Support the Argentinian Workers Movement - Petition

[kliljedahl]

Just recieved this E-mail. I've recommended before the movie "The take", the story of Argentinian workers to recover their abandoned plants and regain their jobs in worker owned companies. Please sign this petition and support in any way you can. And see "The Take", it's a very moving documentary about what workers can and should do. E-mail text:

***PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!!!***

http://www.petitiononline.com/bauen/petition.html

Dear Friends,

The movements of worker-run businesses in Latin America are growing,
creating dignified democratic jobs in the rubble of neoliberalism’s
ruinous experiments on that continent.

In Caracas recently, the first pan-Latin meeting of recovered companies
was a tremendous success, with 600 workers from 263 companies in eight
countries taking the first steps to build an alternative trading network
that will deepen and broaden the power of these new social movements.

We are writing you today to ask you to help save one of the most
important sites in this emerging network: the Bauen Hotel in Buenos Aires.

The Bauen is a five star hotel that was abandoned to bankruptcy by its
owners, and has been recovered and is now operated by a cooperative of
its workers. It is also the informal living room/meeting place of the
movement in Argentina, and as such has been targeted by right wing
politicians in the city legislature of Buenos Aires for eviction.

The hotel is now on emergency footing, with eviction possible within days.

At the request of the workers, we’re asking you to sign the petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/bauen/petition.html

Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Michael
Albert, and Avi Lewis have already signed.

You can also send emails to President Nestor Kirchner at
[e-mail]

and Anibal Fernandez, the Minister of the Interior at:
[e-mail].

Below is a sample email in Spanish and English.

Please forward widely and help Save the Bauen Hotel!

Many thanks,

The International Support Campaign for the Workers of the Bauen Hotel

-----------------------
Señor Presidente Néstor Kirchner (o Señor Ministro del Interior Aníbal
Fernandez),

Exigimos que en forma urgente disponga las medidas necesarias para que
cese el ataque a los trabajadores que recuperaron el Hotel Bauen y se
apruebe una ley definitiva y permanente que los consagre como lo que
son: sus legítimos dueños.

Saluda atentamente,
Tu nombre

----
Dear President Nestor Kirchner (or Minister of the Interior Anibal
Fernandez),

We demand that you immediately take all necessary measures to stop the
attack on the workers who have recovered the Bauen Hotel and pass a
definitive and permanent law that recognizes them for what they are: the
rightful owners.

Sincerely,
Your name

------------------------------------------------------

Queridos amigos,

En Latinoamérica, los movimientos de empresas gestionadas por sus trabajadores están creciendo, creando puestos de trabajo digno y democrático en medio de los escombros de los ruinosos experimentos del neoliberalismo en ese continente.

En Caracas, el primer encuentro latinoamericano de empresas recuperadas, llevado a cabo recientemente, fue un éxito fabuloso, con 600 trabajadores de 263 empresas en ocho países dando los primeros pasos para construir una red de comercio alternativo que profundice y amplíe el poder de estos nuevos movimientos sociales.

Hoy les escribimos para pedirles su ayuda para salvar a uno de los sitios más importantes de esta red naciente: el Hotel Bauen, en Buenos Aires.

El Bauen es un hotel cinco estrellas que fue abandonado en bancarrota por sus dueños, y fue recuperado y que ahora está siendo gestionado por una cooperativa de sus trabajadores. También es el lugar de encuentro informal del movimiento en Argentina, y como tal ha sido atacado por políticos de la derecha en la legislatura de la ciudad de Buenos Aires para que sea desalojado.

El hotel está ahora en estado de emergencia, con la posibilidad de ser desalojado en cuestión de días.

A pedido de los trabajadores, estamos pidiéndoles que firmen este petitorio:
<http://www.petitiononline.com/bauen/petition.html>;

Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Michael Albert y Avi Lewis ya lo han firmado.

También pueden enviar correos electrónicos al Presidente Néstor Kirchner a:
<[e-mail]>

y al Ministro del Interior Aníbal Fernández a:
<[e-mail]>

Abajo encontrarán una carta modelo.

Por favor circular a todos sus contactos para ayudar a ¡Salvar al Hotel Bauen!

Muchas gracias,

Campaña Internacional de Apoyo a los Trabajadores del Hotel Bauen

------------------------------

Señor Presidente Néstor Kirchner (o Señor Ministro del Interior Aníbal Fernandez),

Exigimos que en forma urgente disponga las medidas necesarias para que cese el ataque a los trabajadores que recuperaron el Hotel Bauen y se apruebe una ley definitiva y permanente que los consagre como lo que son: sus legítimos dueños.

Saluda atentamente,
Tu nombre

[Wilms]

1. Done. Kick. n/t

[kliljedahl]

2. Text of the petition

To: The President of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner
(Para texto en español ver abajo)

The struggle of Argentinian workers to recover factories and companies abandoned by their owners has become an inspiring model worldwide, and an important symbol that another world is possible. The Bauen Hotel is a concrete example. Its future and significance were recently recognized by the government of Venezuela, with an agreement signed with the Ministry of Tourism and the National Ministry of Popular Economy to work together in the development of a cooperative tourism venture. At the Bauen Hotel there are 120 men and women who every day demonstrate how to build self-managed alternatives that create jobs, dignity and justice where neoliberalism has resulted in devastating failure.

Following a fraudulent bankruptcy and after exhausting all legal paths for a year and a half, they decided to take their futures into their own hands and they built what we can see today: a fully functioning hotel with a restaurant, bookstore and cultural galleries, along with spaces that they lend to social organizations for meetings, conferences and assemblies. If you want to demonstrate your pride in a symbol of the movement right in the centre of Buenos Aires, all you have to do is let the Bauen Hotel continue to operate the way its workers, with efficiency and solidarity, have planned it.

But if you want to attack everything that this movement of recovered factories and companies represents, Hotel Bauen is a target.

Over the last few months, Hotel Bauen has been through various attempts to close it down. Now, some legislators in the city of Buenos Aires want to introduce a regulation that will destroy what the workers’ cooperative has achieved. We, the undersigned, call on the Argentinian government and its legislators to act immediately to carry out the following measures:

1. Withdraw all threats of eviction or closure from the Bauen Hotel both now and in the future.

2. Pass a law of definitive expropriation in favour of the Workplace Cooperative B.A.U.E.N. (Buenos Aires a National Company, from the Spanish initials).

Social movements around the world are watching the struggle of the Bauen Hotel workers with great interest and passionate support. This highly successful alternative should not be destroyed or threatened: it should be celebrated, supported, and shared with others!

[kliljedahl]

3. Doesn't anyone here give a shit?

[kliljedahl]

6. Kick again

[Selatius]

4. Sounds like anarcho-socialism or libertarian socialism

When the owners abandoned the equipment and the factories and fired off the workers because they no longer were considered profitable, the workers took over the rusting factories and broken equipment, revived them, and used them to benefit each other instead of benefiting the owner, their former master.

[kliljedahl]

5. Exactly, and it's working