Customer Reviews

The Take

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overall, this is a moving film. As an anthropology instructor, I've shown it several times and evoking a largely sympathetic audience. Currently I'm writing a paper on the process of recuperacion, and this seems to be potentially one alternative model to the destructive policies of transnational corporations, their agencies, and the neoliberal ideology they espouse.

That said, there is one serious problem in their choice of a case study that runs throughout the film; the auto parts manufacturer Forja San Martin (Forja). It's a very moving portrait of Freddy Espinoza, one of the leaders of the cooperative taking over the shutdown factory. Lalo, the coordnator representing the national organization for recovered factories, seems to be a likable guy. We see the leaders trying to work out a deal with a tractor factory.

This image breaks down, however, when we learn from Andres Ruggeri in his "Worker Recovered Enterprises in Argentina" that the backslider depicted in the film, the one who supports Menem in the 2003 election, has taken over the leadership of Forja San Martin, that the others portrayed in the film have been expelled from the factory and cooperative, and that the deal with the tractor factory--Zanello by name--has fallen through.

Even worse, we find from Zachary Fields in his unpublished paper "A Conservative, Middle Aged Revolution," that Forja is producing way below capacity, that it cannot add new technology because banks refuse them credit (private lenders hate all recovered factory cooperatives), and that it cannot make any investments until they deliver to their customers, who often furnish Forja the raw materials. Forja, in short, is not doing well.

Zanon and Brukman seem to fare better when it comes to accurate representation. One thing that they seem to be doing right is maintaining strong bonds with their neighborhoods and community, a deficit of Forja according to Ruggeri, and of many other recovered organizations.

Another issue is worker commitment to change. According to Andres Gaudin, many, if most, workers of recovered factories lack a sense of political ideology or commitment; they just want to get their wages and go home. In fact, says Ruggeri, many workers are in the enterprises because they have nowhere else to go.

Despite these reservations, The Take is on to something interesting. For one, Ruggeri points out that despite the miniscule number of recovered factories (0.08% of all such operations) and low number of workers, they have stabilized. In an hostile environment--no credit, stringent legal constraints, competitive economy, constant threats of evictions, and uncertain policies of the Kirchner government--this is an accomplishment in its own right.

The movement has spread to Brazil, Uruguay, Panama--and Venezuela, where the first conference on recovered facories was held. Venezuela is looking at 700 factories for possible recovery, and a paper mill, an aluminum company, and a valve manufacturer were featured at the conference.

Let's hope that the factory recovery movement is embryonic of the future; and I hope the couple comes back to film or otherwise provide an update of the situation in Argentina. It would also be nice to know how the rcovery movement is doing in other countries--especially Venezuela.

I'm a sociologist writting an MA Thesis about cooperatives and capitalist-to-worker owned companies. I was also born and raised in Argentina. I need to add more? This is the film that explains to you the phenomenon of closing capitalist firms converted into cooperatives that not only survive, but thrive! This could be the beggining of something new, of the possibility of Market Socialism (a form of Economic Democracy). The DVD contains an excellent 'behind-the-scenes' feature and a short about one of the young men murdered by the police during the popular uprising of December 2001. If you're interested in social movements, root initiatives and other of the kind, you must see this film.

Using the recuperated Forja factory as a microcosm of the larger Argentine piquetero movement, author Naomi Klein and director Avi Lewis have done a brilliant job documenting the grassroots activism of marginalized workers in the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse caused by years of IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs and the corrupt presidency of Carlos Menem. Faced with abject poverty and state repression, the unemployed auto-parts workers of the Forja factory have occupied their abandoned workplace and transformed it into a successful cooperative, proving thus the power of labor solidarity. As such, the Forja factory, like all the recuperated factories, neighborhood assemblies, and independent media collectives in Argentina, provides an inspirational example of direct democracy, participatory economics, and horizontal social organizing. Besides being an important film politically, as a work of art it is simply exquisite. Fans of Mercedes Sosa will especially be moved by the protest scenes that were put to her music!

An amazing albeit low-fi film that's more relevant right now than when it was made a few years back. Every working American must watch this film.

