WEBVTT

00:00:04.083 --> 00:00:09.167
[somber music]
[clock ticking]

00:00:57.375 --> 00:01:00.709
By the 1930s, after
200 years of struggles,

00:01:00.709 --> 00:01:02.876
interspersed with
revolutions, the feats,

00:01:02.876 --> 00:01:05.667
as well as political and
social breakthroughs,

00:01:05.667 --> 00:01:07.375
European workers were all aware

00:01:07.375 --> 00:01:09.999
of belonging to
one single class.

00:01:09.999 --> 00:01:12.959
[machines clanking]

00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:16.292
But this working class
was more split than ever.

00:01:16.999 --> 00:01:19.959
Whereas in fascist
Italy and Nazi Germany,

00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:22.999
they were forced into
silence and impotence.

00:01:22.999 --> 00:01:24.751
In the parliamentary
democracies,

00:01:24.751 --> 00:01:27.209
they became a real
political force.

00:01:27.209 --> 00:01:30.792
[machines clanking]

00:01:31.125 --> 00:01:35.000
Spurred on by the
apparent success of
the Soviet Revolution,

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.542
the working classes
believed more than ever

00:01:37.542 --> 00:01:39.292
in a brighter future.

00:01:45.709 --> 00:01:50.792
[woman singing in
foreign language]

00:02:03.334 --> 00:02:06.459
In 1932, to celebrate
the 50th anniversary

00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:07.834
of the death of Karl Marx,

00:02:07.834 --> 00:02:10.834
militant communist
filmed by Joris Ivens,

00:02:10.834 --> 00:02:13.999
marched with raised fists
through the mining villages

00:02:13.999 --> 00:02:17.209
of Borinage in the
Southwest of Belgium.

00:02:19.542 --> 00:02:21.999
This gesture of defiance
and anger first appeared

00:02:21.999 --> 00:02:24.584
in a cartoon by George
Grosz in a homage

00:02:24.584 --> 00:02:29.417
to revolutionary fighters
who died in Berlin in 1919.

00:02:31.999 --> 00:02:34.209
Initially adapted by
German communists,

00:02:34.209 --> 00:02:37.083
the raised fist spread
rapidly throughout Europe

00:02:37.083 --> 00:02:39.375
and over the next 50
years became the symbol

00:02:39.375 --> 00:02:42.459
of a politically
belligerent working class.

00:02:45.999 --> 00:02:50.250
[upbeat instrumental music]

00:02:50.626 --> 00:02:53.792
In France in 1936, it
flourished at the time

00:02:53.792 --> 00:02:55.876
of the Popular Front\'s
election victory

00:02:55.876 --> 00:03:00.000
in which radicals, socialists
and communists were united.

00:03:00.375 --> 00:03:02.999
12,000 factories and
offices went on strike

00:03:02.999 --> 00:03:03.999
throughout the country.

00:03:03.999 --> 00:03:06.999
9,000 of which were
occupied by workers.

00:03:06.999 --> 00:03:09.209
Up to then no other
industrialized country

00:03:09.209 --> 00:03:13.334
had experienced a movement
of such size or duration.

00:03:15.459 --> 00:03:19.000
The national strike was one
big revolutionary party.

00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:21.459
The 48 hour week was set alight.

00:03:21.459 --> 00:03:23.209
Effigies of employers hanged.

00:03:23.209 --> 00:03:27.709
Even so negotiations also took
place on practical measures,

00:03:27.709 --> 00:03:29.999
such as working
hours, work rates,

00:03:29.999 --> 00:03:33.375
and the disastrous
effects of streamlining.

00:03:33.751 --> 00:03:36.959
After three weeks,
the strikers had won.

00:03:36.959 --> 00:03:39.000
A working week of 40
hours, paid holidays,

00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.999
and collective bargaining
agreements all brought about

00:03:41.999 --> 00:03:45.584
enduring changes to
working conditions.

00:03:45.584 --> 00:03:47.626
Historian Marion Fontaine.

00:03:47.959 --> 00:03:49.334
[Marion Fontaine speaks
foreign language]

00:03:49.334 --> 00:03:50.417
The interwar years,

00:03:50.417 --> 00:03:53.999
and perhaps even up
until the 1950s and 60s,

00:03:53.999 --> 00:03:57.042
was the classic period
of worker alienation;

00:03:57.042 --> 00:03:59.959
the period when it
was almost impossible

00:03:59.959 --> 00:04:01.999
to believe what Karl Marx wrote,

00:04:01.999 --> 00:04:04.999
about work being
setting humans free.

00:04:06.209 --> 00:04:08.167
In other words,
regimes can change,

00:04:08.167 --> 00:04:11.792
capitalism can even be
abolished, yet industrial work

00:04:11.792 --> 00:04:14.292
in big car factories
remained alienating.

00:04:14.292 --> 00:04:17.999
The Popular Front was probably
one of the first governments

00:04:17.999 --> 00:04:20.709
to have to really
deal with this issue.

00:04:20.709 --> 00:04:24.542
The policies of holiday pay
and workers\' leisure time

00:04:24.542 --> 00:04:26.501
were the beginning
of a response-

00:04:26.501 --> 00:04:29.501
but also an admission
of powerlessness.

00:04:29.501 --> 00:04:31.501
They signified that the
nature of work itself

00:04:31.501 --> 00:04:34.542
could not be transformed,
but at least worker\'s rights

00:04:34.542 --> 00:04:37.042
in the workplace
could be respected.

00:04:37.584 --> 00:04:38.999
This implied social democracy

00:04:38.999 --> 00:04:40.876
and negotiations
with the employers.

00:04:40.876 --> 00:04:45.083
And as compensation, the
alienated workers in factories

00:04:45.083 --> 00:04:49.125
were offered spaces where
they could feel free.

00:04:49.125 --> 00:04:53.584
[upbeat instrumental music]

00:04:53.584 --> 00:04:54.459
The Popular Front has stayed

00:04:54.459 --> 00:04:57.999
in the collective imagination
as being one big party.

00:04:57.999 --> 00:04:59.999
It\'s perhaps the only
moment in history

00:04:59.999 --> 00:05:02.542
where there are pictures
of happy workers,

00:05:02.542 --> 00:05:03.667
if you don\'t count the images

00:05:03.667 --> 00:05:06.250
of German and Soviet propaganda.

00:05:08.083 --> 00:05:09.709
But the parties and celebrations

00:05:09.709 --> 00:05:11.501
weren\'t just a passing carnival.

00:05:11.501 --> 00:05:13.250
They helped to remind the
bosses that the factories

00:05:13.250 --> 00:05:17.167
were not their private houses,
nor workers their children;

00:05:17.167 --> 00:05:20.292
and that the workers didn\'t
expect the bosses\' blessing,

00:05:20.292 --> 00:05:22.999
nor did they owe the
bosses any allegiance.

00:05:22.999 --> 00:05:26.999
From now on, blue-collar work
belonged in the public space,

00:05:26.999 --> 00:05:28.250
not the private.

00:05:31.918 --> 00:05:33.999
And even if the workforce
knew that party time

00:05:33.999 --> 00:05:36.334
would soon be over, they
also knew that nothing

00:05:36.334 --> 00:05:39.459
would take their new
found freedom from them.

00:05:46.709 --> 00:05:48.209
Finally, it was back to work.

00:05:48.209 --> 00:05:51.626
In one provincial factory, in
order to be taken on again,

00:05:51.626 --> 00:05:53.792
the workers had to copy
out and sign a letter,

00:05:53.792 --> 00:05:56.584
which said a lot about the
backward-thinking mentality

00:05:56.584 --> 00:05:59.083
of the French
employers at the time:

00:05:59.584 --> 00:06:01.999
\"We apologize for having
behaved badly towards you

00:06:01.999 --> 00:06:04.999
by going on strike, we
ask for your forgiveness,

00:06:04.999 --> 00:06:07.334
and taking us on again will
enable us to make it up

00:06:07.334 --> 00:06:10.999
to you by being
irreproachable from now on.\"

00:06:13.626 --> 00:06:16.999
[machines clanking]

00:06:25.292 --> 00:06:31.000
[crowds yelling]
[traffic honking]

00:06:34.083 --> 00:06:36.209
In July 1936, barely a month

00:06:36.209 --> 00:06:39.125
after the French Popular
Front\'s General Strike,

00:06:39.125 --> 00:06:41.751
revolution broke out in Spain.

00:06:42.918 --> 00:06:44.792
It was caused by
General Franco\'s attempt

00:06:44.792 --> 00:06:47.667
to overthrow the young
Spanish republic.

00:06:47.999 --> 00:06:51.999
His putsch failed,
and civil war began.

