Occupy! Resist! Produce!

international | worker & community struggles and protests | other press

Tuesday October 18, 2005 23:27

by iosaf

news from the Film product sector.

its a slogan we're all familiar with, and its the subtitle of "The Take" one of many movies made on the Brukman factory in Argentina and the collective who worked there before the economic crash of 2001 / 2002 and continued working there.

through the crash.

"The Take" will perhaps find a wider audience than most other videos and projects, because its co-script writers are Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis.
Its now screening. Go, be the audience & media and tell us about it.

This is the site of the Movie
http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/thetake/

Argentina in 2001, saw a complete failure of its banking system and on two keys night of 2001 Argentina went into a popular revolt and assemblies and collectives throughout the country inspired the world.
Of the many sites and names, perhaps Saurez and Brukman are the most well known. Brukman was a factory claimed by it's workers when the owners went "pop". They famously occupied it on December 18 2001. They continued to work, fulfill their contracts, exceed production targets, continue to export their products through the darkest days of the Argentine economic collapse to the "recovery" period of 2002. They increased productivity, they were in many ways through their anarcho-syndicalist assembly _proved_ the efficacy of a political ideology. And then when the "recovery" came, the previous "owners" sued to recover their business [complete with it's increased "value"].
They suffered three evictions the last being a brutal battle which saw 10,000 workers made redundant at the point of tear gas and police batons.

This was a photo of them during their 2003 court battle with the "previous management".
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/146022.php

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here is some current reaction in spanish media an interview with Klein & Lewis carried in Rebelion.
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=20877

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And of course we must remember that this is not "an idea" or a "work of fiction". The factory was real, and its workers were just like us. 21st century people with internet connections.
Look at those photos :-
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/146022.php
& know they actually sent love into the world. I know it sounds dippy becuase this was real sewing red and black flags together stuff and not arty @ all. But they sent love to barcelona at least. Minidiscs, videos, photos, songs, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers. Argentina came and for the most part, it was proud of Brukman.