After living in Argentina for over 8 months now I have had considerable amount of interesting experiences; some trying, some enlightening but for the most part they have always been interesting. A large portion of these experiences have brought myself into direct contact with the local culture here and have been very informative about the modern social and political climate. I almost always have to include the political side of things because politics here is something that has a daily and direct influence on people’s lives. The events of the past few years, especially the economic crisis of 2001, have shaped the lives and mindset of the citizens here. You can see signs of it everywhere in Buenos Aires, from the socialist slogans sprayed-painted on building walls, to the mass marches and demonstrations that have become an almost daily occurrence, to the hundreds of local assemblies that have sprung up in the different neighborhoods around the city. One of the more notable experiences for me came when I attended a meeting for the launch of a new political magazine at hotel conference center. The magazine was connected with various social movement and parties throughout the Americas, even including representative from the USA, so needless to say I was a bit surprised that it was being held in a very classy venue. I kept thinking to myself, ‘this setting seems a bit ironic for a meeting of socialist militants and thinkers.’ It was only later that I found out that the hotel I was sitting in was Hotel Bauen, a worker controlled and run cooperative. As I learned more I discovered that Hotel Bauen was only one part of a wider national movement by workers to take control their working environments. Let me explain a bit.
The movement, known as Movimiento Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas (National Movement of Recuperated Businesses) or MNER, began in the provinces independent of any party or organization when some factories were shut down because they were no longer making a profit. For the owners of the factories this made perfect sense being followers of the capitalistic model, where the goal is to generate profit. It follows that if the factories were no longer turning out a profit there would be no reason to keep them in operation under this model. Another factor leading to the closure of some factories was an increase in labor activism, which in turn led to serious conflicts between workers demanding improved working conditions and owners reluctant to make any concessions. Unfortunately for the workers this left them without jobs and in pretty dire straights. After a few months of unemployment and false promises by the former owners to reopen the factories, the workers took matters into their own hands.
After gathering together in small groups and discussing the common problems facing them as workers and a community, they decided to reoccupy the factories and start production again. They organized the production under a democratic system independent of any management or bosses and began to successfully operate the factories again. Following a cornerstone of Marxism – democratic control of the means of production by the workers themselves – the factory workers have succeeded in keeping the places running for over 5 years now.
Inspired by the example, other successful worker takeovers have spread throughout Argentina. The 2001 crisis have left no shortage of opportunities for these sorts of workers victories to rise from the ashes of the failed neo-liberal order that was adopted here in the 90’s. The movement has since spread to Buenos Aires, in this instance in the form of a hotel, Hotel Bauen, where the workers currently call the shots. The history of Hotel Bauen is an interesting one in itself. It’s a four-star hotel that was founded un the run up to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, a time that saw large scale modernization and investment by the state, at that time under a military dictatorship. The state provided the owner of Hotel Bauen, Marcelo Iurcovich, with loans from the National Development Bank to help get the hotel up and running.
Now here is where it gets really interesting. During the privatization of state enterprises that took place during the 1990’s the National Bank of Development took its turn and was privatized and then absorbed into the larger National Bank of Argentina, bringing its debt owed it, including that of Hotel Bauen, with it. This privatization of the National Bank resulted in situation that almost defies belief. The debt owed the bank, and hence the state, by private companies was assumed by the state of Argentina as a means of making the bank more appealing to potential buyers. Did you get that? The money that the state loaned out to private interests in the 70’s is now money owed by the state to private companies today. This is the crazy logic that the Argentines have been living with since 2001. Of course money owed by the state means that the people are going to have to pay in the end and they did when in December 2001 3/4 of their savings were liquidated to keep the state apparatus from defaulting. The Hotel Bauen was closed shortly after this on December 28, 2001 due in part to the chaos it helped to create.
In March of 2003, with the support of MNER, the hotel’s former workers occupied the building. While they struggled to gain ownership over the hotel they began to make repairs to the building and eventually reopened for business. Since 2003, the Bauen cooperative has gone from 32 to over 150 employees, opened a street side café (whose tile floors come from FaSinPat, another worker controlled ceramics factory) and have equipped over 200 rooms. The hotel today has shown rising profits and serves as a free meeting place for progressive and workers’ groups. It was at one such meeting for the opening of an inter-American political/social magazine that I first came into contact with the worker control movement.
