July 2022

Chronicle of a sale foretold On July 25th, 2001 (or June 25th, according to Berasategui and Gallardo), arguing that the sale to Solari was void because he had not finished paying (leaving aside the issue of the hotel itself, with the debt to BANADE), Marcelo Iurcovich sold the BAUEN to Mercoteles, an enterprise that had been registered at the Inspector General of Justice only shortly beforehand, and with negligible capital. That is to say, they sold the hotel to themselves.… Read More »BAUEN, day 59

The issue of when and how this sale took place is key, because it is what protects the pretensions of the Iurcoviches and allows them to appear over and over, demanding the eviction of the BAUEN. The deed to the building at Callao 360 appeared in their hands, almost by magic. Recall that when the bankruptcy took place and over the first years of the recovery of the hotel by the workers, these same people apparently had nothing to do… Read More »BAUEN, day 58

The chicken or the egg The Iurcovich group was now under the control of Hugo, the son of the founder, Marcelo, but it still had the same old tricks. For them, the hotel had always been their property. In that sense, they had the advantage of really knowing what arguments they had to demand its return. While the prevailing version was that the Iurcoviches were only creditors to Solari, and as owners of the Bauen brand, the issue seemed tricky… Read More »BAUEN, day 57

So, where did the capital come from to set up and equip the rooms, to outfit the bar and the rooms and the rest of the arrangements discussed above? The answer is clear: from labor. From the work of the cooperative members, from the solidarity of workers at other recovered businesses, and from the community. It came from the solidarity of thousands of people who collaborated with a few coins when the BAUEN workers went out to the streets looking… Read More »BAUEN, day 56

Chapter 8 The return of the ones who never left: the Iurcoviches reappear By the middle of 2005, as we’ve seen, the workers in the BAUEN cooperative had managed—with enormous effort—to put this large hotel back on its feet after it had been abandoned by the employers. What had been a boarded-up, empty building a couple of years earlier had been filled with life and work, thanks to the cooperative. A small list of accomplishments was included in the expropriation… Read More »BAUEN, day 55

Of course, the ends pursued by the new administration and the modes of organization and decision-making were far removed from those of the previous employers. This was not lost on the media, which systematically opined and wrote against the hotel workers (and against the working class in general): Through contacts with the delegate on line E, Roberto Pianelli, the picketers floated the idea of holding assemblies and press conferences in the hotel Bauen. Since a worker cooperative is in charge… Read More »BAUEN, day 54