The U.S. Dept. of Labor defines Labor Day as “an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers.” Today, most workers feel like only the corporate overlords and greedy billionaires have a reason to celebrate when we labor.
Some will gripe but continue to labor, some will quit, become entrepreneurial and start their own businesses, and some will strike, stopping all work activities until ‘the man’ will acknowledge the necessary symbiotic relationship between employer and employee and achieve an acceptable compromise for both parties. Work stoppages, slow-downs, sabotage, or any action deemed in opposition to ruling authority was, once upon a time, commonly referred to as ‘sticking it to the man!’
In America, Labor Day 2023 has taken on deeper significance for thousands of working class citizens. Typically a day off where we enjoy the beaches or barbecues, family gatherings and discounted shopping, for many of us, this Labor Day was another in the long succession of days off that we continue to experience as a result of work stoppages across the US.
128 days into the Writer’s Guild Strike that set the entertainment world on edge (May 2, 2023), and 55 days into the Screen Actors Guild strike that officially shuttered my last production (July 14, 2023), this historic double strike has sent Hollywood workers and the ancillary businesses that support it into a nosedive that has no end in sight.
But we are not alone!
The Detroit Auto Workers Union has officially gone on strike. American Airlines flight attendants authorized strikes for their members should talks fail. UPS narrowly avoided a strike action by acquiescing to their drivers’ demands. Teachers in Washington state, locomotive employees in Pennsylvania, and Las Vegas food service workers are all engaged in battle with ‘the man’.
Not just the US, but workers all over the world are fighting for their rights – department store and train rail employees in Japan, doctors and university professors in the UK, sanitation workers in Paris, etc.
Whether in opposition of your boss, school administration, local government, or world leaders, today, we celebrate people around the world rising up to fight for their rights, with our collection of ‘Stick It To The Man!‘ movies:
Philip Jean-Pierre suggests:
(released in 1980)
While this movie is not necessarily about strikes and unions, it was about workers rights in the workplace. Honestly it was the first movie of its kind I saw. And a cast that of it’s time represented a segment, if not all, of the population that believed and fought for their rights.
Monique Pearl suggests:
(released June 30, 1989)
Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee is so 1989 Brooklyn. It’s so Brooklyn, I can smell the pizza through my screen and alllllmost hear the rumbling of the D train outside. Every single frame does an impeccable job at immersing us into the heat of that world – not just because it is the hottest day of the year, but also because people are heated. Tensions are running high. And a confluence of personal conflicts, insults, and lack of understanding boils over into police violence, murder and rioting.
Probably one of the most controversial and polarizing films to come out since D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, critics at the time accused Lee of being incendiary and the film of potentially causing Black people to run out in the streets and riot. But no, the police, the government, ‘the man’ has always given us enough reasons on their own…
‘Let me say as I’ve always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. … But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?”
Even with some problematic depictions of female, and mentally challenged characters and cringe-worthy use of ethnic slurs, DTRT is still recommended viewing.
Alice Miechi Li suggests:
“Warrior” (on Max)
currently on Season 3
While much of the discourse on “Warrior” on Max centers around the incredible multi-faceted representation of its Asian characters set in 1800s San Francisco Chinatown; it’s also a nuanced historical study on the “crabs in a barrel” syndrome that continues to plague the working classes of all ethnicities today. The two main arch-nemeses—Ah Sahm, a Chinese gangster and folk hero for the residents of Chinatown, and Dylan Leary, an Irish mob leader and labor unionist—are often pitted against each other by upper-crust politicians and businessmen who profit off the enmity between the Chinese and Irish laborers. In this tale as old as time, one can’t help but idealistically hope that these rival factions will eventually realize they have more in common with each other than with their oppressors and unite for the good of their people.
Meinberg suggests:
(released January 20, 2018)
Meinberg recommends the movie Sorry to Bother You from Boots Riley and starring Lakeith Stanfield. It centers around Stanfield’s character taking a job at a call center and after he learns more about the abusive labor practices there, he joins in an effort to unionize. The movie demonstrates fairly realistic organizing practices and the ways that management seeks to undermine those efforts, before moving into more abstract and symbolic territory.
Sherin Nicole suggests:
(released August 13, 1997)
Although it’s not a strike movie, The Full Monty is all about labor and what happens after an industrial city loses its industry. A group of out-of-work steelworkers have been stripped of everything except their dignity (and some of them have lost that too). When one of the group needs money to see his son, the rest of them band together to take it all off! That’s what labor is about, a group of workers coming together for the good of the whole and to make a better life for the next generation.
Kat Bittner Suggests:
(released May 19, 2000)
In Billy Elliot, the secondary plot is as equally heart-wrenching as the main story. The harsh realities of trying to survive in North England during a coal miner’s strike ultimately pits Billy’s father and brother on opposite sides of the picket line. The movie doesn’t condemn either man’s actions rather it emphasizes with their motives to do what’s best for them. The father to get his youngest son out of their town by going to a prestigious ballet school. The brother a livable wage for the coal miners. In a better world, both brothers should be able to live a good life whether or not their ambitions take them beyond the borders of their hometown.
Renee Brown suggests:
(released December 12, 2001)
How about Ocean’s Eleven, Rioters?
But, Renee, there isn’t a labor union or strike involved in Ocean’s Eleven! Well, let’s put aside the fact that it IS about a group of people trying to take down (quite literally) “The Man”—and let’s focus on the adorable little side plot with Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk (Scott Caan). Bet you forgot about that, didn’t you? They go to Mexico and infiltrate a die making factory, and by the end of their time there they have encouraged the factory to rise up and unionize! A tiny nod to unfair labor practices in a larger “little guy” takes on a “big guy” movie!
Drew Bittner suggests:
(released August 13, 2021)
FREE GUY with Ryan Reynolds is a stealth “stick it to the man” story.
Reynolds plays Guy, a non-player character in a violent open world game, who unexpectedly achieves sentience. He realizes he’s in a game… and a girl he’s come to love needs to break out of the game’s limits to win in the real world. So…
He rallies ALL of the game’s non-player characters to basically go on strike. He tells them the stakes and has them sit out the coming battle, so that the evil Antwan (Taika Waititi) can’t use them against Guy and his girl.
On that basis, unionizing the NPCs and staging a walkout makes FREE GUY an improbable “stick it to the man” story!
RIOTUS 