With such striking success for workers there was bound to be a backlash from reactionary forces. This came in late 2005 when the hotel was informed that the legal right of the workers to run the hotel as a business was not permitted. State officials attempted to tape off the entrances to the hotel, but the workers quickly removed this tape and the hotel has remained in operation to this day. There is still an on going legal dispute though, with the former owner Iurcovich heading the opposition. It is a very heated issue in the city right now as private capital is determined, if not to stop the workers control movement, then at least see it come under state supervision and control. But the people and independent press have also taken up the issue on the side of the workers and over 50,000 volunteers have been mobilized in support.
It is an incredibly interesting movement and it is by no means limited to Argentina. Democratic worker controlled cooperatives have been sprouting up all over Latin America, most notably in Venezuela. As is usually the case, this is a movement that we in the USA, and specifically in the Northland, can learn a lot from. If you are interested in learning more about the Argentine movement there is a good book in English about the phenomenon by Naomi Klein called Sin Patron. Check it out and more importantly take an active part in the struggle. It is not an issue that is only confined to Argentina. ¡Hasta Socialismo Siempre!
Showing posts with label argentina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label argentina. Show all posts
Friday, September 7, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Snow and Heat in Argentina
A strange thing happened recently in Buenos Aires. It snowed. It’s the first time in 90 years that the city has been graced with a snowfall and people made the most of it. Spontaneous parties broke in the streets all around the capital with people gathering to make snow balls, sing songs, and just take it all in. For most Porteños this was the first (and likely the last) time they have seen snow. Unless you can afford a holiday to the southwestern part of the country, where the peaks of the Andes bring snow and South Americas only skiing, it is pretty safe to say that this was a once in a lifetime event.
Of course the winter weather brought chaos to the city as well. Both airports were closed for a couple of days because there is no de-icing equipment here. The roads were even worse than usual and it resulted in countless accidents for drivers not accustomed to the slippery conditions. The public bus system, the absolute life-beat of public transport here, was reduced to slow and sporadic service leaving many people without a way to get home in the evening after finishing up at the job. Most didn’t seem to mind though as they were captivated by the falling flakes.
Needless to say the snowfall wasn’t quite as magical for me as it was for my Argentine friends. When I decided to move to South America last year snow was probably the last thing on my mind. Well not quite, I was thinking about escaping the winter in Duluth, I just wasn’t expecting to find it here. I can’t really complain too much though. The snowstorm (about 3/4 of an inch fell) did remind my of MN and all the good people there. I always find a bit funny when an Argentine complains to me about how cold it has been here this winter. “You should visit Minnesota in the winter sometime,” I tell them, “then you can complain about the cold all you want.”
As much fun as the night of the snow was for people here, there is also a much more serious side of the story. Argentina is currently in the midst of an energy crisis that leaves thousands without a reliable source of power to heat their homes. Those that feel the effects the most are inevitably the poor, but the crisis is affecting every strata of Argentine society. The energy crisis is not the only major problem that Argentina is facing at the moment. Inflation has been on the rise in recent months and people are feeling the squeeze. Remember, this is a country whose economy collapsed in 2001 and most people were left to fend for themselves. Anyone who had money in a bank here lost 70% of what they had been saving. These traumatic events are still very much on people’s thoughts.
The fact that the snowfall came at just this time has made the problems here clearer than ever. As a foreigner it has been interesting and sad to watch what is unfolding. I say sad because after all that these people have been through it is almost painful to see the political establishment following the same path that led to the 2001 collapse. But Argentina isn’t alone in reliving history; I see the same thing mirrored in the US, repeating a policy today that has failed in the past. Unlike the US though, there is a shimmering prospect for hope here. Ordinary people are coming together to form independent political and social movements to challenge the establishment and the current direction the country is going. I gathered the following information from talking with many Porteños, and believe me the all have an opinion on it, but most of it comes from talks I have had with our comrade Fede Castagnet, local university student and a member of the MST (Socialist Workers Movement). This is their assessment of the problems I mentioned above and what they think needs to be done about it.
