CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

WORKERS WITHOUT BOSSES-WATERLOO EVENT:

The speaking tour of an Argentine comrade from Red Libertaria through Ontario and Québec continues apace. Here's a review from the Common Cause (the sponsors of the Ontario wing of this tour) website about the first stop on this tour in Waterloo Ontario. See the Common Cause website for details about further public meetings in this tour.

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Workers Without Bosses tour - A short review of the Waterloo stop:
On Saturday, January 23rd I attended the first stop in the Ontario-wing of the “Workers Without Bosses“ speaking tour, held in Kitchener-Waterloo. The stop was organized by a local Common Cause member with help from the good folks at Anti-War at Laurier (AWOL) and the KW Community Centre for Social Justice (KWCCSJ).

These are the same people who take much of the credit for building a vibrant activist community in the past few years. From Six Nations solidarity work to anti-Olympics organizing to the opening of the Centre for Social Justice, these hard-working people have made K-W a regional centre of anti-authoritarian, direct action based organizing.

Earlier in the day, I had the pleasure of spending some time with the speaker, Sebastian, a militant with the Argentina-based social anarchist group, Red Libertaria (Libertarian Network). Sebastian is a student of radical Argentinian history and we talked about the anarchist workers movement in early 20th century Argentina, an era where anarchist-socialism dominated the worker's movement.

Some of this material is covered in the recently published book, "Black Flame: the Revolutionary Class Politics of Mass Anarchism and Syndicalism"written by two members of the South African anarcho-communist organization, Zabalaza and a must read for all anarchists. It turns out Sebastian collaborated with the authors on the Latin American section of the two-volume work.

We also talked about the current situation in Argentina and what has happened to the social movements there since the 2001 economic crisis and social explosion. This was also the subject of Sebastian's talk later that night, in front of a packed house of 40 or so people.

I won't go over his talk in detail. For that you'll have to attend one of the remaining tour stops or tune in on here once we have an audio recording up. But to summarize, the presentation began with a brief history of neoliberal economic policies in Argentina, and the reasons behind the 2001 economic collapse. From here, most of the talk provided an overview of the three main social movements involved in the social uprising: the unemployed workers movement, the factory occupations movement, and the neighbourhood assemblies. If you've seen the documentary "The Take", you'll appreciate how Sebastian brings the story up to date as well as the details added that we don't hear in the film.

For example, the talk makes clear that the social uprising was not as spontaneous as is made to be seen in "The Take". The unemployed workers movement, known as the "piqueteros" for blockading major transportation routes, had been organizing before the uprising. Also, behind the most militant factory occupations, including the Zanon occupation, lay years of patient organizing and struggle, often involving the various radical left groups. In short, while there certainly was a lot of spontaneity to the 2001 uprising, especially among the neighbourhood assemblies, some of the groundwork had been laid in advance.

The picture that emerges 9 years after the uprising is decidedly mixed. With few exceptions, the neighbourhood assemblies have disappeared. But some of them morphed into social centres or neighbourhood cooperatives and many of the participants became radicalised and have swelled the numbers of the radical left, including the anarchist groups. Red Libertaria itself is a product of the uprising's aftermath.

The unemployed workers movement won employment insurance but in the process much of it has been captured by political parties, with a few still clinging to autonomy.

Hundreds of occupied factories remain in the hands of workers, successfully producing with drastic improvements in working conditions. Some factories double as cultural and social spaces: places of work by day, community centres in the evenings. But all struggle to survive in what remains a capitalist economy where competition can turn workers' control into self-managed exploitation. And some bosses have figured out a way to create "fake" cooperatives taking advantage of state subsidies and new legislation.

In short, the Argentinian ruling class and their allies have managed to recover control. They've done this with difficulty using a mixture of repression and cooptation, meeting some of the movements' demands in return for their moderation and bureaucratization. That they were able to stabilize the economy was also central to their ability to regain control.

According to Sebastian, this outcome is due in large part to a major weakness of the 2001 uprising. The movements that emerged knew what they were against: neoliberal capitalism. But they did not have an alternative nor an idea of how to go about building it. For example, Sebastian recounts how his neighbourhood assembly voted to nationalize the banks, without any idea of what this would look like or the power to make it happen.

As for the anarchists, like the rest of the radical left, they lacked the organizational and political unity to pursue a common strategy inside the movements. In one struggle, two groups of anarchists even found themselves on opposite sides of a conflict within the local unemployed workers movement. Division is even worse among other political tendencies.

It is hard not to see the similarities here with more recent uprisings such as the Greek revolt of 2008-2009. And we can see the same thing happening today in Ontario and North America. While there is more anger today towards capitalism and the ruling classes than there has been in decades, no alternative has even begun to capture the popular imagination. And the libertarian, anti-capitalist left is in no position to propose and start really building towards an alternative. I hope that, like last night, those who come to see Sebastian talk will use the time to reflect on the lessons offered by the struggle in Argentina, and will continue the discussion long after Sebastian has rejoined his fellow anarchists in Buenos Aires.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-ONTARIO:

FACTORIES WITHOUT BOSSES ONTARIO SPEAKING TOUR:

Since Molly last reported on the Québec speaking tour of an anarchist comrade from the Argentinian Red Libertaria group, speaking on how ordinary people responded to an earlier economic crisis in that country, plans have been put together for an Ontario section of the tour. Here are the details from the Ontario Common Cause website.

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Workers Without Bosses - Speaking Tour:
The popular response to the Argentine economic crisis of December 2001 and lessons for us in Canada - a Québec and Ontario speaking tour presented by the Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL) and Common Cause.

We are going through one of the worst economic crises in the history of capitalism and the answers provided by the state and its lackeys are illusory. In addition, faced with this impasse, our leaders are trying to shift the entire burden of the crisis to workers and their communities.
How can we respond differently to this economic crisis ? Can we learn from the experiences of struggles that have happened elsewhere in the world ?

To consider these issues, the UCL and Common Cause are organizing a Québec and Ontario speaking tour this winter on the response of the Argentine popular classes in the face of a serious economic crisis that shook the country in the late 2001.

