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.

Venezuela and RCTV

So what is happening in Venezuela? A private TV station did not have their broadcasting license renewed by the Chavez government and all of a sudden democracy, freedom of speech and press are all under assault. We have heard this story before about Chavez, but this case needs to be given a closer examination before we pass judgment on it. The major media outlets in the U.S. and Europe have been doing a pitiful job in covering this event. Any semblance of objectivism was long ago disregarded as ‘irrelevant’ when it comes to discussing Chavez. Nevertheless the facts are there for all to see, it simply takes a small amount of effort to uncover them.

Lets begin with a brief overview. RCTV (Radio Caracas TV) did not have their broadcasting license renewed on the 27th of May by the government. This was not an unexpected or rash act; Chavez had made it perfectly clear he did not intend to renew the license for many months. It its place a public TV station Tvez would be set up allowing literally thousands of independent producers access and a platform in which to broadcast to the country. RCTV would not lose its cable or satellite licenses, nor would it be subject to any penalties or criminal charges.

Chavez decided to shut the station down because of its role in the 2002 coup the temporarily ousted him from power. Indeed RCTV is an opposition-aligned company but there is a difference between supporting the opposition in a democratic country and supporting a military coup to overthrow a democracy. RCTV, along with the other privately owned media companies, launched a propaganda effort backing the coup and timed to coincide with it. RCTV failed to report on the mass popular demonstrations that brought Chavez back to his elected office, failed to report that Chavez was back in power after the coup failed, and later portrayed Chavez supporters as killing peaceful anti-chavistas, which was in fact later disproved. RCTV actually went as far as supporting the military coup before it became apparent that the people of Venezuela would not stand for it.

Chavez has sited all this as the reason for not renewing the license. It is worth noting that Chavez has waited 5 years until the current license expired before acting, in complete accordance with Venezuelan law. He refrained from punishing not only RCTV but also other supporters and even members of the military that were complicit in the coup once he was swept back into power.

Can we imagine this happening in the U.S.? If a leading general overthrew the president for a few days and NBC was completely backing the military in this, could we expect that the president would just let NBC be after he regained power? The answer is no. I would expect some sort of treason trials to be initiated or perhaps something to a lesser degree. In Venezuela this did not happen although Chavez clearly had the power and mandate to do such a thing.

So where does that leave us. The Chavez government has acted accordingly in regards to Venezuelan law by removing a private company from public broadcasting frequency for actively supporting an attempt to overthrow the democratic government and establish a military dictatorship. It has left the company free to have its programming on cable and satellite channels.

There has been a lot of coverage of the protests in Caracas against the move by Chavez, but what often is not mentioned is that the pro Chavez rallies taking place at the same time are many times the size of those protesting against. Once again popular support is on the side of the government. Perhaps that is what is the most threatening to the U.S. and Europe is that there is an elected leader actually doing the bidding of the vast majority of the population in his country and not the other way around. In this context in is not surprising to see these countries denounce the move as an attack on democracy and freedom. For example lets look at Condoleezza Rice’s recent statements.

"Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government... Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy."


She also described the move as “undemocratic.” Never mind the fact that Venezuela has NOT charged RCTV with any crimes, and that RCTV supported the overthrow of a democratically elected government. Rice seems like she is a character straight out of 1984, Newspeak and Doublethink come out of her a bit to easily for comfort.

We only have to think of one simple example to see how hypocritical this all this, although we have many to choose from. Just imagine if tonight on the news NBC or CBS or ABC (take your pick) said we all should support Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace and help him overthrown the government. That’s it, nothing more need to be said, that station would be finished instantly. It’s as simple as that people.

Why the Democrats will continue supporting the War

It has become very apparent in the last month or two that the Democrats who took control of Congress in the last election cycle have no intention of putting a stop to one of the wars the U.S. is currently fighting. I am referring of course to Iraq, but let us not forget there are still troops and combat operations going on in Afghanistan and even less mentioned is the situation in Somalia, a country that has been attacked by the U.S. on at least three occasions in 2007.

