We had about 50 people at York University to listen to Jose Julian Penuneri from the occupied Zanon factory in Argentina last Thursday (16/02/06). That’s the biggest left-leaning meeting I’ve personally seen at the University, with people from the Socialist society, Anarchist society, and People and Planet group attending, to name a few.
It was a slow starting meeting, mostly because Julian had to speak through a translator. It’s always quite hard to feel properly involved in a speakers contribution when it has to be translated, I find. However the meeting lasted for almost two hours, and by the end of the speech people were certainly very interested in what he had to say. The questions and answers in particular sparked a lot of debate. Several right wingers had turned up to try and trip up Julian, and it was very refreshing to see him bat down their contributions in a rather matter-of-fact manner. One person asked how Zanon could function if the workers did not try and make a profit. Julian responded, after a brief discussion with his translator, that he simply didn’t understand the question. It was a nice reminder that we don’t need the profit system, it needs us.
For more on Zanon, check here