Reflections on "The Take" J. Alexander

I've seen this film a few times now and it remains inspiring on repeated viewings, as do the bonus features included on the disc. Not just a microcosm of the effects of globalization in Latin America, this film is a microcosm of globalism everywhere in the world and how ordinary people can overcome the extraordinary corruption and exploitation institutionalized throughout the world economy of, by, and for the corporate elitist bankers, investors, and politicians. As is said toward the end of the film, "We [Argentina] are the mirror to look into, the mistake to avoid. Argentina is the waste that remains of a globalized country. We are where the rest of the world is going."

In the 1990s under President Menem and the direction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), social services in Argentina were reduced, whole industries were sold off to foreign firms, and backroom deals were made, guaranteed to benefit the international elites and corrupt politicians when the well ran dry from being over bled by `pigs on the wing'. No other outcome was possible, and no other outcome has ever ultimately resulted. To profit under capitalism, corporations must create scarcity (by limiting supply) on the one hand, and an unlimited supply of cheap labor on the other. So when they were unable to do this in Argentina (due to worker demands and depressed global demand), they decided to remove all liquid capital from the Argentine economy and liquidate factories and equipment as quickly as possible.

Many workers, however, though `free to starve,' chose, rather, to take their right-to-life seriously by seizing their means of earning a living. Though non-ideological, they naturally and un-self-consciously embarked on an anarcho-syndicalist adventure not unlike the kibbutzim (collective farms) of Israel.

To succeed, they had to work with the corrupt system and politicians still entrenched in their country. But most of them apparently could see that putting the factories back to work was in the interests of the whole country. Where the workers have had the toughest time is in securing any sort of credit or loans from financial institutions, and the worker-owned factories that have found lasting success have done so by nurturing strong connections with, and support from their local communities.

To answer a few of the `guiding questions', socialism and capitalism are both state-run on behalf of corrupt elites; their just two models for exploiting the people. What the enlightened workers realize is that they cannot depend on any leader of any party, because the entire system, including the so-called democratic process, is entirely corrupt and controlling. No one, for instance, should be at all surprised that Barack Obama is giving the bankers billions and billions of dollars, after the millions they contributed to his election campaign. What we all need is a truly democratic process not for sale to the highest bidder.

When the workers find themselves in control of their own remunerative destinies they learn the greatest lesson of all: (political/economic) freedom = (moral) responsibility and vigilance. Most people are secretly afraid of freedom and the responsibility it demands, and this is why most people have allowed themselves to be enslaved, in one form or another, around the world and throughout human history.

The would-be owners and rulers, like Menem and "Mr. Zanon", are forever watching and waiting for their moment. They are leaches with the heart of compulsive gamblers. Their ideal world is a casino and a pair of loaded dice; and any `system' with rules can and will be rigged to benefit them--once they get in. This is why Thomas Jefferson said that every generation needs a revolution to "renew the blood of freedom".

Not only is such a anti- or counter-globalist revolution possible in the United States today, it is absolutely necessary if we value our lives and our future. Furthermore, given the current `take' by Wall Street, I believe it is imminent. Our economy is being swallowed whole, and we are headed for an unavoidable cataclysm. But this time, although the revolution will probably not be televised by Murdoch and friends, it will happen on a global scale and succeed in the industrialized cities with universities, where workers can most easily and effectively organize, and where idealistic student activists are a short march away from campus to CBD (Central Business District).

Given current science and technology, a worker-controlled resource based economy will provide an unlimited supply of renewable energy for the cheap production and transportation of food and medicine to every corner of the world. But there's nothing in that for the profiteers -so they'll have to go.

¡Viva la revolucion!

A riveting political documentary with beautiful cinematography, high production values, and the power to make me cry. As a film giving a grand panorama of the dramatic events in Argentina after the cacerola, it does an amazing job. And the big picture view is balanced nicely by the glimpse into the deeply personal. It definitely worked well to follow one single occupation, though I wish we had seen more of the interplay between the men and their discussions upon actually taking over! I suppose it didn't make for riveting. But the footage is incredible, and the individuals inspiring.

This certainly captures the joy and hope and pain of mass struggle, and who can fail to be moved by tiny abuelitas facing down riot cops? It left me wanting to go deeper, to find out more about the occupations themselves, the work of supporting them, the challenges and successes faced by workers, the political context. There was a taste of all these things, but only a taste. I do think that the heroism of the daily struggle to actually make something work for the long-term is often overlooked in favour of photogenic confrontations. As time has shown, there were a lot of undercurrents in the factories that never made it onto film, and to me that is where the true lessons often lie for those wishing to create a better world. Even so, it is a true pleasure to watch, and it's importance in helping create a vision of viable alternatives is profound.