To say that the energy crisis is a new problem confronting Argentina is a bit deceiving. In reality the crisis can be traced back to the mid 90’s when then president Menem began privatizing the energy companies. The oil, gas, and electricity sectors all went from state control to private hands. The crisis has been exasperated because of the growth in population and industry in the country since the 90’s without corresponding investment in the energy infrastructure. The power plants are working to the absolute limit now, but there just isn’t enough to meet demand. The privately owned companies have actually shut down two hydropower plants, Atucha I and II, because they were not making a suitable profit from them. This is the problem when crucial sectors of the economy come under private control; profit takes precedence over social needs.
The current government has only added to the mess by providing subsidies to the private companies to encourage them to keep expanding their operations here. The only problem is that the companies are not investing in country. They use the subsidies to expand their extraction operations, not to add the crucial infrastructure to bring the energy to the cities. They are certainly making a profit, but that windfall is then taken out of the country.
So what is happening in Buenos Aires is this; due to the energy shortage different areas of the city are subject to random power cuts for hours at a time. These are planned cuts by the government, but no one knows when or where they will occur until the lights go out. This has been going on for about 10 years now. Now this is being combined with rising inflation. The Argentine economy is based on exports and as international prices for goods rise compared to national prices the businesses are forced to raise the cost for things locally. Unfortunately salaries are not going up with inflation leaving people struggling to make ends meet. There is actually a law here to deal with just this situation, Ley de Abastecimiento, that says basic necessities for life can be subject to price control so that they do not become more expensive than what people can afford. The current government, under president Kirchner, is choosing not to enforce the law, favoring big business instead. The people end up being the losers in this situation.
I asked Fede what was up with this and he gave me a pretty straight forward answer, “Well there was this guy named Karl Marx, perhaps you have heard of him, who said that the desire for profit under capitalism is something that makes capitalism move, but is also the same thing that undermines capitalism.”
Well that’s fine as a critique of the situation, but I wanted to know what could be done now to solve the problem. So I asked Fede to if had any thoughts. “Of course there are things that could be done right now, if there was the will to do them. We don’t need to have socialism before we address these problems. The first thing is we need to renationalize the oil and gas sectors or at the least ask the companies to make an investment in country, in accordance with current laws. The second thing we can do is have democratic and consumer control over the resources. The people are the ones that need the resources and it does them no good to have a company making a profit off of oil when the are sitting in there house freezing their ass off.”
As you can all see there are many hurdles to overcome before Argentina meets the basic needs of its citizens. Right now a struggle is being wagged by the people to reclaim what should have been theirs all along. A lot of hard work lies ahead, but the will to fight is there. We could all learn a valuable lesson from the Argentines on what it really means to have a participatory democracy.
Of course the winter weather brought chaos to the city as well. Both airports were closed for a couple of days because there is no de-icing equipment here. The roads were even worse than usual and it resulted in countless accidents for drivers not accustomed to the slippery conditions. The public bus system, the absolute life-beat of public transport here, was reduced to slow and sporadic service leaving many people without a way to get home in the evening after finishing up at the job. Most didn’t seem to mind though as they were captivated by the falling flakes.
Needless to say the snowfall wasn’t quite as magical for me as it was for my Argentine friends. When I decided to move to South America last year snow was probably the last thing on my mind. Well not quite, I was thinking about escaping the winter in Duluth, I just wasn’t expecting to find it here. I can’t really complain too much though. The snowstorm (about 3/4 of an inch fell) did remind my of MN and all the good people there. I always find a bit funny when an Argentine complains to me about how cold it has been here this winter. “You should visit Minnesota in the winter sometime,” I tell them, “then you can complain about the cold all you want.”