From 18 January to 12 February, a militant from the anarchist organization Red Libertaria (Argentina) will travel to different cities in Quebec and Ontario to talk about this subject. He will discuss different forms of resistance developed by the Argentine people to counter the effects of the crisis such as retaking factories and creating self-managed cooperatives. He will also discuss the involvement of anarchists in these different struggles.
In Ontario, the tour will stop in:
Waterloo

- January 23, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

KW Community Centre for Social Justice (KWCCSJ)

63 Courtland Ave East

Hosted by Peaceculture.org and KWCCSJ
London

- January 24, 7pm

Empowerment Infoshop

636 Queens Ave.

Hosted by Common Cause London
Hamilton

- January 25, 7pm

Skydragon Centre

27 King William Street

Hosted by Common Cause Hamilton

commoncausehamilton@gmail.com
Toronto - January 26 TBA
Ottawa - January 27 TBA

The tour will stop in several Quebec cities including Montreal, St-Jerome, Quebec, Saguenay, Saint-Félicien, Drummondville, Sherbrooke. The places and dates of each talk will be publicized soon.

For more information on the Ontario wing of the tour contact commoncauseontario@gmail.com or check here (The Common Cause website-Molly ) for regular updates.

MOUVEMENT ANARCHISTE DE CANADA/CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
USINES SANS PATRONS/FACTORIES WITHOUT BOSSES:

Dans les premières années de la dernière décennie l'Argentine a connu le genre de crise économique que le monde entier souffre d'aujourd'hui. Plutôt que de dépendre de leurs dirigeants, les gens ordinaires ont agi de leur propre chef, avec des solutions créatives et libertaire. L'UCL Québec envisage de parrainer une tournée d'un participant à ces évents de donner une autre manière de sortir de la crise actuelle. Voici le communiqué de la blogue de l'UCL de Montréal.

In the early years of the last decade Argentina suffered the kind of economic crisis that the whole world is suffering from today. Rather than depend upon their rulers the ordinary people acted on their own, with creative and libertarian solutions. The Québec UCL plans to sponsor a tour of one participant in these events to give an alternative way out of the present crisis. Here's the notice from the Montréal UCL blog.
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Usines sans patrons (Prise 2):
Usines sans patron : la réponse des classes populaires argentines à la crise économique de décembre 2001 - Tournée panquébécoise de conférences (Prise 2)




Nous traversons l’une des pires crises économiques de l’histoire du capitalisme et les réponses fournies par l'État et ses laquais sont illusoires. En plus, face à cette impasse nos dirigeant-e-s tentent de faire porter tout le fardeau de la crise aux travailleurs et travailleuses.





Comment pouvons-nous répondre autrement à cette crise économique? Pouvons-nous s’inspirer des expériences de luttes qui se sont passées ailleurs dans le monde?





Pour réfléchir à ces questions, l'Union communiste libertaire (UCL) organise cet hiver une tournée panquébécoise de conférences sur la réponse des classes populaires argentines face à la grave crise économique qui secoua le pays au début des années 2000.





Du 18 janvier au 12 février prochain, un militant anarchiste de l’organisation Red Libertaria (Argentine) parcourra différentes villes du Québec et de l'Ontario (J'espére-Molly ) pour nous entretenir sur ce sujet. Il traitera des différentes formes de résistance développées par le peuple argentin pour contrer les effets de la crise: récupération d'usine, création de coopératives autogérées, etc. ainsi que de l'implication des anarchistes dans ces différentes luttes.





La tournée s'arrêtera dans plusieurs villes : Montréal, Saint-Jérôme, Québec, Saguenay, Saint-Félicien, Drummondville, Sherbrooke, etc. Soyez alerte! Les lieux et dates de chaque conférence seront publicisés très bientôt.
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Factories without bosses (Take 2):
Factories without bosses:the response of the popular classes to the Argentine economic crisis of December 2001 - PanQuébec Tour of meetings (Take 2)





We are going through one of the worst economic crises in the history of capitalism and the answers provided by the state and its lackeys are illusory. In addition, faced with this impasse, our leaders are trying to shift the entire burden of the crisis to the workers.





How can we respond differently to this economic crisis? Can we learn from the experiences of struggles that have happened elsewhere in the world?





To consider these issues, the Libertarian Communist Union (UCL) is organizing a panQuébec tour this winter of meetings on the response of Argentine popular classes in the face of a serious economic crisis that shook the country in the early 2000s.





From 18 January to 12 February, a militant from the anarchist organization Red Libertaria (Argentina) will travel to different cities of Quebec and Ontario (I hope-Molly ) to talk about this subject. He will discuss different forms of resistance developed by the Argentine people to counter the effects of the crisis retaking factories, creating self-managed cooperatives, etc.. and the involvement of anarchists in these different struggles.





The tour will stop in several cities: Montreal, St-Jerome, Quebec, Saguenay, Saint-Félicien, Drummondville, Sherbrooke, etc.. Be alert! The places and dates of each conference will be publicized soon.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-ARGENTINA:

"NO FARE" PROTESTS IN BUENOS AIRES:

Tactics such as these have been tried many times before in public service situations, and variants may also be applicable to industries in the private sector. As a pressure tactic to get the attention of management while, at the same time, gaining massive public support they have no equal. Here's the story about one recent such instance from the pages of the British site LibCom.

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Subway workers hold 'no fare' protest and strike in Buenos Aires:
This week employees on the Buenos Aires subway freed turnstiles for two hours in a move to press the government to grant legal status to their recently created trade union as well as taking strike action.

According to Argentine law only one union on each trade or activity can be granted legal status and therefore, participate in wage bargaining or legally call for a strike.

The spokesman of the workers, Néstor Segovia, said in a radio interview that the union “is demanding that the Labor Ministry grants legal status” to the subway workers union, whose workers last year voted in favour of creating a new union as a result of differences with the UTA transport workers union which now gathers all workers in the transport activity.

UTA claims the initiative would go against the law, as it goes against their interests.

Nevertheless, a ruling of the Supreme Court last year paved the way for changes in the law in a move to democratize labor unions.

Another union representative, Roberto Pianelli, later in the week told the press that workers will also be taking strike action which will interrupt service on all subway lines from noon till 2pm, but said that workers wanted to “avoid” the strike and that they waited up to the last minute to call it off.

Pianelli said that if before noon they get a phone call to begin solving the problem of the legal recognition of a trade union of subway workers independent from the larger Transportation Workers Union (UTA) then they may reconsider. However, the delegate never received that call and the strike began at 12 pm sharp on all six lines of Buenos Aires city subway.

