For almost two years the garment workers waged a hard-fought battle to prevent the owners from closing the plant and laying them off—a fight that became a rallying point for the working-class movement in Argentina. They took over the factory and ran it without the bosses for months, and after being evicted they set up a protest tent in the street. While their slogan from the beginning had been “nationalization under workers control,” the workers considered the legislature’s action as a way forward: to return to work, keep their jobs, and continue the fight from there.

Before the legislative session, a march was held by contingents of workers, unemployed organizations, workers cooperatives, neighborhood assemblies, and students as a show of support to the workers at Brukman. A delegation from the Zanón tile factory in the southwest city of Neuquén was prominent in the march. On October 1 the workers at Zanón—another focal point of labor resistance—celebrated the two-year anniversary since their occupation of the plant. They have been producing under workers’ control ever since.

Workers took over the Brukman factory on Dec. 18, 2001, after months of not being paid most of their wages. The bosses claimed to be on the verge of bankruptcy and threatened to shut down the plant. The factory occupation took place at a time when, in face of an acute economic crisis, mass antigovernment demonstrations erupted in Argentina and President Fernando de la Rúa was forced to resign.

A group of 20 workers sat in the factory on the night of December 17 to demand payment of back wages. When the other workers arrived the following morning they decided to take over the plant. Some 50 of the 100 workers continued with the fight. They operated the plant under their own control for 16 months.

Jacobo Brukman, the owner of the factory, had been claiming bankruptcy as the reason for not paying wages. Once workers took over the plant and opened the company books, however, they realized they had been lied to. Brukman was officially declared bankrupt two weeks before the legislature’s temporary expropriation ruling.

The workers at Brukman fought off two attempts by the bosses and cops to evict them, thanks to the solidarity of other working people who mobilized in their defense, until the Buenos Aires police forcibly removed them on April 18 of this year. After the eviction the workers set up a solidarity tent in front of the factory as they continued to press their fight. On May 30 they held a maquinazo (sewing machine action), setting up of dozens of sewing machines right on the street in front of the plant and blocking traffic. All the garments they sewed were donated to the province of Santa Fe, which had been hard hit by floods.

The workers’ seizure of the Brukman plant was part of a wave of factory occupations throughout Argentina as workers resisted the economic collapse and efforts by the employers to shift its consequences onto their backs. In most cases where the companies had declared bankruptcy and closed the plants, the workers have ended up forming cooperatives. A total of 10,000 workers in Argentina have occupied plants and are now running more than 170 plants and workplaces as cooperatives.

Where the government has “expropriated” a plant, it has turned over all the machinery to the cooperative, and has agreed to pay two years’ rent to the capitalist owners while the workers are allowed to run the plant for a certain period of time, usually two years. By the end of these two years, the workers have to accumulate enough capital through sales to buy the building themselves.

For example, at the Yaguané meatpacking plant in the industrial district of Matanzas, Buenos Aires province, the two-year deadline is up. The owner, Alberto Samid, is demanding payment of 38 million pesos (U.S. $12.8 million) for the building from the 480 workers who have been running the factory.

Workers at Brukman decided fighting for such an expropriation would put them in the best position to keep their jobs and continue their struggle.

“We are happy to prove to the people that our fight was not in vain,” Celia Martínez, a leader of the workers’ factory committee in the Brukman plant, told Nuestra Lucha, a newspaper produced by workers from Brukman and Zanón.

In a phone interview with the Militant, Martínez said, “We deserved nationalization,” referring to their initial demand for nationalization and workers control on the job. Nonetheless, she added, “we earned the ruling” by the city legislature. “We stayed outside the factory and wanted to continue the fight.”  
 
National crackdown on protests
In the last few months, the government of President Néstor Kirchner of the Peronist party has begun prosecuting some 3,000 workers across the country for their participation in social protest actions. Several Brukman workers are currently facing charges in connection with the brutal raid and eviction attempt by police on Nov. 24, 2002.

Raúl Godoy, head of the Ceramic Tile Workers Union at the Zanón plant in Neuquén, is being charged by the provincial police there for his participation in a road blockade along with members of unemployed organizations in 2001. He is one of 500 workers in the province of Neuquén facing charges, according to the union. On August 28 Godoy appeared at a hearing, which happened to coincide with a strike by teachers in Neuquén demanding wage increases. A rally of 3,000 in support of Godoy took place, swelled by striking teachers, members of the “Aníbal Verón” Movement of Unemployed Workers (MTD), and students.

Juan Carlos Acuña, the Zanón workers’ press secretary, said in a phone interview that Godoy’s case is “affected by the relationship of forces. It depends a lot on what we do. If we don’t fight it, they will just take him. Since the demonstration, the government has not pushed further against us.” Zanón is now the only occupied factory where the workers are demanding “nationalization under workers control.”

Unemployed workers organizations have joined forces in the last few months to protest these attempts to criminalize working-class protests. Pablo Solana, an unemployed electrician and member of the MTD-Aníbal Verón in Lanús, Buenos Aires province, reported in a phone interview that the government has stepped up the eviction of unemployed workers who have taken over abandoned buildings and vacant lots to build housing.

A group of unemployed workers in Buenos Aires province called the Villa Crespo Assembly was evicted August 29 from the building they had been occupying. The previous day, the headquarters of the MTD-Aníbal Verón in the province of La Plata was firebombed by ultrarightists. The facility included a child-care center, bakery, and community library. A note was left saying, “Leftist rats get out,” and signed “Peronist Youth.”

On October 23 unemployed workers protested in front of the offices of Minister of Labor Carlos Tomada, blocking the entrances and forcing him to sleep in his office overnight. Workers demanded an increase in “job plans”—government-funded temporary jobs—as well as food and a public works program. The temporary jobs pay 150 pesos a month to heads of households who might perform a few hours of make-work.

In response to the demonstration at the Labor Ministry, Alberto Fernández, head of the national cabinet, called for the formation of “anti-piquetero brigades” (piqueteros are the unemployed workers who set up pickets or road blockades demanding jobs). Other members of the cabinet, feeling the pressure from the demonstrations, have called for an amnesty for the 3,000 being prosecuted.

In the phone interview, Solana explained that on November 4 unemployed organizations held a march of 40,000 workers protesting the government crackdown and demanding an increase in public jobs programs for all unemployed workers. He reported that only 2.2 million out of 4 million unemployed workers are part of job programs.

Unemployed organizations as well as other workers and human rights organizations have called for a protest on December 20 to commemorate the massive demonstrations that led to the resignation of De la Rúa two years earlier. In an attempt to undercut the protest, Kirchner recently announced that an additional 50 pesos would be paid in December to those covered by the jobs programs.

“The protest is still moving forward because that is no answer to all those still receiving no job benefits, and the money is too little for those currently receiving benefits,” Solana said.  
 
 
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