The Making of Piquetero Television
Trigona, Marie
Argentina's alternative media have commonly limited their role in the social movements to informing the public about corporate media's misinformation and providing proof of state...
...32REPORT ON MEDIA A piquetero erects an antenna for the broadcast of TV-piquetera during a road blockade on September 25, 2003...
...Says Grupo Alavio's self-pro- point out cc duced documentary, "In the context of mass media's Alavio and monopolization of information, we intend to make a dulling or t space where the protagonist struggling can narrate his or critical apol her own histories...
...For the group's third transmission on November 8, 2003, TV-piquetera's makeshift operating studio was housed in MUP-20's community center, a shack in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of San Martin, Solano on the outskirts of Buenos Aires...
...Argentina's alternative media have commonly limited their role in the social movements to informing the public about corporate media's misinformation and providing proof of state repression...
...The neighbors were have a tele asked their opinions about the programming, problems have access in the community and how they felt about the unem- a piquetera ployed workers' struggle...
...ticipating in Accordingly, the flyers posted throughout San Martin or both, as advertised the transmission with the slogan, have discov "Programming from our neighborhoods and from our TV-piquel perspectives...
...Maybe r who sees our broadcast will be affected a fellow activist...
...Developing a role beyond responding to the monopolization of corporate media and integrating into social processes has been a constant challenge for most of Argentina's alternative media...
...The declaration was made at the first meeting of the Popular Workers' Front on August 30, 2003...
...e MUP-20 assembly following the transmbers discussed the usefulness of the telerience and reflected on its significance...
...Media activists Enrique Carigao and Ricardo Leguizamon launched TV-piquetera in the aftermath of December 19 and 20, 2001, but the project did not take off until Grupo Alavfo facilitated TV-piquetera's first major broadcasting experience on September 25, 2003...
...know our st The programming concluded by broadcasting these us, 'lazy an interviews--creating a kind of feedback loop-which same proble were a symbolic example of what was accomplished the neighbo during the transmission...
...Instead, their goal is to terial that generates debates and critiques, ting the growth and reproduction of the Without integration, intervening and parinternal debates is impossible, unwelcome )ther collectives like Indymedia-Argentina ered...
...One of the objectives of the transmission was to counter the mass media's criminalization of the action by informing the neighbors surrounding the factory about the conflict and explaining the piqueteros' demands for jobs and dignified work...
...a crisis marked by drops in participation, increased fragmentation and an inability to identify political objectives...
...During the transmission, piqueteros expressed in their own words the reasons for the protest, gave first hand accounts of the action and described what it's like to be a piquetero...
...Grupo participants in TV-piquetera recognize that ransforming political content into a nonogy is not useful...
...During the broadcast, neighbors who were watching the program stopped by MUP-20's location to see if the transmission was real and to comment on TV-piquetera...
...The MUP-20's print publication explained the motives behind the transmission: "[It] demonstrates that we do not need to depend on bosses and owners to make ourselves visible and communicate with our neighbors...
...Many particiexample, expressed frustration with the I workers' movement, citing discontent tero bureaucracy...
...A walk through collaboratio the neighborhood during the broadcast, however, During th revealed that almost every television set was tuned to mission, me TV-piquetera...
...The bulk of the social movements-the unemployed workers' or piqueteros movement, the popular assemblies and recuperated factory movement-are in crisis...
...ship of the technology and put TV-piquetera on the air...
...said Maria Oviedo, from MUP-20...
...criminals or corrupt freeloaders as the mainstream press While r characterizes them...
...Grupo Alavio along with other organizations from the social movements-primarily piquetero groups-developed a declaration: "It's immediately necessary to tell the history of struggle with a media belonging to the organizations in order to combat corporate media's censorship and misinformation...
...unemployed Making techniques and technologies accessible and with piquet available to exploited sectors by democratizing audiovi- fully integr sual production and language has been a priority of discuss spe Grupo Alavio's work...
...And beyond the broadcast, the experience opened a space for media makers and community members to engage in dialogue...
...It was during an ongoing piquetero road blockade at the Argentine transnational beer brewery, Quilmes, where protestors transmitted a live pirate television signal to a local channel...
...and lasted until 10:30 p.m...
...Our neighbors can get to ruggle, not as the television networks show d violent,' but as fellow neighbors with the mins of unemployment and poverty...
...The day's programming also included pre-edited news pieces about the previous piquetero blockade, pollution of the local water supply by factories, struggles for political prisoners, Bolivia after the insurrection, resistance in Iraq, the Brukman factory recuperation, recent government attacks against unemployed workers' organizations and MUP-20's community projects--popular bakeries, soup kitchens for kids, gardens and sewing workshops...
...The wide-ranging content reflects tive media not only the complexity and consciousness of the piquetera e piquetero movement, but also the integration of local, pants, for national and international issues...
...The broadcast began at 3:00 p.m...
...This broadcast was a gesture and become valuing the process of working class identity and a break with exclusion," reflected Fabian Pierucci of Grupo Alavio...
...neighborho, For TV-piquetera, multidirectional media is the ideal, ing a netwc although all too often alternative media only reaches uni- can functior directional or asymmetrical diffusion...
...She is a part of Grupo Alavio and can be contacted at <mtrigona@msn...
...To tell our story with our own media is to think with a logic different than that which the system imposes on us...
...Grupo Alavio is one media collective that is directly challenging the traditional role of alternative media by producing audiovisual materials that promote action, organization and a new working class identity and consciousness for the piquetero movement...
...Although it was only their third transmission, everyone learned quickly and participated in every aspect of the community television experience...
...From planning the content and the produce ma use of necessary technologies to direction of the studio, thus promo participants acquire skills that allow them to take owner- movement...
...In the days following the transmission, piqueteros, neighbors, activists and media makers alike talked about what it meant to see themselves represented on TV and to be able to create their own imagery...
...The meeting was held to build unity among unemployed workers' organizations that demand more than just unemployment subsidies and other short term Band-Aid solutions...
...With the introduction to each news piece, participants related that as unemployed workers they are trying to build a better community while fighting for jobs, and pointed out that they, too, are mothers and fathers, not 3NCIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Marie Trigona is an independent journalist based in Argentina...
...aany in the social movements and alternahave shied away from self-critiques, TVncouraged introspection...
...From this collaboration, a new and powerful organic media alternative was realized, TV-piquetera...
...tera's objective is to transmit in different Ads with the intention of ultimately buildArk of community television stations that autonomously under a larger umbrella of n and mutual support...
...Since TV-piquetera is ited into the movement, it is expected to cific agendas and internal debates, and to contradictions within the movement...
...Into the late hours of the transmission, a vision expe few piqueteros went out with a camera and visited "Some ask households viewing the program...
...By presenting people's daily realities, it allowed neighbors to identify with one another and build solidarity to break the hegemony...
...On the day of the broadcast the transmitter arrived as scheduled...
...Participants eagerly took hold of cameras, quickly learned how to focus, pan and zoom, while nearly everyone took a turn introducing the programming and speaking in front of the camera...
...Grupo Alavio and the Popular Unity Movement-December 20 (MUP-20), a piquetero organization based in several neighborhoods in the Buenos Aires province, began working together to launch media projects...
...Piqueteros from MUP-20 and many other participants all lent a hand in various tasks-bringing in the equipment, setting up a studio in the shack, a screening room in the kitchen and raising the antenna on the rooftop...
...is, 'How is it that you are unemployed and vision station?' We say, 'Who shouldn't to their own media...
...Nonetheless, from within social organizations, media makers are beginning to harness alternative media in a way that drives and revitalizes their movements...
...Many blame President N6stor Kirchner's seemingly progressive discourse for having a paralyzing effect, while making few if any concrete improvements...
Vol. 37 • January 2004 • No. 4
