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.

*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?do...56197822128063

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

[enid602]

1. Argentina

Argentina has an odd relationship with unions. The unions go on strike for more money, win and the government prints more money to pay the workers, which sparks inflation. For all their strikes, Argentine workers don´t make shit. Argentina also has a somewhat antiquated social net; welfare payments are paid to families according to the number of babies they have, and public housing (called monobloques) is dangerous, dilapidated and overrun by Mafia. No EIC or Section 8 here.

Like other South American countries, Argentine immigration policy is antiquated and document-oriented. 10% of the population don´t have national ID, despite the fact that they might be from Argentina, or may have moved here 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Undocumented people here are about half as numerous as in the States, but Argentina is a small country, with few resources to deal with the problem. These undocumented people do not qualify for the very meager housing and welfare programs offered by the government, and live in villas miserias (cardboard houses), abandoned buildings and ´family´hotels, which are like the old SRO´s in NYC. Or in the streets.

[FreakinDJ]

2. What is this Freeperville ??

[enid602]

3. Argentina

No, this is someone who´s spent the last two years living in Argentina, which is quickly becoming a sad place. Brazil, Uruguay and Chile are making huge strides toward better education, dealing with poverty, creatidng an industrial base, etc.

[notesdev]

4. link no worky