>PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY, POST TO LISTS AND DISCUSSIONS, AND LINK TO WEBSITES
>
>***EMERGENCY APPEAL FROM NAOMI KLEIN TO SUPPORT THE ZANON WORKERS IN
>PATAGONIA***
>
>(Para versión en español ver abajo)
>(La traduzione in italiana si trova giù)
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>We're writing to ask your help in defending an inspiring and courageous
>workers' struggle in Argentina.
>
>The Zanon ceramic tile factory, a democratic, worker-run factory in
>Patagonia, is facing a serious threat of eviction, and the workers have
>asked us to gather international support for their struggle.
>
>To sign the petition, please click here:
>http://www.PetitionOnline.com/zanon/petition.html
>
>And for more information, read on...
>
>For those of you who have seen our documentary, The Take, the Zanon
>factory,
>and Argentina's wider movement of worker-run companies will be very
>familiar.
>
>For those of you who haven't, this new movement of some 15,000 workers in
>almost 200 democratic workplaces is building hope and a concrete economic
>alternative in the rubble of Argentina's disastrous experiment with
>orthodox
>neoliberalism in the 1990s.
>
>Recovered companies are run by assembly: one worker, one vote. In most of
>them, workers have decided that everyone should receive the same salary.
>They are proving the viability of an economy run on an entirely different
>value system, and they are growing.
>
>In the past year, Zanon has increased its workforce from 300 to 450: a
>50% increase. What multinational corporation or national government could
>boast of such a dramatic rise in decent-paying employment in the middle of
>an economic crisis?
>
>And Zanon has cultivated a deep and mutual relationship with the
>surrounding
>community. For 20 years, the poor neighbourhood of Nueva España, across the
>highway from the factory, has been asking the provincial government for a
>health clinic. Zanon workers took a vote earlier this year, and in 3 months
>built and opened a brand new community health facility.
>
>But now the provincial government is threatening to send in the Gendarmeria
>to remove Zanon's precious machines. This is an illegal order, since this
>force is Federal, intended to police Argentina's borders. On a second
>front,
>the Federal judge presiding over the bankruptcy of the former owner is
>refusing to recognize the Zanon workers' co-operative
>(called FaSinPat short for 'Fabricas Sin Patrones', Factories Without
>Bosses.)
>
>The former owner received millions in public subsidies, and still amassed a
>huge debt and bankruptcy: he has since been removed from his own board of
>directors for "accounting irregularities". The workers' co-operative, on
>the
>other hand, is a major success: it is now producing 380,000 square meters
>of
>ceramic tiles a month a level of production higher than when the former
>owner closed the factory - and the workers do it without the huge public
>subsidies (300,000 pesos per month) that he used to receive.
>
>The Zanon workers have told us that a massive international petition in
>support of their struggle could make a key difference with the various
>levels of courts and governments.
>
>Zanon's highly successful combination of direct action and direct democracy
>is a precious example of that other world that is possible, that is growing
>before our very eyes.
>
>We urge you to sign the petition
>http://www.PetitionOnline.com/zanon/petition.html and do everything you can
>to encourage others to do the same.
>
>Thank you for your time and support!
>
>Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein