DOCSLIB.ORG

Clientelism, Public Workfare and the Emergence of the Piqueteros in Argentina

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Clientelism, Public Workfare and the Emergence of the Piqueteros in Argentina Clientelism, Public Workfare and the Emergence of the Piqueteros in Argentina Lucas Ronconi and Ignacio Franceschelli Working Paper #10 Over the last ten years, Argentina has experienced a significant increase in the number of collective protests. This increase was not due to increased militancy by existing organizations. In fact, the average annual number of strikes organized by labor unions decreased from 509 in 1983-96 to only 219 in 1997-2004. Rather, the higher level of social conflict comes from non- institutionalized protesters and forms of protest. This chapter focuses on a new social movement, popularly known as Piqueteros (people who block roads or 'the picketers'), that has organized most of these non-traditional demonstrations. 1 The total number of road blockades between 1997 and 2004 was 7,135, implying an average of 892 per year, more than four times the number of strikes. Curiously, participants in the road blockades tend to be poor, unemployed people not linked together by any previous work 1 We categorize the Piqueteros as a social movement following McAdam and Snow's definition: 'A collectivity acting with sorne degree of organization and continuity outside of institutional channels for the purpose of promoting or resisting change in the group, society, or world order of which it is a part' (1997, xviii). Recently, sorne Piqueteros leaders have become increasingly linked with institutional actors - such as the close relation between Luis D' Elia and President Néstor Kirchner - suggesting that sorne organizations are operating inside political institutions, and hence should be conceptually considered interest groups. The focus of this chapter, however, is on the emergence and growth of the movement. 1 experience. This population usually does not have the resources or the network ties to collectively organize. How is that they became the most salient protesters? Several authors have attempted to explain the origins and growth of the Piqueteros (Camarero, Pozzi and Schneider 1998; Conti and Schneider Mansilla 2003; Farinetti 1999; Galafassi 2003; Isman 2004; Kohan 2002; Laufer and Spiguel 1999; Oviedo 2001; Pozzi 2000; Scribano 1999; Svampa and Pereyra 2003). They argue that the movement emerged mainly as a response to poverty, unemployment, inequality and limited democracy. Structural conditions and a desire for social justice motivated people to create or join the Piqueteros organizations, according to this view. This opinion has sorne appeal, considering Argentina’s recent economic crisis. However, this view contains sorne weaknesses. While 'social movements are not a simple knee-jerk response to social conditions' (Wilson 1973, 90), we found that there is not an obvious relationship between grievances and demonstrations, either across time or across provinces in Argentina. This study focuses on the nature of the goods which participants in the Piquetero movement seek, and how these goods must be produced. The government's decision to implement temporary public works programs - workfare - in 1993 triggered the emergence of the Piqueteros and provided the resources for their growth. Participants in these temporary public works programs would receive a monthly wage in exchange for part-time community service. In particular, we emphasize how the government managed workfare and the intrinsic characteristics of this policy. First, only a small proportion of the eligible population (less than 10 per cent) actually participated in the workfare program. Most poor and unemployed individuals were aware that filling out an application form did not guarantee their access to benefits. Second, cronyism in the selection of recipients eroded the legitimacy of the government, further inducing individuals to search for altemative channels to obtain these benefits. Third, workfare fostered 2 networking among beneficiaries. Participants were organized into groups of approximately 50 individuals to perform public work. Once participation ended (generally after three to six months) ex-participants interested in another round had stronger networks among themselves, facilitating coordination. Fourth, workfare provided selective material incentives to overcome free riding. Since a workfare benefit (monthly wage) is an excludable good, the Piqueteros organizations had an effective tool to induce people to join them and participate in demonstrations: only members of the organization who actively participate in road blockades receive the workfare benefits which the Piqueteros distribute on behalf of the government. In game-theory terminology, workfare changed the collective action problem from a prisoner's dilemma into an assurance game, since workfare benefits are selective incentives which remove the temptation to free ride. Moreover, workfare also helped reduce coordination problems (the main barrier to collective action in assurance games) by fostering networking among unemployed people. Previous research has not ignored