As much fun as the night of the snow was for people here, there is also a much more serious side of the story. Argentina is currently in the midst of an energy crisis that leaves thousands without a reliable source of power to heat their homes. Those that feel the effects the most are inevitably the poor, but the crisis is affecting every strata of Argentine society. The energy crisis is not the only major problem that Argentina is facing at the moment. Inflation has been on the rise in recent months and people are feeling the squeeze. Remember, this is a country whose economy collapsed in 2001 and most people were left to fend for themselves. Anyone who had money in a bank here lost 70% of what they had been saving. These traumatic events are still very much on people’s thoughts.
The fact that the snowfall came at just this time has made the problems here clearer than ever. As a foreigner it has been interesting and sad to watch what is unfolding. I say sad because after all that these people have been through it is almost painful to see the political establishment following the same path that led to the 2001 collapse. But Argentina isn’t alone in reliving history; I see the same thing mirrored in the US, repeating a policy today that has failed in the past. Unlike the US though, there is a shimmering prospect for hope here. Ordinary people are coming together to form independent political and social movements to challenge the establishment and the current direction the country is going. I gathered the following information from talking with many Porteños, and believe me the all have an opinion on it, but most of it comes from talks I have had with our comrade Fede Castagnet, local university student and a member of the MST (Socialist Workers Movement). This is their assessment of the problems I mentioned above and what they think needs to be done about it.
To say that the energy crisis is a new problem confronting Argentina is a bit deceiving. In reality the crisis can be traced back to the mid 90’s when then president Menem began privatizing the energy companies. The oil, gas, and electricity sectors all went from state control to private hands. The crisis has been exasperated because of the growth in population and industry in the country since the 90’s without corresponding investment in the energy infrastructure. The power plants are working to the absolute limit now, but there just isn’t enough to meet demand. The privately owned companies have actually shut down two hydropower plants, Atucha I and II, because they were not making a suitable profit from them. This is the problem when crucial sectors of the economy come under private control; profit takes precedence over social needs.
The current government has only added to the mess by providing subsidies to the private companies to encourage them to keep expanding their operations here. The only problem is that the companies are not investing in country. They use the subsidies to expand their extraction operations, not to add the crucial infrastructure to bring the energy to the cities. They are certainly making a profit, but that windfall is then taken out of the country.
So what is happening in Buenos Aires is this; due to the energy shortage different areas of the city are subject to random power cuts for hours at a time. These are planned cuts by the government, but no one knows when or where they will occur until the lights go out. This has been going on for about 10 years now. Now this is being combined with rising inflation. The Argentine economy is based on exports and as international prices for goods rise compared to national prices the businesses are forced to raise the cost for things locally. Unfortunately salaries are not going up with inflation leaving people struggling to make ends meet. There is actually a law here to deal with just this situation, Ley de Abastecimiento, that says basic necessities for life can be subject to price control so that they do not become more expensive than what people can afford. The current government, under president Kirchner, is choosing not to enforce the law, favoring big business instead. The people end up being the losers in this situation.
I asked Fede what was up with this and he gave me a pretty straight forward answer, “Well there was this guy named Karl Marx, perhaps you have heard of him, who said that the desire for profit under capitalism is something that makes capitalism move, but is also the same thing that undermines capitalism.”
Well that’s fine as a critique of the situation, but I wanted to know what could be done now to solve the problem. So I asked Fede to if had any thoughts. “Of course there are things that could be done right now, if there was the will to do them. We don’t need to have socialism before we address these problems. The first thing is we need to renationalize the oil and gas sectors or at the least ask the companies to make an investment in country, in accordance with current laws. The second thing we can do is have democratic and consumer control over the resources. The people are the ones that need the resources and it does them no good to have a company making a profit off of oil when the are sitting in there house freezing their ass off.”
As you can all see there are many hurdles to overcome before Argentina meets the basic needs of its citizens. Right now a struggle is being wagged by the people to reclaim what should have been theirs all along. A lot of hard work lies ahead, but the will to fight is there. We could all learn a valuable lesson from the Argentines on what it really means to have a participatory democracy.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Empowering the People
I recently spent a weekend helping out the people of Santa Fe, a city about a 7-hour bus ride to the northwest of Buenos Aires. Recent torrential rains have caused widespread flooding across much of the area and the city of Santa Fe was one of the hardest hit areas. When I saw the pictures of homes almost completely submerged in the newspapers I knew I had to do something to help. I asked my buddy Fede, a local student at the University of Buenos Aires and activist, if there was anything I could do. Two short days later I found myself on an overnight bus to Santa Fe with a group of UBA students.
