08.24.08
Take
I just watched a documentary called Take by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis and I highly recommend it. The movie documents the efforts to rebuild Argentina’s economy, and heck, civil society, by reclaiming factories that have gone into disuse since the Argentinian economy catastrophe of 2001. Some of these factories were abandoned by owners who did not appreciate the worker’s efforts to organize for working standards. Others were locked up and are waiting for a corporate welfare rejuvenation program from the central government. The previous workers, mainly unemployed and robbed of their dignity, follow a model wherein the factories are taken over and products are produced again, only the factories are owned by the workers. This is done on shaky legal ground, and as the movie shows, the factories can be reclaimed by the previous owners by eviction through the judiciary.
There is gripping footage in the movie, particularly of the leader of the movement to reclaim an auto parts factory. You can see what a normal middle class life the family had before the economic downtown, and then the aftermath when no working opportunities remain. His wife explains how humiliating it is for her husband not to have any employment opportunities, and you can see it in his eyes. He explains that his young kids ask him when he is going back to work.
There seems to be a strong emphasis by the filmmakers, or perhaps this is just what is expressed by the 200 worker-owned factories they visit, to emphasize that the “worker-owned” aspect of their initiative, using some of the language used by the Soviet Union and other socialist nations. At the auto parts plant, they have decided that everyone gets paid the same. It seems to me that this frame is not a useful one for Western ears, but perhaps the devastation that capitalism has wrecked upon Argentina is enough that people have reconsidered the age old impressions they have of ’socialism.’ As the writers of the movie point out, this ’socialist’ movement is not a state sponsored one like in the Soviet Union, but one that is from the “bottom-up,” an organic reclamation project. Then again, it still seems that these large scale industrial factories could not exist without a capitalist framework. The capital required to build the facilities and acquire the equipment is certainly more than the 30 or 40 workers could accumulate themselves. But, clearly the owners of these factories have prospered and long recouped their capital, with a profit. Perhaps this points to a new model of industrial production, which utilizes capital in a way to build a sustainable, worker-owned production facility.
This documentary is highly recommended, and make sure to watch the bonus “Making of the Movie.” It shows that a group of committed activists is capable of making a high quality production that can reach an audience larger than the choir.