the linkage between the Piqueteros and workfare. But it views access to workfare benefits as a mere outcome of the road blockade (Colmegna 2003; Delamata 2004; Ferrara 2003; Svampa and Pereyra 2003). Demanding public goods such as social justice and democratization is, according to this view, the causal reason why aggrieved individuals collectively organize and participate in protests. More importantly, they exclusively see the implementation and expansion of workfare as the government's reaction to the emergence of the movement. While we agree that the government typically reacted to demonstrations by providing workfare funds to the Piqueteros, we stress the opposite causal sequence: road blockades were organized to obtain workfare benefits, and the government's attempt to silence the protests by distributing benefits among the Piqueteros meant more resources for these organizations and actually ended up fueling demonstrations. 3 We present empirical evidence about a topic which so far has been mainly discussed theoretically, and we assess the merits of the existing models of social movement to account for the Piqueteros' case. Neither system strain, the main explanation according to the classical model, nor cognitive liberation, a necessary condition according to McAdam's formulation of the political process model, are adequate explanations for the development of insurgency. All the evidence we find is consistent with the view that selective material incentives and access to external resources were fundamental for the emergence and growth of the Piqueteros. The emergence of the Piqueteros In bi’s study of the black protest movement in the United States, Doug McAdam categorizes theories of social movements into three groups: classical, resource mobilization and political processes. The classical model views social movements as a collective reaction to system strain. Such strain has psychological effects on individuals and, when severe enough, triggers social insurgency. The classical model, particularly when applied to an open and responsive political system, assumes that 'movement participants are not engaged in rational political action. Instead, the rewards they seek are primarily psychological in nature’ (1999, 17). According to the resource mobilization model, social movements 'are not forms of irrational behavior but rather a tactical response to the harsh realities of a closed and coercive political system' (20). A change in the amount of resources available to unorganized but aggrieved groups is the key cause for the emergence of social movements. Finally, the political process model considers three sets of factors to be crucial in the generation of insurgency. First, shifts occur in the structure of political opportunities which promote insurgency 'only indirectly through a restructuring of existing power relations' (41). Second, the amount of resources of the aggrieved population changes, enabling them to 4 exploit the political opportunities. The third factor is cognitive liberation: 'Before collective protest can get under way, people must collectively define their situation as unjust and subject to change through group action' (51). All three factors are regarded as necessary, but not sufficient, causes of social insurgency. Previous research attempting to explain the emergence and growth of the Piqueteros generally fits into the classical model. 2 Scribano (1999), for example, argues that the geographical areas with more road blockades tend to be regions where unemployment and inequality are higher, where more privatizations have taken place and where electoral participation is lower. Oviedo (2001) argues that government corruption combined with deteriorating economic conditions explains the emergence of insurgency. The same view is presented by Delamata: 'These organizations [Piqueteros] emerged as a result of people struggling for jobs, on the one hand, and fighting against local Peronist bosses, on the other' (2004, 2). The idea is that the Piquetero movement emerged mainly as a response to social conditions, clientelistic practices and limited democracy. Structural conditions and a desire for social justice motivated people to create and join the Piqueteros organizations. There are two reasons why we find this view incomplete. First, it is not obvious that political restrictions and social deprivations were at their peak when the Piqueteros emerged. 3 Second, how is it that poor and unemployed people, not linked together by any previous work experience, were able to collectively organize
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Piquetes, Cacerolazos Y El Motivo De La Madre Perturbada Alteridades, Vol
