It all started with an email from my daughter Jessica asking me if I would be interested in teaching a class in Argentina. Jess was on the staff of the Global Institute for Leadership and Civic Development which runs global leadership programs throughout the world. It seems that the professor scheduled to teach the Global Business course was no longer available and Jess volunteered me. My first reaction was “I don’t want to leave Rhode Island in the summer and I can’t break away with such short notice.” So I compiled my long list of reasons why I had to decline her offer. Now here comes a little parenting advice. Be careful of what you teach your children, it may come back to haunt you. As I communicated my reasons to Jess, she listened patiently and when I was finished, she presented me with a solution to each one my “problems.” Before I knew it, my wife Maryann and I were boarding a plane to Cordoba, Argentina en route to our new home for five weeks: a dormitory room.
The course they wanted me to teach was about international trade, a subject about which I know very little. So we changed the focus of the course to cross-cultural leadership and comparative labor relations. Professors Rothstein and McIntyre should not worry about my foray into their territory. The students were college juniors and seniors from around the world. Some of the countries represented were Romania, Slovakia, Canada, Australia, India, Tajikistan, Brazil and Columbia. In addition, there were a couple of students from U.S. universities. Once we moved beyond the cultural differences regarding the role of faculty and students, we learned a great deal from each other. We heard first hand from Argentinean economists and journalists who were survivors of the “Dirty War,” in which over 30,000 dissidents disappeared. Many of these dissidents were labor leaders, which has had a lingering effect on the country’s labor movement. 
While there were many interesting experiences, the one that I remember most was a trip that Jess arranged to Buenos Aires. In the morning, she took us to meet a group she was working with in an unemployed district. People in this part of the city have felt the brunt of Argentina’s economic crisis. In response to their plight, they formed an organization called the Ceffoc Cooperative and set up a school to educate their children and funded it with a couple of micro-enterprises which have become quite successful. After taking time to show us their school and micro-enterprises, despite their economic plight, they treated us to a wonderful meal (Argentinean beef of course).
The highlight of my trip was a meeting with members of the Chilavert Artes Gráficas Cooperative, which is a print shop in Buenos Aires. What made this company interesting was that it practiced autogestión, or self-management. This shop is owned and managed by its employees. Like many businesses and factories around Argentina, this shop was once closed and abandoned by its owner. Globalization, neo-liberal policies, capital flight, urban decay and government corruption have taken their toll on the Argentine economy and its workers. In response, a number of these closed factories have been “reclaimed” and “recuperated” by the former employees of these companies. In the case of the Chilavert Print Shop, the owner owed about a year’s worth of wages to his employees, but maintained payments to suppliers and kept good relationships with his customers. In declaring bankruptcy, he was attempting to rid himself of the debt burden to employees. After bribing auditors not to include shop equipment on the inventory, he attempted to remove the shop’s equipment, move it to another city, and set up operations there. Upon learning of this scheme, the workers physically stopped the removal of equipment and eventually convinced the courts to turn ownership over to them. Now the employees are the legal owners of the shop. This is not the case in a large number of Argentina’s recuperated factories. In most cases, the employees are not the only debt holders and various groups including banks, suppliers and customers are vying for control the remaining physical resources. To satisfy debts, it is not uncommon to salvage equipment and buildings as scrap. These are the circumstances facing the employees of the Zanon Ceramics Factory (featured in the movie The Take). At Zanon, the workers had to struggle against police, the courts, physical attacks and kidnappings. When the Argentine economy showed signs of recovery, the plant was operational and the political leadership changed the original owner attempted to reclaim his business and take over control from the employees.
The Chilavert Print Shop is run by its 24 employees operating as a single decision-making group. In the beginning, they had little support. Even though the workers were active trade unionists, their union provided no support, instead insisting that they were now managers. While the shop had a good reputation in the marketplace, the new employee-owners had to convince customers and suppliers they were able to manage the business and show that the high level of quality was still intact. Even now, they have a hard time getting supplier credit and bank loans, a problem they attribute to longstanding class prejudices. As the autogestión movement developed, a number of umbrella organizations, such as the National Movement of Recuperated Businesses (Movemiento de las Empresas Recuperadas) and the Unemployed Workers Movement (Movemiento de Trabajadores Desempleado), have emerged, working to support these startup enterprises.
Today there are approximately 200 recuperated businesses employing 15,000 people. The forms of organization in these enterprises are as varied as the types of businesses. Hospitals, print shops, medical clinics, a shipyard, schools, automotive parts factories, and a hotel have been managed by worker cooperatives. Some businesses, such as Chilavert, are run as a committee of the whole with everyone receiving the same wages. A common form of self management is used at Zanon in which the management structure was replaced with a representative group decision-making structure known as an assembly. Wage differentials among workers have also started to emerge in some businesses. One common theme in these businesses is the commitment to creating businesses that provide service to their communities. This has the effect of developing strong community-based support for these businesses against opposition. When asked by one of my Tajik students if he thought this movement was like the communist system in which she grew up, our host replied “Absolutely, not. We own this shop- not the state. We want to make a profit and feed our families. To do this we must continue to make a high quality product. Everyone here now cares about two things: quality and safety- we don’t need bosses standing over us to remind us of the importance of these things. While we want to create a profitable business, we will not do this at the expense of the people who work here or the community.” While Argentina is embroiled in an economic crisis that has wiped out its middle class, and a social, political, and macro-economic debate about the merits of neo-liberal policies and globalization complete with violent protests, these employee-owners see this not as a movement, but their attempt to regain dignity, contribute to their community, take control of their lives and support their families.
Meeting with representatives of these companies was a truly inspiring experience. Our meeting gave my students and me a wonderful opportunity to see the micro effects of large scale economic policy initiatives. Members of the Ceffoc Cooperative are upbeat and optimistic about their future, but realize they have far to go. The Chilavert group members are convinced that they can make their system of self-management work and they exude optimism. We spent time discussing the future and what it holds for this economic, social, and political movement. Is this movement and economic system sustainable? Most of these enterprises were turned over to employees, or in some cases taken over by them, based on debt. How will new enterprises emerge? From where will start-up capital come? How will owner-employees develop the business and marketing skills need to successfully compete in a global economy? What roles will the government and NGO’s play? How will the unions respond? How will new employees be integrated into these organizations as they grow? Our questions were far greater in number then our answers. We left wishing our new friends the best of luck.
