My take on "The Take"

[pastafarian]

I was very inspired by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein's recent documentary The Take. http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/thetake/

It made me think of things I hadn't in a while. It certainly refreshed my cynicism in party politics and the form the democracy takes in the Western world. It's become pretty clear to me that representative democracy can only exist when voting blocks number about 100 people or less.

The other thing is it makes an reasonably thoughtful viewer question their assumptions about democracy, capitalism and socialism.

I haven't felt so inspired by capitalist ideology since I stopped thinking that Ayn Rand was anything other than a pompous fairy-tale writer for callow privileged youth and insensitive superficial adults.

At first glance, the idea of "The People taking back the means of production" seems very Marxist and all Lefty warm and fuzzy, but it's not.

It's true capitalism IMO, where people earn their keep by their labour and skills. Everyone keeps a fair share of what they earn and they must be efficient to succeed. There are no parasites living off the labour of others (i.e. shareholders, boards of directors, CEOs) in the background: they have been fired.Still, they try to co-opt the force of the State to steal what is not rightfully theirs. Governments are bypassed (to the extent possible) and decisions are made democratically.

The Take is an account of the worker movement in Argentina that has resulted in the takeover of hundreds of factories shut down following the collapse of Argentina's economy in December 2001. As writer and director respectively, Klein and Lewis follow the occupation of one factory in particular, an auto-parts plant where the workers go to court to get a temporary expropriation order so they can re-start the business and begin to recoup their lost wages.

 

[Reverend Blair]

The Take is a very important film, Pastafarian. The worker-run plants, and the economic collapse that led to them, show the failure of the doctrine being pushed by the World Bank.

It also shows the lie behind the neo-conservative/neo-liberal doctrine of corporatism. The collectivism of the workers has provided them a way to make a living while contributing directly to the Argentine economy, while corporatism led to the destruction of that economy.

 

[pastafarian]

One quibble I have with the film: I think they were unfairly hard on Kirchner. It's very hard just to walk away from the IMF, especially when you owe them a lot of money. And while it's true that he has not been especially supportive of the re-patriation of the factories, he hasn't actively opposed it, either. In fact, in October the collective that runs the ceramics plant featured in "The Take" was granted a one-year ownership in order to make it a success.

Kirchner has stood with Lula and Chaves against the FTAA, he has purged the military and judiciary of many of their corrupt senior members and has halved the unemployment rate and increased the size of the economy by 8.5%.

He's no democratic socialist for sure, but he seems to be walking the line between keeping the corporate wolves from the door and rebuilding the economy for the Argentinian people.

I found "Life and Debt" to be a much more powerful indictment of the IMF than this film, if only because the latter begins after the damage has been done, whereas in the former, you see the country being torn down brick by brick.

 

[Jay]

"I was very inspired by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein's recent documentary The Take"


I'm going to have to have a look at it. Thanks.

 

[pastafarian]

Given our ideological differences, Jay, I'm curious as to whether you'll appreciate the vindication of the virtues of capitalism that I saw in it, or just write it off as "a bunch of Commies stealing what doesn't belong to them." I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Reverend Blair]

One quibble I have with the film: I think they were unfairly hard on Kirchner. It's very hard just to walk away from the IMF, especially when you owe them a lot of money. And while it's true that he has not been especially supportive of the re-patriation of the factories, he hasn't actively opposed it, either. In fact, in October the collective that runs the ceramics plant featured in "The Take" was granted a one-year ownership in order to make it a success.

Kirchner appeared to be headed in the other direction when the film was being made though, Pastafarian. That's something that has to kept in mind about documentaries...they do not have the immediacy of a news report. When the film was made, it was looking very much like he was going oppose the re-patriation of the factories.