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
Although it initially seemed “crazy” to Juan Carlos to install their little print shop in an occupied hotel, after several months, he was convinced. The fact that the copy center started working, almost exclusively for the cooperative, was an example of the things that began to function, and better all the time, relieving the fears of Tonarelli senior, who (…) created a list of prices for the cooperative that was unbeatable, with a very important bonus, which functioned as payment… Read More »BAUEN, day 53
A hotel underway At the beginning of 2006, a little more than a year after the visit of the Venezuelan orchestra, the BAUEN hotel was fully functioning. As an article in Lavaca documents, it had grown “from 35 to 140 members, who keep the hotel operating 24 hours a day: the auditorium, the coffeeshop, the bookstore, and the event rooms. Theater works, radio broadcasting with a large audience, musical performances, and art exhibitions were part of the programming in 2005.… Read More »BAUEN, day 52
María Eva remembers that moment: When the Venezuelans were looking for housing to bring a group, they spoke with us, but the hotel was still very ugly. The boards that had been up before had been taken down, but the rooms were not ready. We told them the story of the hotel, that we were a cooperative, but that at that time, we didn’t have things ready, they could help us if they advanced us payment for the lodging. In… Read More »BAUEN, day 51
The Great Homeland The dividing line between the prolonged period of “holding on” — the first activities — and the launch of the reactivated hotel could be drawn by the solidarity of the Bolivarian government of Venezuela. At this moment, at the beginning of 2004, the hotel had not managed to re-establish the ability to provide housing. To do so, it had to get a minimum amount of resources to be able to facilitate the use of at least one… Read More »BAUEN, day 50
Soon, other projects were also located in the BAUEN. On the Callao side, with the door to the new bar, a bookstore was installed, which was there for several years. During one semester, classes were given by the Language Laboratory of the School of Philosophy and Letters of the UBA. Training courses for workers and activists of the MNER were held, as were countless initiatives that were welcomed in their meeting rooms. Around that time, another large conflict was brewing… Read More »BAUEN, day 49
The mere existence of an occupied hotel in the very center of the city of Buenos Aires quickly turned the BAUEN into a center of political and union activities. The MNER itself started to use the rooms for meetings and assemblies. October 11, 2003, for example, a debate was held about legislation for recovered businesses, led by “the Basque” Murúa, José Abelli, and lawyer Diego Kravetz (already a Deputy-elect), to which various legal experts were invited, including some who were… Read More »BAUEN, day 48