PHOTOGRAPH: PAT GREENHOUSE/THE BOSTON GLOBE/GETTY IMAGES Last Friday was International Workers Day, popularly known as May Day, and as such a number of workers in the United States staged a walkout to protest working conditions during the time of COVID 19. Workers from Amazon, Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Instacart, and many other companies picketed poor health and safety conditions, as well as low wages. Labour activity of this scale is rare in the United States; working class solidarity is not what it is in Europe, and the government has conspired with corporations to make unions difficult to form and unpopular among many workers. The corporate owned media did little to cover these demonstrations, choosing instead to show heavily armed reactionaries calling for states to end the lockdown, a move that will needlessly lead to thousands of more people dying. It was in this context that I watched Made in Dagenham (2011). ...
Malcolm Coates