Venezuela's President Chavez prepared to invest part of U$S 500 million towards Argentinean recovered factories and micro-enterprises
Capital Federal, Argentina
Breaking News
Eduardo Murúa, president of the Movimento Nacional de Fábricas Recuperadas (MNER), confirmed in a conversation I had with him yesterday that he struck an economic partnership accord with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week in Caracas. In a greater economic accord negotiated with the Argentinean government to more closely integrate the Venezuelan and Argentinean economies, Chavez is prepared to invest, via debt bond purchases, U$S 500 million into Argentina's fledgling national oil sector through Venezuela's national oil company, PDVSA, and provide at least $3 million dollars in low-interest credits to the growing alternative economy being forged by Argentina's worker recovered enterprises (known as ERTs, or empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores, enterprises recovered by their workers) and micro-enterprises (microemprendimientos). (Note: The number of factories that have been recovered by workers over the last decade in Argentina is estimated to be between 160-200 to date, employing between 10,000 to 12,000 workers (see: the University of Buenos Aires's ERT documentation centre).
The accord would see the Venezelan government invest the money in Argentina's ERT sector via favourable loans that will be administered by the Banco de la Nacion Argentina. The hope for Argentina's ERTs is that the infusion of cash will help them replace old machinery, grow new markets, and ultimately kick-start an-as-yet undeveloped export component by producing myriad products also useful to Venezuela's increasingly nationalized economy (to date, almost all of Argentina's ERTs provide products to a limited internal market; no ERT that I am aware of provides goods to an export market). Additonally, the accord would facilitate economies of solidarity betwen the government-backed movement of Venezuelan recovered factories and Argentina's ERTs. Monies would flow directly to the factories via the Banco de la Nacion Argentina through an as yet-to-be-worked-out distribution mechanism.
This arrangement is being looked at as a model for a more ambitious parallel economy that both MNER and the Venezuelan government see as a possible springboard for a greater trans-Latin American economy of solidarity. This alternative economy would, at first, begin mostly between Argentina's, Venezuela's, Uruguay's, and Brazil's ERTs, the four countries with the most cases of recovered factories in South America. Murúa and Chavez envision the eventual formation of a Latin American worker-controled economy inspired by the experiences of the four countries where ERTs are quickly forming an alternative model of work and trade.
Argentina seems to be the model for Chavez's plan for ERTs in Venezuela. Unlike Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner's regime's almost non-existant policy platform in regards to ERTs in this country (confirmed to me by an official in the national Ministry of Labour), Chavez has begun to invest seriously in worker-controled enterprises in his own country as a way to further nationalize the Venezuelan economy and industrial base.
Taking a detour from his current visit to Brazil and Uruguay, Chavez made a quick trip to Argentina today to meet with Kirschner and ratify various bi-lateral accords, including the large infusion of cash. Although the recovered factory accord was on the list of to dos for Chavez and Kirchner, none of Buenos Aires´s dailes covered this aspect of Chavez's trip except for a small blurb in last Monday's Pagina/12 (see: Visita relámpago a Buenos Aires).
Murúa left today for a trip to Bolivia to begin to forge links with cooperatively run mines and microenterprises in the Andean country.
---
Other stories covering the agreement:
More info on Venezuela's interest in Argentina's recovered factories:
Breaking News
Eduardo Murúa, president of the Movimento Nacional de Fábricas Recuperadas (MNER), confirmed in a conversation I had with him yesterday that he struck an economic partnership accord with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week in Caracas. In a greater economic accord negotiated with the Argentinean government to more closely integrate the Venezuelan and Argentinean economies, Chavez is prepared to invest, via debt bond purchases, U$S 500 million into Argentina's fledgling national oil sector through Venezuela's national oil company, PDVSA, and provide at least $3 million dollars in low-interest credits to the growing alternative economy being forged by Argentina's worker recovered enterprises (known as ERTs, or empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores, enterprises recovered by their workers) and micro-enterprises (microemprendimientos). (Note: The number of factories that have been recovered by workers over the last decade in Argentina is estimated to be between 160-200 to date, employing between 10,000 to 12,000 workers (see: the University of Buenos Aires's ERT documentation centre).
The accord would see the Venezelan government invest the money in Argentina's ERT sector via favourable loans that will be administered by the Banco de la Nacion Argentina. The hope for Argentina's ERTs is that the infusion of cash will help them replace old machinery, grow new markets, and ultimately kick-start an-as-yet undeveloped export component by producing myriad products also useful to Venezuela's increasingly nationalized economy (to date, almost all of Argentina's ERTs provide products to a limited internal market; no ERT that I am aware of provides goods to an export market). Additonally, the accord would facilitate economies of solidarity betwen the government-backed movement of Venezuelan recovered factories and Argentina's ERTs. Monies would flow directly to the factories via the Banco de la Nacion Argentina through an as yet-to-be-worked-out distribution mechanism.
This arrangement is being looked at as a model for a more ambitious parallel economy that both MNER and the Venezuelan government see as a possible springboard for a greater trans-Latin American economy of solidarity. This alternative economy would, at first, begin mostly between Argentina's, Venezuela's, Uruguay's, and Brazil's ERTs, the four countries with the most cases of recovered factories in South America. Murúa and Chavez envision the eventual formation of a Latin American worker-controled economy inspired by the experiences of the four countries where ERTs are quickly forming an alternative model of work and trade.
Argentina seems to be the model for Chavez's plan for ERTs in Venezuela. Unlike Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner's regime's almost non-existant policy platform in regards to ERTs in this country (confirmed to me by an official in the national Ministry of Labour), Chavez has begun to invest seriously in worker-controled enterprises in his own country as a way to further nationalize the Venezuelan economy and industrial base.
Taking a detour from his current visit to Brazil and Uruguay, Chavez made a quick trip to Argentina today to meet with Kirschner and ratify various bi-lateral accords, including the large infusion of cash. Although the recovered factory accord was on the list of to dos for Chavez and Kirchner, none of Buenos Aires´s dailes covered this aspect of Chavez's trip except for a small blurb in last Monday's Pagina/12 (see: Visita relámpago a Buenos Aires).
Murúa left today for a trip to Bolivia to begin to forge links with cooperatively run mines and microenterprises in the Andean country.
---
Other stories covering the agreement:
- A more recent post of mine regarding this subject
- Luis Caro, president of the MNFRT responds indifferently
- Compró Venezuela 500 millones de dólares en bonos de deuda argentina
More info on Venezuela's interest in Argentina's recovered factories:
- http://www.aporrea.org/dameverbo.php?docid=66394
- http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2005/08/314208.php
http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/reconquista-popular/2003w38/msg00031.htm - http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/reconquista-popular/2003-September/010320.html
- http://www.redvoltaire.net/article1387.html
posted by Marcelo Vieta at
3:24 PM
