Solidarity in Sweatshops and Sex Work

Abstract

Sarah Earnshaw directs attention toward cultural production to explore the tensions and transformative relations of solidarity through the documentary films Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000) and Made in L.A. (2007). Documents of mobilisation by women worker organisers in sex and garment work, the films mediate the material and social relations of class across multiple lines of oppression and centre workers often left out of frame in mainstream labour discourse. Exploring the documentary form as suturing class struggle while retaining recognition of differentiation, the chapter discusses screening labour before turning to narrative strategies of storytelling and negotiations of public/private, finally considering the role of place in filmic practices as mapping solidarity from below.