The word “archive” might seem like a word from another era, a term reserved for museums, but collectives such as labournet.tv demonstrate the relevance and necessity of archival work today – especially with tools such as the internet and the advent of the “digital footprint”. However, labournet.tv is still much more than just an archive, they are an active lens on the current landscape of workers’ struggles with a mission to record ongoing strikes, workplace conditions, and workers’ voices to provide extra support and visibility.
By existing online, the archive actively claims a corner of a public space where a significant side of reality, one often treated by mainstream news can be found. Workers, often vilified, simply demand a fair and dignified life in a system where much of our time and energy is spent working to survive.
Beyond documentation, labournet.tv fosters networks of support and awareness which is where some of the greatest value of their work lies. For example, after filming at the occupied GKN factory in Italy, labournet.tv stayed connected to the workers, helping with organizing tours in Germany and assisting with fundraising. Their mission is about more than just documenting stories; it's about concrete actions and long-term support to make a real impact alongside the films they produce.
To wrap up our Workers’ Summer with labournet.tv we met with two members of the collective, Iris and Carla, to get a little bit of insight from them about the methods and thought processes of labournet.tv. Their direct insights invite us to understand not just the content of these films, but the people and passion behind them.
Mia: How did you two start your involvement in the collective labournet.tv?
Carla: Back then I was a student. I was frustrated with my colleagues at the university for the lack of political discussion. So, when I saw online the crowd-funding trailer for the film project The Loud Spring, I contacted labournet.tv.
Besides studying, I did a lot of on-site and side jobs such as working in adult care. I wanted to have a stable political group connected to workplace issues that I could work with and also deal with the topics that I saw on an everyday basis, especially at the elderly care place where I worked.
I wasn’t that politicized back then, but then I got a little bit into unions, and, I began talking with my colleagues about what the benefits are and [our workplace] problems. I really liked this approach to using film to start a political conversation. So that’s how I joined.
Iris: In 2017 there was a screening series from labournet.tv called “Cinema Klassenkampfen” and they needed subtitles for an Italian film which I helped with. Since then I always had a soft spot for labournet.tv. I read the newsletters, but at that time I wasn’t involved directly. I was more involved in feminist groups, in Italy, too; everything about climate change or the environment was belittled. When I heard about the film The Loud Spring, I offered to volunteer. And then we organized two small tours. I think what labournet.tv does is very important because work is everything. We spend so much time at the workplace and people are always talking about it. They’re always talking about it, but they’re not taking the next step to organize or to address the important issues. Also, [they typically don’t] like to bring more difficult topics into this work [chat]. So this was missing for me. As soon as I was employed I became part of the union, but they never reached out to me or it was also hard for me to organize something because there was so much resistance and so little interest also, so little commitment.
Mia: What can you share about the current process for the collective? How does it approach the production of its films today? Specifically, how do you decide on a topic, and what steps lead from that initial idea to the final film?
Carla: It changes project by project. Now we made a film about strategies against the right in the workplace, and it was quite collaborative, I would say, compared to other projects. Johanna [one of the two founders] and I did interviews and editing, another person helped with filming, and Iris did the organization of the screenings and the communications with the different groups. I think Johanna had the initial idea that she wanted to interview one person, and then, from there, it went off, and we interviewed even more people than we thought of in the beginning. Everyone added a little bit.
There are also cases in which people ask us to make a video and then just one person does it on their own completely. Like, I just finished a video that I did together with one other person, but it wasn’t discussed so much in the collective how to do it or what to talk about.
I think with the bigger projects, like The Loud Spring, it’s a bit different because when it started, there were just two people. So Johanna just started it, and then slowly more and more people joined. But it was still the idea of one person who started it.
Mia: How big is the collective now?
Iris: It’s five people and it’s more stable, like without fluctuations, for one and a half years now.
Carla: But, there is a vast network of shadow people, too. Haha!
Mia: It’s quite common for the collective to be having a film project.
Iris: It’s the archive, but also–
Mia: Produces its films and media?
Iris: Yes, and of course, we can cover only a tiny, tiny part of what’s important, and we are also not commenting much on current news.
That’s not something that we do on our social media or videos. That’s not possible.
But maybe you also know about this workshop series at the start of September – empowerment, skill-sharing! So there is always at least one project going on.
Mia: So, basically, somebody in the collective finds a topic they are interested in and then everybody joins in or helps when they can?
Iris: Yes. We are not all filmmakers, but we support where we can. But maybe after the workshop, we will all be filmmakers.
Carla: I think it is like this: we do, from time to time, very short-strike films. They are just 2 to 4 minutes. If there is a strike happening we just go there and film, and this always happens very fast. One person hears about it and goes there and films. Ideally, two days later the film is done and uploaded. That always happens without any consultation process, because it always has to be fast, and the idea is to be quick during the ongoing strike and to publish during the ongoing strike. And when we have an idea we want to share with the group or want help with, we take it to the meetings.
Mia: I also wanted to know a bit about the research process. How do you find films from other groups or filmmakers that you want to present in the archive?
Iris: I have to say, in my experience, usually, they get in touch with us. With the screenings, with our collaborations, and with the archive selections. Normally it’s them bringing it to us.
I am not doing much research. Sometimes I contact some directors, and they seem to be interested, especially if we offer to do the synopsis, the subtitles, and the platforming. But they’re not always interested. The last three films or videos I worked on were offered to us.
So it’s usually a collaboration request.
Mia: How did you find the footage when needed, as for The Loud Spring?
Carla: In the rabbit holes of the internet haha! Everywhere! Some of the content Johanna already had because she had already started the research and there are so many platforms that also publish videos about workers’ struggles and many film databases.
