VOCES EN PODER: VOICES IN POWER
Movimientos Revolutionarias en America Latina
Revolutionary Movements in Latin America

UPDATE ARGENTINA: March 2003
April Elections to bring riots instead of flowers?

“We can maintain the policies that enrich a small group, or we can change them, and to change them there must be a new movement, a new force able to withstand the ruling bloc that has dominated in recent years,” - Victor De Gennaro, secretary general of the Central Argentine Workers Union (CTA)

“In the kitchen the food is piled to the ceiling, boxes of crackers and pasta, sweet bread, tiny cartons of dulce de leche, fruit, oil, shiny blue plastic packages of grated cheese. Under the wooden counters beside the outdoor fireplace are cartons upon cartons of potatoes, carrots and squash. In a tiny closet in Mirna's room are still more potatoes, carrots and squash. This comedor [community kitchen] is called Daniel de la Sierra, after the liberation theologist who fought for the poor against the military government of general Juan Carlos Ongania in 1966.

"A revolutionary," she explains. "He told the people, 'If the military comes we will say that we have to defend ourselves.'" In almost every house in the villas [slums] hangs one or more photos of Che Guevara.

A group of children sit around a table with only utensils in front of them, politely passing each other empty pans. In the center of the table sits a silver pot containing two computer keyboards and cables. "Globalization: A PROMISE," it reads across the top. "Lies have been spreading that with globalization, we are all going to be connected and with equal access; in Villa 21 of Barracas, the kids hardly know there exists an apparatus called the computer."

Presidential elections are approaching, and I ask the women how they feel about the current government. They all sort of look at each other in uncomfortable silence and finally break into laughter. "What government?" one asks bitterly. "Argentina has no more government. No one in the country treats it as something legitimate, because it is representative of nobody." A child asks my partner. "Is there a lot of cardboard in the United States?" Yeah, lots. And it's free. Nobody even fights for it.”
- From the Hidden Slums of Buenos Aires by dyan jim beam February 25, 2003  http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=42&ItemID=3129

January 28, a huge column of men, women and children from the Classist Combative Current (CCC) and the Piquetero movement marched down the central Corrientes Avenue of Buenos Aires, completely blocking traffic in the financial district. A few days later road blockades shut down several industrial centers. Factory takeovers, bank smashings and radical political organizing continue to rock Buenos Aires and other cities, but all is not well in Argentina. The barter system, which was once the salvation of poor Argentines has nearly collapsed under outside pressure and fraudulent voucher scams. Barter is now being imitated by large companies. Auto manufacturers, agrochemical companies (Monsanto), oil companies and insurance companies are using the barter principle to lure agricultural producers to do business with them.

The subjective conditions propelling mass protests in Argentina are caused by a political culture that encourages collective action, an ideology which identifies the political-economic responsibility of the banks and the regime for the loss of income. The ' political culture' of opposition has spread despite the mass media's support for the government. The assembly movement created its own communication networks and utilized the existing alternative media. The assembly movement and mass action took place despite the absence of any support from the official trade union bureaucracy closely tied to the regime in power.

“The contrasting "subjectivities" (level of social action and social organization) between the U.S. and Argentina under similar conditions of socio-economic adversity points to the decisive importance of political culture, ideology and political intervention. In the United States the unstated slogan is "Whoever can, saves himself". In Argentina the popular slogan is " You pick on one, you pick on all of us". The fundamental difference is the emergence of a culture of solidarity in Argentina, in contrast to the vertical dependence characteristic of the U.S. corporate world.” – James Petras
 http://www.rebelion.org/petras/english/petras290103.htm

Presidential elections are scheduled for April 27. Three rightwing candidates from the Peronist party are running as is the center-left Elsia Carrio. If Carrio makes it to the second round of voting her odds of winning are slim. There is widespread rejection of the "free market" ideology among the general populace, but the leftist forces are just now organizing at the national level.

