Web Letters: Argentina: Where Jobless Run Factories

Winston,

It is not about a small number of competent people being unable to take their rightful place. It is about questioning the relation between manager and worker. In a word, it is about decentralization.

I agree with you that "if somewhere the workers are taking over, then they must be competent, and for some reason they were being kept down." I just think workers are being kept down all over the world.

Less importantly, do you really think "the best of us percolate to the top"? George W. Bush is at the top of my country. Do you think he was the best man for the job? Did he just happen to be the son of a president? Are you not aware that in business in both our countries friends and relatives help each other out? Have you ever heard the saying that scum rises to the top?

Andrew Lishman

Toledo, OH

Was Argentina the kind of place where people owned factories and became bosses because they knew someone inside an oligarchy, and as a consequence incompetents ended up in charge? Normally, in "the West," the best of us percolate to the top. A guy who has reached his limits operating a fork lift isn't put in charge of a company.

Could it be that those who would normally percolate to the top in Argentina were held back by a corrupt system, and now they're taking over? I ask because I live in a country where those who work in a factory, more often than not, should not be put in charge of stuff, not without disastrous, unintentionally funny consequences. So, it seems to me, that if somewhere the workers are taking over, then they must be competent, and for some reason they were being kept down before.

Winston Smith

Leicestershire, UK

Hey Winston,

You must not have seen their documentary, The Take. If you had you would know it really is the workers taking over and running those factories. I recommend you see the film. It is quite good.

I do wonder, though, what you mean here by "merit."

Andrew Lishman

Toledo, OH

Did the "workers" take over the factory, or did those who would normally be the bosses in a society based on merit take over the factory?

Winston Smith

South Bend, IN

Readers of the excellent article by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis will also want to look at an article "Workers' Power in Argentina" by Marie Trigona, in the July-August Monthly Review, a special issue with the theme "Revolt in Latin America," featuring articles on Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, and other places. The power of the US empire is cracking in Latin America, its original home base.

John Farley

Henderson, NV

I wanted to point out that there has been some attention to the issue of companies recovered by workers. In fact, the documentary La Argentina Latente by Fernando "Pino" Solanas, which can still be seen in theatres in Argentina, shows one case in a very positive light. It is true that the issue has received less attention than it should.

In addition, it is true that inequalities are great and that unemployment remains high, but real wages have increased and unemployment is half of what it was after the crisis. The author is unfair when she says that the recovery was "deeply unequal." The recovery has reduced inequality, and this is largely the result of the correct macro policies (depreciated currency, low rates of interest and increased social spending) that contradict the advice of the IMF. Alternative macro policies are as important as the social movements, and that should be acknowledged.

Matías Vernengo

Salt Lake City, UT