Argentina's social movements

After a major move, a few weeks of vacation and enduring Buenos Aires' heat (it's summer time here), I'm getting back into the swing of things. Which means writing, filming and working. I'd like to make a few announcements about new videos and articles out and about. First, Ágora TV has featured a new section to videos with English subtitles online. Videos Click here to check them out There are several videos on Argentina's factory takeovers such as Zanon and BAUEN, as well as videos on the School of The Americas. This section is growing, so check in from time to time. I've gotten many questions for an analysis or review of Argentina's social movements. I have several articles out in publications that give a review of social movements. There's a lot going on, but many of the struggles have become disarticulated due to President Nestor Kirchner's policy to coopt social organizations. There are some very exciting struggles ongoing, which will come back into momentum in the next coming weeks. Finally, I did a major overhaul on my blog, Latin America Activism. Previous posts and articles are now labelled into categories for easy access.

Northeastern Anarchist

Montpelier Downtown Workers’ Union Zanon: Class Consciousness Through Self-Management Resistance in Pyeongtaek Anarchist Study of Iroquois Solidarity with Six Nations Workers, Management, and Worker-management and more...

Northeastern Anarchist #12, Winter 2007

Zanon building class consciousness through self management

by Marie Trigona

As the largest recuperated factory in Argentina, and occupied since 2001, the Zanon ceramics plant in the Patagonian province of Neuquén now employs 470 workers. Along with some 180 recuperated enterprises up and running, providing jobs for more than 10,000 Argentine workers, the Zanon experience has re-defined the basis of production: without workers, bosses are unable to run businesses; without bosses, workers can do it better. While these experiences are forced to co-exist within the capitalist market, they are forming new visions for a new working culture.

In October 2005, FASINPAT (Factory without a boss - Zanon's cooperative) won a legal dispute, pressuring federal courts to recognize it as a legal entity that has the right to run the cooperative for one year. With the October expiration date nearing, the worker assembly voted to step up actions and community efforts. On October 20, 2006, the workers won the longstanding legal battle for federal recognition of FASINPAT for three years.

Argentina’s working class has celebrated the Zanon workers’ temporary victory. With legal status, the FASINPAT can concentrate on planning production, improving working conditions, and doing community projects. As part of this celebration, the cooperative has invited other workers to visit Zanon to learn that they, too, can function without a boss or owner. The workers’ assembly has resolved that it is now in a position to teach others from its four and a half years of learning from self-management.

The workers at Zanon are rebuilding a national network of solidarity, which sustains the movement. Zanon workers regularly travel throughout the country to support a wide array of labor conflicts. As part of this initiative, several FASINPAT representatives toured the Greater Buenos Aires suburbs, hosting talks and special meetings with local worker organizations. Different from the usual political rallies, these meetings focused on building class consciousness and mutual solidarity among class-struggle-based organizations.

Affinities Journal
http://www.affinitiesjournal.org/index.php/affinities
Latin America’s Autonomous Organizing
MARIE TRIGONA
In February 2006 activists met in Uruguay for the fourth Latin American
Conference of Popular Autonomous Organizations. Over 300 delegates from
Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay organized this year's annual event as
a space to strategize autonomous organizing and coordinate direct actions. This
year's conference, held February 24-26 in Montevideo, focused on building
popular power in Latin America among organizations autonomous from the
state, political parties and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
Galpon de Corrales, a community center in a working class neighborhood in
Montevideo, coordinated the conference. The Galpon features a community
radio station, a community library and a large indoor space to hold cultural
activities. Activists from the community center take pride in the fact that the
Galpon is completely self-managed and sustaining, and several times a week
they organize a collective meal.
The participating organizations were generally oriented towards class struggle
and libertarian practices such as grass roots organizing, direct democracy and
mutual solidarity. Within the debate of how to build popular power, delegates
discussed strategies for communities to solve their own problems independently
of the state or other institutions.
The current context offered by Latin American state politics emerged as a focal
point during the two-day meeting. In each of the nations represented, social
organizations have faced new challenges due to the resurgence of "progressive"
social democratic governments. Take, for example, the case of Uruguay's social
movements, where many of these have demobilized after the inauguration of
Tabare Vazquez. At the conference all eyes were therefore on Bolivia due to the
recent victory of the Movement to Socialism’s (MAS) leader, Evo Morales. In all of
the workshops, participants discussed how to prevent the growing expectations
populations have of their social democratic governments from impeding the
accumulation of popular power.
Everything at the congress was auto-gestionado

Marie Trigona Latin America Activism

RENEGADE EYE