The Take (La Toma) English subtitles (8/9)

I've seen some versions of this on the web with out-of-sync-sound, hope this one stays in sync after uploading)

Description from: http://thetake.org/index.cfm?page_name=synopsis

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave.

All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

But Freddy, the president of the new worker's co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory.

The story of the workers' struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse, Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins, they'll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.

Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers' lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

_________________

In general, this documentary shows A) how neo-liberal politics can utterly destroy a country and B) how syndicalist and anarchist concepts can work today. (Which are exactly the concepts behind the resistance, although they seldom call themselves anarchist they certainly achieve what anarchists have been striving for for generations.)

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Syndicalism
• Argentina
• The Take
• La Toma
• Naomi Klein
• Avi Lewis
• Documentary
• Anarchism
• Anarchosyndicalism
• liberalism
• Neo-liberalism

[99rhetbaboons]

Yeah, but then they'll become the new bosses, because there will always be somebody with a lower IQ that needs guidance, that needs to be bossed around or the factory will burn down from a stupid accident, and then your kids grow up and want to be bosses, and they're socialized in school to compete for the sake of competing and to be greedy. Read, "Animal Farm". It's the same story over and over. You can't get away from it.

[Odroerir2]

You see things very clear, but the lesson to be learned is not "you can't get away from it". The keyword is socialization, human culture is a dynamic system, not a fate. IQ is likely a more dynamic factor than previously thought. (Read among others: "Heritability Estimates Versus Large Environmental Effects:

The IQ Paradox Resolved" as published by the APA.) People with lower IQ don't need bosses, they need guides. There is a difference - a boss has privileges, a guide has responsibility.

[Odroerir2]

Maybe the most important thing is: Those with more competence will always teach those with less, but our "bosses" today aren't those with competence, they are those with power, nothing else. You don't need authority for that, there is no basis for your claims I'm afraid, other than the current state of society. And societies are constantly changing. As I said: Human culture is dynamic, and you shouldn't underestimate it.

[Odroerir2]

Ah, sorry - I meant you don't need institutionalized authority, all you need is natural authority, and that one always emerges as a dynamic factor - out of competence in a specific field, whereas "bosses" are an institutionalized authority, who do not emerge out of responisbility and competence, but matters of power: Politics, money, and in the worst but unfortunately common case, deceit, lies or mere luck.

[TheJakerp]

When cooperative needs something, workers vote for it and they get it through their own networks with other cooperatives or they buy it with money they earn. It is not as hard as guys like you make it sound. When there are 200 workers votings for decision they tend to be better in long run than one boss and owner deciding everything from their interests.

[TheJakerp]

It is sad that guy like you try to proof those cooperatives cant work. Nobody has proven that cooperatives dont work in micro economical level better in globalized world than traditional capitalist production.

I have every reason to believe it is best way to produce goods when cooperatives are spit in size of about 200 workers each. When capitalists dont care about their own country anymore cooperatives is only way people can get the country back for them.

[lasupernova1000]

what the IQ do here? whats the natural authority? seems it like a darwin logic or an Adam Smith logic.

[comraderave]

@99rhetbaboons "Animal Farm" was written by George Orwell who, as a democratic Socialist, fought in the Spanish Civil war against the Nationalists (and the Soviet's lapdogs to a lesser degree) to defend the exact sort of thing these people are doing. Check out "Homage to Catalonia"

[antiflag1980]

@99rhetbaboons I think you're missing Orwell's point, Animal farm was about Stalinist Communism, state control, Orwell was definitely against Capitalism as well. Perhaps you should learn a little bit more of George Orwell's life and political views before you start citing Animal Farm as relevant to something that it is not. This video is more along the lines of Anarcho-Syndicalism.

[Circadian781]

@JESS6TY

(despite your comments being a year old)

I coudln't resist asking this question: what kind of moron are you to compare corporations to the coops in this documentary? Pull your head out of your ass before telling us who "deserves" to have power and who doesn't.

[Monty0699]

Being a boss doesn't = you have more intelligence.. my boss is a fucking moron and runs his business pretty badly. He didnt even start it, it was handed down to him.

[Ventorez]

@99rhetbaboons the term boss implies ownership leadership and ownership are two different things here this movement doesnt mean there wont be some kinda tier system just means that its no longer about 1 person garnering all the profits and the rest simply working for that persons gain

[raisinsunn]

There's a lot of battles to be fought in latin america. May the Che Guevara spirit rise in you people. You can do it, you just have to want it believe in it fermly and try hard.

[adrian025]

Nestor Kirchner 2011!

[Arnie1Lerma]

There is plenty in this world to satisfy every need

but there will never be enough to satisfy greed..

-

Great series, thank you for sharing your inspiration

[JESS6TY]

Small business is going quite well in Argentina...maybe if you would've said Venezuela, I would understand your point.

Small business is the backbone of US economy and should thrive in every free market economy, unless you have an anarchist or anti business mentality. Without stable property right laws, you have nothing but a banana republic and economic instability.