Company officials said the strike would affect 160,000 passengers.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-ARGENTINA:

ZANON WORKERS WIN IMPORTANT LEGAL VICTORY:

As the economic crisis continues more and more workers are discovering the power of factory occupations in bringing the bosses to heel. Unfortunately few of the many instances in which this tactic has been used have seen the workers involved take the further step of actually taking the factory over and running it as a producers' cooperative. Sometimes this is unrealistic, but it has been proved to be more realistic in most cases than depending upon politicians to solve the problem, either by nationalization or by propping up the enterprise. In the country of Argentina, which entered an economic crisis years before the rest of the world, this step of "taking over" has actually been done dozens of times and the new self managed enterprises are usually successful, showing that bosses, either private or government, are not needed.

The following article from the Upside Down World website tells of a recent victory by one of the most successful of these take-overs, the Zanon ceramics factory.

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Zanon workers win major legal battle:

The workers at Argentina's occupied ceramics factory, FASINPAT (Factory Without a Boss), won a major victory this week: the factory now definitively belongs to the people in legal terms. The provincial legislature voted in favor of expropriating the ceramics factory and handing it over to the workers cooperative to manage legally and indefinitely. Since 2001, the workers at Zanon have fought for legal recognition of worker control at Latin America's largest ceramics factory which has created jobs, spearheaded community projects, supported social movements world-wide and shown the world that workers don't need bosses.

"This is incredible, we are happy. The expropriation is an act of justice," said Alejandro Lopez the General Secretary of the Ceramists Union, overwhelmed by the emotion of the victory. "We don't forget the people who supported us in our hardest moments, or the 100,000 people who signed the petition supporting our bill."

Hundreds of workers from the FASINPAT factory waited anxiously until the late hours of the night for the legislature's decision. The expropriation law passed 26 votes in favor and 9 votes against the bill. Thousands of supporters from other workers' organizations, human rights groups and social movements, along with entire families and students, joined the workers as they waited outside the provincial legislature in the capital city of Neuquén. Enduring the Patagonian winter weather, activists played drums and shouted: "here they are the workers of Zanon, workers without a boss."

FASINPAT has operated under worker control since 2001 when Zanon's owners decided to close its doors and fire the workers without paying months of back pay or severance pay. Leading up to the massive layoffs and plant's closure, workers went on strike in 2000. The owner, Luis Zanon, with over 75 million dollars in debt to public and private creditors (including the World Bank for over 20 million dollars), fired en masse most of the workers and closed the factory in 2001-a bosses' lockout. In October 2001, workers declared the plant under worker control. The workers subsequently camped outside the factory for four months, pamphleteering and partially blocking a highway leading to the capital city of Neuquén. While the workers were camping outside the factory, a court ruled that the employees could sell off remaining stock. After the stock ran out, on March 2, 2002, the workers' assembly voted to start up production without a boss. Since the occupation, the workers renamed the factory FASINPAT (Factory without a Boss).

The workers set up a stage with a giant screen for the thousands of supporters to view the legislative vote. As the decision was read, workers embraced one another in tears in disbelief that after 8 years of struggle they finally won legal control of the factory. "This decision reflects an organized struggle that won the support all of society," said Veronica Hullipan from the Confederation of Mapuche. She said that the network of Mapuche indigenous communities in the Patagonia have supported the Zanon workers' struggle and said legal decision is a "political triumph of workers' organization."

Zanon workers reminded their supporters that the struggle of Zanon, was also the struggle of Carlos Fuentealba, a public school teacher from the province of Neuquén killed by a police officer during a peaceful protest in defense of public education. The Zanon workers have not only created jobs, but they have supported workers struggles locally, nationally and internationally. Workers from FASINPAT were present at the protest where Fuentealba was shot point blank in the head with a tear gas canister, in police repression ordered by the conservative ruling coalition of Neuquén MPN, which has ruled the Patagonian province since the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

"This is an important chapter in the struggle of the Zanon workers, who have been fighting in the streets for more than 9 years. First they tried to evict us in order to auction off the factory, the workers' struggle and the community pressured the government to expropriate the factory," Raul Godoy, Zanon worker told the national news daily Página/12. Today, the plant exports ceramics to 25 countries.

Many legislative representatives wanted to demand that the workers at the self-managed factory "guarantee a pact for social peace." But for the workers, the pact for social peace is broken when businessmen fraudulently go bankrupt and throw hundreds of workers out into the street. "The capitalists are constantly declaring war with tariff increases, by privatizing public companies and with firings. Before this situation, the workers must defend themselves; and the workers at Zanon commit to defending ourselves, in the street, however we have to."

According to the legislation passed, the FASINPAT cooperative which employs 470 workers and exports ceramics to more than 25 countries, will remain under the control of the cooperative. The state would pay off 22 million pesos (around $7 million) to the creditors. One of the main creditors is the World Bank - which gave a loan of 20 million dollars to Luis Zanon for the construction of the plant, which he never paid back. The other major creditor is the Italian company SACMY that produces state of the art ceramics manufacturing machinery and is owed over $5 million. However, the workers have resisted the state pay-off, saying that courts have proven that the creditors participated in the fraudulent bankruptcy of the plant in 2001, because the credits went directly to the owner Luis Zanon and not investments into the factory. "If someone should pay, Luis Zanon should pay, who is being charged with tax evasion," said Omar Villablanca from FASINPAT.
Victory, then an eviction
While the victory of FASINPAT brings hope to many of the 200 occupied factories currently operated under worker self-management in Argentina, many are still facing legal attacks. Early yesterday morning, just hours after the Zanon victory, a police operative evicted the factory Textil Quilmes, a thread factory occupied in the new wave of factory occupations in 2009. The four workers on night guard were evicted violently. The Buenos Aires provincial government is currently debating an expropriation bill for Textil Quilmes and several other new occupations in the Buenos Aires province. The textile workers are resisting the eviction at the factory's doors, rallying support to re-enter the factory despite police presence. They also had temporary legal protection, following an expropriation bill that was approved unanimously by the lower house in the provincial legislature.

