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Title: WHAT ABOUT THE WORKERS?

Reference number: 0913

Date: 1965*

Production company: Mithras Films

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 34.34 mins

Description: A history of the British Trade Union Movement since 1880.

Teaching notes held at National Library of Scotland Moving image Archive.

Credits: p. Maurice Hatton
ed. Dai Vaughan
w. Elizabeth Kenrick
comm. s. Henryn Livings
m. Carl Davis played by Brian Dexter
ph. David Muir
res. ass. Pat Dwyer
Compiled with film, photographs and assistance from the BBC, British Film Institute, Communist Party Organisation, Co-operative Society, Garment Workers Union, Gas Council, Hulton Picture Library, Mansell Collection, National Coal Board, National Film Archive, TUC, Visnews, Warner-Pathe.

Shotlist: Credits. Compilation of B/W drawings and stills which illustrate the social and political conditions which led to the development of the Trade Union power and the Labour Party: contrasts in the life-style of rich and poor, depiction of violent disruptions leading to the formation of the Gas Workers and General Workers Union in 1889, the formation of the dock workers union (8.28) stills of James Keir Hardy, elected MP in 1892. Stills and drawing illustrating the rise of the Labour Party (10.09) shots of factory workers leaving a factory (10.25) shots on surface of unidentified colliery and shots below ground of the miners at work on the coal face (10.41) shots of women pushing coal wagons at surface level (10.49) stills of early miners' strikes (11.20) the Liverpool dock strike in 1911 (11.44) still of a train being attacked by strikers (12.04) film of supply wagons moving under police protection in London during dockers, railwaymen and transportmen's strike (12.34) shots of an industrial skyline, factory chimneys (12.38) general shots of men at work, including men at work in locomotive works (13.05) stills illustrating the support given to strikers by their families. The office workers fom their own union (13.20) shots of policemen on horseback busy controlling a large crowd. Busy street scenes (13.47) Drawings and stills of Keir Hardy making a speech at Trafalgar Square on the occasion of the outbreak of World War I (14.09) film of volunteers signing on for army duty (14.29) shots of soldiers as they march through city streets and leave on a train (14.40) film of women engaged in factory work during the war (15.02) shots of Lloyd George on a factory visit (15.31) film of mass meeting in Glasgow (15.26) shots of a riot in George Square (15.56) soldiers returning at the end of the war. Celebrations and scenes at a fun-fair (16.55) ext. a factory and shots of men at work inside on war assembly line (17.15) trading in a street market (17.24) trade union marches (17.44) shots as police battle with demonstrators. Shots of tanks amongst the crowds of people (18.33) film and stills of the unemployed in the street (19.17) shots of miners at coal face and working on the surface (19.34) shots of surface buildings (19.40) film and stills of the Miners' Strike 1921. Shots of the leaders meeting at Downing Street, marches in support of the strike and shots of the Union leaders and the mine owners (22.41) the General Strike 1926. Shots of empty factories, unused machinery, busy traffic, people on the streets, volunteers and troops as they take over the strikers' work, troops clearing the streets and the strikers preventing supplies from moving (25.31) shots as strikers attack a tram in Glasgow (25.37) similar scenes in Newcastle (25.58) shots of men collecting their strike pay (26.40) shots of miners on a march and outside their homes (27.30) shots of busy labour exchanges and men standing on street corner (27.50) Communist Party demonstrations. Shots of Ramsay McDonald, the Prime Minister (29.17) Hunger march from a town in the north of England down to London (29.50) shots of demolition of slum housing (30.12) shots of fair-ground (30.17) shots in car and arms factories. Bombs are dropped. shots of bomb damage on the ground. Shots of politicians (31.30) The General Election 1945. Clement Attlee and his cabinet. Stills of politicians, Trade Union leaders and Union members (34.07) ecs (34.34)