Overview of Recovered Factories in Italy

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Discussion

Giovani Orlando, recovered factories

Notes from Erik Olin Wright:

"In Italy, there 122 recovered enterprises. Recoveries are mostly worker-buy-outs rather than takeovers – these are legally recognized conversions of failed enterprises subsidized by the state under a special law.

Most of these become affiliated with the co-op movement. Some instances in Italy resemble the Argentinian model of illegal takeovers followed by efforts at legalization, but this is rare.

The Story of RiMaflow. This was a takeover of a closed factory in which the owner had moved all of the machinery to a new factory in Poland. This was done during the summer holidays when the workers were on vacation. They returned to find the factory closed and stripped. They broke in and occupied the space and began using it for precarious income generation.


Q. Why were they not evicted?

They were not regarded by the local authorities as a squat because of their prior ties to the factory space. They have not so far been evicted because society does not see them as squatters. But still, they have problems with the technical illegality of the commerce they conduct.


Romolo Calcagno, Roma

– study of recovered enterprises following bankruptcy.

Mancoop is an adhesive factory that went bankrupt. There was then a take-over through a buy-out under the cooperative buy-out law. Joined Legacoop and received assistance.

[EOW Comment on The Mancoop pathway: the coop is renting the factory from the trustees of the bankruptcy, which is basically the state. The workers are paying rent which is used to pay off creditors of the bankrupt firm. Some ambiguities in the legal status of the property (it seems).

Q: what happens when the creditors are paid off? The workers would like the regional authority to own the facility and the workers to lease it. There are cases in France like this in Marseilles connected to Unilever.

Key pathway idea: local state solves the property rights problem for stabilizing worker cooperatives by making it possible for labor to rent capital from the state rather than owning owns capital. This is clear example of changing rules of the game to allow for new moves in the game.]

Another case study: Food democracy network – sustainability community movement. 60 solidarity purchase groups (SPGs) support this process. SPG members buy the products generated by the occupation of a villa. Two problems: 1. Based on an illegal land occupation. There is no path towards a legalization. 2. The project does not generate adequate income for the participants and there are disagreements about the relationship between the commons ideology and income." (https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Cooperative-Pathways/Padua%20meeting%20Report.pdf?)


Source

* Pathways to a Cooperative Market Economy Workshop. Report from the Research Workshop at Padova, Italy, June 8-10, 2017. By Erik Olin Wright, July, 2017

URL = https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Cooperative-Pathways/Padua%20meeting%20Report.pdf?