arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

For several years now Argentina has been suffering from a deep economic crisis, mainly a result of the debt that burdens the nation (136,000,000$),along with record unemployment (over 18%), and a serious recession.

Two years ago Argentines voted for an end to the rule of Carlos Menem and the Partido Justicialista. Menem's ten year rule became sinonymous with rampant corruption and and luxury for a select few at the expense of the majority of the Argentine people.

Fernando de la Rua, a Radical (member of the Union Civica Radical, Argentina's second largest party) was voted president as part of the Alliance, a wide coalition of center-left parties, led by the UCR. The campaign that brought De la Rua to power was centered around doing away with the unjust priviliges of the Argentine ruling class, doing away with the rampant corruption, and building a fairer and more equitable Argentina.

However, soon after coming to power, the Alliance essentially fell apart, as parties left in disgust with the fact that, in order to continue receiving loans from the International Monetary Fund, De la Rua was implementing the economic adjustment plans dictated by the IMF. These plans essentially meant serious wage cuts for public workers, all sorts of neglect for the, already quite minimal, social security networks in Argentina. Once again, the workers and the poor (along with the middle class) were being made to suffer in order to pay for a debt that was the result of excessive spending and corruption of the Argentine military and ruling class.

It quickly became abundantly clear that, once again, a president was not responding to the needs and interests of the people, but to those of the banks and economic elites. Nothing made this clearer than the return of Domingo Cavallo as Economy minister (Cavallo, who instrumented "convertibility" which tied the Argentine peso to the dollar, was ousted by Menem himself during his rule, only to be brought back by De la Rua). Cavallo is known to be the banker's best friend, the mastermind behind several multi-million dollar deals (of which much dissappeared), and, above all, a man with no regard whatsoever to the fate of the common man/woman. He is without any discussion, the most hated man in Argentina.

The Last Straw:

The adjustment measures of President De la Rua have been met with stiff resistance from the Argentine working class from the very beginning. This has primarily taken the form of nationwide road blockades and general strikes. The Road blockades, usually carried out by the unemployed, have been innumerable, while there have been 8 general strikes (of between 24 and 48 hours and with differing amounts of popular participation).

Finally, during the second week of December, after rumors of an imminent devaluation of the Peso led to massive withdrawals of money from the banks, Domingo Cavallo declared emergency economic measures. These entailed that for a period of 90 days, people would be allowed to withdraw no more than 250$ per week from the banks, that one could leave the country with no more than 1,000$ (and that leaving the country was not an excuse to be allowed more money from the bank, this amount was later changed to 10,000$). A cap was also placed on money transfers outside the country, and people were limited to two bank accounts (in order to prevent people from opening multiple bank accounts and thus sidestepping the 250$ limit).

This move was aimed at accomplishing several objectives. Stemming the flow of money outside of the Argentine economic system, forcing the large part of the Argentine economy that functions "en negro" (in black, as in, workers who are not legally recognized so that employers do not pay taxes on them, transactions that are carried out without receipts, small street vendors, etc.) into legality, and increasing tax revenue, thus, in theory, allowing the state to pay off its debts.

Over 600,000 new bank accounts were created in the next 3 days. However, it quickly became clear that Argentina was not ready, be it materially or socially, for a forced "bankization" (as they say in spanish) of the economy (this is a nation where only 4% of the population has a bank account). The problems that quickly arose were numerous:

-Lines at banks that often were over one block long, confusion and anger once inside. The banks were simply not prepared for the new situation.

-The small and medium businesses, already suffering from the recession, began suffering heavy losses in business, for two reasons. First of all, people, naturally wanting to hold on to the limited cash that they are able to take from the banks, chose to shop primarily at large chain stores that offered credit and debit cards. It is estimated that, after the measures were announced, 400,000 business were in need of debit card machines. However, the company in charge of renting/selling them only had 18,000 in stock. This left many small and medium business without access to debit card machines.
Secondly, people simply began spending much less, especially at kiosks (small stores that sell, candy, cigarettes, etc.) as nobody intended to go through using a bank card for such small purchases.

-Those who did intend to shop via their debit cards, often found this to be next to impossible. The sudden large amount of users overloaded systems, causing them to crash frequently, or take anywhere between 15 minutes to 1 hour to recognize and approve the card. Naturally, many people simply gave up and left.

-Many of the poor and unemployed in Argentina depend on the small change of those better off, be it through panhandling or the sale of diverse items at street corner stores or stoplights, for the money that provides them their daily bread. The new measures cut off the flow of small change to them, as people became very much reluctant to let go of their cash.

This quickly led to two separate and distinct, yet related, rebellions.

The first was that of the Argentine poor and working class, and the second, that of the Argentine middle class. The former, the downtrodden, finding themselves either unemployed, or with jobs that did not provide them with enough money for the necessities of life, became desperate, and the desperation turned to action.

The second was that of the Argentine middle class. Finding themselves in the midst of a recession that was eating away at the relative comfort that they were used to, and faced with the economic measures of a government that seemed to not care that the Argentine middle class was dying, they took they took to the streets. With pots, pans, and car horns, they came out in the thousands on the night of the Wednesday, December 19th, immediately after the four minute speech of President De la Rua, where it became perfectly clear that he had not understood the message, and declared a state of emergency.

Wednesday, December 19: Argentina Erupts

Wednesday December 19th began asa a fairly agitated day in Argentina. The counry's grandmothers and grandfathers protesting, almost in tears, outside banks because they were unable to get their retirement checks. Ten thousand fans of the Racing Club de Avellaneda, some having waited in line over 40 hours for a ticket to the game that could mean their first championship in 35 years, taking part in a near riot outside the stadium in the panic for tickets once they went on sale, and, those lucky (or unlucky) enough to have jobs, headed to work.

