workers control
Zanon factory occupation - interview with workers
An excellent set of interviews conducted with workers at the worker-run Zanon ceramics factory, occupied at the time of the Argentine uprising of 2001. It includes historical and background information.
This was published by Wildcat in December 2003 but has only now been translated into English (for prol-position news #6, July 2006), and a short introduction added. Although it is a bit old, it still contains unique insights into the situation, hopes, difficulties and dynamics of the occupation process and many personal interviews.
1971: The people's clinic, Rome
The history of the residents in one of Rome's outlying ghettos who had inadequate health care provision. Seizing a government building, they and sympathetic health workers set up their own medical centre and ran it collectively.
In Italy in 1960s and 70s San Basilio, one of Rome’s outlying ghetto areas, a movement was developing of people fighting against their lousy, inhuman living conditions. There were 40,000 people trapped in this slum district. In the previous few months about 100 families had been on rent strike. This started as a spontaneous protest, and was becoming more organised.
1918-1921: The Italian factory occupations - Biennio Rosso
A brief history of the Italian Biennio Rosso (two red years) and the mass factory occupations of 1920 where half a million workers ran their workplaces for themselves.
The reformist unions then negotiated an end to the conflicts, clearing the path for the fascist reaction - the Biennio Nero (two black years) of 1921-22.
1919: The Seattle general strike
A general strike of 100,000 workers, which saw the city shut down and all essential services provided under workers' control.
The First World War was hardly over, it was February 1919, and the leadership of the revolutionary rank-and-file union the Industrial Workers of the World was in jail. However, the IWW idea of the general strike became reality for five days in Seattle, Washington, when a walkout of 100,000 working people brought the city to a halt.
Melbourne tram dispute and lockout 1990 - anarcho-syndicalism in practice
The history of the January-February 1990 tramways dispute in Melbourne, Australia which saw transport workers, under anarcho-syndicalist influence, taking control of the trams and running them for free before power was cut off by the bosses. Includes a short introduction with information about the anarcho-syndicalist tram workers grouping involved.
Introduction
Occupied Bauen Hotel - the struggle continues
If this story sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because Labourstart ran a campaign last year in support of workers in Argentina who, faced with a mismanaged business about to close decided to take matters into their own hands.
That company was Zanon and it's part of a network of worker-managed businesses that are transforming people's lives. At the centrr of that network is the Hotel Bauen, a four star hotel in Buenos Aires, run by its workers.
Collectives in the Spanish Revolution - Gaston Leval
Detailed account of worker-controlled agriculture in revolutionary Spain during the civil war.
COLLECTIVES IN THE SPANISH REVOLUTION
by Gaston Leval
Published by Freedom Press, London, 1975
Text from anarchosyndicalism.net
Argentine workers take control of industry
The workers of the San Justo glassworks in Buenos Aires never thought about owning their company, until it went bankrupt four years ago.
It was just one of thousands of businesses that sank as Argentina's once prosperous economy went into meltdown, pushing almost half the population below the poverty line.
Today a new furnace where the red hot glass is melted is burning. The factory is one of more than 100 "recovered businesses" which are now putting themselves forward as an alternative business model for the country.
Industrial Collectivisation during the Spanish Revolution - Deirdre Hogan
Although it was in the countryside where the most far-reaching
anarchist socialisation took place, the revolution took place in the
cities and the towns too. At that time in Spain almost 2 million out
of a total population of 24 million worked in industry, 70% of which
was concentrated in one area - Catalonia. There, within hours of the
An account of agrarian collectives in Aragon - Augustin Souchy
An account of the workings of rural agricultural collectives in Aragon, revolutionary Spain, 1936-39
