Interpreting Argentine Workers’ Documentaries 2001-2006: Implications for Alternative Media

Abstract

This article reviews a diverse series of documentary videos, films, and related internet sites about the Argentinean crisis of 2001 and its aftermath, made by producers in Argentina and abroad. It suggests that alternative media coverage has followed a three-stage process in interpreting worker movements since 2001, focusing on two examples of economic negotiations that have taken place between these movements and the state, in the ‘piquetero’ and recovered factory movements. Alternative media which advocate for workers by making the power relations between the state and workers movement transparent, has been described as “counter-information”. The article also describes a time-lag now evident in the production and circulation of audiovisual material in comparison with print and internet, and a location gap between material produced in Argentina and abroad. The article concludes by suggesting some implications of these lags and gaps for the interpretation of alternative media as counter-information.