All this was well before noon. However, by the time the afternoon rolled around, it was rapidly becoming evident that this was not to be a day like the others. It was the beginning of the 48 hour revolt, the massive lootings, the battle of Buenos Aires, and the end of a President.

The first news was of sporadic looting in some provinces and in the outskirts of the city of Buenos Aires. Next, came word of heavy fighting in the city of La Plata, pitting leftist groups and municipal workers against the police after attempts to take over a municipal building. The rubber bullets and tear gas were flying, the barricades burning, and the bank windows crumbling.

Minutes later, news came of even more looting, and masses of people, sometimes dozens, sometimes hundreds, and sometimes thousands, gathering around supermarkets, begging for food, and if they were not given it, taking it. On the heels of this, news of fighting between municipal workers and police in the city of Cordoba after state workers partially set fire to the state house. News of police, evidently out of control and unnacountable (a constant reality in Argentina) shooting tear gas into a building belonging to the Luz y Fuerza union where young children were practicing ballet. Children, coughing and in tears, being rushed away in ambulances, amidst screams and the distant sound of rubber bullets.

In the meantime, the looting crept closer and closer to the capital. Sometimes, police watched helplessly, or chose not to intervene, others, it ended with bullets and gas. Sometimes, those of us watching the television, could cheer as the downtrodden and forgotten of Argentina took what they needed from the multinationals and large corporations in order to make their lives better, if only for a few days. Other times, we were left almost in tears as we watched what threatened to become a war of poor versus poorer, when looters emptied the stores of small shop owners, whose one store represented their only means of survival for their family. The direct action lost its glory, when we saw the family of Chinese immigrants, in tears beyond consolation, lamenting the loss of their only source of income, which took them years to build, and for which they had left everything behind. One such family, overcome with desperation, chose to commit suicide the very next day.

At this point, it was not yet even nightfall, and the worst, along with the best, was yet to come. Around 8 pm, a state of emergency was declared, limiting consitutional guarantees of individual freedoms, as well as forbidding public gatherings of more than 3 people.

At 10 pm, President De la Rua went on national television to give a four minute speech. It was here that it became abundantly clear that the nation was being led by a President who, not only lacked conviction and direction, but also was completely out of touch with the needs and demands of the Argentine people.

Faced with the unmistakable reality of a legion of unemployed and working poor taking to the streets in desperation to take what little they could in order to spend the holidays with less hunger in their stomachs, and a middle class that repeatedly took to the streets and blocked roads in order to protest what they saw as the robbing of their futures, the President responded only by saying that he "understood and felt" the suffering of the people, but that the "agitators" that were behind the violence and were fomenting it for political purposes would be stopped, and that was why the state of emergency had been declared.

This was the final mockery. The breaking point. Minutes later, in every neighborhood, on every street, from every balcony, and from every street corner, the pots and pans began to sound. People took to the streets. Several thousand converged on the presidential residence in Olivos, over four thousand converged outside the home of Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo in the upscale neighborhood of Palermo, tens of thousands converged in front of the Presidential palace (the Pink House) at the Plaza de Mayo, tens of thousands more converged in front of the congress, and innumerable thousands more on every streetcorner of every neighborhood in the nation.

Soon after 11 pm, the news came that Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo had resigned, and a resounding cheer rose from all those thousands that had spilled into the streets. But the people were not content, and wanted more. The looting continued, and the thousands upon thousands remained in the streets. It became clear that this was not a protest simply against one or another particular politician, it was a protest against the Argentine political class as a whole, be it of the Partido Justicialista, or the UCR. It was a protest against a ruling class that, for too long, has dedicated itself to looting the future and livelihood of Argentines. A ruling class that put the nation at the mercy of a neoliberal economic policy that could serve only the interests of a select few, at the expense of the many.

The chants said it, crudely and clearly. "Idiots, the State of Emerency, Shove it Up Your Asses," "Menem and De la Rua are the Same Shit," "Out With All of You," etc. (some is lost in the translation, but the idea remains the same). This was a rebellion, and as always, a wounded government, when faced with imminent rebellion, bears its teeth and resorts to the only legitimacy it has. That of violence.

Some say that there was leftist provocateurs throwing rocks at the police. Others say it was mutual taunting. And others argue that it was a wholly unprovoked attack. What we saw on television, was a group of police officers cowering behind the columns of the congress, as they were besieged by demonstrators advancing up the steps. This was followed by what seemed an interminable string of shots, followed by a brutal repression of thousands via the bullet, the gas, and the baton. However, we do not know, nor will we probably ever know, how this began. What we do know, is that, from the early hours of Thursday, December 20th the Buenos Aires police embarked on a 24 hour orgy of blood and violence that left us with thousands of arrests, thousands of wounded, and 7 martyrs.

At approximately 5 am, with quite a few wounded, quite a few arrests, some barricades, and some destroyed banks (8 and a McDonalds), Buenos Aires regained its calm. However, it was to be short lived, as the second day of the Battle of Buenos Aires was yet to begin. And while the political elite of Argentina thought that maybe, just maybe, the storm had passed, the people of Buenos Aires rested, thinking of how to regain control of its squares and traditional spaces of assembly and preparing for the day, that would topple a President, and hopefully, with him, a system and an era.

The Battle for Plaza de Mayo

In the calm that followed the police repression at the congress and the Plaza de Mayo, a calm that soon turned out to be the calm at the eye of the storm, a few brave souls, numbering very likely not more than one or two hundred, began during the course of the night installing themselves once again in front of the Presidential palace at the Plaza de Mayo. They held firmly to the belief that, as the day progressed and people awoke or went to work, they would join them once again and the mobilization would grow to be as large, or larger, than the day before.

