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NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2007
Our Life and Times
Argentina’s factories
The 156 workers at the Hotel BAUEN in Buenos Aires, one of Argentina’s worker-run workplaces, have been threatened again with eviction. The four-star 20-story hotel, built in 1978, has been run entirely by the workers since they re-opened it in 2003, after it was abandoned by the former owners during the 2001 economic meltdown. The government is apparently trying to set a precedent by ordering the eviction, since BAUEN is a very visible example of the success of the cooperative movement, and because it is often used as a free meeting place for the radical movement. Like many occupied factories, more than 150 of which still function, their legal standing has never been resolved.
In August several mass demonstrations were held in Buenos Aires to support the workers, but the mass media in Argentina has mostly stopped reporting on the worker-run factories, so an international campaign has begun to draw attention to BAUEN’s predicament. The June mayoral elections in Buenos Aires were a setback because a rightist business tycoon, Mauricio Macri, was elected. He assumes power in December and has already been promising to evict some 19,000 squatters living in abandoned buildings in the capital.
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