Disjunction

In December 2001, the Argentinean economy collapsed. People's bank accounts disappeared in a single night, impounded by the government. The rebellion of the people was muffled by the silence of the international monetary authorities, the very authorities that had heaped praise on the economic model set up in Buenos Aires. Disjunction chronicles how people reacted to the crisis ten months later, what they set up to keep going, to provide a future for their families. The very first "resource" to be exploited was garbage - many became garbage collectors. They were called cartoneros. In time, Argentineans conceived of even more effective responses to their fate. Workers occupied factories, organizing themselves into cooperatives; they created an economy supported by, and linked to their own neighborhoods. The effort was expected by experts to fail. But the people have succeeded, at least in the short term.