The garment and clothing industry is a mobile industry, it has almost completely moved from North-America and Europe to Asia, where about 80 to 90 per cent of the global production is situated. Within Asia, capital moves further on, in its constant look-out for lowest wages and stable conditions of exploitation. Upturns and slumps in the international market or changes in the trade policies have immediate effect on the workers, e.g. by short-term labour-shortages or sudden redundancies. The following two recent movements in Vietnam and Bangladesh express the reaction of the workers to these rapidly changing conditions: rapid workers' movements with a fair chance of international copy-cat effects.

Vietnam
In 2000 a fair share of the Indonesian export success consisted of 'used textile machinery'. After the collapse of the Soeharto-dictatorship, the Indonesian workers successfully used their new breathing space to ease the impact of the Asian crisis of 1998, and the clothing industry began searching for an escape. Even today they are still probably the most strike-happy workers in South-East Asia. Due to its very nature as an industries which is based on the exploitation of a large-scale work-force, relatively little capital and machinery is involved. A sewing machine or sometimes only a brush to apply glue to a sole of a shoe – and a work-place is created. This type of industry is mobile. During the last decade textile- and shoe industries were already shifting production to Vietnam, and even more so to China. On their look-out for the currently cheapest work-force the factories can nowadays only move from the coast regions, towards the inland. But recently it became clear: the Chinese migrant workers are not on the lowest rungs of the wage scale any more. Today Vietnam is a top destination, mainly because in the even cheaper regions (e.g. North Korea, Laos, parts of Africa) the infrastructure is insufficient, or the political situation unstable or the workers have already proved their ability to struggle, as for example in Cambodia. The boss of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam claimed that one of Vietnam´s major advantages compared to Indonesia is "the fact that the workforce is not prone to industrial action".

It is difficult to compare wages. Partly because systematic researches are not available. Partly because the purchasing power would have to be compared. An alternative project, which tries to evaluate on a world-wide scale how many burgers a McDonald's worker is able to buy from her/his wage has not yet progressed very far. In Asia the wage differences between branches, regions or different groups of workers are much more extreme than they are in Europe. A fore(wo)man might earn five times as much as a normal worker. We estimate that a better paid industrial worker in China would be able to earn about 1000 Yuan (104 Euro), in Indonesia 1 Million Rupiah (91 Euro) and in Vietnam 1 Million Dong (53 Euro). These are monthly wages including over-time. This is not a comparison of living standard, but of costs which global capital would calculate with.

Nike, Adidas or H&M do not have their own factories, South Korean and Taiwanese capital organises the production on a global scale. Textile and shoe industries have been in Vietnam for some time now, mainly employing women who migrate from the northern to the southern regions. The migration and factory regime causes changes in the gender relations:

A lot of the women who take manufacturing jobs in the nation's industrial zones are single, and long hours of hard work give them limited opportunities to get married or start families. Thu Thuy, 31, a footwear industry worker in Ha Nam, said, "I work from early morning until midnight everyday so I don´t have time to have fun or look for a boyfriend." Duyen admits that she was born in a rural area and doesn't have much education, so factory work is the best job available to her. Working in the same factory as Duyen, Tran Thi Ha noted that people complain about more and more couples living together before marriage. "But for workers like me, it may be the only way not to be lonely forever," Ha said. Ha lives with a male factory worker who works similar hours to hers. "I'm getting older and I don't want to be lonely any more," she said. Bien Hoa and Binh Duong Industrial Zones employ about 650,000 workers, about 75 per cent of whom are young women aged 18-25.

Since last year the Japanese electronic industry have also been increasingly attracted to this region. The Japanese bosses were shocked by the anti-Japanese protests and by the frequent strikes in China. Their strategy seems to be to relocate parts of the production to Vietnam in order to be on the safe side in case of losses due to trouble. “The workers struggles erupted at a critical moment given that a lot of Japanese companies have just relocated their factories from China and other places to Vietnam”, wrote the Asahi Shimbun on the 3rd of February 2006. Since December 2005 factories in Vietnam which produce for the world market have been shaken by one strike after the other. The regions in the south are most effected, particularly Ho-Chi-Minh-Town and Bien Hoa. An alleged shortage of workers in the textile sector works to the advantage of the strikers. A survey by Vietnam's Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), finds labour turnover in foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) is relatively high at 43%. The highest ratio of worker turnover is seen in textile and garment, and footwear enterprises: with 32% of labourers shifting to other FIEs, 23% setting up private business, and 18% moving to Vietnamese owned enterprises. Only a few cases of dismissal were reported, with most workers changing their jobs spontaneously. According to initial statistics of HCM City, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai, the scarcity of workers has become alarming in some industrial zones, where only two-thirds of workers have returned to work after the Tet (New Year)-holiday.

We do not have much first-hand information about how the struggles are organised. It seems like the official state trade union is not involved in any way. Partly because it is not present in most of the companies with foreign capital involved. Partly because it was not seen as the representative body by the workers themselves. From purely a legal perspective all the strikes were illegal. According to the International Labor Organization, only 10 percent of workers in the export sector are represented by a trade union. A manager of a company for factory security guards said about the organising of the strike: ”There are people who sit and people who stand,” he says, ”And those who just mill around without any organisation. At other sites, people sit down in an organised fashion and they select a representative to speak with management. There are a number of protesters who are aggressive. They throw things and they kick and destroy property.”

The organisation and also the whole extent of the strike wave is unknown. There are hardly any independent sources. During the first strike wave, between the 28th of December and the 8th of January, about 50,000 workers from over 50 factories were involved. The first factories effected were the Taiwanese ones, due to the fact that wages there were the lowest and working conditions the worst. Here is one example:

More than 1,000 workers from Taiwanese shirt maker Beautech Vina, located in Binh Duong's Song Than Industrial Zone (IZ), went on strike in search of fairer wage policies. The strike began in the early days of January 2006. The workers want the basic minimum monthly wage of 620,000 VND ($38.75) to be increased, because it is not enough for them to support their families on. Following negotiations, Beautech Vina agreed to an increase of 50,000 VND per person per month so long as workers complete 1,200 products by 18:00 pm, every day. The previous deadline fell between 20:00 and 20:30. If the workers fail to meet the new deadline, they will not receive any additional salary. Beautech Vina's workers have complained that they are often forced to work until 22:00 to complete their orders, and those who are still not finished must stay on until midnight or later. Female workers have reported fainting during the long hours.

Soon the strikes began to spread to other plants of all kinds of sectors. About one million workers work in the foreign textile-, shoe- and electronic factories. The wages have not been increased for years. Although wages are higher in the foreign companies compared to the state-owned ones, the money often is too little to sustain a whole family. The conditions are catastrophic (workers are subject to health-damaging chemical, the sanitary facilities are insufficient) and the working times are long. Therefore the strikes are not (only) about wages, they are also always concerned with additional concrete demands. Here is an example:

Six months before the eruption of mass strikes in Ho Chi Minh City, 10,000 workers staged an illegal strike at Hong Kong-owned KeyHinge toys in the Central Vietnamese city, Danang. The workers, who manufactured plastic toys given away in McDonald's Happy Meals, told Lao Dong newspaper that unless they worked 12 hours a day without overtime they would be fired. The workers also complained they were only allowed two bathroom breaks a day and that the factory only had one cup for drinking water. They told Lao Dong they were treated like "animals," not allowed sick days, and fined for any mistakes.

The heavy impact of of the strikes forced the state to declare an increase of the minimum wage in FDI-factories (foreign direct investment) by 40 per cent for the first of February 2006. Monthly earnings are supposed to rise from less than $40 a month to a minimum of $55 in Vietnam's two biggest cities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, to $50 in mid-sized cities, and $45 dollars in the rest of the country.

The main reason behind this move might be the attempt to prevent the strikes from spreading to the joint-ventures and state-owned companies. Perhaps the government speculates that the increase of a part of the wage does not necessarily result in a drastic increase of the total wage. But it was exactly this question which triggered the second strike wave in February 2006. The companies only increased the basic wage according to the governments decree, but at the same time they cut the bonuses and supplements. This mainly pissed off the permanent workers given that one of the most important bonuses paid is for seniority. There are hardly any figures on the second wave, given that the state controlled media ceased to report them. Most of the info originates from the companies countries of origin, during the second wave mainly Japanese companies were effected, such as Mabuchi Motors and Fujitsu Computer. The Taiwanese, Japanese and also the European bosses associations demanded that the Vietnamese government act more firmly against the strikes. But so far the Vietnamese officials have kept a low profile on the matter. One minister said “The strikes occurred because the companies did not stick to the Vietnamese labour law”.

The strike wave was still continuing on the 15th of March when 8,000 workers of a Taiwanese owned shoe factory walked out. There has also been some initial news reports about workers of state owned companies talking direct action. They do not seem to accept that they are supposed to earn so much less. As far as we know the state administrations are still holding back and restrict themselves to mediating between the parties in conflict.

Bangladesh
On 22nd of May 2006 about 100,000 workers from Dhaka Export Processing Zone and other surrounding industrial areas protested for higher wages, a mandatory day off on Fridays, regular payments and extra pay for overtime. In terms of wages the current payment for a finished sweater is about 11 cents, the workers demand at least 16 cents. According to the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation in February 2005 a garment worker in Bangladesh received only 6 cents per hour, when the figure is 20 cents in India and 30 cents in China and 40 cents in Sri Lanka. During the protest the police shot one worker and injured several others. The same had happened the previous week during a protest in Sripur, 60km north of Dhaka, when the police killed one worker during a demonstration for higher wages. After the shooting in Dhaka riots started. The police reports that on the 22nd of May about 30 factories were ransacked and dozen vehicles were smashed. They also said that they had to rescue a factory owner from the mob. The riots continued for another four days. In total 14 factories are said to have been set on fire, thousands of finished clothing pieces were destroyed and 70 factories damaged. The production in several hundred factories in the area stopped. During the four days 3 workers were killed and 150 injured, the police shot live ammunition and stormed factories in order to prevent further damages. Other media sources mention that the protest of workers of the FS Sweater Factory of the SQ Group could have ignited the riots. On 16th of May the management closed the factory without settling the question of three months unpaid wages. The management promised to come up with a solution on the 20th of May, but on that day the workers had to face thugs hired by the company who assaulted some of the workers. The management did not answer the questions concerning outstanding wages and the future of the factory. The workers stated to protest in front of other factories and found support. During the growing protest the police shot a worker, which fuelled the anger.

After the riots the media put forward similar complains to the ones the media announced after the strike wave in Vietnam: the international buyers from USA and Europe are concerned and might disregard Bangladesh as a clothing manufacturer in the future. Bangladesh's foreign exchange earnings relies on the ready-made garments export, which makes up for 76 per cent. Bangladesh has more than 4.2 Million garment factories and employs more than 40 per cent of all industrial workers. About 2 Million workers, the majority of them women, work in the textile mills. In the last nine months of the fiscal year exports have risen by 20 per cent compared to the previous year.

Notes
In the aftermaths of the riots the government, the employers association and union representatives voiced their disapproval of the riots and agreed on forming a “minimum wage board” exclusively for the garment sector. Here lies another parallel to the reaction of the government after the strike wave in Vietnam, trying to curb future unrest by increasing the official minimum wage. Although state and capital accepted the link between riots and workers discontent by setting up this wage board, ministers and former union leaders started to spread conspiracy theories which blamed foreign instigators for the riots.

Asia Tribune, 26th of May 2006
The Nation, Thailand 23rd of May 2006



For more information see:

http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/ or http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/

prol-position news #6 | 7/2006

This is an edited translation of an article published in the latest number of wildcat (www.wildcat-www.de), written by comrades who organise the Asia focused website “Welt in Umwaelzung” (www.umwaelzung.de). Taken from www.prol-position.net

In the plant in Born near Maastricht about 3,000 workers produce the Smart-ForFour and Mitsubishi Colt.

Daimler Crysler decided to stop selling the Smart-Forfour and Mitsubishi announced cutting one of the two shifts in the factory, in order to save 4.5 Million Euros a month.

This would result in 1,000 jobs being lost. On the 3rd of April workers of the morning shift staged a spontaneous strike in protest against the job cuts.

The union called for return to work and for patience till negotiations between union and management continue on the 12th of April.

From prol-position news #6 | 7/2006

“On Saturdays the company belongs to Daddy”1 – weekend-shifts and collective contract conflict at Philips Semiconductors (PSH) in Hamburg, Germany

The popular conception of IT associates the sector with highly paid computer programmers, thereby turning a blind eye on the fact that the major share of the work is done in micro-electronic industries where the means of work, e.g. materials for the software developers, are manufactured. The production of semi-conductors is part of this industry. In order to produce micro-chips so-called (silicon) wafers have to undergo various processes. Philips is one of the biggest manufacturer in Europe.

The fact that the semi-conductor industry is a normal industry ridden by 'normal' industrial disputes became obvious in autumn 2005, when (mainly migrant) workers at Infineon in Munich struck for eight days and the police were deployed against them. Up to the 70s in the production at Philips in Hamburg, mainly female workers (mostly from Yugoslavia) were employed. At the beginning of the 80s a lot of workers from Vietnam were hired, since the end of the 80s mainly German skilled workers found a job at Philips. Till today this history has its impacts: extremely authoritarian and paternalistic structures within the plant, which the skilled workers hardly cope with. But not only the skilled workers, also the Vietnamese in the company have become more radical, after an initial phase of being rather industrial and of not expressing their conflicts openly. During the latest actions noticeably more of them took part, but we are jumping ahead.

Since a long time there have been conflicts concerning flexiblisation of working hours and over-time at Philips: concerning the control over ones own time. In December 2005 this conflict was settled temporarily by the metal union, IG Metall. The main actors of the conflict were the workers of the weekend-shift. The shift-scheme was introduced by Philips in the mid-80s. The obligation to work regularly and exclusively on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays was sweetened by the payment of high bonuses. Philips calculated that once weekend-shifts were seen as normal it would be possible to enforce them on a regular and obligatory basis for everyone (the so-called conti-shift model). Instead the workers of the weekend-shift were able to settle in the situation and to organise their lives accordingly. By now, the most recent new workers joining the weekend-shifts have been doing it eight or nine years. The turn-over in the rotating shift (early, late, night) is higher and the seniority much lower. Despite the high turnover, relatively few people were hired during the last years. Instead the employment of workers from temp agencies has increased rapidly. Previous to 2001 there were hardly any temp workers, now over 300 workers (nearly one third of the total staff) at PSH are temps. They are employed according to a collective contract comprising of three stages: they start working earning about half the wage of a PSH worker, they can 'improve' their pay to a maximum of two thirds of the PSH wage. Recently technicians and white-collar workers were hired through temp agencies. Their total wage sum is not much lower, but they can be sacked any time.

