A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #45 - It's not enough to resist - Self-management in the face of capital's global offensive (*) (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Tenth International Meeting of the "Economy of Workers" took place 
in the Argentine city of La Rioja from November 27 to 29, 2025. Over 200 
people from a dozen countries in the Americas and Europe participated: 
workers from recovered businesses, cooperatives, social movements, trade 
unions, and self-management groups. The choice of La Rioja was not 
accidental. This sparsely populated province-about 330,000 
inhabitants-has 17 worker-recovered businesses. It is therefore one of 
the places where the roots of Argentina's ERTs (Empresas Recuperadas por 
los Trabajadores) most clearly demonstrate that self-management is not 
an abstract formula, but a concrete social practice, born out of crises, 
employer failures, conflicts, and attempts to defend jobs, production, 
and community.

Attendance, however, was lower than in previous editions. The reasons 
are both economic and political. Many recovered businesses and 
cooperatives were unable to attend due to financial constraints. Even 
some foreign delegations, usually large, such as those from Mexico and 
Uruguay, sent smaller numbers, mostly composed of university students. 
Chilean participation, however, was strong, especially through the 
Federation of Work and Solidarity Cooperatives (TRASOL): a large, young 
delegation, largely composed of women, which played a very active role 
in the work.

The Argentine context has weighed heavily on the entire Rencontre . The 
ultra-liberal policies of the Milei government are severely impacting 
self-management practices. According to Andrés Ruggeri, the recovered 
businesses movement in Argentina is currently in grave danger: there has 
been a decline in the number of approximately thirty recovered 
businesses, a 10% loss of jobs, and a reduction in wages of up to 50%. 
Added to this material factor is a political and cultural one: the 
penetration of libertarian ideas within the work collectives themselves. 
This is not a secondary factor. Where self-management is based on 
solidarity, collective decision-making, and worker control, the 
individualistic and competitive ideology promoted by Mileism risks 
corroding cooperative and mutualistic cultures from within.

The debates focused on the problems and potential of a self-managed 
economy in a context marked by the advance of the radical right, 
neo-fascism, and corporate capital against the working classes. The 
final declaration clearly stated: faced with this offensive, the working 
class must overcome the fragmentation imposed by ultra-liberal 
capitalism, strengthen its self-organization, and defend the most 
advanced experiences of self-management.

It's not just about defending what exists. The point is to extend these 
practices. These practices must be developed as an alternative form of 
organizing work, production, and the reproduction of life. 
Self-management, from this perspective, is not a cooperative niche, nor 
an emergency solution for failed businesses. It is a battleground 
against the capitalist model of social organization.

The work consisted of round tables and workshops, moving from general 
themes to more specific questions: the situation of the working class in 
the political, economic, and ecological crisis of global capitalism; 
self-management as an alternative practice and project; businesses 
recovered under the Milei government; the economy of working men and 
women from a gender perspective; the relationship between the state, 
public policies, and self-management; social security in cooperatives; 
forms of marketization in the cooperative sector; the relationship 
between trade unionism, labor organization, and global neoliberal 
capitalism.

Sono stati presentati anche diversi libri, tra cui Produire dans la 
nouvelle mondialisation , Les droits de droite. La victoire du 
capitalisme mondialisé di Mario Hernández e L'autogestion comme forme de 
lutte. Questions pour construire un chemin commun della federazione 
cilena TRASOL .

The daily report by Richard Neuville, present in La Rioja for the 
Association pour l'autogestion and the Union syndicale Solidaires , 
confirms the quality of the debate, as well as its limitations. The 
discussions took place in an atmosphere of listening and tolerance, 
without ignoring disagreements. Some definitions remain open: "business 
recovery," "recovery," "worker economy," "self-management." These terms 
do not always mean the same thing in different contexts.

