“Ken Loach’s work is a fantastic example of how to use art as a catalyst to express workers’ struggles and inspire others to take action,” says Guy Smith, President of Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) and also a musician. “Whether it’s a film, song, theatre, writing, pamphlets, leaflets, cartoons, many artistic disciplines can all play their part in sharing stories of workers, the labour movement, and creating a culture of resistance.”
Loach was AUPE’s special guest for our March Labour in Motion Movie Club. Not only did he talk about our March selection, Bread and Roses, he had plenty of advice for AUPE members based on his years as social justice movie maker and an important member of the UK’s New Left movement of the 1960s and 70s.
Considered the most successful director in the history of the Cannes Film Festival with two Palme d’Or and three Jury Prizes, at age 84, Loach has directed 27 films, six documentaries, and numerous TV films and episodes in his 50+ year career.
With an eye for social realism, Loach has been called the UK's foremost political filmmaker. His 1969 movie Kes is rated one of Top 10 best British films of all time while the British Film Institute declared his TV docudrama, Cathy Come Home, the second-best British TV show of all time.
“We are very good at saying what is wrong, we’re not good at saying: ‘This is the power we have’.”
Here are five key lessons from Ken Loach offered to AUPE members at the March Labour in Motion Movie night:
1. We are stronger than we (and they) think we are.
“We have strength [when we’re] organized and together. And I think that’s what we often miss: we are very good at saying what is wrong, we’re not good at saying, ‘This is the power we have.’ And that’s the point the mainstream media will never use.
“The mainstream media image of workers is as victims, and they’ll talk quite sentimentally about that, they’ll describe the poverty, they’ll describe the hardship … but what they will never say ‘together they have strength’. Because we do have strength. Organized, we have strength. Individually, we can be picked off. But together we have strength and that’s the message we have to get across.”
2. Small victories are just as important as big ones.
“What motivates people is reminding them of the injustice and any mention of a victory. People will fight if they feel they can win. If they feel they are going to lose, then it’s difficult. And that’s the skill of the organizer to get a victory, even a little victory. And judging how far you can go.
“And if you’re really winning, there’s always a question of do we press on or do we settle with what we’ve won so far. As well, there’s the principle that you fight for, union rights, secure wage, no exploitation, job security, you fight for those, but you’ve also got to judge it tactically. How do you put the employer on the back foot? For that, you need a strong union that will use its power.”
“I think that’s the basis of good union organizing. It’s also what filmmaking is about. You have to listen.”
3. Listen.
“I think that’s the basis of good union organizing. It’s also what filmmaking is about. You have to listen. You never go into a situation knowing the answers. You go and listen and respect the people that you are talking to.
“I think nothing puts people off more than someone coming and wagging their finger at them and telling them what to do. It begins by listening and finding what they care about and what they feel is wrong. And then helping to find a way so it becomes a union’s problem.”
4. Look outside of unions to enhance solidarity.
“Work with grassroots organizations. And that’s a really tough thing for old-fashioned unions to accept and to look for, but that’s a way forward now.
“I don’t know if it’s the same for you in Alberta. Now in Britain, we have a charity for providing food to people in poverty, we have a charity for unemployed people to barter their skills, there’s a charity for people in debt, there’s charities for homelessness. There are many large charities. We have to find those grassroots campaigns and join them in and for the union struggle, that’s really a way forward.”
“Work with grassroots organizations. And that’s a really tough thing for old-fashioned unions to accept and to look for, but that’s a way forward now.”
5. Those in power will never give up by choice, but we’re on the right side of history.
“They will never give up (their power) and they can’t, because their system depends on private profit and that depends on exploiting labour. We also have to remember that we are on the right side of history. But what’s different now to say, from 100 years ago, is now there’s an endgame. They are trashing the planet and we have to win, because if we don’t organize production in a way that protects a planet, that protects the people that do the work and gives us a sustainable life, we are destroying the planet for our children and our grandchildren.
“We are on the right side of history, and we need that moral strength to fight hard …. that’s why they keep telling us how weak we are. But you know we’re strong. We can win.”
“And the other sides know this, and some of them are pushing towards fascism, which is where they go when they are in trouble. But the only way we can change is by collective action, by owning collectively, by planning, by respecting each other and that means in the way we work and what we produce and how we produce it.
“So, the first thing, we are on the right side of history, and we need that moral strength to fight hard, and the second thing is they know we are strong, that’s why they keep telling us how weak we are. But you know we’re strong. We can win.”
AUPE’s next Labour in Motion Movie Club will be June 23 with Noam Chomsky who will be discussing his 2015 film Requiem for the American Dream. Follow this link for more information.