One of the key words of the confrontation during the 90s was 'working-time accounts'. In 1996 they were introduced temporarily. Initially the scheme encountered only half-hearted resistance, because it was brought in during a situation of economic crisis and a lot of people saw it as an alternative to enforced short-time work. Workers accumulated a lot of 'minus-hours' in their working-time accounts, receiving the normal wage. One year later the company asked the workers to make up for the minus-hours by working over-time, but a lot of the weekend-shift workers refused to work additional shifts on weekdays. The next important attack happened in 2001. Philips split itself into various branches, amongst others the semi-conductor production was then run under the name Philips Semiconductors. Given the formal fact that a new company was formed, the old collective contract was at stake. The former IG Metall collective contract was supposed to be replaced by an IG BCE (chemical union) contract, which would have meant a worsening of conditions. The threat of deterioration resulted in the IG Metall getting in a stronger position. Under the name of IG Metall a collective contract was signed whose consequences became relevant only later on: allegedly in order to encourage new employment by lowering the entry wages (wages during the initial period after being hired), the works council agreed on excluding the question of extra-payment for shift-work from the collective contract. Hardly any new workers were hired anyway. Instead the missing regulation of extra-payment was used as a lever in 2004 to try to enforce more flexible working hours. Disregarding the high companies profits, PSH demanded 25 per cent lower unit labour cost. Given that there were no margins for rationalisation left (e.g. by automation) it was clear that the wages were in the focus of the attack. The workers in the second German PHS plant in Boeblingen were defeated quite quickly. There the works council agreed to an additional clause to the collective contract, which resulted in a wage cut of about 16 per cent due to unpaid longer working hours. According to the view of the union, the collective contract was not touched by this wage cut given that it was regulated in the additional clause and therefore the possibility for any strike action was excluded. Fractions in the works council in Hamburg called for the adoption of the 'Boeblingen Agreement' in the local plant, but during a members assembly of the IG Metall a different compromise was agreed on: ten per cent of the total wage sum was offered to be cut in return for the inclusion of the question of extra-payment for shift work in the collective contract, in order to secure the payment and to have the legal right to go on strike in case of future attacks on the extra-payment.

Trying to black-mail the workers the management announced to cut the extra-payment for 800 shift-workers by 30th of June 2005. At the same time about 1,500 white-collar workers in the attached departments were threatened with job cuts in case that no agreement would be found.

The workers reacted on different levels: firstly the personal frustration increased, the rate of sick leave and the rate of junk micro-chips which end up as waste are above-average till today; secondly about 100 of the workers affected by the cut of extra-payment for shift work sued the company; thirdly people tried to influence the power-relations in the representing union bodies; fourthly people collected signatures, organised protest meetings and demonstrations in front of the Philips stall on the Internationale Funkausstellung (international industrial trade fair) in Berlin and in front of the PHS plant in Nijmegen, Netherlands. As long as this conflict went on the IG Metall was in a defensive position.

After the management did not move and the negotiations seemed to fail the regional leader of the IG Metall got involved personally in order to 'get things going' – just in time before the labour court could announce the outcome of the workers' accusation against the company. Her involvement toppled all the previously agreed on principles, the decisions of the union members assembly and the vote of the union commission which decides how to proceed during a collective contract conflict. People had to simply put up with the outcome. The 'new compromise' based on unpaid longer working hours or alternatively wage cuts of 7.14 per cent, the cut of extra-payment for over-time and a postponement of future wage increases. Given that workers had hoped to win the court case against the company, which would have re-installed their old conditions, the workers felt stabbed in the back by the union.

At the beginning of March 2006 we had a chat with some of the workers working week-end shifts. The conversation mainly tackled the situation previous to 2000, when the union was hardly present in the company and workers were able to create some spaces for themselves based on their own strength, which they were able to maintain for quite a while. There are various reasons for why the union got stronger during the last four or five years, e.g. the increasing marginalisation of the “old” weekend-shift due to more and more temp workers brought in, but also due to the limits of spontaneous self-organisation itself. involvement in the unions is surely not the only possible or “best” answer to the question of how a “common interest” can be articulated, but only situations of open struggles will be able to set in motion a dynamic which can bring different answers to the fore...

Question: We were mainly interested in the movement at PSH because your struggle was not only about money. It was always present that a certain lifestyle of the guys on weekend shift was at stake. We perceived this element of your struggle as a part of your strength. We were also surprised that during the struggle a lively debate in your internet-forum took (2) place, an organisational form which has only recently been discovered by 'normal workers'. And last but not least: your mobilisation was organised independently from the union leadership, and sometimes against it. How would you characterise your group working weekend shift compared to those who work 'normal shifts'?
Fiete: The people working weekend shift belong to those who work in the company for the longest time. Their personal living situation is more stable, therefore they are able to take more risks. If you have got a job only recently you will not have the same social and financial security compared to a 45 years old man who already has had some experience and who also has some material security in the background.

Bodo: The level of education is definitely higher in the weekend shift, a lot of former students, some with degrees, who still work at Philips, who got stuck and were not able to jump back onto the career ladder.

Richi: One major advantage is the fact that the weekend shift workers have more time on their hands. Work is not dominating our minds to such an extend as it is bothering the guys who work rotating shifts, who have to work eight hours each day and are more preoccupied with work.

Bodo: And the weekend shift is not touched by hierarchy in the same way as the rotating shift is. We used to have a shift leader who tried to exercise his authoritarian control. Apart from the fact that we resisted this control, by using the works council and the other usual ways, he was clearly not coping, although we were only twelve people in my department at that time. He was not able to supervise the work that each one of us was doing at a given moment. We do not work on an assembly line. For example, sometimes I have to do etching work in the respective department, after that I might have to finish polishing work outside, after that the laboratory might need tidying up etc.. Because I have to do all kinds of jobs the shift leader was never able to accuse me of slacking off work. If he had asked me where I had just been I would have said that I had to refill some acid or something like that. In the rotating shift there are many more supervisors running around, so there is always someone watching you. In the weekend shift we have more space, more freedom, we can move around. The others are always under surveillance.

Fiete: We are also more independent, we are used to working on our own.

Carsten: The unity is stronger in the weekend shift, everyone knows each other, beyond department boundaries. During the weekend there might be 150 work mates gathered in the canteen, during the week there are about 1,800. This creates a completely different atmosphere, much more family like.

Question: And was this the case before the conflict started?
Carsten: Yes, but it has grown stronger of course. You have to know that people do this job for a long time, they know each other.

Bodo: The whole unity has got something like an elitist character to it, too. We have always distinguished ourselves from the rotating shift. We have also given them different names (laughter). When we arrived on Fridays with our folks we turned up in a different style than the normal shift – as a group. The bosses partly lost control over these folks and the guys enjoyed bullying the bosses and their helpers on Fridays, and not the other way around as it is usual. As a result of that the whole leading clique, including the technicians hated us. Once a technician came out of the photo tunnel, he was on normal late shift, but he arrived earlier. He bumped into my mate Paul and me, we were just about to go outside for lunch. He said: “Where do you want to head off to? I arrived earlier, specially in order to train you on the piss-taker (a particular machine)”. We walked past him to the canteen, saying “not right now, we are off to lunch”. He went to the shift leader, grassed on us and complained. The shift leader told him “Lunch time is lunch time”. There were many of these kinds of incidents. During the week there are no back chats, then these technicians have the say. By the way, our shift leader justified a demand for wage rise by saying that he is the only one who gets along with us, which flattered our self-confidence quite a bit, as well.

Fiete: We also have to mention that the weekend shift was more productive, compared to the rotating shift. Sixty per cent of the production was run at the weekend, during two days. Therefore they were never able to bother us and they left us in peace as long as it was possible. This is partly still true today. Another factor was that we were able to just start churning stuff out, there was never an engineer around who would have wanted to run test series or something like that.

Question: And what about the union, later on? By the sounds of it you were quite used to taking the things you wanted yourselves.
Bodo: First of all we stuck to the structures that we already knew. For example, initially we had huge difficulties with the new shift leader, who tried to bring in discipline and to keep everything under his control, there was a lot of unjustified harassment, as well. We always went downstairs to the works council and complained. First of all you have to realise what is going on. If the works council notes down three, four pages of complains against our shift leader you should think that the management might decide to have a word with him. In my experience it often only looks like them having a word with him. This also had the function to calm us down, to let off steam, so that we would not take the initiative ourselves. We had no other contact with the union at that point, apart from being members. There was no union structure within the company.

Fiete: We also did not fit into the unions political trajectory, given their running campaign for a 35-hours week at that time. The rotating shift got their working hours reduced, we had to work more. We got more money for more work, whereas the rotating shift got the same money for less work. Part-time workers or weekend shift workers were not really their target group. We were more or less the thorn in the unions side. Everything that was important to us was irrelevant for the union. They also never supported us when we came up with a problem.

Bodo: You have to take into account that we broke a taboo, we undermined a fix point of the union's horizon. We worked regular weekend shifts. We also accepted some deteriorations, because we did not have a clue, because we were freshers and we did not react to the deteriorations. In 1992, when they cut parts of our Christmas bonus we thought that they have the legal right to do so, well, we cannot change that any more. In 1994 during a company assembly, when the proxy of the works councils chairman started some provocations, we reacted by writing four pamphlets. The action was rather playful, we did not really try to enforce anything, but it resulted in heavy reactions from the department management. They were not too angry with us, they rather treated us like small children who are having a moody day. They tried to appease us explaining that currently there was no money left over, that the market was currently down etc.. – they were almost kind, you could say. There were no sanctions against us, which could have been possible given that we collected signatures for support. The shift manager gave us a verbal warning, but when he told the department management about it, they just looked at him in disbelief 'What does he want anyway'? Our demand: 'No work during the week or if at all, then in exchange for 100 DM extra' was not meant that seriously anyway. The Vietnamese in our department were the only ones who actually kept it up and defended it over a longer period. For us it was rather a way to have a laugh, we wanted to get rid of our anger.

Question: How does this self-confidence match the fact that in 2004 there was a general readiness to make concessions towards the management and to accept wage cuts? Their demand at that time was to cut wages by 25 per cent.
Carsten: There were two events which preceded this situation. First of all the move of PSH in 2001 when they wanted to leave the collective contract with the IG Metall in order to sign a contract with the IG Chemie. Previous to that the union membership in the plant in Hamburg was quite low, about 400 people. At the end of this conflict about shifting the contract we nearly doubled the membership to about 900.

Bodo: Yes, 2001 was a turning point. In 1997 we had an intense conflict about the working time accounts (flexible working time), which we managed to sort out ourselves. The weekend-shift kicked it off more or less on its own, later on the rotating-shift followed. During this conflicts things happened, for example someone did a shit in front of the works councils office, or their cars rear-view mirrors were allegedly ripped off. At that point the works council was giving in only because people collected signatures. Later on it was not that easy any more. We still had a quite individualistic attitude towards the works council elections in 1998. We merely wanted some people in the works council who would tell us in time when something was in the making, when the management planned changes. We did not think about majorities or something like that. We thought, well, that will do for us, we are strong enough. The union actually entered the stage in 2001 when the new company manager announced that by separating the semi-conductor production from the Philips group, the new PSH would leave the employers association of the metal sector and affiliate to the chemical one. Only at that point the metal union turned up. We started recruiting members en-masse during the weekends. Also the operators did it and people during the rotating-shift. The membership numbers for the IG Metall really rocketed. The management reacted by saying 'That will not do you any good'. But finally they got scared. The people were ready to strike and they voiced it persistently. Given that it was about a new collective contract a strike would have been possible, unlike now.

Richi: The background for the guys on weekend-shift was their fear to have to work Conti-shift once being affiliated to the collective contract of the chemical sector.

Bodo: Like already mentioned, in 2001 we experienced a rupture. We noticed that we had made a lot of mistakes, because we had no idea about certain things. We turned around and faced yet another messy attack and the union was out of sight. So we declared ourselves as representatives, we were not elected, we just said that we would do it. When the commission for the collective contract was elected, we were all invited to the members assembly and that was it. We thought that we should pop by, as well. There were only 50 people present, a lot of white-collar staff, but only 50 out of nearly 3,000! And this assembly elected the commission for the collective contract negotiations. We managed to get some people from the weekend-shift elected, just in order to be able to know what is going on, it was not about majorities. When the collective contract negotiations were finished we noticed that the contract allowed the management to enforce overtime etc.. We tried to question the contract afterwards, but the colleagues were happy that at least the conflict about the pending shift to the chemical sectors contract was solved, that they could stick to the metal contract. We did not manage to mobilise more people against the negative aspects of the new contract.

Question: How serious did people take the threat of the plant in Hamburg being 'dried out' and the threat of a possible re-location of production?
Fiete: People did not take it too serious. At that point it was not on the agenda. People said: “OK, if they shut down the shop, they will shut down the shop. The world will keep on turning. But we will not sell out our weekend-shift model”.

Question: How do you explain the fact that those workers who became very active and who on a personal level were very much opposed to cuts on one hand, justified a 'combative compromise' as part of their union engagement and shop steward activity on the other hand. All that while a silent majority displayed a defensive acceptance of cuts on one hand, but practically and increasingly refused to cooperate with the company on the other hand – you told us for example that the sick rate increased to about 20 per cent.
Fiete: This is not difficult to understand. The people are afraid to act openly, they try to find individual solutions for themselves. They calculate how much they will lose and how long they have to go on sick leave in order to make up for it. That is their reaction. The 20 per cent sick rate was in July, when they cut the bonuses. During that time you earned more money being on sick leave then working.

Question: In hindsight, how would you judge your union activities? From today's perspective, would it not have been more sensible to refuse negotiations, to leave them to someone else, in order to focus on more offensive debates with the other workers?
Fiete: Do you mean to struggle the tough way? I think we tried. In some departments the sick rate was beyond good and evil. The question is for how long people can keep it up.

Richi: There are many like us who would be able to keep it up for ages. But there are also many who would not. And the management black-mailed us by not paying shift bonus from July onwards.

Fiete: Those who were ill during that period had to appear for a conversation with the personnel department. Those forced conversations happened on a daily level. Every Friday when we arrived at work someone was ordered to go to have a word with them. Every half an hour someone was due. They put quite a lot of pressure on us.

Bodo: Some things happened and they suspected sabotage, the word always came up quickly. The rate of rejects was very high, it still is above average.

Question: What has changed among the workers during the one and a half years of conflict?
Thilo: The unity within the weekend-shift and partly in the rotating-shift has grown stronger. And now you know who stands on which side. This is good, even though it has created some new divisions on the other side. The collective contract is proof of the fact that the management had to make concessions concerning certain points. They made concessions, not towards the weekend-shift, but towards the rotating-shift and the white-collar workers.

Question: What kind of emotion is prevailing amongst yourselves and your work mates today? A feeling of having won, given that you were able to wring concessions from the company, or a feeling of defeat, given that the IG Metall leadership managed to trip you up right at the end of the conflict?
Thilo: Finally I see it as a defeat. We actually got (too) little gains out of it. Of course I am disappointed.

Bodo: For me it is not always a question of victory or defeat. It is not a victory, because we could have achieved more if we had been more united. But it is not a defeat either. If you take the current social trends into account then you have to admit that we still work less than 40 hours a week. The current propaganda that nowadays everyone works 40 hours a week is factually untrue. We do not do it!

History of the Philips workers internet forum

Part 1
http://www.wir-wehren-uns.com/ (we-resist)

We started our internet forum as part of the metal union's forum successfully during the ongoing collective contract conflict in September 2004. In January 2005 there were anonymous death threats against some of the full-time works council members posted in the forum. These usual suspects have often been target of (harmless) verbal attacks due to their employer-friendly attitude. Although there have been more than 1,000 entries in the forum which no-one complained about and despite the fact that everyone can post anonymous messages without having to register, people for whom the forum was a thorn in the side exaggerated these 'verbal terrorist acts' and used them publicly against the forum. (...) Philips took action for injunction against the IG Metall, demanding to remove the anonymous death threat. The IG Metall closed the forum three days after the death threat, on 21st of January 2005. In court a representative of the IG Metall made a declaration that the IG Metall had nothing to do with the 'Philips employees forum'.

Part 2
http://66393.board.webtropia.com/

Immediately after the closing down of the IG Metall forum we opened an independent 'Philips employees forum'. But this forum only ran for a few days, the provider Webtropia received a legal warning from Philips because of the name 'Philips employees forum' and the usage of the brand name Philips in the sub-domain. The solicitors office which was hired by Philips put pressure on the provider and immediately wanted to get money for the legal warning (solicitors costs). Webtropia put pressure on our web-master (a work mate), wanting to know his identity and to transfer the legal demands of Philips to him (...) In the end the solicitor of our web-master and the solicitor of Philips agreed on 2,000 Euros costs for the legal warning which were paid by the IG Metall.

Part 3
www.filipsworld.proboards42.com

On the 29th of January 2005 the forum was registered with the provider ProBoards.com in the USA. Until the 3rd of October 2005 we were able to communicate without being disturbed and to tell the outside world about what was happening at Philips during the recent months. We posted some reports and photos from our protest actions: a vigil in Hamburg, a protest at the industrial fair in Berlin, a demonstration in Nijmegen (Netherlands). Since 4th of October the ProBoards-forum could not be accessed. We can only speculate about the reasons for the cut off.

Part 4
http://widerstand.redir.to/

We continue! Since October 2005...

[prol-position news #6 | 7/2006] www.prol-position.net

• 1Pun in German: In the mid-80s the headline of a poster for the union's campaign for shorter working-time said “On Saturdays Daddy is all mine”, headlining the picture of a young child.

Temp-work does not appear in most of the companies annual economic reports, although 86 per cent of automobile companies make use of it. Apart from temporary contracts (normally limited to half a year), in the car sector temp work is the only other mode of hiring new people.

In absolute numbers about 60,000 temp workers are employed. About 17 per cent of all workers in production are hired through temp agencies, a much higher ratio than in any other sector. The study "Flexibilität durch Zeitarbeit als Wettbewerbsfaktor in der Automobilindustrie" (flexibility achieved through temp work as a competitive factor in the automobile industry)was undertaken with the support of the temp agency Randstad, which alone employs 7,000 workers in the German car industry.

Temp work is not the only option for hire-and-fire: recently DaimlerCrysler in Stuttgart had to face the problem of having too little staff. After months of downsizing they had to hire new people, they opted for short term contracts rather than hiring through temp agencies. The management was looking for 1,500 people willing to sign a three month contract. Despite the comparatively high wages they seemed to have had problems finding (the right) people within a short period of time.

prol-position news #6 | 7/2006

Particularly against the background of the GM management's threat of global mass redundancies this victory is quite exceptional.

On 31 March the majority of the day-shift decided to lay down tools in order to protest against the work load and to demand additional workers be employed.

The strike started in the body-shop and spread to the whole plant. Production stopped. At a meeting unions and management agreed on hiring 80 additional temp workers.

The workers decided to continue the action because the company did not promise to pay the hours lost due to the walk out. Production was resumed the following Monday. 



More information in German

From prol-position news #6 | 7/2006

How long did you work for Impel-Tom? Where did you work before?
I got a job in September 2005. Before I couldn’t find any job. I worked on a construction-sites, took some seasonal and temporary jobs. In the city where I live (Kostrzyn on the Oder river, western Poland) the situation on the market is tragic. There are no big factories here. We have a cosmic unemployment- around 30 per cent. But it is even worse in the south of the area - the highest unemployment in EU.

Hasn’t Kostrzyn-Slubiece Special Economic Zone, located almost in all province, improved workers’ conditions?
Thanks to the zone unemployment in the area has slightly declined, but the stir made around it before has turned out to be highly exaggerated. Few workplaces have been created (according to data from 2004 there was 1750 new workplaces); ICT (an Italian corporation) employs 200 people, Podravka Poland - 100, and there are plants that employ not more than 20 people. All companies have been given high tax allowances, but there is no real effect of that on the local market.

Are workers’ rights are obeyed in the Zone?
I’ve written about it in a local newspaper - exactly about lack of trade unions in the Zone. In last 3-4 years only one trade union has been founded in ICT, but it hasn’t been working actively. There are no more unions and no perspective for them to be founded. It is because most people work for determined periods, without contracts, for unspecified time. At one point it was easier to organise unemployed people in order to improve situation on the market. We were able to form committees of the unemployed in a few Polish cities (Szprotawa, Gubin, Krosno, Kostrzyn, Gorzow etc.) and made quite big protests there. It was kind of small social movement that engaged around 2,000 people. But somehow it stopped being active. In my opinion there is no point in organising the unemployed in separate structures. I haven't had a chance to work within a trade union as I just haven't worked much in jobs with specified contract.

An Impel-Tom company, where you finally found a job, is working mostly for ICT, as an outsourcing company for that Italian paper-making corporation. What did you do there?
Impel-Tom delivers security and cleaning service for ICT (cleaning of machines and factories, cleaning at height etc.). I did cleaning in a group of 20 people. It was an easy job. I had a cleaning vehicle. In the paper making factory there is a strong dust in the air and everything is white, so you have to clean all the time. There are 40-45 people working for the Impel, and another 50 are at the disposal of the company whenever they call them (those have a contract to perform a specified task or work or a temporary contract)

How much did you earn?
The salaries are at starvation level, slightly above minimal wage, what means 650 zloty (165 Euro) take-home. But the company observes basic rules of employment, for instance an 8 hour workday. There is no overtime, so there is no rights abuse in this field. The wage was usually on time. The biggest problem are low wages and that is the reason why there such a fast turnover of people- some give up job and immediately employed elsewhere. Anyone who finds something better, wants to get away form Impel. Two people who worked before me have moved to London to clean airports there.

We were promised a pay rise since January. But on the day when we were given our January wage, it turned out that there was no rise, and a few people started to make a fuss. Workers wanted to meet someone from the management, but they refused. We decided to call them. I was chosen, as the rest were frightened, so I called them and said that there was no pay rise, as promised. They answered that they have to sign a contract with ICT first, and they can talk with us after. We were told before by a foreman that a decision on a pay rise had been already made and signed. The next day the foreman looked for the one who dared to call the management. That moment we came to the conclusion that we have to form a trade union. So 12 of us signed declarations to join the Workers Initiative but we were unable to make a starting meeting, as we work for different shifts in different places.

How did they fire you?
I started to feel a turmoil around me, although nobody had warned me that I could be fired. They wanted to take me by surprise. When I came to work on 7th of March (that day we planned to have a meeting of all unionists), I was given the sack shortly after entering the plant. I asked for a reason, but the foreman told me he knew nothing. I went to a changing-room and I showed the paper to the people. Everybody were nervous, some get really scared. One man said that now all of us would be fired. It was difficult for me to talk to the people, there was also the foreman in the room, who kept the management’s side. He told me directly: “You should ask management whether it is possible to form a trade union in that plant”. That day the rest of workers who wanted to join the union weren’t allowed to enter the factory. The same with those who didn't show up to work that day. I was given an obligatory leave during the time of dismissal, to not show up in the factory. Immediately next person was employed instead of me. On the 8th of March I couldn’t enter the factory so I called my colleagues. I met few of them outside the factory. They told me that the manager had intimidated people and told them that he had a notice for everybody already prepared.

What do you think now?
I think that some people would like to join a trade union, but the rest are intimidated. They are afraid of being fired. They have wives, kids, financial obligations, they are afraid of being unemployed. And as I have already mention, it is difficult here to find any job, even the worse paid one.

[i] Next member of Workers Initiative illegally fired [/i]
On the 8th of March 2006 the Impel -Tom company illegally fired Jacek Rosolowski for trying to found a trade union within the Impel-Tom company. It is the latest example of the last wave of repression against trade union activists in Poland. 1

12 workers of 40 employed for the Impel-Tom department in Kostrzyn decided to found a commission of the Workers' Initiative All-Polish Trade Union. Most of them signed a member declaration on the 28th of February. On the 2nd of March Rosolowski informed the National Committee of Workers' Initiative about their plans. The management got know about it and in order to prevent him from organising a union, and to intimidate workers, fired Rosolowski on the 8th of March. One day later another worker who encouraged forming a union has been given a notice too. The rest were threatened with dismissal.

Jacek Rosolowski has asked the Labour Court to invalidate the dismissal as according to the Polish Labour Code it is illegal to discriminate any worker for union activity. No matter if a worker is a permanent or temporary contract worker, like Rosolowski was. A right to associating in self-governing and independent unions is a constitutional right (article 57 and 59 of act 1). According to the Trade Union Act people who make obstruct organising a trade union can be prosecuted.

The Impel-Tom company is a part of the Impel S.A. holding, which is the biggest group of outsourcing companies in Poland in security, cleaning and catering sectors. In 2005 it employed more than 17,000 workers including the disabled, which let the company get subsidies from the state. In 2005 its turnover was about 627 million zloty and the company made 21 million zloty profit. Impel S.A. is listed on the Warsaw stock exchange. In 2002 Impel was famous for its brutal pacification of the protest organised by workers of the Cable Factory in Ozarow, making orders for Boguslaw Ciupiala, owner of Tele-Fonika company.
Campaign for Temporary Workers and Emigrants

We document the following call, although we fundamentally question the attempt to “unionise” workers. In most of the cases the existing union bodies defend the standards of permanent workers not (only) against the bosses, but (also) against the temporary or immigrant workers. The German construction workers union organised a hotline and called for denunciation of illegal immigrant workers on contruction sites. Often enough the attempt to establish formal structures like unions, which have to be accepted by both state and employers, lead to the dismissals of those who want to form them. We have to find deeper rooted and more imaginative forms of organising, according to each and every situation of exploitation. [Ppnew]

Every year more than 700 thousand Polish workers go to Western Europe to look for any work. They are ready to work for the lowest wages and in terrible conditions, just to make some money and earn enough to support their families back in Poland. Without a doubt, this situation is unacceptable. For the last three years our trade union together with other Polish trade unions has run the Campaign for Seasonal Workers and Emigrants (Kampania na rzecz Pracowników Sezonowych i Imigrantow). The purpose of the campaign is to inform workers who plan to go abroad about their rights. We also want to urge them to join a trade union in the country of their present residence and encourage them to take actions for workers’ and unions rights. All that has one aim only – to oppose exploitation.

As part of our Campaign for Seasonal Workers and Emigrants we run a website (www.sezonowi.org), talk about the problem in the media, spread information through different kind of actions, publish brochures on work regulations and finally, we actively react, intervene and support workers whose rights are violated. We think that the fight for workers’ rights needs consolidated efforts of all trade unions, especially those who uncompromisingly stand against capitalist abuse. Therefore we would like to suggest cooperation and coordination of actions on Campaign for Polish Seasonal Workers and Emigrants. We believe that together we are able to limit and eventually stop the exploitation of cheap manpower from Eastern Europe – to the advantage of the whole working class.

There are information actions planned in around 80 Polish town and cities, including universities, actions on borders etc. If you would like to get engaged- contact us: [email protected]

[prol-position news #6 | 7/2006] www.prol-position.net

• 1Report: Repression against trade union activists in Poland-http://www.workers-initiative.poland.prv.pl/raport_represion.htm

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. It has also been translated into Polish and is in German and Polish at www.wildcat-www.de

The Neuquén province, where Zanon is located, was one of the epicentres of the protests that swept Argentina in the 1990s. It was here that the piqueteros first emerged in the town of Cutral-Co, and there are many militant trade unionists. Unlike in most of Argentina, many of the attempted privatizations of state owned enterprises were defeated. In May 2006, teachers won a 40% pay rise following a month long strike. But most famous, is the successful takeover of the Zanon tile factory and its subsequent worker-run management. In 2000 the workers went on strike. The employer implemented a lock out and the workers responded by occupying the factory. In October 2001, the workers officially declared the factory to be 'under worker control'. By March 2002, the factory fully returned to production. In April 2003, the courts ordered the police to forcibly take the factory out of the hands of the workers. In response the workers developed a broad based campaign and as the police began to move in over 3000 citizens of Neuquén formed a picket in front of the factory. During the period of worker control, the number of employees has increased from 300 to 470, and wages have risen by 100 pesos a month, and the level of production has increased. Accidents have fallen by 90%.

The workers of Zanon are currently demanding that the provincial and national governments officially recognize the factory as a workers cooperative under state ownership. This is an increasingly common legal status for the many occupied factories in Argentina and would mean that they could stop worrying about eviction and also trade their goods more easily. The move is being resisted by the right-wing MPN leadership of the provincial government, and Kirchner´s government has shown little interest in the resolution of the issue. However, the proposal has widespread public support in Neuquén, with a petition achieving 9,000 signatures in support of the workers proposal, and the issue is due to be debated in the near future within the provincial congress.

Further information on the Zanon factory can be found at the web site http://www.obrerosdezanon.org.
For more on the factory occupation movement in Argentina there is also a recent documentary called 'The Take' http://www.thetake.org/

Zanon – A factory in the hand of the workers, Argentina

Introduction
A whole booklet about Zanon? So many words about a single factory somewhere in South America? Yes, we think that this unusual factory occupation deserves at least this much attention.

Zanon is not a backyard workshop, but a very modern factory with a highly automated production process. Hardly anyone believed that the production workers would be able to get the plant running under self-management. They showed that it is possible. Instead of begging for jobs in times of crisis or trying to make ends meet in informal niches they took over the precious machinery and organised work in such a way that as well as producing tiles there is still always time for drinking mate and having a chat. In that way they are better off than their comrades from the occupied textile factory Brukmann, who have to work much harder at their sewing machines in order to secure their income. The Zanon workers not only showed their capability to run the production ´under workers control`. They were also able to mobilise so much solidarity that all attempts to evict the factory failed. This occupation was not a short episode like many others. For two years now there has been a process of self-organisation and direct democracy developing within the factory, with constant discussions and changes. The Zanon workers did not simply content themselves with their initial gains. They want more. Inside the factory people discuss what a different society could look like and how we could get there.

As everywhere, in Argentina a fundamental change seems difficult to achieve. The uprising of the 19th and 20th of December 2001 was the signal for a social awakening. It was an uprising against politics: state and politicians lost their legitimacy. Everywhere people started to take matters into their own hands. Since then Argentina has been seen as a laboratory for social movements. Unfortunately it remained a laboratory. The virus stayed in the test tube: so far it has not spread beyond the frontiers. The situation in Latin America is tense, but movements still primarily stay within national boundaries. About two years after the uprising politics seems to begin to gain ground again. The new president Kirchner invites the movements to come together at a big round table. The political attempts of this Peronist to tie the movements to his political project are showing initial signs of success. And whoever does not play the game will get acquainted with the old repression.

For Zanon the development of the general situation will be decisive. In the case of the movement stagnating, and the factory occupations remaining isolated, they will have difficulties maintaining their dynamic and radicalism. Without the political dynamic the self-management runs danger of being caught up in the capitalist 'business as usual' (see below: “These guys up there...”). What might remain is a source of income for the workers involved – something very crucial in Argentina today – but not a project which hints towards a different future.

Nevertheless, the workers of Zanon and Brukmann gave an example which is not only of major importance for the movement in Argentina, given that the crisis was not an accident confined to a single country. The slump was an expression of a global crisis of capitalist development. The question that the Zanon workers are being forced to face might be asked in a much bigger framework in the near future. It will help to have a closer look at what is already happening in the remote region of Patagonia today.

Brukmann and Zanon under workers control
In Argentina more than 150 factories are occupied, from workshops, to service companies, to factories and a four-star hotel. Most of them were bankrupt firms or had been about to go bankrupt when the occupations started. In all these companies major changes and developments took place, but only few handled the situation as politically as the workers of Brukmann and Zanon. A lot of occupiers are up to their ears with trying to get their own company running, so that there is not much space left for political activities. The workers of Brukmann and Zanon make clear again and again that for them it is about more than just saving their own work-places and they demand that the means of production be left in their hands without further stipulations. That is the core of the demand of “nationalisation under workers' control”, which the Brukmann and Zanon workers brought forward. Most of the occupied companies formed cooperatives. Cooperative sounds more like autonomy and self-management than nationalisation. Actually 'cooperatives' are the current model in Argentina today, with which the state tries to contain the movement. The occupiers are supposed to give themselves a legal framework, to act according to the logic of economy and to recognize private property. Because at the end of the day they are supposed to buy the company from the owner once they managed to get it running. A lot of occupiers rely on this form of legalisation, because thereby at least they can avoid the pressure of eviction.

The Brukmann workers were evicted in April 2003. After months of protest in the streets they finally formed a cooperative in order to fulfil the precondition for the legal process of dispossession. At the end of November 2003 the town parliament of Buenos Aires decided to dispossess the company and hand it over to the workers for two years. After half a year on the streets they are now able to go back in. Zanon still produces “under workers control” without any legal status.

(On the process of dispossession and the discussion on “cooperative or workers control” see the part “The dilemma...”).

In the laboratory
In April 2002 I went to Argentina the first time, in order to get to know more about the new movements. Four weeks in Buenos Aires and there was not a single day without demonstrations, blockades or assemblies. Pensioners, tenants, neighbours and unemployed, all kinds of groups protested, including previously unknown groups like the 'betrayed money-savers' who rioted in front of the banks. But at that point there was not much coming from the factories or other work-places, in a country with a long tradition of class struggles (see “Class struggles in Argentina...”). One exception was the occupied textile factory Brukmann from where several actions were initiated, e.g. the first “meeting for the defence of the occupied factories”, organised by Brukmann and Zanon workers with 700 participants assembling in the street.

In March/April 2003 I went to Argentina again, this time I wanted to see what was happening in the occupied factories whose numbers had increased. The plan was to work in one of these companies, because generally that is the best way to find out what is really going on. After some enquiries people said that it would not be possible to work at Brukmann, but at Zanon. After initial doubts as to whether it would actually be a good idea to travel to this remote area where I did not know anyone, to a factory were mostly men worked, my curiosity finally won and I set off to Neuquén.

After the first tour in the factory it became clear that it would be difficult to get me a job there. As an unskilled casual worker without experience in tile production all I could have done was sweeping the shop-floor, a rather unpleasant thing in such a dusty plant. But the comrades were fine with letting me take part in their experiment as a visitor. A mattress converted a corner of the laboratory into a visitors room and made it possible for me to stay in this unusual factory for three weeks.

In this booklet thirteen comrades from Zanon are quoted directly. I recorded interviews and conversations with them. A lot of more people showed me around in the factory, explained things, told stories and discussed every possible and impossible thing with me. First of all I took a lot of optimism back home from these encounters. “Se puede...”, that is what the comrades told me again and again, we can, together we can do it, nothing is impossible. In the case of Zanon these are not slogans, but experience. Previously Zanon had been a factory where a graveyard silence ruled and where the bosses felt free to make any kind of arbitrary decisions. Solidarity had been an unknown word. At the beginning the comrades who had started discussing how to change things were doubtful: “With these fellow workers we will not be able to start anything, with this working class we will not get anywhere”. Today they stand in the front line of the movement together with these very fellow workers. They first took over the factories workers commission, then the union. They enforced the right to assemble in the factory and started fighting back. Against the threat of closure they occupied the factory and got it running. They were able to get the population to support them, they created sources of income and a network of occupiers, combative workers and unemployed. They prevented eviction. They are still there. This is a part of the story of the Zanon workers, told by themselves.

Zanon-Workers who have a say in this booklet...
Rosa and Delia are two of the few women in the factory, they work at the end of the production-line, in the quality control department, for the last fourteen and twenty years respectively. They do not have any official positions in the union, but they speak as representatives in public meetings and press conferences. Ana has worked in the canteen since the end of 2002, she is the mother of Daniel Ferras who died in the factory in July 2000. Mario and Eugenio are mechanics, both have been in the factory for eleven years now. Both adjust machines in the press-shop. They were not involved in the organising process before the occupation and were rather caught by surprise by the conflict. Ricardo “Fredy”, has been at Zanon seven years, had previously been a production worker and has now a job in the department where sieves for the glazing are manufactured and special tiles are produced by hand. He has used the computer in his department for putting together an exact chronology of the struggle, using press articles. Rolando has been in the plant for twenty one years, he is a production worker without a union or any other official position. Natalio “Chicho” used to be a production worker and now works in the laboratory where the glazing is mixed and new tile models are developed. Daniel started working in the plant in 1981, he is a mechanic for maintenance, he takes part in meetings with coordinators and is a unionist without having an official position. Julian has been employed at Zanon for seven years, he used to work at the glazing-line and was elected as a coordinator for his department after the occupation. Carlos “Manotas” is a former foreman who chose the side of the workers during the conflict and was elected as the main coordinator of the plant. Eduardo was active in the youth organisation of the MTD, the movement of the unemployed workers. He started working at Zanon in mid-2002 together with the first group of MTD people who were integrated into the plant after its occupation. Raul came to Zanon in 1993 as a production worker, having had to work in the most uncomfortable environment right under the window of the managements office and next to the office of the management friendly union. He belonged to the first group of Zanon workers who started to organise themselves and took over the workers´ commission. He is now the chairman of the SOECN, the ceramic workers union of Neuquén

Alix; Cologne, Germany; November 2003

Zanon – A factory in the hand of the workers
It takes fifteen hours by bus from Buenos Aires, through the endless plains of the Argentinian pampa. The last part of the travel to Neuquén, the northern part of Patagonia, leads through the vast apple tree plantations in the valley of the Rio Negro, followed by desert like plains and mountain ranges. At the bus station a comrade from Zanon welcomes me, easy to spot in a brown boiler suit with the union logo. Another eight kilometres by bus towards Centenario, the factory is situated by the highway, next to another tile factory, a few other companies, a prison and a small settlement at the foot of a hill. That is it. A huge billboard announces that Zanon is in the hands of the workers.

In the small office building in the yard of the factory the Zanon workers installed their department for “press and public relations”. There is a constant coming and going between computers and telephones, drums and other demonstration utensils, piles of posters and newspapers. In a corner people drink mate and discuss, two comrades write a declaration on the occupation of the small brick factory, Ceramica del Valle, which they plan to support the next day by blocking the highway. Right from the beginning the Zanon workers made the conflict about their factory public. Since the first strike in March 2001, when they marched through all districts of Centenario and Neuquén in order to collect food, they took to the streets again and again, made their project known and linked up with other movements. Due to the factory´s high degree of automation they can afford to free up several workers for political activities and public relations.

The workers take one group of astonished visitors after an other on a tour through the extensive and ultra-modern factory. Most of them like doing this, sharing their detailed knowledge of the production process, displaying a certain pride of ownership and an enthusiasm for the political project. Cepillo, who shows me around, had previously worked at the mills. Back then he only knew the work in this particular department. By being active in the workers´ commission he gained an overview of the production process and after occupation was elected as the coordinator. Together with another comrade he now coordinates the entire production process: “though I did not even take A-levels”. I will hear this sentence quite a few times in the following weeks. [Editors' comments below are in italics - libcom]

Daniel: Only now, due to this conflict, have I really got to know the factory. Previous to the occupation when I left my department an engineer would come up to me and ask me what I was doing there. If you did not have a good explanation you even might have got a warning. Today I run around in the entire factory and get to know everyone. During twenty years of working here I had not seen how they work at the atomisators and mills over there. Today I can go to the comrades over there and ask them how things work. But I ask as if I had just started working here. Only now can you capture the whole dimension of the place where you had worked.

Zanon manufactures glazed tiles for floors and walls and other ceramic goods at a high technological level. The factory opened in 1980. The line for ceramic goods which is the most modern of the twelve production lines, was only set up in 1993 and extended in 1997. The starting point of the production process are the huge mills where the earth is ground down. From there the clay is processed through a system of pipes, sieves, pools, drying installations and air pipes and ends up in silos, which supply the press-shop with material. From the press-shop the raw tiles are transferred to another drying installation, from there they pass atomised stations via various production lines. At the stations the glazing is applied, patterns are printed and the backside is covered with stuff that prevents the tiles from sticking in the ovens. From the lines the tiles are transferred to frames which automatically move around the shop on tracks and which serve both as means of transport and temporary means of storage. They are transported to the ovens and finally end up in the quality control and packaging department. The tiles are automatically taken off the frames, put on a conveyor belt and pass various machines which test their durability and correct size. Up to this point the whole production process mainly consisted of controlling, maintenance, adjustments and re-filling. In the quality control and packaging department there are some permanent manual jobs. Here is where the few women of the factory work. They sit at the control conveyor belt and classify the passing tiles, marking them with bright-colour pens, categorising them as first, second or third class quality. The marks are read by a machine and according to their quality the tiles are automatically stacked and packaged, the model name, quality category and control number is stamped on. On one line the cartons have to be taken off by hand, on the other lines they have a robot to do that. Compared to the hectic atmosphere in the office building in the factory things seem relaxed. During this first visit the plant even seems deserted given that due to lack of raw material only one line is in use. But also during the following days the calm attitude at work is conspicuous, the atmosphere is pleasant, friendly, people help each other.

Rolando: Now no-one pressures you, this is one of the fundamental changes that took place. Before the occupation things were bad. The bosses sat on your head, the foremen were at your back. The more you worked, the more they wanted you to work.

Eugenio: You had to meet the production target, the quality norms AND you were supposed to work safely. They made us work long hours. After an eight-hour day we had to stay longer, they forced us to.

Mario: They were always following you around. When you had been out of their sight for more than half an hour they started searching for you. They could not stand seeing us standing around.

The comrades installed areas in the corners of the shop where they sit and drink mate. Previously this was strictly forbidden. In the shade of the trees on the factory premises people discuss about problems of the production, politics and, of course, football. They asked the former company gardener if he wanted to return to his old job, now he takes care of the lawn, the trees and receives the new standard wage. Everyone at Zanon gets 800 Pesos (about 270 US-Dollars) – the production workers, the workers in the laboratory, the people on paid leave, the union secretary, the women in the kitchen, the comrades of the unemployed organisation MTD, who meanwhile work in the factory, the doorman and even the lawyer.

In October 2001 the workers occupied the factory. In march 2002 the comrades started producing under 'workers control' with 270 people (262 men, 8 women). In the meantime they were able to extend the staff to 320 comrades. The 'factory prison' was turned into a experimenting collective for workers self-management and direct democracy.

Delia: When we were on strike and had our strike tent in front of the gate I went there with my daughter one night. We drank mate and talked: that would be a dream if we would get the whole thing producing again. And why do we not just enter and get the press-shop and the mills and the lines running again? It was a dream. We all had doubts whether we should do it.

We do not need bosses in order to produce
In October 2001 the Zanon workers occupied their factory – after yet another period of unpaid wages and after more and more things indicated a possible factory closure. In the labour tribunal they achieved an unusual verdict: The employer is sentenced for illegal lock-out and 40 per cent of the stock is handed over to the workers as compensation for unpaid wages. In January 2002 Zanon management presented a plan to re-start production with 62 staff. The factory occupiers refused this plan. Up to this point they survived on donations and by selling material from the stock. At the end of February they decided to take up production under self-management. Of the former 370 workers 270 join the project. The technicians, the engineers, and administration employees on the whole did not take part. Only two former foremen were on the side of the workers.

Manotas: I was one of the 82 foremen. In 1999 there were already protests concerning workers rights and health and safety. That happened together with the first combative workers´ commission in this factory. As foremen we were not able to take part in these struggles, they would have kicked us out just like that. Then problems occurred concerning unpaid wages. Every now and then they gave us 100 Pesos, the exact time of payment was never clear, you never knew when you would get your next wage. I got fed up with this and started to talk to other foremen about it. First they agreed on taking action, but they said that we should do it as foremen, that we could not do it together with the other workers. But later on they came down a peg or two and nothing happened. After work I started to talk to some people from the workers´ commission. It was not possible to do that in the shop. If they saw that you were talking with people from the workers´ commission they would have given you the sack on the spot. In 2000 I joined the union. They dragged me in front of the management because of that. There I said that I was not involved. I had no legal security but the comrades of the union knew that I was a member. The problems continued over months, no pay on pay day. In March 2001 I had had it, I had ten months of unpaid wages. There was an assembly about the unpaid wages and I asked if I could come along. That created some fuss in the factory because it was quite a difficult thing that a foreman wanted to be with the comrades. I told them that I agreed with their demands and that I wanted to join the struggle. I also said that I was alone, that there was no-one besides me. Then another foreman joined and we were then two out of 82 who joined the struggle.

To get the production lines running was no big deal for the workers. No-one missed the foremen. The opposite was true.

Fredy: The most important thing is that we make the plans now. If previously us workers had a proposal and wanted to change the production process – not on a whim, but because we who did the job also knew best about it – then a foreman or director would come and say “No, not in this way”. Everything had to be done the way they wanted it to. Today we do things we always had wanted to, but there was no way, because the boss did not let us. The boss and all the foremen who acted according to his command. Today things are based on mutual help. Yesterday I had a little problem with the material, so I went to the line where I had worked in former days and asked the comrades what was the matter. I told them what I knew from my experience working there and they said “Good idea, we could try it that way”. They took it on. Then another comrade came and said “Why not change it at the other machine at the same time?”. Previously it was different. You only saw the folder with the control slips for the production. The foreman, an engineer, was always skimming it and signing, without controlling anything. At one point a lot of valuable raw material was spoiled because of a wrong letter. The control slip said 15 kg instead of 15g – and we are talking about pigments here. The comrades knew that it was wrong. If you are on the job every day then you will know what 15g and 15 kg are. But we had ironed out their mistakes for too many times already. “So you want us to put a 15 kg sack in there then, aye, here we go...”.They tried to retrace things afterwards and found the signature of the engineer under the 15 kg...

Julian: When we re-started production everyone knew what their job was. But we also had to learn a lot of new things which we had not done before. There you could see the creativity of the ceramic workers. We have shown that we are creative enough to take on all different tasks in order to develop new production models and models of tiles. That was a significant change. We became better through it. Not in a competitive sense, but in the sense that we worked for everyone and we tried to give the best for everyone. We have developed hidden capabilities which previous, if at all, we only showed in our families. This creativity is suppressed if a boss gives you orders all the time, demands more and more, but gives nothing back. Then you keep to yourself and think: “I will not give him more”. In this period all the creativity blossomed, the pleasure to do things and learn new things. Because we had to learn loads. First of all we had to learn to structure ourselves. We had to learn that we can not bounce about like pin-balls. We could not all run around in the factory without knowing what had to be done. We learnt to do everything. First you started to do what you already knew. But then we wanted to learn other things, doing administrative work, organising the sales. When the company previously had asked you to do that you had said: “Nope, I do my job, the rest is your business. I am already oppressed enough, I will not take on more responsibility, only to be slammed by you even worse afterwards”. But this creativity emerged, we learnt a lot.

After the workers had taken up production without any hierarchical functions they decided some months later to elect coordinators in each department.

Fredy: This was a fundamental step that we took. The coordinators provide us with information and founded on that we run the production. After a meeting of all coordinators they come to us five guys afterwards and they would say: “Folks, we have to stop production now because we are lacking a pigment. What is the score, can we continue tomorrow with the other model”? Each coordinator checks that back in his department and tells the coordinator assembly next day. There are also production workers taking part in the assembly, everyone who wants to can take part.

Manotas: Each and everyone knew their work and was able to perform his task. But it was not organised. How were we supposed to move around in the factory, how were we supposed to organise things in order to avoid that although everyone is doing a good job, all efforts are in vain at the end. In July last year it became clear that we had to organise ourselves better. On a assembly we decided that we had to elect coordinators for each department. The factory is divided into different departments – pulverisation, press shop, oven, quality control, sales. Because everyone only knew about the work in their own department, we said: on each production line there are for example twelve comrades working, they should elect a coordinator. The same in the pulverisation, at the ovens, in the sales department. Us coordinators met twice a week and the change was palpable very soon. The production ran much better. We were able to plan better. I became plant coordinator, the assembly decided. That is a huge responsibility, which requires some hours extra, but I do it with pride.

Julian: I am coordinator for the press-shop and the glazing process. I was elected in a democratic procedure by the comrades and I am still one of them. Before, that was different. Once someone started to climb the ladder, they would have looked down on you.

More difficult than the work at the production line were the areas of the specialists to which previously the workers had no access at all: the administration with the purchasing and sales department, the print-shop and the laboratory.

Chicho: In the laboratory we were facing the problem that the technicians who had worked for Zanon had left. We contacted some comrades who had worked in the laboratory and some of them were up for joining again. Because I knew them I started to work with them in the laboratory. Before that I had worked in the production. We are still learning. Meanwhile we managed to get the basic knowledge, but every day new problems pop up. We learn bit by bit.

Eduardo: I have never worked in a lab before. I loaded and unloaded. I stuffed fridge parts into mills for recycling. I delivered post. But now that I am here and able to think about which product numbers to mix, I work creatively...

Daniel: Hardly any of us had previously worked in the organisation of the company. We are all production workers. This is a difficult task for us. But we held meetings and talked about it, and we had support from people from outside who knew about the matter. Various accountants and admin guys came and supported our struggle. We learned from those people and we organised ourselves.

For the purchase of raw material they are supported by the Mapuche. The Mapuche had contacted them before because the employer Zanon had extracted the clay in their area without paying for it. After the occupation the Mapuche offered the comrades delivery of raw material and cooperation. The comrades thanked them with the new tile model “Mapuche”. They also produced a model “Obrero” (worker), which is robust and cheap. Today the Zanon tiles are sold under a different name: FASINPAT. This name reveals an indication of where the tiles have been produced: in a factory without bosses, a FAbrica SIN PATron. The tiles are sold at the factory gate. Because they do not have a legal status they are not allowed to sell anything on account and therefore they cannot supply wholesalers. The human rights organisation “Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo” helps out by offering their organisation for the dealing with bureaucracy.

Rolando: Who knows how many sacks of money Zanon made off our backs. Even with the few machines which run at the moment we make our income. If we got the whole plant into full gear we would make loads of money. We could have 1,000 workers here and all would have a good income. Because a lot of money comes in, we have seen that. At Zanon twenty trucks came and went every day. He only sold to wholesalers. Twenty trucks each day, they started loading them at six in the morning and at ten in the night they were still being loaded. A lot of stuff was exported, as well. And today we make a living by selling them by the pack.

The illegal status creates a lot of bureaucratic problems as well as a high level of insecurity: the threat of eviction. On the other hand there are advantages for the comrades: they took over the expensive machinery, which is estimated to be worth 120 Million US-Dollars, but they do not have to pay interest for it. They were able to avoid this capitalist constraint of accumulation. For the comrades a legalization which would re-establish the profits of Zanon in any form would result in an enormous increase of work pressure. They proved that it is possible to run a highly complicated production process without bosses, based on a direct democratic structure of coordinators and assemblies. An increased pressure to intensify work (for the market and profit) would certainly embody the danger of re-enforcing the old hierarchies. The future of this production without bosses in a capitalist world is everything but certain.

Fredy: In case these guys (Zanon) want to come back then we all want to work here again, everyone of the old crew, exactly the same people. When they accept this then we can discuss it. We will have to give in at certain points, but the fundamental thing is that we can all work here again. But the employer would not like it, because he would never reach his goal again, to rule over the people, to pay them like he wants to and to kick them out as he pleases. Today we have a totally different say in this factory.

“that we got to know each other...”
...was the most common answer to the question of what has changed after the occupation.

Daniel: I belonged to this particular shop and we were not allowed to go anywhere else. Everything was divided into different departments, we had to wear working clothes in different colours so that they could identify us.

Julian: You were not able to have a calm five minutes chat with a comrade. They did not want us to get to know each other. Not knowing your comrades leads to individualism. They did not allow us to come closer to each other.

Fredy: What changed through the struggle: We are united and we know each other better. Before you clocked in and went to your department. You only knew the comrades of your department. Maybe by chance if you had to get something from a different department you met someone else. Today you go to an assembly and sometimes you stand next to this guy, sometimes next to another. We go somewhere in a group and thereby get to know each other. You get to know the comrades and you agree that we have to proceed with this struggle...

The first thing they did after the occupation was to rip out the partition walls between the departments. Unknown work colleagues became comrades and the hated factory a place where you enjoyed being. The walk from the workplace to the gate sometimes takes several hours – because on the way there are many comrades with urgent things to be talked about, you might end up in another round of mate or in the laboratory, because someone brought meat along and they re-use the Bunsen burner for a barbecue. But often also problems with the production require that the comrades stay in the factory for longer hours.

After the occupation they kept the old shift model (early-late-night)on the shop-floor. The night-shift is necessary because the ovens can not be switched off. Only few people work night-shift. Early and late shift rotate, the early shift works Saturdays, as well. The special departments, maintenance people and coordinators work from 8 am to 4/5 pm, but actually often stay longer.

Daniel: Back then I used to do my eight hours and then left. That was monotonous, only an obligation in order to bring an income back home. Today it is difficult given the situation we are in. During the meetings we often talk about the fact that some comrades are at their limit. For me it is different, I get motivated. Sometimes comrades tell me “Look, how late it is already, and you are still here”. But I like it. If there is a problem and I can solve it today then I finish it today, even if I have to be here for 15 or 16 hours. Other comrades leave after 8 hours. They say that they cannot stand the long hours any more. So we are all different, we think differently, we have our peculiarities.

New Horizons
Before the struggle over the factory the Zanon workers had been “normal workers”, they talked about football, only very few were interested in politics. Today the factory is a space for discussions. Words like class struggle or revolution are used without sounding as if they come from outer space. Structures of direct democracy and frequent assemblies resulted in a situation where politics is not a thing of few cadres, but of everyone. The horizon widened. New contacts to people from outside the factory were made. Visitors from other towns and other countries came to the province of Neuquén and the workers of Zanon travel around.

Daniel: A delegation will go to Rosario in order to take part in the meeting. The unionist always say that other comrades who might not go to meetings frequently should go too, so that they can also gain new experiences. They should go out and see how the struggle is perceived from the outside. Otherwise we run the risk of isolating ourselves without being aware of how things are seen from the outside. A lot of comrades who travelled to other regions talked about their experience after coming back: We never thought that so many people were interested in us, that we are seen as idols, because we are practically making a revolution here.

In 2002, Chicho and Mariano, the lawyer, travelled together to Italy, London and Paris.

Chicho: The travel to Italy was a big thing. Everyday in a different town without understanding a single word. It was difficult to find your way around. During the meetings we talked about the history of our struggle, the take over of the union, about other factories, about the regional coordination, the Coordinadora del Alto Valle. About the cooperation with Brukmann and the meetings of the occupied factories. We discussed the question: why workers control and not cooperative? We had our talk, then discussion started, they asked questions about the situation in Argentina, how long we can continue with the struggle. All kind of questions. We got to know people from all kind of backgrounds, some meetings were organised by the FIOM (big metal union), others by the COBAS (rank-and-file union), by the social centres, all kinds of groups. After half of the people we met whilst travelling already knew who we were and what we were talking about, so the discussions became more and more interesting, both the contributions and the questions. Information was exchanged, our tour was announced in the media, more and more people came and the meetings changed.

Then we visited FIAT in Sicily. The meetings changed direction, they became international. I would not have thought that it would happen, but it did when we met the guys from FIAT. At that point they were on a big strike. They did not occupy the factory, but they were on strike. It was not a struggle of 270 workers, but of thousands, which makes a slight difference! A slight difference in terms of numbers of workers involved, but not in what they did. The strike was about the crisis which FIAT claimed to be in, the struggle at Zanon was also triggered by an alleged crisis. In that sense there was no difference. We took part in one of their assemblies. Some radio and television station reported that. They asked us if FIAT could be occupied, as well. So there was a discussion about whether they could do at FIAT what we have done at Zanon. About what we would advise the FIAT comrades to do. We said: we can tell you about our experience and our message is unity. If they want to continue the struggle they have to do it together, though the bosses will try to divide them – this is our main message. We were in Italy for 30 days. Every day a meeting, sometimes two, even on Sundays. That was crazy. We talked to a lot of groups which are in favour of what we are doing and which also see the possibility of coordinating and organising themselves without the big unions and such apparatus.

Delia, one of the few women at Zanon, attended together with the SOECN union secretary Alejando Lopez, the World Social Forum meeting in Porte Alegre at the beginning of 2003.

Delia: The comrades actually elected me as their representative to go to the world social forum! The most important thing was not the trip itself, but that the comrades elected me. The first surprise was that they proposed me for the ballot. If it had been any other woman, I would have been as happy, because we are only few. This is a big step forward. At the assembly they said that there was a trip coming up and that someone should accompany comrade Alejandro Lopez. Six men and a woman were suggested. Then it was decided that not two union officials should go, but one unionist and one comrade from the rank-and-file. A comrade asked: “why not a woman”? “Yes, why not”, they said, then he suggested me.

My horizon widened enormously. I come from a family where politics is not talked about. Today every injustice gets on my nerves. Previously I kept silent, today I would like to do even more against it.

Brukmann and Zanon: Projects of Trotskyist parties?
If you deal with movements in Argentina you will not be able to avoid the numerous Trotskyist avant-garde groups. Traditionally Trotskyism has a strong position within the Argentinian left, therefore you will meet people from Trotskyist backgrounds wherever something moves. Within the social movements the organised comrades are often more articulate and therefore they catch more attention than those who just started to take first steps in political movements. From a superficial point of view the movement then seems to be the project of a party.

Formerly the Zanon workers belonged to a well paid workers elite. A lot of them live in their own houses which have been built as part of a social housing scheme. Whoever had employment was able to get such a house, paying a low monthly rate. In the factory car park heavy motorcycles and still numerous cars are testimonies of the past wealth. Today a lot of people are not able to pay the monthly rents for their houses any more – so far there have not been any evictions – and no-one can afford to fill up their cars. Before their bosses started to threaten bankruptcy the Zanon workers felt secure and part of the middle-class.

Eugenio: When the factory was still producing in top gear the Zanon workers were fine. You never had a problem to get a credit. You were well respected, as a worker of Zanon. Then came the slump...

Daniel: Back then of course we saw conflicts all around us, but we worked at Zanon. We did not have any money problems, but we complained about those who had. I often cursed: “I have to get to work and you guys block the road”. My only worry was not getting to work. I did not ask why these things happened, why they blocked the roads.

Rosa: Previous to this conflict I never did anything political. The opposite is true: when the unemployed blocked the roads I said that they should start looking for a job and stop creating this mess. When things went bad for us I realised that we have to support each other.

Delia: They had to touch the wallet of the middle class. When they see a road block today they understand, because now they are effected by crisis, as well. Unfortunately it first had to happen to us before we realised. Previously we had bank accounts and credit cards. If you then have to roam around and to start begging for food, that was tough for us. I had seen myself as middle-class or at least I wanted to get there. I sent my daughter to a private school and paid for that. I did not have any big luxury, but I wanted a good education for my daughter. I was not interested in struggling for better education. I paid for it.

Rosa: At the beginning it was difficult to take to the streets, somehow embarrassing, it felt funny. But finally it was about our rights, our dignity. At the beginning we were only a few who wanted to pick up the struggle. I thought that the right moment had come, but I was alone in my department. The old union guys who you never saw in the factory, they did nothing.

In October 2001 the workers of Zanon occupy the factory and the unemployed organise themselves as MTD Neuquén

Eduardo: The conflict started on the 1st of October and on the 4th the MTD was founded. Previously the unemployed organisation was called Unemployed Commission of the Barrio San Lorenzo. The whole thing spread to other barrios and named itself MTD, movement of unemployed workers. At that time the Zanon comrades organised street blockades in the town centre, later they blocked the bridge which connects Neuquén with Cipolletti. The MTD thought that this workers' struggle is important because we do not want to have more people unemployed, we want jobs. They fought for the jobs and if they had lost they would have lost their jobs too. Then they would also have joined the MTD. We went to the occupied bridge and supported them. There were discussions about it, because some people in the MTD said: why should we support them, they have their jobs and their wages. And comrades here in the factory said: why should we support the unemployed, they jobless. At the beginning they looked down on us. But when we blocked a road, they came and when they occupied a road, we came to help. This is how we got to know each other.

Raul: The extension of the struggle beyond the factory was difficult. It did not come naturally to demonstrate together with teachers or to see an unemployed person as your comrade. Here inside the factory we fought a long battle in order to get to this point. At the beginning the assembly decided against us – like it happened recently again. All our proposals were refused, but when the problem became a practical one, the whole thing of extending the struggle gained a foundation. Then things changed and went in the direction of extending the struggle. The fact that the workers do not want to have anything to do with the unemployed is due to the politics of the government and the union bureaucracy. Most of the unions look down on the unemployed. They do not perceive them as part of the working class. It really helped that here in Neuquén a really independent unemployed organisation came to life and that it is a very progressive one. Because among the unemployed too it is not easy for the comrades to find people who want to support the struggle of factory workers. Unfortunately there are only few who want this. Most of them lead rather corporate struggles, each group for its own demands.

Daniel: At the beginning a lot of people refused the MTD, because it was an organisation of very violent people. After the first common actions this was the subject of a lot of debates in the assemblies: that we do not want to have that kind of ally. The people from the union said that they will ensure the non-violent character of future actions. They told the guys of the MTD that if they want to get support, they have to follow the line of the workers. They accepted that and did not make stipulations.

