Over the last few days we have been completely exhausted, stimulated, moved and frustrated by the conference ‘The Workers’ Economy: Self management and the Distribution of Wealth’. It is not news to the progressive that something interesting has been happening down here in Buenos Aires with the ‘recovered factories’ – those enterprises that were taken over by their workers when they went bankrupt in the economic crisis of 2001. The conference was hosted by the College of Philosophy and Literature at the University of Buenos Aires, and we were kindly invited by Marcelo Veito, co-host and fellow Canadian academic originally from Argentina, to make a presentation about our project. We were now really entering very new territory and it was with quite some trepidation that we entered the Spanish speaking world of commingled academics and workers from the recovered factories. Albeit wonderfully translated by a team of extremely patient experts, it was sometimes hard to concentrate on the endless 12 hour stream of papers that had been produced all on different facets of the same few intriguing factories. What made the meeting so memorable was, however, the commitment to the idea that here was history in the making, here was hope, here was imagination, here was a future that did not involve competition and selfishness but sharing and values which might be worth knowing. The workers themselves were the most profound when they spoke about their take-overs, their families, their problems and their dreams that they were really doing something worthwhile with their lives, that they could never have imagined possible. As we sat and listened to the representative from Hotel Bauen, the recovered hotel (which, despite its financial issues, was hosting those who could not pay during their stay in the city), a notice was posted that the Hotel workers were going to be evicted in a couple of weeks.

All these hard working men and women, from all manner of organisations, told us that all they wanted to do was work. In order to break even, with all the accumulated debt of the owners, they were paying themselves pitifully small wages but were proud to be producing and serving. A highlight for me was the evening performance of theatre in the recovered factory of Chilavert printers.

Community, culture and sharing is commonplace around these people. Students were flocking down to study this space, this phenomenon, and we were privileged to be among those who worked and studied in an area which seems to put flesh onto the starving bones of theory. On a personal level we wanted to make contacts to see if any of the skilled workers in the factories might be keen to make our first hot press. We also met many academics who share common values and who we hope will help us understand the socio-economic-political implications of what we want to do.