Educational Media Reviews Online

In 2001, Argentina’s economy collapsed and one of the effects was that industry owners shut down factories all over the country. Isaac Istan’s film The Woman of Brukman follows a group of factory workers as they occupy and try to run Brukman’s clothing factory as a workers cooperative. The film focuses (mostly) on the women who worked in the factory and their sudden politicization by leftist factions in Argentinean politics.

The women’s story is similar to that of their male counterparts, so it is peculiar why the focus is on the women except to note that as clothing factory workers, they ran the sewing machines and made up the bulk of the employees. So, it is not so much a rise to feminist consciousness that is shown, but a rise to political consciousness. This is true for the workers at many of Argentina’s factories left in the same situation. The struggle for power is shown between the factory owners, the state and the workers. It makes a compelling drama yet it also does not shy away from the less heroic underside of leftist “cause” politics. The Brukman employees, who repeatedly claimed that they were denied their wages and only wanted to work to earn money for their families, were used by political factions sympathetic to their agenda similarly to how factory owners used them to maximize profits. There is a satisfying degree of complexity shown and referred to, but very little analysis of the sweeping financial and social crisis.

Amid neighborhood protests around the Brukman factory and more than one police raid to force the occupying workers out of the factory, we hear from the women on the front lines of a highly polarized social issue. Many of them stayed overnight in the factory so that the police could not seize the factory and return it to the Brukmans. Later, as the struggle continued beyond a year, they lived in makeshift tent cities in a standoff with police who had successfully barricaded the workers outside the factory. The women were also given greater political voice as they joined in rallies with other workers in the same situation, student political groups, communists and other political pressure groups.

Though they still wanted to work, their politicization encouraged them to hold out for a stronger position as cooperative owners of the factory rather than let the factory nationalize, thereby making the government the new boss. As a cooperative, all decisions were made in a majority rules assembly and all workers were paid exactly the same share of the profits earned that week, no matter their job. It was also the case that people could switch jobs according to their talents or circumstances, so that seamstresses became sales people. Some workers speak with pride about the cooperative system and others become exasperated with the time it takes 40 people to come to consensus about every decision.

In the end, their lawyer’s goal was to “…get the workers back to work, not run a political stalemate agenda.” And it turns out that is what happened; within three months, the lawyer negotiates and ultimately sues Brukman and the workers return triumphant to the factory. Whether Brukman is run as a cooperative or a nationalized company is not made entirely clear, which undercuts the political point of the film. As a commentary on worker’s rights, this ending is unsatisfactory as the filmmaker focuses more on their early, glorified and long “political stalemate agenda” and less on the outcome for the workers who seemed to compromise their principles, yet got their jobs back. At 52 minutes, this is a good length to show in class, allowing some time for discussion. In addition, the film is in Spanish, with English subtitles.