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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2002
Argentina's unemployed rise up
The spontaneous revolt of late
December that brought down four presidents in less than two weeks was not an
isolated event. The increasingly impoverished middle class played a role in it,
but deeper roots lay among the unemployed. The movement of unemployed
workers in Argentina known as los piqueteros (picketers) has been ongoing for a
decade. Unemployed Argentinians (who in some areas make up 60% of the
population) have been forging new forms of struggle and raising questions that
deserve to be listened to. 'PIQUETEROS' A NEW FORCE Hundreds (or thousands) of
piquetes have taken place just in the past few years; they’ve been continuous,
massive, and widespread. These are highway closures, and the tactic is simple
enough: the unemployed block a main road with vehicles, burning tires and
furniture, and bring everything to a screeching halt. The police are sent out to
clear it, but the picketers stand up to the assault until the government is
forced to discuss their demands. Most Argentine media accounts trace the piquetes or cortes de
ruta (highway closures) back to 1996 or 1997. But the unemployment that drives
them stems from 1991-1993, when the state-run oil company YPF went from 50,000
workers to 7,000 after it was sold to Spaniards. In 1992 the Aceros Zapla steel
plant was sold to Americans (including Citicorp) and the workforce was cut from
5,000 to 700. In the small northern town of General Mosconi, where 90% of its
15,000 people worked for YPF, there was 60% unemployment by 1993. They’ve been
in permanent rebellion there ever since. In places where unemployment is highest, nearly the entire
population participates. They define themselves by their lack of hierarchy. All
decisions are made in daily assemblies, and everything is run communally. When
the government is forced to negotiate, it’s done right at the picket, for all
to see and hear. When jobs are won through these negotiations, they’re
distributed according to the needs of the poorest in the community and their
involvement in the picket. Joint actions are carried out with the militant CTA
(Central de Trabajadores Argentinos) and others, but all of the piquetero groups
insist on maintaining autonomy from the unions and “revolutionary” parties. Last June, at a national conference of the unemployed, the
mention of Carlos Giuliani brought an immediate standing ovation; they consider
Giuliani, killed by police while marching against the G8 meeting in Genoa, to be
as one with their own martyrs who have died defending the pickets. A clear
identification with the politics of the anti-globalization movement has been
developing. In an interview in February,
Pepino Fernandez, a piquetero leader from General Mosconi, spoke about the need
to “return to the way it was before,” i.e., to nationalize the industries
that were privatized in the early 1990s under Menem. This is of course something
everyone in Argentina talks about now. GLOBAL VIEW But later Pepino went into a list of demands the General
Mosconi picket is putting to the government, some that clearly mirror the issues
brought out by the anti-globalization movement. For example: “For agriculture
and ranching, reforestation has to be taken seriously.” He put special
emphasis on the pickets set up by indigenous peoples. And speaking about the
work the pickets usually win from the government, which are essentially
subsidized, low-paid public works jobs, he said: “We’re not fighting for
subsidies anymore, we want genuine work.” The thinking of the piqueteros has thus developed through
these years of struggle. But while this militantly autonomous movement has taken
root throughout the country, there is little recognition that a common idea
drives them. In Pepino’s words: “Everything is still divided, the movement
hasn’t united yet, we still go out only for our own individual battles.”
This is the contradiction the movement as a whole seems to be struggling with
now. —Mitch Weerth |
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