Jochen Becker
"Every ground floor is converted into a workshop."
On the cooperatives "Coopa-Roca" in Rio de Janeiro and "Nuevo Rumbo" in Buenos Aires *

The performance "frufru da escada" by Hermann Hiller took place during the "City of Coop"-Event, Prater Volksbühne Berlin all Photos: Edward Beierle

The actors wear clothes which were produced by the women of "Coopa Rocca" and the dressmakers of the Volksbühne, Berlin

Prater
Our workshop in Berlin was conceived less as a catwalk than as a work exchange in which the costume designers of the Volksbühne intended to pass on paper patterns and cutting techniques. The idea behind the workshop at "Prater" was also to support the path to creating clothes independently. Since "normal" theatre production had priority, half of the "ErsatzBüro" was converted into a studio. This was also the bustling meeting place for the team surrounding Herrmann Hiller as well as the four seamstresses and their head.

The performance at the end of the workshop phase was not delegated to models as the usual division of labour would have it; instead, the seamstresses presented their creations themselves along with other participating and invited persons. The carnivalesque costumes and queer make-up, the demonstrative tailoring behind a gauze curtain, the catwalks, dialogical speech acts via radio microphone, and the final group photo interacted instead of just being exhibited. The performance "Fru Fru de Escade" ("tittle-tattle on the stairs", fru fru is also a sewing technique) was in a certain respect the continuation of the preceding, long club nights and the discussions of the workshop participants which were at times held in four language.

We had met in advance with Maria da Paz Macedo Pereira, Maria Lucia Rodrigues Bezerra, Marilene Martins Costa, and Lisiane da Silva to learn more about their daily production and working life. The four women have been working in the cooperative for between three and seven years. Maria Lucia Rodrigues Bezerra operated a small women's fashion shop beforehand, but had to pause in between because she became pregnant. Since she already worked at an off-the-peg dressmaker's earlier, she is able to continue this work at the "Coopa-Roca" and simultaneously take care of her two children. She additionally organizes volleyball games for the city. Lisiane da Silva, the youngest of the women who came to Berlin, joined the "Coopa-Roca" within the frame of the municipal training and family planning programme called "New Generation". She was previously trained as a manucurist and window-dresser. A poster for training youths in sewing made her aware of the cooperative. Thirteen of the thirty fellow applicants stayed with the cooperative. Lucia also sews for other people on the side. Maria da Paz Macedo Pereira's previous business wasn't running well, so she took a course on a certain technique at "Coopa-Roca", passed the test and today trains young women. The cooperative really started booming seven years ago. Around one hundred women come to take these tests in which they had to reproduce as precisely as possible the requested patterns, and about thirty of them stayed. They do have different tricks to create the fabricated materials, but in the end they have to look identical and be of consistently good quality.

Of the twenty founding members, fifteen are still with the cooperative and enjoy great respect as meanwhile older women. They are always given some work and can take their time. The wage on piecework basis remains the same however. Additional workers are only hired if the own workers do not suffice. Seventy new women were able to work for a large-scale order from "C&A" and "Osklen". Once the order is processed, the new ones will probably have to leave "Coopa-Roca" again. They leave their address and telephone number and hope to be contacted the next time.

The large-scale order of Carlos Miele brought them a lot of work, but they did not want to just do crochet work for ten years, so they ended the cooperation. They also felt too dependent on a single customer. They say that everything they do is a step - and then they see what happens. "There's always a way" is the motto, even for lazy people like herself, Maria Lucia says and laughs. Respect for the individuality of the women lets her believe in the cooperative. There is no security in Brazil's industry either. They do not only work for money but want to get to know the others, the community.

Almost all women have other jobs on the side, or the husband is the main supporter. Nobody here can work full-time, but many can work a bit. For some, the job contributes some extra money to their lives for their own or their children's pleasure - to buy clothes or for entertainment. They probably earn 300 reais (approx. 85 euros) a month on average, but cannot really calculate it precisely; and this income is never secure.
They regard the cooperative as a second family. But can one deal with 130 people on a friendly basis? These agreements are as fair as they are voluntary and can be broken at any time. How do they cope with the insecurity, and do they have savings? At least they are not totally specialized, but can quickly acquire other techniques that are in greater demand. There's quality control and accounting just like in the industry. Several forewomen are responsible for management. And Maria da Paz, who came along to Berlin as a long-standing friend of Tetê and president, is the official head of the cooperative. The president is elected, while Tetê functions as a permanent coordinator and develops projects that are then jointly discussed. As opposed to the women paid on piecework basis or per job, Tetê receives a percentage of all sales, but she is also in part liable for the entire project.