Evidently, they were not the only ones of this opinion. A march was called by the alphabet soup of the Argentine left (United Left, Communist Party, Socialist Movement of the Workers, Socialist Workers Movement, Workers Party, Socialist Convergence, Workers Pole, Movement Towards Socialism, Revolutionary Communist Party, etc.) and several student and unemployed organizations (such as the Combative Classist Current) at 1 pm from the congress to the Plaza de Mayo, to call for the resignation of De la Rua and denounce the state of emergency.

At approximately 10 am, the police began slowly pushing people back from the Plaza, away from the Presidential palace. This was done with relative calm, despite several rather rough arrests.

Several hours later, with the couple of hundred demonstrators, from all walks of life, often joined by people coming and going from work, or on their lunch breaks, joined by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (those brave mothers who defied both the military dictatorship and the bipartisan dictatorship to demand justice for their dissappeared sons and daughters, and punishment for their killers), the police announced via loudspeaker that they had orders to "clean the Plaza," and were thus giving people 15 minutes to disperse. Needless to say, the demonstrators went nowhere.

Soon enough, the mounted police were riding into the crowd, which resisted by any means it could. Some fought back, some sat down, others threw things. Every single car that drove by honked. People left their offices and joined on the side of the demonstrators. Cars that could interfere with the police did so. Despite this, the Plaza was cleared. However, every ten or fifteen minutes, dozens and hundreds of demonstrators, more numerous by the minute, returned up the diagonal streets that led to the Plaza de Mayo. The people knew their objective, and were thus impossible to disperse.

It was during these first battles of the day that the struggle for the Plaza de Mayo claimed its first victims. One via a rubber bullet to the neck, and the other via a bullet, very much real, to the chest.

What happened over the next hour or two I do not know in detail, aside from the obvious fighting back and forth for control of the Plaza de Mayo. From this point on, and until nightfall, this account becomes firsthand, from participation in the leftist march on the Plaza de Mayo.

Upon arriving at the congress, one found the sight of a left wing demonstration with an energy and enthusiasm not seen for quite a while among the Argentine left. Well over two thousand people were in attendance, and the spirit of battle, was in the air.

[As a side note, it was also clear that the spirit of power was there as well. Either because there was some delusional dream of taking the presidential palace and refusing to leave, or because there was the realization that these events would very likely lead to an increase in votes to the left at the next elections. However, the chants were clear, "You Will See What You Have Coming When We Take Power," "In Argentina We Can Make the Revolution, With All the Left United to Take Power," and such.]

We marched little more than two blocks when already the gas was clearly visible from the front. Instantly, the t-shirts became hoods, the benches and trash cans became barricades, the slingshots emerged, the pavement became ammunition, and on occasion, the banks the target when cops were not to be found. However, after not long, it became clear that a long term resistance at the current location was unwise and tactically unsound, given the relatively small number of people present and the fact that the true battle was around the Plaza de Mayo, which was still quite a distance away.

Thus, we started out again along a different route. Surprisingly, the police were nowhere to be found and, aside from the occasional bank window, the march transpired in relative calm until arriving at the 9 de Julio avenue, location of the Obelisk, and only a four or five block distance away from the Plaza de Mayo.

From then on, as we marched to the front lines, some leftists, true to the rhetoric, fighting bravely up at the front, while others, sadly, watched from a safe distance while waving their flags.

The scene at the front of Diagonal Norte and Plaza de Mayo was truly incredible, inspiring, and unforgettable. Thousands upon thousands of people, men and women, of all social and economic backgrounds, young and old, thrusting themselves straight into the gas and the bullets, not knowing if the one they shot at you would be rubber or lead.

Like this we advanced in any way we could, carrying forward desks, chairs, fences, and anything that could serve as barricade and shield as we advanced. Step by step, meter by meter, block by block, we moved forward, retreating only to regroup, take respite from the gas, and advance again, growing stronger with the sight of the Presidential palace in the distance.

It cannot be stressed enough. This was not, as the newspapers are now trying to say, merely a few thousand activists and syndicalists. True, we were there. But this was the people. The old men with rocks in their hands urging youths forward, the over 50 motorcycle delivery boys doing all they could to stop the police (and who paid for their efforts with two deaths), the people in suits and ties breaking parts of pavement to send to the front lines, the store owners providing water and a place to sit to fighters who needed a rest before returning to the front. The many youths, with whom I spoke at length, that I, seeing hooded and fighting in the front lines, assumed were young revolutionaries like myself, who in fact were just youths who decided that the situation had reached an intolerable point and felt compelled to spring into action. Without parties and without leaders, only with conviction and courage.

Of course, this was not, as it was the night before, mainly the middle class, and neither was it a crowd willing to flee at the sight of police repression. It was a fighting crowd, and it is this that scares the corporate media, and it is this that compels it to lie about the events of Thursday.

But despite the usual lies, the unarguable truth is, and will always be, that this was the righteous anger of a people tired of lies, corruption, and injustice. It was the battle of thousands of people who truly thought they were giving birth to a new future and a new reality, and like all births, it would be painful and bloody.

Possibly it is true, in hindsight, that we were naive. We sacrificed our well being and our lives not simply to oust De la Rua, and pave the way for the return of the Partido Justicialista, a simple continuation of the bipartisan dictatorship. Maybe it was the sight of the Presidential Palace ahead, or the fact that for some time, we truly thought (and I certainly thought so) that sooner or later, the police would run out of bullets and gas (as they did at one point on Wednesday night), or that they would simply give up, as they did in Yugoslavia.

I have to admit, painful as it may be, that even my anarchism (which has been with me for many years and which I consider strong) wavered when I thought of the prospect of entering the Presidential Palace. We would take over I thought, and even without guns we would defend it with our lives. And nobody would be able to take us out. From then on, the people would rule, and we would do things right. We would build a better future, starting right there, and with the red flag flying high.

