Act Now to Save the Hotel Bauen Cooperative

[kliljedahl]

FORWARD WIDELY!

Today the International Support Campaign for the Hotel Bauen Cooperative is flooding the inbox of the head of the Buenos Aires city government.

Please send the message below RIGHT NOW to this email address:

[e-mail]

**Please include where you're from (maybe in the subject line) to show the internationalism of the campaign.

**Please cc: [e-mail], so we know how many emails we generated.

EMAIL TEXT:
Señor Jorge Telerman:

Hoy el destino del Hotel Bauen, recuperado por sus trabajadores, está en
sus manos. Miles de personas en el mundo lo están mirando. Vete la ley que
consagra la impunidad de los empresarios inescrupulosos y apoye a los 140
hombres y mujeres que todos los días están demostrando cómo construir
trabajo digno en ese espacio que es modelo de eficiencia y solidaridad.


And now for some background and translation of the message...

BACKGROUND
At 2 a.m. on Wednesday December 6, the Buenos Aires city Legislature
passed a law that will in effect evict the workers' cooperative at the
Hotel Bauen. This law, voted for by 29 legislators, ‘invents’ a boss for
a workplace without bosses.

When the workers decided to occupy the hotel to demand their unpaid
wages, the Hotel Bauen was bankrupt and the company had left behind
millions of dollars in debt, including the purchase of the building at
360 Callao Avenue.

As the ownership of the building was in dispute (the person who had
bought the building paid only 4 of the 12 million dollar price, and the
person who sold it promised to return the 4 million and never came
through) the hotel was legally without anyone to take care of it. So the
workers decided to put it back into operation.

They started to work with nothing but the strength of their conviction.
Now there are 140 men and women who work to keep the hotel running, 24
hours a day, also providing spaces for meetings, assemblies and social
movement events entirely out of solidarity.

Ignoring all of their efforts, the Legislature decided to pass a law
that flies in the face of justice and is aimed at destroying all of the
work that the cooperative has put into the hotel. When the voting began
and the workers protested, the legislators ordered their eviction. They
threw them out with batons and tear gas.

Now, the workers demand that the mayor of Buenos Aires, Jorge Telerman,
veto the law. The veto must take place within 15 days of when the law
was passed.

If Mr. Telerman does not veto the law, the workers may be evicted.

For more background articles about the Bauen and other recovered companies, check out:

http://www.lavaca.org
http://www.echanlospatrones.org
http://www.thetake.org


ACTION
Today, December 15th at 2pm, the workers at the Hotel Bauen are
marching to Jorge Telerman's office to demand that this law be annulled.

The email flood generated by this International Support Campaign is to show how many of us would be standing with the workers in person if we could.


TRANSLATION OF THE EMAIL:
Mister Jorge Telerman:

Today the future of the Hotel Bauen, recovered by its workers, is in
your hands. Thousands of people all over the world are watching. VETO
the law that grants impunity to the unscrupulous impresarios and support
the 140 men and women who demonstrate every day how to create dignified
work with such efficiency and solidarity.


IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY....

Sign the petition in support of the Hotel Bauen workers!
http://www.petitiononline.com/bauen/petition.html

The petition will be submitted as part of the campaign.

AND IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE FURTHER UPDATES...

Send an email to [e-mail] to get on the Zanon Alert list

Or sign up at www.thetake.org for The Take's mailing list




Keith’s Barbeque Central

[mainegreen]

1. Done. Good luck to them. nt

[Oceansaway]

2. thanks...n/t

[kliljedahl]

3. Kick

Keith’s Barbeque Central