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Oscar Winner Quotes ‘Communist Manifesto’ In Acceptance Speech

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Documentary filmmaker Julia Reichert used a line from “The Communist Manifesto” during her Sunday night acceptance speech after winning an Oscar for best documentary feature.

“Our film is from Ohio and China, but it really could be from anywhere that people put on a uniform, punch a clock, trying to make a better life,” Reichert said after winning the award. “We believe things will get better when workers of the world unite.”

“Workers of the world unite” is a well-known line from “The Communist Manifesto” by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Translated “Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt Euch!” in German, it means “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” but became common in English as “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”

Reichert’s documentary film “American Factory,” co-directed with Steven Bognar, is the first picture to come from Higher Ground Productions, the production company owned by former first couple Barack and Michelle Obama.

The Hollywood Reporter described the Netflix documentary as a chronicle of “the abandoned General Motors car plant restored by a Chinese billionaire, Cao Dewang, as a post-industrial Ohio windshield factory, Fuyao Glass America. The film captures the optimism of Dayton residents about their future, then chronicled them enduring increasing demands by Chinese management for elusive profits.” (RELATED: Students Say The Bible Is More Dangerous Than The Communist Manifesto)

The 73-year-old filmmaker is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment for terminal cancer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.