As the representatives of the cooperative, its lawyers, and various legislators and social and political leaders that accompanied them went into the hearing, the protesters listened to a series of speakers. One of them was Omar Villablanca, leader of FASINPAT, Factory Without Bosses, the former Zanon Ceramics, another great example of the recovered businesses in the country.
To come to these spaces, which are not our spaces, the courts (…) produces indignation (…). In these 10 years, we haven’t seen and we haven’t heard any businessperson come through these courts – not the Solaris, not the Iurcoviches, not the Zanons, not the people from Aurora Grundig or from Textiles… No businessperson comes through these courts like us.
After a long meeting, Federico Tonarelli announced the meager results:
An extensive hearing, a long hearing, a hard hearing, but it has been made clear, both to Judge Hualde and to the old employer that we’re not ready to give up continuity of the cooperative, we’re not ready to leave behind self-management, and we’re not going to abandon the facilities of the hotel.
In the meeting, no progress was made, because all Hugo Iurcovich had to offer was the surrender of the cooperative in exchange for an uncertain promise of work, something that, with their background, the former workers knew well was highly unlikely and even undesirable for those who had experienced self-management.
The judge did not decide to attempt another call for eviction at the time, being conscious of the widespread support that the cooperative had. The question was (and is): who would commit an injustice like the eviction of a cooperative that gave work to 160 people, to benefit a businessperson of highly dubious suitability, and face the cost of making that decision?
The presentation of the criminal complaint by the adjunct general defender Roberto Gallardo against the Iurcovich group for fraud again BANADE and other irregularities in this case temporarily relieved the judge of her imbroglio. Gallardo requested the nullification of the action and, consequently, of the eviction, requesting that federal justice be expedited on the topic and that, meanwhile, commercial justice abstain from making any decisions.
That complaint was shelved, a year later, by Federal Judge Casanello. Once again, the case returned to Hualde’s hands, and started all over. Meanwhile, the expropriation bills were accumulating in Congress, but not managing to advance.