WHAT SHIFT TO THE LEFT IN LATIN AMERICA?

Over the pond in Latin America it appears that White House Inc. has been too bogged down in the Middle East - sucking the region dry of its black gold for the shareholding buddies of the Bush-Cheney Junta - to notice the radicalisation of some of its Southern neighbours. With experience of a US foreign policy which has overthrown the democratic regimes of almost every Latin American country over the past century, the continent is strangely bereft of coups and dictatorships at the moment. There’s been a lot of talk of ‘left-wing resurgences’ in the region, but is it all as positive as it sounds?

Increasingly some of the ‘new left’ leaders have been showing their true colours: a love for power, money and a tendency to shaft the more radical groups they relied on to win office in the first place. At the same time though, the upsurge in support for left wing presidents has created a demilitarised space for some community groups to come together to tackle the common misery which affects the lives of half the continent’s population: poverty. This is, after all, a region where military dictatorship, repression, ‘disappearance’ and torture of activists have been the norm for most of the last 100 years.

Despite calling “Que se vayan todos!” (All must go!) to a string of corrupt presidents during the country’s economic collapse in 2001, a minority of Argentineans did subsequently back Nestor Kirchner for President. Coming from the traditional Peronist faction of Argentinean politics, Kirchner might have refused to bow to all of the International Monetary Fund’s demands, but he’s still paying off the country’s colossal debt, despite half the population living in poverty. He successfully managed to co-opt some of the more ‘moderate’ social movements during his election campaign and now, just like the politicians before him, he’s clamping down on anti-authoritarian movements such as the piqueteros (unemployed picketers) and workers involved in the occupied factories movement. The Zanon ceramics factory (see SchNEWS 477) is among the most successful of these; since the occupation the cooperative has taken on 50% more workers and production levels have increased threefold. However Zanon workers are now facing a new challenge, one which has strange echoes of the military dictatorship of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Back then, car maker Ford supplied the Argentinean military with thousands of vehicles - especially the green Ford Falcon which quickly became a symbol of repression. One of these driving up your street meant that a kidnapping was in the air, and in Argentina kidnappings were almost always followed by torture and ‘disappearance’. The car company now faces a class action from relatives of former Ford factory workers whose details, as left wing subversives and union activists, were given to the military top brass by company bosses. Despite this, the green Falcons are back on the road, this time being used in the kidnapping and torturing of a Zanon factory worker last spring. Although Kirchner has been prosecuting some of the military for crimes committed during the dictatorship, he continues to cosy up to Ford despite its dodgy record. With his clampdown on the occupied factories he has shown that his sympathies lie with the corporations which continue to line his government’s pockets.
KISSINGER OF DEATH

Back in 1970, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger commented that he didn’t, “see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people”. While he was referring to Chile, and setting the scene for the military dictatorship installed by the CIA three years later, current spooks must be thinking the same about Bolivia. The second poorest country in South America has recklessly gone and elected a coca farmer and indigenous man, Evo Morales, for President. He’s just announced plans to nationalize the country’s gas reserves and redistribute land to poor farmers - and companies like British Petroleum and British Gas who have invested £500m buying up oil and gas reserves, are none too pleased.

Worse still is the support the Bolivian government is giving to the growing of the traditional coca plant, despite the US government’s £80m crop eradication plan. La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, lies at 4,000m above sea level and Coca is given to relieve altitude sickness to new arrivals, just as it is chewed by long distance lorry drivers and even coppers on night shifts. This is not about adding kerosene and sulphuric acid to the coca leaf and making cocaine for export to the West; it is a way of life for the indigenous Amerindian population who make up two thirds of the country’s 9 million inhabitants.

Like Kirchner in Argentina, Morales came to power on the back of co-opted social movements under the banner ‘Movement Towards Socialism’. He has been careful to keep the middle class on board, by tempering the demands of many of his supporting groups. But now he’s in power a number of these movements are threatening that if he adopts a more moderate line, they’ll organize the type of protests and strikes which ousted two presidents in two years. Whether this will keep Morales true to his words only time will tell, and with battalions of US troops stationed in neighbouring Paraguay things are sure to heat up.

The use of social movements for political gain has not gone unnoticed in Venezuela, which was host to last month’s Americas Social Forum. The lefty shindig was heavily sponsored by the Venezuelan government and worked neatly as an introduction to the re-election campaign of President Hugo Chavez. Neo Labour would have been proud to witness last Thursday’s Chavez frenzy; a well-choreographed event at a stadium on the edge of Caracas complete with translation headsets for foreign supporters.

More autonomous groups, meanwhile, had other ideas and an Alternative Social Forum (ASF) was set up. Taking notice of the contradiction in terms that is Chavez’s ‘revolutionary state’, the ASF refused to construct itself on the back of sponsored debates and ran workshops on direct action, video activism and autonomy. Distant admiration for Latin American autonomists may be short-sighted though. ASF meetings were not packed to the rafters with the Latin American poor, but frequented by middle class intellectuals and westerners from the US and Canada - the shanty towns were poorly represented. Meanwhile, Chavez always found himself flanked by supporters with a few western ideological groupies in tow. And it’s easy to see why. In a country with massive literacy and health promotion programmes which permeate the shanty towns around Caracas and other major cities, people are better off. “We experience poverty every day” says Paulo, “No leader is perfect but under Chavez we are better off today, not in some distant future. If we don’t go with Chavez the business elite will gain power and once again we will be searching for food for our children.”

A positive note for those who possess a healthy suspicion of government is the space that has been createdfor more inspired grass roots action. Despite continuing corruption and the obvious self interest of politicians, the military are not on the streets as previously. The regional co-operative movement has never been so strong - occupied factories are breaking production records and essentials like gas, water and electricity are being brought back under public control. But whether by force or covert action, White House Inc. is not going to sit back and watch its profits dry up. The real question is not whether people like Chavez and Morales are good or bad, but whether grass roots organisations can take advantage of the current breathing space and become a real force to be reckoned with - before power shifts back to corporate-military regimes which have characterised Latin American politics for so long.

* A report from the ASF at www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72541

* More on Venezuala at www.nodo50.org/ellibertario/seccioningles.htm

Check out  http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news532.htm for the rest of this weeks issue covering protests to save a 100 year old market in London, a call for money for NCADC, a faslane update, coverage of The Congo's forgotten war and more.

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