Graciela Fernández: Human rights activist and senator, Argentina
Delpino, Nena
Why has there been a need to rebuild the left in Argentina? The left in Latin America was never really in con- tact with the masses, especially in Argentina. There were two great parties that were...
...How do we devise a development strategy given this daunting legacy...
...I'm generally someone tethered to the ground...
...How do you promote the work of small and medium-size businesses...
...Another way to facilitate participation is through national and local congresses of FREPASO, where political matters are discussed, but they are not well accepted...
...There is a paradox in Latin America...
...VOL XXXI, No 1 JuLY/AuG 1997 7 Why has there been a need Argentina...
...We have to have an idea of the type of state we want...
...During the military uprising in 1987, people also rose up...
...Justicialismo [Peronism] and radicalismo had nothing to do with the orthodox left, but some of their members did identify with the left...
...It recognized massive needs, and it sought to build a state to fulfill those needs...
...In the case of the Argentine left, when it set upon the path of armed struggle, it did not take into account that it was up against a professional army, and that the majority of society did not support its strategies...
...When I realized that I no longer had to fear for my children's wellbeing, I started waking up without back pains...
...Half a century later, justicialismo came on the scene, also in response to various circumstances: the war, the challenges of the postwar period, the need to include the marginalized, etc...
...Perhaps this coincides with everything else...
...We must take into account that Argentine society is not a leftist one, but one with many conservative elements...
...This is the first time our party will have internal elections in the capital city, where we are strongest electorally, though not as well organized as some other parties...
...Another reason for the failure of the left here is the failure of the left elsewhere...
...Not just there...
...The first national strike was also a challenge...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASVOICES ON THE LEFT Today there is moderate voter turnout, political affiliations are not increasing much, and those who distance themselves from politics the most are the youth...
...What natural law says that you have to be miserable just because you are a citizen...
...People used to applaud privatization...
...It created a benefactor state, perhaps an overprotective one, and then turned it into an industrialist state...
...I believe there is a great deal of hope within FREPASO...
...One realizes the dimension of one's anguish only after you no longer have it...
...When 46% of the electorate of this city votes me into office, I cannot say that my constituency is on the left, because if I do, then I have no idea of what this city is all about...
...The Montoneros, the People's Revolutionary Army, and other leftist sectors abandoned the political path much too early, and in turn became captive of the militarization of politics-which the armed forces clearly won...
...Just take a walk through Buenos Aires and you'll realize that there are neighborhoods with 100% unemployment, not 40% as they say...
...That is why a corporatist and exclusive political class was created in Argentina...
...Faced with this situation, what can we do...
...I'm much more involved in public life...
...But the greatest conceptual difficulty leftists in our country had was understanding the times and the situation of the population...
...Since 1994 we have always been navigating in some ocean...
...There are no great social movements here...
...My feet are firmly planted on the ground, which I think is one my traits, I was like that before...
...now they are starting from the individual and they are building something more collective...
...it values the importance of institutions and wants them to be strong...
...have been passed recently that provide reparations to the families of the disappeared...
...We are appealing to very simple things here...
...There were two great parties that were the axes of politics and builders of the state in Argentina...
...Do you believe that people are more or less willing to mobilize than they were five years ago...
...when the privatizing wave came, everybody said it was good...
...One of the difficulties always present within the left was that the common good subsumed the individual...
...Unless President Carlos Menem performs a miracle, or there is catastrophe in the opposition, there is no way Menem can revive people's hope that things will change...
...Today, society needs to establish the rule of law...
...This is the romanticism of the patern youth...
...We also have to rethink relations between people and institutions in order to win back the people...
...The objective is still to recreate a society that includes the excluded...
...Not long ago, he said that he envied Pinochet because he [Menem] had to implement the neoliberal model in a democratic context...
...Campaigning every six months is not very conducive to discussion...
...It's a curious thing...
...I was alarmed recently after seeing some height charts that indicate a decrease in the height of Argentine children...
...How do we keep what we once had, which was to assure good social conditions, good health and education...
...For example, in 1982, I was in favor of not paying the foreign debt, but nowadays I ask how we ever thought we didn't have to pay...
...That is really an expression of an old Argentine political paradigm: that a society that demands its rights, one that seeks to control its authorities and participate, is considered a nuisance...
...But I would not say that FREPASO is on the left...
...Right now it is Snt from alist state of populism to having no state at all...
...People were feeling very pessimistic...
...Another factor is that our authoritarian upbringing was so much a part of us that throughout Latin America, those sectors that honestly proposed revolution as a means for change did so with the same conceptual authoritarianism as those they sought to replace...
...Many of the same old political figures reappear and I realize that nothing has changed here, they are still saying the same thing...
...The U.S...
...Another great challenge is learning how to build mechanisms that foster democracy and equal treatment...
...We believe it has...
...Another challenge for us is evaluating whether the neoliberal cycle in Argentina-popularly known as menemismo-has run its course...
...That is what I mean by maturity...
...Today I face things with much less anxiety...
