Argentina's economy is in crisis, but locals are holding on to their jobs by taking over the factories, writes Fiona McCann from Buenos Aires
It's been another historic week for Argentina. Following the decision of former president Carlos Menem to withdraw from the electoral race, fellow Peronist Néstor Kirchner will automatically take over the presidency and, with it, the task of leading the country out of an economic crisis that has left 20 per cent of the population unemployed and 60 per cent below the poverty line.
But thousands of Argentinians are taking matters into their own hands, offering a political and economic alternative for all the victims of years of economic mismanagement under successive governments. They are the workers at Argentina's fabricas recuperadas, or occupied factories, and there are more than 10,000 of them, based at more than 160 factories around the country.
For Roberto Salsero, the process began with a telegram in August 2000 informing him and his fellow workers that Union y Fuerza, their employer, had been declared bankrupt and that their jobs no longer existed. The workers decided to fight for their incomes, taking their case to the courts in a battle that lasted six months.
With the help of a student lawyer, they finally won the right to reopen the factory doors and start making copper and bronze piping again. Under a legal loophole - the law of expropriation - they were granted two years to turn the factory around before they had to pay for the machinery and property they were using.
Almost three years later, the factory has increased its staff by 30 and is now producing more than it did under its previous owners. Run cooperatively, all decisions are voted on by the workers at general meetings, and the president of the cooperative is elected at yearly assemblies. All workers - or partners, as they call themselves - receive the same salary.
"We all own a little piece of the factory now," Salsero, the current president, says proudly. "We were used to working under an owner and didn't know how to manage an office, didn't know anything about the buying, the selling, the paperwork. We didn't even know how to write an invoice."
They received help from various sources, including a local government minister who trained the workers in the administrative side of the business. The machines have now been paid for and new ones bought to cope with extra customers. They have been granted a two-year extension, during which they have to pay for the property - money Salsero says they have already set aside.
And the workers are better off too. "The workers earn three times what they earned under the previous owner," he says.
Union y Fuerza is one of the better-known success stories among Argentina's occupied factories. But the struggle continues for many others. The Brukman textile factory hit the headlines last month when police arrived to evict workers who had been operating it since its owners abandoned it in 2001. Despite brutal scenes between police and workers, the women involved have refused to give up, and although production has temporarily ceased they are looking for new ways to return to work.
Not all of the factories have achieved the same economic success as Union y Fuerza, either. But for Eduardo Murua, president of the National Movement of Re-occupied Companies and himself a worker at an occupied factory, there has not been a single failure.
"They're all a success because they all continue to provide employment for their workers," says Murua.
Many of the original factory owners declared bankruptcy - some fraudulently, as in the case of Union y Fuerza. In other cases, the owners simply closed down or abandoned the factories for economic or other reasons, leaving salaries and creditors unpaid.
For those who have taken back their livelihoods, the key problem is raising the capital to restart production. Union y Fuerza received a loan from local authorities, but not everyone is guaranteed this help. With this in mind, the National Movement of Re-occupied Companies is hoping to build a capital fund to help newly occupied factories get back on their feet. Until then, the workers are finding money where they can and working together, often on reduced salaries, to ensure that all employees continue working. The factory where Murua works, IMPA, has been operating as a co-operative since 1998. Initially, there was work for only 70 people, but the factory continued with its full staff of 130, insisting that not one worker would lose his job. In a country where for most workers the only alternative is joblessness and poverty, even a reduced salary is better than none. "Economic power isn't the biggest thing," according to Murua. "Symbolic power is more important."
The occupied factories have become symbols of hope for many, inspiring workers across the country to fight to retain their jobs. The list of companies grows, with the recent addition of a five-star hotel that was occupied by its former employees, who are awaiting the right to reopen its doors for guests.
While the country holds its breath to see where Kirchner's new presidency will take Argentina, for many like Murua, the real development lies outside this political arena and in the hands of a population that has been disenfranchised time and again by the politicians who claim to represent it.
"The future of this country," he says, "is dependent on the capacity of our people to fight."