PITTSBURGH, PA. - Like all Boots Riley films or TV Series, I Love Boosters ends with a massive strike! However, unlike previous strikes in Boots Riley's films, which mainly took place in Oakland, the strike in I Love Boosters is international, connecting the struggles of Oakland workers with those of garment workers in China.
At a time when America and China are dueling on the international stage, Boots shows how workers in both countries can organize together to fight back against the multinational corporations that exploit them. In my opinion, it is necessary for anyone in the labor movement who calls themselves an internationalist to watch I Love Boosters.
(Full Disclosure: Boots has been a longtime subscriber and prominent supporter of Payday Report).
I Love Boosters begins by focusing on the disillusionment of “boosters,” shoplifters who steal high-end fast fashion in Oakland and then sell it as they struggle to simply stay alive in a city with astronomically high rent. They even get jobs at a fashion store they are targeting, so they can sell even more products.
When a co-worker suggests union organizing, the boosters at first give the idea short shrift. They are more focused on hustling to pay the rent and don’t have enough time for the boring minutiae of union organizing. Like many union drives I have covered as a labor reporter, this one suffers from the same problems as most.
However, through a series of surrealist interventions that only a creative genius like Boots Riley could imagine, a worker from a Chinese clothing factory suddenly appears, and the union drive picks up major steam.
The film is full of amazing "surrealist socialism,” and I don't want to give away too many of the unpredictable twists and turns because I want you to enjoy them. So, I hope everyone goes to see it.
And as Boots Riley has said in many interviews, this is a film that won’t be over when you leave the theater. It will inspire you and make you think, especially about international solidarity.
