UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ BODIES OF POPULAR POWER: TERRITORIAL ACTIVISM AND GRASSROOTS CONTROL IN ARGENTINA A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in POLITICS with a designated emphasis in LATIN AMERICAN AND LATINO STUDIES by Steven G. Araujo June 2017 The Dissertation of Steven G. Araujo is approved: _______________________________ Professor Megan Thomas, Chair _______________________________ Professor Kent Eaton _______________________________ Professor Deborah Gould _______________________________ Professor Miriam Greenberg ______________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Steven G. Araujo TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures iv Glossary of Spanish Terms and Acronyms v Abstract viii Acknowledgments ix I. Introduction 1 II. The Spatial Politics of Autogestión 33 III. “Don’t break my balls with this question of who is a worker 58 and who is an administrator:” Practical Problems of Autogestión IV. Producing a Subversive Geography: The Magic of IMPA 101 V. “Things are won in the street:” Neoliberal Workfare 137 and the Battle for Autogestión VI. Complex Territorial Work: The Neighborhood 179 Activism of a Piquetero Movement VII. Conclusion 226 VIII. Bibliography 234 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: The Sarmiento Line dividing IMPA from new condominiums. 129 Figure 3.2: IMPA’s sign and logo. 129 Figure 3.3: The mural at IMPA’s front door. 130 Figure 3.4: A digital flyer for the workshops of the cultural center. 131 Figure 3.5: The poster for the anti-monopoly presentation and party. 132 Figure 3.6: An old an inoperative machine that has been transformed into art. 133 Figure 3.7: A scene from the silks and trapeze (tela y trepacio) workshop. 133 Figure 4.1: A word-puzzle from an educational meeting to explain the 168 purpose and goals of the AGTCAP to movement members. Figure 4.2: A march of the AGTCAP that ended with an encampment in 169 front of the Ministry of Work, Employment and Social Security. Figure 5.1: The barrios of the FOL (2011-12). 220 Figure 5.2: A current map of the barrios of the FOL showing 221 the movements that joined the FOL in 2013. Figure 5.3. A fundraising event held in the space in front of the 221 Galpón Cultural. Figure 5.4. The Taller de Aguas working in the San Francisco Stream. 222 Figure 5.5: The new cultural center of the barrio Agustín Ramírez. 222 iv GLOSSARY OF SPANISH TERMS AND ACRONYMS AGTCAP or Asociación Gremial de Trabajadores Cooperativas Autogestionadas y Precarizados – Union Association of Cooperative Self-managed and Casualized Workers Autogestión – Grassroots control or self-management Bachillerato popular – Popular high school Barrio - Neighborhood Barrio Bonaerense – Neighborhood Bonaerense [social program] Cartonera/o – Those who scrape by going through the trash and finding items to recycle. Casera/o – Steward or Caretaker CEBs or Comunidades Eclesiales de Base – Ecclesiastical Base Communities COB La Brecha or Corriente de Organizaciones de Base La Brecha – Current of Base Organizations “La Brecha” Comisión de Género – Gender Commission Compañera/o – Comrade Compañeros de base – Comrades at the base Conurbano Bonaerense – The ring of cities that surround Buenos Aires to the north, west and south. Also known as the Greater Metropolitan Buenos Aires. ERTs – Empresas Recuperadas por sus Trabajadores – Worker-Recuperated Enterprises FAL or Fondo de Acumulación Logística – Logistical Accumulation Fund v Inscripción territorial – Territorial inscription Jardín Popular – Popular Kindergarten Mate – A popular drink, similar to tea, in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Mercadería – Food staples Militante – Activist Milongeña – Monthly parties hosted by IMPA’s cultural center and popular high school. MNER or Movimiento Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas – National Movement of Recuperated Enterprises MNFRT or Movimiento Nacional de Fábricas Recuperadas por sus Trabajadores – National Movement of Worker-Recuperated Factories MTD – Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados – Movement of Unemployed Workers MTNS or Movimiento de Trabajadores Norberto Salto – Movement of Workers Norberto Salto PAT or Programa Argentina Trabaja – Argentina Works Program Patria chiquitita – Little homeland Patria Metalúrgica – Metalurgical homeland Piquetes – Roadblocks Piqueteros – Unemployed Workers’ Movements PJ or Partido Justicialista – Peronist Party Planes sociales – Social programs vi Pomos – aluminum tubes PTA or Programa de Trabajo Autogestivo – Program of Self-managed Work Pueblo – People, as in “the people” or community. Reivindicativo – Demand-oriented Taller de Aguas – Water Workshop Trabajo territorial complejo – Complex territorial work/activism UCR or Unión