Year: 1989 | Director: Leon Hirszman | Duration: 85 mins | Brazil
(Portuguese with English subtitles)
“ABC da Greve” is a 1989 Brazilian documentary film by Leon Hirszman, on the strikes of the ABC Region labor movement in the late 1970s. ABC stands for the three cities that surround São Paulo City, which once composed the largest industrial park of South America: Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul.
The film follows the metallurgical workers of the large transnational automobile factories located in the ABC Region, São Paulo in the late 1970s in their struggle for better wages and better living conditions. Filmed in 16 mm, ABC da Greve records the effervescence of the labor movement, which mobilized to carry out the first strikes in Brazil since 1968. These strikes preceded the country’s political amnesty and redemocratization and occurred during a brutal military dictatorship. The workers union was led by the then union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, who rose to found the Workers Party (PT), and during his two first terms as President of Brazil (2003-2010), provoked major structural changes in Brazilian society.
Lula is currently serving his third term as President of Brazil (2023-present). It is crucial for Lula to defeat the far right yet again in Presidential elections in Brazil in 2026. If elected, Lula will be the only Brazilian democratically-elected President for a fourth mandate.
We bring back this film in a time when mass workers mobilizations and mass strikes are sorely necessary in the United States. It will be followed by a discussion* on labor unions, people’s power and organized political movement, with invited co-discussants from the Party for Socialism & Liberation, Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee, local unions, and upper intermediate students from the Portuguese for Social Transformation classes taught by Natalia de Campos/ Syncretic Pleasures at The People’s Forum
*This screening will have a bilingual English/Portuguese post-film discussion.
Anyone is welcome. This is a free screening.
A suggested donation of $5 and up will benefit The People’s Forum fundraiser for the construction of its new and permanent home.