The workers occupied the plant on February 11, 2009. "We camped outside the plant to avoid the bosses' liquidation of the machinery. And the workers decided to take a direct action, occupy and form a cooperative," said Eduardo Santillán, a Quilmes textile worker. With the remaining cotton left in the plant, the workers immediately began to produce cotton thread. At the time of the firing, more than 80 worked at the plant. In a common practice for business owners who file bankruptcy despite an increased demand for their product, the owner Ruben Ballani of Febatex owed the workers months of unpaid salaries, unpaid vacation time and social security. The workers also reported that the owner would force his employees to work 12 hour shifts, a practice outlawed nearly 100 years ago.

Six months after the workers were fired and the union (Sindicato Textil - AOT) failed to intervene, the workers at Textil Quilmes started up production. They claim that the union, who turned their backs on the workers once they were fired, is now negotiating on behalf of the bosses.

The occupations in Argentina continue to rise as the global economic crisis hits the South American nation. The Arrufat chocolate factory, Disco de Oro empanada pastry manufacturer, Indugraf printing press, Febatex thread producer and Lidercar meat packing plant joined the ranks of the worker occupied factory movement from 2008 to 2009. Textil Quilmes has fought along with workers from other factories occupied since the onset of the global economic crisis to demand expropriation laws; none have a definitive legal future.

Many independent analysts expect the global recession to hit Argentina's real economy. Unemployment rates have gone up and industry growth has halted, while the financial sector remains unaffected because it already took a major blow in 2001. Those who benefited from Argentina's economic recovery of course are now those who are using this crisis as an excuse to downsize and lay-off workers with the promise of public bailout packages and government credits.

The phenomenon of worker occupations continues to grow as the world falls deeper into the current recession. Nearly 20 new factories in Argentina were occupied since 2008. This may be a sign that workers are confronting the current global financial crisis with lessons and tools from previous worker occupied factories post-2001 economic collapse and popular rebellion. Today, some 250 worker occupied enterprises are up and running, employing more than 13,000. Many of these sites have been producing under worker self-management since 2002, providing nearly a decade of lessons, experiments, strategies and mistakes to learn from.

Zanon and others from the occupied factory movement have proven that they are capable of doing what bosses aren't interested in doing: creating jobs and work with dignity. This may be why government representatives, industry leaders and factory owners have remained silent and often times reacted with hostility on this issue; they are afraid of these sites multiplying and the example they have set.

At Zanon, workers constantly use the slogan: "Zanon es del pueblo" or Zanon belongs to the people. The workers have adopted the objective of producing not only to provide jobs and salaries for more than 470 people, but also to create new jobs, make donations in the community and to support other social movements. For many at the recuperated enterprises, the occupation of their workplace meant much more than safe-guarding their jobs, it also became part of a struggle for a world without exploitation. While the Zanon victory is a step in the right direction, many of the occupations are facing eviction orders. FASINPAT can now operate legally and focus their attention to producing ceramics in a faltering economy. The Zanon collective has expressed their continued commitment to defending workers' rights and self-management, which means defending all worker occupations with slogan: "si nos tocan a uno, nos tocan a todos": "if they mess with one of us, they mess with all of us."
Marie Trigona

http://upsidedownworld.org

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-ARGENTINA:

WORKERS' CONTROL WORKS:

While workers across the world struggle with the effects of the present economic crisis in one country people have shown the way years ago. Workplace occupations are becoming increasingly frequent as the only tactic capable of putting sufficient pressure on management. The step beyond, however, is rarely taken...to take over the workplaces and actually start working them themselves under workers' control. Following their local economic crisis in the early 90s many workers in Argentina did take this step. Today they are prospering. Here's the story from The Indypendent, the newspaper of the New York Indymedia.

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Worker-Run Businesses Flourish in Argentina:

By Jaisal Noor

Maria Alejendra, a factory worker in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina, spends her days cutting pieces of rawhide at the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative. Along with the 33 other original workers at the dog treat factory, Alejandra now makes twice as much money — 2,000 pesos a month — as she did under her former boss. Alejandra, 41, who has worked at the factory for 14 years, is now able to listen to music and drink maté, a South American herbal tea, while she works.

The Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative is just one of more than 250 worker-recovered businesses in Argentina, which employ a total of 13,000 workers. Part of a broader effort to recover factories, which started after the country’s economic collapse in 2001, the workers at Huesitos de Wilde first occupied the factory and took over production in January 2007.
Though Argentina’s economy has improved since the crash, the current economic downturn has caused a recent increase in factory take overs, with a significant uptick since February.

Nearly 20 factories have been occupied since 2008, and 33 new cooperatives have been officially registered with the government in the past few months. While the government readily grants businesses cooperative status — there are currently some 10,000 cooperatives in Argentina — gaining this recognition is the first step for the few hundred recovered enterprises that wish to be worker-run. However, the government has yet to recognize the legal right of any of these recently recovered businesses to exist.

While cooperative enterprises do allow workers a greater role in company decisions, worker recovered businesses allow employees to reclaim lost jobs, as well as receive the same wages and equally participate in management decisions, as is the case with Huesitos de Wilde.

Workers who seek to recover a business from their owners are faced with numerous challenges. In addition to often lacking management experience, the struggle to find start-up money and maintain a profitable business can often sideline reclaimed enterprises.

The workers at Huesitos de Wilde were offered guidance by an array of groups, including the Argentine Workers Center, a trade-union federation.

“Once we were taught, we came back to take over the factory,” Alejandra said.
Reclaiming factories that have been abandoned by owners provides workers with a way to counter the self-interest of some employers, according to Marie Trigona, a journalist and filmmaker who has worked with Free Speech Radio News and Z Magazine.

Businessmen often exploit crises by declaring bankruptcy so they can set up shop elsewhere and hire cheaper labor or invest their money in more lucrative projects, Trigona said.

While Argentina has provided business owners with the option to run cooperatives since the late 19th century, the country’s road to an option such as worker-run enterprises has not been an easy one. Argentina’s history has been plagued by neoliberal policies, such as widespread privatization, deregulation and cutbacks in social services.

Prior to the military coup of 1976, Argentina was one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America. It was the envy of the developing world, with strong labor laws and an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent. But after seven years of brutal military dictatorship — which were marked by widespread torture and the “disappearance” of 30,000 political opponents — followed by a string of pro-free market governments, these progressive policies were eroded.

By the 1990s, Argentina was viewed by the West as a poster-child for embracing neoliberal policies championed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But when the speculation- driven economic bubble of the 1990s burst in December 2001, the country’s banking system collapsed. Business owners declared bankruptcy, fired scores of workers and moved their money offshore, resulting in a capital flight of $18.7 billion in 2001.