Here one of the most interesting points emerges. In Latin America, 
self-management often arises within processes of worker regeneration, 
social conflict, and direct defense of the means of production. In 
Europe, however, many experiences take cooperative or mutualistic forms, 
without necessarily translating into fully-fledged practices of workers' 
control. The French case, as Neuville himself illustrates, is 
significant: many "troubled" businesses have been taken over by workers 
in the form of cooperatives, saving jobs and productive know-how, but 
this does not automatically guarantee self-management.

The difference shouldn't be interpreted as a hierarchy of experiences. 
It says something more: it highlights a structural weakness in the 
European context. On our continent, self-management is often more of a 
theoretical, cultural, or memorial reference than a mass social 
practice. The weak European participation in the Rencontre is not only 
due to costs or distances, but also to the fragility of concrete 
experiences. This is precisely why international comparison is 
necessary: not to export models, but to understand how self-management 
can once again become a political culture capable of intertwining 
movements, unions, cooperatives, territorial struggles, and labor conflicts.

The final declaration also took a series of positions of international 
solidarity. La Rencontre expressed active solidarity with the 
Palestinian people and called for an end to the occupation, genocide, 
and ongoing aggression by the State of Israel and its Western allies. It 
spoke out against US imperialist aggression against Venezuela and for 
the consolidation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace. 
It also expressed support for the self-management of the GKN factory in 
Florence, the recovered company Gráficos Asociados in Mendoza, the 
recovered factory La Litoraleña in Buenos Aires, the Cristalería 
Vitrofín in Cañada de Gómez, threatened by the interruption of its gas 
supply, and the expropriation law for the Morvillo printing company in 
the province of Buenos Aires.

No less important is the support expressed for Law 341 on 
self-management of habitat in the city of Buenos Aires, threatened by 
attempts to empty the city government, for the national bill on the 
social production of popular habitat promoted by the Movimiento de 
Ocupantes e Inquilinos, for educational experiences in social, 
cooperative and community management and for the full implementation of 
the law on the promotion of cooperatives in the province of La Rioja .

On the organizational level, the final plenary session highlighted the 
need to improve participation mechanisms and expand working spaces. 
Issues related to the marketing chains for cooperative products remain 
unresolved. This is a crucial problem: without mutually supportive 
economic, distribution, and mutualistic networks, self-managed 
initiatives risk remaining isolated and more exposed to market pressure.

The 11th Rencontre Internationale is scheduled to take place in July 
2027. Among the possibilities put forward are Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, 
and Italy. For 2026, however, any regional meetings will be held only if 
there are concrete proposals from organizations willing to host them. 
Logistical difficulties, rising transportation costs, and the political 
context marked by the rise of the radical right make the construction of 
these international spaces more complex.

In this regard, although the Rencontre was held regularly, an unusual 
visit by officials from the Directorate of Migration to one of the 
hotels hosting foreign participants was reported. This act was 
interpreted as a clear attempt at intimidation, something that had never 
occurred in previous Argentine editions.

The La Rioja meeting doesn't provide definitive answers. However, it 
does demonstrate a key political fact: self-management exists, it 
resists, but today it is fully immersed in the global conflict. It 
cannot survive as an isolated entity. It must connect, defend itself, 
multiply, and equip itself with common tools.

At a time when the radical right is advancing, corporate capital is 
attacking rights and wages, and ultraliberalism seeks to transform every 
social relationship into competition, self-management returns to ask a 
simple and radical question: who decides on work, production, wealth, 
and life?

This is the question we need to start from again. Not as a theoretical 
exercise, but as a real battleground.

*)Editorial reworking based on reports published on 
https://autogestion.asso.fr/la-rencontre-internationale-de-la-rioja-confrontee-au-libertarisme/

Final Declaration of the 10th International Meeting of the Workers' Economy

La Rioja, November 29, 2025

The following declaration is the final document of the 10th 
International Meeting of the "Workers' Economy," held in Argentina. It 
summarizes the main political positions that emerged from the exchange 
of experiences of self-management, recovered businesses, cooperatives, 
and social movements from various countries.