Today the Zanon workers and the MTD form a strategic unity. Nowadays it is a common picture to see the workers overalls with the union button next to the shirts with the MTD logo: on demonstration, blockades, or regional or national coordinating meetings, which are meant as a starting point for new independent workers movement.

Eduardo: A very beautiful demonstration was the one when when the comrades from Zanon decided to occupy the bridge again and we came for support. The comrades were already on the bridge and we arrived with our demonstration, with our white shirts with the MTD logo, which we always wear on protests. We sang the song which has now almost become an anthem: “Come here, come here, you will find a friend. As unemployed and employed together we will always win the fight”. Both groups were singing this song and when both demonstrations met, people jumping and embracing each other – that was beautiful. Merging white and brown shirts, singing and embracing each other. That was really beautiful. I think that was the moment were we really found unity. The concrete synthesis of this situation was that the unemployed came here into the factory.

Since the occupation more than fifty unemployed have been integrated into the staff of the factory. The workers of Zanon agreed on a standard wage of 800 Pesos. If the production yields more, the money is not spent on wage increases but on increasing the numbers of the work-force. In Argentina today 800 Pesos is a comparatively good wage, but still very little to live on. Therefore some comrades think that a wage increase should take precedence over too much solidarity. But so far no-one brought the issue up during assembly, which is why the old decision is still valid.

Fredy: When the issue came up that we need support of more people and that unemployed people should get jobs here, a lot of people disagreed. Particularly for the older workers this was problematic. They had never experienced anything like this. Until the importance of it all was explained quite clearly at an assembly. This is how people understood why first of all it would be good for us to get this support and that it would also be a political success: that Zanon workers under self-management hire unemployed while the government is doing nothing.

Raul: Of course there were discussions about the issue. But we did not really talk in detail about the question if we should raise the wage a little so that we meet the level of the market basket (basic level of necessities), which is slightly higher than our wage. The most important question for everyone is the question of what will happen to the whole factory. The factory runs at only ten per cent of its capacity at the moment. If we manage to run it at 100 per cent we will make a real profit. And that is the concept: that this profit is not meant for an individual project, but for the good of all.

“It all started with us developing things very slowly here in the factory”.
The occupation and the self-organised production at Zanon has a long prelude. Given that under the control of the management and the old union it was impossible to talk openly with each other inside the plant, people had to organise themselves outside. A small group started to organise football matches on Sundays, in order to meet other comrades and talk. These football matches went on for one year. Each department had a team and each team a delegate. In this way they were able to keep in touch with all departments. This form of organising resulted in the establishment of an oppositional list of candidates which surprisingly was able to take over the works council (Comision Interna) in 1998 and enforced the right to hold assemblies inside the factory.

Raul: Initially we met comrades outside the factory, to drink beer and play football. This is how it started. Then things changed outside. The working class started to react. In Neuquén the first countrywide unemployed uprisings kicked off in 1996, in Cutral Co, only few kilometres away from here.

These uprisings had an impact even in our factory, where everything was under tight control of the management. Things were discussed, opinions differed: from the usual opinion that this unrest was bad, that these people were lazy and only wanted money from the government without having to work; to the position that they were part of the working class and that their struggle is ours as well. At that time the old union bureaucracy was still in charge, there was no action, not even a declaration.

So it was a combination of two things: firstly that we took the first steps, secondly that the situation inside the factory started to change. While we were still a small group we started to take part in demonstrations of the teachers, of the public sector workers and the unemployed. At the beginning we were only two, three or five people. Two guys carrying a banner and no one marched behind it. But we said: here we are. We told people in the factory about it and talked about it with the comrades. Within the factory we took the space to at least hold our assemblies here. It was tough work to achieve that. The management threatened us, there were legal charges. The assemblies were prohibited, they were only allowed in the union office outside the factory and after working-time. Legally this was controversial. All we achieved we mainly achieved because we broke the rules. It was a long struggle to enforce the assemblies.

We first started to use the halfhour lunch-break in the canteen in order to talk to people. Each shift had half an hour, and we used this time. People did not have breaks together, while some where eating the others supervised the machines. Once we were more established we demanded common breaks. That was a blow to the company and they sued us over it. The enforcement of a common break was our first achievement. In hindsight it does not sound like much, but it was an enormous success. After that we had assemblies of one hour or as long as we needed for our agenda. These assemblies were then already part of the struggle.

The workers started to resist the harassments and dismissals, which were common at Zanon. The management were creating pressure by using temporary contracts. But while trying to fight against this pressure, they discovered a legal clause saying that a copy of the terminated contract has to be sent to the union. Given that this did not happen they declared the termination of the work contracts as illegal and demand a permanent contract for the comrades, which they pushed through after a walk out. The first strike took place in July 2000 after the 22 year-old Daniel Ferras died in the factory after a heart attack, because the first-aid infrastructure had been scrapped. After nine days of strike the comrades made sure that the medical service was put back into place.

Rosa: The trigger of the struggle was Daniels death. How can it be that such a company has not got the money for medical service!? Once you called in sick they sent a doctor to your home in order to check if you were really ill. They were able to spend money on that! There had been accidents before Daniel's death. A comrade fell onto the mills and was hurled against the wall. He ended up paralysed.

Ana: When the thing happened to my son they stopped production. Daniel was my son. He died because of the lack medical aid. At that time about 600 people worked here, I think. The doctor only stayed for two hours and the guy responsible for the first aid did not know what to do. There was no oxygen apparatus. Then they called an ambulance, because they needed this apparatus. When the ambulance arrived from Neuquén, it was already too late.

Daniel´s mother Ana has been part of the Zanon staff since the end of 2002. She works together with two other female comrades in the kitchen where they make sandwiches and cakes for the early and late shift and cook lunch for the day shift, selling it at cost price.

Ana: Previously I worked in the halls, where fruits are processed. I worked in a packaging company for 26 years. That was seasonal work. You only worked there for four or five months, during harvest time. The company was shut down ten or eleven years ago, simply overnight. I had worked there for 26 seasons. All people who had worked there became unemployed. Recently it got harder to find a job. Once you are over 40 you are seen as being too old and no one will employ you. When they offered me this job, I was very happy. I always supported the guys from the factory. When they were here, I popped by. When they organised the demonstration from the factory to Centenario, I went with them. When they did things, I was with them and they kept in touch with me. They also visited me and asked how I was and if I needed anything. I am grateful for this, because they never stopped visiting me.

“You are the impetus which made us become the force which we are today” is written underneath the pictures of Daniel, which can be found on several walls in the factory. His death put the struggle against the murderous working conditions on the agenda. The dark side of the relatively high wages at Zanon was, apart from the prison like atmosphere, an unbearable work stress and frequent accidents.

Raul: We started working here on four consecutive work contracts, each limited to six months. If you refused overtime you got the sack. If you had an accident or if you got sick, you got the sack as well. The factory was founded during the dictatorship and a despotic regime ruled inside. Any group which had anything to do with politics simply had no chance. A police-like company friendly union was in control. But seen from the outside it was a privilege to work in this factory. The first six months on the job were the worst of my entire working life, and I started working aged eleven. First of all I was shocked by the atomised machines, due to their deafening noise, which you had to scream over in order to communicate. The hellish work pace lead to accidents every other day, mainly hand injuries. And if you did have an accident it was always your own fault. They brought you in the office and finished you off. If you reacted to that in any way, you got the sack. They made us work double-shifts, sixteen hours, from six in the morning to ten in the night. For six months I practically had no day off. In every way this time of my life was miserable. In the factory your own colleagues made you work harder, because they were keen on the productivity bonus. Your very own colleagues told you: “the production runs poorly because this guy is not working well”. That was an extreme pressure. I guess the underground work in the factory was the most revolutionary thing I ever did.

Fredy: The company was on the upturn, they sold loads. They paid us overtime, but they made a lot of money on our backs. Then they wanted to reduce the working hours and get rid off the time where we just sat and did nothing. They wanted to introduce a new working system, the flexible production. If I had nothing to do up there I was supposed to come down here and prepare the glazing. Or help a comrade. Or push a broom around. After they achieved that they allowed themselves to make people redundant. Because they did not want to pay overtime any more they started to increase the work intensity to the max. This is when the clashes between the management and workers started.

Julian: Daniels death resulted in us becoming ever more united. Today there are hardly any accidents any more This is due to the situation and the way we work. If you work under pressure there are a lot of accidents. Under our control the number of accidents has decreased by 99 per cent. Sometimes accidents occur, but no serious ones. Previously people got sprains, hand injuries. All due to the pressure. It was constantly on your mind that you have to meet the required work load, that otherwise they will give you a warning, that they can sack you.

After the strike which followed Daniel´s death the management opened the bankruptcy proceedings. It wanted to get rid of the rebellious work-force. The wages were frequently not paid on time and the workers did not receive the full amount. The comrades did not believe the employers were moaning about crisis and bankruptcy. They could see how many boxes of tiles were leaving the factory. They demanded that the company´s balance was made public. After several short strikes the “34-days strike” claiming unpaid wages started in March 2001. The workers pitched a strike tent in front of the factory and survived on food donations.

Rolando: In Argentina´s past there was no situation like the one we experience today. We took the streets, blocked it and went around with a can collecting money in order to have something to eat. We went into the barrios and the people there helped us out a lot. We drove in the van, from house to house, and asked people for food which we then shared amongst the comrades. We distributed leaflets in the streets and collected money. I had never been a unionist or anything like it. I have always been a normal worker, but I thought that these activities were right, so I joined them.

Manotas: The conflict which lasted 34 days was the first one I took part in. For me it was the hardest of all. It was really cold, a lot of wind and rain. We had no food and no money. During an assembly we decided to form commissions amongst ourselves. I was in the commission which walked through the barrios, through all barrios of Neuquén Others made the conflict known in the whole country. Our task was to exchange leaflets for food, to explain the problem to the people and to appeal to their solidarity. Everyday we came back with a car load of food. Every comrade could at least take a bag of food back home, because there was no money. We established a strike fund, but only small change went into it. It was a difficult situation.

The workers adopted methods of the piqueteros, of the unemployed. They blocked roads and closed the critical access points of Neuquén, which is enclosed by two rivers. They blocked the bridge leading to the neighbouring province Rio Negro.

Manotas: Daily we went into town centre and blocked roads. In the part of town were the banks where, we blocked all streets. Our aim was to move the government to take care of the workers, because the government did nothing. One day we decided to block the bridge of Neuquén That was the biggest challenge we could come up with. We all went and blocked the bridge at eight o clock in the morning. At seven in the evening they sent us a message that a meeting with the labour commission would take place and that the company wanted to negotiate. At eleven at night the company and the provincial government, which of course was on the side of the company, announced that the outstanding wages would be paid. We achieved what we had fought for and were proud of it. We celebrated it till three o'clock in the morning in front of the strike tent.

Then we went back to work. In June and July the company again started to talk about how bad the sales performance of the company was. We knew that the company sold 500,000 m2 each month and that it made millions of US-Dollar returns. But they insisted on having no money. We had decided during an assembly that we would immediately go on strike if wages were not paid on pay day. And that was what happened, on the 1st of October there was no money. We stopped production and thought: last time it took 34 days, this time may be two months. We repeated the same actions like during the 34-days strike. Collecting food, making the conflict known, some guys drove to Buenos Aires. A lot of organisations supported us. Comrades like you who were interested in the struggle and made it known helped us a lot.

When Zanon switched off the ovens the workers saw it as a sign of imminent closure of the factory. They started the occupation in October. Due to a court sentence against Zanon for illegal lock-out the first eviction order was declared invalid. At the end of November Zanon sent letters of dismissal to all 380 workers. On the 30th of November the workers organised a demonstration to the provincial government building and burnt the letters. The building also nearly burnt down. A brutal chase through town kicked off and nineteen workers were arrested. But they had already won the support of the local population. The same afternoon 3,000 people took to the streets, the workers were released on the same day.

In December they started to sell stock which was granted by the court as compensations for the outstanding wages.

Manotas: When we started selling we always asked ourselves how far it would go. We could only sell the stock. People supported us with food, but we did not want to be a burden on them for too long. So in February 2002 we decided during an assembly that we would take up production again and that everyone should get the same wage of 800 Pesos. The vote was unanimous. With some of the money we got from selling the stock we restarted production bit by bit. We began with 20,000 m2. Fortunately today we make more than 100,000 m2 per month. But without neglecting politics. I think that production and politics go hand in hand. You cannot separate the one from the other.

The prelude to this unusual occupation started rather traditionally: with taking over the works council (comision interna) and later on the leadership (comision directiva) of the little union SOECN. During the course of the conflict the former bureaucratic apparatus changed into something different.

Fredy: Today it has become difficult to explain. Now that we have had the conflict you do not notice so much any more what each single committee does. Now we are a kind of core from which each activity initiates. The normal situation would be as follows: The union leadership sits in the union office and deals with all kind of problems of all factories. The works council works in the factory and takes its time in the works councils office. This would be the normal situation. But today we are all one core. Everyone has tasks, the union leadership and the works council, everyone has specific tasks, like making things public, union and other activities.

Eduardo: A comrade was once asked ‘are you a left union?’ ‘No’ he said. ‘Not left, but we are also not right. We are a revolutionary union!’. He didn’t want to describe himself as left wing, because the left, with their bureaucratic behaviour, had contributed to destroying processes like this one. We are against things like that. We have the trust in our capabilities as workers to do things ourselves.

Assemblies, Over and Over Again
The most important means to generalise the conflict within the factory and to make it an issue of everyone were and are the assemblies. Assemblies in the departments, of each shift, assemblies of the coordinators and general assemblies. Every now and then the workers organise discussion days, they reduce production to a minimum and meet in working groups in order to discuss. All decisions concerning production and politics are made within this structure.

Mario: There is still a lot missing, it can still improve. But in general the way we deal with things is good, in the assemblies. Everything is decided rank-and-file, that is the most important issue. The majority makes decisions and according to that things are done.

Manotas: If this struggle has pushed things forward then it is due to the democratic ways it was and is led. The only authority is the assembly, the whole collective of the workers. It is not me in my position as coordinator, it is not Raul Godoy as the general secretary of the union who makes decisions, but the assembly of all workers decides what will be done and what not. The current union leadership has introduced this structure, this has to be acknowledged. Fortunately they were not bureaucrats. We did not have any experience with this structure. The people of the works council who later on took over the union leadership introduced the assemblies as a democratic method of decision-making. This structure is still valid and it is also much easier this way. In the assemblies we all have the right to voice our opinion and to vote – not in a secret ballot like the ruling class do and who after the vote does not want to remember anything. Here nothing gets forgotten. The assembly votes and the majority decides. I have lost votes in the assemblies. You have to stick to the decision, it does not matter if you lose or win, the important thing is that we decided together. This is the way we work. And there are the discussion days. The assemblies are important, but sometimes fluid communication cannot be achieved. During the discussion days we 270 people divide ourselves up into five groups. We debated all issues, like at the meeting of the coordinators: both politics and production. This helped us all to create consciousness. Because here in Argentina we have a major cultural problem, they killed our roots in the military dictatorship in the 70s.

