Video: How Globalisation Destroyed Argentine Economy

[FreakinDJ]

Its rather long (86 min) but will worth watching no matter what side of the debate you are on.

I fully encourage everyone, as they have time to watch the whole video. Love it or Hate it, you'll never look at the World / Globalization the same

*LA TOMA (The Take)*

A film by director Avi Lewis and writer Naomi Klein, focusing on the struggle of workers in Argentina to take back their abandoned factories amidst economic collapse.
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 Argentina’s dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America’s 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. They’re 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 worker’s 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 workers’ 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, they’ll 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.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6939956197822128063#

[StarfarerBill]

1. Thanks for posting this! K&R

Truly, an inspiring documentary about workers gaining economic democracy in the face of disaster.

It's also available on YouTube.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. K & R!

.

[dysfunctional press]

3. "The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action..."

one big problem with trying to 're-start' the assembly lines in lots of the dormant factories in the u.s. would be that the assembly lines are no longer there. in many if not most cases- all the machinery was packed up and sent overseas along with the jobs of the people who used to run it.

[FreakinDJ]

4. Its an absolutely fabulous story

[FreakinDJ]

5. we fail to see what is so obvious for the Argentinians

The government Halted the average citizens from the banks while the wealthy elite transfered their money out of the country

5 presidents in 3 weeks - the people didn't just reject 1 political party or another they rejected the WHOLE thing

At the same time Enron declared bankruptcy, the largest soviergn country (Argentina) became insolvent

How anyone sees this as partisan politics is simply amazing to me.

I could see how most Americans missed what happened in Argentina, we (the media) were too occupied with the collapse of Enron.

But then after Big Banking Tanks the US economy (2008) we fail to see what is so obvious for the Argentinians