It was with this thought, that now may seem laughable and delusional, that many of us fought, and we did so like it was the last battle. We advanced regardless of the difficulty. We barricaded each and every single side street to avoid being ambushed from behind. We threw further than we ever imagined we could throw, and we ran faster and longer than we ever imagined possible. Furthermore, we were not alone. We later learned that essentially every street leading to the Plaza de Mayo witnessed similar, and simultaneous, battles.

But, as has happened so often in the history of the people worldwide, and particularly in Argentina, the balance of power unfortunately shifted against us. Eventually, the water cannon tanks rolled in and pulverized our barricades. The front barricade, at the last corner before the Plaza de Mayo, a barricade so large we thought it unbreakable, disappeared before our eyes. Before we knew it, we were being pushed back towards the obelisk, and away from our delusions of a new order. Sometimes we regained ground, but overall, it was clear that it was over.

We made the advance as difficult as possible for the police. Banks and multinationals were destroyed and set fire to, their furniture dragged into the street and set alight to make barricades of fire. However, at this point I, and I believe many other left wing revolutionaries present there, were hit with a sudden realization that, almost literally knocked the wind out of us. At this point, De la Rua had resigned, and had been seen escaping, almost pathetically, on a helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace. Knowing this, hearing that the police had orders to keep us out of the Presidential palace and the congress no matter what the costs, and seeing that the vacuum of power was to be filled, certainly not by a decentralized and self-managed system of community power and direct democracy, not even by the Argentine left, but once again by the rats that infest the halls of power in Argentina, the Partido Justicialista.

As we were pushed back to the other side of the 9 de Julio, onto Corrientes Avenue, it was this thought that rushed constantly through our minds. The sight of police instinctively carried some of us towards the front, but then we reminded ourselves that the Peronists were to take power, that those who gave their lives did so in order to end the bipartisan dictatorship, and not, as it turns out, to change the puppet at the top.

From this point on, approximately 8 pm, we continued our gradual retreat. There were still many thousands of us, and the atmosphere was still combative, but it was gradually giving way to indiscriminate looting. Of course, banks, McDonalds, and assorted multinationals were always in bounds. However, as the hours passed, the politicized groups (for lack of a better term) began to slowly disperse, and people took to taking what they wanted, from where they wanted, irrespective of the owners of the establishment. Once again, it began to look like a battle of poor versus poor, as some neighbors exited their apartments and began attacking looters, defending the shops that are the source of their meager wages.

And so it continued for several hours. While there was still the clear political content of a people long denied the pleasures of life taking what they wanted in order to have a bit merrier of a christmas, it was not as overt as it had been in the earlier hours. Music chain stores were looted, a men's clothing store, a sports store, etc. etc. In one of the more surreal moments of the day, as we sat across from an Havanna store, a store that sells some of the fancier and most well known (not to mention delicious) chocolates and "alfajores", we suddenly heard the, very frequent, sound of breaking glass. Soon enough, all sorts of chocolates and sweets began flying through the air. They fell on our laps, people threw handfuls of them into the air while they yelled "Merry Christmas," a teenager came up to the middle aged university teacher (there because her monthly paycheck went from approximately 800$ to 150$ in two years) and gave her a chocolate cake, others went around !
giving whole boxes of alfajores to people. It truly was a beautiful site. First of all, the abundance of, and free access to, goods made the greed and desperation factor disappear, and second, if candy and chocolate falling from the sky straight into people's laps is not a sure sign that things are looking up, then nothing is!

Although sporadic looting continued for several hours in the city center, until approximately midnight, this essentially marked the end of the popular mobilization. Two days later, Saturday, the alphabet soup of the left called for a mobilization in front of the congress, where the discussions regarding who the next president would be, for how long he would rule, how the next elections would be carried out, etc. Approximately 500 were present outside, while inside the Partido Justicialista, despite stiff resistance from virtually every other party (particularly the left), was carrying out it's seizure of power, a shameless expropriation of the victory of the people. The parliamentary session began at approximately 9 pm. It finished, with the appointment of Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, governor of the Province of San Luis, as president of Argentina.

Thus ends this chapter of popular resistance in Argentina. At least, the part of it that takes place in the streets. From now on, at least until the next popular rebellion, the resistance will take place once again in the neighborhoods and workplaces. However, this chapter that we are now closing leaves us with many, often contradictory, impressions, and many lessons to be learned. Perhaps, it is still to soon to attempt to sit down and objectively analyze the events of the last week, as the bloodstains are still on the streets for all to see, and the mind is not as much at ease as one would like. Nonetheless, there are certainly important lessons here, and possibly, the anger many of us still feel will help us to write the truth, with less regard for who it might offend or please.

The Bankruptcy of the Argentine Political Establishment

Argentina's is a young "democracy." It was only 18 years ago that the last military dictatorship (a dictatorship that cost 30,000 lives) was ended and the government of Raul Alfonsin was elected. Despite this, the majority of Argentines are already thoroughly disenchanted with the Argentine political system, and above all, the Argentine political class.

The overwhelming opinion is that we live in a system which is incredibly limited in the options it provides (as there is little of note oustide of the UCR and Partido Justicialista) and that is managed by a political class that is wholly out of touch with the needs of the population it theoretically represents. Furthermore, corruption scandals abound to an extent that is rare in other countries, and quite simply unimaginable in the third world. Anything and everything is considered fair play by the politicians in order to line their pockets, regardless of who it is supposed to benefit. The amount of scandals is endless, but, to name some of the more appalling, politicians and state employees have been discovered funneling money from funds destined to mental health patients, as well as food aid and milk for children in impoverished rural communities.

