57.959 --> 00:13:01.999
taking part in exercises
in a film by Dziga Vertov

00:13:01.999 --> 00:13:03.751
from the late 1920s.

00:13:03.751 --> 00:13:06.792
[frantic music]

00:13:17.959 --> 00:13:20.209
This is an interview
with Tommy Coulter.

00:13:20.209 --> 00:13:21.042
A Scottish miner.

00:13:21.042 --> 00:13:24.459
Started work in
the pits in 1943.

00:13:24.459 --> 00:13:27.250
We interviewed Tommy in 2005.

00:13:27.250 --> 00:13:28.042
In this extract,

00:13:28.042 --> 00:13:31.626
he\'s talking initially
about illnesses in the pit

00:13:31.626 --> 00:13:34.751
and the way in which
the work contributed

00:13:34.751 --> 00:13:36.459
to such ill health.

00:13:36.999 --> 00:13:39.751
Well, it was a known fact

00:13:39.751 --> 00:13:42.918
that the guys we
knew, of course,

00:13:42.918 --> 00:13:44.626
they stood at the
welfare corner,

00:13:44.626 --> 00:13:47.417
[indistinct].

00:13:48.459 --> 00:13:49.999
You would just see
them at the corner,

00:13:49.999 --> 00:13:51.999
coughing and spitting.

00:13:51.999 --> 00:13:52.792
You felt sorry for them

00:13:52.792 --> 00:13:55.209
and you knew it would
nae happen to you.

00:13:55.709 --> 00:13:58.918
Just like soldiers getting
killed, somebody else.

00:14:01.626 --> 00:14:06.417
Oh, there was a very
strong bond of sympathy,

00:14:06.417 --> 00:14:09.125
which was nae expressed.

00:14:09.125 --> 00:14:09.999
You didn\'t say, oh,

00:14:09.999 --> 00:14:11.918
I\'m sorry to see, you know.

00:14:11.918 --> 00:14:13.167
Hey, you young cheeky bastard.

00:14:13.167 --> 00:14:14.876
What\'s wrong with you then?

00:14:14.876 --> 00:14:16.292
That\'s how we spoke.

00:14:16.292 --> 00:14:18.999
That meant hello,
friend. How are you?

00:14:18.999 --> 00:14:22.667
Because I don\'t think
there\'d be anything worse

00:14:22.667 --> 00:14:23.667
than knowing you were ill

00:14:23.667 --> 00:14:26.667
and somebody
commiserating with you.

00:14:26.667 --> 00:14:27.250
It was nae that.

00:14:27.250 --> 00:14:28.626
We were nae that kind of people.

00:14:28.626 --> 00:14:30.250
We were the elite.

00:14:30.250 --> 00:14:33.083
When you went to work
in the coal phase.

00:14:33.584 --> 00:14:35.375
Well, we\'re strong lads.

00:14:35.375 --> 00:14:36.542
You had to be.

00:14:36.542 --> 00:14:38.459
But hardy buggers.

00:14:39.792 --> 00:14:40.792
We thought we were

00:14:40.792 --> 00:14:43.876
I dare say something
like soldiers.

00:14:43.876 --> 00:14:45.626
That absolutely
seeps through many

00:14:45.626 --> 00:14:47.292
of these male testimonies

00:14:47.292 --> 00:14:50.999
in heavy industries, in
coal mining, ship building,

00:14:50.999 --> 00:14:52.667
and in steel and the like.

00:14:52.667 --> 00:14:54.834
The idea that you
suppress your emotions,

00:14:54.834 --> 00:14:57.292
that you never cry,

00:14:57.292 --> 00:15:02.751
you never express
any real feelings.

00:15:03.999 --> 00:15:05.959
Yeah. Perhaps in reality,
it was somewhat different.

00:15:05.959 --> 00:15:08.999
But certainly the
narratives that come through

00:15:08.999 --> 00:15:13.417
in the oral testimonies
is of suppressed emotion.

00:15:13.876 --> 00:15:14.999
And I think that was
just part and parcel

00:15:14.999 --> 00:15:19.375
of this kind of traditional
working class masculinity

00:15:19.918 --> 00:15:21.999
through much of
the 20th century.

00:15:21.999 --> 00:15:23.999
It did damage workers\' bodies.

00:15:23.999 --> 00:15:25.999
It did have a downside.

00:15:25.999 --> 00:15:28.250
These guys were
taking onboard risks,

00:15:28.250 --> 00:15:30.000
which I think were
part and parcel

00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.125
of acting out or
performing as a man.

00:15:33.542 --> 00:15:36.459
And whilst one wouldn\'t deny
that management, employers

00:15:36.459 --> 00:15:37.542
are really the culprits,

00:15:37.542 --> 00:15:39.834
really responsible for
the kinds of conditions

00:15:39.834 --> 00:15:40.709
that miners faced.

00:15:40.709 --> 00:15:45.876
Still, I think there was
this male macho work culture

00:15:46.501 --> 00:15:50.334
that made it difficult for
miners not to take risks.

00:15:50.334 --> 00:15:54.375
And, in many cases, was
one factor in miners

00:15:54.375 --> 00:15:57.584
not protecting themselves
as much as they might.

00:15:57.584 --> 00:16:00.459
Using the mask,
using the helmet,

00:16:00.459 --> 00:16:02.667
using the respirator
and the like.

00:16:02.667 --> 00:16:07.751
And it\'s somewhat ironic
that, at the end of the day,

00:16:08.292 --> 00:16:11.417
these guys did damage their
bodies as a consequence.

00:16:11.417 --> 00:16:14.876
Both I think of
managerial pressure,

00:16:14.876 --> 00:16:17.876
but also this
prevailing peer pressure

00:16:17.876 --> 00:16:18.999
to act as men.

00:16:18.999 --> 00:16:21.876
[jaunty music]

00:16:27.292 --> 00:16:28.751
Women seem to be absent

00:16:28.751 --> 00:16:30.000
from the world of work.

00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:32.792
And yet, they were always
present from the outset

00:16:32.792 --> 00:16:35.167
in the cotton mills
and in the mines.

00:16:35.167 --> 00:16:38.999
Underpaid, the first to
be laid off in hard times,

00:16:38.999 --> 00:16:40.209
and demoted to menial jobs,

00:16:40.209 --> 00:16:44.834
not just by employers, but
by their fellow workers too.

00:16:48.792 --> 00:16:51.417
Access to jobs in printing
plants, for example,

00:16:51.417 --> 00:16:53.876
were forbidden to
women by male workers,

00:16:53.876 --> 00:16:57.250
for whom feminizing the
job meant demeaning it.

00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:00.209
[jaunty music]

00:17:02.375 --> 00:17:03.999
Towards the end of
the 19th century,

00:17:03.999 --> 00:17:06.751
female workers stepped
into the limelight

00:17:06.751 --> 00:17:08.584
thanks to a series of actions

00:17:08.584 --> 00:17:10.417
which caught the public\'s eye.

00:17:10.417 --> 00:17:13.375
Such as the 1,400
match girls of London

00:17:13.375 --> 00:17:14.918
who went on strike
in order to be able

00:17:14.918 --> 00:17:17.125
to negotiate directly
with the management

00:17:17.125 --> 00:17:19.709
without having to go
through the foremen.

00:17:19.709 --> 00:17:22.501
And also to have access
to a canteen separate

00:17:22.501 --> 00:17:23.375
from the factory floor

00:17:23.375 --> 00:17:26.999
to avoid their food being
contaminated by phosphorus.

