The Take

<p>Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein. </br> <i>Barna-Alper Productions. 87 minutes. </i></p>

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“Welcome to the globalized ghost town,” says director Avi
Lewis, describing Buenos Aires’ hauntingly depressed San
Martin community. The Argentine economic collapse of
2001 — provoked by the International Monetary Fund’s
“austerity” programs and made worse by the withdrawal of $40
billion by multinational corporations — left factories here
shuttered and formerly middle-class families living Third
World lives.

This powerful film, written and produced by
anti-globalization star Naomi Klein (of No Logo fame),
documents the bold “recovery” of a San Martin auto-parts
plant. In a movement repeated at more than 200 other
factories across the country, the former employees take over
the plant, hoping to reopen it as a workers’ collective.
Their slogan: “occupy, resist, produce.”

The Take builds tension like a quality thriller. With a
judge’s order to end the occupation hanging over them, can
the workers hold onto the factory long enough to start
shipping parts? Deeply personal in its approach, The Take
pays equal attention to family dinners and police standoffs.
It’s a remarkable film that demonstrates that in the fight against
corporate globalization, resistance isn’t futile.

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At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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