...But at the same time, however, in those countries where there was the most equality, as was the case in Argentina, there is now more polarization...
...What mechanisms does FREPASO have in place to facilitate grassroots participation...
...The left embarked on a dialectic with their enemy, the armed forces, abandoning the path of politics, as if there could be a balance between one and the other...
...That is one of the problems of progressives throughout Latin America...
...The same goes for discrimination...
...If there is no state, then who The blackout was, interestingly regul enough, a very individualistic mea- relationsh sure, but it turned out to have a massive effect...
...Populist movements like justicialismo, which had certain leftist elements within them, were the ones who advanced the most politically...
...From the 1970s onward, there has been an effort to completely undo these state structures...
...dispo0 This is an example of the way the left is proposing innovative measures that recognize the individual...
...In 1985, when the country was returning to democracy, Alfosin brought us all to the Plaza de Mayo in support of his war economy plan...
...They are eager to participate, for example, when they are asked to help out at a We we school...
...Can you tell me how Graciela Fernandez today differs from the human rights leader of the last decade...
...Only now do you see something like a rekindling of young people's interest in some spaces...
...Since we belong to that society, we have to be careful not to let that tendency appear in our midst, because history repeats itself...
...one that can reincorporate them in the best way possible, without the false promise that everyone will have salaried work, which may no longer be possible...
...How do you stimulate cooperation...
...We are aware of the methods that are being used...
...My biggest worry is what do we do with the youth...
...Up until ten years ago people mobilized...
...Not long ago I read the results of a poll in which 80% of the population said they oppose privatization...
...Now that everything is privatized, people are reacting saying that it was no good...
...But people were already becoming disillusioned...
...In universities, for example...
...You cannot even say that feminist movements in Argentina are strong...
...the fastest-growing continent economically...
...Do you think that FREPASO is clear about its political role...
...It was first and foremost a protest against the economic model...
...One challenge is, as Secretary General of the Frente Grande Carlos Auyero once said, having "to build the ship as we sail," not in a small stream, but in the high seas...
...What type of relationship does FREPASO have with Argentine social movements, such as the human rights movement, the feminist movement, the labor movement...
...How do you evaluate the participation of Argentines in recent antiMenem protests, such as the national strike and the blackout...
...When I joined the human rights movement, for example, I saw that the left also spurned the concepts of human rights and democracy...
...Before 1989 one could search for explanations in the bad strategies of each sector, like in the Soviet Union, where there was a double discourse and a disdain for individual liberties...
...Many of us in FREPASO were founders of and activists in the human rights movement during the dictatorship...
...Only members of FREPASO can vote to elect party officers, and the list of legislative candidates will be made according to the outcome of the vote...
...But while the human rights movement was very strong here during the dictatorship, and pushed the issues in post-dictatorship politics, it no longer has the same strength...
...let justice be independent and uphold the rules established by society and be applicable to everyone equally...
...And how can we come up with a national plan for Argentina, when this country is turning into an archipelago of very distinct realities...
...Less anguish...
...And we have been actively pushing for laws promoting human rights, like some of the laws that rates the ip between rful and the assessed...
...I was at a meeting where young people were discussing their activities, and a young woman was saying that young people today are easily hooked on anything that has to do with solidarity...
...Before, it was the opposite: one had to destroy all institutions and then see what could be done...
...It is very much like the time when radicalismo was born as a revolutionary response to the dire needs of immigrants, to whom it gave political expression...
...How do we act...
...a 8 I A R G E N T I N AVOICES ON THE LEFT What are the immediate challenges facing FREPASO...
...Menem's mission is clear...
...And we need to create institutions that function democratically and operate efficiently...
...I do not know if everything is worse, but they are now angry at the same thing they cheered before...
...It also has to do with age or maturity, since life teaches a great deal...
...If there is no state, then who regulates the relationship between the powerful and the dispossessed...
...From the point of view of the problems in Argentina, how do you see the problems in the rest of Latin America...
...Now I know what it's like to live without anguish...
...Today the progressive movement has to move in this direction: strengthening political liberalism is a very valuable concept for helping us rethink relations between men and women...
...The new left in Argentina has come to value democracy...
...There are young people who are joining the Red Cross or Greenpeace, which are not parties, but social and ecological organizations...
...Now I look for negotiations or some intermediate steps...
...Our principal challenge is defining what kind of state we should build...
...One way we are trying to facilitate participation is by holding internal elections for party leaders...
...The problem is that it is difficult for people to believe in politics when politicians command from very authoritarian and elitist positions...
...This does not happen in economically stable countries...
...We give a lot of importance to the development of institutions...
...The truth is that one had the powei only to stay at home in the dark, but people found ways to make noise...
...Besides the changes you have already mentioned, what is different about you today...
...model is being copied at full speed...
...We went from the paternalist states that populism built to having no state at all...
...Then came Alfonsin's first defeat, and afterwards the only one who could mobilize people was Menem...
...He has no political strategy, other than a publicity strategy, but he cannot make it stick with the current high rate of unemployment...
Vol. 31 • July 1997 • No. 1