00:17:26.999 --> 00:17:32.999
[woman singing in Italian]
[bright music]

00:17:44.751 --> 00:17:45.999
Similarly in Italy,

00:17:45.999 --> 00:17:48.542
the first major strike
of 1880 was not called

00:17:48.542 --> 00:17:51.459
by male workers in
the Terni steelworks,

00:17:51.459 --> 00:17:53.125
but by the 1,300 female workers

00:17:53.125 --> 00:17:54.999
of the cotton
mills of Centurini,

00:17:54.999 --> 00:17:58.834
renowned for their fighting
spirit and this song.

00:17:58.834 --> 00:18:00.792
[woman singing in Italian]

00:18:00.792 --> 00:18:02.083
At the beginning of
the 20th century,

00:18:02.083 --> 00:18:04.542
they constantly went
on wildcat strikes

00:18:04.542 --> 00:18:05.542
and took violent action,

00:18:05.542 --> 00:18:09.209
to the dismay of the leaders
of the socialist union.

00:18:09.709 --> 00:18:12.876
Historian Alessandro Portelli.

00:18:12.876 --> 00:18:14.751
[Alessandro speaking in Italian]

00:18:14.751 --> 00:18:15.999
[Alessandro Interpreter]
They were criticized

00:18:15.999 --> 00:18:19.792
for not having any doctrine
nor any discipline.

00:18:20.834 --> 00:18:25.042
And the women replied, why don\'t
you teach us your doctrine?

00:18:25.042 --> 00:18:27.626
Why do you keep
it for yourselves?

00:18:28.375 --> 00:18:30.167
And then the idea went round

00:18:30.167 --> 00:18:33.292
that women who took part
in this sort of action,

00:18:33.292 --> 00:18:36.209
there\'s an extraordinary
line in the song.

00:18:36.999 --> 00:18:38.626
When we make love,

00:18:38.626 --> 00:18:40.167
it\'s just for fun.

00:18:42.209 --> 00:18:46.834
In other words, their sexual
freedom was really threatening.

00:18:48.375 --> 00:18:51.167
Let\'s just say that
they scared the leaders

00:18:51.167 --> 00:18:52.042
of the workers movement,

00:18:52.042 --> 00:18:54.626
which was aiming
for respectability.

00:18:54.626 --> 00:18:57.584
[solemn music]

00:18:58.792 --> 00:18:59.667
And it was women again

00:18:59.667 --> 00:19:01.417
who were at the head of the
marches in Fressenneville

00:19:01.417 --> 00:19:03.918
in the north of France
during the strike

00:19:03.918 --> 00:19:06.417
at the Riquier hardware factory.

00:19:06.417 --> 00:19:09.334
[solemn music]

00:19:11.209 --> 00:19:13.042
Not having a red flag to wave,

00:19:13.042 --> 00:19:14.501
they used a French tricolor,

00:19:14.501 --> 00:19:18.667
but folded it in such a way
that only the color red showed.

00:19:21.792 --> 00:19:24.792
Tricolor flag, red flag.

00:19:24.792 --> 00:19:26.501
A battle of the symbols.

00:19:26.501 --> 00:19:29.292
The tricolor embodies
the French Republic,

00:19:29.292 --> 00:19:30.709
but also patriotism,

00:19:30.709 --> 00:19:33.459
which had become a
real state religion.

00:19:34.542 --> 00:19:37.167
The red flag was the emblem
of the workers revolt,

00:19:37.167 --> 00:19:41.626
but also represented a class
identity which crossed borders.

00:19:41.626 --> 00:19:44.751
[chicken clucks]

00:19:45.334 --> 00:19:47.292
It was the flag of the
First International,

00:19:47.292 --> 00:19:51.542
with its slogan, workers
of the world unite.

00:19:55.999 --> 00:19:59.000
Alongside these two great
flags was the black flag

00:19:59.000 --> 00:19:59.999
of the anarchists,

00:19:59.999 --> 00:20:03.167
who were in a minority,
but extremely active.

00:20:04.459 --> 00:20:05.292
[explosion booms]

00:20:05.292 --> 00:20:06.918
[chicken clicking]

00:20:06.918 --> 00:20:10.999
[woman singing in French]

00:21:02.375 --> 00:21:06.334
The black flag was brandished
in 1906 by a small union,

00:21:06.334 --> 00:21:10.834
who turned up at most
conflicts, called the CGT.

00:21:11.167 --> 00:21:13.834
They were revolutionary
anarchists at the time

00:21:13.834 --> 00:21:15.876
and fought in a
pragmatic fashion

00:21:15.876 --> 00:21:17.167
for an eight-hour working day,

00:21:17.167 --> 00:21:19.876
while aiming to overthrow
the whole system

00:21:19.876 --> 00:21:23.999
thanks to a new weapon,
the general strike.

00:21:25.375 --> 00:21:27.918
Historian Marion Fontaine:

00:21:28.584 --> 00:21:30.125
[Marion Interpreter] The
tactic of the general strike

00:21:30.125 --> 00:21:32.542
basically came about
after the recognition

00:21:32.542 --> 00:21:35.999
that certain other
tactics hadn\'t worked.

00:21:36.125 --> 00:21:38.083
Armed insurrection for example.

00:21:38.083 --> 00:21:39.999
The Paris Commune
demonstrated that,

00:21:39.999 --> 00:21:41.918
even after an armed
insurrection power,

00:21:41.918 --> 00:21:44.999
nevertheless returned to
the army of the bourgeoisie

00:21:44.999 --> 00:21:47.167
in the terms used at the time.

00:21:47.542 --> 00:21:49.999
There was also a level
of dissatisfaction

00:21:49.999 --> 00:21:52.999
with the existing
forms of struggle

00:21:52.999 --> 00:21:55.042
proposed by workers\' parties.

00:21:55.042 --> 00:21:58.083
Such as the French Workers\'
Party of Jules Guesde,

00:21:58.083 --> 00:22:01.125
who notably targeted
sectoral strikes,

00:22:01.125 --> 00:22:04.125
but also the fight for
electoral representation

00:22:04.125 --> 00:22:05.709
and political power.

00:22:05.709 --> 00:22:10.584
So ultimately, what trade
unions who formed the CGT wanted

00:22:10.584 --> 00:22:11.751
was neither armed insurrection

00:22:11.751 --> 00:22:15.417
nor the classic political
battles of Marxist parties.

00:22:15.417 --> 00:22:17.751
They wanted to invent
their own form of struggle,

00:22:17.751 --> 00:22:21.209
which did not force them to
act through any intermediary.

00:22:21.209 --> 00:22:24.042
The idea was that if
the working classes went

00:22:24.042 --> 00:22:25.000
on general strike,

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:26.999
they would have
no need of a party

00:22:26.999 --> 00:22:29.584
or any organization of any kind.

00:22:29.584 --> 00:22:30.626
All they would need,

00:22:30.626 --> 00:22:32.250
and the all is crucial,

00:22:32.250 --> 00:22:35.584
was that the whole of the
working class stopped working.

00:22:35.584 --> 00:22:38.375
So the mines stopped and the
textile factories stopped.

00:22:38.375 --> 00:22:42.501
If everyone stopped, the whole
system would come to a halt.

00:22:42.999 --> 00:22:44.417
[bright music]

00:22:44.417 --> 00:22:46.501
While waiting for the
first general strike,

00:22:46.501 --> 00:22:49.375
France saw at the beginning
of the 20th century

00:22:49.375 --> 00:22:51.959
a profusion of local conflicts.

00:22:51.959 --> 00:22:54.542
As witnessed by these
remarkable postcards,

00:22:54.542 --> 00:22:55.999
which help to promote conflicts

00:22:55.999 --> 00:22:58.000
by giving them a
more positive image

00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:02.417
than the caricatural ones
found in the bourgeois press.

00:23:02.417 --> 00:23:05.250
[jaunty music]

00:23:07.584 --> 00:23:10.584
These staged photos
where all seems calm

00:23:10.584 --> 00:23:14.792
do not do justice to the
violence of the clashes.

