ABC da Greve (ABC of Strike) 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 composed the largest industrial park of South America. (Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano).
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 and preceded the country’s political amnesty and redemocratization. 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 two-term President of Brazil, provoking major structural changes in Brazilian society. Lula was recently re-elected for his third term as President of Brazil.
This screening will have a bilingual English/Portuguese post-film discussion, with activists from Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee, advanced Portuguese students from the Portuguese classes with Natalia de Campos / Syncretic Pleasures, via The People’s Forum, plus invited activists from Comitê Popular de Luta NJ-NY-PA, union members, and more!
Year: 1989 | Director: Leon Hirszman | Duration: 85 mins | Brazil
