We have been meeting ministers, subministers and so on, but...
...we understood that nothing comes of it all, there's no hope.
They always said "we will", "sometime soon"...
...just promises, nothing more.
We were stuck in the situation.
That's the reason why we decided to move on by ourselves.
Although in the last three-party talk between our fellows, the minister in Athens
and the company's trustee...
...the trustee said "ok"...
...we can re-open the factory and carry on our plan.
So we started...
...we started working, preparing the factory to re-open.
We have already done preparatory work,
we have cleaned the place, we have fixed...
...We have done what's necessary
for the factory to re-start.
As from this point on...well, we workers are here...
...determined to start again.
We have nothing to fear.
My name is Christodoulos Yatzis
Under the previous administation I was a forklift operator.
In the beginning...Well, we don't expect to start production within a week!
We will start by using the products that are already available.
We will sell the stored products in order to get some money to begin with.
Now, as for later on, when the production will start...We'll see...
We'll proceed step by step.
So, we've made this decision, because there was no other way, we were...
We had reached our limits!
Our lives changed overnight.
The crisis has changed everything.
Self-management was a good idea, since our ex-employers dumpted us
and we were all left unpaid for such a long time.
The only thing we could do, was to take the factory over...
As a cooperative, of course.
We'd like to see the same happening in other factories which face the same problems,
where workers don't know what to do, being left unpaid.
We'd like to pave the way for everybody.
To be in position to run themselves factories that have been abandoned by the bosses.
What we're trying to do is important and we're doing the best we can...
...We are discussing with people, meeting solidarity groups...We go wherever we can...
People come to us asking,"what are you doing?", "why are you doing it?", "why exactly?"...
...And we attempt to explain in detail:
That we want a factory run by its workers,
with equal wages, with equal rights, without the previous exploitation.
That's the reason why we struggle and why we will continue to struggle as long as possible.
My name is Alekos and this is the storehouse for ready products.
All this material has been confiscated.
As already said, for a start we are planning to sell the existing detergents.
This way we'll raise the investment money...and, if possible, earn some for ourselves...
but the priority is to buy raw materials in order to start the production process...
A larger-scale production...
This way, step by step...we expect to reach the point...to achieve full-scale production.
My name is Makis Anagnostou and this here has always been my working place!
It's the work that I know best.
What we 're trying to do is to re-open the central gate and have the factory all for ourselves!
Up to now...we've been entering through the adjacent factory and that was a problem...
Since we've opened the gate...you've already seen...as from today...the gate is wide open!
It's being paved so that the trucks can enter and be loaded.
The factory's machinery is otherwise ready...
We could press a button and start the production as from tomorrow!
What's left to do is raise the investment money...for the materials...
...In order to start producing, we need to buy raw materials!
Today there has been a very positive development:
The managing consultant of the TITAN factory...
He visited our space...and...offered us raw material...
We call on...we call on other providers to follow the example of TITAN...
...to provide raw material...
...in order for our initiative to materialise.
It's the peak moment now...The phase of getting informed on how to go about things is over...
We've already asked for the help of collectives, of...of...many people! Now it's time for work!
We must start working, producing at least low-cost products, which we can finance on our own.
We must go through the production cycle once or twice, in order to raise initial money...
for our survival, but also to buy the expensive materials and start full-scale production...
set up the factory so that we can work full-time, all of us...and...
Maybe more workers will be needed...Apparently, there won't be enough workers...
...To produce full-scale we'll have to hire people.
We 're discussing with the minister...waiting for answers...
We've asked... the company's consultant... for the company's shares.
He said he'll think about it...
He'll bring our request to the trial court...
We'll possibly make one more offer...
...but, of course...we certainly want the shares, not the company's the debts!
We won't undertake the previous owners' debts, no way!
It's simply the form of the struggle that will change...We won't stop stuggling.
As my mate already told you, we attempt to revive a ghost!
Because one shouldn't live with ghosts...one should "erase" them...
At one go, we will restart a business...Profitable, just like it used to be.
...And everybody who used to work here will again be able to...
to somehow contribute.
After being unpaid for 17 months...
a general assembly was held and the idea was thrown around for the first time.
The assembly started working on it and...it was coming out fine!
I mean, we decided altogether to proceed and form a cooperative.
To begin with, we invited Ernesto Lalo from Argentina...
and he informed us on self-management in Argentina: how it started, how it works...
This was important information for us.
There was a discussion about how workers in Argentina felt and how far they reached...
and that's how we started!
We realised that, being unemployed, left us without hope in the first place.
We observe the consequences of the crisis around us...
There are no jobs! So, our only hope was...to reopen the factory.
That's the basis of our idea...and we will not back down!
For a long time...
I felt depressed...because there was no way...
...to deal...with everyday life: buying food, paying our bills...
All this was...
All of us, all the colleagues were unhappy and didn't know what to do!
Well, we found a way: we'll run the company.
Little by little...
...we'll recuperate it. Even better than before!
So...I'm feeling really happy...
because...
...because we are about to run the factory...with my colleagues.
Well...
We hope our efforts will be rewarded.
Just like the good old times!
We feel like children, as if not a single day passed since we stopped working.
My name is Panayotis and I am the factory maintainer.
We are preparing to open the gate at the moment...
...and...
...we are ready to start and we have no fear!
Hmm...I don't know what our future wages will be like...
Hmm...On the other hand, we don't know what the collective agreement wages will be like too...
We see everything around us collapsing, collective agreements collapse...
Everything that was agreed upon is now practically valueless...
We see how it happens...All working rights are denied...
So it can very well be that the future minimum wage can be 400...300 euros! Who knows?
Our idea is to make an effort, to work all together and what will be produced,
the fruit of our work will belong to the workers and only.
To those who will be present, to those who will participate through working and voting.
There will be nobody working without having the right to decision-making and vice versa.
Well...we're finally doing something! We aren't...
It felt like our lives were destroyed, nothing to do about it...
I'm 52 years old...and...
Who would hire me...anew, for another company?
I'm a good technician...
But they would rather...I mean, the wages are anyway cut down...
They 'd rather hire younger workers... in order...
in order to pay them less...than they would pay me.
We are saying that society should support such projects, so that they will occur more often
and change the way of society as a means to come out of this distressing crisis.
What we ask from the state..We've already made it clear...
First of all...we ask the state to...ehm...
to allow such projects to evolve... in order to produce, to keep production in Greece.
Because, they themselves claim that we're lacking...
...that our difference to other countries is...that we import much more than we export.
That's what we say too!
We ask for nothing more than to produce. Thereupon, we ask for this financial support
which won't, after all, come from the Greek state itself, but from European funding...
aimed at helping the unemployed who want to start their own business.
That's all we say! Won't our project increase the production?
People will stay, they will have jobs, they will earn their living...
and, at the same time, this much-spoken-of financial development will take place.
If they don't want this, they should at least let us know!
They should make up their minds, we ask for a decision. They must let us know:
If that's what they want, they should help as much as they can.
If it's not what they want, they should say "we won't help". That's all we ask.
On our part, we will find a solution one way or another!
On Monday, at 17:00...Meeting point the arch of Galerius... We will march to Ivanoff Stadium...
There, a concert is scheduled at 20:00...We 'll be waiting for you, ok?