    Alteridades ISSN: 0188-7017 [email protected] Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Iztapalapa México Pérez, Adrián Expresiones populares y cinematográficas del descontento con la nación argentina: piquetes, cacerolazos y el motivo de la madre perturbada Alteridades, vol. 14, núm. 28, julio-diciembre, 2004, pp. 75-89 Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Iztapalapa Distrito Federal, México Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=74702807 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto ALTERIDADES, 2004 14 (28): Págs. 75-89 Expresiones populares y cinematográficas del descontento con la nación argentina: piquetes, cacerolazos y el motivo de la madre perturbada* ADRIÁN PÉREZ MELGOZA** Resumen Abstract: Este trabajo estudia el universo simbólico de las protestas This paper studies the symbolic universe of current street callejeras argentinas en combinación con un análisis de cinco protests in Argentina in combination with five films from the películas de la postdictadura que contienen el motivo de la ma- post-dictatorship that contain the deranged mother motif. dre perturbada. Ambos fenómenos indican la existencia de Both phenomena indicate the existence of a profound cultural una profunda contradicción cultural en el país: mientras las contradiction in the country: while women and symbols of mujeres y los símbolos de la maternidad juegan un papel maternity are playing key roles in the articulation of effective central en la articulación de cambios políticos efectivos, muchas political change, many films include the character of the películas utilizan el personaje de la madre perturbada como deranged mother as a metaphor for the nation and displace metáfora de la nación desplazando sobre ella las responsabili- over her the responsibilities for the country’s crises.
    [Show full text]
  • Piqueteros Al Gobierno: Un Experimento Populista Argentino, 2003-2007 Carlos Escudé CONICET – CEIEG, Universidad Del CEMA
    Piqueteros al gobierno: un experimento populista argentino, 2003-2007 CARLOS ESCUDÉ CONICET – CEIEG, Universidad del CEMA En este trabajo realizaremos un seguimiento cronológico de un experimento político poco frecuente: la incorporación de parte de la dirigencia de las organi- zaciones de protesta social argentinas al gobierno del presidente Néstor Kirchner. Durante su gestión, dirigentes asimilables del movimiento piquetero, constituido por diversas organizaciones de “trabajadores desempleados”, ingresaron siste- máticamente como funcionarios a los diversos niveles del Estado nacional y de los gobiernos provinciales y municipales. Mediante esta estrategia, que se vio favorecida por altas tasas de crecimiento económico y vino acompañada de una importante reducción del desempleo, durante el período 2003-07 aumentaron la gobernabilidad y la paz social en un país que en 2002 se había encontrado al borde de la anarquía. Por cierto, a fines de la gestión de Kirchner parecía que se había alcanzado un éxito considerable en el control de la protesta social. “Para muchos piquete- ros ya no sirve cortar calles”, proclamaba un título de un periódico opositor en septiembre de 2007. Según el cronista: Agosto de 2005 fue la última vez que una unión clara de fuerzas sociales pudo poner en aprietos al presidente Néstor Kirchner en uno de sus flancos sensibles: la reacción frente a la protesta callejera. Después de las elecciones de aquel año, se redujeron drásticamente los planes comunes de lucha. Tanto, que se desdibujó el liderazgo piquetero: en sólo seis meses, el promedio mensual de cortes de rutas y de calles bajó a la mitad. Comenzaba lo que muchos denominaron “el repliegue táctico”.1 [email protected] E.I.A.L., Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • ARGENTINE WORKER COOPERATIVES in CIVIL SOCIETY: a CHALLENGE to CAPITAL–LABOR RELATIONS Wusa 273 77..106
    Workingusa The Journal of Labor and Society ARGENTINE WORKER COOPERATIVES IN CIVIL SOCIETY: A CHALLENGE TO CAPITAL–LABOR RELATIONS wusa_273 77..106 Peter Ranis The worker-recuperated enterprise and worker cooperative movements in Argentina raise fundamental theoretical and practical questions that not only implicate the Argentine political economy but also redound on workers confronted with outsourcing, downsizing, and arbitrary decisions by owners and managers of capitalist enterprises. The Argentine workers so engaged represent a dramatic confrontation between the rights of private property and the labor rights of the working class faced with unemployment and poverty. These examples of worker autonomy have demonstrated significant departures in terms of social formations. By their capacity to form alliances with progressive legal, community, political, and labor forces available to them, they represent an alternative path to economic development that is predicated on worker solidarity and democracy in the workplace. These conflictual visions of civil society are contested in the legal-constitutional, political-institutional, and ideological-cultural arenas. Contemporary Argentine industrial and enterprise worker cooperatives were essentially born in the run up to and during the massive popular societal demonstrations of December 2001. They owe much of their momentum to the social and economic crisis that offered little alternative to laborers and employ- ees but unemployment and poverty. Factory and enterprise bankruptcies and employer abandonment of places of work forced the laborers and employees to seek the redress of their grievances. One of the measures to which they turned, inspired by two prominent worker organizations, was the formation of worker cooperatives that are sanctioned by historical Argentine law.