But I digress; the focus of this article is the situation in Iraq. It was widely recognized that the elections of the Democrats was a in its essence a demand of the people to put an end to the war. Political analysts and people on both sides of the political spectrum acknowledged this. The voters were not asking for a Democrat version of the war, rather they were saying we want to stop this and bring the troops home as soon as possible.

I remember the feeling excitement and the expectation for change that many felt on that night in November when the Dems won control of both Houses. I remained very skeptical about the situation and I feel, unfortunately, that I have been proven right. The Democrats are not taking any steps to end the war. They are funding it without restrictions. This is nothing more than a week capitulation to Bush and the Republicans and a complete disregard for the will of the people. It doesn’t come as a surprise to me, business as usual one might say, but it seems to many others that it has come as a shock. I continually read about the failing of the Dems of the dashed hopes that people had. All I can say is “Wake up people”. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people are dying, not to mention thousands of Americans (whose lives seem to be worth the equivalent of a hundred lives of people of color) doesn’t come into consideration in the minds of politicians.

How can I say such a thing? Simple, look at the situation and draw the only reasonable conclusion you can from it. Political consideration and comfort are the most important thing most of these elected leaders. This war could be stopped right now if the Dems hadn’t provided the funding. So why did they? Here is my answer. They don’t really want to end this war just yet; they need to get closer to Election Day in 2008 so they can use it as an issue against the Republicans. Is this a cynical view of things? Of course it is, but I don’t see how one can’t be cynical these dark days we are living in.

The Dems say, “we want to stop this war and bring the troops home”, and yet they do otherwise with their actions. Let us not forget this when it comes time to vote in 2008 and they position themselves as antiwar and say they will put a stop to it if elected to the presidency. This war will certainly still be ranging on at that point and the reason why is because the Dems will have allowed it to. They do not deserve our support anymore than the Republicans do. In the politics of war it’s not the people suffering and dying that come first in the considerations of the politicians, nor is it the supposed safety or protection of the American people. Rather it is their own political survival that holds the supreme place in their thoughts and considerations.

Mayor of Buenos Aires Part 1

Well the election is drawing ever nearer here for the Major of Buenos Aires (Jefe de Gobierno). Voting day is on June 3rd and the campaigns have all kicked into overdrive. Although this is only a local election there is the potential for national ramifications.
The mayor of Buenos Aires is a national figure and the post can be a springboard for a future presidential run. That is of course if the time in office was a success, which is by no means assured. The Federal Capital of Buenos Aires is a city within a city; in the States the closest comparison would be D.C. This is where all the big decisions get made for the country, the seat of the national government, the most technologically advanced area, the most populous and the wealthiest. It is home to about 3.5 million people, but it surrounded by a huge sprawl of mostly less well off Argentines totaling all together about 13 million. This election is just for the Federal Capital though and that’s what I want to talk about.
The one major difference that strikes me between campaigns here and in the U.S. is the dearth of candidates. There are literally 10 or 11 people that are running for Mayor. It’s an important position and national figures have been throwing support behind their favored candidates. Even the President, Nestor Kirchner, has stepped in on his party’s behalf. Despite the size of the field I think there are only 3 or 4 with a real shot of winning, but with that many people running you never know what the results will be.
With all the differences between Argentine and U.S. politics there seems to be one common factor, most of the politicians here are pompous assholes. I guess some things just transcend any cultural barrier. It didn’t take me long to figure this out after listening to a few of them speak or reading their platforms. They talk a lot but they aren’t saying anything. Wait a second, is that a Talking Heads lyric? I don’t remember for sure but if it is its spot on.
Not that all of the Candidates here are full of it, there are a few bright spots to speak of. One of these is Patricia Walsh, the MST candidate. I say this because the program she is advocating is a departure from traditional politics and policies. I don’t have the space to lay it all out here, but one point I find very encouraging is her willingness to listen to the people and give not only a voice in the governance of Buenos Aires, but rather the voice. The whole MST party is structured this way; it’s a bottom to top approach that is a very refreshing departure from what I am used to coming from Minnesota.