3 March, 2010 — Solidarityeconomy.net
[Note from CarlD: Following are two articles on what debates break out when workers occupy or take ownership of factories. The first is from a single case in Brazil, the second from an earlier regionwide meeting on the topic in Venezuela. I think these are examples of the unity and tension in what Gramsci called ‘wars of position’ and ‘wars on maneuver’. The solidarity economy concept is both supported and contested.]
Workers from Occupied ‘Flasko’ Factory Repond to Brazil’s President Lula
On 12/01/2010 President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said publicly in his weekly column “The President replies”, a question of journalism student (Camila Delmondes) on the struggle of the workers occupied the factory Flaskô.
The response given (which can be read http://imprensa.planalto.gov.br/download/Informe_da_Hora/PRR120110.doc) believe it is essential that the workers’ management of Flaskô respond to Squid and the entire working class which was said the President. First of all, it is worth noting that since 12 June 2003 when we occupied the factory and resumed production to ensure our jobs, we await a response from the President. During these seven years almost non stop fighting for the maintenance of Flaskô open under the control of workers and always demanded that the federal government.
1. We caravan to Mexico City to require the president to defend the right to work of workers of Flaskô, but so far nothing.
2. We’ve been several times in recent years, especially in 2009 with the Ministry of Labour (with the previous Minister Lupi), the Ministry of Welfare, the Ministry of Finance, with BNDES, the Civil Cabinet, the Ministry of Institutional Relations, Attorney in the National Treasury, as Chairman of the INSS, the National Secretariat for Solidarity Economy (SENAES), but the poll workers was not complied with.
3. In 2009, we conducted a hearing in the House of Deputies in Brasilia, in which Paul Singer (President of SENAES), representing the federal government and the presence of several lawmakers and more than 200 employees, said he did not know what to do about Flaskô, but that the government was committed to the struggle of workers for jobs.
4. Each time we went to Brasilia, in each of the scheduled meetings, formal protocol requests for help, clarifications, explanations, proposals, etc.. But so far nothing has been done.
5. With the testimony of a delegation of 100 workers on November 10, 2009 filed, again, a letter requesting a meeting with President Lula to seek a solution to the flask.
6. We tried to reach the presidency, and although they have been sent more than seven thousand postcards by workers from all over Brazil at the end of 2009, containing the meeting request, again were not met. Reported that the responsibility on the issue would be the Ministry of Labour and we sought that court. That is, the maximum that the federal government has done is pass the buck to the Ministry of Labour (and did it, as we explain, even with the support of the Central Workers Union). This response protocol given on November 22, through a fax, demonstrates that the letter was not read or, as we said a week ago we had been meeting with the Ministry of Labour and SENA (who even met with a representative Flaskô’s headquarters, and the presence at the hearing mentioned), and said they did not know what to do, but that still would agree with some referrals. Finally, they were only on the promise, back to “square one” with this “play to and fro, leaving workers adrift.
7. Thus, it is true that we had not received any official response from the President, until we were surprised with a public response in his weekly column (“The President Responds”), and circulates in more than 175 newspapers in the country, beyond the page Internet’s own Plateau Government.
Well, those remarks about the workers Flaskô, which were widely publicized just coming to our attention, but not the form and content that we asked. Consider:
The student Camila question directly to the President if it is possible the nationalization of factories to save jobs. She says
“There are many workers who struggle for nationalization of factories that went bankrupt. This applies to employees of Flaskô of Sumaré / SP. It is possible this achievement in our country?”
Firstly it is necessary to give some historical and factual to start the discussion. Let them:
We occupy the Flaskô on June 12, 2003, after a meeting held with the workers of Cipla and Interfibra who had occupied these facilities in October 2002 in Joinville, and returned from Mexico City after meeting the day before the president himself. The goal of the occupation and the meeting was to save our jobs, since three months ago the factory was abandoned by their employers, without operation and with more than four years without entitlements such as wages, retirement fund and Social Security. The conclusion of this meeting was the President’s commitment to finding a solution that would save all the jobs in the occupied factories. The president said the nationalization was not “on the menu, but that would be a committee of the ministry to review and to make an exit”.