00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:56.375
Just like the French workforce,

00:06:56.375 --> 00:06:57.667
these militants from Barcelona,

00:06:57.667 --> 00:06:59.542
marched with raised
fists to the frontline

00:06:59.542 --> 00:07:03.751
against the fascists, to the
sound of the Internationale.

00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:05.334
But they belonged
to another current

00:07:05.334 --> 00:07:09.417
of the working-class
movement: the anarchists.

00:07:09.417 --> 00:07:15.083
[upbeat music]
[crowds cheering]

00:07:17.501 --> 00:07:19.709
Spain was the only
country where anarchists

00:07:19.709 --> 00:07:21.709
had their own mass organization,

00:07:21.709 --> 00:07:26.083
the political
syndicalist, CNT-FAI.

00:07:27.999 --> 00:07:30.167
Anarchism and communism
had been brothers

00:07:30.167 --> 00:07:32.999
at war since the 19th century.

00:07:34.792 --> 00:07:36.999
[loud growling]

00:07:36.999 --> 00:07:38.751
Communists were
inspired by Marx,

00:07:38.751 --> 00:07:40.375
and wanted to seize
state control,

00:07:40.375 --> 00:07:42.584
in order to build socialism.

00:07:44.876 --> 00:07:46.959
Anarchists were
inspired by Bakunin

00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:48.999
and conversely wanted
to destroy the state,

00:07:48.999 --> 00:07:51.999
as well as existing
social order.

00:07:53.584 --> 00:07:55.999
To achieve this,
everything was permitted:

00:07:55.999 --> 00:08:00.667
general strikes,
terrorist attacks.

00:08:00.667 --> 00:08:01.709
[alarm blaring]
[loud explosion]

00:08:01.709 --> 00:08:05.999
But also what anarchists
called \'proletarian shopping\',

00:08:05.999 --> 00:08:09.000
in other words, looting shops,

00:08:09.501 --> 00:08:14.000
not paying in restaurants,
and robbing banks.

00:08:16.999 --> 00:08:18.709
And finally,
contrary to Marxists,

00:08:18.709 --> 00:08:21.999
who believed in a centralized
economy, planned from above,

00:08:21.999 --> 00:08:26.000
anarchists pursued the perennial
anarcho-syndicalist dream

00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.501
of workers\' self-governance:

00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:31.375
all would be well if
there were no more bosses,

00:08:31.375 --> 00:08:32.999
and if the factories
could be managed

00:08:32.999 --> 00:08:37.709
by the workers themselves.
[lively music]

00:08:41.751 --> 00:08:43.083
Catalonia, and in particular

00:08:43.083 --> 00:08:45.250
the large industrial
city of Barcelona,

00:08:45.250 --> 00:08:48.959
was the heart of the
Spanish anarchist movement.

00:08:49.375 --> 00:08:52.292
The anarchists were made
up, of the most part,

00:08:52.292 --> 00:08:53.334
of the fragile workforce,

00:08:53.334 --> 00:08:56.999
severely threatened
by unemployment and
economic crises.

00:08:56.999 --> 00:08:59.999
Many of them had come from
the poorest regions of Spain,

00:08:59.999 --> 00:09:02.834
and these migrants lived
together in barrios,

00:09:02.834 --> 00:09:05.542
new districts on the
edge of the city.

00:09:07.999 --> 00:09:11.876
Only tiny parts
of this anarchist
Barcelona still remain,

00:09:11.876 --> 00:09:14.999
resisting the
gentrification of the city.

00:09:20.292 --> 00:09:21.292
And when they disappear,

00:09:21.292 --> 00:09:23.999
the memory of the struggles
will go with them.

00:09:23.999 --> 00:09:28.999
[woman sings in
foreign language]

00:10:25.417 --> 00:10:28.250
One of the most famous
episodes of anarchist\'s saga

00:10:28.250 --> 00:10:31.250
took place at the
beginning of the 1930s,

00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:32.250
in the Spanish Pyrenees,

00:10:32.250 --> 00:10:35.584
around 100 kilometers
north of Barcelona.

00:10:35.584 --> 00:10:40.584
[woman sings in
foreign language]

00:10:43.125 --> 00:10:46.501
The Count of Figois, whose
disused castle now serves

00:10:46.501 --> 00:10:48.459
as a backdrop for
wedding photos,

00:10:48.459 --> 00:10:51.125
owned large coal mines nearby.

00:10:55.792 --> 00:10:58.542
The miners, who came from
poor Spanish rural areas

00:10:58.542 --> 00:11:00.209
and lived in mining
villages on the slopes

00:11:00.209 --> 00:11:03.876
of the mountain, could
be exploited at will.

00:11:10.792 --> 00:11:12.542
The vast majority
were anarchists,

00:11:12.542 --> 00:11:16.042
and their revolt began
in January, 1932,

00:11:16.042 --> 00:11:18.083
proclaiming
\'libertarian communism,\"

00:11:18.083 --> 00:11:21.459
convinced that the rest
of Spain would follow.

00:11:23.501 --> 00:11:26.584
\"Office of the
revolutionary committee.\"

00:11:26.959 --> 00:11:30.999
These are paltry images from
a now legendary episode.

00:11:34.209 --> 00:11:35.999
After five days of uprising,

00:11:35.999 --> 00:11:37.792
the army intervened
and the miners,

00:11:37.792 --> 00:11:41.083
with no leaders or
strategies, surrendered.

00:11:41.918 --> 00:11:46.876
[woman sings in
foreign language]

00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:49.542
40 miners were arrested
and deported to Africa

00:11:49.542 --> 00:11:52.042
and the Canary
Islands without trial.

00:11:52.042 --> 00:11:56.083
But for the anarchist leaders,
the failure was unimportant.

00:11:56.083 --> 00:11:57.209
They saw it as training,

00:11:57.209 --> 00:11:59.999
what they called
\"Revolutionary gymnastics,\"

00:11:59.999 --> 00:12:02.834
getting the masses used
to overcoming their fear

00:12:02.834 --> 00:12:04.999
of the police and the army.

00:12:08.667 --> 00:12:11.709
[intense music]

00:12:14.999 --> 00:12:18.250
In July, 1936, when
General Franco brought

00:12:18.250 --> 00:12:19.999
about a civil war in Spain,

00:12:19.999 --> 00:12:21.042
the militant anarchists believed

00:12:21.042 --> 00:12:24.999
that the time for social
revolution had finally come.

00:12:27.459 --> 00:12:30.999
Driven on by this impetus
more than 3000 factories

00:12:30.999 --> 00:12:32.667
in the city of Barcelona alone,

00:12:32.667 --> 00:12:34.459
were collectivized and
put under the control

00:12:34.459 --> 00:12:38.292
of workers\' councils,
elected by the workforce.

00:12:38.626 --> 00:12:41.918
The restaurant of the big Ritz
hotel became self-governed

00:12:41.918 --> 00:12:44.999
and was transformed
into a military canteen.

00:12:44.999 --> 00:12:47.542
Self-governed factories,
too, produced arms

00:12:47.542 --> 00:12:48.999
and ammunition for
the Battlefront,

00:12:48.999 --> 00:12:52.792
and food for the soldiers
and the general population.

00:12:52.999 --> 00:12:55.584
Hairdressers, hospitals,
electricity suppliers

00:12:55.584 --> 00:12:58.999
and transport also
became self-governed.

00:13:00.417 --> 00:13:02.999
But it wasn\'t long before
the self-governing ideal

00:13:02.999 --> 00:13:04.959
came up against harsh reality.

00:13:04.959 --> 00:13:08.042
To enable a modern city of a
million inhabitants to live,

00:13:08.042 --> 00:13:10.999
as well as producing
for the frontline,

00:13:11.209 --> 00:13:12.459
the movement needed
leaders to organize,

00:13:12.459 --> 00:13:17.501
command and control, and an
obedient, diligent workforce.

00:13:17.501 --> 00:13:19.334
From the outset, the
factories and offices

00:13:19.334 --> 00:13:21.417
that were self-governed
collectively with the CNT

00:13:21.417 --> 00:13:25.042
and the communist union
UGT were faced with a drop

00:13:25.042 --> 00:13:27.250
in productivity, absenteeism,

00:13:27.250 --> 00:13:30.667
and demands for better
hours and wages.

00:13:31.125 --> 00:13:32.792
The militants blamed
this resistance

00:13:32.792 --> 00:13:35.334
to work on the influence
of the middle-classes,

00:13:35.334 --> 00:13:37.501
and sought to
reeducate the masses,

00:13:37.501 --> 00:13:39.792
by imposing new
factory regulations,

00:13:39.792 --> 00:13:44.083
which bore an eerie resemblance
to the old capitalist ones.

00:13:44.417 --> 00:13:46.918
Some of the rules, drawn
up by workers\' councils,

00:13:46.918 --> 00:13:51.042
even went as far as banning
singing during working hours.

00:13:53.042 --> 00:13:54.999
The war effort took priority.

