NEW MOVIE SHOWS ARGENTINE WORKER CO-OPERATORS RESISTING FACTORY CLOSURES
**********************************************************************
!NEWSFLASH! [courtesy of Hazel Corcoran, Canadian Worker Co-op Federation]
Good Company Communications and the same Grassroots team that brought you The Corporation
will be working to promote the late October Launch in Canada of THE TAKE. Do you want to help us??
Email TheTake@hellocoolworld.com
In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory,
roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave.
All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act The Take has the power
to turn the globalization debate on its head.
In the wake of Argentinaıs dramatic economic collapse in 2001,Latin Americaıs most prosperous
middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment.
The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action.Theyıre part of a
daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs
in the ruins of the failed system.
But Freddy, the president of the new workerıs co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse
from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure.
Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians
who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory.
The story of the workersı struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial
presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse,
Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins,
theyıll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.
Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers
face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories
as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.
With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canadaıs most outspoken journalists,
and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical
economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple
drama of workersı lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing
injustice of dignity denied. For more details, see www.nfb.ca/thetake/.
**********************************************************************
