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Hotel Bauen
Hotel Bauen is a worker-run[1] four-star hotel[2] in Buenos Aires,[3] the capital and largest city of Argentina. It is a 20-story hotel[4] established in 1978 by the Iurcovich family[3] with loan from the then military dictatorship government[1] and was well-known as a meeting venue for right-wing politicians. But the Iurcovich family did not pay back the loan and the hotel was sold to a Chilean company named Solari SA in 1997 which also did not pay the money. By 2001, the owners abandoned the hotel which left approximately 250 people unemployed. Finally the workers themselves reopened the hotel in 2003. They also fulfilled the legal safety requirements which was ignored by the previous capitalist owners.[3] After the workers took control of the hotel, profits have also risen.[1] Former lowest ranking staff, including cleaning people, dishwashers and receptionists, run the hotel democratically without any workplace hierarchy.[5]
Hotel Bauen is often considered to be an example about how workers can form labour-orientated kinds of social responsibility in opposition to the capitalist system.[3] According to receptionist Luisa Casanova, "It is more than just a hotel. Political groups and unions meet here during the week; people from the provinces arriving in Buenos Aires for their first time know to come here to find job opportunities. Bauen influences other social movements in a positive way."[1]
Right-wing politicians targeted the hotel for eviction.[2] The sons of Iurkovich claimed ownership of the hotel; this claim is deputed by the workers. Hotel clerk Diego Siles said, "the government loaned the money and no one ever paid back those loans, the hotel in reality belongs to the government." The government can legally side with the workers who have also said they will pay back the loan if they are given ownership of the hotel.[2] Casanova said, "if the government isn´t corrupt, they will side with the workers."[1] In November 2005, a petition called for expropriation of the hotel by the Municipality of Buenos Aires. Within three days, 2700 signatures were garnered which demanded to stop the expropriation.[6]
Bauen receives mutual support from other recovered businesses, i.e. when there is a problem with one business, workers from other recovered businesses will help. FaSinPat, formerly known as Zanon, a worker-run ceramic tile factory in the Neuquén Province in southern Argentina, donated ceramic tiles to the Hotel Bauen in exchange for free lodging.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Sammy Loren, Argentina’s Worker-Run Hotel Bauen Upside Down World
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Argentina: Solidarity with Bauen hotel workers LabourStart
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Alice Bryer, Beyond Bureaucracies? Rethinkingeconomies.org.uk
- ↑ Brian Byrnes, Argentina elects a new president on Sunday amid a five-year recession The Christian Science Monitor
- ↑ Zack Fields, D.I.Y. Argentina Campus Progress
- ↑ Peter Ranis, "TO OCCUPY, TO RESIST, TO PRODUCE"
- ↑ Charles Aasgaard Davis, The Struggle of the Fábrica Sin Patrón in Neuquén, Argentina
Further readings
- Hotel Bauen's Workers Face Eviction Infoshop News
- Worker-controlled Hotel Bauen under eviction threat Infoshop News
- Worker Self-management threatened at the HOTEL BAUEN in Buenos Aires Industrial Workers of the World
- Marie Trigona, BAUEN Hotel: Struggle, culture and work
