ARGENTINA occupied factory is threatened with eviction
ibon, bossa | 03.04.2003 21:11
17 months ago, the workers of the Zanon ceramics factory occupied the place and since then they have kept working and producing without boss.
Now they're being threatened with eviction.
Carlos Guerra, worker in the Zanon factory, tells us what is happening.
Now they're being threatened with eviction.
Carlos Guerra, worker in the Zanon factory, tells us what is happening.
17 months ago, the workers of the ceramics factory Zanon in Neuquén, Argentina, occupied the factory when the owner announced that he’d close the factory and dismissed them all. The workers occupied the factory and went on producing ceramics without a boss. This way they managed to save 270 jobs and create 40 new jobs – in a time when millions of Argentinians are jobless, a small minority of them receives some kind of state support and more than half of the country’s population live in poverty.
Now eviction is threatening the self managed factory: The Neuquén judge Norma Poza issued an order of eviction, and on Tuesday, 8th April, functionaries of the government want to enter the factory to count the inventary. It looks as if the same day the eviction is planned. The workers, though, will not give up their jobs, but are preparing themselves for resistence.
Please send letters and faxes of protest to the judge to stop the planned eviction!
To: the court no. 5 in Neuquén, to judge Norma Beatriz Poza: 0054 299 4480951
With a copy to:
prensaobrerosdezanon@neunet.com.ar
Phone number of the factory Zanon in Neuquén: 0054 299 4413063
Please spread this call!
Carlos Guerra, worker of the factory, talks about what the eviction threat means (audio).
His words in English:
“We are 310 workers who have saved the source of our jobs and who get, all of us, the same wages. With our example we´ve shown the country and the world that without a boss the factory works brilliantly. We don’t need a boss who forces us to work and exploits us: we organise our work ourselves.
More than 1500 people in Neuquén, Argentina, live indirectly of our project, and this way whe have shown that financially, too, the self managed factory works.
Day by day great things are coming out of the factory; for example we created jobs for unemployed, things that the government doesn’t do. Because we’re showing that things are going forward, they want to attack us now with the eviction. There was always difficulties, since the beginning on... but we’re still going on working, and we’ll go on working. Even if they’re coming to evict us, we’ll resist!
The order to evict us means for us that they want to finish with the source of our work. We’ve been working in the factory for a year and a half, all of us earning the same, and thus showing that this factory works without a boss. For this reason, if they’re coming on Tuesday, we’ll resist and we’ll defend what’s ours.
We’re also asking all the ones that make our struggle their struggle to support us. All the ones that can come and support us in the defense of our work, please do! The solidarity you show us will give us strength to keep struggling day by day.“
Now eviction is threatening the self managed factory: The Neuquén judge Norma Poza issued an order of eviction, and on Tuesday, 8th April, functionaries of the government want to enter the factory to count the inventary. It looks as if the same day the eviction is planned. The workers, though, will not give up their jobs, but are preparing themselves for resistence.
Please send letters and faxes of protest to the judge to stop the planned eviction!
To: the court no. 5 in Neuquén, to judge Norma Beatriz Poza: 0054 299 4480951
With a copy to:
prensaobrerosdezanon@neunet.com.ar Phone number of the factory Zanon in Neuquén: 0054 299 4413063
Please spread this call!
Carlos Guerra, worker of the factory, talks about what the eviction threat means (audio).
His words in English:
“We are 310 workers who have saved the source of our jobs and who get, all of us, the same wages. With our example we´ve shown the country and the world that without a boss the factory works brilliantly. We don’t need a boss who forces us to work and exploits us: we organise our work ourselves.
More than 1500 people in Neuquén, Argentina, live indirectly of our project, and this way whe have shown that financially, too, the self managed factory works.
Day by day great things are coming out of the factory; for example we created jobs for unemployed, things that the government doesn’t do. Because we’re showing that things are going forward, they want to attack us now with the eviction. There was always difficulties, since the beginning on... but we’re still going on working, and we’ll go on working. Even if they’re coming to evict us, we’ll resist!
The order to evict us means for us that they want to finish with the source of our work. We’ve been working in the factory for a year and a half, all of us earning the same, and thus showing that this factory works without a boss. For this reason, if they’re coming on Tuesday, we’ll resist and we’ll defend what’s ours.
We’re also asking all the ones that make our struggle their struggle to support us. All the ones that can come and support us in the defense of our work, please do! The solidarity you show us will give us strength to keep struggling day by day.“
ibon, bossa