When Workers Take Control

When distressed owners shut down their workplaces, what can workers do? This was discussed last August at the 6th International Workers' Economy Gathering in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Among the 25-member Mexican delegation, five--including some of its leaders and two sanmiguelenses--will share experiences and results of that historical meeting as well as plans for a regional gathering to be held in Mexico City this Fall.

The Workers' Economy Gathering is a meeting that brings together recuperated and self-managed enterprises, cooperatives and social and popular economy organizations, as well as trade unions and academics interested in and committed to self-management practices and the project of a new workers' economy.

Workers from more than 25 countries on 5 continents attended the meeting. Representatives of France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Croatia, South Africa, Canada, Turkey, China, Bangladesh, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia and Argentina, shared knowledge and feelings. Among topics discussed, said Marco Gomez, a Mexico delegation leader and professor of sociology at Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, was “challenges facing the struggle for an economy of workers in the current global situation - especially the role played by meetings of networks like the workers' economy.”

This gathering built on the experiences of five previous international gatherings of The Workers’ Economy in Buenos Aires (2007, 2009); Mexico City (2011); João Pessoa, Brazil (2013), and Venezuela (2015); and the regional gatherings in Europe, in the Fralib worker-recuperated factory in Marseille (2014); in South America, in the Textiles Pigüe worker-recuperated factory in Argentina (2014); and in North America at the Universidad Obrera de Ciudad de México, (2014). Additional encounters in 2016 included the 2nd Euromediterranean Workers Economy Meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece and the 2nd South American Encounter in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The program will be bi-lingual with translation. Also, please join us a reception following the program.