    [Show full text]
  • The Transformation of Party-Union Linkages in Argentine Peronism, 1983–1999*
    FROM LABOR POLITICS TO MACHINE POLITICS: The Transformation of Party-Union Linkages in Argentine Peronism, 1983–1999* Steven Levitsky Harvard University Abstract: The Argentine (Peronist) Justicialista Party (PJ)** underwent a far- reaching coalitional transformation during the 1980s and 1990s. Party reformers dismantled Peronism’s traditional mechanisms of labor participation, and clientelist networks replaced unions as the primary linkage to the working and lower classes. By the early 1990s, the PJ had transformed from a labor-dominated party into a machine party in which unions were relatively marginal actors. This process of de-unionization was critical to the PJ’s electoral and policy success during the presidency of Carlos Menem (1989–99). The erosion of union influ- ence facilitated efforts to attract middle-class votes and eliminated a key source of internal opposition to the government’s economic reforms. At the same time, the consolidation of clientelist networks helped the PJ maintain its traditional work- ing- and lower-class base in a context of economic crisis and neoliberal reform. This article argues that Peronism’s radical de-unionization was facilitated by the weakly institutionalized nature of its traditional party-union linkage. Although unions dominated the PJ in the early 1980s, the rules of the game governing their participation were always informal, fluid, and contested, leaving them vulner- able to internal changes in the distribution of power. Such a change occurred during the 1980s, when office-holding politicians used patronage resources to challenge labor’s privileged position in the party. When these politicians gained control of the party in 1987, Peronism’s weakly institutionalized mechanisms of union participation collapsed, paving the way for the consolidation of machine politics—and a steep decline in union influence—during the 1990s.
    [Show full text]
  • Piquetero Strikers Clash with Police LADB Staff
    University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository NotiSur Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) 9-30-2005 Piquetero Strikers Clash With Police LADB Staff Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/notisur Recommended Citation LADB Staff. "Piquetero Strikers Clash With Police." (2005). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/notisur/13417 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in NotiSur by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADB Article Id: 51940 ISSN: 1060-4189 Piquetero Strikers Clash With Police by LADB Staff Category/Department: Argentina Published: 2005-09-30 Argentina's government has taken a tougher stance with "hard-line" jobless strikers, with President Nestor Kirchner ordering large police deployments to prevent protests from blocking transit routes in Buenos Aires. Interior Minister Anibal Fernandez, in charge of federal security services, has repeatedly announced that the government would not tolerate surprise blockades by "piqueteros duros," or hard-line piqueteros, as the strikers are called. The piqueteros are calling for expanded pension coverage. Multiple standoffs between police, piqueteros In August and September, President Kirchner ordered police to prevent the closure of key transit routes around the capital like the Avenida Pueyrredon. Among the groups conducting roadblocks were the Unidad Piquetera, the Corriente
    [Show full text]
  • FASINPAT Zanon Es Del Pueblo
