No Willy Wonka: "The Take"

The Take, a documentary made by Naomi Klein (the author of No Logo) and her husband Avi Lewis (the former host of CBC now works for Al Jazeera), tells a story about how Argentine workers take over the closed factories and make them productive again. The bosses are fired.

In the late 80s Argentina was expected to be counted among the arising countries, but in the 90s the economy model failed and the country was in trouble. Multinational companies withdrew everything in cash, in time. Many owners of factories filed bankruptcy but walked away with money. The workers left unemployed, in awe of the mobility of money and the immobility of themselves.

Activists come up with the three-phase strategy: Occupy, resist, produce. The plant is under the court's seal. Workers break in, resist the police, and try to make the factory function and produce. A boss is the only thing missing in the picture but workers wonder if a boss is really a necessity.

Workers/managers in The Take were busy. They had to deal with the court, the judge was not happy about the breaking-in; they had to deal with the police, they got orders from the judge to clear up the plant; so they had to build up solidarity of the community for a stronger defense against legal authorities.

And they had to handle the whole production, but somehow that's easy. They know how to operate the machines; that's the only thing they were trained to do. They had to do accounting but they shrugged: "You buy materials, and you sell products; you just add and subtract. I don't know why it is so difficult to the bosses."

There were tears wiped in silence when they returned to the closed factory for first time after being unemployed, when they failed, and when they won. The teary eyes remind me of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

I was so terrified by the cruelty of the movie and its indifference. Willy Wonka fired everyone in the factory and replaced them with machines and immigrant workers. Charlie's grandmas and grandpas remain in bed all day, awake or asleep, because there is simply no space; but the biggest dream of the formerly-employed grandpa is to return to the factory and take a look. As poor as that, they spent money on the chocolate which they can't possibly afford, because Willy Wonka is rich enough to create a global dream and make everyone drooling over the tickets for the game. The game is about moral commandments: Thou shalt not be greedy, willful and selfish; but isn't Willy Wonka the most greedy, willful, and selfish person in the movie?

Naomi Klein was challenged by TV hosts that she fails to propose an "alternative" for capitalism. Activists are familiar with this argument: "I don't want you to tell me what's wrong unless you can FIX IT! If you say you can you better PROVE IT! And buzz me when you are done." The Take is the alternative she finds. Of the worker, by the worker, for the worker; and no Willy Wonka.


1. To buy The Take, and the products made by Argentine workers' factories, please go to The Working World.

2. A Taiwanese filmmaker Chao-Ti Ho made a documentary on a similar situation titled El Salvador Journal and just won an award in Taipei Film Festival. The owner intending to shut down the factory is a Taiwanese, and a Taiwanese activist helped the local workers to fight against the entrepreneur and take over the plant. I look forward to watching it!

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