people & power
People & Power

Seeing It Through

After Argentina’s economy collapsed factory workers took over bankrupt factories.

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Argentinean factory workers reclaimed bankrupt
factories as their own

In Argentina, factory workers have always been at the mercy of their bosses. 

This is because the state offered them very little in the way of protection.

So the factory owners were everything to their workers. They not only paid their wages, but they also determined their fate. 

When the economy collapsed in 2001, and many factories folded, workers were the first to suffer – not surprisingly. But instead of taking this lying down, workers reclaimed the bankrupt factories as their own, and they all became the boss – power, decision making and profits are all shared.

People & Power retraces the workers’ dramatic journey, from shop floor to boardroom.

Baghdad Lives

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Hilba Bassem describes her daily life in
Baghdad,  five years after the occupation

Iraq is now in its fifth year of occupation and there seems to be no end to the violence or bloodshed.

Sectarian revenge killings, between Iraqi Sunnis and Shias, are now claiming over one hundred lives a day.

The situation is so bad that millions have been forced to flee Iraq.

In the third of our films from the Baghdad film school we meet Hilba Bassem, a young woman trying to make sense of her violent, and often depressing surroundings.

Salween Dam

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Myanmar’s Salween Dam: a source of both
power and fear

Then People & Power visits Myanmar, or Burma as it is also known.

Civil war is raging between the country’s ruling generals and the Karen, one of the largest ethnic groups in the country.

Many have fled their land to camps along the Thai border, where the Salween River runs.

But here the Karen face another challenge: a massive dam-building project along the Salween, providing electricity to Thailand, Burma and China.

The dams are welcomed by many as a new source of power for Asia’s booming economies. But others fear for the Karen, and for their environment.

People & Power investigates.

Watch this episode of People & Power here:

Part 1:

Part 2:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ4esn80hXI

This episode of People & Power aired from 23 May 2007




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