The Take opens in theatres across Canada this Friday, October 29. The film --directed, produced and written by Canada's most prominent left wing couple, Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein -- is an impressive debut that examines the occupied factory movement in Argentina after its economic collapse in 2001.

The film opens with Lewis and Klein in positions that many of us in the anti-globalization movement can relate to – being asked by rights wingers, “what is the alternative to global capitalism?” and, “where are these alternatives working?” Although it is easy for us to see where imperialist globalization is not working, it is often hard to see where viable alternatives exist; until now, that is, at least according to makers of The Take.

Klein and Lewis’s documentary takes us to Argentina to show not only how the principles of neo-liberal globalization destroyed the once prosperous Argentinian economy, but how an alternative, socialist-based vision of cooperative factories is inspiring and reinvigorating the country’s economy. The film follows the struggle to change the face of Argentina’s economy, while also capturing the trials and tribulations of the ordinary working people that are carrying out this process.

The background for the film is the history of Argentina. In the 1940’s the Peron government, which focused on the building of the nation’s industrial base, laid the foundation for Argentina to become the strongest economy in Latin America, complete with an affluent and flourishing middle class. After years of military coups, the so-called “dirty wars,” and the election of the right wing president Carlos Menem, this situation began to change. Menem, who was elected on a Peronist platform of rebuilding the national industries, in fact did exactly the opposite, using Argentina as a guinea pig for global capitalism to the delight of foreign investors, the IMF and World Bank. This process included the privatization of public assets, deregulation of the currency markets and the pegging of the Argentinian peso to the U.S. dollar. Ultimately, this led to the huge increases in unemployment, public debt, corporate corruption, and the eventual bankrupting of the country.

The film powerfully captures the outrage of middle and working class Argentinians after their government closed the banks, thus allowing the international and local capitalist elite to spirit their wealth out of the country. This left, as the filmmakers show, the citizens to concretely fight globalization, to “take on the capitalist system, take over the machines, and “take out the bosses and take back their country” as thousands of matė loving Argentinians took to the streets to riot. This eventually led to the occupied factories movement with its motto: occupy, resist, produce.

The Take focuses mostly on the attempt of the workers at the Fjord factory to expropriate and operate the company for which they once worked. The owner, who had abandoned the company years earlier, claimed that it was no longer economically viable to keep the factory running, leaving many workers unemployed and owing millions of pesos in unpaid wages. Inspired and supported by the workers and activists of the occupied factories before them, –such as those at the Zanón Ceramics factory, Brukman garment factory, as well as other health clinics and schools –the laid off workers of Fjord decide to take over their old workplace, start the machines back up and function as a highly democratic worker cooperative. Of course, predictably, once the workers start producing products and show the viability of these abandoned workplaces, the bosses want “their” factories back.

The film also parallels the larger political struggle in Argentina, and the interplay between the efforts of the workers of Fjord and the official political campaign between Peronist Kirschner and the bosses’ hero Menem. The latter staged a brief political comeback (the film shows him humbly comparing himself to Jesus Christ) before bowing out to Kirschner in the run-off election.

The tension between old-time electoral politics and the direct action of the occupied factories movement is a theme that the film examines closely; one imagines that this is a result of the thinking and ideas of the filmmakers. The rejection of all political parties and of the electoral process itself certainly remains a popular sentiment in Argentina, where the movement that went through five presidents in the three weeks adopted the slogan of “Que Se Vayan Todos.” However, the fate of the occupied workers is often decided in the courts or legislative assembly, so it seems that as the movement matures a combination of grassroots direct action and political lobbying will be required.

Klein and Lewis are -- despite their relative youth -- a worldly and well connected couple. They likely could have chosen to make their debut film about any movement in the world. Obviously they see the occupied factories movement of Argentina as an important example for the global resistance to international capital and neo-liberalism.

The Take is an impressive first effort, and part of a growing number of progressive documentaries drawing substantial audiences. We can only hope that some of the film’s North American viewers take The Take to heart, and infuse their own activism with the lessons of Argentina.

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The Take opens across Canada on October 29.

Check out more movie reviews, from the Seven Oaks archives:

• Friday Night Lights (October 19, 2004)
• Going upriver: The long war of John Kerry (October 12, 2004)
• Baghdad Blogger (October 12, 2004)
• Garden State (September 21, 2004)
• She Hate Me (August 24, 2004)
• A Touch of Pink (August 10, 2004)
• Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle (August 3, 2004)
• The Agronomist (July 12, 2004)
• The Day After Tomorrow (June 14, 2004)
• Kill Bill, Vol.2 (April 19, 2004)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (March 29, 2004)
• Jersey Girl (March 29, 2004)
• The Ladykillers (March 29, 2004)
• Goodbye Lenin (March 22, 2004)
• Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights (March 8, 2004)
• The Passion of the Christ (March 1, 2004)
• Miracle (February 21, 2004)

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