We kept organized and producing while waiting the response of our president. Again and again charge official answers. We caravan to Mexico City to collect the solution, and more than that, we began an important experience that led to the conclusion on the need to defend all jobs and duties and industrial park that was still being attacked. Hopeful that our worker president would change the course of our history of 500 years of oppression and exploitation continue to produce and fight for our jobs.
In February 2005, by meeting with the Minister Luiz Dulci, a committee was formed of experts from BNDES, BRDE BADESC and to study the viability of enterprises. The report to the President states that “enterprises are viable” and directs that “their claims are transformed into actions, which would be put as BNDES capitalization and one of the agents of State Development, or BRDE BADESC” (excerpts from the opinion of BNDES).
We put the plant in full operation, increasing production and sales, taking up hundreds of customers and suppliers. More than that, not only guarantee the jobs and generate new jobs, and organize production in order to reduce working hours to 40 hours initially, and since April 2007 to 30 hours, showing that workers can run the factory better than the bosses parasite. In addition, an organized according to the Labour Court, where we pay 1% of monthly turnover of factory labour to pay off debts left by employer management, showing that only workers helping workers, causing hundreds of former workers to receive their rights, because the factory remains open and the revenue guarantee payment of entitlements once lost (the same application – based on Article 28 of the Law Enforcement Tax – the tax authorities do, knowing that 80% of the debt is Flaskô with the State . But, as we shall see, it was accepted today).
However, suffered more than 200 threats of withdrawal of machines, through auctions wishing to pay off debts left by their employers. In all areas where we explained that the previous owners have properties capable of enforcing such debts. Thus it was necessary to check the goods and allow workers Flaskô merely follow working as proposed. This can be done through deconstitution legal personality and the grant of powers to the management of workers. However, the government acts to the contrary. If the auctions were not enough and not acceptance of the unification of foreclosures, more than 250% of the revenues pledged to request the National Treasury. So what happens is that was never adopted any measures toward the maintenance of defence jobs. Currently, if nothing else, the Lula government itself in criminalizing the blame for the debt management employer.
So we ask: how can read the response from the president who does not want to forget the “old bankrupt company? How to read the response from the President that we want to divide society with all the losses from mismanagement of previous owners? No, our position is not that. On the contrary, everyone knows they are government policies that socialize the losses of the bosses (remember the various measures taken by the government during this crisis). We always say that unpaid debts are taxes that serve our people, health, education, safety, housing. We therefore advocate a search for the debt in the vast heritage of the former owners, as provided by the Brazilian legislation.
What we see is an option the government, because what we saw in those seven years were attempts to settle the experiences of workers’ management. The most aggressive of these was the intervention of the Federal Court in Cipla / Interfibra in Joinville-SC, at the request of the INSS and performed by about 150 heavily armed federal police, attacking the management of workers fighting for their jobs, treating us like criminals. What we see is the option to continue threatening us with the auctions and foreclosures billing, criminalizing the social movements and their leaders, blaming the management of workers due to the harm caused by the breach of the employer’s management and inefficiency of governments to fulfil merely the Constitution Federal. What we ask is the law, but to date the option was to adopt the interpretation of the law in favour of capital, focusing on former employers at the expense of workers.
Despite these facts, it is clarified another aspect of the President’s reply, saying that “the workers demand the nationalization, staying with the old bankrupt company. For me, nationalize means to share with all of society damages for the mismanagement of the former owners. “It is necessary to point out some recent facts to clarify who want to split the damage from the bosses. Consider, and make its conclusions:
1. Lula authorized the Federal Savings Bank to socialize the debt of the group Silvio Santos, buying 49% stake in “Banco Panamericano”. Keeping control with the old bosses that administered during all these years. This nationalization is good? For whom? Or, indeed, it is to socialize the losses?
2. Lula authorized the “Caixa Economica Federal” to buy (for $ 4.2 billion) 50% of the share capital and 49.5% of the voting capital of “Banco Votorantim”, helping to save the Votorantim family. And even with half the capital remained in control in the hands of employers. This nationalization is good for whom? Or, again, the people are who pays the private injury?
3. Lula authorized the BNDES to lend R $ 5 billion network Globo, one of the largest debtors Brazilian INSS. This is not socializing the losses?