The Central Argentine Workers Union (CTA), is launching a new social and political movement to confront the crisis in this South American country. After two days of analysis by its national board and provincial leaders in February, they announced preparations for “an alternative construction and a model for a different country.” The idea for a political and social movement was launched in December at the CTA’s sixth congress in Mar del Plata at which 10,000 delegates participated.

Provincial assemblies and a national assembly will create the platform of the political and social movement that will end hunger, unemployment and overdue salaries and will not legitimize fixed elections. Victor De Gennaro, secretary general of the CTA, dismissed any future alignment with any of the present presidential candidates for the April election. He called for unification of the popular sectors for a response to hunger and lack of work, for sovereignty and democracy. De Gennaro pointed out the silence of other organizations and unions, which he called traditional, and which, he said, form part of the strategy of the huge transnational and local corporations, the PJ (Justicialista Party) and the CGT (ConfederaciónGeneral del Trabajo). CTA is planning a newspaper to publish its activities and treat other subjects now absent from the mainstream media. Union elections are scheduled for June.

In late January, many Argentines attended the nearby World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. With the slogan "A better world is possible," the WSF begs the question: "How do we get there?" A large minority of participants made it clear they believe that the answer to the problems facing humanity is not to reform capitalism or to make it more humane. Hebe de Bonafini, the president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo of Argentina, was invited to speak at the Forum by the Landless Committees of Brazil. She complained that grassroots organizations had little space at the forum. She said that globalization has to be destroyed, not reformed. ( http://www.workers.org/ww/2003/wsf0213.php)

Left Unity Dissolves
After months of indicating that they would reject the call for Presidential Elections and instead call for the convening of a Constituent Assembly, the Trotskyite Workers Party (PO) approached the United Left (IU), formed by the Communist Party and the Movimiento Socilaista de Trabajadores (MST) to discuss "unity."

Jorge Altamira, the head of PO, spent all of last year denouncing IU as an "electoralist" maneuver and those who indicated participation in the "fraudulent Presidential elections" as agents of the ruling class. He proposed his name as the candidate for Vice-President of the IU and demanded the second positions in the list of candidates for local elections for members of his party. Members of the CP and the MST reminded Altamira that IU had already agreed not to have the national leaders of the political partners heading the Presidential formula and that the distribution of candidacies among the different parties of the coalition for local posts would be done according to the number of votes obtained by each organization in the October, 2001 elections.

PO obtained less votes at that election than the present members of the IU party. IU instead offered Altamira to be the second candidate for National Congress, most likely guaranteeing his election. That position was assigned to the MST which graciously ceded it to the cause of unity. Altamira, furious, ordered his delegation to leave the meeting and issued a press release denouncing the "sectarian" and "anti-unitarian" attitude of IU for rejecting his candidacy for the Vice-presidency. He then returned to the negotiations and offered as an alternative Vice-Presidential candidate his secretary, Marcelo Ramal.

The CP and the MST rejected the new proposal on the basis of Ramal's lack of relevance and because Altamira used the break in the negotiations to attack other left organizations publicly. In fact, Altamira was quoted by the media saying that the rejection of his candidacy for Vice-President by IU was "a provocation."

The PO delegation abandoned the negotiations and announced there was no agreement. The CP and MST, as IU, announced the presidential formula with Patricia Walsh - a left wing Peronist and member of Parliament - and Marcelo Parrilli as its candidate for Vice-President. Parrilli is a lawyer, former member of the MAS and now close politically to the MST and who collaborated in the past with left wing congressman Luis Zamora. Altamira had also supported the nomination of Walsh for the Presidency.

The MIJD (Independent Movement of Pensioners and Unemployed) led by Raul Castells and the Unemployed Movement Barrios de Pie are rejecting the participation in the elections. The MIJD, which recently was negotiating with the government together with the unemployed front of PO - Polo Obrero, broke off that process saying that PO was not willing to "accept crumbs."