Finally though, the extras are quality! The short on Gustavo Benedetto, one of the victims of police repression, is incredibly touching. It's also a moving look at the people's efforts to remember, and the State's efforts to erase all memory. And the stuff on the making of the film was rather eye-opening!

Naomi Klein and Avis Lewis's audiovisual manifesto is less intellectual and powerful than No Logo's Klein, but it has the virtue to convey the main thesis Klein claimed in that book and goes further here in order to show a proper alternative politics to counterbalance the unjustice and "natural" evolution of Capitalism. Of course, what it's shown in The Take is not enough, but it's a starting point. The whole point here is how Argentineans workers, after being perplexed and helpless when different factories close down, take the factories and recuperate them, showing how they can be still productive. (Zanon, Forja San Martín, almost 200 hundred cases are shown here). Of course, and Lewis and Klein pointed out, the way chosen by workers is could be called stealing, although there is another way of signifying: expropriation. What's behind is an old Marxist concept: the ownership of the means of production, and by extension, a criticism against private property. Argentina, an IMF symbol of how its economical norms and regulations should be followed became its rebuttal when in 2001 the whole economical life brokedown and collapsed. This is the context of the film and its universality matches with the planetary political zeitgeist of the new millennium: antiglobalization, that diffuse movement which goes beyond class struggle. Perhaps, The take is a little bit naive when one thinks this exercise of resistance in a big picture of global politics, but its authenticity is inspiring, a case of hope whose main case is to open up a practice of radical democracy.

This documentaty is a moving account of what happens to good hard-working people who are deprived of their right to work. It is also a study in the best strategy we have against globalization, and that is cooperatives. During the documentary, you spend time with a group of former autoparts factory workers as they wrestle their way though political and legal battles in order to regain their abandoned factory. You see what work means to these men, to their pride and their self-esteem. The documentary interweaves their stories with the story of another successful worker's cooperative and with an historical overview of the political leaders in Argentina who created this situation. I highly recommend this film. It was entertaining and informative.

This fascinating documentary details the struggle of the workers of one closed car parts factory in Argentina to reopen under worker control. I was impressed at the tight narrative of the documentary and with Naomi Klein's skills as a documentary writer. The suspense never let up for a moment and I was on the edge of my seat. Watching the movie felt more like a thriller than a regular documentary. Hopefully Klein and Avi Lewis will make more movies, as this one shows they can produce a fully absorbing story.

The story is about workers taking over their plant to produce again, against the backdrop of forced austerity. As the narration says, Argentina is not a poor country but a rich country made poor. The focus is on the human drama of the workers, although the frame is always about creating a fairer economy for the 99%. (The term wasn't around then, but they would have used it if it were.)

One problem with the film is that it shows Juan Peron as a sort of uncomplicated great guy. That part of Argentine history is a bit more complex than you'd guess from the film.

Included are a more meandering documentary on the making of the film, emphasizing the tension between the collective process of the film crew and the need for the director to have his own vision. There is also an excellent short film "Gustavo Benedetto: Presente!" that gives the story of one Argentinian who was shot in the back by the police or a security guard. This film gives a sense of the lives of the protestors and the difficulty in moving beyond the terror of the years of military occupation.

This documentary should find a wide audience.

I have long been an advocate of workers self-management and socialism from below. This is the best documentary available to see these ideals, not just theorized on paper, but in actions executed by ordinary people. The most inspiring aspect of this dvd is that the workers created the entire movement. Free of a vanguard or liberal reformers. This was direct democracy in it's purest and most beautiful.

The film is a wonderful exhibit of what community based grassroots activism can accomplish. You see more than the inner workings of recovered factories but also root causes of the economic stagnation and unemployment, the links between workers and the rest of the community and the never ending war between the leaders of the expropriations and the former factory owners. You get the sense that all these things are intimately related through a complex political economy that fails to serve the people.

The film was slanted against the IMF and the rest of the unholy trinity but I would say the near unanimous blame of the IMF by the Argentine people warrants such a view. Despite this slant time is given to leading businessmen and neo-liberals to defend their stances and explain their positions. All in all it's a great way to look inside the world of direct democracy and what societies could look like in a decentralized, cooperative nation. Bravo!