00:23:14.792 --> 00:23:15.501
In this one,

00:23:15.501 --> 00:23:17.083
people are gathered
around a dead horse

00:23:17.083 --> 00:23:19.000
belonging to the 21st Regiment,

00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:21.999
the force which
charged the strikers.

00:23:21.999 --> 00:23:24.999
[solemn music]

00:23:25.999 --> 00:23:26.999
Faced with the strikes,

00:23:26.999 --> 00:23:29.083
the employers at the
beginning of the 20th century

00:23:29.083 --> 00:23:31.125
refused negotiations.

00:23:31.125 --> 00:23:32.918
Instead, they use the lockout,

00:23:32.918 --> 00:23:35.375
an expression mean that
they would close the factory

00:23:35.375 --> 00:23:37.959
as a punishment to the workers.

00:23:39.459 --> 00:23:40.584
The workers responded,

00:23:40.584 --> 00:23:43.083
as in Fougères in the
Northwest of France

00:23:43.083 --> 00:23:45.375
during the big lockout of 1906,

00:23:45.375 --> 00:23:48.626
by inventing new
forms solidarity.

00:23:48.626 --> 00:23:51.542
[gentle music]

00:24:06.375 --> 00:24:07.918
[Joseph Interpreter] On
top of one of the fridges

00:24:07.918 --> 00:24:11.501
where we work, a small
plant has sprung up.

00:24:11.501 --> 00:24:13.375
A tiny little green plant.

00:24:13.709 --> 00:24:16.209
It\'s as if there was a
little gap in the wall,

00:24:16.209 --> 00:24:17.459
two meters up.

00:24:17.792 --> 00:24:19.542
And you can only see
it at certain angles.

00:24:19.542 --> 00:24:21.375
The fridge is at a
temperature of three degrees,

00:24:21.375 --> 00:24:23.542
and the green plant has
grown just like that.

00:24:23.542 --> 00:24:27.417
I really don\'t know how it
got to be there, how it grew.

00:24:27.834 --> 00:24:30.459
Everyone looks at it
lovingly and with affection.

00:24:30.459 --> 00:24:32.584
Some people even talk
to it from time to time.

00:24:32.584 --> 00:24:34.876
Even I\'ve said, how are you
little plant? And so on.

00:24:34.876 --> 00:24:37.083
And one guy said, you know what?

00:24:37.083 --> 00:24:38.999
That plant is a
warrior, isn\'t it?

00:24:38.999 --> 00:24:42.542
Because to be able to grow in
an environment such as this,

00:24:42.542 --> 00:24:44.375
it has to really want to.

00:24:44.375 --> 00:24:45.209
And I looked at the others

00:24:45.209 --> 00:24:48.292
and I said, but guys,
we\'re the warriors.

00:24:48.292 --> 00:24:50.459
The plant is just like us.

00:24:51.999 --> 00:24:54.667
We\'re thriving just as much
as this little green plant

00:24:54.667 --> 00:24:57.501
in the cold storage
room of an abattoir.

00:25:01.209 --> 00:25:03.999
Flashback to 1871.

00:25:04.250 --> 00:25:06.083
It was the year of
the Paris Commune

00:25:06.083 --> 00:25:08.584
and the first
recorded assembly line

00:25:08.584 --> 00:25:11.334
in the abattoirs of Chicago.

00:25:11.334 --> 00:25:12.209
But for the next 40 years,

00:25:12.209 --> 00:25:14.751
this novel system was ignored
by industry in general

00:25:14.751 --> 00:25:18.876
and not taken up anywhere
else outside abattoirs.

00:25:19.292 --> 00:25:21.334
For it to really take
off, and with it,

00:25:21.334 --> 00:25:24.375
all the other techniques
of scientific management,

00:25:24.375 --> 00:25:26.584
it needed no less an
industrial slaughter

00:25:26.584 --> 00:25:29.999
of a different kind
on a world scale.

00:25:29.999 --> 00:25:33.000
[ominous music]

00:25:42.417 --> 00:25:46.042
War broke out on
July 28th, 1914.

00:25:46.042 --> 00:25:47.626
Even as late as the day before,

00:25:47.626 --> 00:25:49.999
militant workers thought
they could prevent it

00:25:49.999 --> 00:25:52.751
by a general strike in
the name of fraternity

00:25:52.751 --> 00:25:54.999
on behalf of the proletariat.

00:25:54.999 --> 00:25:56.250
Not just in France,

00:25:56.250 --> 00:25:58.083
but in Germany as well.

00:25:58.083 --> 00:26:00.834
[ominous music]

00:26:00.834 --> 00:26:01.751
But in perfect symmetry,

00:26:01.751 --> 00:26:03.999
both German and French
socialists rallied behind

00:26:03.999 --> 00:26:05.959
their war-mongering governments

00:26:05.959 --> 00:26:08.083
in the name of the
defense of the homeland

00:26:08.083 --> 00:26:10.209
and of their respective
civilizations

00:26:10.209 --> 00:26:13.999
and of the struggle against
the barbarity of the others.

00:26:13.999 --> 00:26:16.999
[ominous music]

00:26:18.999 --> 00:26:20.959
If we had called
a general strike,

00:26:20.959 --> 00:26:22.999
said a CGT leader at the time,

00:26:22.999 --> 00:26:25.584
the working classes would
not have let the forces

00:26:25.584 --> 00:26:27.000
of law and order shoot us.

00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.501
They would\'ve done
it themselves.

00:26:33.417 --> 00:26:34.751
[Marion Interpreter]
The big question,

00:26:34.751 --> 00:26:37.709
which most militant workers
who were socially aware

00:26:37.709 --> 00:26:41.667
before 1914, asked
themselves was,

00:26:41.667 --> 00:26:45.584
what is stronger in the
event of a conflict?

00:26:45.999 --> 00:26:50.167
Allegiance to social rank
or national allegiance?

00:26:50.999 --> 00:26:52.459
Most militant workers knew

00:26:52.459 --> 00:26:54.167
that it was an
important question.

00:26:54.167 --> 00:26:57.459
Jean Jaurès, for example,
was obsessed by it.

00:26:57.459 --> 00:27:01.167
1914 provided the answer
with chilling clarity

00:27:01.167 --> 00:27:02.959
and dreadful brutality.

00:27:02.959 --> 00:27:05.542
At least at the outset
in the summer of 1914,

00:27:05.542 --> 00:27:10.167
what was important was
allegiance to the nation.

00:27:10.501 --> 00:27:12.209
In other words, what triumphed,

00:27:12.209 --> 00:27:13.999
not just in France
but elsewhere,

00:27:13.999 --> 00:27:16.042
was the Republican
school system, the army,

00:27:16.042 --> 00:27:20.918
45 years of nationalization
of the masses.

00:27:20.918 --> 00:27:22.918
What was defeated was the CGT

00:27:22.918 --> 00:27:24.999
and the Unified Socialist Party.

00:27:24.999 --> 00:27:27.999
[solemn music]

00:27:32.417 --> 00:27:34.167
The crowning glory of 150 years

00:27:34.167 --> 00:27:37.501
of industrial and
technological revolution.

00:27:37.876 --> 00:27:41.000
This was the first war
to use heavy artillery.

00:27:42.999 --> 00:27:46.000
Industrialization of the
battlefield went hand in hand

00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:49.501
with militarization of
the means of production.

00:27:49.501 --> 00:27:52.999
[suspenseful music]

00:27:56.959 --> 00:27:57.834
Rationalizing production,

00:27:57.834 --> 00:28:00.000
which was uncommon in
Europe at the time,

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:02.000
became a matter of state.

00:28:02.375 --> 00:28:05.584
Victory would go to whichever
side produced more ammunition

00:28:05.584 --> 00:28:07.999
and more bombs the quickest.

