ITAS Prvomajska is the last stronghold of workers’ self-management in Croatian factories, whose survival has been defended by around two hundred metalworkers against the onslaught of various privatization and capitalist ‘marauders’.
The factory from Ivanec is the only Croatian island of ‘workers’ self-management of the 21st century’, as described by the former leader of the workers’ movement in ITAS, Dragutin Varga, who recently temporarily took over the role of executive director. He still wears a workers’ suit and has not been on vacation for thirteen years.
The key year was 2005, when the workers, seeing that the then owners had only one intention – to sell the land – occupied the factory, tore down the wall that divided them into the suitable and unsuitable, went on a hunger strike, and ultimately won, becoming the owners of production. Much can be read about the historical struggle of ITAS workers on the internet, and filming of another documentary is currently underway.