When De la Rua and the Alianza came to power two years ago, they did so with a campaign centered around attention to the needs and wills of the people. However, as soon as he was in office, De la Rua turned his back on the Alianza that helped him to power, surrounded himself with family and friends as consultants, brought back the hated Domingo Cavallo, and declared increases in taxes, cuts in wages, and austerity measures in order to make foreign debt payments.

These are the reasons for the profound disenchantment of the Argentine population with the Argentine political establishment. This disenchantment was made abundantly clear with the parliamentary elections of October 14, 2001, when 15% of the population either purposefully destroyed their ballots, voted blank, or did not even vote (voting is mandatory in Argentina). Furthermore, the left, long excluded from any meaningful participation in Argentina's parliamentary "democracy" made significant gains.

Needless to say, a profound disenchantment for the existing political regime is a pre-requisite for any revolution, and judging from the latest elections, the rebellion of the last week, and the comments and chants we heard in the streets, this condition exists. However, it is not yet as total a disenchantment and rejection as one would hope. Because of what it cost Argentines to achieve "democracy" and the propaganda that surrounds it, many are yet to extend their critique of the Argentine political class to a critique of the system which they represent. This is the next step in the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. If Argentine politicians continue to behave as they always have, convincing people that the problem is not who makes up the political class, but rather the inherently flawed system which they represent, should not be a difficult task.

However, while this disenchantment is positive, it is of course, not enough. Furthermore, without the construction of a strong and effective alternative to put forward in place of the crumbling capitalist democracy, it can be dangerous, as the vacuum of power can be filled by anyone who is adequately prepared to do so, be they from the left or from the right.

A Revolution Half Accomplished

The chants on the streets could not have been clearer. "Without Peronists and Radicals, We Will All Live Better," "You Are All the Same," and so on and so forth. However, when the dust settled, the Peronists were back in power, with Rodriguez Saa as the new President of Argentina. This clearly means that, somewhere, something went wrong and something was lacking. If we are to avoid making similar mistakes in the future, it is imperative that we discover what that is.

The answer, unfortunately, seems to be quite clear. A revolution cannot be accomplished with hunger alone. While of course, hunger and misery tend to be factors that compel people to action, they can only go so far. They represent a rejection, more precisely, a rejection of the system that creates the hunger and misery. However, they do not provide alternatives. In order to carry out a real and lasting change, there must be not only a rejection of the system that creates the conditions that drive people to action, but also a serious and viable alternative to the order that is being rejected.

The sad fact is that is that, neither the parliamentary left, nor the revolutionary left, and much less organized anarchism, has been able to put forth an alternative project for the people to adopt and take as their own. Needless to say, there is not (or at least there has not been until now) a strong spirit of self-management in Argentina. It is precisely the lack of such a culture that has left the Argentine people so vulnerable to the lies and power games of the political ruling class.

Because of this, the events of December 19th and 20th created a vacuum of power that no organization was able to fill, except the Partido Justicialista. Therefore, being the power mad rats that they are, as soon as they smelled the possibility of taking power once again, they seized it. True, it was with promises of creating a more just and equitable order, of no longer paying the foreign debt, and other such measures. However, it was also with their power in the senate and their backroom deals. The Partido Justicialista, just as much the target of the anger of the people as the UCR, rode to power on the backs of the blood of the Argentine people. The necessity of organizing to put forth a viable and credible alternative to fill the voids created by the fleeing of sectors of the political classes was never clearer than in Argentina during the last week. Revolutions without clear objectives are doomed to failure.

As anarchists, we are of course opposed to filling the voids created by the crumbling of a corrupt system with alternatives that are authoritarian, coercive, and/or hierarchical (although the growth of the Argentine left, at least in my opinion, is very much positive). Therefore, we should also be necessarily opposed to imposing alternatives on people. However, there is an urgent need for a serious and organized effort to put forth the alternative of direct democracy and self-management of communities and workplaces as the replacement for the system of representative "democracy." The seeds are already present in the people. There are repeated calls for popular neighborhood assemblies, the large demonstrations are called and organized in a completely autonomous manner, and people can often be heard calling for the need to "take our own affairs into our own hands." Argentina is ripe for the implantation of a culture of self-management and resistance.

Perspectives for Anarchist Organizing

It might beginning to sound redundant, but the fact is that it cannot be stressed enough. The Argentine working class, and even the middle class for that matter, is ripe for the spread of anarchist ideas and practices. The Argentine ruling class has managed to do a better job discrediting and subverting parliamentary democracy than a million rabid anarchists. Their corruption, lack of regard for the people, and abuses of power are the living proof of what anarchism denounces about authoritarian systems, and the people know it.

As was previously stated, there is a vacuum of power in Argentina, or more precisely, a rejection of one system without a clear alternative to replace it. It is up to us, as anarchists, to present the alternative that we feel is best to the people and hope that they adopt it as theirs. This will require a serious and organized work in neighborhoods and workplaces. A campaign that pushes the alternative of neighborhood general assemblies to manage local affairs and build the power of the working classes while eating away at that of the state institutions. A campaign that pushes popular self-management of workplaces, rather than nationalizing them as the Marxist left proposes, as the way forward for the working class.

The practical bases of this alternative are already falling into place. Many neighborhoods are organizing popular general assemblies in order to decide what is the best way to carry the struggle forward, while at the same time strengthening the community.

These should be the principle two focuses of anarchist organizing and agitation in Argentina. Furthermore, anarchists should be involved in every struggle possible (and there are many in Argentina) of the working classes against the ruling class. The retirees who spend long days at banks trying to receive their meager pay, the railway workers trying to receive their wages, the teachers resisting wage cuts, the students defending free universities, and the many other struggles currently taking place. In each and every one, the priority should be exposing the deeper causes of conflict. The inherently conflicting interests of workers and bosses, and the alternative of popular autonomous struggle and decentralized, self-managed, democratic forms of organization.

Currently, the strongest current of organized anarchism in Argentina is the OSL, or Libertarian Socialist Organization. Approximately 50 OSL members were present in the struggle of the last week in Buenos Aires, as they have been present in the struggles of the people on a constant basis. The work that they do is based around the priorities stated above, and is carried out from within the popular organizations of struggle by individual anarchist activists, but with the OSL serving as a pole of organization providing an effective praxis and direction. We can only hope this new wave of discontent and rebellion will lead to a resurgence of anarchism in Argentina, a movement that once upon a time counted with hundreds of thousands of adherents.

Syndicalism in Argentina

Organizing the struggle of the working class in Argentina in the workplaces necessarily raises the question of the trade unions and their role in the struggle. Therefore in order to place things in their proper context, we must know exactly how unions are organized in Argentina, how they are seen by the workers, and generally, what role they have played in the popular struggles of Argentina.

[ Before beginning this analysis, it is important to make clear that this is in no way an attempt to enter into the eternal unionism versus anti-unionism debate. However, the opinions of this writer regarding unions in Argentina are primarily negative, despite the fact that, if anything, I am much closer to anarcho-syndicalism than any other anarchist tendency (although I draw from many) ]

The first important point to note is that in Argentina there is essentially no revolutionary unions. There are some that are more militant than others, of course, but they are all reform oriented politically, and hierarchical and centralized organizationally. As such, the union apparatus is wholly integrated into the political establishment (once again, that does not mean there are not conflicts, but they are very punctual and often dictated by party political needs). Furthermore, the larger unions, which are the CGT, the dissident CGT, Luz y Fuerza, and other specific trade unions that are quite strong, tend to function like mafias. There is serious intimidation to participate in strikes, it is very difficult for new and more progressive unions to take root as their organizers and adherents are subject to very serious threats of violence, and often actual physical assaults, including the occasional murder. Worst of all, is the fact that the union leadership very often !
makes deals with the bosses in order to line their own pockets, without the consent of the workers, and at their expense.

Due to the fact that unions in Argentina are almost sinonymous in the minds of the people with corruption, aside from the unionized workforce, there is very little trust in the unions as tools for effective social change. This was patently evident during the recent mass mobilizations, as one of the chants often heard was "Where Is It Now, That We Dont See It, The Famous CGT." Despite all this, the party left still has faith in the unions as a tool to bring about a revolutionary general strike.

In what regards to revolutionary unionism, Argentina does have a strong tradition, exemplified by the anarcho-syndicalist FORA, which once upon a time could paralyze the country, which was the spear behind the historic struggle of the peasants of the Patagonian south (immortalized in the books and movie, "La Patagonia Rebelde"), and which once had over 200,000 adherents. Unfortunately, tactical mistakes, Bolshevism, and military dictatorships all conspired to all but annihilate the FORA, which still maintains one union local and has probably at most a couple of dozen adherents, most young anarchists or quite old anarchists.

Given all this, it would seem that the way forward for the struggle in the Argentine workplaces would be to somehow eat away at the power of the class collaborationist and reformist unions and try to build a workers power from below. A workers power that can carry struggles forward autonomously and democratically, thus protecting it from betrayals by leaders or special interest groups. However, as of now this does not seem to be happening, as it is happening in communities and workplaces, as agitation in the union ambient is quite dangerous, and it is a risk few people are willing to take.

The Aftermath

Now that the dust has settled, the people are no longer in the streets, and the dead have been buried, we are left with a political scenario which, while we knew all along to be the most probable, most of us desperately wished to avoid. The Partido Justicialista is back in power, and the two party dictatorship continues.

Already they have made promises of all sorts, but in Argentina, there has never been a shortage of promises. The limitations on withdrawals from the banks have not been lifted, the unemployed remain unemployed, retirees continue to spend long hot days outside of banks, unable to retrieve the money they worked their entire lives to earn, and so on and so forth.

Right now, the situation is not promising, as the people have been de-mobilized, and one can only guess how long it will be before the next popular rising. Hopefully, the people now have a realization of their true power and a consciousness of their strength, a combination that can provide them with the tools to stand up to their oppressors yet again, and when the time comes, carry the struggle forward all the way, thus putting an end to the dictatorship of capital in Argentina.

The Martyrs: Ni Olvido, Ni Perdon

Alberto Marquez (57)
Diego Lamagna
Marcelo Riva
Victor Enrique (21)
Roberto Gramajo (19)
Julio Flores (15)
Damian Ramirez (14)
Ariel M. Salas (30)
Gustavo Benedetto (23)
Unidentified (25)
Gaston Rivas (30)
Diego Rancagua (26)
Carlos "Petete" Almiron (23)
Pablo M. Guias (23)
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified (13)
Unidentified
Unidentified
Rominal Turain (15)
Rosa Paniagua (13)
Claudio Lepretti (38)
Graciela Acosta (35)
Juan A Delgado (28)
Yanina Garcia (18)
Ruben Pereira (20)
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified
Unidentified

This is the first time in Argentina's modern history that a government falls as a result of the direct clamor of a people that has risen in rebellion. In 1890, Juárez Celman resigned only after the revolution of Parque had been defeated; 1930, against Irigoyen, was basically a
military coup. In 1945, the military government followed through on the promise to carry out elections that Peron won. In 1989, the masses didn't hit the street to throw Alfonsin out. He left after agreeing to a
transition with Menem. These historical contrasts reveal the exceptional nature of the popular uprising of last December 19-20.