00:13:54.999 --> 00:13:57.999
Workers\' emancipation
would have to wait.

00:13:57.999 --> 00:14:00.000
Women\'s emancipation, too.

00:14:00.542 --> 00:14:01.584
It was nevertheless called for

00:14:01.584 --> 00:14:04.125
by the anarchist
collective of \"Free Women.\"

00:14:04.125 --> 00:14:06.626
Defending issues such as
professional training,

00:14:06.626 --> 00:14:10.918
sexuality, education,
and sexual equality.

00:14:11.167 --> 00:14:13.792
But this desire for
autonomy was not supported

00:14:13.792 --> 00:14:14.792
by the anarchist leaders,

00:14:14.792 --> 00:14:17.459
for whom the social
revolution had to come first,

00:14:17.459 --> 00:14:21.709
and the emancipation of women
would automatically follow.

00:14:23.250 --> 00:14:24.999
[woman giggling]

00:14:24.999 --> 00:14:28.834
In the meantime, the CNT
films showed women knitting,

00:14:28.834 --> 00:14:30.999
while men trained
with fake rifles,

00:14:30.999 --> 00:14:32.999
since both France
and Britain refused

00:14:32.999 --> 00:14:35.999
to supply them
with real firearms.

00:14:36.584 --> 00:14:38.667
Franco\'s troops
on the other hand

00:14:38.667 --> 00:14:42.209
were supplied directly
by Hitler and Mussolini.

00:14:49.584 --> 00:14:53.042
[instrumental music]

00:14:53.751 --> 00:14:57.000
The workers\' movement was
the only one to mobilize.

00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:58.334
Militants from around the world

00:14:58.334 --> 00:15:00.125
signed up for
International Brigades

00:15:00.125 --> 00:15:03.334
and traveled to Spain
to fight fascism.

00:15:06.667 --> 00:15:10.000
But enthusiasm alone was not
enough to save the Republic,

00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:11.542
which had been
weakened by conflicts

00:15:11.542 --> 00:15:15.083
between moderates,
communists, and anarchists.

00:15:15.501 --> 00:15:19.334
The war ended in 1939 with a
victory for the Franquists.

00:15:19.334 --> 00:15:22.125
The fighting had
caused 500,000 deaths.

00:15:22.125 --> 00:15:26.209
And the same number of
Republicans fled into exile.

00:15:29.999 --> 00:15:32.375
At the Institute of Labor
History in Seraing in Belgium,

00:15:32.375 --> 00:15:36.334
there\'s a small statue of an
International Brigade volunteer

00:15:36.334 --> 00:15:38.459
with a raised fist.

00:15:40.834 --> 00:15:42.959
This was one more
defeat for the workers,

00:15:42.959 --> 00:15:46.709
and the prologue to the
next major catastrophe.

00:15:53.459 --> 00:15:55.459
Keith Gildart in Manchester.

00:15:55.459 --> 00:15:57.000
Historian and ex-miner.

00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:59.626
He comes from a family
of miners dating back

00:15:59.626 --> 00:16:00.584
to his great-grandfather

00:16:00.584 --> 00:16:02.250
and including his
own father and uncle,

00:16:02.250 --> 00:16:07.999
an active militant in the NUM,
the National Union of Miners.

00:16:09.751 --> 00:16:12.167
His widow now
she\'s 91 years old.

00:16:12.167 --> 00:16:14.125
So I was asking her
about what was it like

00:16:14.125 --> 00:16:16.250
growing up in
mining communities?

00:16:16.250 --> 00:16:17.417
It was quite surprising the fact

00:16:17.417 --> 00:16:21.999
that how little she talked
about formal politics.

00:16:21.999 --> 00:16:24.209
So she talked a lot
about how difficult

00:16:24.209 --> 00:16:30.083
it was raising children
on kind of low income

00:16:30.375 --> 00:16:35.167
in the 1930s and 1940s,

00:16:35.501 --> 00:16:37.334
and also about women\'s
lives more generally,

00:16:37.334 --> 00:16:39.626
what they did in
their spare time.

00:16:39.626 --> 00:16:41.999
And she talked a
lot about cinema,

00:16:41.999 --> 00:16:46.959
about dance halls,
about yeah, gossip.

00:16:46.959 --> 00:16:49.999
And also the micro drum
was the domestic sphere,

00:16:49.999 --> 00:16:53.918
the tensions between
miners and miners\' wives,

00:16:53.918 --> 00:16:57.000
which miners are
family members coming

00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.667
in drunk from the public
house every night.

00:16:59.667 --> 00:17:05.709
Gambling too much, domestic
violence, heavy drinking.

00:17:05.999 --> 00:17:08.000
So there\'s a dark side
to mining communities

00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:10.417
and working class communities.

00:17:10.792 --> 00:17:16.334
Yeah, the strife, the poverty,
the conflicts, the violence.

00:17:16.751 --> 00:17:21.459
Yeah, it\'s something I think
is not written about enough,

00:17:21.876 --> 00:17:23.083
really, in terms of
mining communities,

00:17:23.083 --> 00:17:26.999
because it\'s masked
by this heroic image

00:17:26.999 --> 00:17:28.999
of the working class.

00:17:30.334 --> 00:17:32.459
The conflicts between
different nationalities

00:17:32.459 --> 00:17:34.334
was another aspect
of this dark side,

00:17:34.334 --> 00:17:38.042
which plagued the working
classes in the 1930s.

00:17:38.042 --> 00:17:41.417
In 1934 at Leforest in
the north of France,

00:17:41.417 --> 00:17:43.751
French miners were
violently opposed to

00:17:43.751 --> 00:17:45.459
and refused to
support the strike led

00:17:45.459 --> 00:17:48.417
by their Polish
immigrant coworkers.

00:17:49.083 --> 00:17:54.209
77 Polish miners were
then expelled and
sent back to Poland.

00:17:55.959 --> 00:18:00.083
In a more systematic fashion,
between 1934 and 1935,

00:18:00.083 --> 00:18:03.209
the French government
organized the expatriation

00:18:03.209 --> 00:18:05.584
of around 130,000 Poles,

00:18:05.584 --> 00:18:07.999
criticized for anything
and everything,

00:18:07.999 --> 00:18:12.999
such as social unrest,
unemployment and
the economic crisis.

00:18:12.999 --> 00:18:15.584
Workers from the poorest
countries crossed Europe

00:18:15.584 --> 00:18:17.999
in search for a better life.

00:18:19.167 --> 00:18:21.125
The poverty gaps were huge.

00:18:21.125 --> 00:18:23.959
Whereas age-old misery
still reigned in regions

00:18:23.959 --> 00:18:27.999
such as the Borinage,
Silesia, and Catalonia,

00:18:27.999 --> 00:18:29.542
skilled workers
elsewhere were beginning

00:18:29.542 --> 00:18:33.542
to benefit from better
work and life conditions.

00:18:35.542 --> 00:18:37.459
There were some
spectacular successes

00:18:37.459 --> 00:18:40.417
such as the Van Elle
museum in Rotterdam.

00:18:40.417 --> 00:18:43.626
It was built in 1930
and took inspiration

00:18:43.626 --> 00:18:45.334
from American Fordism.

00:18:45.334 --> 00:18:47.626
A combination of
streamlining of production

00:18:47.626 --> 00:18:49.999
and improvements in the
workplace were supposed

00:18:49.999 --> 00:18:52.999
to bring about new
rises in productivity.

00:18:57.626 --> 00:18:59.709
Female workers had
their own toilet blocks

00:18:59.709 --> 00:19:02.083
with fittings
imported from the US.

00:19:02.083 --> 00:19:03.542
The canteen was bathed in light,

00:19:03.542 --> 00:19:07.626
which conveniently also
helped improve surveillance.

00:19:11.999 --> 00:19:14.375
But these were exceptional,
isolated initiatives

00:19:14.375 --> 00:19:18.542
from enlightened bosses, or
in the case of social housing,

00:19:18.542 --> 00:19:20.125
from left wing city councils,

00:19:20.125 --> 00:19:23.584
such as the huge modern
Karl Marx complex,

00:19:23.584 --> 00:19:27.209
built in 1929 by the
socialist council in Vienna,

00:19:27.209 --> 00:19:32.000
comprising 1,382
workers\' apartments.

00:19:33.209 --> 00:19:35.459
Nazi Germany was the
only nation to claim

00:19:35.459 --> 00:19:37.292
to have a systematic
policy aiming

00:19:37.292 --> 00:19:40.584
to guarantee the
wellbeing of its workers.

00:19:40.584 --> 00:19:43.375
The symbol of this was
the \"People\'s car,\"

00:19:43.375 --> 00:19:47.999
the Volkswagen, launched
by the regime in 1937.

00:19:49.999 --> 00:19:53.083
Historian Thomas Lindenberger.

