News

STATEMENT FROM MARIANO PEDRERO, LAWYER FOR THE ZANON WORKERS

MAY 9, 2005

Compañeros,

I am writing to keep you up-to-date on the latest news.

First, Zanon has registered in the cram-down process. This means that he has applied to buy the factory. The deadline to register had already passed, but some manoeuvering by the judge and the trustees extended the process and allowed Zanon to register. This is exactly the ploy that we had been warning about.

Zanon applied through a figurehead: Ocabamba SA, a company that it only took us an hour to find out is owned by Zanon's son and wife. This company also has stocks in Zanon Ceramics itself; the whole thing is a total sham.

Today I am going to present a number of documents to the court denouncing the fact that these people stripped the factory of its assets, prompted layoffs, were found guilty of illegally locking out workers, were ousted from the Board of Directors, and a long etcetera. I am going to request that their application be challenged, besides the fact that the deadline had already passed. For all these reasons, I will demand, once more, recognition of the cooperative.

The national government says "oh, look at that, they registered." As always: the provincial government strikes and the national government looks the other way and lets it happen.

There is also good news. On Friday we had an INCREDIBLE day of assembly. There was more unity than we've had in a long time. 70 compañeros signed up to speak.

Also, in RADAR - the cultural supplement in the newspaper Página/12 - there was an article yesterday about Avi and Naomi's movie and its premiere in Paris. It's a very good article, you can read it online.

Okay, I'll write again with any additional news. A big hug to all and thank you for all your international activism. It's worth remembering once again that borders were invented by the bosses to divide us, and that exploited workers and youth are the same on one side of the border and the other: we are all exploited workers and youth. We do NOT have borders, we just have a large task ahead of us: unity and the struggle against this system of oppression and exploitation.

Cheers, Mariano