00:28:07.999 --> 00:28:10.959
[eerie music]

00:28:11.334 --> 00:28:13.459
Women who took part
in the war effort

00:28:13.459 --> 00:28:15.999
were afforded new legitimacy,

00:28:15.999 --> 00:28:17.125
as they were employed massively

00:28:17.125 --> 00:28:19.834
in arms factories to
respond to demand.

00:28:19.834 --> 00:28:21.292
Likewise, the
socialists and unions

00:28:21.292 --> 00:28:24.125
on both sides of the front
lines turned into patriots

00:28:24.125 --> 00:28:28.209
and accepted to play the game
of sacred national unity.

00:28:28.209 --> 00:28:29.876
[ominous music]

00:28:29.876 --> 00:28:31.375
But as the conflict dragged on,

00:28:31.375 --> 00:28:33.167
a brutal deterioration
in both working

00:28:33.167 --> 00:28:35.959
and living conditions occurred.

00:28:36.999 --> 00:28:38.042
As early as 1915,

00:28:38.042 --> 00:28:41.375
strikes broke out again in
all the countries at war.

00:28:41.375 --> 00:28:44.375
Not only in the factories,
but in local neighborhoods,

00:28:44.375 --> 00:28:47.375
such as the huge rent
strikes in Glasgow.

00:28:48.459 --> 00:28:51.292
[eerie music]

00:29:00.751 --> 00:29:01.999
But it was in
Germany and Austria

00:29:01.999 --> 00:29:04.876
where living conditions
were particularly difficult

00:29:04.876 --> 00:29:05.751
due to the blockade

00:29:05.751 --> 00:29:08.292
that the most serious
strikes broke out in 1917.

00:29:08.292 --> 00:29:14.417
It was a far cry from the
enthusiasm of August, 1914.

00:29:14.709 --> 00:29:17.334
[eerie music]

00:29:17.334 --> 00:29:20.250
[bright music]

00:29:22.667 --> 00:29:28.501
[woman singing in French]
[solemn music]

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:01.125
The writer of this song,

00:30:01.125 --> 00:30:04.083
the French socialist
Montéhus, was right.

00:30:04.083 --> 00:30:07.959
The international wouldn\'t
be sung in France,

00:30:07.959 --> 00:30:08.918
but it was in Russia

00:30:08.918 --> 00:30:12.000
where the revolution broke
out in November, 1917.

00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:13.999
And where power was
seized by a party

00:30:13.999 --> 00:30:17.125
which claimed to be
Marxist-Communist.

00:30:17.125 --> 00:30:18.584
[eerie music]

00:30:18.584 --> 00:30:20.250
And for the first
time in history,

00:30:20.250 --> 00:30:22.999
they managed to hold onto power.

00:30:28.918 --> 00:30:30.792
One year later,
almost to the day,

00:30:30.792 --> 00:30:31.999
as the Bolsheviks
were celebrating

00:30:31.999 --> 00:30:35.999
the first anniversary of
the revolution in Petrograd,

00:30:35.999 --> 00:30:37.834
another revolution broke out.

00:30:37.834 --> 00:30:39.834
This time in Germany,

00:30:45.792 --> 00:30:47.167
November, 1918.

00:30:47.167 --> 00:30:49.167
The country had
just surrendered.

00:30:49.167 --> 00:30:50.334
The empire had been overthrown

00:30:50.334 --> 00:30:54.542
and the social democratic
party had finally gained power.

00:30:55.042 --> 00:30:57.459
Historian Stefan Berger.

00:30:57.999 --> 00:31:00.501
The German Social
Democratic Party,

00:31:00.501 --> 00:31:03.999
as it developed before
the First World War,

00:31:03.999 --> 00:31:06.042
was, in the words of Karkowski,

00:31:06.042 --> 00:31:10.876
a revolutionary, but not
a revolution making party.

00:31:10.999 --> 00:31:13.999
And yet, at the end of
the First World War,

00:31:14.292 --> 00:31:17.999
you do have a
revolution in Germany.

00:31:18.209 --> 00:31:22.999
It comes from a mutiny
of sailors in Kiel.

00:31:22.999 --> 00:31:26.834
And it spreads very
rapidly around Germany

00:31:26.834 --> 00:31:30.542
where sailors councils,
soldiers councils,

00:31:30.542 --> 00:31:33.876
workers councils, seize
control at a moment

00:31:33.876 --> 00:31:37.292
in which the Imperial
German state is collapsing.

00:31:40.125 --> 00:31:44.709
The revolutionary agency
is coming from below.

00:31:44.709 --> 00:31:45.751
It\'s not coming from above.

00:31:45.751 --> 00:31:49.709
The German Social Democratic
Party has split in the war.

00:31:49.709 --> 00:31:51.667
So you have two social
democratic parties.

00:31:51.667 --> 00:31:53.876
You have a right-wing
social democratic party

00:31:53.876 --> 00:31:55.876
and the left-wing
social democratic party.

00:31:55.876 --> 00:31:59.125
The left-wing social democrats
had been opposed to the war.

00:31:59.125 --> 00:32:01.501
They are ideologically
more committed

00:32:01.501 --> 00:32:03.999
to a more radical
form of Marxism.

00:32:03.999 --> 00:32:08.667
Whereas the right-wing social
democrats are more reformist.

00:32:08.667 --> 00:32:11.999
And in 1918, power is handed

00:32:11.999 --> 00:32:14.125
to the right wing
social democrats

00:32:14.125 --> 00:32:17.167
by the last Imperial
German government.

00:32:17.167 --> 00:32:18.999
So Friedrich Ebert, the leader

00:32:18.999 --> 00:32:20.999
of the right wing
social democracy,

00:32:20.999 --> 00:32:26.459
he is the head of a revolution
that he doesn\'t want.

00:32:26.999 --> 00:32:31.999
Because being made head of
the government, in his eyes,

00:32:31.999 --> 00:32:35.667
he has already achieved
power from above.

00:32:35.667 --> 00:32:39.209
He doesn\'t need the
revolution from below.

00:32:39.209 --> 00:32:41.417
[suspenseful music]

00:32:41.417 --> 00:32:42.292
The delicate balance

00:32:42.292 --> 00:32:43.999
between the two
socialist factions

00:32:43.999 --> 00:32:45.999
lasted only two months.

00:32:45.999 --> 00:32:49.000
In January, 1919, the far left,

00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:50.751
led by the Spartacist group,

00:32:50.751 --> 00:32:54.709
took up arms in order to
pursue social revolution.

00:32:56.667 --> 00:32:59.999
President Ebert called
on the old Imperial army

00:32:59.999 --> 00:33:00.959
and the Freikorps,

00:33:00.959 --> 00:33:03.292
extreme right nationalist
paramilitaries,

00:33:03.292 --> 00:33:05.584
to put down the uprising.

00:33:06.876 --> 00:33:09.918
The Sparticists were
defeated and their leaders,

00:33:09.918 --> 00:33:14.083
Karl Liebknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg, were assassinated.

00:33:15.375 --> 00:33:19.000
The same scenario was repeated
a few months later in Munich,

00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:20.125
where the army and the Freikorps

00:33:20.125 --> 00:33:24.000
eliminated a short-lived
workers\' council republic.

00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:25.709
And again, in 1920,

00:33:25.709 --> 00:33:28.501
when the last revolutionary
attempt in Germany,

00:33:28.501 --> 00:33:31.751
the Ruhr Red Army,
was also crushed.

00:33:31.751 --> 00:33:34.709
[bright music]

00:33:45.083 --> 00:33:47.834
In a Dortmund cemetery,
a discreet gravestone

00:33:47.834 --> 00:33:52.292
commemorates the 2,000
victims of the Red Ruhr Army.

00:33:52.292 --> 00:33:54.959
It was erected in 1926.

