With Babies and Banners

A group of American grannies pore over old scrapbooks, pointing freckled fingers at tattered cuttings: not the obvious starting point for the stirring political documentary which this unashamedly is. They're not the Daughters of the Revolution, more like the instigators; women who joined the successful 1937 sit-down strike at the vast General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, called to force GM into union recognition. Like Salt of the Earth and Harlan County USA, the film makes admirably clear that the women fought on two fronts: against management/politicians, and against male workers who took them to be 'on the make'. During the strike, the men occupied the plant, while the women (who left rather than provide the press with an opportunity to comment on sexual shenanigans within) formed an effective auxiliary and foil to police lines embarrassed about clubbing women or shooting them in the back.