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Argentina Special

PIQUETE Y CACEROLA, LA LUCHA ES UNA SOLA

Since the end of December, Cacerolazos - pot banging protests - have been a feature of daily life in Argentina (right).

The two biggest types of organised resistance in Argentina are the popular assemblies and the piqueteros, the unemployed workers’ movement which takes its name (picketers) from their trademark tactic of blocking roads.

The Piqueteros

Rising unemployment in Argentina over the last few years has created the world’s largest concentration of unemployed industrial workers. Many piqueteros are experienced workplace and union activists. They use the tactic of blocking roads as a way of disrupting production, setting up camp right on the asphalt, putting up tents and cooking food. Women and children are a fundamental part of the movement, and always present. The piqueteros have stepped up their activities in the last few months, paralysing the capital a number of times, most recently when the latest IMF delegation arrived to ‘negotiate’. In February they blockaded oil refineries and depots throughout the country, demanding 50,000 jobs; new, shorter shifts to employ more workers; no petrol price rises and the re-nationalisation of the oil industry and all the privatised companies. They also usually demand food packages, the release of political prisoners, unemployment benefits and ‘work plans’ – a type of workfare scheme worth a meagre 120 pesos a month. An email which arrived at Schnews last week from a British activist in Buenos Aires:

“There’s loads of different piquetero organisations, and a lot of divisions, partly caused by old left parties. The CCC is the largest, and the most reformist [despite the name – Classist and Combative Current] - they are the ones who concentrate on demands for proper social security payments. Far more militant are independent organisations such as CTA Anibal Verón, and Movimiento Teresa Rodrigues (both named after piqueteros murdered by cops during blockades), and the MTD (Unemployed Workers Movement). They see their struggle as a Latin American one, and identify with the anti-capitalist movement. They are active, highly politicised people, and probably number 10,000.”

Popular neighbourhood assemblies are held in parks and on street corners throughout Buenos Aires and in the provinces. All the assemblies of the capital meet at Parque Centenario (right) for discussion and contribution.

Popular Assemblies

Popular assemblies, also known as neighbourhood (barrio) assemblies, have mushroomed in Argentina since December. A recent survey by the newspaper Página 12 found that 33% of those questioned in the capital had participated in them. Assemblies are held on street corners or public spaces, and operate in the most transparent way, with what they call a ‘horizontal’ structure and no leaders or representatives. Born of the first cacerolazos, and the fertile coming together of neighbours on the streets in protest, the assemblies discuss and vote on issues ranging from non-payment of the external debt to the defence of local families in danger of eviction for non-payment of rent. They have organised collective food-buying, soup kitchens, support for local hospitals and schools and even alternative forms of healthcare. Every Sunday, all the Buenos Aires assemblies meet in Parque Centenario for the Interbarrial – the inter-neighbourhood mass assembly. Certain sections of mainstream politics are attempting to participate in or co-opt the assemblies - like one proposal made in Congress that the assemblies be given their own space and resources at the Congress building - but these proposals were vehemently rejected. Pressure from left-wing parties such as the Partido Obrero (workers’ party), has been harder to resist. At an Interbarrial in Centenario, a motion was put that “the party militants stop coming along to assemblies to lay down party lines - that they take the assembly’s position back to their parties instead.” The sovereignty of each local assembly has been reiterated again and again at the Interbarrial and motions voted there, based on proposals from each assembly, are taken back to local assemblies to be ratified. Despite this, a controversial proposal for a Constituent Assembly – an assembly of delegates - which many felt was an unacceptable move back towards representative politics, was voted through at the Interbarrial of March 17th.

Despite their differences, an important similarity is that both organise outside the sphere of work. The assemblies’ refusal to negotiate with the government, under the slogan ‘Que se vayan todos’ – out with all politicians – clashed with some sections of the piqueteros. Since the economy collapsed at the end of last year, the total of Argentineans living in poverty has risen to some 14 million (pop. 36 million), and the middle class has been destroyed. The piqueteros’ struggle has been going on for years with little support from the wider public; those who participate in the cacerolazos and at bank protests are accused of having acted only when their own pockets were finally rifled. Despite these contradictions everyone sees the need to link their struggles together; and many of the piqueteros’ demands, which seemed radical just a few months ago (non-payment of the national debt, for example) have become the battle cries of the newly-impoverished middle class too. On the 27th February, a march of some 5,000 piqueteros from the poor Buenos Aires suburb of La Matanza was met by a number of local assemblies, who provided breakfasts and then joined the march to the Plaza de Mayo. The piqueteros were also cheered along the route by the people of Buenos Aires, who gave out food and drink with some even banging their pots and pans. A new slogan was born – ‘Piquete y cacerola, la lucha es una sola’ (pickets and pot-bangers, the struggle is one). Piquetero demands include things like the return of savers’ deposits, while motions at popular assemblies almost always include support for the piqueteros, and for occupied factories under workers’ control.