00:19:53.375 --> 00:19:55.751
[Thomas Lindenberger
speaks foreign language]

00:19:55.751 --> 00:19:56.959
Just think about
this promise made

00:19:56.959 --> 00:20:01.000
to every German to be able to
own and drive their own car.

00:20:02.417 --> 00:20:06.417
It was a completely
utopian idea in the 1920s.

00:20:07.542 --> 00:20:11.709
And then by the next
decade, it became a reality.

00:20:15.334 --> 00:20:18.250
It was a deliberate gesture
in response to the hopes

00:20:18.250 --> 00:20:20.167
and expectations of
the valiant workers,

00:20:20.167 --> 00:20:25.459
who for generations had aspired
to this type of progress.

00:20:27.667 --> 00:20:29.501
And each time, their
hopes had been dashed

00:20:29.501 --> 00:20:33.792
by a succession of disasters,
like the First World War,

00:20:33.792 --> 00:20:37.042
or the economic crash of 1929.

00:20:37.042 --> 00:20:39.834
They could look forward
to a period of stability,

00:20:39.834 --> 00:20:43.584
which would bring prosperity
to the great majority.

00:20:44.959 --> 00:20:47.667
At the time, there was a
very popular book in Germany,

00:20:47.667 --> 00:20:50.083
that could be found in
almost every household.

00:20:50.083 --> 00:20:53.667
It was \"My Life and
Work\" by Henry Ford.

00:20:53.667 --> 00:20:56.999
It explained in detail,
the keys of his success.

00:20:57.334 --> 00:21:00.626
Ford was a highly-regarded
author with the Nazis,

00:21:00.999 --> 00:21:03.167
because his ideas were in
tune with their concept

00:21:03.167 --> 00:21:05.083
of a \"People\'s community.\"

00:21:06.292 --> 00:21:08.042
Anyone who read
the book could say:

00:21:08.042 --> 00:21:09.709
\"This is what I have to do.\"

00:21:09.709 --> 00:21:12.000
It was a very
attractive promise.

00:21:15.501 --> 00:21:16.999
The nefarious
marriage of Fordism

00:21:16.999 --> 00:21:20.999
and Nazism spawned a
vast project of conquest.

00:21:21.209 --> 00:21:22.999
In order to guarantee
the prosperity

00:21:22.999 --> 00:21:24.999
of the country and its workers,

00:21:24.999 --> 00:21:26.999
Germany decided it
needed to occupy

00:21:26.999 --> 00:21:28.584
the whole European continent,

00:21:28.584 --> 00:21:29.792
and colonize it in the same way

00:21:29.792 --> 00:21:34.501
as Europe had colonized
Africa and Asia for centuries.

00:21:37.459 --> 00:21:41.584
Germany invaded Poland
in September, 1939.

00:21:41.918 --> 00:21:45.834
And the following year, The
Netherlands, Belgium and France.

00:21:45.834 --> 00:21:48.918
And the year after
that, the Soviet Union.

00:21:49.876 --> 00:21:51.292
In all these occupied countries,

00:21:51.292 --> 00:21:53.999
Germany plundered
industries, resources,

00:21:53.999 --> 00:21:55.626
and especially the workforce,

00:21:55.626 --> 00:21:57.792
of which there was
a chronic shortage,

00:21:57.792 --> 00:21:59.834
due to the military effort.

00:22:02.292 --> 00:22:04.584
The result of this
\"hunt for workers,\"

00:22:04.584 --> 00:22:05.792
was that towards
the end of the war,

00:22:05.792 --> 00:22:09.751
around 7 million foreigners
were working in Germany.

00:22:10.417 --> 00:22:12.999
The better-off ones were
the Dutch, Belgians,

00:22:12.999 --> 00:22:14.584
French and Czechs.

00:22:17.375 --> 00:22:18.459
Some of them were volunteers,

00:22:18.459 --> 00:22:22.542
but most of them were enlisted
for compulsory work service.

00:22:22.999 --> 00:22:26.375
They joined ordinary British
and French prisoners of war,

00:22:26.375 --> 00:22:28.999
although officers were exempt.

00:22:32.042 --> 00:22:35.375
At the other end of the
scale, the Slav population,

00:22:35.375 --> 00:22:38.417
made up of Poles,
Ukrainians, and Russians,

00:22:38.417 --> 00:22:40.751
was considered sub-human.

00:22:41.584 --> 00:22:45.125
Over 600,000 war prisoners
were grossly overworked,

00:22:45.125 --> 00:22:48.876
starved and virtually
treated as slaves.

00:22:51.083 --> 00:22:53.959
And even beneath them were
the Gypsies and the Jews,

00:22:53.959 --> 00:22:56.999
the political and
racial deportees.

00:22:57.292 --> 00:23:00.125
Those who weren\'t immediately
killed were left to die,

00:23:00.125 --> 00:23:02.250
literally of exhaustion.

00:23:02.584 --> 00:23:06.667
The Nazis called it
\"Extermination through labor.\"

00:23:06.667 --> 00:23:09.584
[somber music]

00:23:15.999 --> 00:23:19.542
This is a stone quarry
at the Mauthausen camp.

00:23:19.999 --> 00:23:21.999
The camps were
guarded by the SS,

00:23:21.999 --> 00:23:24.209
but in the large
factories and offices,

00:23:24.209 --> 00:23:26.375
it was the German
workers themselves,

00:23:26.375 --> 00:23:30.918
who were in charge
of disciplining
recalcitrant foreigners.

00:23:31.667 --> 00:23:33.709
Historian Stephan Berger.

00:23:33.709 --> 00:23:37.626
There is clear evidence
that in the war,

00:23:37.626 --> 00:23:41.876
many German workers benefited
from the enslavement

00:23:41.876 --> 00:23:45.501
of roughly 7 million
foreign workers

00:23:45.501 --> 00:23:50.167
because the existence of
this army of slave laborers

00:23:50.167 --> 00:23:53.626
meant that German workers
often had the opportunities

00:23:53.626 --> 00:23:59.667
of progressing in the
hierarchy of the factory order,

00:23:59.999 --> 00:24:05.083
becoming foremen or having
better positions and better pay.

00:24:05.334 --> 00:24:07.459
And I think that is something

00:24:07.459 --> 00:24:11.292
where the German workers
benefited from the racism

00:24:11.292 --> 00:24:14.667
of the regime and where
they also often bought

00:24:14.667 --> 00:24:16.250
into the racism of the regime,

00:24:16.250 --> 00:24:18.000
because of course
they needed to justify

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:19.876
to themselves what
they were doing.

00:24:19.876 --> 00:24:23.626
And the racism of the regime
was a kind of handy explanation

00:24:23.626 --> 00:24:29.042
that they could use in order
to justify what was going on.

00:24:30.999 --> 00:24:32.999
In the mining regions
of France and Belgium,

00:24:32.999 --> 00:24:35.751
memories of the great
conflicts of the 1930s

00:24:35.751 --> 00:24:37.250
were still fresh in the mind,

00:24:37.250 --> 00:24:40.083
in spite of the
German occupation.

00:24:40.626 --> 00:24:41.959
In the Spring of 1941,

00:24:41.959 --> 00:24:46.667
200,000 miners downed tools
on both sides of the border.

00:24:46.667 --> 00:24:48.751
It was the biggest
strike of the whole

00:24:48.751 --> 00:24:50.667
of the Second World War.

00:24:54.999 --> 00:24:57.959
Dozens of striking
workers were shot dead

00:24:57.959 --> 00:24:58.834
and hundreds deported

00:24:58.834 --> 00:25:01.667
to the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp.

00:25:01.667 --> 00:25:04.459
More than half of
them never returned.

00:25:08.999 --> 00:25:13.459
After German troops invaded
the Soviet Union in June, 1941,

00:25:13.459 --> 00:25:14.999
communists took
over the leadership

00:25:14.999 --> 00:25:18.167
of the resistance to
the occupying power.

00:25:19.999 --> 00:25:20.999
Strike.

00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:24.417
Propaganda.

00:25:26.334 --> 00:25:29.626
Sabotage. Armed struggle.

00:25:30.999 --> 00:25:33.334
In Italy, the major
turning point came

00:25:33.334 --> 00:25:35.751
in the summer of 1943,

00:25:35.751 --> 00:25:37.584
when the allies
landed in the south

00:25:37.584 --> 00:25:39.250
and brought down the
fascist government,

00:25:39.250 --> 00:25:42.542
pushing the Germans back
up to the industrial north.

00:25:42.542 --> 00:25:45.999
A large number of workers at
the Terni steelworks joined up

00:25:45.999 --> 00:25:47.751
with the communist
partisan brigade,

00:25:47.751 --> 00:25:50.209
who were based in
the mountain regions.