Mia: What is the philosophy or how do you see capturing images of workers’ struggles and workers’ achievements? Why are these images so effective yet vulnerable?
Carla: For me, there are two parts to it. One is the archival part, where we keep the old footage and recreate this, “Bildergedächtnis”: a memory through the images so that knowledge and social movements don’t get lost.
At the same time, the idea is always to connect it to current struggles, to use the footage or the material in our archive and connect them to the present, to make them a tool. If you’re watching the writer's strike films now and seeing what they did three years ago, how they are trying to achieve a new right to strike, workers can use it for their struggles or protests.
We want to make the footage from the past a resource of knowledge for the present.
Images are more approachable than text. I was thinking about it the other day, that we had this event, like a book circle but with a movie.
Mia: You talked a little bit about the videos being tools, I would like to hear more about how you think an online archive and its videos – for example, labournet.tv – is a tool for collective empowerment or as a conversation igniter.
Carla: I think it is important that we not only make the videos but that we also support the groups over long periods. Like, for example, with this Italian company GKN [an occupied factory], we made the video one or two years ago – and we are still in contact – now they are doing a tour in Germany to meet people, and some of us are involved in that. It’s also about supporting some groups not only with the videos but also knowing the infrastructure in Germany, if the Italian group wants to come to Germany we can help them, also supporting with raising some funding. Money is always a good way to help, if you know how to raise funds here to support someone and or to help out; it's a very important parallel to the films. To not just have the ideas and the images, but also some concrete specific actions.
Iris: Yeah, because they know they can trust us and we have no agenda other than being on their side.
Mia: What is it about the workers’ struggles that makes them so marginalized, so kept in their corners – even on the internet, which is supposed to have everything very easily accessible. Why do you think these are easily lost or forgotten?
Carla: This is just one perspective, but social movements are very easy to disappear. They are very fluchtig [fleeting]. They are not stable all the time; structures are not fixed. Let's say there are some strikes, some you win or lose, and maybe it disappear again. People change a lot. People can only do so much. The nature of the struggles we are filming is that there are big ups and downs, which makes it easy for it to get lost again. The videos are a way to preserve it and to show it again and remind each other that something is going on. It’s just a little way to keep something going.
Iris: Johanna would say something like “There were always struggles and people fighting. They [the cameras] just weren’t paying attention.”
Mia: What do you see as some of the biggest struggles that workers are facing nowadays, based on your work?
Iris: We went to do a screening – it was in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and people there said, well it’s rural, so you work in agriculture, where there is not a big culture to organize. It’s not encouraged at all to organize. Also, the unions don’t have a presence. You may have to drive two hours to [the unions]. It’s a structural issue. From my personal experience [at a phone company], at some point, everyone was working from home. Of course, you could chat on your phone privately, but all other ways were controlled by AI. All the internal chats were not private. Technically, it’s possible to organize, but how? With which communication? We were so isolated.
Many types of non-traditional work don’t make the connection, or see themselves as possibly having the power to change something. They don't see themselves as part of a class with shared interests and the potential for collective action.
Mia: Can you tell me about the new film-in-the-making on the rise of rightwing politics in factory workspaces?
Carla: The idea came to us to respond to the rise of right-wing parties, forces, and groups everywhere in Europe. It's also a question in the workplace for many people. It explores how to address discussions with co-workers who hold right-wing positions and how these groups organize in the workplace. One example is Zentrum, which started in the car sector and is trying to expand into the health sector. Although they’re not very big, they’re dangerous in the way one of the protagonists in the film said: they are very much the arm into the workplace that the AFD was looking for, a way to enter into the workplace discussion through right-wing groups organizing in the workplace.
Mia: How do they organize in the workplace? Do they ask around or use specific tactics?
Carla: They organize by positioning themselves as a union and getting elected into worker councils. They do some union work, but they are just mostly provoking.
Mia: How are they provoking?
Carla: They provoke by blocking certain votes or making controversial statements during their speaking time at meetings. They also use their influence to create controversies around issues like the treatment of “leiharbeiter”, temporary workers. They argue that temp workers shouldn’t be taken into the company and have the same rights as permanent employees. Sometimes they argue it is because they are not from Germany. It’s just about what we can do about the right-wing against [its] influences in the workplace, on an abstract and a specific level.
Mia: What do you hope people take away from labournet.tv after watching the films and content?
Iris: Talk to your coworkers.
Carla: I think that is a good answer. I hope that people leave with the impression that a lot is going on; people are organizing and demonstrating for their rights. If viewers are inspired to think about how they can get involved or organize themselves, that would be a good start.
Mia: Lastly, which is your favorite film from the archive?
Carla: I have a few favorites. The Loud Spring is one I’ve seen many times – maybe 40 times! Another recent favorite is the film about the occupied car factory in Florence titled GKN. It’s a very recent one, and we organized a lot of screenings with it. It’s impactful because it helped spread the news about the occupation and sparked discussions and political action.
Iris: I also like GKN for its drive and hopeful tone. Plus, working on the subtitles and connecting with the people involved added a personal touch to the project. It’s great to see how the film helped the occupation gain visibility and prompted political discussions.
\\
Carla joined the collective labournet.tv two years ago. Since then, she has been working on several film projects and events.
Iris has been living in Berlin since 2010. Prior, she studied Post-Colonial Literature - as it was called at the time - in Venice. She has worked in fields and call centers. Iris is a certified Social Justice and Radical Diversity trainer. She has a strong dislike for films about bourgeois heterosexual ennui (there are far too many of them).
