John Ralston Saul was interviewed on the 7.30 report tonight on ABC. He was speaking on issues of globalisation, in the interview he referred to ‘the issues of Argentina’. What happened in Argentina was…well us! We happened – the West. Globalisation was embraced, not bit by bit but kind of overnight. They opened their doors to the west, to our multi-nationals, to concepts of privatisation all in one foul swoop.
How did this experiment go?
Well this is the point of this post.
I managed to fit a movie into my life today. I had a meeting delay at the last minute in Leederville, I had no car so I was stuck for 21/2 hours. I made some calls, sent some SMS’s and finally ended up in the Luna watching a movie called “The Take”.
A story about how these people of Argentina lost their jobs in factories and work places but later returned to take back these same factories. They fought their way back into their work places. They created co-ops, in most cases everyone was paid the same wages. They did away with leadership structures that employed power structures, they had different tasks but equal levels. No more ‘bosses’.
This experiment was met with much criticism by former factory owners, and at it’s worst people were banned from coming to work with police lines. The producers (Naomi Klein of ‘No Logo’ fame and her Husband) at one point were caught up in a massive riot with a bunch of women workers and supporters wanting to get back into their clothing factory to get back to the sewing machines. Tear gas, rocks, water cannons – it was FULL ON!
If you liked any of Michael Moore’s stuff, you will enjoy this – it’s better!
No Guarantees 