The International Labour Organisation and film

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to discussion of continuity and change in the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) history, asking how the organisation and worker activities have been depicted in film. Since the 1920s, the films in which the organisation portrays itself have placed less emphasis on its European base, the largely male culture that once dominated it and the precise nature of its role in the world. In more recent years, the ILO’s cinematic output has made an effort to emphasise work, workers and their collective activity. Their short films have also come to overtly advocate ‘partnership’ trade unionism within a wider international and perspective while paying much more attention to matters of racial and gender diversity. These changes have been framed within the organisation’s constant assertion of continuity in its values and explicit use of its own history. Film has therefore contributed to consistency and continuity in its self-projection, providing parameters within which change has occurred.