    FASINPAT Zanon es del Pueblo: The Struggle of the Fábrica Sin Patrón in Neuquén, Argentina Charles Aasgaard Davis Political Science- International Relations Major Carleton College, Minnesota Advisor: Professor Alfred Montero Senior Comprehensive Project Winter 2005 Introduction In March 2002, in the Neuquén province of Argentina, a group of over 200 recently unemployed workers voted in an assembly to break the chains on their bankrupt ceramics factory and start producing after four months without work or pay. Since this event, the factory has increased production to 300,000 m2 of ceramic tile per month, hired over 170 new workers from the vast Argentine unemployment sector, while maintaining the democratic popular assembly as a means of decision-making. The workers recently began to demand legal recognition from the national government as a workers’ cooperative that discards the old factory name of Zanon for a new one: Fasinpat- Fábrica Sin Patrón (Factory Without Bosses). In December of 2001, four months before the Zanon takeover, Argentina suffered an economic crisis twice the size of the crash that caused the Great Depression in the United States (Eppler, 2004). The Argentine crisis was the culmination of a decade characterized by the neoliberal economic policies of former Argentine president Carlos Saúl Menem, whose presidency began in 1989, beginning the Decada Menemista. Menem managed to implement many open market reforms from his base in the traditionally union supported Peronist party (PJ), avoiding the problems of his predecessor, Raúl Alfonsín, by building a coalition of labor unions, provincial governors, and the traditionally Peronist lower class (Murillo, 2001: 136). Menem’s presidency brought currency stability and economic growth at the cost of high unemployment, factory closings, and growing poverty and inequality.
    [Show full text]
  • Nuevas Formas De Protesta Y Movimientos Sociales Noelia Barral Grigera
    Interpelaciones a la democracia argentina de fines del Siglo XX: nuevas formas de protesta y movimientos sociales Noelia Barral Grigera Resumen Las nuevas formas de protesta y los movimientos sociales surgidos entre mediados de la década del 90 y 2002 fueron los caminos que la sociedad civil encontró para denunciar la aguda crisis del sistema de representación política en la Argentina. Los piquetes, los escraches, los cacerolazos, las asambleas barriales y la gestión obrera de fábricas recuperadas fueron formas contemporáneas de interpelación a la democracia argentina de aquellos años, que ampliaron la esfera pública con nuevas formas de participación y acción política, delineadas al calor de una profunda crisis económica. Siguiendo estudios de casos de Ortiz Vallejo, Svampa y otros, resulta visible la forma en que la “marca de origen” de cada una de estas nuevas formas de participación influyó en su desarrollo y en los logros obtenidos (o en la falta de ellos) al cabo de los procesos sociales que los tuvieron como protagonistas. Introducción Desde mediados de la década del 90 e impulsados por un contexto socioeconómico deteriorado y sin perspectivas de mejoras en el corto y mediano plazo, surgieron en la Argentina novedosas formas de protesta social desde las que la sociedad civil buscó interpelar a la democracia. Estas manifestaciones tuvieron diferentes intereses, protagonistas y procesos, pero compartieron tres características claves, que las agrupan no solo temporalmente sino también conceptualmente: son acciones callejeras surgidas de la sociedad civil que expresan críticas sobre el sistema de representación. Entre estas nuevas formas de protesta social aparecieron los piquetes y los cacerolazos, que luego dieron paso a formas organizativas desconocidas hasta entonces desde las que el sistema de representación fue repensado e interpelado, como las asambleas barriales y la gestión obrera de fábricas recuperadas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Languages of the Arab Revolutions Abdou Filali-Ansary the Freedom House Survey for 2011 Arch Puddington
