The Year of the Beaver (1985)

• 83%
• 1985
• Documentary
• Dave Fox
• Steve Sprung
• Sylvia Stevens

A documentary based on the 1976 strike at the Grunwick photographic processing plant in London. The strike of the workforce of mainly Asian women lasted two years with widespread support from the rank and file union membership including post office workers refusing to handle Grunwick mail. Using contemporary interviews with workers and media coverage the film examines this special phase of history that set the stage for Thatcherism and neo-liberalism and marked the end of the post-war consensus in the UK and elsewhere. The most noteworthy thing about this film is that so much of it is devoted to what workers actually did and what workers have to say. There are no interviews with union leaders, politicians or industrial relations experts. This makes a refreshing change from many documentaries. It takes the Grunwick strike as an example that clearly shows the interplay of the media, the police, the union leadership, and the political machinery to usher in a new phase of modern capitalism. The Grunwick story contains issues of: the use of machinery in the intensification of work; the lack of support and blatant sabotage of the struggle by the union leadership; the 'staged media event' and the messages conveyed and myths created by the media; the heavy policing used to break the picket lines; the issues of race, migration and gender in the workplace and in the workers' movement; the blacklisting of militant workers and the political changes leading to Thatcherism.