The city of Santa Fe proper is pretty sizable with a population a little of 500,000. Although the whole city was affected by the flooding it was particularly bad on the outskirts of town in the barrios where most people live in an impoverished condition. It was to these barrios that we were heading. Our goal for the trip, or at least what I understood to be our goal, was to distribute clothing, food, medicine, shoes, mattresses and other sorely needed materials to the local impoverished peoples. Students or other residents of Bs As donated everything we brought. We ended up having so much that we couldn’t fit it all in the holds below the bus and were forced to fill up the vacant seats and isle.
As we pulled into Santa Fe in the early hours of Saturday morning I was excited to get to work distributing the aid goods. Little did I realize that our trip had a much larger purpose that simply handing out goods. We filed off the bus and into a small building that turned out to be the local MST (Socialist Workers Movement) party HQ. The MST had cosponsored the trip from Bs As and it was only now that the real meaning of the trip was becoming apparent.
We had an hour-long briefing before heading to the barrios. I listened patiently, not really understanding much of what was being said, but luckily I had Fede close by to translate for me (I was the only foreigner there, probably the only foreigner in all of Santa Fe at that point). Basically Fede broke it down like this: we are here to organize the people so that the can stand together with one voice and demand from the government what is owed to them. I also found out at this time that a similar but even worse flood had happened four years ago. All the promises by the provincial and federal government to provide measures to prevent another flood, like dikes, pumps, drainage systems, had all come to nothing. And now the people were being left to rot once again.
The rest of the day was spent in the barrios going door-to-door handing out flyers for a popular assembly meeting to be held later on that day. I say door to door, but the truth of the matter is that many of the places we went to had no doors, windows or much else. Forget about doorbells, without doors you can’t even knock. I quickly learned that clap of the hands was the accepted way to inquire if someone was inside. Most people took the flyers but were a bit puzzled about why we were there and what we were doing. Although we explained our intentions to give the people themselves a voice you could see that these people had been burned many times in the past and were skeptical about any improvements happening. It was a disheartening to see this, but it was very inspiring when we talked to someone and a passion was ignited within them.
At 5:30 the assembly met in front of the local grade school in the only place available in the barrio, the middle of a dirt street. About 40 people showed up, mostly women, but also some older men and youths. Clearly a chord had been struck as all these people came to see what was going to take place, but there was a deep sense of skepticism as well. The assembly opened with a MST leader explaining the situation about the flooding and the absolute lack of government action. He explained that the people deserved much better and it was indeed possible if they stared to act together on a community level so that their voice would be heard.
A fierce debate ensued between those who agreed that it was time to come together and those who felt that it was a waste of time because the government would never help them out. At first the latter of the two groups held the edge in the argument. On man in particular was really pessimistic about any influence the people could have on the government. By the end of the assembly the mood had drastically changed thanks to a few passionate voices, including a few from the UBA students. The man that was so pessimistic at the beginning offered to put his small kiosk at disposal of the community as information and distribution center. It was as stunning and inspiring turn around.
The assembly decided to meet the following week and the hope was that the number of people attending would increase. The issue we came to raise was that of flood protection, but with the people given a chance to talk of their problems other concerns arouse such of lack of any public transport in the barrios. Already the people were developing a common and popular consensus on social needs. It was a great sight to see these people who earlier in the day had seemed so down and condemned to poverty leave the assembly with a glimmer of hope for change in the future.
After distributing the clothing and other aid we all headed back to the MST HQ to talk about the positive and negative experiences of the day, ways we could improve in the future, and how we could apply the lessons of social organization back in Bs As and beyond. All the students got back on the bus for our ride back to Bs As a short 24 hours after originally departing. It was a productive day though, one that has given me a new outlook on the power of social and popular assemblies and the power that it gives to those who otherwise have very little. All of the intellectual and theoretical efforts that go into socialist thought are very important to the cause, but it is only through direct action that reality is shaped. That is perhaps the most important lesson I learned in Santa Fe.
