Must See TV... Argentina.. Zanon and Brukman CoOps

[SmoothedShredder]

I know it's Saturday and I'm staying in... but... wow what a great show... there's still an hour left and I just had to share... memories of Quebec City, and REVOLUTION! Oh, and if your wondering how this is music related... there's a jam band in there... you can't miss em' and they rock... Oh yeah, it's on CBC Newsworld (DAMN LEFTIES... wha?!)

Peace, Work

~W

THE TAKE

SPECIAL TWO HOUR SPECIAL: Thursday March 24, 2005 at 8pm on CBC-TV

Repeating on the Passionate Eye Sunday, April 3 and Saturday April 9 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld

Forja factory workers, Freddy and Lalo

PHOTO CREDIT: Andres D'Elia

Just a few years ago, Argentina was the darling of international investors. It had a seemingly safe economy subscribing to the rules of the global market-deregulation, privatization and downsizing of social programs. And it had a leader, Carlos Menem, who was heralded as a hero in Washington. For many citizens, the dramatic economic collapse in 2001 came as a sudden shock. Tens of thousands watched their life savings disappear, while multinational banks and corporations whisked $40 billion out of the country in the dead of the night. The working and middle classes found themselves facing massive unemployment in ghost towns full of abandoned factories.

FILM WEBSITE: Visit the NFB film website.

Journalists Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein went to Argentina and found something growing in the rubble of the country’s shattered economy: a ‘do-it-yourself’ revolution, a new movement creating concrete alternatives to the global economic model.

Avi Lewis with children

PHOTO CREDIT: Andres D'Elia

In eight months of shooting with an international crew of activists and young filmmakers, Lewis and Klein found that Argentines did not only take over the streets-throwing out five presidents in three weeks in 2001-they also began to take over the abandoned businesses where they had once been employed. Their goal: to take matters into their own hands and re-start the machines left silent when their bosses locked the doors and fled.

THE TAKE seamlessly weaves first-hand accounts from unemployed workers and their families with a critical overview of macro-economic policies. Contrasting the failed recipe of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the shop floor democracy embraced by workers in their ‘recovered companies,’ the film exposes the ideology and effects of the capitalist ‘Wild West.’ It also champions a radical economic manifesto embodied in the workers’ slogan, ‘Occupy, Resist, Produce.’ But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers’ lives and their struggles: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

This is a fiercely engaging political thriller that pits ordinary workers against the ruling elite and the power of international corporate capitalism.

THE TAKE is directed by Avi Lewis; produced by Avi Lewis, Naomi Klein and Katie McKenna. Executive producer is Laszlo Barna, Barna Alper Productions, in association with the CBC and the NFB.

[SmoothedShredder]

It's on again right now!! 1:30 am EST.

[SmoothedShredder]

ugh, NO converstation regarding this post... ouch... .

~W

[AD]

Sorry, Will. I missed it totally.

It did indeed sound interesting... I didn't comment because I hadn't seen it..

AD

[timouse]

finally watched this all the way through with niffermouse lat night...what an amazing bit of film!

despite the re-election of Carlos Menem, there is a network of collectively managed, worker owned factories re-appearing in argentina...and they are all making deals to support and buy from one another!

global capatalism hasn't steamrolled the planet yet, so long as there are people like the argentines at the head of the occupation movement out there....

[SmoothedShredder]

Yeah, someone saw this!!! I'm telling you's all that this is the real deal, a real solution movie... instead of all this infighting and buracracy, we see a glipse of the true industrialist human nature, and how they can thrive and grow and create sustainable societies. Proof: they suceeded in building hospitals and schools off of profits made from a factory which had been gutted and closed! If the governemnt did step in and stop them, there's no telling how far they can go?

One question bugs me though? Why, in light of such pro-human evidence, would the Argentine government step in and stop these co-op operations?

My fearful answer is that there are a small group of individuals with great power that wish to keep the 5/6th of the globe who are 2 weeks aways from no food from every reaching a degree of sustainability on their own. I know it's very Machivalien (I think?!) but it seems to make sense, when so many of the imposed barriers to life seem to be these stupid beuracratic ones. We can see how amazing humans are when they are allow to exist unchecked (but I understand a need for some balance, though blackmail is never a solid motive for me).

Anyways, this can go on forever (or atleast until things are way better than they are now), so I might as well stop this rant . Watch this movie! I'm sure it's at a library somewhere...

~W

Small Fast and out of Control on TVO's the Human edge was pretty amazing too (far less political, and more antropolgical, but still... )

[timouse]

i watched this once on my own and once again with niffermouse, and it is one of the most hopeful movies i've seen. from what i coiuld gather, the co-op that the film follows was granted court authority to claim the factory in lieu of unpaid wages. the ones that were seized & handed back over may not have been fully legitimate in the eyes of the government...

i think it's a totally fair thing. if the workers are owed money equivalent to the value of the factory, and want to take a crack at it, then why the hell not? it can only benefit the government to have more vital businesses paying business taxes.

Watch this movie!

what he said