Argentine civil society responded through popular revolt against the government and economic elite. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets and toppled four governments in a matter of weeks. Factory takeovers were commonplace, and violent clashes with police led to dozens of civilian deaths over the next several years.

In 2002, the unemployment rate was 25 percent, with another 20 percent of workers underemployed and 60 percent of the country living in poverty. Workers began taking over factories in an attempt to reclaim their livelihoods.

Argentina’s economy began recovering from the collapse in 2003. From 2003 to 2008, for “most recovered factories, the priority was growing economically, finding capital, or raising capital through work. Most of them have done pretty well, while others have just survived,” said Esteban Magnani, who has worked extensively with the recovered-business movement in Argentina and is the author of The Silent Change: Recovered Businesses in Argentina.

By early 2007, more than 170 businesses were worker-run, though the vast majority were not recognized by the government as legal businesses.

Members of the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative credit La Base, the Argentine-based counterpart of the U.S. micro-finance organization The Working World, as well as the broader community of groups that support worker-run cooperatives, with the factory’s continued success.

This support network proved to be invaluable when the workers returned to the factory to reclaim it and discovered that most of the plant’s machinery had been removed.

With help from the Employees and Supervisors Union and a $15,000 loan from La Base, the workers were able to buy back the equipment before it was sold at the auction block as well as purchase raw materials. But the process was far from easy. For many months, workers went without paychecks, and only 33 of the original 200 workers chose to remain in the cooperative. Of the workers that left, some have found work while many are still unemployed.

The Working World, founded by Brendan Martin in 2004, offers collateral-free loans with no enforcement mechanism for repayment. While the interest rates on the loans given to Huesitos de Wilde range from 10 to 18 percent, the repayment rate for all Working World loans is 98 percent.

Though the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative has managed to keep its factory doors open, the workers still do not own the property. They could be evicted at anytime. While Huesitos de Wilde only received preliminary approval last February under the law of expropriations, they must continue producing so they can pay off the debt owed by the former owner, thus keeping them in a state of legal limbo until they receive final approval and can be granted ownership of the factory.

According to Magnani, while the state has indicated that expropriation laws, which would provide cooperatives with legal permission to use owner assets, might be enacted, the legal support provided by this legislation would be weak.

“The future of the recovered factories, both the new and the old, is still uncertain,” Magnani said. “Of the older ones, just a few have managed to get the property of assets.”

Despite the challenges facing the workers at Huesitos de Wilde, the state of worker-run cooperatives in the United States is still far behind Argentina.

Late last year, more than 250 fired workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago held a successful six-day sit-in demanding vacation and severance pay.

While the factory remains open after recently being purchased by California-based Serious Materials, a company that manufactures green building supplies, only 15 of the workers have been able to return to work since May, as production has been slow. Serious Materials hopes that an infusion of federal stimulus funds for weatherization will increase demand for the company’s products and allow them to re-hire all 250 workers.

Though the workers did consider the possibility of taking over the factory themselves, Mark Meinster, a representative of United Electrical Workers, the union to which the Republic workers belong, told The Indypendent earlier this year that the lack of a recovered-factory movement in the United States made this an unlikely possibility.(Sounds like the old "You First Jack"- Molly)

“The fact that no real movement of worker-run enterprises exists in the U.S. makes this option much more difficult at this point,” Meinster said.

Despite the current global recession, the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative is thriving, and has recently hired eight more employees. The workers remain optimistic, regardless of their lack of legal ownership of the factory.

“The truth is that you can work without a boss. We have learned that you can continue … and you can succeed,” Alejandra said.

ANARCHIST FILM:

THE TAKE:

The film 'The Take' , by the Canadian team of Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis, has become something of an 'alternative classic'. It tells the story of how an auto plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina was threatened with closure by its owners and was taken over by the workers involved and reopened as a producers' cooperative. This is the sort of action that Molly has long advocated here, and it was actually done, in a situation such as an auto plant that Molly thinks is doubtful (see my comments on the recent workers' occupation of the auto plant in South Korea). But it did happen in at least one place.

This film is now available for download and viewing at another Winnipeg site, the Insurrectionary People's Picture Show Theater. Check it out over there, and see all the other treats they have available.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-IRELAND/ENGLAND:

MORE ON FACTORY OCCUPATIONS AT VISTEON:

Molly has blogged before on the recent factory occupations in England and Ireland of the Visteon car parts manufacturers. The following, from the Anarkismo web site, gives more details , concentrating on the situation in Ireland, being as the authors are the Workers' Solidarity Movement of Ireland.

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Factory occupations in Ireland in response to capitalist crisis:
Following on from the occupation of the Waterford Glass plant in February which managed to save some of the jobs and improve redundancy conditions workers in Belfast at Visteon occupied their factor last week. With plant closures happening across the island of Ireland both these occupations provide an example of workers taking direct action to preserve jobs and/or force employers to improve on redundancy conditions. Here we present reports from WSM members from these occupations and background articles.
Visteon - Belfast
Hundreds rally in support of Visteon workers occupation (April 9th)

Over 200 people marched today from Andersonstown to the factory in Finachy for a rally, which was addressed by Unite Shop Stewards Charlie Maxwell and John Maxwell, including representatives from the SDLP and Sinn Fein.
Workers occupations spread at Visteon Plants (April 2nd)

Workers decided to take action on Tuesday after the car parts company announced without notice that administrators are being brought in with the loss of 210 jobs with minimum redundancy payments. A further 400 people will also lose there jobs across the UK. Even those who have been working at the plant for 30 years will be receiving £9,000 in redundancy payment with most getting less.
WSM audio interview from inside the plant with Unite shop steward and convener John McGuire and interviews with Belfast Visteon workers at rally (Michael)(Gerry)(Rally at plant)
Why we have occupied Visteon, EnfieldThe text of the leaflet produced by workers in occupation of the Ford Visteon factory in Enfield, London explaining why they had joined the occupations in Belfast and Enfield.

