Forest BB

It’s been just 24 hours since the launch of an international support campaign for the workers of the Hotel Bauen, the worker-run hotel in downtown Buenos Aires that is facing a dire threat of eviction.

There are already well over 1000 signatures from more than 30 countries.

People who have just added their names include:
Noam Chomsky, John Holloway and Eduardo Galeano, musician Zack de la Rocha, Scottish Parliamentarian Frances Curran, Irish author Michael McCaughan, and Air America broadcaster Laura Flanders

They join our original signatories, Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, Antonio Negri, Michael Hardt, Michael Albert and Avi Lewis.

Please join them by signing the petition! And encourage everyone you know to do the same.

http://www.petitiononline.com/bauen/petition.html

The Bauen Hotel is an important symbol and beloved meeting place for Argentina’s inspiring movement of recovered companies, in which thousands of workers have reclaimed the dignity of daily work under the slogan “Occupy, Resist, Produce!”

Now is the time to redouble our efforts to save this precious democratic space!

Marcelo Ruarte, the president of the Hotel Bauen cooperative, says, “We're facing continuing threats here - they've tried to evict us four times this year. But what saves us is the support we have, both locally and internationally: it's crucial. We'll fight for ever to defend Bauen, because it belongs to us, and because it belongs to everyone.”

So please – take five minutes and think of 6 other people to send this email to. Who are the people that are constantly forwarding you emails? They will surely want to pass this one on. And please take a moment and send an email both to the president and to the interior minister of Argentina – they will only step in if they feel enough public pressure!

Below is a sample email in English and Spanish.

Many thanks,

The International Support Campaign for the Workers of the Bauen Hotel

----------
President Nestor Kirchner
privada@presidencia.gov.ar

Anibal Fernandez, Minister of the Interior
anibalfernandez@infovia.com.ar.
----------

Dear President Nestor Kirchner (or Minister of the Interior Anibal Fernandez),

We demand that you immediately take all necessary measures to stop the attack on the workers who have recovered the Bauen Hotel and pass a definitive and permanent law that recognizes them for what they are: the rightful owners.

Sincerely,
Your name

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Señor Presidente Néstor Kirchner (o Señor Ministro del Interior Aníbal Fernandez),

Exigimos que en forma urgente disponga las medidas necesarias para que cese el ataque a los trabajadores que recuperaron el Hotel Bauen y se apruebe una ley definitiva y permanente que los consagre como lo que son: sus legítimos dueños.

Saluda atentamente,
Tu nombre


Don't forget to sign the petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/zanon/petition.html

_________________
http://www.ethicaladventures.org

On Thursday, December 1, the legislature of the city of Buenos Aires will consider a bill that would wrench control of the Bauen Hotel from the workers cooperative that has been running it democratically since March 2003, and hand it back to the owners of the business, who abandoned it in December 2001.

Last week, right wing legislators attempted to pass the law, but the 120 Bauen Hotel workers converged on the legislature with a large crowd of supporters. They presented to the lawmakers copies of a petition in support of their cause, signed by Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, and more than 5,000 other people from more than 70 countries.

To sign the petition, visit
http://www.petitiononline.com/bauen/petition.html.

In the end, the legislature did not sit, due to a lack of quorum (in other words, a successful mobilization!) But on Thursday, this regressive piece of legislation is at the top of the agenda.

On behalf of the Bauen Workers, their supporters around the world, and the thousands of workers in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America who
created democratic employment under worker control in the ruins of the neoliberal 1990s, we urge you to send the following letter to President Nestor Kirchner (privada@presidencia.gov.ar) and Interior Minister Anibal Fernandez (anibalfernandez@infovia.com.ar).

Many thanks,

The International Support Campaign for the Workers of the Bauen Hotel

[PLEASE EDIT THE MESSAGE]
-----------------------

Dear President Nestor Kirchner (or Minister of the Interior Anibal Fernandez),

We demand that you immediately take all necessary measures to stop the attack on the workers who have recovered the Bauen Hotel and pass a definitive and permanent law that recognizes them for what they are: the
rightful owners.

Sincerely,
Your name

----

Señor Presidente Néstor Kirchner (o Señor Ministro del Interior Aníbal Fernandez),

Exigimos que en forma urgente disponga las medidas necesarias para que cese el ataque a los trabajadores que recuperaron el Hotel Bauen y se apruebe una ley definitiva y permanente que los consagre como lo que son: sus legítimos dueños.

Saluda atentamente,
Tu nombre

-----------------------

To receive updates and alerts in English or Spanish related to this and other worker-run companies in Argentina, send an email to
cerlac2@yorku.ca with the title "zanon English" or "zanon Spanish".

_________________
http://www.ethicaladventures.org

More info: http://www.thetake.org

Please forward widely, and send the email below on THURSDAY, DEC.15

***EMAIL FLOOD PLANNED FOR THURSDAY, DEC. 15 TO SAVE THE BAUEN!***

To support the Bauen workers cooperative, one of the key workplaces in the Recovered Companies movement in Argentina, we are asking that you email the message below ON THURSDAY to this email address:

jtelerman@buenosaires.gov.ar

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.

**We are looking for a huge, international flood on Thursday, but email after that date will still help!**

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.

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

To support the Bauen workers’ cooperative, we are asking that you email the message below ON THURSDAY to this email address:

jtelerman@buenosaires.gov.ar

---

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.

---

TRANSLATION:
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 businesspeople and support the 140 men and women who demonstrate every day how to create dignified work with such efficiency and solidarity.

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AND 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.