Poverty Deepens
According to official figures, 57 percent (20.6 million) of Argentina’s 36.2 million people live in poverty, including 25.8 percent (9.3 million) in indigence. The market reforms implemented by President Carlos Menem (1989-99) and expanded under the administration of President Fernando de la Rúa (1999-2001), who lowered workers’ salaries and froze savings, led to a steady increase in poverty. Between May 2001 and May 2002, the poverty rate rose from 35.9 percent to 53 percent, and 6.1 million people sank into poverty — 16,865 every day, 12 per minute.

The numbers of children in poverty are even more alarming. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), of the slightly more than 9.8 million children under age 14 in Argentina, 72.3 percent (7.1 million) live in poverty and 3.8 million live in indigence. Their parents lack the 35 pesos (US$9.72) a month needed to provide them with basic food items.

The drama in Tucumán is only one of many. INDEC figures show that 18,000 children under age 5 die each year. According to pediatrician María Luisa Ageitos, coordinator of UNICEF’s health programs, 49 children die daily from avoidable causes linked to malnutrition.According to economist Martin Hourest, the Argentina’s ills are rooted in the inequitable distribution of the country’s revenue, "which shows that neoliberalism is incompatible with social democracy." Hourest bases his criticism on statistics from 1991 to 2001, the decade in which neoliberal dogma was strictly applied.

In 1991, the income of the wealthiest 10 percent of the population was 18.7 times that of the poorest 10 percent of Argentines.That factor has now jumped to 28.7. According to INDEC, the wealthiest 10 percent of the population receives 37.3 percent of the income while the poorest 10 percent receive 1.3 percent."The government insists on policies of exclusion that produce children who are unable to develop their intelligence and are at risk of dying," Hourest said. "This is creating conditions that make citizenship useless. Strengthening these policies is a criminal act. Not only do they result in the loss of young lives, they also erode democracy."

A group of Argentine economists at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires has proposed a solution to the economic crisis:

“The goal of a just solution to the catastrophic problems of Argentine society will only be reached in the context of a socialist transformation. The immediate eradication of poverty is possible. This depends on the planned reorganization of production and a drastic redistribution of incomes, and not on uncertain hopes of a future turn in the business reinvestment cycle. The workers themselves, not the dominant sectors, can be craftsmen of a “virtuous cycle” of growth.

Our proposal to tackle the existing dramatic situation is very simple and powerful: to establish immediately a 500 pesos monthly unemployment insurance payment, while reducing the labor week, redistributing the existing work hours, and recruiting new employees. This measure, along with a minimum 600 peso monthly salary, could begin the repair of purchasing power, with the prospect of reaching in a short period the sum necessary to cover basic family needs, today estimated to be 1,030 pesos. In addition, minimum pensions should be increased to 450 pesos and should extend to all old people, including those without access to social security.

We propose three distinct means of funding this proposal: the total suspension of foreign debt payment; an immediate introduction of levies on big fortunes; and the reinstatement of a single public social security system.” ( http://www.monthlyreview.org/0402becerra.htm)

“I ask a poor Argentine what she would say to the activists of the US and Europe, people of the imperialist empires she knows is as responsible as her own farce of a government for the crisis in her country. "Struggle," she answers. "Never stop fighting, however you know how. Do whatever is in your power, because we all do just what we can. Just never stop fighting."

We are walking and I stop to catch one of those fluffy white dandelion seeds slowly navigating the air in front of me. I clasp it, close my eyes for three seconds, let it go.
Lili laughs. "The children call these panadores, like pan," she tells me, "because they used to wish on them for bread." -

( http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=42&ItemID=3129 )


SOURCES:
Argentina link at www.worldbankboycott.org.
For analysis of the Argentine economic crisis, go tothe Center for Economicand Policy Research's website: www.cepr.net,

Argentina: The Specter of Menem  http://www.narconews.com/Issue27/article591.html
A South American Union At Stake in April Elections
By Reed LindsaySchool of Authentic Journalism Scholarship Recipient