Waterford Glass - Waterford
Clear as Crystal ... Waterford Shows the Way (WS 108, March)

The workers at Waterford Crystal occupying the plant are an example to us all. Rather than accept the closure of the business, the loss of all the jobs and the destruction of the area’s premier industry; workers seized the buildings making liquidation impossible for the receiver.
Audio: Waterford Crystal Workers Speak Out (Feb 10th)

Noel Atkins and Pat Phelan, Waterford Crystal workers and Unite Shop Stewards, travelled to Cork last night to speak out against the attempted closure of the plant. They spoke from the heart as workers tossed on the scrap heap after decades of service.
Support workers occupying Waterford Glass (Feb 3rd)

Workers have been occupying the Waterford Glass factory in Kilbarry for five days now after the receiver was unable to borrow further funds to keep the plant operating. Yesterday as 150 workers continued the occupation members of the Cork WSM visited the plant and interviewed Joe Kelly, the chairman of the Crystal Unite branch. The Cork branch later issued a statement in support of the occupation.
WSM audio interview with Joe Kelly from inside the occupation
Background articles
WSM position paper on the Trade Unions

This is the collective policy of the WSM as agreed at our national conferences that guides our work in the unions and workplaces in general.
Workers Without Bosses - Workers' Self-Management in Argentina (RBR8, 2004)

The original battle cry of Argentinean people "Que se vayan todos" - We want all of them out - that expressed the will to break with the corrupt bureaucracies, with the political class, turned out with all of them staying in the end. These experiences also highlight many of the problems anarchists elsewhere face in the wake of popular risings and they show us that the building of a libertarian society is not a matter of repeating clichés and slogans.
Argentina says "Enough" (WS69, March 2002)

On the 19th and 20th of December 2001, there was a major popular revolt in Argentina which among other things led to a large number of workplace occupations with workers putting these occupied factories back into production under their own self management. Workers Solidarity 69 reported on the start of the process in early 2002.
Workers Self-management in Argentina (WS73, Nov 2002)

The most direct challenge to capitalism is the occupation of factories by workers. On the 1st of October last year, the workers of the Zanón ceramics factory in Neuquén, one of Latin America's largest ceramics producers, occupied their factory and have kept it running ever since. The bosses had stopped production, claiming the factory was no longer profitable and that they could no longer pay the workers. In similar circumstances in Buenos Aires, the female workers of the Brukman textile factory occupied their workplace and have been running their plant successfully for the last 10 months.

CANADIAN LABOUR-WINNIPEG:
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS STRIKE NOW IN THIRD WEEK:

Since Thanksgiving Monday, October 13 staff at the 'Winnipeg Free Press', represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union have been on strike. The workers are due to vote on the latest offer from management tomorrow.




One of the interesting things about this dispute is that the workers involved have set up their own news website to continue serving the people of Winnipeg for the duration. You can see it here at FreePressOn Strike.Com. There is also a Facebook group for the strikers and their supporters. More on the meaning of these tactics later, but first the facts of the strike, as presented by the workers involved.
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The Free Press Strike FAQ:
What’s the strike about?
Free Press co-owner Ron Stern demanded concessions from nearly all 1,000 people who create the newspaper every day – from the carriers who deliver the paper to the pressmen who print it to the reporters who fill it with news.





He wanted to eliminate scores of jobs, weaken the pension plan, cut the pay of night shift workers and make carriers do more for less.





More than a week into a strike that is costing the paper at least $250,000 a day, Stern has backed away from most - not all - of those concessions. But we’re still far apart on wages, a fair deal for carriers and a small list of demands union members have. Remember, Free Press workers went into this with their own wish list - reasonable things like better vision care and vacation pay for part-timers. We haven’t even really talked about those things yet.
Are there talks?
Yes. Bargaining started over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, even though Free Press employees have been begging to negotiate for months. It then turned into a stalemate late last week. Talks started again Tuesday and are ongoing.
Why should I care?
The Free Press has been a Manitoba institution for 136 years.All Free Press staff — from columnists to circulation managers — are proud of our ability to provide innovative, in-depth and independent news coverage.We can’t let Stern erode all that. We want to maintain the quality of the newspaper you get every morning and the quality of life of the people who make it.
What are you doing in the mean time?
Until the strike ends, our reporters, photographers, web experts and editors will continue to cover the news in Winnipeg for this site.We’re committed to keeping you informed, just like we have for generations.Thanks for your support.
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And also from the same site.
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An open letter to our readers from Free Press workers on strike:
Dear Readers,
Free Press Publisher Bob Cox recently accused striking employees of putting “misleading and outright false information” on the record about the strike, which began Oct. 13.





We believe Bob Cox to be a reasonable person. If Bob Cox was negotiating the contract for the Free Press, we’d probably all be back at work.





But he isn’t – Vancouver-based owner Ron Stern and his hired pitbull of a negotiator, Milt Christiansen, are pulling all the strings. And what they’re engaged in is anything but a negotiation. After refusing to bargain for nearly three months, Christiansen almost immediately started delivering ultimatums in the form of what he called his “last, best and FINAL” offer that left no room for discussion or compromise.But it wasn’t a final offer at all. The offer was so riddled with mistakes that the company was forced to offer “clarifications” via e-mail. Those clarifications left the union even more confused. On Friday evening, the company put those clarifications in a revised final offer that came in after 6:30 p.m. and bypassed the conciliator. That revised offer was posted on the CEP website as soon as possible.The union has made it clear the offer is unacceptable. If it’s truly a final offer, our only logical response is “NO.” Talks will not get going again until the company moves off its offer





Here are some more clarifications:
The wage offer
The union’s five-year wage offer was contingent upon the company agreeing to withdraw all concessions and give laid-off workers and proper severance. It was part of a package. In an attempt to paint the union as greedy and obstructionist, Cox has plucked one part of that package offer out of the deal. That offer is now off the table.
Free Press pay
This is an old canard Stern always hauls out at contract time – that Free Press workers are radically overpaid. It’s true a veteran journalist tops out at about $70,000 a year and an experienced pressman makes about the same. But there are hundreds of people at the Free Press who don’t make anywhere near that . The average carrier makes between $12,000 and $14,000 a year. A mailroom insert controller makes just over $30,000. Have a look at our last contract – it’s posted online at www.ceplocal191.ca – and you’ll see many, many job classifications that pay $8 to $14 an hour. Those are hardly luxury wages. Meanwhile, the company’s latest wage offer would give telephone service reps a salary that falls below minimum wage.
Severance
As many as 40 workers, most of them pressmen, are facing layoff. While the severance money offered by the company is good, we are insisting that it be subject to a binding dispute resolution process, preferably through the grievance procedures that are already part of the contract. The company is refusing. If we accept the final offer, we would be asking our members to trust Ron Stern. We are not prepared to do that.