00:25:50.209 --> 00:25:53.250
Among them was Dante Bartolini,

00:25:53.250 --> 00:25:55.667
who wrote the brigade\'s anthem.

00:25:55.667 --> 00:26:00.125
[man singing brigade\'s anthem]

00:26:19.209 --> 00:26:20.999
When the war ended in 1945

00:26:20.999 --> 00:26:23.250
with a defeat of the
Nazis and fascists,

00:26:23.250 --> 00:26:26.167
the partisan brigade, who
were chiefly communists,

00:26:26.167 --> 00:26:30.250
decided it was the right time
to take things even further.

00:26:31.542 --> 00:26:34.667
Alfredo Filipponi,
military commander

00:26:34.667 --> 00:26:35.459
of the Gramsci brigade,

00:26:35.459 --> 00:26:38.999
recounts a discussion that he
had with Palmiro Togliatti,

00:26:38.999 --> 00:26:41.999
the head of the Italian
Communist Party.

00:26:42.542 --> 00:26:47.459
[Alfredo speaks
foreign language]

00:27:51.918 --> 00:27:53.999
This partisan chief\'s
authentic account

00:27:53.999 --> 00:27:55.751
is all the more fascinating

00:27:55.751 --> 00:27:57.417
because the proverb
attributed to Lenin

00:27:57.417 --> 00:28:01.999
is actually an old peasant
proverb from the Terni region.

00:28:03.125 --> 00:28:05.999
Historian Alessandro Portelli.

00:28:05.999 --> 00:28:08.334
[Alexander speaks
foreign language]

00:28:08.334 --> 00:28:09.834
Attributing the phrase \"you have

00:28:09.834 --> 00:28:12.125
to shoot the thrush
when it\'s flying over\"

00:28:12.125 --> 00:28:13.876
to Lenin is priceless.

00:28:13.876 --> 00:28:16.918
Because in this part of
Italy- Tuscany, Umbria-

00:28:16.918 --> 00:28:18.999
which is traditionally
communist-

00:28:18.999 --> 00:28:20.876
everyone goes out hunting.

00:28:23.918 --> 00:28:28.542
So all this- socialism, the
proverb, Lenin and hunting-

00:28:28.542 --> 00:28:30.334
is one and the same.

00:28:35.584 --> 00:28:40.667
And I have to say that the
idea of an alternative society,

00:28:40.667 --> 00:28:42.999
steeped in the
experiences of the popular

00:28:42.999 --> 00:28:46.834
and working classes
has all been destroyed

00:28:46.834 --> 00:28:49.250
over the last two generations.

00:28:53.959 --> 00:28:56.042
Berlin, 1945.

00:28:56.417 --> 00:28:58.167
Who would have thought that it
would be in this ruined city,

00:28:58.167 --> 00:29:00.834
that the ambitious dream
of the Italian partisans

00:29:00.834 --> 00:29:04.083
to establish socialism
would come true.

00:29:04.083 --> 00:29:07.042
[upbeat music]

00:29:11.459 --> 00:29:12.375
1952.

00:29:12.375 --> 00:29:14.042
Workers on a building
site in East Berlin

00:29:14.042 --> 00:29:16.999
are admiring the apartment
block constructed for them

00:29:16.999 --> 00:29:18.999
by the new socialist regime,

00:29:18.999 --> 00:29:21.709
put in place by
the Soviet Union.

00:29:26.999 --> 00:29:28.999
This elegant, modern
and refined building,

00:29:28.999 --> 00:29:31.709
designed by the architect
Hermann Henselmann,

00:29:31.709 --> 00:29:35.167
was merely a prototype which
would not be developed.

00:29:35.167 --> 00:29:36.999
But the government
replicated this image

00:29:36.999 --> 00:29:39.999
on monumental murals as
a symbol of the promises

00:29:39.999 --> 00:29:42.292
made to the working classes.

00:29:43.459 --> 00:29:45.167
Promises of new,
material wellbeing,

00:29:45.167 --> 00:29:49.751
but also of a new status:
workers at last becoming masters

00:29:49.751 --> 00:29:52.834
of their lives in
a worker\'s state.

00:30:00.792 --> 00:30:03.542
Simultaneously, just
a stone\'s throw away,

00:30:03.542 --> 00:30:05.751
Bertolt Brecht was
staging the struggles

00:30:05.751 --> 00:30:09.125
of the Russian
proletariat under Tzarism.

00:30:09.125 --> 00:30:14.999
[Bertolt Brecht speaking
foreign language]

00:31:06.125 --> 00:31:08.999
If the workers in East Berlin
had had modern technology

00:31:08.999 --> 00:31:11.501
at their disposal, they
would\'ve stopped the film

00:31:11.501 --> 00:31:15.167
and rewound it to hear again
the strange word: strike.

00:31:15.167 --> 00:31:17.709
[Bertolt Brecht speaking
foreign language]

00:31:17.709 --> 00:31:20.292
In theory, it was a
word no longer supposed

00:31:20.292 --> 00:31:22.834
to be part of their vocabulary.

00:31:25.083 --> 00:31:28.083
Striking was still permitted
in capitalist countries,

00:31:28.083 --> 00:31:30.083
but on the other side
of the Iron Curtain,

00:31:30.083 --> 00:31:32.209
it was considered absurd.

00:31:32.709 --> 00:31:35.417
The working classes were
now in power, people said,

00:31:35.417 --> 00:31:39.334
and so they couldn\'t possibly
strike against themselves.

00:31:41.083 --> 00:31:41.999
And if workers in one

00:31:41.999 --> 00:31:43.999
of these nominally
socialist countries rebelled

00:31:43.999 --> 00:31:46.292
and made demands,
as in the old days,

00:31:46.292 --> 00:31:48.999
then they would be put
back in their place.

00:31:48.999 --> 00:31:51.751
As the Czech Communist
leader Zapotocky said,

00:31:51.751 --> 00:31:55.876
\"It\'s not because you\'re a
worker that anything goes.\"

00:31:55.876 --> 00:31:59.999
[bell ringing]
[upbeat music]

00:31:59.999 --> 00:32:01.542
And significantly
during marchers

00:32:01.542 --> 00:32:02.999
in support of the
workers\' state,

00:32:02.999 --> 00:32:05.959
it was no longer their
fists they held in the air,

00:32:05.959 --> 00:32:07.834
but portraits of their leaders.

00:32:07.834 --> 00:32:10.792
[upbeat music]

00:32:12.167 --> 00:32:15.999
The official press nicknamed
Prime Minister Zapotocky,

00:32:15.999 --> 00:32:18.292
\"The father of all workers.\"

00:32:18.292 --> 00:32:20.667
In a radio address in 1952,

00:32:20.667 --> 00:32:23.999
he wished their children
a happy Christmas.

00:32:24.459 --> 00:32:29.999
[Prime Minister Zapotocky
speaks foreign language]

00:33:30.834 --> 00:33:32.209
But workers in
socialist countries

00:33:32.209 --> 00:33:35.417
no longer believed
in Father Christmas.

00:33:35.417 --> 00:33:37.292
In 1953 in East Berlin,

00:33:37.292 --> 00:33:38.999
there was a revolt
against an increase

00:33:38.999 --> 00:33:42.042
in working hours with
no increase in salaries.

00:33:42.042 --> 00:33:45.083
[intense music]

00:33:45.584 --> 00:33:48.501
The workers\' uprising was
crushed by Soviet tanks,

00:33:48.501 --> 00:33:51.667
filmed by journalists
from West Berlin.

00:33:53.959 --> 00:33:54.999
In a moment of lucidity,

00:33:54.999 --> 00:33:58.042
Bertolt Brecht
offered this solution.

00:33:58.459 --> 00:34:00.292
\"Wouldn\'t it be
simpler,\" he wrote,

00:34:00.292 --> 00:34:02.999
\"For the government to
just dissolve the people

00:34:02.999 --> 00:34:04.584
and elect a new one?\"

00:34:07.999 --> 00:34:09.834
There was no foreign
press in Poznan,

00:34:09.834 --> 00:34:13.667
in socialist Poland,
in June 1956;

00:34:13.959 --> 00:34:16.000
only police officers
secretly taking photos

00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:20.000
of striking workers in the
Stalin Locomotive works.

00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:26.709
\"We want bread\", just
like in the 19th century.

00:34:27.876 --> 00:34:29.999
The strike escalated
into insurrection

00:34:29.999 --> 00:34:32.999
and the Polish army
had to intervene.

00:34:32.999 --> 00:34:36.876
57 people died, most
of them workers.

00:34:39.042 --> 00:34:40.999
It was workers once
again on the frontline,

00:34:40.999 --> 00:34:45.083
four months later, when
revolution broke out in Hungary.