00:33:55.167 --> 00:33:57.876
When the Nazis came
to power in 1933,

00:33:57.876 --> 00:33:59.999
the gravestone was
saved from destruction

00:33:59.999 --> 00:34:01.584
by Communist grave diggers

00:34:01.584 --> 00:34:03.999
who had the bright
idea of burying it

00:34:03.999 --> 00:34:06.334
until better days arrived.

00:34:06.918 --> 00:34:07.959
We\'ll finish what you started,

00:34:07.959 --> 00:34:10.959
says the inscription framed
by a hammer and sickle,

00:34:10.959 --> 00:34:14.834
the symbols of the Bolshevik
revolution of 1917,

00:34:14.834 --> 00:34:15.876
which became the focal point

00:34:15.876 --> 00:34:18.959
of all revolutionary
movements in Europe.

00:34:21.626 --> 00:34:24.501
Of all the victorious countries
of the First World War,

00:34:24.501 --> 00:34:29.083
only Italy experienced a
true revolutionary situation.

00:34:30.751 --> 00:34:35.459
In 1920, in the industrial north
in Genoa, Turin, and Milan,

00:34:35.459 --> 00:34:38.167
workers occupied factories
under the protection

00:34:38.167 --> 00:34:40.375
of the armed Red Guards.

00:34:41.876 --> 00:34:43.501
Inspired by the
Russian Revolution

00:34:43.501 --> 00:34:44.667
and the Soviet experience,

00:34:44.667 --> 00:34:48.999
revised and improved by the
Marxist theoretician, Gramsci,

00:34:48.999 --> 00:34:51.417
workers\' councils sprung up.

00:34:51.417 --> 00:34:52.626
Like the one at
the Fiat factory,

00:34:52.626 --> 00:34:55.999
seen here occupying the office
of the founder, Agnelli.

00:34:55.999 --> 00:34:58.209
They took control of
factories and offices

00:34:58.209 --> 00:35:00.999
and tried to
kickstart production.

00:35:00.999 --> 00:35:03.459
Historian Stefano Musso.

00:35:07.999 --> 00:35:09.959
[Stefano Interpreter]
According to Gramsci,

00:35:09.959 --> 00:35:10.959
these workers\' councils

00:35:10.959 --> 00:35:13.417
should have learned to be
in charge of production

00:35:13.417 --> 00:35:16.083
in the absence of the
parasite capitalists

00:35:16.083 --> 00:35:19.834
by perhaps partnering
with factory technicians.

00:35:22.999 --> 00:35:24.918
The idea was that the
workers themselves

00:35:24.918 --> 00:35:27.999
should run production
in occupied factories.

00:35:29.501 --> 00:35:31.999
And it should be done
as much as possible

00:35:31.999 --> 00:35:33.501
by using the stocks
of raw materials

00:35:33.501 --> 00:35:37.083
and semi-finished products
available in the factory.

00:35:38.834 --> 00:35:41.250
Clearly it wasn\'t possible
to obtain new stocks

00:35:41.250 --> 00:35:42.626
from the outside.

00:35:42.959 --> 00:35:46.501
But they would work and at
least produce what they could.

00:35:47.999 --> 00:35:49.083
The factory occupations ended

00:35:49.083 --> 00:35:52.042
without any bloodshed
or armed conflict.

00:35:52.792 --> 00:35:55.667
Workers left the factories
with their red flags,

00:35:55.667 --> 00:35:57.999
thinking that the occupations,

00:35:57.999 --> 00:35:58.999
even if they were over,

00:35:58.999 --> 00:36:02.000
had been the first steps
towards revolution.

00:36:03.834 --> 00:36:05.999
But in reality, they
were just a swan song

00:36:05.999 --> 00:36:08.792
for the Italian
revolutionary movement.

00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:13.167
Because several
months later in 1921,

00:36:13.167 --> 00:36:15.250
an international crisis arose

00:36:15.250 --> 00:36:17.751
which affected
the whole country.

00:36:19.125 --> 00:36:22.626
Industrialists began
to lay off workers.

00:36:22.626 --> 00:36:25.834
And the workers
weren\'t able to resist.

00:36:30.959 --> 00:36:32.334
This is how the 1920 occupation

00:36:32.334 --> 00:36:36.751
was experienced by a worker
in Terni steel works.

00:36:36.751 --> 00:36:40.834
[man speaking in Italian]

00:37:26.999 --> 00:37:28.999
[Alessandro Interpreter]
He hid the flag a few days

00:37:28.999 --> 00:37:30.501
before the occupation.

00:37:30.999 --> 00:37:33.209
And he hid it in the sick bay

00:37:33.542 --> 00:37:36.751
because the nurse was a
relative of his comrade.

00:37:36.751 --> 00:37:38.999
Not because she was militant.

00:37:39.999 --> 00:37:43.417
This struggle of the masses
represented an epic moment

00:37:43.417 --> 00:37:45.959
in the Italian
workers\' movement.

00:37:45.959 --> 00:37:48.042
And yet, when he
tells the story,

00:37:48.042 --> 00:37:51.375
hiding the flag under
the bed in the sick bay,

00:37:51.375 --> 00:37:53.667
there\'s a personal
dimension to it.

00:37:53.667 --> 00:37:56.792
All to do with family
links and friendship.

00:37:57.417 --> 00:38:00.459
The man who tells the
story is Remo Righetti,

00:38:00.459 --> 00:38:02.999
one of the main actors
in the working class

00:38:02.999 --> 00:38:05.334
and antifascist
history of Terni.

00:38:05.334 --> 00:38:08.334
He was one of the founders
of the Communist Party,

00:38:08.334 --> 00:38:10.999
so he had strong
political conscience.

00:38:10.999 --> 00:38:13.042
And yet when he
tells this story,

00:38:13.042 --> 00:38:15.459
there\'s nothing
ideological about it.

00:38:15.459 --> 00:38:18.918
It\'s just a simple
event from his own life.

00:38:19.999 --> 00:38:20.999
And then, of course,

00:38:20.999 --> 00:38:22.250
he finishes the
account by saying

00:38:22.250 --> 00:38:26.375
that it was a mistake to
stop occupying the factories.

00:38:29.542 --> 00:38:33.542
They should have carried on
and brought about revolution.

00:38:33.542 --> 00:38:35.626
Of course, it wasn\'t possible,

00:38:35.626 --> 00:38:38.042
But it\'s difficult
to shake off the idea

00:38:38.042 --> 00:38:39.083
that if you didn\'t win,

00:38:39.083 --> 00:38:41.250
it must have been your fault

00:38:41.250 --> 00:38:43.999
because you didn\'t
fight hard enough.

00:38:44.167 --> 00:38:46.667
This idea is ever
present in the accounts

00:38:46.667 --> 00:38:48.918
of the occupations of factories.

00:38:48.918 --> 00:38:50.542
Especially in Terni.

00:38:51.375 --> 00:38:54.999
[triumphant music]

00:38:54.999 --> 00:38:55.999
To combat the revolution,

00:38:55.999 --> 00:38:59.918
the Italian bosses called on
Benito Mussolini\'s fascists,

00:38:59.918 --> 00:39:01.334
armed militias of the far right

00:39:01.334 --> 00:39:04.334
formed around a hard
core of war veterans.

00:39:04.334 --> 00:39:06.042
[triumphant music]

00:39:06.042 --> 00:39:08.042
The fascist program was simple:

00:39:08.042 --> 00:39:11.209
to abolish the class war
by forcing capitalists

00:39:11.209 --> 00:39:13.959
and proletarians
to work together.

00:39:15.834 --> 00:39:18.083
The fascists came
to power in 1922

00:39:18.083 --> 00:39:20.751
and immediately set about
destroying the organization

00:39:20.751 --> 00:39:24.209
and the memory of the
Italian workers\' movement.

00:39:25.584 --> 00:39:26.375
But the Italian fascists

00:39:26.375 --> 00:39:29.626
weren\'t just an old-fashioned
employer-run militia.

00:39:29.626 --> 00:39:31.417
Fascism introduced a new idea

00:39:31.417 --> 00:39:33.709
that had emerged
during the Great War.

00:39:33.709 --> 00:39:37.083
Above all, things
must not be halted.

00:39:39.417 --> 00:39:42.417
Total mobilization as
decreed during the war

00:39:42.417 --> 00:39:45.584
also needed to be
pursued in peace time.

00:39:45.999 --> 00:39:48.125
It was a permanent
state of emergency.

00:39:48.125 --> 00:39:49.918
The whole nation
had to be mobilized

00:39:49.918 --> 00:39:53.959
for the good of the country,
the party, and the leader.

00:39:53.959 --> 00:39:55.584
[people cheering]
[boots thudding]

00:39:55.584 --> 00:39:59.209
The traditional state only
had a monopoly on violence.

00:39:59.209 --> 00:40:03.375
The fascist state added
the control of politics,

00:40:03.999 --> 00:40:05.334
the economy,

00:40:05.334 --> 00:40:06.459
justice,

00:40:06.459 --> 00:40:08.417
the press,

00:40:08.417 --> 00:40:09.501
culture,

00:40:10.501 --> 00:40:12.626
community life,

00:40:12.626 --> 00:40:13.626
and sport.

00:40:13.626 --> 00:40:16.751
[boots thudding]

00:40:17.209 --> 00:40:18.584
It controlled everything.

00:40:18.584 --> 00:40:23.834
The absolute state, which the
fascists called totalitarian.

00:40:23.834 --> 00:40:27.000
[triumphant music]

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:31.584
In exchange, the regime built
new stadiums for workers,

00:40:31.584 --> 00:40:35.375
like this one constructed
in Terni in 1928.

00:40:35.999 --> 00:40:38.375
As a fascist thinker wrote,

00:40:38.375 --> 00:40:39.292
\"In the total state,

00:40:39.292 --> 00:40:41.999
the nation have
become athletes.\"

00:40:44.626 --> 00:40:46.209
As for salaries,

00:40:46.209 --> 00:40:47.375
they would be allowed to go up

00:40:47.375 --> 00:40:51.501
as soon as Italy regained
its former imperial glory.

00:40:52.459 --> 00:40:54.042
[Stefano speaking in Italian]

00:40:54.042 --> 00:40:55.459
[Stefano Interpreter]
That was the promise

00:40:55.459 --> 00:40:57.999
that the fascists
made to the workers.

00:40:59.918 --> 00:41:02.209
We have to think about
reinforcing the nation.

00:41:02.209 --> 00:41:06.459
The great proletariat against
the demo-plutocracies,

00:41:06.459 --> 00:41:09.083
such as France,
Britain, and the U.S.

00:41:09.584 --> 00:41:11.751
These countries were
called demo-plutocracies,

00:41:11.751 --> 00:41:14.834
forced democracies,
in which, in reality,

00:41:14.834 --> 00:41:17.959
being rich was the
key to holding power.

00:41:18.792 --> 00:41:20.667
Italy, the great proletarian,

00:41:20.667 --> 00:41:22.375
set off to conquer an empire.

00:41:22.375 --> 00:41:24.999
To have his or her
place in the sun.

00:41:25.876 --> 00:41:26.709
When it had achieved this,

00:41:26.709 --> 00:41:29.167
all the workers would
feel the benefit.

00:41:29.999 --> 00:41:31.459
But what improvements
could there really be

00:41:31.459 --> 00:41:34.999
if Italian workers were
still demanding pay rises?

00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:39.167
This wouldn\'t help
improve living conditions.

00:41:39.584 --> 00:41:42.959
As a result, there were to
be no strikes, no conflicts.

00:41:42.959 --> 00:41:45.999
Working and contributing
and not making a fuss

00:41:46.501 --> 00:41:48.999
would all help to make
the nation powerful again.

00:41:48.999 --> 00:41:49.999
Except that by doing this,

00:41:49.999 --> 00:41:52.501
it was inevitably serving the
interests of the employers

00:41:52.501 --> 00:41:53.667
rather than the workers.

00:41:53.667 --> 00:41:56.417
Since the priorities were
the continuity of work

00:41:56.417 --> 00:41:58.375
and efficient productivity.

00:42:08.542 --> 00:42:09.334
In the 1920s,

00:42:09.334 --> 00:42:11.459
European workers in the
big firms were confronted

00:42:11.459 --> 00:42:14.250
with a new enemy:
scientific management,

00:42:14.250 --> 00:42:18.250
which came into play at the
end of the First World War.

00:42:19.542 --> 00:42:23.167
It was called the American
method or Taylorism,

00:42:23.167 --> 00:42:24.584
after the names of its inventor,

00:42:24.584 --> 00:42:28.417
the American engineer,
Fred W. Taylor.

00:42:29.417 --> 00:42:31.459
As with most
important inventions,

00:42:31.459 --> 00:42:33.999
Taylor started
with a revelation.

00:42:33.999 --> 00:42:35.584
Working as a factory overseer

00:42:35.584 --> 00:42:36.999
at the end of the 19th century,

00:42:36.999 --> 00:42:39.959
he realized that the image
of the disciplined worker

00:42:39.959 --> 00:42:42.709
who was proud of
their work was a myth.

00:42:42.709 --> 00:42:44.999
[triumphant music]

00:42:44.999 --> 00:42:47.999
[worker thuds]

00:42:47.999 --> 00:42:48.876
He noticed that workers

00:42:48.876 --> 00:42:50.792
made countless
meaningless movements,

00:42:50.792 --> 00:42:54.334
surreptitiously slowing
down the rhythm of work.

00:42:54.334 --> 00:42:56.125
[gears whirring]

00:42:56.125 --> 00:42:58.417
They would even go
so far as to disrupt,

00:42:58.417 --> 00:43:00.209
even sabotage machines,

00:43:00.209 --> 00:43:01.667
and arrange between themselves

00:43:01.667 --> 00:43:04.083
to do only the strict minimum.

00:43:04.083 --> 00:43:06.501
[gears creaking]

00:43:06.501 --> 00:43:09.292
In other words, they imposed
their own rhythm of work,

00:43:09.292 --> 00:43:11.584
despite what the
management said or did.

00:43:11.584 --> 00:43:14.999
To control the workers who
were slackers by nature,

00:43:14.999 --> 00:43:16.999
Taylor invented a
strict separation

00:43:16.999 --> 00:43:18.626
between the conception of a job,

00:43:18.626 --> 00:43:20.584
the prerogative of the
white-collared worker,

00:43:20.584 --> 00:43:24.292
and the execution of a job
allocated to the blue collars,

00:43:24.292 --> 00:43:27.918
who were expected to just carry
out simple, repetitive tasks

00:43:27.918 --> 00:43:31.250
with no excuse for wasting
time or cogitating.

00:43:31.250 --> 00:43:33.000
The time allotted to those tasks

00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:35.042
was scientifically calculated.

00:43:35.042 --> 00:43:36.959
The law of the stopwatch,
[clock ticking]

00:43:36.959 --> 00:43:39.042
which imposed the same
norms for everyone

00:43:39.042 --> 00:43:41.999
and prevented slackers
from pointing the finger

00:43:41.999 --> 00:43:44.000
at over-eager workers.

00:43:45.751 --> 00:43:47.999
\"The Renault factory
at Bolchevik,\"

00:43:47.999 --> 00:43:50.751
a mimeographed
pamphlet from 1924,

00:43:50.751 --> 00:43:53.667
denounced this symbol
of a hated system.

