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Occupy, Resist, Produce: Review of "The Take"

What is possible is just about always more than anyone expects, it can even be more than some dare hope. Challenging the capitalist consensus of "there is no alternative," journalists Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis's "The Take" reports from the occupied factories of Argentina.

When Argentina's once-wealthy economy imploded after years of free-market pillaging, foreign investors and the national elite pulled $40 billion out of the country in the middle of the night while the government froze individual savings accounts. Millions of people were financially ruined in the country with Latin America’s largest middle class. Capitalism was breaking its own rules. Free trade turned out to mean whatever financial markets dictated. For Argentina, they decreed an end to general prosperity after decades of growth.

An earthquake of popular revulsion drove out six governments in two weeks, but was unable to dislodge the state. Despite a national legacy of murderous military rule in the face of popular movements, crowds overflowed the streets smashing the banks now empty of cash with hammers, all the while singing “que se vayan todos” – they all must go. It wasn’t one party or politician rejected, but an entire political culture called simply, “el modelo.” The ruling elites made corruption a virtue by carrying out the Washington Consensus of neo-liberal austerity and capitalist brigandage. But it was the aftershocks of the uprising that got really interesting.

Starting at the Brukman shirt factory in Buenos Aires, an escalating series of factory occupations was launched by workers under the slogan "occupy, resist, produce." Over 200 occupations brought idle factories back to life despite police violence and police obstruction. Unable to withstand the uprising and with the economy in total shambles, the Argentine government relented, allowing for the temporary seizure of abandoned factories by unemployed workers.

Full review of "The Take" by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis

"All That Is Solid Melts Into Air"

Truer words were never said by Karl Marx, the philosopher of hands and scientist of the social, than when he saw past the slavery and cathedrals of his day to the coming of the next world. People would not be cut to fit their machines, but would rend the world anew. The world is ever changing, the question is how.

For the first time in a generation, radicals have a chance to not just resist the advance of the ruling class, but to stand up on our own. Around the world, popular movements and insurgencies are challenging capitalism and empire with renewed vigor and occassional victories. America is losing its defining war. Neoliberalism is faltering. The sacred family has only its halo. The mythologies of liberal democracy are everywhere evaporating. When the rulers cannot rule in the old ways, we have a chance. The question is how.

Because this possibility exists doesn't mean that it will be easy or obvious. In the 87 years since the proletariat's first victory with the October Revolution, the struggle of common people to make their world anew has seen great triumphs and tragic defeats. And here we are with the world still burning. If we learn anything from the sacrifice of our forebears, it is that socialism is possible. The people can rule. The point being not that we need to recreate some debatable past, but that if we band together and fight with principle -- we can overcome anything. The question is how.

The Burningman web log will make its small contribution by focusing on the plans and activities of the revolutionary left with polemics, histories, interviews and breaking news. Longer articles will be linked to NYC Indymedia and the Indypendent.

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Argument is oxygen. Bring the fire.