The Globalisation Tapes

71 minutes, 2002 Visonmachine film project, east London A collaboration between the Independent Plantation Workers' Union of Sumatra (Indonesia), the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF) and Vision Machine Film Project. The Globalisation Tapes is a film made by workers for workers. The story isn't told by experts, but by union members from palm oil plantations in Indonesia. Their experience is complemented by workers from both Colombia and Holland. The film powerfully documents their exploration of history, globalisation, and how unions around the world can support each other and struggle together. Using their own forbidden history as a case study, the Indonesian filmmakers trace the development of contemporary globalisation from its roots in colonialism to the present. Through chilling first-hand accounts, The Globalisation Tapes exposes the devastating role of militarism and repression in building the "global economy", and explores the relationships between trade, third-world debt, and international institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation. The film explains how these institutions shape and enforcing the corporate world order. The film illustrates the kind of training that is needed if unions are to build an international movement to fight corporate globalisation from the grassroots. The Globalisation Tapes is a tool for developing this struggle, not just from the top, but from the rank and file. And as a document of workers grappling with -- and documenting -- the impacts of globalisation on their own community, workplace, and nation, The Globalisation Tapes is among the most powerful indictments of unfettered corporate power ever produced. /"If we are united in our struggle against worker oppression, united in our search for truth amidst lies, united for a truly participatory democratic economic system, the possibilities are only limited by our courage, our determination, and our capacity to imagine."/ Su Karman, narrator of The Globalisation Tapes and President of Perbbuni, the Independent Plantation Workers' Union of Sumatra.// Support the filmmakers and get the DVD here: Support the Filmmakers: Get The DVD