Worker Self-Management in Argentina: Problems and Potentials of Self-Managed Labor in the Context of the Neoliberal Post-Crisis

Since the late 1990s, cases of workers’ self-management have proliferated in all types of production (of goods and services) enterprises throughout Argentina, attracting enormous solidarity and the attention of researchers and activists. So-called “worker-recovered enterprises” (WRE5)1 are attempts to self-manage bankrupt production enterprises that have been abandoned by the capitalists, with the primary objective of preserving sources of employment. The situation that is created leads workers to embark on a complicated, risky course, one that requires their maximum effort, so that they can be successful where the capitalists failed. In this context, their survival is useful in analyzing how self-management can be achieved in adverse conditions, even more strained by operating within the logic of the market.