Saturday, September 17, 2005

Jean Donahue: From the Shadows of Power

This awarding winning documentary is a powerful story set in the coalfields of Appalachia, Wales and England. In 1990 producers Donohue and Johnson have created a work that uncannily foreshadows the recent brutal growth of global capitalism and its impact on local economies and communities. From the Shadows of Power is a dramatic and critical look at the beginnings of the globalization of the coal industry and the eminent destruction of traditional coalfield communities and labor institutions. It chronicles the rise of working class women's activism and the critical role they played in the watershed events of Britain's Great Miner's Strike of 1984-85 and the U.S. miner's strike against Pittston Coal Company in 1989, two of the most significant labor conflicts in the post-war era. The documentary features community economist Helen Lewis, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, women miners from the Coal Employment Project, women from Britain's Women Against Pit Closures and the National Union Of Miners' Arthur Scargill.

To Watch the Entire Documentary

No comments: