"Throw Them All Out": Argentina's Grassroots Rebellion
Burbach, Roger
A grassroots rebellion is taking place in Argentina with the common refrain "que se vayan todos," or "throw them all out." It is directed against the entire political leadership of the country as...
...Throw Them All Out" 1. Interview with author, Buenos Aires, April 28, 2002...
...8. Quoted in Pagina/12, May 29, 2002, http:www.paginal 2.com.ar/ 9. Miguel Bonasso, "Libro de las asambleas," Pagina/12, June10,2002, http:www.paginal2.com.ar...
...The head of the CTA, Victor De Gennaro, As Norma Filgueiras, one of the Front's organizers declared: "This is a national rebellion against hunger, who participates in the popular assemblies notes: unemployment and the selling out of the country...
...tractors...
...The Front calls for "The people will have the final word...
...The demonstrations that erupted in December are commonly referred to as caserolazos, protests in which participants bang on empty pots and pans to symbolize their inability to purchase the basic necessities of life...
...7. The CTA is the third largest trade union, behind the CGT and the breakaway dissident CGT-Moyano...
...4 The popular assemblies are emblematic of the upsurge in grassroots organizing that is occurring throughout the country...
...In 1945 the descamisados, the shirtless workers of Buenos Aires from the international meat packing plants, along with other sectors of the popular classes took to the streets...
...The government's repression of the protests resulted in the deaths of 32 demonstrators...
...One week later they began printing a book called Que son las Asembleas Populares...
...Other local assemblies are urging people who own their homes not to pay property taxes and to instead turn the revenue over to hospitals in their area that are in desperate need of medical supplies...
...violent confrontation appeared imminent until local policemen began to express their solidarity with the workers in the plant and those they faced on the barricades...
...He is co-editor of September 11 and the U.S...
...Are we witnessing the enterprises produce many goods (including medi- rise of a new type of militancy...
...Two previous rebellions that transformed the country have occurred against the dominant order in modern Argentine history...
...In addition to mobilizing demonstrations that converge on the historic Plaza de Mayo of Buenos Aires on a weekly basis, the popular assemblies often take on local issues and concerns...
...On May tion," an ironic reference to the economic shock 29, Buenos Aires and most of Argentina were paratreatment imposed on many developing countries by lyzed by a massive strike and road blockages led by the IMF...
...Our political class bankrupted the country in the 1990s by implementing Washington's neoliberal economic prescriptions...
...The piqueteros are loosely organized in the Movement of Unemployed Workers...
...The second uprising took place in 1969 with the Cordobazo, when tens of thousands of workers rose up and seized control of Argentina's second largest city, C6rdoba, precipitating the eventual downfall of the military dictator, General Juan Ongania...
...7 Frenapo, student organizations, cooperative social programs and implementing financial policies bank associations, popular assemblies, rural workers that favor the rich, as the IMF prescribes...
...3. See Paginal12 (Buenos Aires), June 10, 2002, http://www.paginal 2.com.ar 4. See Argentina Arde website for information on this factor takeover and the popular assemblies at http://orbita.starmedia.com/argentinaardelp/trabajadores/ notas/nuevatoma.htm 5. Quoted in Terra, April 5, 202, http://www.terra.com.ar/canales/politica/ 6. Interview with author, Buenos Aires, February 8, 2002...
...Government repression of the piquetero movement is increasing...
...8 "Today with almost half of the country's 37 million One of the major slogans of the mobilization propeople falling below the poverty line we are dis- claimed: "Organize to Confront the Neoliberal cussing real alternatives that could help us at the Model...
...As Lidia Pertieria, an assembly organizer in Buenos Aires notes, "One of the rallying cries coming from our communities is 'no more foreign loans.' New loans only mean more swindling and robbery by our gov- ernment officials...
...If we "throw them all out," what and who officials, and by encouraging economic solidarity will we put in their place...
...2. Interview with author, Buenos Aires, April 29, 2002...
...As the owner of a printing plant began to shut it down and turn it over to his creditors, the workers seized control and formed the Chilavert Cooperative...
...community level...
...They were protesting the imprisonment and deposition of Juan Domingo Per6n as labor NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Roger Burbach has written extensively on Latin America, U.S...
...foreign policy and globalization...
...In its first initiative, the group dynamic, with different organizations and social collected over a million signatures for a plan that was movements seizing the initiative, depending on the presented to Congress and dubbed "shock redistribu- particular political and social conjuncture...
...What is the relationcines) that are currently imported, by renationalizing ship between popular assemblies and political orgaindustries that were sold off by corrupt government nizations...
...They have held two national assemblies in August and September of 2001, which brought together a variety of social and nongovernmental organization along with the unemployed...
...The assemblies also take up discussions of international issues...
...According to Rosendo Fraga, the director of the Center for Studies of the New Majority: "From a political perspective, the piqueteros are evolving as an insurgent social protest movement similar to the Zapatistas of Mexico and the Landless Movement (MST) of Brazil...
...Many of the demonstrators march under the banners of the communities they come from after gathering in asambleas populares, or popular assemblies...
...War, and is currently at work on The Pinochet Affair: Globalizing Human Rights...