4. Lula authorized the BNDES to buy for $ 2 billion 20% of shares of JBS, the largest Refrigerator World, this soon after the announcement of several layoffs and closing of several stores. Credit for the rich people?
5. Claiming equalize recovery procedures with the creation of the Super Net, the government revoked an article from the Social Security Act to prohibit the ownership and distribution of profits when the company was due to the INSS. This is not socializing the losses?
6. Lula signed Law No. 11,945, on June 4, 2009, which exempts companies to present Certificate of Good Standing (CND) for loans and refinancing. That is, to present this document to the federal banks, it is certain that private banks will not accept to put their money at risk, lending money to employers swindlers. But the public banks can lend money to the swindlers of the people. Once again the government attend to the bosses.
The list could go on for many pages. Contrary to the Lula administration has demonstrated, we do not want the workers’ pay the bill “by the economic crisis promoted by employers. Our proposals are very different from those given by the government.
Thus, we can not accept the answer given by Lula, to ignore two key aspects. First, it ignores the entire history of the Movement of Occupied Factories and resistance of workers Flaskô seven years that require government solutions, but only receive negative responses and attacks by government institutions. Moreover, we can not fail to point out the contradictions of the Lula government. A government elected by the working class, but favors the employers, as we have seen with some examples, rather than defend the workers, especially those who struggle against unemployment and the “scum” employers, and workers of Flaskô.
Is also worth mentioning that this answer did not come at any time. At the end of November 2009 we conducted a successful seminar, with several political representation, unions and the community as a real tool for front, and discussed the urgent need to save the Brazilian people. Discussed that the policy of tax exemption, the credit bubbles that are created are only used to prepare a disaster ahead. A true and lasting output, according to the interests of workers is to break with the bosses and take concrete steps to meet the workers. Therefore, we endorse the campaigns for Nationalization of Occupied Factories, Embraer’s re-nationalization, re-nationalization of the railways, re-nationalization of Vale do Rio Doce, Nationalization 100% of Petrobras and the entire pre-salt, as some concrete demands. This is the challenge of entities and organizations of the working class, and a government that says it has aimed to defend the exploited.
For all these reasons, we reaffirm our position that only the nationalization under workers’ control can ensure the continuity of industrial activity and the maintenance of sustainable jobs. However, as we have said in those seven years, and as the BNDES’s own report, made at the request of Lula, we deal with the government and seek solutions. However, what we see is that the government “too much talk and act … much, but against the workers”, as an employee of Flaskô said after read your answer in the newspaper.
We understand that there is still time to save the workers’ struggle of Flaskô. We want to solve the problems. The intransigence of the government has always been that never gave us a real prospect, and use criminal action against the workers themselves. We want dialogue. In this sense, it is worth highlighting a section of the answer: “With our offer of technical assistance and credit, the way will be open for the complete recovery of the company.” For years, we are asking for such help. The last time was the non-receipt of the staff by the president, despite seven years of struggle and the seven thousand postcards sent in late 2009, which called for the meeting. And now the government says so publicly. Great. Now came the reply, saying they can provide advice, we apply it specifically. Let us apply and discuss these proposals. And therefore, we ask again, a meeting with President Lula.
President Lula, you, Sr., was elected by the workers. Mr President, we want your help. We are workers and fought for our jobs. We fight for our dignity and livelihood of our families. We strive to demonstrate that management of workers is more beneficial to the entire population, which meets a real social function. We fight for a free and egalitarian society, and therefore run counter to the employer. And this begins with amnesty for leaders of the occupied factories of the crimes they are blaming us for the debts of the bosses, we immediately send technicians and credits, that will help us to sell our products because our production is used by several state enterprises and other controlled by BNDES.
Long live the struggle of workers Flaskô!
Long live the resistance of the working class!
Sumaré, January 22, 2010.