The Benetton Principle?
Can the situation in Rochina be compared to Western Europe? Most women at "Coopa-Roca" are piece workers paid at a piece rate and deliver their products made using the same technique like from an assembly line. If there are large-scale orders from "C&A", for example, additional women are hired and after completing the order they are immediately unemployed again. The former personnel manager of Volkswagen, Hartz, describes temporally flexible production as the "breathing factory", where if the orders position is good everyone has to work but in lulls they have to take days off. The basis of industrial labour at "VW", however, is a more or less guaranteed workplace.

Of course "Coopa-Roca" is not a factory but a decentralized manufactory, and the women are also not employees of a corporation but receive wage on piecework basis. None of the women have a bank account, savings at home or insurance. If they get ill, the daughter has to stand in, for example. They neither have holidays nor continued pay in case of sickness. They are as modern as the branches of the "Benetton" company and as pre-modern as early capitalistic homework outfits. "Benetton" originated with the defeat of "factory communism" (Boutang 1998: 6), dated to the mass dismissals at the Turin-based Fiat factory Mirafiori in 1980. Italy was famous for its organized work force and massive strikes. The operaistic, political and trade union militancy was thus systematically locked out.

As an alternative to factory labour, an "explosion of the informal sector" (Boutang 1998: 6) occurred in Veneto, the region north of Venice, a forerunner of a "new industrial landscape" (Negri 1998: 29). "With the support of the family or due to relations that were not pure market relations, many workers were able [...] to set up a small business. Despite the strong differentiation of production, the access barriers in the textile and clothing industry are not very high", is how Devi Sacchetto describes the "cores of controlled self-employment" (1997: 140). Established as liberated self-entrepreneurship, all that soon remained was self-control and self-responsibility. "Based on the movement of flight from the large enterprises and the withdrawal from political organizations, a network of small companies developed that made an internationally operating network enterprise such as Benetton possible." (Boutang 1998: 12) Benetton laced the small and medium-sized businesses in a "collective corset" (Negri 1998: 35), out of the confinement of which the small companies sought compensation via tax evasion or forgery.

The quasi-self-employment of family-organized production is subject to the employer's dictate of productivity. This "demands the flexible use of labour both inside and outside the own businesses" (Sacchetto 1997: 141). He calls this the "shock absorber function" that especially relatives and friends have to pay for: "Small units working distributed across the territory that reduce production costs in any way conceivable and at times mercilessly exploit relatives and children beat any kind of competition. Each ground floor [...] is converted into a workshop". (Negri 1998: 32) Benetton meanwhile dominates 600 suppliers and 7,000 franchise shops. Hence, not only the production is controlled but also distribution and sales.

The globally operating enterprise additionally owns companies in China, Egypt, France, Japan, India, Spain, Turkey, as well as Argentina (2) and Brazil. "Coopa-Roca" could indeed become part of the "Benetton" empire, just as it is now already cooperating with "C&A". The cooperative is in a pre-factory state, and with its decentralized fabrication distributed across home workplaces it perhaps cannot even be called a manufactory. Who owns the machinery and equipment and who performs maintenance? At least this company offers training.

My presentation of the "Benetton" principle and its critique were not understood because unguaranteed labour seems to be very much a matter of course in Brazil. The question of what the difference is to a normal company with a boss, and what advantages the cooperative offers, is answered by referring to the economic crisis and the high unemployment rate in Brazil. "Coopa-Roca", they say, is an alternative to the fixed working hours of the factory regime. They can voice their opinion in the cooperative and it is heard. And if it is to no avail, they protest. They have the right to say in a matter, and that is something special in a country without a strong trade union movement. The tasks to be dealt with are discussed at the weekly meetings in the coop building. Otherwise the women only come here occasionally to pick up their material or deliver their work. In this respect, the planned central building would forge the group together, promote a permanent and direct exchange and counteract the isolation of piece workers at home. But then they would have to ask themselves, who will take care of the children?

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