by C.L
During the 1960s and the 1970s social movements in Argentina created an “insurrectional revolutionary social force that gained strength” which performed a vital part in collective and political-party battles. Social movements rose that period due to the presence of a significant middle class, and the upsurge in the breach of the income distribution. Over the last 25 years this trend has shifted with an increasing rhythm: “in 1975 the first 10 per cent got 24 per cent of the total income, in 1990 33.6 per cent and in 2000, 36.9 per cent, while the last 10 per cent got 3.2, 2.1 and 1.4 respectively” (Carrera and Cotarelo 2003: 203). These dissimilarities further amplified in 2001.
Protests and contentious strategies are embedded in the culture of Latin American countries. Throughout history people in countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru have used streets protests as a way to influence government programs and to express policy demands. Contentious practices as a means of participation are an intrinsic characteristic of weak states. As Machado et al. (2011: 342-345) stressed “the more institutions lack the means to perform their duties well, the higher the incentives for citizens and groups to affect policy making process through more direct channels, such as protests and demonstrations”.
During the course of Argentina’s history, people have tried to respond and challenge the shifts of power and capital by inventing and adopting new forms of collective action. For Carrera and Cotarelo (2003: 204-206) what shaped the current form of social struggles in Argentina were the 1993 riots in Santiago del Estero – what came to be known as “Santiagazo”.
“Food riots, strikes, roadblocks, marches and meetings were the forms and means of struggle that shaped the protest movement in Argentina” (Carrera and Cotarelo 2003: 206). Demonstrations and road blocking is still the most widely used practice in order for people to show their disapproval to the new social struggles that they face.
The economic slump of late 2001 brought to the forefront an increased desire for social change. Argentinians were fed up with the political parties and specifically politicians and regarded them as having horribly failed to respond to society’s needs and demands.
By December 2001, Argentina was plagued by a series of mass protests. The nights of 19th – 20th December were marked by massive protests, riots and violent clashes with the police that came to be known as Argentinazo, and brought the country into unprecedented turmoil. Tedesco (2002: 469) noted that the Argentinazo revealed “the limits of Argentina’s democratic culture” and “the absence of political channels capable of providing for the more systematically and proactively deliberative articulation of interests”. What was different was that the middle class also run to the streets and united with the “have-nots”, “the unemployed, the slum dwellers, and the majority of the poor” where citizens were protesting against “the neoliberal policies” that brought society to its knees (Toussaint and Millet 2010: 217-227).
In the capital city of Buenos Aires the angry crowd destroyed the municipal building. Argentines came to the assumption that it was “the politicians fault, not a particular leader or specific party or ideology”. These emotions were also visible in their slogans: “Let’s get rid of them all” (Que se vayan todos) and “Don’t let a single stay” (Que no quede minguno) (Armony and Armony 2008: 35-37). “It was a moment when people bypassed politics as usual” (Levy 2004: 10).
Argentina started to rise as a “political laboratory” (Dinerstein 2003: 187), as an unparalleled expression of “bottom up mobilization” were a variety of alternative methods of party-political involvement would emerge. These included “asambleas populares” (spontaneous neighbourhood assemblies), “clubes de trueque” (barter clubs), “empresas recuperadas” (worker-occupied enterprises) and “piqueteros” (organized groups of the unemployed). These alternatives forms of party-politics arose in post-crisis Argentina and unfolded in what Brock (2001 cited in Carrera and Cotarelo 2003: 181) terms “autonomous spaces: spaces that have opened not in interface with the state but rather against or in indifference to it”.
“Clubes de Trueque”:
In 2002, followed by the events of the economic collapse and with the population suffering from poverty thousands of barter markets emerged throughout Argentina. Barter markets opened up spaces for people to take part in their self-help solution to the new economic and social realities. Trade was enacted inside the markets using coupons, called “creditos” which at the initial stage, their use was limited within the “trueque”, with the country’s national currency having no part at all at the market. In the clubs, people exchanged clothing, school supplies, homemade food, household repair jobs in carpentry, bricklaying and electrical work, medical and dental services, tutoring and tourism, among other goods and services.
With the peso collapse the use of “creditos” had spread to the mainstream economy. Wholesale markets, law firms, insurance companies, psychiatrists began to accept “creditos” as an official payment method.
By 2009, the number of barter clubs operating in Argentina has dropped dramatically to less than 500 but it still is a viable alternative solution for millions of people. Going beyond the economic solution that the clubs provided, barter clubs mark a successful new social model, where people organized themselves, their economy, their own currency, their own social system, their own production, proving that societies and production can and do exist without capitalist policies (TAOA project).
Cooperatives:
Another alternative that arose through the protests and strikes that took place in “Jujuy, Santiago del Estero, Neuquen, Tierra del Fuego, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Rio Negro, Greater Buenos Aires, Salta and other parts of the country” laid the foundations for the emergence of the movement of the unemployed (“piqueteros”) which came to be the “symbol of resistance to structural adjustment program” (Armony and Armony 2008: 31-35).
Cooperatives came as a reaction to the massive erosion of jobs throughout the 1990s. With more than half of the population living under poverty line and with soaring unemployment rates people took the initiative to “look themselves and their surrounding communities for job security and dignified living conditions” (Vieta and Ruggeri 2007: 4). Hence, the formation of self-management arose from “pragmatic needs”, “in order to feed their families, keep jobs and safe-guard workers’ self-dignity in the face of a collapsing neoliberal system (Vieta 2008: 3-4). In that sense they replaced the role of the state in providing the safety for human security. And, though, there was no guarantee that the formation of cooperatives would reach “optimal fulfilment”, it gave workers the opportunity to re-enter factories and enterprises and initiate or continue production. Thus, offered them a chance to pursue their inherent right to live “free from want”, to “live in dignity” and solidarity.