SOECN – Union of Workers and Employees of the Ceramic Industry in Neuquén
In Argentina there are two main Peronist union umbrella organisations (CGT and CGT-d), they are bureaucratic organisations, true to the state and run by corrupt officials. The third umbrella organisation CTA was formed as an alternative ten years ago and has its main strongholds in the public sector. Its formation process was accompanied by combative rhetoric, but nowadays it hardly differs from the other two. The workers only ever call the unions “union bureaucracies” or shorter “the bureaucracy”. The SOECN was one of these Peronist employer-friendly unions. It organised 400 workers from four different factories: the tile producing factory Ceramica Zanon and the neighbouring Ceramica Neuquén, the brick factories Ceramica de Valle, which has also been occupied after long battles by its remaining seven workers in February 2003, and Ceramica Stefani in Cutral Co. Today the SOECN is an independent union. The workers who took over the works council in 1998 now makes up the union leadership. In December 2000 they managed to get the union out of the hands of the bureaucrats. Most of the workers see this fact as an important step in their struggle. The story of the decisive assembly is told again and again: the bureaucrats had set the time and place for the assembly, a Friday at 1 pm in Cutral Co, hoping that this way the Zanon workers would not be able to participate. The workers negotiations with the management to get leave for the day and to make up for the day later on failed. They decided to go anyway. Several buses carried the Zanon workers 100 km to Cutral Co, were they won the ballot. Some workers did not go to Cutral Co, but in solidarity they didn't go to work either.

The factory occupation gave the union a different role. It is not a workers representing body any more, which negotiates with the employers, but it leads a factory and a political process, together with the new structures of assemblies and coordinators. But even though now “everyone is one core” there are still union officials and works council members. Some of them have not spent a single hour at the machines since the occupation started. Even in an occupied factory such a division of labour bears the risk of bureaucratisation and “officialism's”. The criticism against “those up there” does not target the coordinators so much, who still work in the production, but the unionists who use their position in order to not have to work and who hang out in the offices instead. The comrades at Zanon know about the problem. Currently a change of the statutes is being debated within the SOECN. A proposal has been made to reduce the duration of a position to two years.

Julian: The rule is that no one can settle in a position. And there are no secret deals. If something has to be discussed, it is discussed to the end. It happened to me that I went past a group discussing politics and they asked me to join. You can take part in things and then you feel useful. You realise that your opinion is of interest. You can tell how you think things could be improved. This is why the department assemblies are held. The people in the departments are expected to think about how things should be run. For example in the sales department, there was a plan, but people wanted to do it differently. In the departments people talk and come up with things they disagree with, and in the general assembly all these opinions are gathered and we see what is best for all of us. It is not about what would be good for the union or certain people, but for everyone.

Daniel: Every two to three months we have discussion days. In smaller groups comrades find it easier to talk. Small groups are formed in the departments and comrades from the union leadership and coordinators come along and delegates from the respective department guide the discussion. They present things and people come up with their queries, draw conclusions and voice their opinion. All of it is written down. On the general assembly the outcome of all groups are gathered. This is quite democratic. Currently it is that some of the decisions that we made in the general assembly not been put into practice for various reasons. We keep on trying to find democratic ways to implement the decisions. The last discussion day was on the 15th of November. We talked in several meetings that we should have another one soon, probably in March. I acknowledge what the guys from the works council and the union leadership have done. They have done a lot of good things, here in the factory and outside, as well. This is why I joined the coordinators group, this group should be in line with the union. The discussion with the union guys about the fact that we have to organise ourselves better in order to proceed, results in all of us getting better. Some people say “We cannot do it this way”, then we say “OK, lets find a different solution”. And it works. You must not get stuck in your view of things. A lot of comrades from the union, the delegates or rank-and-file comrades have the same urge to constantly look for new solutions. If something goes wrong, we sit down and talk about how it could be dealt with in a better way.

The assembly of the coordinators previously only dealt with question of the production but was then joined by comrades from the union.

Manotas: We tried to work in an even more organised way. The meeting of the coordinators was good, but very separated from the political questions. We were cut off from that, so the urge arose that the union should also take part in the meeting of the coordinators. Now we meet every Monday at nine O'clock. The starting time is fixed, the end is not, because sometimes certain issues take a lot of time. At the meeting both production and politics are on the agenda: the general situation in the country, the local situation, the question of how we can proceed in the conflict and of what is the score in the production. The coordinators transmit all this to the comrades. Additionally a comrade of each department joins the meeting. This helped us a lot to work in a more organised way. Because we are normal workers. We have to run this factory, which is not an easy thing to do.

Department and shift assemblies are usually called for by coordinators or unionists.

Mario: The guys from the union leadership usually arrive with proposals for the agenda already prepared. They call for an assembly because there are several issues which have to be talked about. But there is always the opportunity to raise your voice, to talk and to ask questions about whatever you like. You have the freedom to not to stick to the agenda and to talk about something else. That happens as well. People got used to it. All kinds of issues are brought up. And the assemblies take as long as required, two, three, four hours, till anyone has any issue left which they want to talk about. Political issues are also dealt with. Some like it, others like it less. I do not like politics. Others do, then the discussions start. Some get involved more, some less. Sometimes you have to end up getting involved without having wanted to.

“Those up there...”
Besides all the enthusiasm for the political project, the main thing which happens in the factory is still work – an annoying necessity which, like anyone else, the comrades of Zanon like to escape from. At Zanon there are still factory guards, bags are controlled and people have to punch in and out – symbols of the factory regime which you would not expect in a self-managed factory. The guards main task is to secure the factory against attacks from the outside. During the initial period of the occupation there have been acts of sabotage like cut drive belts. Not all workers are fond of the politicisation at Zanon. Also in the self-organised factory they only do their job. The time clock was never been abolished in the first place, sensitive areas are still being locked up and the assembly decided to re-introduce bag controls after too many tools and cleaning material disappeared from the occupied factory.

Rosa: Some comrades still do not get it, that it is our factory now and that they harm us all. They think that Zanon will come back one day and that therefore it does not matter.

Daniel: In the long run it will not be necessary to have a coordinator in every department in order to make it work. It is a question of mentality. It is not like in the past any more, when behind each worker a foreman had to make sure that work is done. The consciousness of “I do my job in order to earn my money” has to cease, instead we should be aware that “We all do our job in order to earn the wage for everyone and we all earn the same”. Some people still do not get this. They do not consider that we are all affected if they do not do their work. He might earn the same, but his comrade has to work double. There are not many people any more who think like in the past. And some are just tired.

Fredy: It does not happen often, but there have been cases of comrades who did not behave correctly. They leave work early without telling anyone or instead of doing their job they go to other departments. And the problem of lack of respect. May be it is due to all of us being quite tense. There are people who are very tense, who cannot cope and then take it out on other comrades.

Due to the problems with the work discipline the workers decided on a catalogue of sanctions. Whoever comes late often or stays away from work un-excused or does not appear at their workplace after punching in has to expect wage reductions. The catalogue is displayed as a threat in a showcase but so far it has not been put into action. But there have been suspensions because of threatening other comrades.

Cepillo who has been elected as one of the main coordinators for the production tells that he is put into a hierarchical position. He spends a lot of time running through the factory trying to mediate in conflicts and disagreements in order to settle them before they become a big problem and a question of sanctions. At the production lines despite all rank-and-file democracy there is still talk and complaint about 'those up there'.

Mario: Every now and then I have my little problems with those up there, with the union officials. Not with the comrades here in the department and there are also no problems with the coordinators. They are comrades, as well, they work next to you in the department. But the union officials are different, they do a different job. And there are some... but they are fortunately not all, they are only a minority. They proposed themselves that an official who does not work well can simply be recalled by the assembly. But that has not happened yet. Such a case has never been debated at an assembly. In my opinion this has to be debated.

Theoretically everyone has the opportunity to voice all criticisms and proposals in the assembly. But even in an occupied factory, there are some annoyances that people complain about in small circles. Here too, a certain self-confidence is required to raise unpleasant issues in the assemblies.

Fredy: If I have a criticism I can go and explain it, but there is also a difficult side to it. It´s not all rosy here, as we often say. If I go and criticise, it could trigger an argument. Yesterday at the meeting we talked about a particular problem and a comrade said to me: “If the problem has already existed for two months, why did you not come earlier, we could have dealt with it a long time ago”. And I tell him: “No, the whole story is quite different”, then the argument starts, because I called a spade a spade. If you talk openly it can trigger arguments. But you cannot shut up either, because then everything might end up messy.

The beginning of the year was relatively calm at Zanon. During the time before the renewed eviction threat in March 2003 there was not much pressure from the outside and relatively few political actions took place. During this period the internal conflicts gained all the more importance. “I am fed up with listening to everybody moaning that the other shift works too little or does not clean things after work”, tells Cepillo annoyed after one of his tours through the factory. Again and again this kind of arguments had to be settled in the assemblies.

The dynamic of the occupation, which makes it a progressive political project, is less due to the fact that people work self-managed without bosses, but to the fact that the factory became a focus point of the movement. As soon as the movement looses drive, the annoyances of daily working life catch up with the comrades at Zanon. The self-management of such problems is tiring. Some comrades would rather hand over the whole responsibility again, particularly facing the reality that as a small minority in Argentina they are under constant threat.

Eugenio: If you ask me about the future... I want that everything will sort itself out, that the boss, the owner, comes back and gets things running again. I want that we do not depend on the sales of tiles any more in order to get our wage. That I can hand over these worries. Today we worry double. Previously you only took care of your family, today you have to take care of the company, as well, that it runs and that you can take back something to your family. You have these double worries on your mind.

Mario: It would be good if there was a solution – does not matter if with Zanon, another owner or the government – mainly that we only have to deal with things that we know how to do, with work. That more qualified people than us do the management. Apart from the fact that we managed quite well ourselves.

Eugenio: Yes, but you get tired, as well. It is such a long struggle and we still continue struggling. The wheel turns more slowly. If you had asked me the question when the wheel was turning full gear I would have answered: Bosses, piss off, we manage well here, we earn our wage. But after things developed so slowly here, it is a little bit tiresome.

Mario: They just would not let us produce and sell in peace. There is always someone placing obstacles in our way, be it Zanon or the government. They will never let us simply continue. That is how I see it. Although it would be great if we could continue working like we do work now. But they will not let us. They do not like it, all the changes. If we would have a better unity, if more factories would join the movement, if it all would gain power then things would become possible. But that is not easy, we are only few.

Short after these conversations the next action for possession is remitted against the workers of Zanon. A lot of comrades struggle hard with the constant insecurity. They cannot make long-term plans or financial decisions. The struggle demands big personal efforts: some married couples broke up over it. Nevertheless the comrades at Zanon are convinced that they are doing the right thing and are determined to defend their project.

Delia: None of us will simply accept being sent home. Whoever makes the decision to kick us out should know that we will not go just like that. They will have to get us out, and all the costs...

Fredy: Here are a lot of people willing to defend their work-place. It would be good if we would all be here if something happens. But I hope that it will not happen, otherwise it could have very bad consequences. Many are ready to sacrifice their life in order to defend their project. It is not about the material loss, but about the dignity.

The Zanon workers have already proved that if necessary they are ready to defend their factory with counter-violence. The last time was in October 2002 when former Zanon workers who were active in the old union bureaucracy and who have always been and still are on the side of the owner, attacked the factory together with paid kids from the suburbs, trying to re-conquer it. The workers secured themselves and the factory behind barricades of pallets of tiles and the aggressors were driven away by sling-shots and a sortie of the MTD. After that the slings became a part of the common working clothes for a while. The munition is self-produced: stone pebbles rotated in the earth mills ground down to marbles – the famous white marbles which became a popular souvenir for visitors to the factory. In mid-March 2003 a new sentence concerning Zanon was passed which allows the liquidator the re-appropriation of the factory. The comrades started the mobilisation against the eviction immediately. Three buses full of supporters from Buenos Aires arrived for a day of action on the 29th of March. The supporters are lead by the “Mothers” (Madres de Plaza de Mayo), and their chair woman Hebe Bonafini. She declares that in case of eviction she will be inside the factory herself in order to defend it. The CTA, one of the three bureaucratic union umbrella organisation, announces that it will call for a general strike in the region against the eviction.

(Raul Godoy and Alejandro Lopez, Zanon worker and chairman of the union SOECN, 8th of April 2003 in front of the factory)

“We want more...”
For a long time the struggle at Zanon has been about more than securing work-places. In this factory a different society is discussed, the comrades fight for it and take first steps in this direction. The aim of production is supposed to be not profit, but useful goods and a better life for everyone. Regularly the Zanon workers donate a part of the production for schools, hospitals, communal kitchens and social projects. This is also a way to thank the solidarity the Zanon workers received. In the initial phase of the struggle even the inmates in the neighbouring prison gave a part of their scarce food rations to the Zanon workers, using a human rights organisation as a transmitter. As a sign of gratitude the prison visitors now have a tiled waiting room.

Manotas: We want to give something back to the people, by donating what we produce. Next week we will make a donation for a school for “children with other capabilities”. They need help and we have a comrade here who has a daughter with similar difficulties. May be we can help them out with a tiled floor. But we also want to make sure that other people support them, as well. The government will not give them anything. We also made a donation for the hospital, to give something back after all the solidarity we received from people. For example the solidarity of the nurses and doctors who came here and worked voluntarily. They hitch-hiked to come up here or even came on foot. We will not forget that.

Raul: We understood these fundamental questions as the basis of the struggle, and we understood them at the right moment, when we had to struggle in order to defend the factory. Then we all grasped that we would not be able to do that on our own. It all came from the general solidarity, so we have to offer the factory´s service to the common good. That is why people took the Zanon struggle up as their own struggle.

Everyone here in this factory knows that we cannot achieve anything on our own, that it is a big fight. Some want to go much further, some want to keep the achieved status, others say “this is how far I go”. But everyone knows that it is a thing of the general public and that we have no chance without the general support. Not all have this consciousness, not all think that the unity between unemployed and workers is right, not all think that we have to topple the government, or that we have to build a workers' government. Of course not all think this way, but to all of us it is clear that we have to defend ourselves together.

The Zanon workers are a tiny minority: the 15,000 to 20,000 workers of occupied companies are only a minority amongst the eight million wage workers in Argentina, and the combative faction of Zanon, Brukmann and a few other companies are only a minority within this movement.

Eduardo: On the first anniversary of the 19th/20th (uprising of December 2001) we were about 100,000 people on the streets. But we are 35 Million altogether! The employed working class are eight million, the unemployed are five million – and then only 100,000 on the Plaza de Mayo. And those 100,000 do not have a unified line. Brukmann, MTD, Zanon, the occupied supermarket Tigre and some barrio assemblies and one of the other parties: we only managed to get 2,000 to 3,000 people on the street. This is all difficult, but one way or the other, we have to keep on trying.

The workers did not take part in the uprising of the 19th/20th, they did not feel part of the movement which toppled the De La Rua government, like the middle class or the youth. The middle class said “Basta, it is enough” and started a huge mobilisation which toppled De La Rua. The middle class is the social basis of the Radical Party. The working class is the basis of Peronism and it has not yet broken with Peronism. A stronger movement is necessary to create such kind of rupture. Clashes with the police, finishing off President Duhalde...Recently an old comrade told me during a conversation that in the 70s he had been in a very combative Peronist union. He still sees himself as a Peronist. A few days ago he went to the party office of the Peronists and cursed them for not supporting the Zanon struggle. He called them son of bitches and left. Although he sees himself as a Peronist, he curses the party. A rupture would mean that he would not see himself as a Peronist any more, that we get rid off the stuff that Peronism had put in our heads. The youth does not have this problem, but the working class has.