Finally, the bargaining committee has been almost uniquely transparent. Proposals and counter-proposals from both sides are posted on the union’s website – www.cep191.ca. The union’s position on the final-final offer is also posted.





This comes down to who you trust – the bargaining committee, which is made up of rank-and-file Free Press workers who have no reason to mislead members or readers? Or Ron Stern, who has repeatedly attacked his workers by demanding concessions and then refusing to bargain.
This is an emotional time, and we respect the company’s right to spin. But cherry-picking facts and torquing them to suit a multi-millionaire owner does nothing to solve this dispute.

CEP Local 191
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ALTERNATIVE SERVICES DURING STRIKES:

Molly has to note that what the Free Press workers are doing via their "alternative news site" during the course of this strike is hardly unique. During the strike at Le Journal de Québec in Québec City from April 2007 to August 2008 the people involved, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), not only set up a news website but also brought out a printed tabloid, Media-Matin, to serve as a community news source during the duration.







Now CUPE, of course, has far deeper pockets than the CEPU, and it would be unrealistic to expect the people here in Winnipeg to go as far as they did in Québec. Still, the Free Press workers have to be commended for trying out this novel tactic to both keep solidarity within the strikers and to gather public sympathy. One of the readers of their site suggested in a letter published there that they make their website permanent, under the heading of a producers' cooperative. That would be fine, but there is still a great need and place for actual printed papers, a need that the internet cannot yet fill.







There is also the fact that few of the people involved in the strike would likely have the ambition to do away with their boss at this time. Even in the Journal de Québec strike the people involved eventually settled and went back to work for their previous employer, and one can certainly say that they were further down the road to doing away with the boss than is the case now. The idea of actually running workplaces democratically under self-management without bosses will only become popular as the results of a long ideological struggle to make this goal seem desirable to ordinary people.



In the absence of wide acceptance of the idea the tactic of providing alternative services and/or of resuming production without the bosses as a pressure tactic still has great value. To mention a few previously discussed on this blog...It was done in the Alcan smelter in Jonquiere, Québec in February of 2004. The Journal de Québec strike has already been mentioned. The 'Strike Bike' in Nordhausen, Germany last year is another example. The largest movement of this nature in recent years has been the factory takeovers in Argentina where something of an "alternative market" has been set up to distribute the products of some of the workplaces involved.



What is the biggest limitation of such recent efforts ? They are hardly ever undertaken except in "crisis" situations where massive layoffs or even workplace closures are imminent. This means that the workers involved start with an obvious handicap- the enterprises are close to terminal, and it takes considerable ingenuity to get them running well and to sell the product. This limitation also means that the people involved are often quite happy to receive a slightly better offer from the previous managers, and the occupation ends. It also means that there is a lot of temptation to listen to this or that social democratic or leftist party who take advantage of the situation to sell the illusion that government takeover of the enterprise involved would be an improvement. It may be in that the workplace would keep running-maybe- but at the cost of exchanging one boss for a much larger and more powerful one.


All that being said the idea of resuming production in occupied workplaces or of providing alternative services is a great tool for labour to win its due, and the spread of the idea should be encouraged as much as possible. It is obviously more applicable to some workplaces than others, and how it could work depends upon the imagination of the people involved. The final point, however, is that it is a very limited tool as long as the majority don't see the desirability of removing bosses entirely. If they do the tool would be used in other than crisis situations and would be much more effective.

ANARCHIST MOVEMENT AND THEORY-ARGENTINA:

RED LIBERTARIA OF BUENOS AIRES:

The following item recently appeared on the A-Infos website, but its original source is the website of the Red Libertaria group of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is the website of an "especifismo" group, a common name for South American anarchists who believe in organizing both amongst the popular movement and in specific anarchist groups with a common theory and practice. This political current is very similar to the platformist groups active in other parts of the world. The term "Red Libertaria", by the way, translates as "Libertarian Network", as "red" means "network" in Spanish.. The following has been slightly edited for reasons of English grammar and clarity, so it is slightly different from the A-Infos version. As anarchism continues its worldwide growth it reappears in areas such as Argentina where it has traditionally been strong, and it also grows in maturity as well. The especifismo current is one example of growing maturity.

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Argentina, Red Libertaria de Buenos Aires - What is the Red Libertaria (Libertarian Network)?

Tthe 19th and 20th of December 2001 found us in the streets, in the neighbourhoods, organizing ourselves, discussing and resisting ; holding out with sticks and stones against the attacks of the police and infantry, who covered De La Rua´s back as he cowardly fled.

---- With this scene as background, we, comrades that shared their libertarian ideas, started to find each other in the struggles, all of us looking for the way to overcome the lack of libertarian spaces. And so, the last days of December 2002, the first formal meetings of Red Libertaria took place. Red Libertaria´s goal is anarchism´s resurgence; in the streets, in the factories and workshops, in the schools and universities, in the neighbourhoods and slums; so that anarchism can be a revolutionary force again, a force that combats and destroys capitalism everywhere, wielding the weapons of direct action, horizontality, federalism, solidarity, self-management, freedom and equality.

Anarchists although we are many, we are scattered; and because of our dispersion we see our capacity reduced, our influence decreased; due to this, we are unable to sustain any important project and we go back home hopeless and resigned.

Sometimes comrades choose to participate in projects of other tendencies, with which, although they agree in many issues, they also have important disagreements.

Seeing this, we decided to join strengths: to strengthen popular organizations and struggles, and drive them towards a libertarian tendency, to sustain a permanent presence on the streets and make activities so comrades with sympathy for the ideas can gather to talk, discuss, learn and join so that we all push in the same direction.

We militate in different spaces (cooperatives, unions and syndical groups, students' centres and students groups, neighbourhood work groups, social and cultural centres, etc.) to strengthen popular organizations and struggles, propelling libertarian ideas and trying to make people assimilate them and, over all, practice them as their own.