00:43:53.667 --> 00:43:55.667
The timekeeper, like a vampire,

00:43:55.667 --> 00:43:58.209
who sucked the
blood of the worker.

00:44:00.792 --> 00:44:05.876
You have duped your last dupe!

00:44:05.876 --> 00:44:09.042
[woman screams]

00:44:09.042 --> 00:44:12.209
[wheel whirring]

00:44:17.999 --> 00:44:18.792
This is Taylorism

00:44:18.792 --> 00:44:22.292
seen through the eyes of a
Soviet filmmaker from the 1930s.

00:44:22.292 --> 00:44:26.375
[man speaking in Russian]

00:44:31.999 --> 00:44:33.999
But the very same workers
who took exception

00:44:33.999 --> 00:44:36.834
to the tyranny of the
stopwatch and the factories

00:44:36.834 --> 00:44:38.999
were the same ones who
went along to the stadiums

00:44:38.999 --> 00:44:42.250
to cheer on the exploits
of their sporting heroes.

00:44:42.250 --> 00:44:45.292
The sporting achievements
were recorded,

00:44:45.292 --> 00:44:47.584
a word made popular by Taylor.

00:44:47.584 --> 00:44:49.999
[discordant music]

00:44:49.999 --> 00:44:53.501
The performances of the
workers as well were recorded

00:44:53.501 --> 00:44:56.501
so that they could be surpassed.

00:44:56.501 --> 00:44:59.542
[men screaming]

00:45:00.417 --> 00:45:04.459
[man speaking in Russian]

00:45:10.375 --> 00:45:14.459
[man speaking in Russian]

00:45:20.542 --> 00:45:23.918
Back to life on the
assembly line in the 1980s

00:45:23.918 --> 00:45:26.584
at the Peugeot
factory in Sochaux.

00:45:28.167 --> 00:45:29.334
[Christian Interpreter]
Some of the guys

00:45:29.334 --> 00:45:30.999
on the assembly line,
it never gets mentioned,

00:45:30.999 --> 00:45:33.375
covered almost an
entire marathon in a day

00:45:33.375 --> 00:45:34.584
in terms of distance.

00:45:34.584 --> 00:45:36.792
A guy who took cars
to parking areas

00:45:36.792 --> 00:45:38.959
had a pedometer
attached to his leg.

00:45:38.959 --> 00:45:41.501
He was walking all
the time, nonstop.

00:45:42.459 --> 00:45:45.751
And the pedometer showed that
he\'d walked 40 kilometers

00:45:45.751 --> 00:45:46.876
in a day.

00:45:47.125 --> 00:45:48.751
And he\'d be doing
that for years!

00:45:48.751 --> 00:45:51.959
Should be considered a
sporting achievement.

00:45:51.959 --> 00:45:53.167
And when you finished your day,

00:45:53.167 --> 00:45:55.834
there\'s no time to
recover from it.

00:45:56.999 --> 00:46:00.709
The problem is that when
you leave the assembly line,

00:46:00.709 --> 00:46:01.999
it\'s 10:00 in the evening.

00:46:01.999 --> 00:46:02.959
You\'re tired out.

00:46:02.959 --> 00:46:04.918
Your brain\'s not very receptive.

00:46:04.918 --> 00:46:06.584
You slump into an arm
chair and fall asleep

00:46:06.584 --> 00:46:09.792
in front of some mindless
television program.

00:46:10.667 --> 00:46:12.959
And that\'s what\'s
really dangerous.

00:46:12.959 --> 00:46:14.751
How can you come out
after eight hours

00:46:14.751 --> 00:46:15.709
of being on the assembly line

00:46:15.709 --> 00:46:18.459
and drag yourself off
to do anything else?

00:46:18.999 --> 00:46:20.250
It\'s really difficult.

00:46:20.250 --> 00:46:22.250
And the older you get, the
more difficult it gets.

00:46:22.250 --> 00:46:24.334
The more fatigued you become.

00:46:24.334 --> 00:46:25.209
It\'s called alienation.

00:46:25.209 --> 00:46:27.083
But in reality,
it\'s not just that.

00:46:27.083 --> 00:46:31.250
What happens inside our heads
so that we no longer want to,

00:46:32.292 --> 00:46:34.000
so that the desire of
discovering other things

00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:38.042
no longer overrides the physical
exhaustion that you feel.

00:46:39.626 --> 00:46:41.000
Life\'s pleasure
should take over.

00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:44.876
But, in fact, it
doesn\'t work like that.

00:46:45.999 --> 00:46:47.999
I think this working
class suffering leads

00:46:47.999 --> 00:46:49.999
to a lack of perspective,

00:46:49.999 --> 00:46:52.792
which eventually grinds you down

00:46:53.334 --> 00:46:53.999
and numbs you.

00:46:53.999 --> 00:46:55.751
And once you\'re numb,

00:46:55.751 --> 00:46:56.999
what\'s worse is
that you just drop

00:46:56.999 --> 00:47:01.042
and end up snoring, badly,
in front of the telly.

00:47:01.042 --> 00:47:04.584
[suspenseful music]

00:47:15.250 --> 00:47:18.209
Finding the energy
for something else.

00:47:18.209 --> 00:47:20.292
In 1926, Theo Gaudig,

00:47:20.292 --> 00:47:22.876
a skilled worker at
the Krupp factory

00:47:22.876 --> 00:47:26.042
was part of the night shift.

00:47:26.042 --> 00:47:27.000
He took advantage of this

00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:29.209
by taking his
self-portrait with a timer,

00:47:29.209 --> 00:47:32.918
in blatant violation
of the factory\'s rules.

00:47:32.918 --> 00:47:35.834
[solemn music]

00:47:39.999 --> 00:47:43.375
The image, which became a
symbol of working class pride,

00:47:43.375 --> 00:47:47.542
appeared on the cover of the
\"Arbeiter Fotograf\" newspaper,

00:47:47.542 --> 00:47:49.375
published by the Worker
Photography movement,

00:47:49.375 --> 00:47:53.999
whose subscribers ran into the
thousands in Weimar Germany.

00:47:53.999 --> 00:47:55.999
[solemn music]

00:47:55.999 --> 00:47:59.000
Just like the poet workers
of the 19th century,

00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:02.999
these amateur photographers
appropriated an activity

00:48:02.999 --> 00:48:04.042
that had initially been intended

00:48:04.042 --> 00:48:07.626
to enhance the leisure
time of the ruling classes.

00:48:07.626 --> 00:48:09.501
It allowed them to
take back control,

00:48:09.501 --> 00:48:10.876
not just of their image,

00:48:10.876 --> 00:48:12.584
but also the ways
of seeing things,

00:48:12.584 --> 00:48:16.542
which up to then were the
reserve of avant garde artists.

00:48:16.542 --> 00:48:19.501
[solemn music]

00:48:23.083 --> 00:48:24.999
But it was also a class weapon,

00:48:24.999 --> 00:48:26.876
enabling them to
denounce poverty

00:48:26.876 --> 00:48:28.292
and particularly unemployment,

00:48:28.292 --> 00:48:31.999
which was the new scourge
of workers in Europe.

00:48:35.999 --> 00:48:39.542
[suspenseful music]

00:48:42.834 --> 00:48:43.501
1932.

00:48:43.501 --> 00:48:46.375
Here are the unemployed
roaming the streets of Berlin

00:48:46.375 --> 00:48:47.125
in search of work

00:48:47.125 --> 00:48:50.375
in the film by Bertolt
Brecht and Slatan Dudow

00:48:50.375 --> 00:48:51.999
called \"Kuhle Wampe.\"

00:48:51.999 --> 00:48:54.000
\"Who Owns the World?\"

00:48:56.417 --> 00:48:58.250
Germany was the country
most severely affected

00:48:58.250 --> 00:49:02.209
by unemployment, with 6
million people out of work.

