The Take — Occupy, Resist, Produce

I've said it many times before, but it is well worth repeating, thank God for City Cinema. I was very excited to see that they were showing this movie, when I first heard about it on “Democracy NOW!” it was only playing at a couple of places in big cities. Which is why I was even more disappointed to see that I was the only person there tonight to see it. Sure the weather probably had something to do with it, but I'm nonetheless terribly disappointed in my fellow Islanders, who grew up with the Co-Op movement in their back yards, to not want to see the modern equivalent played out in Argentina.

The documentary itself plays more like a news item, or piece of investigative journalism like you would find on CBC Newsworld rather than the stylized big productions like Michael Moore's films or other documentaries that have come out lately. This is why I still maintain that Canadians (in this case Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein) make the best documentaries. They don't put themselves in front of the camera hardly at all, and they even keep the narration down and just let the factory workers speak for themselves and tell their own stories.

The movie is about the economic collapse in Argentina that happened a few years ago. The government at the time was whole-heartedly embracing the guidelines of the IMF and World Bank, privatizing everything they could, selling off the whole of the public works to private companies in order to qualify for IMF loans. But as the country's economic house of cards began to fall apart, the owners of the factories scooped up their money and whisked it out of the country, just as the bank accounts of every citizen were frozen.

This left many factories standing still, with the workers out of work and the owners owing millions in unpaid salaries and loans from the government (i.e., the public). The workers in one case followed by the filmmakers realized that the amount owed to them was exactly equal to the cost of the factory, so they simply asked that they be given ownership of the factory and the ability to run it on their own. A great deal of legal wrangling ensued, but in the meantime the workers just walked in, broke the locks, and started up the machinery.

Now, here's the ‘lightbulb moment’, or one of them anyway: the workers were able to run the factory much more efficiently than the previous owners ever could have. Each of the workers were paid equally (in the one case, each factory and each situation is different.) Everyone supervised each other, decisions were made by voting, with the person who knows a certain area the best getting to speak, and be listened to. Also, workers carried themselves differently. No one ever snuck off to take a break when the boss wasn't looking, if they saw a light that was on that didn't need to be they'd turn it off. Everyone worked hard and honestly because they were doing it for their campañeros and their families, so they held each other up.

The very first factory to be taken over by the workers was a garment factory staffed by middle-aged seamstresses who would otherwise never have been part of the management team of the factory. Before it was closed they were under the same pressures as every other textile workforce in the world, work harder and for less money or the factory is moved to someplace where the people will. Well, the factory closed, but the workers didn't go anywhere, they just kept at their sewing machines, and sold the product themselves.

One woman who worked at the Brukman factory described the accounting that she now handled, saying that she didn't know why it was so hard for the previous owners to make money and pay the workers and buy the material, for her it was just a matter of adding and subtracting. She wasn't trying to squeeze loans from the government or pay out big bonuses to managers, her task was simply to make sure more money came in than went out, and that ended up being easier than everyone thought.

The other important factor to the story of these workers taking their livelihoods into their own hands is the support they have in the community in Buenos Aires. Everyone the filmmakers talked to love what the workers are doing for themselves. They saw the government waste and corruption first-hand. They saw their first-world economy collapse because of the IMF policies, and they saw the owners escaping with their nation's wealth, and they are now totally behind the idea of rebuilding their country on their own, from the ground up, and not relying on some messianic leader like Perón to save them. This was their time, and they were going to learn from the mistakes of so-called globalization and do it right this time.

In one of the final confrontation scenes we see riot police lined up between the women of the Brukman factory and their building, trying to keep them from getting inside. They were firing teargas grenades at old women. They represented perfectly the unfairness of taking on the state and politicians, when they can wield the only force legally allowed to commit violence against the other side. But the workers used the court system and sound legal arguments to take control of their factories and restart the idle machinery.

Seeing the men of the movement interact with each other was another important part of the story that wasn't discussed explicitly but which really set the scene for the actions unfolding as they did. Characteristically emotional and open, as Latin-blooded men are known to be, they stood with each other, talked about their feelings and their fears with their families, weren't afraid to show vulnerability in front of their wives or kids, and, these unemployed factory workers looked to be the most enlightened examples of modern maleness one can find. Certainly a better example to follow than the Hollywood macho idiocy we get hammered with every day. One gets the impression that if the same situation of widespread economic shutdown were to happen in America or even Canada that the people wouldn't be as strong or resolved as these workers were, and would simply accept their fate and take their frustrations out on each other and their families.

But The Take was all about hopefulness, and the idea that there really is a better way, and a way where unfair distribution of wealth isn't seen as a goal of the system.

Link: The Take Official Movie Website.