The Tenth International Meeting of the "Economy of Workers" took place in the Argentine city of La Rioja from November 27 to 29, 2025. Over 200 people from a dozen countries in the Americas and Europe participated: workers from recovered businesses, cooperatives, social movements, trade unions, and self-management groups. The choice of La Rioja was not accidental. This sparsely populated province-about 330,000 inhabitants-has 17 worker-recovered businesses. It is therefore one of the places where the roots of Argentina's ERTs (Empresas Recuperadas por los Trabajadores) most clearly demonstrate that self-management is not an abstract formula, but a concrete social practice, born out of crises, employer failures, conflicts, and attempts to defend jobs, production, and community.
Attendance, however, was lower than in previous editions. The reasons are both economic and political. Many recovered businesses and cooperatives were unable to attend due to financial constraints. Even some foreign delegations, usually large, such as those from Mexico and Uruguay, sent smaller numbers, mostly composed of university students. Chilean participation, however, was strong, especially through the Federation of Work and Solidarity Cooperatives (TRASOL): a large, young delegation, largely composed of women, which played a very active role in the work.
The Argentine context has weighed heavily on the entire Rencontre . The ultra-liberal policies of the Milei government are severely impacting self-management practices. According to Andrés Ruggeri, the recovered businesses movement in Argentina is currently in grave danger: there has been a decline in the number of approximately thirty recovered businesses, a 10% loss of jobs, and a reduction in wages of up to 50%. Added to this material factor is a political and cultural one: the penetration of libertarian ideas within the work collectives themselves. This is not a secondary factor. Where self-management is based on solidarity, collective decision-making, and worker control, the individualistic and competitive ideology promoted by Mileism risks corroding cooperative and mutualistic cultures from within.
The debates focused on the problems and potential of a self-managed economy in a context marked by the advance of the radical right, neo-fascism, and corporate capital against the working classes. The final declaration clearly stated: faced with this offensive, the working class must overcome the fragmentation imposed by ultra-liberal capitalism, strengthen its self-organization, and defend the most advanced experiences of self-management.
It's not just about defending what exists. The point is to extend these practices. These practices must be developed as an alternative form of organizing work, production, and the reproduction of life. Self-management, from this perspective, is not a cooperative niche, nor an emergency solution for failed businesses. It is a battleground against the capitalist model of social organization.
The work consisted of round tables and workshops, moving from general themes to more specific questions: the situation of the working class in the political, economic, and ecological crisis of global capitalism; self-management as an alternative practice and project; businesses recovered under the Milei government; the economy of working men and women from a gender perspective; the relationship between the state, public policies, and self-management; social security in cooperatives; forms of marketization in the cooperative sector; the relationship between trade unionism, labor organization, and global neoliberal capitalism.
Sono stati presentati anche diversi libri, tra cui Produire dans la nouvelle mondialisation , Les droits de droite. La victoire du capitalisme mondialisé di Mario Hernández e L'autogestion comme forme de lutte. Questions pour construire un chemin commun della federazione cilena TRASOL .
The daily report by Richard Neuville, present in La Rioja for the Association pour l'autogestion and the Union syndicale Solidaires , confirms the quality of the debate, as well as its limitations. The discussions took place in an atmosphere of listening and tolerance, without ignoring disagreements. Some definitions remain open: "business recovery," "recovery," "worker economy," "self-management." These terms do not always mean the same thing in different contexts.
Here one of the most interesting points emerges. In Latin America, self-management often arises within processes of worker regeneration, social conflict, and direct defense of the means of production. In Europe, however, many experiences take cooperative or mutualistic forms, without necessarily translating into fully-fledged practices of workers' control. The French case, as Neuville himself illustrates, is significant: many "troubled" businesses have been taken over by workers in the form of cooperatives, saving jobs and productive know-how, but this does not automatically guarantee self-management.
The difference shouldn't be interpreted as a hierarchy of experiences. It says something more: it highlights a structural weakness in the European context. On our continent, self-management is often more of a theoretical, cultural, or memorial reference than a mass social practice. The weak European participation in the Rencontre is not only due to costs or distances, but also to the fragility of concrete experiences. This is precisely why international comparison is necessary: not to export models, but to understand how self-management can once again become a political culture capable of intertwining movements, unions, cooperatives, territorial struggles, and labor conflicts.
The final declaration also took a series of positions of international solidarity. La Rencontre expressed active solidarity with the Palestinian people and called for an end to the occupation, genocide, and ongoing aggression by the State of Israel and its Western allies. It spoke out against US imperialist aggression against Venezuela and for the consolidation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace. It also expressed support for the self-management of the GKN factory in Florence, the recovered company Gráficos Asociados in Mendoza, the recovered factory La Litoraleña in Buenos Aires, the Cristalería Vitrofín in Cañada de Gómez, threatened by the interruption of its gas supply, and the expropriation law for the Morvillo printing company in the province of Buenos Aires.
No less important is the support expressed for Law 341 on self-management of habitat in the city of Buenos Aires, threatened by attempts to empty the city government, for the national bill on the social production of popular habitat promoted by the Movimiento de Ocupantes e Inquilinos, for educational experiences in social, cooperative and community management and for the full implementation of the law on the promotion of cooperatives in the province of La Rioja .
