Roberto Gervitz and Sergio Toledo documentary "Braços Cruzados, Máquinas Paradas" ("Arms Crossed, Machines Stopped") deal with an important topic at the time of its release
while covering three Union Workers conventions and elections inside auto industries in São Paulo during the final years of the military regime, and those union gatherings inciting
for strike were the first to happen ever since the military coup in 1964 since they were considered illegal by the federal government. The movie presents with great detail the challenges
faced by workers, their demands for better payment and better working conditions since at the time they were explored with many setbacks and problematic environments where everything
was demanded from them but little was given in return.
Though major media outlets and history remembers the ABC strikes where then union leader and future Brazil president Lula was the main figure and main force of the workers struggle,
even going to jail for a brief time, this film does not cover those large gatherings. Here, we follow events that happened at the state capital and some metropolitan areas. Going from the
moment workers wake up in the morning to begin the day until the countless speeches made by union representants and workers themselves in what needs to be demanded, what they are fighting
for and then later we are presented to the three political plates and the difference in what they advocate, the risks they might face with their bosses and the ultimate decision in between
accepting the bosses deal (usually with some small percentage of salary raise) or deciding for the strike, stop everything and stay with their arms crossed. A memorable moment for me (and
I believe it was a re-enactment) is when all workers are doing their business but they keep looking at the clock on the wall just waiting for the exact moment when it hits 10AM they'll
stop everything. Back then when strikes weren't allowed and to organize something was really difficult because there's always someone who won't agree with something, probably won't stop
or would be afraid to lose their job, not believing in the power of unions since they didn't have much power then...but it all changed and it started with the movements starting in 1978.
An important register and document from a dark period of history, the film while presenting many interesting moments about how politics can affect people when they think they have
nothing to do with, and how the social movements helped to raise awareness about workers right, this is quite a bureacratic film without big names as heroes - there are thousands of union
leaders, but I could recognise their names neither remember if they became notable figures in the following years - and there's plenty of political talks, srtike incitation that gets tiring
after the second case. It gets a little depressive, except for some minor bits of conflicts here and there where a fight almost breaks out when one of union leader had panflets in his car
during the voting day which was illegal.
On a final analysis it's a very good documentary about the workers and the movements that paved the way for more and more workers have their voices hears and the rights granted and their
initial struggles were not in vain even though some fourty years later the powers of unions diminished thanks to political maneuvers pressed by company men out there. The fight remains. 7/10.