00:34:45.375 --> 00:34:49.459
They were the first to take up
arms, calling for democracy,

00:34:51.792 --> 00:34:54.626
for Soviet troops to
leave, and for power

00:34:54.626 --> 00:34:57.999
to be given to workers\'
councils in factories.

00:35:02.709 --> 00:35:05.334
Workers were the last
to give up their arms,

00:35:05.334 --> 00:35:06.459
when the Soviet army came in

00:35:06.459 --> 00:35:10.999
and crushed the uprising,
causing 3000 deaths.

00:35:11.999 --> 00:35:15.999
Hungary 1956 was the last
time European workers

00:35:15.999 --> 00:35:19.209
took up arms to
demand their rights.

00:35:24.999 --> 00:35:26.999
Whereas in the East,
tanks were sent in

00:35:26.999 --> 00:35:30.000
to subdue rebellious
workers, in the West,

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:33.000
workers were pacified by
all the material comforts-

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:35.999
including their own car-
that they could now afford,

00:35:35.999 --> 00:35:39.209
thanks to a rise in
their standard of living.

00:35:40.292 --> 00:35:46.000
[alarm blaring]
[machine clanking]

00:35:52.584 --> 00:35:56.250
[Alessandro Portelli
speaks foreign language]

00:35:56.250 --> 00:35:58.459
This was when, for
the first time,

00:35:58.459 --> 00:36:02.501
workers could afford to
buy crystal chandeliers

00:36:02.501 --> 00:36:03.999
for their homes.

00:36:09.999 --> 00:36:11.918
It was what, we,
the middle-classes,

00:36:11.918 --> 00:36:14.834
considered the
height of bad taste.

00:36:16.209 --> 00:36:20.083
At that time, we were more
inspired by the pure lines

00:36:20.083 --> 00:36:23.042
and sobriety of Swedish design.

00:36:24.125 --> 00:36:26.959
Working-class houses,
on the other hand,

00:36:26.959 --> 00:36:30.000
were crammed with
trinkets and furniture.

00:36:31.292 --> 00:36:33.999
Why? As one worker told me:

00:36:33.999 --> 00:36:37.000
\"I grew up in a house where
there was one light bulb

00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:40.125
hanging on the wall,
like in a stable.\"

00:36:42.876 --> 00:36:46.792
In other words, from now
on, being superfluous

00:36:46.792 --> 00:36:49.667
was a way of asserting
one\'s dignity.

00:36:49.999 --> 00:36:53.125
Trying not to appear
poor, wherever possible.

00:36:55.125 --> 00:36:58.209
Personally, I don\'t
take sugar in my coffee,

00:36:58.209 --> 00:37:00.000
but when I used to
interview workers,

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:03.959
they would always put three
spoonfuls of sugar in the cup.

00:37:03.959 --> 00:37:04.751
It was a way of saying:

00:37:04.751 --> 00:37:07.542
\"See, now we can put
sugar in our coffee.\"

00:37:10.501 --> 00:37:12.999
1963, French workers are hearing

00:37:12.999 --> 00:37:14.626
some good news on television.

00:37:14.626 --> 00:37:20.501
[Reporter speaking gibberish]
[upbeat music]

00:37:21.999 --> 00:37:23.667
Working class districts,
they are told,

00:37:23.667 --> 00:37:25.751
are being replaced
by apartment blocks

00:37:25.751 --> 00:37:28.999
where a factory assembler can
live alongside a salesman,

00:37:28.999 --> 00:37:31.959
an engineer, or
a senior manager.

00:37:32.125 --> 00:37:34.999
And in the holiday resorts
on the Mediterranean coast,

00:37:34.999 --> 00:37:38.918
young metal workers can share
their Tahitian-style chalets

00:37:38.918 --> 00:37:41.876
with the daughters
of factory owners.

00:37:42.375 --> 00:37:43.334
And for the very first time,

00:37:43.334 --> 00:37:47.584
workers are told that the
working class no longer existed.

00:37:48.167 --> 00:37:53.959
[siren blaring]
[intense music]

00:37:59.334 --> 00:38:01.167
Nevertheless, this
was the heyday

00:38:01.167 --> 00:38:03.584
of the French working class.

00:38:03.584 --> 00:38:05.167
A workforce of 8 million people,

00:38:05.167 --> 00:38:11.375
37% of the French population,
but its makeup had changed.

00:38:11.792 --> 00:38:13.584
The majority in the buses
transporting Peugeot workers

00:38:13.584 --> 00:38:17.751
in Sochaux, were O.S.-
specialized workers.

00:38:17.751 --> 00:38:19.584
They were the least
qualified workers

00:38:19.584 --> 00:38:21.292
and the most exploited.

00:38:21.292 --> 00:38:23.417
Young men,
immigrants, and women.

00:38:23.417 --> 00:38:26.584
Cannon fodder for
the assembly lines.

00:38:27.626 --> 00:38:29.209
They became the most
radical elements

00:38:29.209 --> 00:38:32.626
in the workers\'
uprisings of 1968.

00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:36.042
[intense music]

00:38:36.626 --> 00:38:37.999
Contrary to popular opinion,

00:38:37.999 --> 00:38:40.375
the revolts did not
spring up unexpectedly

00:38:40.375 --> 00:38:42.125
in a lethargic France.

00:38:42.125 --> 00:38:44.250
Serious strikes
and violent clashes

00:38:44.250 --> 00:38:45.876
with police had taken place

00:38:45.876 --> 00:38:48.501
over the course
the previous year.

00:38:49.292 --> 00:38:51.292
But in May and June 1968,

00:38:51.292 --> 00:38:53.042
the country was
brought to a halt

00:38:53.042 --> 00:38:54.667
by the movement of strikes.

00:38:54.667 --> 00:38:57.626
The power of the workforce
was asserting itself,

00:38:57.626 --> 00:39:00.999
just like in 1936,
with added violence.

00:39:00.999 --> 00:39:03.999
The difference with
the situation in 1936,

00:39:03.999 --> 00:39:07.250
was that the radical
workers of 1968 faced off

00:39:07.250 --> 00:39:09.417
with a right-wing government.

00:39:09.999 --> 00:39:13.792
On June 11th in Sochaux,
clashes between the CRS

00:39:13.792 --> 00:39:17.334
and strikers lead to the
death of two workers.

00:39:20.999 --> 00:39:23.584
There were other images as well.

00:39:23.999 --> 00:39:25.125
[Christian Corouge
speaks foreign language]

00:39:25.125 --> 00:39:25.999
One woman living

00:39:25.999 --> 00:39:28.209
in an urban housing
project tells the story

00:39:28.209 --> 00:39:29.250
of when she was around 15,

00:39:29.250 --> 00:39:32.292
she went to see her father
on the barricades in Sochaux.

00:39:32.292 --> 00:39:35.167
And, in those days the zone
hadn\'t been built up yet,

00:39:35.167 --> 00:39:36.709
so, there were no boundaries,

00:39:36.709 --> 00:39:38.999
the fields just went
right up to the factory.

00:39:38.999 --> 00:39:39.999
And there was a farmer there,

00:39:39.999 --> 00:39:41.667
who\'d just finished
cutting in his field

00:39:41.667 --> 00:39:43.999
and had left his scythe
hanging from a tree.

00:39:43.999 --> 00:39:46.083
And the CRS were
chasing the kids,

00:39:46.083 --> 00:39:47.792
and one of them
grabbed the scythe.

00:39:47.792 --> 00:39:50.667
And this woman remembers
seeing the CRS officer running

00:39:50.667 --> 00:39:53.125
after the kids with
a scythe in his hand,

00:39:53.125 --> 00:39:54.250
just like in the Middle Ages,

00:39:54.250 --> 00:39:57.626
when people who had the
plague were chased away.

00:39:58.999 --> 00:40:01.125
This sort of memory,
when you think about it,

00:40:01.125 --> 00:40:03.083
well, it\'s quite something.

00:40:03.999 --> 00:40:07.292
I had other friends who
were about 15 or 16-

00:40:07.292 --> 00:40:09.292
girls who weren\'t
at school anymore,

00:40:09.292 --> 00:40:11.167
there was nothing for them-

00:40:11.167 --> 00:40:12.209
who met up at the factory gates,

00:40:12.209 --> 00:40:14.751
and went down to the
river Allan nearby-

00:40:14.751 --> 00:40:15.834
and filled buckets with stones,

00:40:15.834 --> 00:40:20.000
and took them back up to their
fathers, to throw at the CRS.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:20.999
Things like that.

00:40:20.999 --> 00:40:22.834
It\'s clear that the
workforce was then made up

00:40:22.834 --> 00:40:25.501
of different people
than it is today.

00:40:25.959 --> 00:40:28.876
Everyone took part, that\'s
just was how it was.

00:40:29.459 --> 00:40:30.751
Simple as that.