Piqueteros protest as Argentina makes massive IMF loan payments, by Marie Trigona  http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/76325.php

 http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=240960 (The Left Can't Agree)
Negotiations for a common left front between the Workers Party (PO) and the United Left (IU)- Communist Party and MST failed to materialize, by Frontlines correspondent February 28, 2003

 http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/78166.php

 http://www.pagina12.com/

 http://www.sf-frontlines.com Join the Left Party / Unase al partido de Izquierda:  http://www.leftparty.org

Argentina: An Alternative Proposal to Overcome the Crisis (edited version, for a full document see:  http://www.econ.uba.ar/www/institutos/economia/cenes/english.htm by Luis Becerra, Alberto Bonnet, Alfonso Florido, Guillermo Gigiliani, Claudio Katz, Eduardo Lucita, Jorge Marchini, and Alberto Teszkiewicz)
January 2002 at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires
 http://www.monthlyreview.org/0402becerra.htm
We believe that protests must confront and change the trend of ever further thefts from the vanishing resources of the majority of the people. Capitalists must bear the cost of their own disaster. This vision has to give direction to a struggle for an increase in salaries, for unemployment benefits, and for the full return to depositors of savings that the regime openly intends to confiscate… The goal of a just solution to the catastrophic problems of Argentine society will only be reached in the context of a socialist transformation.

Here is something else from the Workers Party from the
20th
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Argentina_Solidarity/message/2199

Organización Revolucionaria Anarquista's view that a
pre-revolutionary rather than revolutionary situation
exists in the country puts them to the right of the
Workers Party, close to the position of the powerful
Castroist/Stalinist Communist Party. They endorse the
Popular Fronts the CWG condemns
 http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos10848.html



Important Political Parties and Popular Movements in Argentina:

*NOTA: Por favor diganos informacion de los grupos sobre.
We solicit input from all of the groups below concerning their positions and activities.

Alternative for a Republic of Equals (ARI), Elisa Carrio leads the presidential polls at 20 percent.
Frente por el Cambio (Alicia Castro)
Autidetermination y Libertad (self Determination and Liberty) (AYL), Luis Zamora and the autonomists.  autodetermina@yahoo.com.ar
Izquierda Unida (PC-MST), Communist Party and Movement Socialista de Trabajadores that is affiliated with CTA, FRENAPO.
Partido Obrero (PO), pro new revolutionary Constituent Assembly.
Liga Socialista Revolutionaria (LSR)
Frente Obrero Socialista (FOS)
 http://www.pts.orgar/contenido/ingle271002manefesto.htm
PTS
CTA, was leaning toward support for ARI and Carrio. Secretary General is Victor De Gennaro who may eventually run for president of Argentina.
MTD, Movement of the Unemployed Workers, piqueteros group.
Luz y Fuerza, Cordoba electricity workers’ union, leans toward support for Carrio/ARI.
The Alto Valley coordinating Committee, Neuquen-based coalition of Ceramic Workers’ union (SOECN), MTD. Health workers branch of ATE (Teachers’ Union), and the Orange List of the UOCRA (Construction Workers’ Union), supports radical Regional Workers’ Assemblies.
Bloque Piquetero
MTL, Communist Party affiliated
Movement al Socialismo (MAS), affiliated with UNTER (Rio Negro Teachers’ Union and the Rio Turbio Miners’ Union).
MST (Attimesis Izquierda Unida affiliated.
Barrio de Pies
François Houtart (Forum Mundial de Alternativas, Bélgica)
José Seoane (Observatorio Social de América Latina - CLACSO, Argentina)


BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON ARGENTINA:

1. Citibank has become the largest owner of bankrupt Argentine companies. As the economy worsens, more and more bankrupt Argentine companies are being taken over by the banks they owe money to. This has been compounded by the rising dollar debt incurred by companies after the devaluation of the peso. Currently Citibank is the largest owner, with 100 companies, followed by Banco Nacion, who also owns 12 million hectares of land. Generally, the objective of the owning bank is not to manage the company but to buy and sell it as quickly as possible at the expense of the Argentine people. So, it came as no surprise that the organizers of this event are asking people to congregate at Citigroup to register their dissent. This is one more example of Citigroup's willingness to put people before profit and planet.