Pedro Santinho
Coordinator of the Works Council of Flaskô
——————–
First Latin American gathering of worker-recovered factories Written by Jorge Martin in Caracas
Tuesday, 08 November 2005
More than 400 people from 235 worker occupied factories and 20 different national trade union centres participated in the “First Latin American Gathering of Worker Recovered Factories” in Caracas on October 27-29 This was truly a historical meeting, the first time that workers involved in factory occupations in different countries met to discuss their problems, share their experiences and draw political conclusions from their struggle. And such a meeting could only take place in revolutionary Venezuela where it had the support of Chavez’s Bolivarian government. “This is an historical gathering. For the first time workers from occupied factories from across the continent are meeting together” (Serge Goulart, United Workers’ Council of Brazilian group of occupied factories)
“We have shown how the workers can run the companies, and this means we can run society as well” (Ricardo Moreira, PIT-CNT, Uruguay)
More than 400 people from 235 worker occupied factories and 20 different national trade union centres participated in the “First Latin American Gathering of Worker Recovered Factories” in Caracas on October 27-29.
This was truly a historical meeting, the first time that workers involved in factory occupations in different countries met to discuss their problems, share their experiences and draw political conclusions from their struggle. And such a meeting could only take place in revolutionary Venezuela where it had the support of Chavez’s Bolivarian government.
In the opening rally, which took place at the Teresa Carreño Theatre, with 3,000 worker activists present, president Chávez explained how it is capitalism that closes down factories and that these “must be recovered by the workers”. He compared the struggle of the occupied factories movement to the struggle for independence from Spanish rule in the 19th century and underlined the “potential of the workers in our continent to break their chains and leave capitalism behind”. The platform of the rally included a number of Venezuelan ministers, trade union leaders from across the continent and workers from occupied factories (including Edgar Peña, leader of the Invepal workers).
The factory take-overs that are taking place across the continent are part of the struggle for true sovereignty and liberation from the domination of the US, Chávez stressed. But at the same time he made clear that “the people and the workers of the US also have their part to play in this battle”.
Chávez also explained his views regarding the trade union movement and its relationship with the Bolivarian government. He started by greeting the formation of the National Workers’ Union, UNT, but added that the new trade union confederation “is not and should never be an appendix of the government, it must be autonomous and free” from it. The old bureaucratic trade union model of “unions which ended up negotiating behind the workers’ backs, of leaders like those in Venezuela who ended up enriching themselves while negotiating about workers’ lives with the bosses” must be rooted out of the trade union movement.
Chávez proposed the creation of a network of worker-recovered companies so that they could collaborate and exchange experiences. Finally, he announced the expropriation of two more companies, Sideroca, and the Cumanacoa Sugar Mill. This was received with an enthusiastic standing ovation by the 3,000 workers present who shouted “asi, asi, asi es que se gobierna” (“this is the way to rule”). The Sideroca factory in Zulia makes metal pipes for the oil industry and had been abandoned by its owners six years ago. On September 6, a group of former workers and people from the local community had taken over the plant to prevent the owners from taking away the machinery, and since then had been demanding expropriation under workers’ management. The Cumanacoa Sugar Mill in Cumaná, had been running at half its capacity since its privatisation back in 1992, and more recently this situation had worsened to a point where it was operating at 20% capacity. Workers and the local sugar cane producers had demanded expropriation.
Chavez announced that he would sign the expropriation decrees before going to the Mar de Plata summit in Argentina this week. He said others would follow and mentioned the tomato processing plant Caigua in Guarico. This was taken over by the workers on July 7 after a conflict over non-payment of wages, when the workers realised that the owner wanted to sell the raw materials (tomato paste) stored in the plant. Once again, the workers demanded the plant be expropriated and handed over to the workers.
But the president also added that the idea was not to expropriate the companies so that their workers could “become rich overnight”, but rather that production should benefit the community as a whole. Along the same lines, during the “Encuentro”, workers from Caigua declared that: “We do not want to create 57 capitalists, we are on the path to socialism”.
As Serge Goulart said: “this is a president that sides with the workers, not in words, or with statements, but with the concrete facts of these two expropriations”.
Debates on factory occupations
The Encuentro then broke into a number of separate meetings, one for trade union organisations, another for workers from occupied factories and one for members of parliament and government representatives.
There was debate on the forms of property that worker-recovered companies should take. The comrades from the Cipla-Interfibra-Flasko-Flaskepet group of worker-managed companies in Brazil (http://paginas.terra.com.br/noticias/cipla/) insisted on the demand for nationalisation under workers’ control.