The city of Santa Fe proper is pretty sizable with a population a little of 500,000. Although the whole city was affected by the flooding it was particularly bad on the outskirts of town in the barrios where most people live in an impoverished condition. It was to these barrios that we were heading. Our goal for the trip, or at least what I understood to be our goal, was to distribute clothing, food, medicine, shoes, mattresses and other sorely needed materials to the local impoverished peoples. Students or other residents of Bs As donated everything we brought. We ended up having so much that we couldn’t fit it all in the holds below the bus and were forced to fill up the vacant seats and isle.
As we pulled into Santa Fe in the early hours of Saturday morning I was excited to get to work distributing the aid goods. Little did I realize that our trip had a much larger purpose that simply handing out goods. We filed off the bus and into a small building that turned out to be the local MST (Socialist Workers Movement) party HQ. The MST had cosponsored the trip from Bs As and it was only now that the real meaning of the trip was becoming apparent.
We had an hour-long briefing before heading to the barrios. I listened patiently, not really understanding much of what was being said, but luckily I had Fede close by to translate for me (I was the only foreigner there, probably the only foreigner in all of Santa Fe at that point). Basically Fede broke it down like this: we are here to organize the people so that the can stand together with one voice and demand from the government what is owed to them. I also found out at this time that a similar but even worse flood had happened four years ago. All the promises by the provincial and federal government to provide measures to prevent another flood, like dikes, pumps, drainage systems, had all come to nothing. And now the people were being left to rot once again.
The rest of the day was spent in the barrios going door-to-door handing out flyers for a popular assembly meeting to be held later on that day. I say door to door, but the truth of the matter is that many of the places we went to had no doors, windows or much else. Forget about doorbells, without doors you can’t even knock. I quickly learned that clap of the hands was the accepted way to inquire if someone was inside. Most people took the flyers but were a bit puzzled about why we were there and what we were doing. Although we explained our intentions to give the people themselves a voice you could see that these people had been burned many times in the past and were skeptical about any improvements happening. It was a disheartening to see this, but it was very inspiring when we talked to someone and a passion was ignited within them.
At 5:30 the assembly met in front of the local grade school in the only place available in the barrio, the middle of a dirt street. About 40 people showed up, mostly women, but also some older men and youths. Clearly a chord had been struck as all these people came to see what was going to take place, but there was a deep sense of skepticism as well. The assembly opened with a MST leader explaining the situation about the flooding and the absolute lack of government action. He explained that the people deserved much better and it was indeed possible if they stared to act together on a community level so that their voice would be heard.
A fierce debate ensued between those who agreed that it was time to come together and those who felt that it was a waste of time because the government would never help them out. At first the latter of the two groups held the edge in the argument. On man in particular was really pessimistic about any influence the people could have on the government. By the end of the assembly the mood had drastically changed thanks to a few passionate voices, including a few from the UBA students. The man that was so pessimistic at the beginning offered to put his small kiosk at disposal of the community as information and distribution center. It was as stunning and inspiring turn around.
The assembly decided to meet the following week and the hope was that the number of people attending would increase. The issue we came to raise was that of flood protection, but with the people given a chance to talk of their problems other concerns arouse such of lack of any public transport in the barrios. Already the people were developing a common and popular consensus on social needs. It was a great sight to see these people who earlier in the day had seemed so down and condemned to poverty leave the assembly with a glimmer of hope for change in the future.
After distributing the clothing and other aid we all headed back to the MST HQ to talk about the positive and negative experiences of the day, ways we could improve in the future, and how we could apply the lessons of social organization back in Bs As and beyond. All the students got back on the bus for our ride back to Bs As a short 24 hours after originally departing. It was a productive day though, one that has given me a new outlook on the power of social and popular assemblies and the power that it gives to those who otherwise have very little. All of the intellectual and theoretical efforts that go into socialist thought are very important to the cause, but it is only through direct action that reality is shaped. That is perhaps the most important lesson I learned in Santa Fe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