00:49:02.209 --> 00:49:04.250
The unemployed made
up 80% of the members

00:49:04.250 --> 00:49:06.999
of the German Communist Party.

00:49:06.999 --> 00:49:07.999
But it was amongst them also

00:49:07.999 --> 00:49:10.999
that the National Socialist
German Workers Party,

00:49:10.999 --> 00:49:13.250
the Nazi Party, recruited.

00:49:13.250 --> 00:49:14.334
Whereas skilled workers,

00:49:14.334 --> 00:49:15.334
who were still in employment,

00:49:15.334 --> 00:49:18.250
were massively in favor of
the Social Democratic Party,

00:49:18.250 --> 00:49:21.626
which, above all, had
a legalistic approach.

00:49:21.626 --> 00:49:24.999
[suspenseful music]

00:49:29.999 --> 00:49:30.999
The German working class,

00:49:30.999 --> 00:49:33.751
which was considered the
most advanced in Europe,

00:49:33.751 --> 00:49:34.918
was divided and desperate

00:49:34.918 --> 00:49:39.999
and unable to prevent Hitler
from seizing power in 1933.

00:49:42.334 --> 00:49:44.167
Hitler, Germany\'s new leader,

00:49:44.167 --> 00:49:46.501
here visiting a Siemens factory.

00:49:46.501 --> 00:49:49.709
He claimed to be the most
conservative revolutionary

00:49:49.709 --> 00:49:50.667
in the world.

00:49:50.667 --> 00:49:54.834
40% of the members of his
party were working class.

00:49:57.999 --> 00:50:00.209
April 30th, 1933.

00:50:00.209 --> 00:50:02.375
Women preparing
banners the day before

00:50:02.375 --> 00:50:04.876
the huge Nazi celebration.

00:50:05.042 --> 00:50:07.667
Hitler, who loved
muddying the waters,

00:50:07.667 --> 00:50:10.459
turned May 1st into
a public holiday

00:50:10.459 --> 00:50:12.876
and the Day of National Labor.

00:50:12.876 --> 00:50:15.918
Historian Tomas Lindenberger.

00:50:16.167 --> 00:50:17.709
[Tomas speaking in
foreign language]

00:50:17.709 --> 00:50:18.999
[Tomas Interpreter] You
have to bear in mind

00:50:18.999 --> 00:50:21.709
that several generations of
workers had fought for this.

00:50:21.709 --> 00:50:25.792
For decades, people demonstrated
in the streets on May 1st.

00:50:26.751 --> 00:50:28.375
Some lost their jobs.

00:50:28.375 --> 00:50:30.125
Others fought with the police.

00:50:30.125 --> 00:50:34.292
With the single aim of being
able to celebrate this holiday.

00:50:36.167 --> 00:50:38.334
People wore their Sunday best.

00:50:38.999 --> 00:50:39.999
And then a new regime decreed

00:50:39.999 --> 00:50:44.125
that it was a national
holiday in honor of workers.

00:50:48.292 --> 00:50:52.125
And Hitler went on
to say in a speech

00:50:52.834 --> 00:50:54.209
\"You, the workers,

00:50:54.209 --> 00:50:57.999
you are the most noble and
most precious of Germans.

00:50:58.125 --> 00:51:00.250
You are worth more
than either the bosses

00:51:00.250 --> 00:51:01.999
or the business leaders.\"

00:51:04.999 --> 00:51:07.334
The downside of
this master stroke

00:51:07.334 --> 00:51:08.999
was that on May 2nd,

00:51:08.999 --> 00:51:11.918
all trade unions were
declared illegal.

00:51:12.167 --> 00:51:15.167
Union members were
incorporated into the DAF,

00:51:15.167 --> 00:51:16.999
the German Labour Front.

00:51:17.834 --> 00:51:18.999
A mass organization,

00:51:18.999 --> 00:51:21.459
combining workers and employers.

00:51:22.999 --> 00:51:25.125
This meant that the
workers\' organizations

00:51:25.125 --> 00:51:28.292
completely lost any
power or autonomy,

00:51:28.292 --> 00:51:30.459
as well as all their assets.

00:51:35.292 --> 00:51:36.999
The Labour Front did
offer some social

00:51:36.999 --> 00:51:40.250
and political compensations
for certain workers.

00:51:42.999 --> 00:51:46.501
But, of course, they
lost any right, power,

00:51:46.501 --> 00:51:47.999
or possibility to take part

00:51:47.999 --> 00:51:49.292
in the decision making processes

00:51:49.292 --> 00:51:51.667
of the companies
they worked for.

00:51:54.999 --> 00:51:56.709
It was a heavy defeat.

00:51:59.250 --> 00:52:02.999
The first concentration
camps opened in 1933.

00:52:02.999 --> 00:52:05.209
Thousands of communists,
social democrats,

00:52:05.209 --> 00:52:08.459
and political opponents
were imprisoned there.

00:52:09.667 --> 00:52:10.792
At the same time,

00:52:10.792 --> 00:52:13.709
the Nazi authorities,
in fear of the workers,

00:52:13.709 --> 00:52:15.209
cozied up to them.

00:52:15.751 --> 00:52:18.667
They launched a program
called the Beauty of Labour,

00:52:18.667 --> 00:52:21.751
which was supposed to spruce
up factories and offices

00:52:21.751 --> 00:52:24.459
in order to create what
the propaganda called

00:52:24.459 --> 00:52:26.999
happiness in the workplace.

00:52:26.999 --> 00:52:29.042
Sanitary facilities, canteens,

00:52:29.042 --> 00:52:32.417
and recreation
areas were improved.

00:52:32.417 --> 00:52:35.334
[solemn music]

00:52:39.876 --> 00:52:40.667
Even more popular

00:52:40.667 --> 00:52:44.459
was the Strength Through Joy
leisure program for workers.

00:52:44.459 --> 00:52:47.334
It was set up to
organize mass tourism

00:52:47.334 --> 00:52:48.417
and operated long cruises,

00:52:48.417 --> 00:52:50.667
which enabled thousands of
the German working class

00:52:50.667 --> 00:52:53.959
to visit different
European ports.

00:52:54.959 --> 00:52:58.584
The worker tourists were
chaperoned by Gestapo officers,

00:52:58.584 --> 00:52:59.999
whose work was
simplified by the fact

00:52:59.999 --> 00:53:03.042
that the cruise liners
were confined spaces,

00:53:03.042 --> 00:53:05.292
much like factories or camps.

00:53:05.292 --> 00:53:09.751
[solemn music]
[clock ticking]

00:53:09.751 --> 00:53:11.999
Repression, surveillance,
and denunciation

00:53:11.999 --> 00:53:14.999
were daily occurrences
in the workplace.

00:53:14.999 --> 00:53:15.999
And there were no images

00:53:15.999 --> 00:53:19.083
of the few isolated
acts of resistance.

00:53:19.083 --> 00:53:21.999
[eerie music]

00:53:22.459 --> 00:53:25.999
Except one, taken almost by
chance during Hitler\'s visit

00:53:25.999 --> 00:53:29.209
to the port of Hamburg in 1936.

00:53:33.042 --> 00:53:34.999
Among the crowd of
hundreds of workers

00:53:34.999 --> 00:53:36.834
making the Nazi salute

00:53:36.834 --> 00:53:40.042
is one man whose arms
are resolutely folded.

00:53:40.042 --> 00:53:42.250
[eerie music]

00:53:42.250 --> 00:53:46.999
A single man embodying
working class resistance

00:53:46.999 --> 00:53:49.999
amidst the collective disaster.

00:53:54.125 --> 00:53:59.918
[eerie music]
[clock ticking]

00:54:35.667 --> 00:54:41.250
[eerie music]
[clock ticking]