    April 2012, Volume 23, Number 2 $12.00 The Languages of the Arab Revolutions Abdou Filali-Ansary The Freedom House Survey for 2011 Arch Puddington Tunisia’s Transition and the Twin Tolerations Alfred Stepan Forrest D. Colburn & Arturo Cruz S. on Nicaragua Ernesto Calvo & M. Victoria Murillo on Argentina’s Elections Arthur Goldsmith on “Bottom-Billion” Elections Ashutosh Varshney on “State-Nations” Tsveta Petrova on Polish Democracy Promotion Democracy and the State in Southeast Asia Thitinan Pongsudhirak Martin Gainsborough Dan Slater Donald K. Emmerson ArgentinA: the persistence of peronism Ernesto Calvo and M. Victoria Murillo Ernesto Calvo is associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland–College Park. M. Victoria Murillo is profes- sor of political science and international affairs at Columbia Univer- sity and the author of Political Competition, Partisanship, and Policy- making in Latin America (2009). On 23 October 2011, Argentina’s Peronist president Cristina Fernán- dez de Kirchner of the Justicialist Party (PJ) overcame a bumpy first term and comfortably won reelection. She garnered an outright major- ity of 54.1 percent of the popular vote in the first round, besting her 2007 showing by roughly 9 percentage points and avoiding a runoff. Although most observers had expected her to win, the sweeping scale of her victory exceeded the expectations of both her administration and the fragmented opposition. In the most lopsided presidential result since 1928,1 she carried 23 of Argentina’s 24 provinces while her leading rival Hermes Binner, the Socialist governor of Santa Fe Province, collected only 16.8 percent of the national vote.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 12 Argentina
    CHAPTER 12 Argentina LEARNING OBJECTIVES • Identify how the three levels of • Explain how and why political analysis interact in Argentina and economic development in Argentina differs from other • Use theoretical propositions Latin American countries to understand political and economic development in Argentina TIMELINE 1816 Independence declared 1829–1852 Rule of Juan Manuel de Rosas 1946 Juan Perón elected president 1955 Juan Perón overthrown 1966–1973 Military rule 1976 Military coup launches dictatorship and “dirty war” 1982 War with Britain over Malvinas/Falklands 1983 Democratic rule resumes 1989 Carlos Menem elected 1990 Final of four military rebellions 2001 Economic crisis and end of the dollar peg 2003 Néstor Kirchner elected president 2007 Cristina Fernández de Kirchner elected president 2011 Cristina Fernández reelected 281 M12_WEEK8252_01_SE_C12.indd 281 5/12/14 4:05 PM 282 PART IV ▸ Brazil and the Southern Cone By 2013, inflation in Argentina had been creeping upward for several years. It got to the point that some shopkeepers did not bother posting prices outside their stores because they kept changing so rapidly.1 Nonetheless, two successive governments denied that inflation was a problem, which generated considerable controversy. Inflation is reported at the national level, and when it’s high, the national government gets the blame. But the most serious effects are felt at the local level, where the poor in particular struggle to keep up with rising prices, especially if their wages do not keep up. Even wealthier citizens feel it if they have bought the government’s inflation-indexed bonds, as their return is lower if inflation is underreported.
