Firing the Boss: The Man Who Organized Chicago's Factory Takeover Speaks Out

By Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet. Posted January 22, 2009.

Current UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles attended the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2006. There, he heard from workers from Inveval, a "recovered" factory in Venezuela. They had inspired a movement of workers occupying and running factories, with the help of the government, that had been abandoned by bosses who had fled the country. Armando returned from that experience politicized and inspired.

I visited Venezuela in 2007 and spent time visiting worker-run co-ops. I was struck by the workers' investment in the revolutionary process and their ability to run production without management.

We drew on the Argentine factory occupations to the extent that they show that during an economic crisis, workers movements are afforded a wider array of tactical options. Militant action can win public support during a downturn in ways that would have been impossible before. In fact, the film The Take was screened in the factory during the occupation in a makeshift movie theater set up in the locker room.

BD: Is there a plan to transform the Republic factory into a worker-run cooperative? If so, how did the decision to do this come about? At this point, how is the process going of setting this up?

MM: At this point, we are working to find a buyer for the factory, focusing on firms specializing in energy-efficient windows. Though we are also exploring the idea of a cooperative enterprise, the fact that no real movement of worker-run enterprises exists in the U.S. makes this option much more difficult at this point. The workers have set up an entity called the Windows of Opportunity Fund to help provide technical assistance and study this and other possibilities for restarting production. 

BD: Could you comment on the role the Republic workers' struggle in inspiring workers across the U.S. to take up similar tactics to confront unemployment and problems related to the current U.S. economic downturn?

MM: I think the Republic struggle shows we can win support for bold tactics, especially when we think carefully about how we project the struggle to the public.   Time will tell whether the Republic struggle will be viewed as a bellwether event or a flash in the pan.

On the one hand, the occupation led to a huge outpouring of support -- from solidarity rallies all across the country to donations of money, food and essential supplies. That this support was on a scale unthinkable only a year ago is proof that this action spoke to the desire of working-class people to seek ways to resist the current economic onslaught.

On the other hand, for this event to be a spark, others will have to pick up the baton. That means organized labor will have to take some measure of risk, embracing militant tactics when necessary and abandoning its reliance on political maneuvering as the primary means for the advancement of a working-class agenda. 

See more stories tagged with: labor, workers, unions, chicago, financial crisis, republic windows

Benjamin Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007). He is also the editor of Toward Freedom, a progressive perspective on world events, and Upside Down World, a news Web site uncovering activism and politics in Latin America. E-mail him at BenDangl@gmail.com.

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