Serge Goulart, the coordinator of the United Workers’ Council, was adamant: “We are against the idea of a “solidarity economy”. In fact this would mean turning the workers into capitalists, weakening the working class and, in competing in a capitalist market, they would only succeed by making other factories bankrupt. We are for nationalisation, but nationalisation under workers’ control in order to prevent a new bureaucracy from emerging”. He added that this struggle could only be seen as part of the general struggle for the “nationalisation of the banks and the multinationals in order to plan the economy in the interests of the people”. “There cannot be socialism in one country, even less in a single company!” he said emphatically.
Encuentro Asked about the debate president Chavez has opened up on “socialism of the 21st century”, Serge Goulart replied: “The Venezuelan Revolution is extraordinary in that it confirms what the Marxists had always said. It started as a struggle against imperialism and for national sovereignty. But then we saw the working class entering the scene in the struggle against the sabotage of the oil industry and the revolution went further, as it did with the nationalisation of Venepal on January 19 this year. It started as an anti-imperialist struggle, but it either becomes socialist or it will be crushed. (…) The question will be posed of the nationalisation of the banks and the multinationals and that can only be carried out by the workers”.
Orlando Chirino, National Coordinator of the Venezuelan UNT explained the context in which these factory occupations were taking place: “This is a symptom of the degeneration of capitalism which leads to a process of deregulation, flexibilisation and increased exploitation of the workers. Capitalism no longer plays the progressive role it once played.” The whole process is not without contradictions or difficulties. In the case of Venezuela particularly, most of the workers involved in these occupations have no previous experience of trade union organisation or struggle and they will face many problems. But to Orlando, in order to save jobs and livelihoods, the task of the trade unions is to give this instinctive movement of factory occupations “a conscious expression, with the final aim of socialising the means of production.”
Both Chirino and the trade union representatives of Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company CADAFE, stressed that worker-management was enormously progressive and was “the only way of defeating bureaucratism and corruption which are threatening the Bolivarian Revolution”.
Cooperation agreements
As part of the meeting, representatives from different worker-managed companies gathered to discuss and reach mutually beneficial agreements. They insisted however, that these were not merely commercial agreements, but rather that they were based on different principles of mutual cooperation, transfer of technology, etc.
Among the agreements signed was that between Venezuela and the Cipla-Interfibra-Flasko-Flaskepet group of worker-managed companies in Brazil. On the one hand, the Venezuelan state-owned petrochemical company Pequiven will sale raw materials to Cipla at preferential prices and on the other hand PDVSA will buy finished pipes from Cipla. But at the same time, the workers at Cipla-Interfibra will provide the technology and the know-how for Venezuela to set up a number of factories making PVC frames for windows, doors, and other construction materials. All this will allow Venezuela to by-pass the domination of the market for these types of plastic products by a handful of US multinationals.
The importance of this is that in reality the Venezuelan government is giving direct assistance to a group of factories in Brazil that have been occupied and managed by the workers and that have been threatened on a number of occasions with eviction and jail by the Brazilian judiciary. This cannot but serve as an encouragement for workers in Venezuela and throughout Latin America to take over their own factories.
Internationalism and anti-imperialism
The Encuentro also had a marked internationalist character. The presence of a delegation from the Bolivian COB brought a breath of the revolutionary traditions of the Bolivian miners and workers. Jaime Solares, secretary of the COB, underlined the “key role of the proletariat internationally” and added that “socialism has not died, it is still relevant”. He also warned of the threat of international intervention against the Bolivian revolution, particularly the threat posed by the recently created US military base in the Paraguayan Chaco region, on the border with Bolivia.
The situation in Haiti was also discussed. Julio Turra, from the Brazilian CUT said in no uncertain terms “Brazilian troops in Haiti are at the service of the empire”. The final declaration of the trade unions present at the meeting called for the “withdrawal of occupying troops from Haiti, Iraq and Afghanistan”.
There was also strong opposition to the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement, promoted by the US administration. As Ricardo Moreira from the Uruguayan PIT-CNT explained, “the only real integration is not trade integration, but the integration based on the working class, which is the most revolutionary class”. Argentinean trade union delegates announced a nationwide work stoppage on November 4 against Bush’s presence at the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata.
