Zanon - a Factory Without Bosses

by: Mick

Worldwide: "If we can't run a successful factory with the bosses, let's try it without." That's how Julian Penunuri, a worker at the Zanon tile factory in the Neuquén province of Argentina, saw it. As he told hundreds of people across the country in February 2006, it worked.

In 2001 Argentina went into economic collapse. Businesses defaulted on their debts, stopped paying their workers and shut their factories down. Zanon was just one of these workplaces, firing the workforce by telegram and leaving orders unfilled.

But the workers at Zanon had a history of struggling against their bosses and their corrupt union officials. They refused to accept their fate and decided to take over the factory themselves. Organising day-to-day activities by elected committees and taking all major decisions by general assembly, the workers started selling the tiles. They left paying wages owed and soon they had restarted production, which has grown dramatically, employing more and more people ever since.

Zanon workers have formed their own, radical, independent trade union; they produce Nuestra Lucha (Our Struggle), "a newspaper of the occupied factories and workers in struggle", plus a radio program and a website. Zanon workers provide free materials to schools, hospitals, community centres, poor families and others in need. The assembly plays an active part in supporting the struggles of other workers, the unemployed and the indigenous community. In return, these companeros have supported Zanon in defeating police attempts to retake the factory for its old bosses, who deserted it over four years ago.

Nike claim they, "don't sell shoes, they sell dreams", well, Zanon workers don't just make tiles, they make revolutions. What did you do at work today?

Julian was speaking on a tour organised by No Sweat, with help from the Argentina Solidarity Campaign and Unison as part of a No Sweat week of action, which took place 11-18 February 2006. For a full report and more information, go to http://www.nosweat.org.uk