Today was a very full day. We left the hotel at 9:00 and headed to the subway. Apparently there had been a stoppage on the D line (it happens all the time) and so the subways were unbelievably crowded, to the extent that you start to wonder if there is enough room for your lungs to expand so that you can keep breathing. Everyone survived.
Our destination this morning was a metal factory called IMPA, which is perhaps the oldest "recuperated factory" in Argentina. (http://www.impalafabrica.org.ar/) In 1998, it was closed by the owners, and the workers occupied the factory, took over, and kept the production lines going. For 13 years the workers have been running the factory themselves. In a large space on the second floor of the factory, they have created a cultural center, a performance space, and space for meetings and lectures and "charlas." They have regular performances of dance and music, and discussions of political and social issues. They have also started a school, which now teaches 200 children as well as adults who never had the chance to complete primary school. The school is run by volunteers but is recognized by the government and accredited.
IMPA is in the Almagro neighborhood, and it's a huge building where they make mostly aluminum products, as well as some plastics. We saw them make aluminum tubes, the kind you'd use for glue or paint, as well as very thin foil that covers champagne bottles or alfajores (the traditional Argentina cookie with chocolate and dulce de leche). We watched the workers do their jobs, some of which looked very dangerous (cutting the aluminum with huge machines, breathing the aluminum dust). The factory is at least half empty, as they don't have enough orders at the moment, and they don't have enough money to buy new machinery or raw materials. We sat down with two men from the cooperative and heard the whole history and current debates.
After IMPA, we took the subway to Congreso and ate lunch at a Peruvian restaurant. It was so delicious I forgot to take any pictures. Then we rushed over for a tour of the Congress. It is an imposing building (top photo above) with incredible stained glass, marble everywhere, and hand-carved furniture and woodwork. We sat in the Chamber of Deputies (House of Representatives) and learned how their voting system works. We saw the original library of Congress, which is now a reading room and research library for legislators and their staff.
From there we walked to Hotel BAUEN, which is another worker self-managed business. The hotel has an infamous past, as the place where the military dictators used to house their friends. They kept it open under huge debts through the 1970s and 80s. Finally it closed during the economic crisis, and in 2003 the workers decided to go back in (literally) and take over the hotel. They succeeded, and over a period of three years they attracted enough investment that they were able to open for business. The hotel now employs 170 workers, with no boss. It operates illegally -- like IMPA, Hotel BAUEN has been served with eviction notices, because the workers do not own the hotel nor have legal rights to it. But because of their strong political support, both cooperatives continue to survive and stay put. Salaries are not high, but they are able to pay the workers. The building looks lovely, including a bustling cafe on the first floor and many meeting rooms that they allow different activist organizations to use. The hotel workers have also started a school just this year, after realizing that many of the workers never finished elementary school, and some could not read or write. Like IMPA, Hotel BAUEN sees itself as very much a community cultural center as well as a self-managed cooperative business.
In the hotel, we had such an interesting discussion with Marie Trigona, who has written extensively about the recuperated factory movement in Argentina. She showed us clips from three movies made by a collective that she has joined, about the history and current social movements. We talked for over two hours about the hotel, and about other factories, and what is happening with the movement. It's too much to discuss here, and we were all wiped out by the end of the day, but the conversation will continue as we visit more places later this week...
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