00:40:35.999 --> 00:40:39.459
[children laughing]

00:40:45.459 --> 00:40:47.959
Here\'s a factory in
France being occupied

00:40:47.959 --> 00:40:50.125
at the end of the 1970\'s.

00:40:54.709 --> 00:40:57.375
It was a time of disobedience
in the workplace,

00:40:57.375 --> 00:40:59.834
the rejection of
factory organization,

00:40:59.834 --> 00:41:00.999
with all its constraints,

00:41:00.999 --> 00:41:04.375
talks between employers\'
and union leaders.

00:41:05.792 --> 00:41:07.999
At the Lip watchmakers\'
factory in Besancon,

00:41:07.999 --> 00:41:12.167
in Eastern France, the
conflict went on for years.

00:41:12.584 --> 00:41:14.709
The female workers
reinvented self-government,

00:41:14.709 --> 00:41:18.709
they started production up
again and became self-employed.

00:41:19.125 --> 00:41:21.792
And they started
speaking out about it.

00:41:21.792 --> 00:41:26.334
[Woman speaks foreign language]

00:42:38.334 --> 00:42:41.250
[somber music]

00:42:41.959 --> 00:42:43.999
The era of workers\' revolt ended

00:42:43.999 --> 00:42:45.918
in a major historical event.

00:42:45.918 --> 00:42:49.709
It took place, against all
odds in socialist Poland,

00:42:49.709 --> 00:42:52.501
at the Lenin
shipyards of Gdansk.

00:42:52.918 --> 00:42:53.999
Workers had gone on strike led

00:42:53.999 --> 00:42:56.792
by crane operator
Anna Walentynowicz

00:42:56.792 --> 00:42:57.999
and electrician Lech Walesa,

00:42:57.999 --> 00:43:00.751
in order to be able to
create a free trade union,

00:43:00.751 --> 00:43:02.999
independent from
the ruling party.

00:43:02.999 --> 00:43:06.918
This was absolutely unheard
of in the Soviet block.

00:43:09.250 --> 00:43:13.626
The new trade union quickly
attained 10 million members.

00:43:13.999 --> 00:43:16.042
It was spokesman,
Karol Modzelewski,

00:43:16.042 --> 00:43:19.375
a dissident historian,
who came up with the name,

00:43:19.375 --> 00:43:22.999
\"Solidarnosc,\"
meaning solidarity.

00:43:25.792 --> 00:43:27.999
[Karol Modzelewski
speaks foreign language]

00:43:27.999 --> 00:43:28.834
It was a revolution.

00:43:28.834 --> 00:43:30.918
There\'s no question about it.

00:43:32.667 --> 00:43:35.709
We felt like characters
in the Delacroix painting

00:43:35.709 --> 00:43:38.292
\"Liberty leading the people.\"

00:43:40.999 --> 00:43:45.292
It was a real state of
mind, several million of us,

00:43:45.292 --> 00:43:47.709
a huge mass of people giving up

00:43:47.709 --> 00:43:50.334
their everyday
conformist behavior,

00:43:52.876 --> 00:43:55.417
to become masters of
their own destiny,

00:43:55.417 --> 00:43:59.459
of their own factories,
of their own comrades,

00:43:59.459 --> 00:44:01.125
of their own country.

00:44:05.250 --> 00:44:08.751
With hindsight,
now that I\'m older,

00:44:09.042 --> 00:44:13.999
I now know that revolution
is either impossible,

00:44:14.834 --> 00:44:16.584
or it turns bad.

00:44:19.918 --> 00:44:23.042
But revolutionaries
mustn\'t know this,

00:44:23.375 --> 00:44:27.417
their ignorance is what
gives them impetus-

00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:29.834
what gives them wings-

00:44:32.999 --> 00:44:37.999
and it\'s what provides them
with the necessary strength

00:44:37.999 --> 00:44:41.209
to demand the impossible.

00:44:45.042 --> 00:44:46.334
All Poles at the time were aware

00:44:46.334 --> 00:44:49.999
of the images of Soviet
tanks, in August 1968,

00:44:49.999 --> 00:44:52.999
crushing the Prague
Spring protest movement,

00:44:52.999 --> 00:44:53.999
which had been an attempt

00:44:53.999 --> 00:44:56.918
to bring democratic
reforms to Czechoslovakia.

00:44:57.125 --> 00:44:59.999
The only question in
Polish minds was if

00:44:59.999 --> 00:45:01.042
and when it would be their turn,

00:45:01.042 --> 00:45:04.999
and if the tanks would
be Soviet or Polish ones.

00:45:07.876 --> 00:45:09.250
They were Polish.

00:45:09.999 --> 00:45:11.999
On December 13th 1981,

00:45:11.999 --> 00:45:15.417
General Jaruzelski
decreed martial law.

00:45:15.999 --> 00:45:19.999
Solidarnosc was banned,
and its leaders imprisoned.

00:45:21.584 --> 00:45:24.751
Around a hundred
factories went on strike.

00:45:24.751 --> 00:45:26.999
Workers occupied
the factory floors.

00:45:26.999 --> 00:45:28.999
But the army\'s tanks
crashed through the walls

00:45:28.999 --> 00:45:33.042
of the buildings, causing
unarmed strikers to flee.

00:45:33.542 --> 00:45:35.542
They had no other choice
than to give up the fight

00:45:35.542 --> 00:45:38.167
and return to work the next day.

00:45:38.709 --> 00:45:40.542
[Karol Modzelewski
speaks foreign language]

00:45:40.542 --> 00:45:43.667
After that there were
street demonstrations.

00:45:43.667 --> 00:45:45.125
But that\'s different.

00:45:45.626 --> 00:45:48.250
In a street demonstration,
everyone is separate,

00:45:48.250 --> 00:45:53.042
there\'s no collective cause,
demonstrators are just a crowd.

00:45:53.542 --> 00:45:56.834
Once the demonstration is
over, the crowd disperses.

00:45:58.292 --> 00:45:59.417
Nothing connects the members

00:45:59.417 --> 00:46:01.751
of this crowd for future events.

00:46:02.375 --> 00:46:07.292
They don\'t represent a
collective, or a community.

00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:12.459
For a strike to work,

00:46:12.459 --> 00:46:15.042
it has to be carried
out within a community.

00:46:15.042 --> 00:46:16.751
If the community
no longer exists,

00:46:16.751 --> 00:46:19.667
it\'s the end of the
strike. It\'s over.

00:46:21.792 --> 00:46:24.501
[somber music]

00:46:24.501 --> 00:46:25.459
Three years after the youngest

00:46:25.459 --> 00:46:28.584
major trade union was
crushed in the Eastern block,

00:46:28.584 --> 00:46:30.042
it was the turn
of the oldest one

00:46:30.042 --> 00:46:32.250
in the west to be defeated.

00:46:33.083 --> 00:46:35.999
The NUM, the British
National Union of Miners

00:46:35.999 --> 00:46:38.292
launched a huge strike in 1984,

00:46:38.292 --> 00:46:42.375
with the aim of preventing
the closure of twenty pits.

00:46:43.626 --> 00:46:45.918
Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher had been waiting

00:46:45.918 --> 00:46:48.375
for this opportunity
to reduce the power

00:46:48.375 --> 00:46:50.459
of British trade unions.

00:46:52.999 --> 00:46:54.667
After a year-long confrontation,

00:46:54.667 --> 00:46:58.542
11,000 arrests and 200
convictions, the miners,

00:46:58.542 --> 00:47:01.167
having run out of
funds, returned to work,

00:47:01.167 --> 00:47:03.083
having obtained nothing.

00:47:05.167 --> 00:47:07.125
Socialism and ultra-liberalism,

00:47:07.125 --> 00:47:11.584
were for once unified in their
hatred of workers\' autonomy.

00:47:15.999 --> 00:47:17.999
Thereafter, it only remained

00:47:17.999 --> 00:47:20.959
for the Berlin Wall to collapse.

00:47:22.167 --> 00:47:25.626
How did you decide
to become a historian

00:47:25.626 --> 00:47:27.667
of the working class?

00:47:27.667 --> 00:47:33.459
Oh, I think that\'s
probably down to my dad.

00:47:34.501 --> 00:47:36.999
My dad worked on the
track in British Island,

00:47:36.999 --> 00:47:41.125
and what was then Standard
Triumph back in the day.

00:47:41.792 --> 00:47:44.999
And my dad would come
back home with stories

00:47:44.999 --> 00:47:49.334
of what it was like
to work on the track.

00:47:50.417 --> 00:47:52.626
And at one level you
could really get a sense

00:47:52.626 --> 00:47:53.918
of how much he enjoyed work.

00:47:53.918 --> 00:47:54.999
He was a bit of a workaholic.

00:47:54.999 --> 00:47:57.542
He always did overtime.

00:47:57.918 --> 00:48:00.667
But at another
level, another layer

00:48:01.999 --> 00:48:05.751
of my dad\'s work experience
was certainly alienation.

