Argentina Turning Around

9:18 min

DocumentaryDirected & Produced by Melissa Young & Mark Dworkin Winner of the Labor Award

More About Argentina Turning Around from Director Melissa Young

In the 1990s, Argentina embraced globalization. Instead of profiting from a global economy, a number of unfortunate circumstances led one of the most economically powerful countries in the world to complete economic collapse.

The eyes of the world were on Argentina as a desperate nation turned to each other for support in a remarkable outpouring of grassroots organizing. Now, several years later, we ask the question: have we seen fundamental change, or is it business as usual?

Argentina Turning Around provides an intimate view of a new community development model growing in Buenos Aires: a united workforce returning to run the factories they previously worked for. While most worker-run factories are thriving, some still face serious legal challenges. Unemployment is down and the economy is growing, although a significant sector remains marginalized.

The most critical issues that these recovered factories face are legal recognition and access to loans. From 2001 to 2003, at the height of the crisis, when many of the factories were bankrupt from the impacts of economic globalization, unemployment was so high that the worker-run factories were only given trial periods of three or more years. Now they are seeking permanent status.

The devastating economic collapse has inspired this new way of thinking. The most profound change can be found as Argentineans now see their own participation as being crucial to building a society not just for a few, but for all.

As filmmakers with a deep history of social-issue filmmaking, and having worked on several different projects filmed in Latin America, we were inspired by these grassroots initiatives underway in Argentina. Often the mainstream U.S. media doesn’t cover stories like these.

We hope that people will appreciate knowing about these experiments in economic democracy underway in Argentina, showing that change can happen from the bottom up.