On the organizational level, the final plenary session highlighted the need to improve participation mechanisms and expand working spaces. Issues related to the marketing chains for cooperative products remain unresolved. This is a crucial problem: without mutually supportive economic, distribution, and mutualistic networks, self-managed initiatives risk remaining isolated and more exposed to market pressure.
The 11th Rencontre Internationale is scheduled to take place in July 2027. Among the possibilities put forward are Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Italy. For 2026, however, any regional meetings will be held only if there are concrete proposals from organizations willing to host them. Logistical difficulties, rising transportation costs, and the political context marked by the rise of the radical right make the construction of these international spaces more complex.
In this regard, although the Rencontre was held regularly, an unusual visit by officials from the Directorate of Migration to one of the hotels hosting foreign participants was reported. This act was interpreted as a clear attempt at intimidation, something that had never occurred in previous Argentine editions.
The La Rioja meeting doesn't provide definitive answers. However, it does demonstrate a key political fact: self-management exists, it resists, but today it is fully immersed in the global conflict. It cannot survive as an isolated entity. It must connect, defend itself, multiply, and equip itself with common tools.
At a time when the radical right is advancing, corporate capital is attacking rights and wages, and ultraliberalism seeks to transform every social relationship into competition, self-management returns to ask a simple and radical question: who decides on work, production, wealth, and life?
This is the question we need to start from again. Not as a theoretical exercise, but as a real battleground.
*)Editorial reworking based on reports published on https://autogestion.asso.fr/la-rencontre-internationale-de-la-rioja-confrontee-au-libertarisme/
Final Declaration of the 10th International Meeting of the Workers' Economy
La Rioja, November 29, 2025
The following declaration is the final document of the 10th International Meeting of the "Workers' Economy," held in Argentina. It summarizes the main political positions that emerged from the exchange of experiences of self-management, recovered businesses, cooperatives, and social movements from various countries.
The 10th International Meeting of the "Economy of Workers" concluded in the city of La Rioja after three days of intense and rich debates, involving over 200 participants from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Spain, the Basque Country, France, Greece, Turkey and Brazil.
The meeting was attended by organizations from recovered and self-managed businesses, cooperative federations, grassroots economic movements, trade unions, academic groups, and other entities associated with self-managed work.
The debate focused on the problems and potential of the self-managed economy, the condition of the working class at the local, regional, and global levels, and the concern over the advance of the right and corporate capital against the popular sectors and their gains.
It was reaffirmed that, faced with this offensive against the peoples of the world, the working class must overcome the fragmentation imposed by ultra-liberal capitalism, strengthen its self-organization to defend its interests and, above all, defend the most advanced experiences of organization and self-management.
These practices must be developed as a concrete alternative to the model of organizing work, production, and the reproduction of life imposed by the ultraliberal project. In this sense, the Encounter confirms itself as a space for exchange, learning, and the construction of alternatives based on the concrete experiences of the working class in diverse contexts around the world.
During the final plenary session, the Meeting also declared:
a) its active solidarity with the Palestinian people and its demand for an end to the occupation, genocide and ongoing aggression by the State of Israel and its Western allies;
b) its opposition to the imperialist aggression of the United States against Venezuela and its support for the construction of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace;
c) support for the self-management experience of the GKN factory in Florence;
d) opposition to the auction with which the judiciary is threatening the recovered company Gráficos Asociados in the province of Mendoza;
e) the condemnation of the closure and eviction order against the recovered factory La Litoraleña in Buenos Aires;
f) support for the continuity of production at the recovered Cristalería Vitrofín factory (Cañada de Gómez, Santa Fe), threatened by the interruption of the gas supply;
g) support for the expropriation law of the Morvillo printing house in the province of Buenos Aires.
The plenary also expressed opposition to the Buenos Aires city government's attempts to undermine and render ineffective Law 341 on Habitat Self-Management, supporting instead the national bill on the social production of popular habitat promoted by the Movimiento de Ocupantes e Inquilinos , as well as legislative initiatives on educational experiences in social, cooperative and community management and the implementation of the Cooperative Promotion Law of the province of La Rioja (Law 8.901).
Regarding the functioning of the Meeting, the need to further improve participation mechanisms and expand the workspace was emphasized, along with a more structured planning of activities, a task that will be entrusted to the Organizing Committee for the next meeting.
In relation to the organization of the XI International Meeting, it was agreed to hold it in July 2027. Among the possible locations, the candidacies of Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay and Italy have been put forward.
Taking into account the increasing logistical challenges, rising transportation costs, and the political context, it was also decided that any regional meetings in 2026 will only be held if there is a concrete proposal from organizations willing to host them.
These assessments are also linked to the worsening political conditions in several countries, marked by increasing persecution by the radical right. In this context, although the Meeting was held regularly, the unusual presence of agents from the Directorate of Migration was reported in one of the hotels hosting foreign participants: a clear attempt at intimidation, unprecedented in previous editions held in Argentina.
Finally, the International Organizing Committee expressed its thanks to all the participants who contributed with their militant commitment to the success of the Meeting, and in particular to the local organization led by the cooperative El Independiente Copegraf Ltda. and the Federation of Self-Managed Cooperatives of the Argentine Republic.
Thanks were also extended to the Legislature of the Province of La Rioja, which supported the initiative by declaring it to be of legislative interest (Decree 221/2025), and to the German foundation Umverteilen, whose contribution made possible, among other things, the interpretation service for non-Spanish-speaking participants.
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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