[URBANTH-L] ANN: New Film Documentaries from the Argentinian Cooperative Movement

Angela Jancius jancius at ohio.edu
Thu Dec 6 15:07:54 EST 2007


 Buy a DVD and support Grupo Alavío!

Grupo Alavío would like to send a special holiday greetingand give a special 
fund raising appeal. Keep the group's video production andwebsite Ágora TV 
up and running by purchasing a DVD. We are completelyviewer-funded and 
volunteer based: your contributions help us to produce groundbreaking videos 
from the Third World. Ágora TV providesa radical space for cutting edge 
video activists all over Latin America.

Ágora TV is a community television production collectivethat currently 
broadcasts over the internet. The project reaches a globalaudience of 
grassroots activists and citizens tired of status quo media. Wework on 
issues including Argentina'srecovered factory movement, labor conflicts, 
social movements, indigenousstruggles, and gender equality. The Buenos 
Aires-based video collective GrupoAlavío built the website 
(www.agoratv.org)in 2006 as an organizing tool and alternative media space 
for groups that wouldnot otherwise have access to the airwaves.

For more than 15 years, Grupo Alavío has participated inworking-class 
struggles and dedicated efforts to supporting them with socialand political 
documentaries. Making technologies and skills accessible andavailable to 
exploited sectors by democratizing audiovisual production is apriority of 
Grupo Alavío. Through Ágora TV, Grupo Alavío is radically changing how media 
is created, managed, and distributed.
All films have English subtitles and are in U.S. DVD format.
Cost: $15 plus shipping for individuals, $30 plus shipping for universities

Contact: Marie Trigona
mtrigona at msn.com
FILMS available for purchase:

1. Chilavert Recovered, 38 minutes, 2004 Newly released withENGLISH 
SUBTITLES
Chilavert is a leading member of the 'recoveredfactories' movement which 
developed during the collapse in 2001 when manyfactories in Argentinawere 
taken over by the workers. As the owner of a printing plant began to shutit 
down and turn it over to his creditors, the workers seized control andformed 
the Chilavert Cooperative. The documentary gives a realistic overview ofthe 
recuperation movement and workers' self-management.

2. Obreras en lucha (The struggle of Brukman workers).Spanish with ENGLISH 
SUBTITLES
This documentary tells the story of the'recuperation' of Brukman textile 
factory in Buenos Aires by its workers, after its owners decided toclose it 
down in December 2001. Workers (most of them women) decided to occupythe 
plant on December 18, 2001to protest their reducing and delayed salaries. 
Only two days after, theeconomic and political crisis exploded in 
Argentina.This documentary contains impressive images of the expulsion of 
the workersfrom the factory by the police in 2003, the massive popular 
protests whichfollowed and the brutal repression with which Duhalde's 
government replied. Itcontains as well interviews with workers and images 
from the assemblies at thefactory.

3. Hotel BAUEN: Workers' Cooperative
20min, 2004  Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
The Hotel BAUEN was an emblematic symbol of neoliberalism inArgentina. 
Thehotel was constructed in 1978, in the glory of the military dictatorship, 
withgovernment loans and subsidies. In the height of Argentina'seconomic 
meltdown, the owners ransacked the hotel and closed the hotel's 
doors,leaving the workers in the streets. In March 21, 2003 the workers 
decided to occupy the hotel. The workerscleaned up the hotel and slowly 
began to rent out services. With over 150workers employed at the hotel, 
BAUEN hotel has become a symbol for the workingclass.

4. Zanon (Constructing resistance)
18min, 2003, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Argentina'sPatagonian province of Neuquén,is home of the Zanon ceramics 
factory. In 2001 Zanon's owner fired the workersand abandoned the factory 
for greener pastures. After resisting outside theplant, the group of workers 
decide collectively to recuperate and put the plantto produce. Since 2001, 
the workers at Zanon have occupied and managed theplant, which is Latin 
America's largest ceramicsfactory. In the film, Zanon ceramists narrate 
their day-to-day work, strugglesand hopes to continue production under 
worker control.

5. La Foresta belongs to the workers
52min, 2005  Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
The film tells the story of a group of workers who arefighting to recuperate 
La Foresta meatpacking plant in La Matanza, on theoutskirts of Buenos Aires 
city. Most of the factory's employees have workedtheir for decades, through 
the good times and bad times. In 1999, the plantwent bust, a series of 
businessmen rented the facilities, making quick profitsand then abandoning 
the factory for greener pastures. Grupo Alavío's filmfollows the 70 workers 
who've put up a legal fight to keep their factory andstart up production 
without a boss or owner, under worker-self management.

6. Music in Solidarity with Zanon,

90min, 2005 Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
This film was produced as part of a video work shop for theworkers. Music in 
solidarity with Zanon: musicians León Gieco, RallyBarrionuevo, Ciro (Ataque 
77) and other artists performed a concert inDecember, 2004.  The workers 
organizedthe super event, with more than 10,000 supporters from the 
community of Neuquén.