    [Show full text]
  • THE PIQUETERO EFFECT Examining the Argentine Government's
    THE PIQUETERO EFFECT Examining the Argentine Government’s Response to the Piquetero Movement Samir Mayekar Honors Thesis in Political Science Northwestern University Advisor: Professor Edward Gibson March 28, 2006 2 The Piquetero Effect Examining the Argentine Government’s Response to the Piquetero Movement Beginning in the late 1990s, large groups of unemployed workers in Argentina called piqueteros began illegally protesting their precarious situation, hoping for some combination of employment and social benefits. This paper seeks to understand how and why long-standing leaders of the current Argentine political establishment embraced the piqueteros. Through strategic cooptation, President Néstor Kirchner successfully has managed the piqueteros by using them as his own political shock troops to accomplish both his objectives as President and as a party politician. Kirchner’s strategy is congruent with historical Peronist tendencies of absorbing new social actors, supporting Peronist scholar Steven Levitsky’s belief that the party’s flexibility allows it to adapt to changes in the political environment. However, whereas Levitsky predicts that reliance on machine politics will weaken the party, Kirchner’s strategy has increased Peronist hegemony, thereby adversely affecting the quality of Argentine democracy. 3 To My Argentine Family, Diego, Betty, and Lili 4 Contents Acknowledgements 5 1 Introduction 7 Methodology 11 Literature Review 13 2 Origins and Development of the Piquetero Movement 18 Period I: The Menem Administration (1989 –
    [Show full text]
  • Download .PDF
    Euricse Working Paper Series ISSN 2281-8235 THE EMERGENCE OF THE EMPRESAS RECUPERADAS POR SUS TRABAJADORES: A POLITICAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL APPRAISAL OF TWO DECADES OF SELF-MANAGEMENT IN ARGENTINA Marcelo Vieta Working Paper n. 55|13 Please cite this paper as: Vieta M. (2013), “The emergence of the empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores: A political economic and sociological appraisal of two decades of self-management in Argentina”, Euricse Working Paper n. 55|13. THE EMERGENCE OF THE EMPRESAS RECUPERADAS POR SUS TRABAJADORES: A POLITICAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL APPRAISAL OF TWO DECADES OF SELF-MANAGEMENT IN ARGENTINA Marcelo Vieta * Abstract The crisis of Argentina’s neoliberal model that escalated throughout the 1990s, driven in part by the zealousness of how IMF-sanctioned structural reforms were implemented, would eventually culminate in the model’s temporary implosion over the years spanning the turn of the millennium. For workers living through this crisis, traditional union tactics would prove unresponsive to the neoliberal juggernaut, while the state was on the defensive as business bankruptcy, informal work, unemployment, and poverty rates soared to unprecedented levels during this period. But the crisis of neoliberalism that so deeply affected the everyday lives of Argentina’s working people and their families also proved to be, for some of them, an opening for experimenting with other possibilities for organizing production and economic life. As businesses increasingly failed, more and more workers from a broad cross-section of Argentina’s urban-based economy began taking matters into their own hands by occupying and self-managing the troubled workplaces that had been employing them as worker cooperatives.
    [Show full text]
  • La Argentina Piquetero. PARISÍ
    La Argentina Piquetero. PARISÍ © Psicología sin Fronteras Revista Electrónica de Intervención Psicosocial y Psicología Comunitaria 2006, Vol. 1, Nº 1, Enero (2006), pp. 47-55 ISSN 1851-3441 La Argentina Piquetera * Elio Rodolfo Parisí 1 Universidad Nacional de San Luis Resumen. Este ensayo intenta reflexionar respecto de la aparición de los grupos denominados "piqueteros", como consecuencia directa de políticas que han generado aumentos sustantivos en la población desempleada, en el contexto de la Argentina contemporánea. Para ello se realiza, en una primera parte, una síntesis de la historia que comienza a gestarse a mediados de 1944, resaltando los hechos más significativos respecto de un tipo de economía que generó una sociedad particular, que se denominó Estado de bienestar. Luego se avanza en esa síntesis histórica, para arribar a la década de los noventa, con la aplicación estrepitosa de una economía de mercado, que subvierte la relación entre los individuos, el Estado, el mercado y el trabajo y crea un nuevo sector diferenciado de la población: los desocupados. A partir de acá se trata de entender cómo los desocupados ven debilitada su identidad y algunos pueden configurar una nueva identidad a través de convertirse en piqueteros y contribuir al cambio social como actores sociales destacados. Palabras clave. Argentina. Estado de Bienestar. Piqueteros. Abstract. This test tries to reflect respect to the appearance of the denominated groups "piqueteros", like direct consequence of policies that have generated increases nouns in the unemployed population, in the context of contemporary Argentina. For it it is made, in one first part, a synthesis of the history that begins to be developed in the middle of 1944, emphasizing the most significant facts respect to a type of economy that a society generated particular, that denominated State of well-being.
    [Show full text]