...De la Rda fell the next day and was succeeded by four presidents in a period of less than two weeks...
...After the uprisings on December 19-20, the actitivites of the piqueteros exploded on the national scene with roads and major arteries being blocked around the country on a daily basis...
...Jos6 Luis Coraggio, an economist and the rector of General Sarmiento National University in Buenos Aires, angrily declares: "The leadership in Washington that dominates IMF policy is responsible for this economic catastrophe...
...Now we are told that the only solution is to turn over the bits and pieces that remain of our national economy to foreign lenders and to slash government social spending even further to get 'rescue financing' from the IME...
...with immigrants...
...38CRISIS IN ARGENTINA secretary and vice-president, largely because of his ambitious populist policies favoring the working class...
...There have been an astonishing 11,088 protests nationwide since the beginning of the crisis five months ago...
...We are to be made an example of because Argentina has no strategic importance, no major oil reserves, no illegal drugs, and we do not flood the U.S...
...It is directed against the entire political leadership of the country as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and transnational companies doing business in the country...
...Police authorities then backpedaled, successfully appealing to the judge to rescind his order to seize the printing facilities...
...The current rebellion erupted on December 19-20, 2001, when the government of Fernando de la Rida froze domestic savings accounts in an attempt to salvage the country's domestic and international banking interests...
...But then the popular assembly of Pompeya called on barrio residents to take to the streets and block the entrances to the printing facility...
...By 2001, the blockading of strategic commercial arteries had spread to the entire country...
...another organization that has moved into the spotlight with the country's political crisis...
...In one barrio the assembly organized pickets to prevent the authorities from evicting a baker who could not afford to pay his rent...
...Police and infantry troops, along with armed vehicles, fire trucks and unmarked police cars surrounded the cooperative, demanding that the workers leave the facilities...
...On June 26, two young piqueteros were shot and killed by police in Buenos Aires...
...6 A widely distributed pamphlet by In the final pages of the Chilavert Cooperative's the Front points out in easy to understand language What are the Popular Assemblies?, a series of ques- how neoliberal economic policies can be reversed by tions are posed about the nature of the upheaval in funding local housing projects, by helping small Argentina: What is the future...
...5 The piqueteros are notable for their participatory leadership...
...After the release of the book, the workers began printing other texts, including quality art catalogs, while preparing to run new editions of the book on popular assemblies that will recount the latest episodes and experiences of the people who are organizing in the barrios...
...The redistribution plan argues that the only the Argentine Workers Central (CTA) and one of the way to reactivate the economy is by putting funds main groups of piqueteros, the Combative Class into the hands of the country's poor, not by slashing Current...
...The CTA is the most dynamic and rapidly growing of the three trade unions...
...2 One of the more fascinating episodes illustrating the potent relationship between the popular assemblies and local economic initiatives occurred in late May in the barrio of Pompeya, Buenos Aires...
...The first major protests against neoliberal government policies began in the interior of the country in 1996 and 1997 when unemployed workers called piqueteros, or picketers, blocked major highways demanding jobs...
...These barrio gatherings have rapidly become autonomous centers of community participation that include a wide variety of groups and individuals, ranging from the unemployed and independent trade unionists, to housewives, human rights activists and members of non-mainstream left political parties...
...ogists and trade unionists to propose alternatives to The popular movement in Argentina is extremely the neoliberal order...
...Whether or not the IMF attempts to "rescue" the Argentine political establishment with new loans, history will record that the Argentine people rose up against the post-Cold War order of neoliberalism and corporate driven globalization...
...Will new political subjects and cooperation among individuals and groups rather emerge...
...Bargaining is done in open groups to prevent government clientelism, a longstanding practice of Argentine political leaders in which they separately negotiate with a handful of representatives and promise them jobs or give them bribes in order to sell out the rest of the movement...
...3 On behalf of the creditors, a local judge ordered the seizure of the enterprise...
...They usually negotiate in large groups or assemblies with local and regional governmental leadVol XXXVI, No 1 JULY/AUGUST 2002 39 Vol XXXVI, No 1 JuLY/AUGUST 2002 39CRISIS IN ARGENTINA ers to demand publicly financed jobs in exchange for the lifting of blockades...
...One sticker slapped on banks around Buenos Aires reads: "No More Extortion by Foreign Banks and the International Monetary Fund...
...In 2000 the and farmers participated in marches, blockades, Front set up polling booths around the country and street theater, occupations of government buildings held a referendum in which over 3 million people and the blocking of critical commercial arteries with voted for the redistributive plan...
...The National Front Against Poverty (Frenapo) with over 60,000 members is Popular Assembly in the Buenos Aires barrio Flores on March 3, 2002...
...As one reviewer of the book concludes: than "free market" competition...
...The latter two are generally supportive of government policies, particularly of the Peronist Party currently in power...
...It was taxes on banking and corporate interests to provide established in 1999 by a group of economists, sociol- the additional revenue for these initiatives...
...Since early January, the current administration of Eduardo Duhalde has been under constant siege by protesters and mass demonstrations...
...or What are the Popular Assemblies?, a collection of articles written by renowned intellectuals as well as workers and participants in the assemblies...
Vol. 36 • July 2002 • No. 1