Closing meeting and conclusions
Finally, after three days of hard work and discussions, of sharing of experiences by different groups of workers who had been forced to take over their factories in order to save their livelihoods, 500 workers, trade union representatives and Venezuelan government officials (including Minister of Labour MarÃ?a Cristina Iglesias and a number of other Ministers) gathered for the closing meeting.
The mood was one of enthusiasm, and the before the meeting could start, all the workers rose to their feet shouting the slogan popularised by the Argentinean factory occupation movement: “aquÃ? están, estos son, los obreros sin patrÃ?n” (“here we are, we are the ones, the workers without a boss”). Nearly 200 workers had travelled from Argentina to participate in this event, and the Argentinean National Movement of Recovered Companies (MNER) had played a key role in its organisation.
The conclusions from the different workshops were read out and approved, and then a joint document, called “The commitment of Caracas” was read by a leader of the workers of the Caigua tomato plant and approved by acclamation. The workers from worker-managed companies had also passed their own political statement which explained the importance of the Encuentro. “We are here to push our movement forward, to defend it, to help each other and to strengthen our struggle against the common enemy of the peoples, capitalism, which brings war and plans misery throughout the planet”. It also strongly defended the right to occupy factories: “The capitalists, the financial speculators and the multinationals are to blame for the bankruptcy of the companies. Every factory closed is a graveyard of jobs. (…) Therefore the workers in the countryside and the city have the right to occupy the factories and the land to defend their jobs and the sovereignty of our countries. This is why we occupied the factories and started production.”
The statement greeted the announcement of more expropriations by president Chávez: “In Venezuela, which is living through a revolution, the workers have put on the agenda expropriation with workers’ control of these companies in different ways. We greet the announcement of comrade president Chavez during the opening of this Encuentro, of two new expropriations of companies and that they should be under workers’ control. This is what we all need in our countries.”
It also explained the character and final aims of the movement: “We wish to advance to an economy under the total control of the workers so that it can be planned in the interests of the people as a whole. Our movement is anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist. It is a clarion call and an organised movement of the working class against the regime of private property of the large-scale means of production that is only capable of surviving through war and the exploitation and oppression of the peoples”.
The statement warned of the dangers facing the movement: “Our resistance has not gone unnoticed by the bosses, by Capital and their international institutions, which attempt to prosecute and crush us. But they are also seeking ways of destroying our resistance by enmeshing the workers in different forms of class collaboration, tempting them with possibilities of individual integration within the capitalist system”. To resist these attempts it was agreed to set up an international network of occupied and worker-managed factories. “From now on, we will rise as one if in any country the governments attack us or threaten to close down the companies we control”.
Finally the statement concluded with an inspiring call: “They steal the land, we occupy it. They make war and destroy nations; we defend peace and the integration of the peoples’ with respect for their sovereignty. They divide; we unite. Because we are the working class. Because we are the present and the future of humankind. We call upon all to continue this struggle, to broaden it and to meet again next year to strengthen the unity and the struggle we are carrying out together with the working class as a whole and the peoples against the common enemy of humanity. Venceremos!”
The Encuentro undoubtedly will encourage the struggle of workers across Latin America and beyond. In the opening meeting Julio Turra from the CUT described how “when the Chavez government declares war on the latifundia, this is a source of encouragement for the comrades of the MST [Landless Peasant’s Movement]. When it expropriates the bosses who organised the coup it is a source of encouragement for the comrades from Brazil who have been fighting for three years demanding that the government expropriates their abandoned companies”.
In Venezuela the meeting was not closed off within the four walls of the meeting halls, but went beyond. Reports of the meeting and documentaries on the occupied factories in different countries featured prominently on both state TV channels. Workers from the occupied factories were present and spoke on the weekly “AlÃ? Presidente” programme hosted by Chávez. Now it is up to the workers and the trade union movement in Venezuela to take up the call, and get a list of the 700 factories that have been closed by the bosses and start recovering them. Here the workers so far have found a president who is sympathetic to their cause and has even encouraged them.
Without doubt, this was a meeting that will go down in the history of the Latin American trade union movement. In the words of Ricardo Moreira from the PIT-CNT, already quoted above, “we have shown how the workers can run the companies, and this means we can run society as well”.
The New Dark Age 
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