Cívica Radical – Radical Political Party Unidades básicas – Community centers of the Peronist Party Veredas Limpias – Clean Sidewalks Program [social program] vii ABSTRACT Bodies of Popular Power: Territorial Activism and Grassroots Control in Argentina Steven Araujo Bodies of Popular Power examines how two place-based social movements actively produce spaces of resistance to challenge neoliberal fragmentation. The first is a worker-recuperated enterprise and the second is an unemployed workers’ movement, both of which can trace their origins to the Latin American neoliberal hegemony of the late 1990s. Based on eighteen months of intensive ethnographic fieldwork, I analyze the production of space and the role of autogestión (grassroots control) in each of these sites. Rather than limiting my analysis to how movements struggle within space, I show how these movements have actively produced new geographies in their struggle against neoliberalism. In this way, I put the central ontological tenet of the spatial turn, that space is not only a container of social relations but also a product of them, back at the center of the analysis. The inclusion of the local concept autogestión allows for a critical interrogation of the movement practices that strive to develop democratic subjectivities and build popular power. While there is an extensive literature, predominantly in Spanish, on each of these separate movements, few studies actually analyze them together. In the instances in which these movements are taken together, they are usually understood as examples of “horizontalism” or “autonomism.” This work often borrows from political theorists from the Global North who endorse autonomy and resistance at the global level. I contend this analysis conceals the place-based strategies and characteristics of these movements as well as the way in which they engage in an agonistic, hegemonic struggle within civil society but also with and against the state. Theorizing these movement practices as the spatial politics of autogestión, I make a unique contribution to the spatial turn and theories of radical politics while resisting the fetishization of autonomy or “autonomous spaces” that characterizes much of the recent work on social movements, especially in Latin America. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project, and the last eight years that it represents, have been an enormous intellectual, political and personal journey for me. I will not be able to acknowledge all of those who have contributed along the way, but I can at least try. First, I want to say thank you to the professors who agreed to work with me and gave me so much of their time: Megan Thomas, Deborah Gould, Kent Eaton and Miriam Greenberg. Above and beyond from the obligatory aspects of being dissertation committee members, each of them let me know that they believed in me and that the project was meaningful and worthwhile. Their belief in me gave me confidence and strength in moments of doubt. As the chair of my committee, Megan Thomas took on the extraordinary project of reading endless drafts of chapters and funding proposals and having countless meetings, phone calls and skype conferences. Simply knowing that she was willing to work with me gave me the confidence I needed to believe that the project was valuable. Up until the last moment, she read and re-read the entire draft of this dissertation, giving me invaluable feedback. I cannot say how grateful I feel for all of her efforts. From the moment she agreed to work with me, Deborah Gould provided a welcome interlocutor for the ideas and convictions that inform this project. Debbie’s interest and passion for the subject made our discussions particularly valuable and memorable. These conversations have continued to reverberate as I write and I hope and suspect that we will continue the conversation for a long time. ix I will always be grateful to Kent Eaton for being the first to show interest in my project when he responded to my email in 2008. Kent supported me throughout the various twists and turns of my project from the very first incomprehensible drafts to the drastic changes I took in my theoretical framework. I am lucky to have his continuing support. Since joining the committee, Miriam Greenberg has provided considerable moral and intellectual support. As the only geographer on my committee, her guidance was crucial in helping me to think spatially. Her support for me and enthusiasm for the project since the beginning was crucial for my motivation. In a different role from the professors on my committee but essential nonetheless are my close friends from graduate school: Sandra Harvey, Claire Lyness, Omid Mohamadi, Sam Cook, Bob Majzler, Claudia Lopez and Megan Martenyi. Their friendship provided me with a place