April 6, film screening of "The Take" in Santa Cruz to benefit Indybay

Santa Cruz Indymedia activists were given a copy of The Take, a new film by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein about worker expropriation of factories in Argentina after the 2001 economic collapse. There will be a free screening of this excellent documentary on Wednesday, April 6th, 7:00pm, at Barrios Unidos (1817 Soquel Ave).

We are trying to raise funds to support Indybay.org, the San Francisco Bay Area IMC. Why are we raising funds for Indybay?. Since August of 2000, Indybay has become one of the most active Independent Media Centers, through Indybay.org and projects like Enemy Combatant Radio, Fault Lines Newspaper, and Street Level TV. Indybay is an important resource beyond the Bay Area, and has provided excellent coverage of the social movements and governmental collapses that have taken place in Argentina over the last few years. Now Indybay needs our help buying another server, because the current hard disks are almost completely filled up (with radical, independent media).

So come on out to Barrios Unidos (1817 Soquel Ave) on Wednesday, April 6 at 7:00pm to get educated and inspired from The Take, and support Indymedia.


Film Description from TheTake.org:

The Take is a political thriller that turns the globalization debate on its head. The film follows Argentina’s radical new movement of occupied businesses: groups of workers who are claiming the country’s bankrupt workplaces and running them without bosses.

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave.

All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act —The Take — has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

In the wake of Argentina’s dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America’s most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They’re part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

But Freddy, the president of the new worker’s co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory.

The story of the workers’ struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse, Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins, they’ll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.

Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada’s most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers’ lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

www.TheTake.org

* Please note! This film will also be shown at the Del Mar Theatre on Thursday, April 28, as part of the Reelwork Labor Film Festival. Afterwards, there will be a presentation and discussion with a panel of worker activists from the Argentinean social movements. So please, spread the word and help fill up the Del Mar on April 28!!!


More on The Take:

* Econ 101: Opportunities After Economic Collapse

* Interview with Klein and Lewis in Znet

* DemocracyNow! Interview and Sound Bites

www.TheTake.org