7. Argentina:30 years after the military dictatorship (compilation of short 
films)
Letter to the Military Junta, 6min, 1996

Rodolfo Walsh wrote the "Open Letter to the Military Junta"on the first 
anniversary of the military coup in 1977 reporting the tortures,mass 
killings, and thousands of disappearances. The political writer 
wasdisappeared just one day after the letter was distributed. This 6 minute 
videoessay reconstructs Walsh's powerful report, imagery from the 
bloodydictatorship and the writer's disappearance.
Escrache a Videla, 12min, 2006

Events to mark the 30 years since Argentina'smilitary junta kicked off with 
an escrache or "exposure" protest against thecoup's first dictator, Jorge 
Rafael Videla. Over 10,000 people participated inthe protest in front of 
Videla's home, where he is under house arrest inconnection with numerous 
charges of human rights abuse. Human rights groupH.I.J.O.S. brought a crane 
and gave the ending remarks directly in front ofVidela's fifth floor 
apartment.
Memories of Struggle and Resistance: RioSantiago Ship Yard, 10min, 2006

The dictatorship attempted wiped out an entire generation ofworking-class 
resistance, which the nation decades later is still recovering.This year for 
the first time, over 1,500 workers from the Rio Santiago ShipYard in Buenos 
Aires commemoratedthe ship yard's 48 disappeared.

8.  Compañeras
45min, 2005, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Compañeras brings together four working women who givetestimony of their 
lives and daily struggles. MAGDALENA,works on a small farm in the province 
of San Juan. KARINA is a trainconductor. REGINA lives n VillaFiorito, she 
collects cardboard from the streets, classifies and then sells it.NINA is a 
militant from the 70's, during which she exiled from Argentinato 
Nicaraguaand participated in the Sandanista revolution. Stories that mix 
with otherhistory, women who revidicate their identity as workers, but 
without easing tobe mothers, without giving  up thestruggle, continuing to 
be compañeras.

9. The Face of Dignity, Memories of MTD Solano
58 minutes, 2002, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
In the shambles of an economically ruined Argentina,a new practice of 
protest emerged, blockading roads.  Since 1997, what is now known as 
theunemployed workers movement has taken root. Without access to the factory 
and utility of tools for liberation-strike,sabotage, and occupying the 
factory, unemployed workers sought out new practicesfor struggle. Unemployed 
confronted globalization by fighting for jobs. One ofthe most important 
experiences that emerged in these years was UnemployedWorkers Movement-MTD 
(Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados) in Solano (insideQuilmes, a city in 
the province of Buenos Aires).  MTD's formation was based on the 
principlesof horizontalism, direct democracy, autonomy from the state and 
power, and theintegral political formation among members. Work, 
capacitation, democratic debate of ideas, sharing life in thestruggle for 
work, dignity and social change are some of this memory's content.

10. For a 6 hour workday
20min, 2004,  Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Reducing the workday to six hours with a salary increase forall workers 
would create jobs for more than 3 million unemployed and lift manyout of 
poverty.  Subway workers who havebeen organizing wildcat strikes for salary 
increases have spearheaded Argentina'smovement for a six-hour workday. In 
2003, subway workers (in all sectors fromticket office to train drivers) won 
a six-hour workday. Since this victory,subway workers, other labor 
conflicts, economists and unemployed workersorganizations have formed a 
movement for a 6-hour workday for all workers, withincreased salaries.

11. Organizing Resistance (Chronicles of Freedom, Martin,Recuperating Our 
Work) Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Chronicles of Freedom (organizing resistance) , 45min, 2002
June 26, 2002 two activists Darío Santillán-22 and Maximiliano Kosteki-25 
from Argentina's unemployed workers' movement were killed during a road 
blockade of Pueyrredón Bridge in police repression.  The repression was part 
of a known andannounced government plan to control growing social protest. 
33 were wounded from lead bullets, 160 detained and hundreds injured from 
rubber bullets.  Unquestionably, the deaths and repressionhave left an 
unforgettable mark on the movement-generating internal debates 
andself-criticisms. Chronicles of Freedom includes interviews on the right 
toidentity, self-defense and organizing to confront state repression.
Martín, 2002, 7 minutes

Synopsis: Martín, 27 years old, Argentine, brother,compañero from the barrio 
Floridain Solano was killed during a fight with a neighbor.  The 
experimental narration exploresinner-violence and questions the absurdity of 
the system's violence that isimposed on us.
Recuperando nuestro trabajo, 2003, 18min

Argentina's worker occupied factory movement has been an example of 
resistance for workersall over the world.  In response to theprocess of 
deindustrialization and flexible labor markets, thousands of workershave 
said enough to exploitation of the working class by bosses and owners.


Marie Trigona
mtrigona at msn.com
http://mujereslibres.blogspot.com/ 




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