El rostro de la dignidad

"We might not change the world, but we can tickle it!" Buenos Aires in 2001. Decades of corruption and a ruthless privatization policy have driven Argentina to bankruptcy. The International Monetary Fund, partly responsible for the crisis, refuses all requests for help. Of all the Argentinean population, the workers suffer the most: mass lay-offs and shut-downs of many factories, are forcing them to the margin of society. Forced to help themselves, the unemployed workers are forming their own organiza- tions. They call themselves MTD (Movimiento Trabajadores Deocupados) or simply "piqueteros". They fight for their rights on the streets: by blocking them, sometimes for days in end. Using burning tyres, wire-fences or their own bodies to stop traffic from getting into the capital they often force politicians to give in to their requests. The Alavio Group-filmmakers show the piqueteros protesting, singing and dancing and talking. About their frustration at feeling excluded from society. But also about their hopes of achieving something: