Azzellini, Dario. 2024. “Factory Takeovers in the European Mediterranean Area: Self-Managed Companies in France, Italy and Greece.” CESCONTEXTO. 36: 38-46.

Over the past 15 years Workers Recuperated Companies (WRCs) emerged in several European countries as Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Turkey and eventually other countries (Azzellini 2023, 33–118). Exact numbers do not exist. There is no systematic research, nor a common definition of WRCs in Europe. In my article I focus on WRCs corresponding to the Argentinian definition: WRCs are companies that were closed down by their owners or went into bankruptcy, leading to a workers’ struggle to restart production under collective and democratic self-management. The transformation is mostly taking place in conflict with the prior or actual owners and/or the state. The individual private property of the means of production is transformed into collective property with a social purpose and with no individual ownership. Most WRCs connect with other social and labour struggles, and eventually adopt more egalitarian payment systems. (PFA/CDER 2018). This article compares three companies in Southern Europe occupied by their workers 12 to 14 years ago: Scop Ti, a tea packing plant in France; Vio.Me, a former chemical construction material factory in Greece; and RiMaflow, a former car parts producer in Italy. I analyse their strategies, struggle, performance, internal structures, and the associational and institutional power the workers build. ...

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