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Resistance and Resilience: The Nothing Factory and the Workers’ Self-Management of Fateleva

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2023

Sérgio Dias Branco*
Affiliation:
Department of History, European Studies, Archeology and Arts, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Coimbra, Largo da Porta Férrea, 3004-530 Coimbra, Portugal

Extract

This article is about the resistance and resilience of workers when confronted with the likelihood of losing their jobs and seeing the factory where they worked close down. It discusses this topic by concentrating on the particular and singular case of workers’ self-management of Fateleva – Indústria de Elevadores, a firm that specialized in the production and maintenance of elevators, located in the northern part of Lisbon Metropolitan Region, Portugal. It was occupied by its workers in the context of the Carnation Revolution (1974–1976) and then self-managed until its closure in 2016.

Type
Special Feature
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc., 2023

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References

Notes

1. See Benjamin, Walter, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Illuminations, trans. Zohn, Harry, ed. Arendt, Hannah (New York: Schocken Books, 1969), 247Google Scholar, n. 11.

2. Proceeding no. 1/2016 (Ata n.° 1/2016), recording the information and negotiation meeting between the Liquidation Committee, the General-Directorate for Employment and Labor Relations (DGERT), and the SIESI union commission, signed by the three parties, April 15, 2016.

3. See Lim, Dennis, “Keeping at It,” Film Comment 53, no. 4 (July–August 2017): 6263Google Scholar.

4. Salt of the Earth was made and attacked at the height of McCarthyism and the witch hunt in Hollywood by the House Un-American Activities Committee. “It was revived in the 1960s by both radical and feminist groups as an alternative to conservative American trade unionism and male-dominated left/liberal politics”; Zaniello, Tom, Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor, 2nd edn (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2018), 329Google Scholar. It then became a staple of working-class cinema in the US. For the director's account of the film, see Biberman, Herbert, Salt of the Earth (Boston: Beacon, 1965)Google Scholar.

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9. See Magnani, Esteban, The Silent Change: Recovered Businesses in Argentina, trans. Herrick, Steve (Buenos Aires, 2009)Google Scholar; Andrés Ruggeri (coord.), Informe del IV relevamiento de Empresas Recuperadas en la Argentina. 2014: las empresas recuperadas en el período 2010-2013 (Buenos Aires, 2014), 7 (trans. mine).

10. One of the most informative documents is an analysis and evaluation of the legal history of the company to settle issues of rights to common property, produced by an economist and a lawyer: José Ilídio Mendes and Cláudia Dengucho, “Fateleva: Synthesis” (“Fateleva: Síntese”), 22 April 2004.

11. See Széll, György, Blyton, Paul, Cornforth, Chris, eds., The State, Trade Unions and Self-Management: Issues of Competence and Control (Berlin, 2015)Google Scholar.

12. Elevadores Otis - Fortis Ascensores, “Internal Regulation - Agreed between the Workers’ Commission and the General Administration” (“Regulamento Interno – Acordado entre a Comissão de Trabalhadores e a Direcção Geral”), 1 September 1974.

13. Pérez, Sigfrido M. Ramírez, “Iberian Trade Unions and the ETUC: From the Periphery to the Centre,” in National Trade Unions and the ETUC: A History of Unity and Diversity, ed. Ciampani, Andrea and Tilly, Pierre (Brussels, 2017), 146Google Scholar.

14. Tristão Soares, João Mendes, and Vicente Valentim, interview by author, Setúbal, 13 April 2021.

15. Silva, interview.

16. Silva, interview.

17. Silva, interview.

18. Soares, Mendes, and Valentim, interview.

19. See Cabrita, Daniel and Cartaxo, José Ernesto, “A Formação da Intersindical,” in Contributos para a História do Movimento Operário e Sindical, Volume I: Das Raízes até 1977, coord. Manuel Carvalho da Silva (Lisbon, 2011), 117–56Google Scholar.

20. Deed of Transfer of Shares and Amendment of Pact (Escritura de Cessões de Quotas e Alteração de Pacto) between Otis - Elevator Company, New Jersey, and Fateleva's Shareholders, 1st Civil Law Notary in Almada, 28 September 1988.

21. Prasnikar, Janez, Workers’ Participation and Self-management in Developing Countries (London, 2020), 3Google Scholar.

22. Soares, Mendes, and Valentim, interview.

23. Silva, interview.

24. Soares, Mendes, and Valentim, interview.

25. Silva, interview.

26. Silva, interview.

27. Soares, Mendes, and Valentim, interview.

28. Proceeding no. 1/2016.

29. Silva, interview.

30. Proceeding no. 1/2016; Silva, interview; Soares, Mendes, and Valentim, interview.

31. Américo Nunes, “A Intersindical na Revolução de Abril”, in Contributos para a História do Movimento Operário e Sindical, Volume I: Das Raízes até 1977, coord. Manuel Carvalho da Silva (Lisbon: CGTP-IN and IBJC, 2011), 232 (trans. mine).

32. Ibid.

33. See Buch-Hansen, Hubert and Wigger, Angela, “Revisiting 50 Years of Market-Making: The Neoliberal Transformation of European Competition Policy,” Review of International Political Economy 17, no. 1 (February 2010): 2044CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34. Álvarez, “It Could Happen to You,” 154.