We carry on propaganda in the streets, also (wheat-pasting posters, painting slogans, distributing flyers, anarchist publications, presence in marches, etc.), and carrying out events (talks and conferences, cycles of debate-workshops, movie shows, parties, etc.) and also with the edition of publications (pamphlets, booklets, books and a periodical newspaper).

In Red Libertaria we discuss subjects of the day, we elaborate a common vision of the general situation and the different tendencies at play, and we agree on common plans and lines of action to move forward. We do the same with historical and theoretical subjects to learn from past experiences and recover memory, so we can be in better conditions to act today.

Through its 4 years of life, Red Libertaria has worked organized and awkwardly for the reinsertion of anarchism into the people, pushing ideas and practices in our work spaces, in which we study and live, explaining our positions in every meeting and assembly in which we participate, propagating from our press and flyers.

And something that's not minor: We've established contact and strengthen our relationship with comrades all over the country.

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Our Anarchism

Anarchism as a philosophic and political practice has developed a multitude of variants or tendencies throughout its century and a half of history. All of them criticize the present state of things, share rejection to the authority and have a common goal: a society of free and equal human beings. Several anarchist tendencies coexist nowadays and come together in the libertarian movement. Mainly, their differences rest up on the methods that they propose.

We have our own opinions regarding means and methods to achieve that goal. We place ourselves in an anarchist tendency: the especifismo; which holds that anarchists´ organization it's necessary in order to achieve the social change that anarchists themselves try to raise.

Our anarchism aspires to influence people – society's oppressed and exploited part - in order to promote its liberation, which is as well the liberation of all humankind. We see a strong contradiction (as well as opposed interests) in this society, since a few live in wealth at the cost of the majority's suffering. And as solution we propose a Social Revolution, that expropriates the possessors and destroys their tools of oppression - the States, the churches, the nationalism, the machismo, the family, the dogmatism, etc. -, and finishes off with the injustices, establishing Anarchist Communism.

1) Although our anarchism's objective is humanity's emancipation, it is not humanism. We take side with a sector of this society: those exploited, oppressed, dominated and governed classes ; we talk about the workers, the unemployed, the poor and the marginalized in this system, to the people in its power. With them we must construct organization, to the detriment of proprietors´ and governors´ power.

2) Our purpose is Anarchist Communism: a new social order where there will be no classes and therefore, neither the state nor the religious fraud will be necessary. Our objective is a society in which life - economy, science, art, etc. - will be organized based on the interests of society as a whole and not of a minority as happens at the present time. We call this self-management: in the future there will be no few privileged and idle ones as the laboring masses die in misery. Everyone will work - excepting children, patients, or aged people - and they all will decide democratically what to produce, how much to produce, and how to distribute it. In anarchist communist society there won't exist a single centre of power, the State will not exist, neither anything that resembles it. Even though the aim of such a State would not be to maintain exploitation or any centralized administration, the State as itself is tremendously inefficient and it generates a privileged bureaucracy, which in no time will constitute itself as an exploiter caste.

3) We understand that in order to reach Anarchist Communism it is necessary to expropriate social wealth from the bourgeoisie. For that Social Revolution will be necessary, driven by the people itself, who will destroy the bourgeoisie' s privileges, take the economy in their own hands and begins to produce looking forward to satisfy the necessities of all. We who integrate with Red Libertaria do not conceive the possibility of freedom and equality within Capitalism, and neither in its margins.

4) We are especifistas because we think that libertarians must be organized in order to be able to influence society. Isolated we would be unable to carry out any truly great action. The organization that we propose differences itself from the traditional political institutions in as much as hierarchies do not exist inside it: there is not a person or group who decides and another that executes.Anarchists' organization must be a truly democratic organization, in which the decisions are made through assemblies. Since there's a physical limit of persons that can constitute an assembly, the libertarians' organization would be a federation: the unit of the multiple and relatively small nuclei, each one carrying on a particular activity, but related to the whole through periodic general meetings. Each group would have relative autonomy within the framework of these basic agreements.

5) We are internationalists since we considered that borders between oppressed and exploited communities shouldn't exist. The entire world suffers capital's yoke and the state's oppression. An organization with international projection is necessary for the fight against this system that has been constituted on a planetary scale.Internationalism, that conceives the entire world as a battlefield and not only one country, comes with anti-imperialism. In Capitalism, as it was consolidated from mid XIX century, the bourgeoisies of the technologically developed countries extended their political and economic domination beyond the borders of their own territory, intervening militarily when it was necessary. We are anti-imperialist because we fight against the bourgeoisie that resides in our region and also those who reside in the United States and European countries, those from China and Japan, etc. We do not see the possibility of agreeing with the local dominant class to fight against a foreign bourgeoisie. With alliances of that nature, founded on the deceit of nationalism, the bourgeoisie of a country drags people into the fight so they can exploit them even more. Our interests are opposite to the dominant class' interests; therefore there an alliance is not conceivable.

6) Our anarchism also fights for the equality of the genders, for the destruction of the sexist stereotypes that relegates woman to a secondary place in society. We understand that all women bear a double oppression: as workers, unemployed people, poor women, etc. but also as women. We must eradicate the vices of sexism, machismo and violence based on the gender.

7) From Red Libertaria we want anarchism to grow and amass amongst the exploited and dominated people. That's why we sustain works in different spaces: cooperatives, unions and syndical groups, students' centres and students' groups, neighbourhood work groups, social and cultural centres, etc taking part in different areas where the inequalities of the system are pronounced, looking forward to promoting struggles that result in the organization of the oppressed . It is not necessary to clarify that our intervention does not proceed with a dirigist eagerness, left party style, but that we look forward to fomenting experiences of struggle and criticism of the system.

8) As previously mentioned, we uphold the specific organization of the anarchists, but we also maintain the fundamental importance of popular organizations. As anarchists, Red Libertaria, and the libertarian movement in general are places where we come together and discuss, plan and organize propaganda and participation in the struggles. Parallel to the libertarian movement, the popular movement develops, sometimes spontaneously, but almost always through union organizations, student groups or neighbourhood work groups in which we must participate. These organizations must be democratic internally and autonomous with respect the dominant class.

9) For the present time we think that the regrouping of the libertarians is urgent; in the libertarian movement, and according to the tendency of each one, forging ahead with energetic and coordinated militant action towards social change.

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Red Libertaria de Buenos Aires

Anarchism organises and struggles

redlibertaria@riseup.net - http://inventati.org/rlba

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