Argentina is a country with a long past of cooperativism. According to Vieta and Ruggeri (2007: 9) “cooperativism is linked to the country’s long history of European economic influence and the waves of immigrants from all corners of Europe that flooded in with new ideas of how to organize working life in the last quarter of the 19th century”. Shaffer (1999: 149) noted that the first cooperative society in Argentina was founded in 1875 whereas; Vieta and Ruggeri (2007: 9) observed that there was an upward trend in the number of cooperatives “4,204 in 1985; 8,142 by 1991 and 16,008 by 2002”. However, the current form of these cooperatives is something more than just a consequence of the neoliberal policies pursued during the 1990s and the profound shock of the new economic realities that emerged after the country’s economic collapse. It’s a rejection of the existing political system and its representatives.
The new wave of manufacturing and enterprise employee organizations were fundamentally spawned in “the run up and during the massive popular societal demonstrations of December 2001” (Ranis 2010: 8). Atzeni and Ghiliani (2007: 653-654) stated that these newly formed cooperatives (“empresas recuperdas por sus trabajadores” ERT) differ “in principle from well-established and traditional ones in several aspects”, with one obvious and crucial point being the reason why they surfaced: “they are the outcome of the occupation of private property”.
By late 2001, more than 2,600 firms were in the verge of declaring bankruptcy. Once in default Argentina’s bankruptcy laws favoured the “primacy of the creditors and the rapid auctioning of the factory or enterprise, its machinery furnishings and supplies”. Kulfas (cited in Ranis 2010: 81) highlighted the fact that many owners used the industrial crisis “fraudulently to attain millions of dollars in government credits for nonproduction-related financial speculation” aiming to “ultimately deprive the workers of their earned wages” and illegally “emptying” the factory of its assets and inventory. As a result, workers started occupying failing companies for weeks sometimes months in the hope that they were going to get paid. Gradually, this form of occupation evolved and workers eventually put the enterprises into operation under the principle of self-management (autogestion).
In May 2002, the Argentinian state “revised” the bankruptcy law and appointed the “bankruptcy court trustee” in order to judge if employees can resume the manufacturing procedures under the state of autogestion plus, giving the right to the workers of the occupied enterprises to expropriation. Hence, setting a legal framework were workers are protected “from the auctioning off the building and its contents” by the “creditors demands upon the previous owner who incurred the debts” (Ranis 2010: 85).
To further strengthen their position and provide inspiration for more workers to take over the closed enterprises Argentinians developed two workers organizations. In 2002, the “Movimiento Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas” (MNER) was created having as a slogan “Occupy – Resist – Produce” stressing in that way the need for solidarity and decisiveness of the workers cooperative. In 2003, the “Movimiento de Fabricas Recuperadas por los Trabajadores” (MNFRT) was founded. It focused on independence and self-government which was evident in their slogan “Work – Produce – Compete”. The creation of both organizations had a common objective: to create “a belt of worker cooperatives throughout the country” (Ranis 2010: 81).
Workers within the recuperated enterprises do not base their discourse in the establishment of cooperatives, but favour a more horizontal organizational form and decision making procedure, with the promotion of the same wage for every worker, the regular constitution of assemblies and the refusal to admit managerial cadre in the organization.
“Zanon” ceramic factory (under the auspices of “Fabricas sin Patron” – Factories without Bosses) is only one of the success stories of the ERT movement, providing services to the public and not the marketplace. With the owner declaring bankruptcy in 2001, the workers took over the premises with the prospect of protecting their professions and earning their living.
The strategies of the factory are set down through weekly majority votes, and once a month the manufacturing process is halt to establish further goals and resolve any difficulties that has risen. They operate through a rotation scheme, which in essence means, that “no position is long-lasting” and that everyone holds different levels of responsibilities at regular basis. The payment system operates within a fixed amount for all positions and if production goals are met the workers receive an added bonus to the fixed amount. In addition, there is a mandate that 10 per cent of the workforce should be held by women, that relish paid maternity leaves and those with children are able to start one hour later and leave work one hour earlier (Ranis 2010: 88-91).
However, the true success of the Zanon factory is that it inspired societal changes by creating outstanding relationships with the local community. It enjoys excellent relations “with the local university, the piquetero organizations and the civil society at large by way of its community centre, health clinic, employment of those in need, and multiple cultural, artistic, and recreational outreach programs”. Moreover, it is an active part fighting side by side in every protest and struggle other people face by even stopping production in order for the workers to be present.
Workers at Zanon cooperative have managed not only to fight successfully for their fundamental rights, but also to create new job positions for the unemployed. And in August 2009, the courts granted that the factory belongs to its workers cooperative to manage legally and indefinitely.
A hallmark in the evolution of the ERTs was the “First Latin American Meeting of Recuperated Enterprises” that was held in Venezuela with the support of Hugo Chavez in October 2005. The three days that preceded the meeting “75 commercial agreements were signed among various Latin American worker enterprises”. Though, very few of these agreements have been materialized , the most important ramification from this meeting was the “legitimization of this worker-managed enterprises in Argentina as well as in Venezuela, Brazil and Uruguay” showing for the first time a path that can be followed away from the mandates of the neoliberal policies.
What is more important still, is that ERTs have provided new expectations for social change. They arose as a vindication high unemployment and poverty rates and the despair of Argentina’s people. However, they evolved to be more than just means to making an end and rather they represent a new form of working relations and societal realities. According to the National Institute of Associations and the Social Economy up to 2009, 15,000 cooperatives existed in Argentina giving work to more than 8,000 people and accounting for “9 percent of the country’s GNP” (Ranis 2010).
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