When Workers Take Control

Monday, July 19, 2021 - 1:00pm
CDT
Marcelo Vieta

How is it that sometimes workers take control of their workplaces, replacing capitalist owners? This has been the focus of Marcelo Vieta’s research on recuperated factories in Argentina, Europe and the US. Although they may take control just to save their jobs, they usually end up forming cooperatives. What is the social and economic context that leads to take-overs. Why is it that workers find the formation of a cooperative is their best option? How are their subjectivities transformed in cooperatives? What political and legal conditions are needed to secure worker cooperatives?

A professor at the University of Toronto, Marcelo Vieta’s writings explore how more cooperation, solidarity, and democracy may be fostered in the workplace and the community. His most recent book is Worker’s Self-Management in Argentina. He has also written about cooperatives and community development in Latin America, Cuba, Italy, and Canada.

Twenty years ago in Argentina the precarity of life under neoliberalism led workers to seize control of workplaces. One question that haunts us today is why in the US the erosion of their status has turned many white workers to the Right? Is it a lack of a historical memory of struggle or a deep-seated racism? Can a turn away from neoliberalism and the democratization of workplaces reverse this? We need a workers economy.

Upcoming Events

Saturday, October 11, 2025 - 3:00pm
CST
Location:
1º de Mayo #58, Colonia Aurora, San Miguel de Allende

In October 2024, we had our first artistic and cultural project to continue speaking about Palestine and to raise our voices in favor of the liberation of the Palestinian people and against the genocide being committed in Palestine.

... Read more
Monday, October 13, 2025 - 1:30pm
CST
Film Screening
Followed by discussion with Brad Rockwell
Location:
La Biblioteca, Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25, Centro, San Miguel de Allende

2025 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary

Remarkable largely unknown footage of a dramatic turning point in world history covering events over three continents concerning a tragic coup in the Congo. Featuring: Maya Angelou, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy... Read more

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 12:00pm
CST
Organized by The Reentry Resource Program

You are invited to join a discussion with filmmaker Santiago Esteinou and Cesar Fierro about the new documentaryThe Freedom of Fierro.

César Fierro has just become a free man, and he needs to rebuild his life after being wrongly sentenced to death in Texas. César spent 40 years in prison before being released... Read more

Monday, November 3, 2025 - 1:30pm
CST
Joe Belden
Location:
La Biblioteca, Sala Quezal, Insurgentes 25, Centro, San Miguel de Allende
This mostly forgotten war led to Mexico losing over half its territory and the United States expanding to the Pacific. The lecture examines the political and economic background of the conflict, what led to it, and the roles of such factors as Texas annexation in 1845, slavery, racism, the Democratic and Whig parties, and Manifest... Read more