La Bourse ou la Vie

The triumph of economic liberalism threw millions of individuals into a state of exclusion and provoked an upsurge of revolt in the 1990s. The people "without" (without papers, without a home, without work) have created self-defence associations who are determined to act together in favour of social priorities. This documentary presents those on benefits, the unemployed, those without papers, the homeless and radical trade union militants, most of whom have emerged from the big railwaymen’s strike of 1995, and tries to explain this "unexpected return of agitators". "La Bourse ou la Vie" also proposes a confrontation between those who are excluded and the emblematic figures of "wild capitalism". The final sequence shows the failure of Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, in his attempt to contain the anger of the unemployed and the militants from associations in January 1998. To his arguments those who are excluded reply with a greater determination to fight and to join up with all the misfits of Europe.