A regime in crisis

Although the leading slogan was "Out with De la Rúa-Cavallo", the overwhelming popular sentiment was an uprising against the political regime as a whole. These revolutionary events had been preceded by huge struggles in Neuquen and Córdoba against their respective governors, Sobisch and De la Sota. The demonstrations in La Plata against Ruckauf grew day by day, and became increasingly important as evidenced by the takeover of Banco Provincia by teachers and other government employees, with the backing of bank employees. The political grapevine has it that Ruckauf's main interest in replacing De la Rúa was to get out of the political crisis in his own province. The judicial system is in center stage, insofar as one of the leading popular concerns is to get rid of a Supreme Court that has favored impunity with its sentences. The repressive forces also star for spearheading the war
against the popular rebellion that put an end to De la Rúa-Cavallo. The regime's political crisis is in full swing.
Naturally, the mass media tried to divert popular anger targeting political power towards a crusade against "politicians" and "politics", which is something entirely different. Some "independent" leftist went
along with this maneuver and, sadly mimicking the Zapatistas, told the people that the goal should not be to seize power.

The failure of parliamentarism

The history of struggles over the last decade, as a backdrop to this popular uprising, fell short in making the exploited fight for a power alternative. Understanding this need will come from impending political struggles. Under these circumstances, power was relegated to the
legislative assembly, which tried to get rid of it as fast as it could. A large group in the assembly, including Menemism, vied for applying constitutional norms that call for Congress to appoint a government until 2003. That is, they did not want to govern or assume any political
responsibility for two years. The parliamentary left, including CTA unionists, Walsh and Zamora, also failed to raise an alternative to this decaying political regime. The issue of calling for popular elections to replace De la Rúa's mandate only surfaced when it became clear that
Peronism was unable to come up with a single candidate to represent all its fractions. The crisis to name a president to complete the De la Rúa's term in office led to Puerta's resignation and once again opened the possibility of a political crisis fueled by a new impetus in the popular
movement. Peronism had to violate constitutional norms to overcome this risky crisis; i.e., establishing a two-months government and calling for elections by recourse to the "ley de lemas" [Translator's Note: a system whereby a party and its candidates can be listed on different
ballots and the party with most votes across all ballots wins, and the candidate with most votes within that party wins]. When the situation called for closing the gap opened by the popular uprising, Peronism chose instead to transfer all its internal divisions to a popular election.

Hanging from a fine thread

As a result, we have a government that's hanging from a fine thread, made up of a clique that behaves as one. This is not a parliamentary government even though Congress appointed it, because the latter endowed it with the excessive powers the Constitution grants the Executive in Argentina. However, it is not a truly executive government
for the simple reason that it lacks a mandate; the citizenry did not elect it and it hardly earned the necessary votes in the legislative assembly.
With elections called for March 3, there is an interim government during a revolutionary period. This government pretends to dilute the aroused spirit of the masses with concessions. It can't do this by taking deep
rooted measures because it is unable to do so and because the economic demise that led to De la Rúa' fall is a thousand times more serious than a week ago. The social concessions are pro-forma but lack substance, and they are clearly designed to confuse the people to the
utmost and to draw in a large part of the labor bureaucracy. Rodríguez Saá has succeeded in this regard with Daer and Moyano, but also with De Gennaro-D'Elia.
Rodríguez Saá is determined to project the image of a "by-gone" Peronist government and there are some Peronists that believe this is a retro to 1945. But most of these "national and popular" measures are fictitious and extremely dangerous for workers.

The last stage in Cavallo's plan

There is no suspension, postponement [moratorium] or default in the foreign debt, as the government has excluded local debt holders to the tune of 40-60 billion dollars that were swapped by Cavallo for guaranteed loans. That is, they follow the same policy in privileging bankers with domestic investments. If they were to repudiate this "
local" debt, and if the peso were devalued, the estimate is that banks such as Río or Francés, owned by the Bolsa de Madrid [Stock Exchange] would suffer the disappearance of 120% of their capital assets. Galicia would fall off the map. The financial system would collapse. Just like Cavallo, Rodríguez Saá's government protects this
group of international banks. For this very reason it has stated it is against devaluation and dollarization. More of the same.

Defending bankers

But Rodríguez Saá's government is also careful to protect Cavallo's renegotiation of the bond-based debt with provincial governments, which won't fall into default or postponement [moratorium]. It also does not intend to repudiate or suspend direct bank loans to the provinces.
All the above add up to 25 billion dollars. Owners of loans extended to the provinces include banks such as Río, Galicia and Macro. Governors have used these banks to perpetrate their shady deals. Members of Frente Federal Solidario, backing Rodríguez Saá, hold special relations
with Macro, which took over the provincial banks of Corrientes (Romero Feris), Misiones (Puerta) and Salta (Romero). In the midst of this huge crisis, Macro found it was the right moment to buy Bansud from Citibank, which reinforces a relationship of money laundering as clearly
denounced in US Senate documents. Clearly, Rodríguez Saá won't be able to defend 100% of the debt held
by foreign and local banks at 7% interest rates, and demand that foreign holder accept a reduction of 50% to 60% and interests of 2%.
He's only trying to buy time and force foreign banks to negotiate what Cavallo failed to accomplish.

