Argentina: Workers' Power
10 minutes, 2003
Ref: 334

On April 27, Argentina will vote in a presidential election, with voters looking for a candidate to lead the country out of economic collapse. Much of the country's manufacturing industry was bankrupted during the 1990s by a flood of cheap imports, and many factories now stand derelict. But recently some bankrupt industries have reopened as cooperatives, after their workers seized the buildings and machinery, and prevented creditors from selling them. In some cases they have received support from an unexpected quarter - judges who ruled in favour of the workers, after politicians changed the law in their favour. An estimated 10,000 people are now working in the "recovered industries" sector, and leftwing politicians hope that the movement is sowing the seeds of a new society. We travelled to Argentina to see the Worker’s Power in progress.