The 10th International Meeting of the "Economy of Workers" concluded in 
the city of La Rioja after three days of intense and rich debates, 
involving over 200 participants from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, 
Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Spain, the Basque Country, France, Greece, 
Turkey and Brazil.

The meeting was attended by organizations from recovered and 
self-managed businesses, cooperative federations, grassroots economic 
movements, trade unions, academic groups, and other entities associated 
with self-managed work.

The debate focused on the problems and potential of the self-managed 
economy, the condition of the working class at the local, regional, and 
global levels, and the concern over the advance of the right and 
corporate capital against the popular sectors and their gains.

It was reaffirmed that, faced with this offensive against the peoples of 
the world, the working class must overcome the fragmentation imposed by 
ultra-liberal capitalism, strengthen its self-organization to defend its 
interests and, above all, defend the most advanced experiences of 
organization and self-management.

These practices must be developed as a concrete alternative to the model 
of organizing work, production, and the reproduction of life imposed by 
the ultraliberal project. In this sense, the Encounter confirms itself 
as a space for exchange, learning, and the construction of alternatives 
based on the concrete experiences of the working class in diverse 
contexts around the world.

During the final plenary session, the Meeting also declared:

a) its active solidarity with the Palestinian people and its demand for 
an end to the occupation, genocide and ongoing aggression by the State 
of Israel and its Western allies;

b) its opposition to the imperialist aggression of the United States 
against Venezuela and its support for the construction of Latin America 
and the Caribbean as a zone of peace;

c) support for the self-management experience of the GKN factory in 
Florence;

d) opposition to the auction with which the judiciary is threatening the 
recovered company Gráficos Asociados in the province of Mendoza;

e) the condemnation of the closure and eviction order against the 
recovered factory La Litoraleña in Buenos Aires;

f) support for the continuity of production at the recovered Cristalería 
Vitrofín factory (Cañada de Gómez, Santa Fe), threatened by the 
interruption of the gas supply;

g) support for the expropriation law of the Morvillo printing house in 
the province of Buenos Aires.

The plenary also expressed opposition to the Buenos Aires city 
government's attempts to undermine and render ineffective Law 341 on 
Habitat Self-Management, supporting instead the national bill on the 
social production of popular habitat promoted by the Movimiento de 
Ocupantes e Inquilinos , as well as legislative initiatives on 
educational experiences in social, cooperative and community management 
and the implementation of the Cooperative Promotion Law of the province 
of La Rioja (Law 8.901).

Regarding the functioning of the Meeting, the need to further improve 
participation mechanisms and expand the workspace was emphasized, along 
with a more structured planning of activities, a task that will be 
entrusted to the Organizing Committee for the next meeting.

In relation to the organization of the XI International Meeting, it was 
agreed to hold it in July 2027. Among the possible locations, the 
candidacies of Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay and Italy have been put forward.

Taking into account the increasing logistical challenges, rising 
transportation costs, and the political context, it was also decided 
that any regional meetings in 2026 will only be held if there is a 
concrete proposal from organizations willing to host them.

These assessments are also linked to the worsening political conditions 
in several countries, marked by increasing persecution by the radical 
right. In this context, although the Meeting was held regularly, the 
unusual presence of agents from the Directorate of Migration was 
reported in one of the hotels hosting foreign participants: a clear 
attempt at intimidation, unprecedented in previous editions held in 
Argentina.

Finally, the International Organizing Committee expressed its thanks to 
all the participants who contributed with their militant commitment to 
the success of the Meeting, and in particular to the local organization 
led by the cooperative El Independiente Copegraf Ltda. and the 
Federation of Self-Managed Cooperatives of the Argentine Republic.

Thanks were also extended to the Legislature of the Province of La 
Rioja, which supported the initiative by declaring it to be of 
legislative interest (Decree 221/2025), and to the German foundation 
Umverteilen, whose contribution made possible, among other things, the 
interpretation service for non-Spanish-speaking participants.

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