The world crisis

In any event, the collapse of the local bank system is still on the agenda, more than ever before, because the US Treasury refuses to negotiate new loans unless Argentina defines a substantial reduction in the foreign debt, with the intent of breaking their European rivals. Thus,
the US Treasury and the European banks will have to deal with the international consequences of the Argentine crisis that won't merely be financial. In Argentina the class struggle emerged combining modern features of developed countries with national demands and grievances
as basic as the right to eat. Politically, our foreign comrades tell us about the "impression" the Argentine revolution is exerting on their peoples. Financially, the devaluation of Argentine bonds held by Japanese banks is accentuating a devaluation of the Yen, something the US Treasury is pushing for, and that could put Asia on fire.
Much more than a financial crisis Local financial bankruptcy goes hand in hand with the bankruptcy of
privatized companies, also held by Madrid stockowners. Burdened with a 15 billion dollar debt, as a result of buying YPF [Translator's N ote: formerly the State-owned oil company], Repsol is a leading candidate to
loose its head. Spanish service companies, as well as the "new" Argentine Airlines, face the same predicament. This explains the nervous negotiations being carried out by Rubén Cortina, Repsol's boss, and the trips of Felipe Gonzalez and those of the Spanish Chancellor, Pique. At the same time, numerous "local" firms, such as Exxel, Macri, Alpargatas, Pescarmona, Gattic, Acindar, and Irsa, have
"stopped payments". Rodríguez Saá wants to see the private debt included in the "moratorium" of the "foreign" public debt, or in a reduction in the size of the debt. But this could only happen if "local" banks are included, which would lead to the same collapse by a different route.
The policies put forth by this interim administration is trying to buy time to declare default and devalue under different political conditions. That's the idea behind issuing the Argentino, which will coexist with the
peso while it is devalued, but will wind up replacing it as a previously devalued national currency. Meanwhile, bank deposits will remain "kidnapped" and will only be available in exchange for Argentinos. Isn't this the last stage in Cavallo's plan, to postpone a formal declaration of
default and devaluation, in order to prevent social commotion? Rodríguez Saá pursues even more energetically the policies that led to Cavallo's and De la Rúa's fall.

Running around in circles

In this scenario, the idea of "creating a million jobs" is understandable, because they are "work plans" on a large scale with no commitment to last over time, and designed to allow issuing Argentinos and replacing pesos with a non-convertible currency. UIA's [Translator´s Note: the Argentine Industrial Union] De Mendiguren already said he was interested in hiring "subsidized labor", that is,
workers at 160 pesos, if import tariffs are imposed. De la Sota promised to expand the number of plans "for the young", so far worth 100 pesos, so that bosses can exploit a labor force for free. In the context of an
openly devaluationist policy, the provisional president promises to raise the minimum salary to 450 pesos, to be paid with Argentinos, whose real purchasing power will be around 200 pesos worth since 1991. Along the same lines, he is considering getting rid of the 13% reduction
in retiree paychecks and public employee salaries. The new
government wants to give the impression it is constantly on the move, so it can remain in the same place and prevent its fall. But all this fast paced bustling is inversely proportional to the actual possibilities of the
measures taken.

A pretense of love; drawn together in panic

As a whole, the bourgeoisie is more divided and disoriented than ever. The improvisations of Rodríguez Saá can't rebuild economic relations, whereby domestic and foreign trade is at a standstill. Exporters want to know if VAT [value added tax] will be reimbursed in dollars or
Argentinos! Foreign chancellors are demanding that Bush's
administration come up with a solution. The fire-setting IMF is being called on once again to put out the fire. The economic crisis and the capitalist collapse continue to drive the political crisis and are hatching a new popular rebellion.
The working class vanguard and the picketers must become aware of the insurmountable limitations of this interim government and of the whole transitional political process negotiated in the back rooms of Congress. Understanding this will give force to demands to repudiate
the foreign debt, to nationalize the banks and for worker control. The revolutionary crisis has laid bare the potential mistake implicit in demanding that the debt not be paid, because it is quite clear that this
purely practical approach to the problem can play into the hands of the national bourgeoisie demagogues and into the hands of the "local" fraction of imperialism.
The popular uprising and the revolutionary crisis have also exhausted the possibility that a Constituent Assembly won by popular pressure could be at the service of accumulating forces, even revolutionary forces, on behalf of the working class. That is why it is more important than ever that workers acquire their very own instruments of mass
organization and power to dictate a political solution for an authentic and sovereign Constituent Assembly and a government of the workers. The maturity of the political crisis can be seen in the flirtation of growing
fractions of the petit bourgeoisie with a call for a Constituent Assembly, like that of Carrió and the Communist Party. The situation demands that picketers lead in organizing Popular Assemblies, because the State is
unable to organize feeding, providing health care and education to the people, and its policies lead to economic disruption.

Elections?

The call for March 3 elections are part of the arsenal of measures to save the political regime. No governor, mayor, judge, chief of police, or bureaucrat answers to the popular verdict. We denounce that they do not intend to call for general elections. To reach the March elections the bosses' politicians will have to navigate treacherous waters. The bourgeoisie has been forced to accept a power vacuum for two months. The option of a coup by part of the Peronist leadership and Congress to consecrate a president till 2003, without elections, is not only likely but
also enjoys Constitutional leave. We denounce that an attempt to abort the March 2002 elections is in the works.
In the time that elapsed between the recent elections and the popular uprising, the left discussed common initiatives but was never able to agree on a political strategy. The call for March elections has refloated a new wave of electoralism; the call signed by PO [Partido Obrero –
Workers Party] with IU [Izquierda Unida – United Left], FOS (Frente Obrero y Socialista – Workers and Socialist Front] and LSR (Liga Socialista Revolucionaria – Socialist Revolutionary League], on Saturday 22, to work towards Popular Assemblies, was put aside as soon as it had been uttered. A possible electoral fight should be
inescapably tied to a strategy whereby the path set by the popular uprising can lead to final victory. We call on all leftist organizations to organize a political Assembly with picketer's and militant organizations to set a strategy that can lead the revolution underway to victory.
Today's slogan is: Down with the political continuity of bankers and bankrupt capitalists. Popular Assemblies. Out with the agents of the hated regime. For a sovereign Constituent Assembly in the nation, provinces and municipalities.