After eight years of battling in the streets and in the courts, the workers’ co-operative which occupied Argentina’s failed Zanon PF factory have won legal control over the premises.
The Fasinpat collective, which employs 470 workers and exports ceramics to 25 countries, will keep the facility while the government pays off around $7 million in debts which had been incurred by the original owner and were being demanded by finance houses such as the World Bank.
The workforce have voiced their disagreement with the payoff, saying that the banks who financed Zanon are party to the plant’s fraudulent bankruptcy in 2001 and should be prosecuted.
Fasinpat’s victory has not however offered a definitive victory for the factory occupation movement in Argentina. Just hours after the legal victory was announced, thread factory Textil Quilmes was violently evicted after a six month occupation despite having temporary legal protection.