The comrades of Zanon try to make their actions become a starting point of a broader movement. In Neuquén there is already the regional coordination Coordinadora Regional del Alto Valle, an alliance of occupied companies, unemployed, oppositional workers, social movements, left groups and parties. Similar coordinating initiatives exist on a country-wide level. These are first signs of a growing power which is able to go beyond experimenting with self-management in marginalised areas, and to attack the capital relation.

Eduardo: We see ourselves in a historical process, not only the fact that we do normal jobs under self-management. We are workers of Zanon, we are part of the MTD, to be able to be here, to work here, to go to the demonstrations, to be part of it all, for me that is it... I know that I am part of history in the making. It does not matter if we lose or if we win, we want to make sure that the people who come after us will know: that is what the Zanon workers did. They won the support of the people, they demanded disclosure of the companies balance sheet, they occupied the factory and made it run, they created jobs. Like the comrade Lopez said on the Plaza de Mayo: We show on a small scale that we can self-manage the factory, why should workers not be able to run the country. These are words of a comrade who is not active in any party.

Raul: We are optimistic because although we are only a small group we have inspired a lot of people, we have been received with respect, we were supported. Our message is not: occupy the factories and make them run like we did, because other people might think that it would be too difficult for them. We propose that we start organising ourselves, that we create a network. We want to put across that things are possible, that we have to start to conquer the space for it. Like the half hour break which we enforced at the beginning: let us start to enforce things like that. Once we create a space for democracy the comrades themselves will say how things should proceed. But we have to start conquering the space for autonomy, for our own decisions. There is a lot of work ahead of us. You have to expand it, it will not happen automatically. The rest is done by the social conditions. It is not that a small group starts and bit by bit it grows and grows. There are spontaneous uprisings where new things are created. We have to be prepared.

Eduardo: After the uprising of the 19th/20th something big happened in Argentina. I was really impressed. I was in Buenos Aires during these two days. Also afterwards, during the big mobilisation which toppled Rodriguez Saa. I think these incidents really changed the consciousness of people, although now the situation is rather calm. Amongst the youth a lot has changed. I am very optimistic for the future. Since the 19th/20th it is not like it was before, when they called us the Generation X, which only watches telly and is only interested in consuming and becoming famous. I was in Buenos Aires, at a meeting of 170 young people, the initiation of the movement No Pasaran. There were youth of left parties, independent youth, a-level students, guys who had just met, who have a rock-band, who came together because they are rebellious. They were politicised. In the heart of the uprising an enormous politicisation took place. They wanted to do something. After the meeting they set off and made leaflets, they went on-line, they wanted to reach out to the youth, to the thousands of youth in the barrios, in the schools in the factories. Now it is the war (in Iraq), which is the really big issue for young people.

We defend the occupied factories, Zanon and Brukmann are the avant-garde amongst the occupied companies. If we do not manage to reach the other workers, all this will not have a future. The future lies in the hands of those workers on whose heads the union apparatus is still stamping. But the country is in crisis. Those above cannot govern like in former days. And we down here do not want to continue living like in former days. A new 19th/20th has to come, but on a larger scale. It must not result in yet another Duhalde, but in a workers government. This workers government is not yet on the agenda, as many thought. It was not a revolution. It was a kind of preparation. Something that tells you that something bigger is in the making. I am 28 years old and I am sure that I will witness much bigger movements – apart from the fact that I am already now with Zanon. In the future there will be big upheavals, Latin America is on this path.

Class Struggles in Argentina
Argentina has a long history of workers struggles. At the end of the 19th century immigrants from Europe brought anarchist and socialist ideas with them and founded the first unions in Latin America at the Rio de la Plata. But Argentina also has a long tradition of dictatorships and state massacres. A particularly Argentinian phenomena is Peronism, named after the military leader Peron, who came to power after a coup in 1943 and was elected three years later. With a mixture of nationalism and clever welfare politics he and his wife Evita became idols of workers and the poor. He managed to integrate the workers movement into the state and to transform the unions into corrupt bureaucratic apparatuses. At the end of the sixties workers rebelled against the union apparatus and the dictator. In 1969 an uprising of workers and students against the dictator Ongania took place in the industrial town of Cordoba. In the following years workers organised wildcat strikes and factory occupations. They enforced assemblies and rank-and-file democracy. Forty per cent of the big industrial companies were still state owned. Therefore the workers struggles immediately got a political dimension. In the streets students and workers fought together, “Neither coup, nor election – Revolution!” , was the slogan of the union at FIAT, which has been taken over by worker activists. Several guerilla groups appeared, amongst others the left-Peronist group Montoneros. Peronism had been criminalised in 1955. Now Peronism was supposed to help the state out of its difficult situation: Peron was brought back from exile. Nearly one million people greeted him at the airport. The right-wing Peronists carried out a massacre amongst the Montoneros, on the pretext that they had planned the assassination of Peron. Peron was re-elected in 1973 and immediately started to criminalise and persecute the left. Peron died in 1974, in March 1976 another military coup took place and the most brutal dictatorship in Latin America began. Between 1976 and 1983 the military made 30,000 people 'disappear'. Most of the victims were workers who were active politically or in unions. The shadows of the dictatorship are still acute in Argentina today, perceptible as widespread fear. Initially the military had the support of the middle class which hoped for a stabilisation of the national situation and an economic upturn. There was hardly any protest against the frequent arrests. “They will have got involved in something”, was the general excuse. Under the rule of the military a small circle got really rich, but a broader economic boom did not take off, so the trust in the dictatorship diminished. The military tried to save their image by starting the Falkland-War against Britain in 1982, over the Malwin-Islands. The attempt failed, the resistance of the people grew and in October 1982 the military allowed elections again.

The MNER demanded a trust fund to be set up and a change to the bankruptcy laws, in order to give these legal processes of expropriation an institutionalised framework. The MNER is supported by groups within the church, by fractions within the stateist union bureaucracy, by Peronists and centre-left parties. Given the character of these forces the suspicion that the main aim of their support is to prevent the movement from leaving the boundaries of legality, does not seem out of the blue. Their suggestion to the workers of the occupied companies is to legalise their status as cooperatives and to aim for “realistic solutions”.

Raul: The MNER is a mixture of unions, of deals with the government and a lot of sacrifice – from the side of the workers not from those in leadership. As more companies got occupied the government started a policy which was meant to curb this tendency. Suddenly a whole apparatus was unleashed from above comprising of judges, members of parliament, civil servants and lawyers. They try to handle the question of the occupied companies in the same way as they try to domesticate the workers movement using the union bureaucracy, or the piqueteros by negotiating with some of them and creating a piquetero-bureaucracy. They try to create a bureaucracy which is willing to negotiate and is distant from the workers. The MNER more or less fulfils this function. At the beginning when the MNER's character was not that clear, we suggested common meetings. But they did not want to join up with rebels who created chaos. They rather rely on the legal path. Although they talk a lot about struggle, their actual practise looks different. Most of the companies have been occupied out of an emergency situation. There was no previous plan to do it. In most of the cases no organised people or comrades with a clear vision were involved. They acted spontaneously, out of necessity and anger. The next day they did not know what to do, for example if they are supposed to hand in a claim to the department of employment. Often the first reaction of workers in such a situation is to go to a lawyer. And if there is a lawyer with a visiting card who tells them that he would be there for them if any problem turns up... They provide a whole apparatus who very much takes care of all issues. Nevertheless there are a lot of comrades who belong to the MNER, but who individually or as a group take part in our meetings. They do not leave the MNER, but they are aware of the fact that we have to lead the struggle together. Cooperative or not, we are all dependent on the market. You have to face the competitors, you have to lower wages, cut costs, you become a competitor of the other workers. This is why we demand nationalisation, not because we think that the state is something nice. This is a state of the employers, a capitalist state, a repressive apparatus against workers and people, but we say that it should guarantee the basic conditions for production so that we can continue working and organise ourselves – exactly in order to destroy this state and create a different one.

Zanon and some other occupied companies demand “nationalisation under workers control” instead of building cooperatives. They neither want to become employers nor employees of the state. They demand from the state the provision of a general set-up: the state is supposed to finally expropriate building, machines and patents without the workers having to pay compensation, to hand the company over to the workers in order to enable them to produce socially sensible goods under self-management. They do not want to buy the means of production. The state is supposed to provide them and otherwise keep out of it given that the workers themselves know how to handle the production. The propagated production of “goods for the common interest” is more than a moral demand. If the state would guarantee the purchase of products for public projects the pressure of market competition would at least be lessened. Under the pressure of the general situation the workers of the textile factory Brukmann finally decided to form the “Cooperative of the 18th of December”, named after the date of the occupation, one day before the general uprising. Over Easter 2003 they were evicted. Since then the factory in the barrio Once, right in the centre of Buenos Aires, has been fenced of with metal barriers and put under constant police surveillance. The attempt to re-occupy the factory ended up in street fights. After this failed attempt the workers installed a strike tent on the street in front of the factory. They stayed their during the whole Argentinian winter and protested in various forms for the hand-over of the factory. At the same time they were engaged in a legal process against Brukmann, aiming at expropriation. The expropriation was tied to two preconditions: the workers had to form a cooperative and the company Brukmann had to be declared bankrupt. Both things happened and on the 30th of October 2003 the town parliament of Buenos Aires decided to expropriate Brukmann After the workers of Brukmann had refused this kind of legalisation for a long time and proposed more radical projects, it is on one hand quite a huge concession that one of the most famous exponents of factories “under workers control” now has finally become a cooperative. On the other hand it is a big success that after such a long time the workers managed to go back into the highly symbolic factory in the town centre of the capital. They did not let themselves be pushed into the outskirts and they can continue their project together. Without their tenacious actions this would not have been possible, but they would not have been able to continue sitting in the strike tent for an indefinite period of time, living on donations. Some kind of solutions had to be found an there was enormous rejoicing after the decision of the parliament, although the comrades surely know that this is no “solution”. The legal form which the individual company takes is surely less important for the future of the movement than the question of its potential to spread. Will the self-managed companies remain isolated, will they remain islands or will they form part of a wider (international) movement which is able to question private property and the relations of production fundamentally? The question whether the occupied factories will at some time enter the history books as a nice episode or whether they will actually be the starting point of something new, does not solely depend on the developments in Argentina. In any case, the workers have already won something: the experience which they make during the occupation cannot be taken away from them and we can learn a lot from them.

Julian: I think the most important thing that we have demonstrated is the fact that it is possible. They have always discriminated against us. They have always said that a worker is not able to do anything else but work. We have proven that we can handle anything ourselves once we work together. It all started with the struggle for our jobs, for a dignified way to work instead of miserable social benefits. And this should be clear to other workers: that the struggle against the loss of jobs does not have to be a meaningless and insignificant struggle. This message is independent from the question of how the struggle at Zanon will end. The struggle could have various outcomes: may be the owner will return, may be he will sell the factory, a lot of things might happen. But our aim is clear: we want to offer the factory to the service for the common interest, we want to produce in a way which improves life for everyone. Sometimes I imagine how it would be if there were a lot of Zanons, in this country and anywhere else. That would be a completely different reality, we would all think about everyone, no matter if we are ten streets away from each other, ten kilometres or ten thousand kilometres...

Timeline
1980 Opening of the ceramics factory, Zanon in Neuquén.

1983 End of the military dictatorship in Argentina.

1993 Advanced technology introduced in Zanon with the new porcelain line.

1996 Uprising in Cutral Co, Neuquén province, against the Privatisation of the oil company YPF.

Beginning of the piquetes, the street blockades as a form of action of the unemployed.

October 1998 at Zanon the opposition list candidate Marrón took over the works council (Comisión Interna).

July 2000 The death of Zanon worker Daniel Ferrás due to missing medical equipment in the factory. The ‘nine day strike’ enforced the reintroduction of the medical services.

December 2000 The opposition list took over the leadership (Comisión Directiva) of the union SOECN.

January 2001 Six day strike over unpaid wages

March 2001 In response to the complaints of financial crisis by Zanon, the workers demanded the open publication of the accounts sheets.

April / May 2001 The 34 day strike over outstanding wages, after the company and provincial government’s commitment to pay the overdue wages.

June – September 2001 wages outstanding, work stoppages, state substitution of overdue wages.

September 2001 Zanon begins to shut down sections of the factory.

October 2001 Occupation of the factory. The self organisation of production is stopped by the blockage of the gas supply.

November 2001 Judgement against Zanon management over the earlier lockout. The workers get stored produce as compensation for unpaid wages.

28 November 2001 Zanon sends dismissal notices to the entire workforce.

30 November 2001 Demonstration to the government, with heavy confrontations and arrests. The release of the arrested workers after a further demonstration on the same day.

December 2001 Tile sales begin at the factory gates.

19 December 2001 The Zanon workers donate tiles for the local hospital in Centenario. The tiles were laid by the unemployed workers of the MTD.

19 and 20 December 2001 Uprising in Argentina

January 2002 The proposal by Zanon to reopen the factory with a workforce of only 62 workers and with a cut in wages was refused by the workers.

27 February 2002 The workers assembly decides to take over the production with an equal wage of 800 pesos for everyone. They divide themselves into three shifts and form commotions for press, publicity, sales, buying, legal, security, production, planning and work security.

March 2002 The production starts again under workers control. The Mapuche offer the Zanon workers the clay from their land as raw material.

April 2002 First meeting with the occupied Brukmann factory in Buenos Aires. First edition of the common workers' newspaper ‘Nuestra Lucha’ (Our Struggle).

May 2002 First eviction attempt. The court permits the bankruptcy commission the seizure of the factory. The workers do no let them in.

June 2002 After a new Obrero (worker) line of tiles the Zanon workers bring out the Mapuche series, four models which they have developed in cooperation with the Mapuch community have called Mapuch-struggle Kalfukura, Meripan, Lexfaru and Puran.

26 June 2002 The Avellaneda massacre: After a blockade of a bridge in Buenos Aires by unemployed organisations the police shot two piqueteros Maximiliano Kosteki and Darío Santillán the the Avellaneda train station.

August 2002 Twenty members of the unemployed organisation, MTD Neuquén begin working at Zanon. Two eviction attempts. First meeting of the Coordinadora Regional of the Alto Valle.

September 2002 Second meeting with the occupied factories of Brukmann

October 2002 Third eviction attempt by the former company union with help from hired youths. Application for expropriation and nationalisation by Zanon.

February 2003 Thirty new workplaces in the occupied factory.

March 2003 New eviction threats via a new legal judgement. Days of action in the factory and in Neuquén, with the support of a caravan from Buenos Aires with the ‘Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo’. Third meeting with the occupied factory in Rosario.

8 April 2003 The forth, and up to now last, eviction attempt is resisted.

June 2003 The production has risen to 120 000 m2 per month. Which is 15% of the total factory capacity and 50% of the production before the owners left the factory.

From prol-position news #6 | 7/2006