Laborfest: Films: Scavengers, Producing Just Garments, Labour Days

Three labor films:
"The Scavengers": In Turkish and Kurdish with English subtitles: Hundreds of people who have been pushed out of their Kurdish village Ördekli Kotran's in Hakkari during 1994 are still in a battle for survival. Their work is collecting paper for recycling from the garbage in the center of Ankara. In 2001, a group of these workers started to video record their daily lives. They documented the suffering as a result of their forced migration and their struggle against unregulated face of capitalism in the capital city of Turkey. Their work tells the story of those people - from a 13 years old child looking after his family in the garbage of Ankara to an old man being dismissed from his village at the age of 60 with their only resources being their labor. Despite forced migration, alienation and degradation, they are proud of what they do.

"Producing Just Garments" 500 workers of the Textile Union STIT are forced to occupy and run their factory after the bosses pulled out in an effort to destroy the union. Forming a workers’ cooperative, they face illegal firings and the might of international capital.

"Labour Days" A Canadian movie which takes us through the history of the company town and how the workers began to organize and fight for their rights. Twenty workers talk about what a union means to them from protecting their healthcare and safety on the job to fighting discrimination and harassment on the job.