The approach of the British miniseries The Way It is shocking: a revolt by steelworkers unleashes chaos and repression, first in Wales and then in the rest of the United Kingdom. It is surprising because trade unionism is in decline throughout the West, as a result of deindustrialisation, precariousness, what they call declassification: fewer and fewer people define themselves as working class. Strikes continue to occur, and they have even increased in years of inflation, but they are a far cry from the conflict experienced in the 1980s in the United Kingdom, which challenged Margaret Thatcher, as well as in Spain during the industrial reconversion and elsewhere. Social unrest is still therebut now it emerges in different forms and with objectives very far from the noble cause of social rights.
The Way is the directorial debut of a series by Michael Sheen, a very committed Welsh actor and playwright who also plays a role. Produced for the BBC in four episodes, and available on Filmin, makes explicit the nostalgia for the strength of the workers’ movement through one of the characters, an old unionist. But it narrates a conflict of the present: the closure of a steel mill planned by its new Asian owners leads to the occupation of the plant by the workers and clashes with the police. From there, the plot moves between the political dystopia so common today (Civil War, Years and Years, The collapse, The Handmaid’s Tale) and the social realism so deeply rooted in British audiovisuals (à la Ken Loach). The response of power to the conflict is sliding towards authoritarianism, workers’ protests are spreading, there are waves of refugees and we will follow a family that is breaking down as they flee Wales, under curfew and with closed borders. On the journey they will face the persecution of the state apparatus, but also their own traumas.
It is a tough story, one that can be difficult to swallow, with some bumps in its development, but it is striking and well-interpreted. And it transcends the starting point, the revolt in the steelworks, because it will make us think about other very current issues. In their eagerness to reach an England where they will not be safe either, they make us see those who leave the decaying industrial town of Port Talbot The way immigrants are seen on so many borders and seas around the world. You feel the abruptness of becoming a fugitive, someone who is called illegal, who survives on what he has on. We are also told about the oppressive nature of technology: cameras everywhere, facial recognition, internet manipulation, drones. And the stories of the family on the run take us to a more intimate level: the wear and tear of mature couples, old secrets that come to light, the drama of mental health and addictions, the dilemma between following orders or doing the right thing. It also invites us to reflect on the risk of regression in democracies, on the brutality of power when faced with public disorder. Even Brexit is viewed with bitterness: Europe now seems further away.
Unfortunately, the most recent street conflicts in the United Kingdom have not been of a labour nature. It is no longer class struggle that is the driving force behind the riots: it is hoaxes and xenophobia. This summer, several British cities have seen very violent riots against refugees and immigrants, stirred up by ultra-rioters on the networks, with the enthusiastic support of Elon Musk, the owner of X, who wrote: “A civil war is inevitable”The revolutions of the 21st century do not target the powerful as enemies, but the other pariahs. That is how low we have fallen.
