... it is Argentina in 1999-2002.
After riots in Decembr 2001, Argentina went off the peg and unemployment reached 25%. A year later, 58% of the population fell below the poverty line, more than one in four were in extreme poverty.
This led to nationalization of some industries.
Adjustments in Spain and Greece have barely begun and their unemployment levels are at 25% already (and they are still on a fixed peg).
Here is an an exceprt from the Wikipedia pages on the crisis.
"Worker-owned cooperatives and self-management
During the economic collapse, many business owners and foreign investors drew all of their money out of the Argentine economy and sent it overseas. As a result, many small and medium enterprises closed due to lack of capital, thereby
exacerbating unemployment. Many workers at these enterprises, faced with a sudden loss of employment and no source of income, decided to reopen businesses on their own, without the presence of the owners and their capital, as self-managed cooperatives.
Worker managed cooperative businesses range from ceramics factory Zanon (FaSinPat), to the four-star Hotel Bauen, to suit factory Brukman, to printing press Chilavert, and many others. In some cases, former owners sent police to remove workers out of these workplaces; this was sometimes successful but in other cases workers defended occupied workplaces against the
state, the police, and the bosses.
A survey by an Argentina newspaper in the capital found that around 1/3 of the population had participated in general assemblies. The assemblies used to take place in street corners and public spaces, and generally gathered to discuss
ways of helping each other in the face of eviction, or organizing around issues like health care, collective food buying, or conducting free food distribution programs. Some assemblies started to create new structures of health care and schooling, to replace the old ones that were not working. Neighborhood assemblies met once a week in a large assembly to discuss issues
affecting the larger community.In 2004, Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein (author of No Logo) released the documentary The
Take, about these events.
Some businesses have now been legally purchased by the workers for nominal fees, others remain 'occupied' by workers who have no legal standing with the state (and in some cases reject negotiation with the state on the grounds that working productively is its own justification). The Argentine government is considering a Law of Expropriation that would transfer some occupied businesses to their worker-managers."
Some version of this most certainly lies ahead for the peripherry of Europe. For Spain, I think it is not too much to say things will be worse than Argentina -becasue of its housing bubble, fixed exchange rate, banking crisss. and a backdrop of global deleveraging.
After riots in Decembr 2001, Argentina went off the peg and unemployment reached 25%. A year later, 58% of the population fell below the poverty line, more than one in four were in extreme poverty.
This led to nationalization of some industries.
Adjustments in Spain and Greece have barely begun and their unemployment levels are at 25% already (and they are still on a fixed peg).
Here is an an exceprt from the Wikipedia pages on the crisis.
"Worker-owned cooperatives and self-management
During the economic collapse, many business owners and foreign investors drew all of their money out of the Argentine economy and sent it overseas. As a result, many small and medium enterprises closed due to lack of capital, thereby
exacerbating unemployment. Many workers at these enterprises, faced with a sudden loss of employment and no source of income, decided to reopen businesses on their own, without the presence of the owners and their capital, as self-managed cooperatives.
Worker managed cooperative businesses range from ceramics factory Zanon (FaSinPat), to the four-star Hotel Bauen, to suit factory Brukman, to printing press Chilavert, and many others. In some cases, former owners sent police to remove workers out of these workplaces; this was sometimes successful but in other cases workers defended occupied workplaces against the
state, the police, and the bosses.
A survey by an Argentina newspaper in the capital found that around 1/3 of the population had participated in general assemblies. The assemblies used to take place in street corners and public spaces, and generally gathered to discuss
ways of helping each other in the face of eviction, or organizing around issues like health care, collective food buying, or conducting free food distribution programs. Some assemblies started to create new structures of health care and schooling, to replace the old ones that were not working. Neighborhood assemblies met once a week in a large assembly to discuss issues
affecting the larger community.In 2004, Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein (author of No Logo) released the documentary The
Take, about these events.
Some businesses have now been legally purchased by the workers for nominal fees, others remain 'occupied' by workers who have no legal standing with the state (and in some cases reject negotiation with the state on the grounds that working productively is its own justification). The Argentine government is considering a Law of Expropriation that would transfer some occupied businesses to their worker-managers."
Some version of this most certainly lies ahead for the peripherry of Europe. For Spain, I think it is not too much to say things will be worse than Argentina -becasue of its housing bubble, fixed exchange rate, banking crisss. and a backdrop of global deleveraging.
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