Chapter 2 Bauen SACIC’s hidden plot “Too much money for a few people,” said Senator Federico Pinedo in opposition to the expropriation of the hotel Bauen for the cooperative, when it was being discussed in the National Senate. This a common ideological stance, which is also held by some judges who objected to the Constitutionality of expropriation laws for businesses recovered by their workers, which says that the “public utility” on which these laws are based would not make sense,… Read More »BAUEN, day 13

The story does not end there Endless hugs, shouts of jubilation, tears, and a tumult of joy met Federico and María Eva when they left the chamber. Everyone burst into song, and started to march to their building at Callao 360, with the flag of the cooperative at the front, to celebrate with their compañeros, the workers who had remained in the hotel. There, an improvised party was put together in the rooms, which soon included more and more people,… Read More »BAUEN, day 12

Irrazábal made a brief argument for the bill: This is a half-sanctioned bill that tries to give a definitive solution to a situation that is taking place in the BAUEN hotel. There, a worker cooperative has been managing the hotel for almost fourteen years. It’s a very long story, and I won’t tell it now. Faced with muttering and questions from some Senators, Irrazábal cut them off. “You want me to make it short? All right, I’ll make it very… Read More »BAUEN, day 11

Prayers and WhatsApp messages Irrazábal asks for the floor: “Aware of how late it is, and of the imminent possibility of the loss of parliamentary status of a half-sanctioned bill that comes unanimously approved by the Chamber of Deputies, I am going to request that the work plan be modified.” The proposal is received with murmurs and agitation by the opposition Senators, but the vote takes place, after a certain stalling by Michetti. The result is favorable: 42 to 17.… Read More »BAUEN, day 10

The budget was voted on after 9:00 PM, with less than three hours remaining for the expropriation to be approved. Meanwhile, night had fallen, and people were waiting and worrying outside. Inside, they moved on to deal with the proposals from the floor, and the first was a bill about wetlands. The debate on this bill took time. The nervousness grew. There were several bills from the floor to be dealt with, and it was already obvious that there was… Read More »BAUEN, day 9

Legislative dueling Outside Congress, people were gathering to support the workers. The sun blazed down, adding one more difficulty. The tension in the air was palpable, and as more news arrived, addressing and approving expropriation seemed further away. At one point, those present were surprised to see a sky-blue and white flag rise slowly up the flagpole of the legislative palace, because instead of the warrior sun of the official flag, it had the word BAUEN painted on it. As… Read More »BAUEN, day 8

That relationship with Irrazábal was strategic. The Senator directed his whole team, especially his niece, Silvina Irrazábal, to work with the BAUEN cooperative and its expropriation bill. “Since the day I met her and we had the first meeting, Silvina talked with me daily,” relates Tonarelli. This is how meetings were organized with Alfredo Martínez, a radical from Santa Cruz, and with Juan Manuel Abal Medina, Senator from the Front for Victory for the province of Buenos Aires. Martínez was… Read More »BAUEN, day 7

The question for the cooperative was how to overcome this impasse, in which the law was half-approved (only by the Chamber of Deputies). It was mainly a matter of finding the right people in the Senate to talk with about moving towards passing the bill. The person who provided the starting point was Deputy Omar Plaini, then the administrative secretary of the recently unified General Confederation of Labor and leader of the newspaper-sellers union. Through Marcelo Amodio, director of the… Read More »BAUEN, day 6

A complicated year The expropriation bill presented by Deputy Carlos Heller and merged with four similar bills had recently been approved at a particularly delicate time for the country, when the [left-leaning] Kirchner government was on the way out, and [right-wing] Mauricio Macri was about to win the day in the second round of Presidential elections. From the point of view of a recovered business like the BAUEN, the ideal thing would have been to end up approving the law… Read More »BAUEN, day 5

Protesters flowed in and out. Workers from the hotel or from other cooperatives and recovered businesses, members of the Argentine Federation of Self-Managed Worker Cooperatives (FACTA), supporters, and activists in solidarity with the BAUEN rotated to assure a permanent presence throughout the whole day, as news and rumors circulated among them. Police watched over the scene and rerouted traffic on Entre Ríos. Congress was blockaded, and there was little possibility of getting much closer to the place where part of… Read More »BAUEN, day 4