00:48:06.083 --> 00:48:09.209
Working on a mind
numbing production track

00:48:09.209 --> 00:48:10.876
in the car industry.

00:48:11.083 --> 00:48:15.999
But I think ever since,
probably ever since that time,

00:48:15.999 --> 00:48:17.125
I\'ve been really trying

00:48:17.125 --> 00:48:23.292
to understand my father\'s
life as a blue collar worker.

00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:25.876
What work meant to him.

00:48:25.999 --> 00:48:29.709
And also what the loss
of work meant to him.

00:48:29.709 --> 00:48:31.459
He was made redundant from

00:48:31.459 --> 00:48:35.250
that particular
factory aged then 45.

00:48:35.250 --> 00:48:39.125
He was a young man and
spent the last years

00:48:39.125 --> 00:48:44.999
of his life in insecure,
precarious jobs.

00:48:45.751 --> 00:48:47.918
Taxi driving for a while.

00:48:48.209 --> 00:48:51.542
Ended up as a
cleaner in a factory.

00:48:52.918 --> 00:48:58.792
And you could sense that
kind of deterioration

00:48:58.999 --> 00:49:02.999
and degradation and what
it meant also to lose work.

00:49:02.999 --> 00:49:03.999
And the rupture.

00:49:03.999 --> 00:49:05.792
Yeah, the rupture
that went along

00:49:05.792 --> 00:49:09.250
with my father being
made redundant,

00:49:09.250 --> 00:49:13.918
being thrown on the scrap
heap as he would\'ve said.

00:49:17.667 --> 00:49:19.334
\"Put on the scrap heap\":

00:49:19.334 --> 00:49:21.375
this has been the fate
of tens of thousands

00:49:21.375 --> 00:49:24.834
of Europeans workers
since the 1970\'s.

00:49:25.125 --> 00:49:27.876
It was when companies started
to desert the major regions

00:49:27.876 --> 00:49:30.459
that had been at the heart
of the industrial revolution,

00:49:30.459 --> 00:49:34.584
with their aging technology
and militant workforce.

00:49:35.167 --> 00:49:37.334
And they started to take
on workers from central

00:49:37.334 --> 00:49:39.999
and eastern Europe,
who were more docile

00:49:39.999 --> 00:49:41.792
and accepted lower pay.

00:49:41.999 --> 00:49:44.667
The same scarred landscapes
could be seen all over,

00:49:44.667 --> 00:49:48.167
in some cases converted
into tourist sites.

00:49:49.000 --> 00:49:52.375
Strange memorials, celebrating
both the exploitation

00:49:52.375 --> 00:49:54.999
as well as the pride
of the workers.

00:49:54.999 --> 00:49:59.000
Like this huge German steel
works, closed in 2004,

00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:01.626
and transformed into a museum.

00:50:03.999 --> 00:50:06.042
At the foot of this
tall blast furnace,

00:50:06.042 --> 00:50:08.999
there are footprints,
undoubtedly placed there

00:50:08.999 --> 00:50:10.999
to guide the visitors.

00:50:10.999 --> 00:50:11.999
But it\'s impossible not to think

00:50:11.999 --> 00:50:15.999
about those who used to
walk on this factory floor.

00:50:21.459 --> 00:50:24.209
This is a small shoemaking
factory in Romans,

00:50:24.209 --> 00:50:26.042
in the south of France.

00:50:26.042 --> 00:50:28.626
It\'s still surviving,
but in the workshop,

00:50:28.626 --> 00:50:30.542
most of the machines
have shut down

00:50:30.542 --> 00:50:32.334
and the chairs are empty.

00:50:36.626 --> 00:50:38.999
Yet, this image is deceptive.

00:50:38.999 --> 00:50:40.999
Workers in France
still represent a fifth

00:50:40.999 --> 00:50:44.667
of the active population,
but they\'ve become invisible,

00:50:44.667 --> 00:50:47.999
scattered around,
split up, devalued,

00:50:47.999 --> 00:50:51.626
or \"uberized\" as
the phrase goes.

00:50:52.375 --> 00:50:55.000
It\'s their identity
that has disappeared.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:57.584
An identity that
became a conscience,

00:50:57.584 --> 00:51:00.876
and a conscience that
became a strength.

00:51:01.459 --> 00:51:03.918
[Joseph Ponthus speaks
foreign language]

00:51:03.918 --> 00:51:05.125
People no longer
define themselves

00:51:05.125 --> 00:51:08.042
as working class, they
define themselves as,

00:51:08.042 --> 00:51:09.542
not even really as
workers anymore.

00:51:09.542 --> 00:51:13.083
They define themselves
by the job that they do.

00:51:14.709 --> 00:51:17.999
So it could be, within
the same fish-factory,

00:51:17.999 --> 00:51:19.999
those who work \"in shrimps,\"

00:51:19.999 --> 00:51:21.292
or those who work \"in fish.\"

00:51:21.292 --> 00:51:24.918
In unloading, in loading,
in deep-freezing.

00:51:25.542 --> 00:51:27.250
In breading fish.

00:51:28.250 --> 00:51:31.918
In an abattoir, there are
those who work in pork,

00:51:31.918 --> 00:51:34.792
in beef, in carcass
cutting, in de-boning,

00:51:34.792 --> 00:51:38.751
in slaughtering,
in offal and so on.

00:51:38.751 --> 00:51:40.501
There isn\'t even,
within the same factory,

00:51:40.501 --> 00:51:44.751
the notion of \"We\'re
all in this together.\"

00:51:45.125 --> 00:51:46.417
[Alessandro Portelli
speaks foreign language]

00:51:46.417 --> 00:51:48.999
An important Italian
anthropologist,

00:51:48.999 --> 00:51:51.709
Ernesto de Martino,
tells the story

00:51:51.709 --> 00:51:54.626
of a journey he
made in Calabria,

00:51:55.959 --> 00:51:58.999
when he gave a lift
to a local peasant,

00:51:58.999 --> 00:52:01.000
who offered to show him the way.

00:52:03.999 --> 00:52:05.250
But when the peasant realized

00:52:05.250 --> 00:52:08.999
that he could no longer
see the village bell tower,

00:52:08.999 --> 00:52:10.751
he started to panic.

00:52:11.375 --> 00:52:14.000
Today, the bell tower
has disappeared.

00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:15.876
It might have been
the Soviet Union,

00:52:15.876 --> 00:52:18.292
or just the Party,
or the factory.

00:52:18.292 --> 00:52:21.999
But the fact is, that
the bell tower has gone.

00:52:22.209 --> 00:52:24.250
And we are all just
like the poor peasant,

00:52:24.250 --> 00:52:27.042
whether we\'re
working class or not.

00:52:27.375 --> 00:52:28.584
[Karol Modzelewski
speaks foreign language]

00:52:28.584 --> 00:52:31.125
In my view, it was all
a myth, and still is.

00:52:31.125 --> 00:52:33.709
Or at least, the
memory of a myth.

00:52:36.709 --> 00:52:39.042
The worker?
Yes.

00:52:40.125 --> 00:52:42.959
Symbolizing what?
Sorry?

00:52:42.959 --> 00:52:45.000
A myth symbolizing what?

00:52:45.751 --> 00:52:51.459
A myth representing
the embodiment

00:52:52.375 --> 00:52:58.417
of the oppressed and those
who carried hope forwards.

00:53:04.709 --> 00:53:07.292
The hope that change would
get rid of oppression,

00:53:07.292 --> 00:53:09.375
and, if you like, you could
say this was the statement

00:53:09.375 --> 00:53:14.584
of beliefs of revolutionaries
of the 20th century.

00:53:15.501 --> 00:53:16.709
I don\'t know if
the working class

00:53:16.709 --> 00:53:22.626
will ever be reassembled but
it\'s an endangered species.

00:53:26.250 --> 00:53:29.209
Maybe not irretrievably,
or completely.

00:53:29.209 --> 00:53:31.250
But endangered nevertheless.

00:53:34.459 --> 00:53:36.167
And that\'s a problem.

00:53:36.501 --> 00:53:39.501
Its extinction would be
a very serious problem.

00:53:39.501 --> 00:53:43.999
For all of us, all
of the human race.

00:53:48.334 --> 00:53:51.751
The automated world throws
up serious problems.

00:53:52.626 --> 00:53:54.999
And so does globalization, too.

00:53:55.918 --> 00:53:57.125
Real problems.

00:53:57.667 --> 00:54:00.292
But I can\'t really predict
what\'s going to happen,

00:54:00.292 --> 00:54:01.542
because I\'m not a prophet.

00:54:01.542 --> 00:54:04.999
And I don\'t want
to be a prophet.

00:54:07.417 --> 00:54:11.751
[upbeat instrumental music]