Fw: 'THROW THE BUMS OUT' -- ARGENTINES SEEK BREAK FROM BEGGING LOANS

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>]

  'THROW THE BUMS OUT' --  ARGENTINES SEEK BREAK FROM BEGGING LOANS

 EDITOR'S NOTE: With its president recently announcing that  government
 workers could not be paid, Argentina's troubles increase.  Now an angry
 middle class wants to "throw out everyone." Many  Argentines have come to
 oppose neo-liberal economic models, calling  instead for radical "shock
 redistribution" of wealth. PNS contributor  Roger Burbach (censa@igc.org)
is
 director of Global Alternatives at the  Center for the Study of the
Americas
(CENSA) and co-editor and  contributor to the just-released anthology,
 "September 11 and the U.S.  War: Beyond the Curtain of Smoke," (City Lights
 Publishers).

 BY ROGER BURBACH, PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
 Feb. 26, 2002

 As Argentina's implosion continues, no one here will  predict what may
 happen next.

 "Next month, or next week, (President Eduardo)  Duhalde could be deposed,
we
 could be in a state of chaos, or  we could be building a new country that
 breaks with neo-liberal  and capitalist orthodoxy," said Jose Luis
Coraggio,
 rector of the  National University of General Sarmiento in Buenos Aires.

 Ministers have just returned empty-handed from  negotiations in Washington
 with the International Monetary  Fund. Argentina is the first country in
 years to default on its  international debt -- $140 billion -- raising new
 questions about  the viability of an economic order based on the unfettered
 flow  of international finance capital and the privatization of national
 industries.

 Cities and towns are in the throes of an unprecedented  social upheaval.
 Here in the capital, a popular movement  demands, "Que se vayan todos," or
 "throw out everyone." It is a  call for the removal of the entire political
 establishment, including  the current president, Eduardo Duhalde, who took
 office in  January.

 In a bitter revelation to some 500,000 government  workers expecting salary
 checks on March 1, Duhalde told  Argentine media in recent days, "We don't
 have the money so  we can't pay." Tax receipts have nose-dived since the
 beginning  of the year. "Repudiation of the politicians and the economic
 elites is  complete," Coraggio says. "None of them who are recognized  can
 walk the streets without being insulted or spit upon."

 Argentina captured world attention with a widespread  social explosion in
 December that ushered in five presidents in  less than two weeks. The
crisis
 had been building for years. Its  foundations are in the neo-liberal model
 that Argentina adopted  in the early 1990s under President Carlos Menem.
The
 economy became tied firmly into the international financial  system, with a
fixed exchange rate of one peso to one dollar.  That overvalued Argentine
 exports -- such as its world-famous  beef -- while permitting cheap imports
 to flood local markets.

 The IMF demanded privatization, and along with government and party
 bureaucrats, Menem grew wealthy from  corrupt deals as national companies
 ranging from petroleum and  airline enterprises to telephone and water
 utilities were sold off  mainly to foreign interests. Prices for some
 utilities soared.

 The massive demonstrations held since December are  called "caserolazos,"
 where demonstrators bang on empty pots  and pans, symbolizing their
 inability to purchase basic  necessities. Much of the organizing takes
place
 in local  communities, where residents often gather in groups known as
 popular assemblies. Rapidly, the assemblies are becoming  autonomous
centers
 of community participation that embrace a  variety of organizations and
 individuals, ranging from  unemployed and independent trade unionists to
 human rights  groups and members of left or non-mainstream political
 parties.

 The middle class in particular is furious with the banks,  since the
 government has made it more difficult to withdraw  funds from long-term
 savings accounts, many of which were in  dollars that will be repaid in
 devalued pesos. While proclaiming  the government simply doesn't have the
 money to pay off the  accounts, Duhalde has reneged on an early promise
that
 he  would not pay back the international debt: now he's continuing  to
 negotiate with the IMF to find a way to pay it. He has also  announced
 policies that amount to a currency subsidy for large  Argentine
corporations
 when they repay foreign loans. Middle- class demonstrators, sometimes in
 suits, are smashing bank  windows and spray-painting bank walls with the
 words,  "thieves," "traitors" and "looters."

 Neighborhoods don't shy from discussing international  issues. "One of the
 rallying cries coming from our communities is  'no more foreign loans,'"
 said Lidia Pertieria, an assembly  organizer. "New loans only mean more
 swindling and robbery  by our government officials."

 The neighborhood assemblies are emblematic of the  upsurge in grassroots
 organizing occurring throughout the  country. Unemployed workers called
 "piqueteros," or picketers,  are blocking highways and strategic commercial
routes,  demanding jobs. The piqueteros usually bargain in large groups,  to
 end the old government practice of negotiating with a few  representatives
 who can then be bribed to sell out the rank and  file.

 The National Front Against Poverty, with over 60,000  members, has also
moved into the spotlight. Established in 1999  by economists, sociologists
 and trade unionists, the Front  collected more than a million signatures
for
 an alternative plan to  the neo-liberal model. Presented to Congress and
 quickly  dubbed "shock redistribution" -- an ironic reference to the
 economic shock treatment imposed on many third world  countries by the
IMF -- the plan argues that the only way to  reactivate the economy is by
 putting funds into the hands of the  country's poor, not by slashing social
 programs and  implementing financial policies that favor the rich. Some 40
percent of the country's 37 million people fall below the poverty  line.
 Congress took no action on the plan.

 The crisis may have an upside. "In World War II,  Argentina was cut off
from
 international markets and we had the  biggest manufacturing boom in our
 history," said Ricardo Malfe,  a psychologist on the social science faculty
 of the University of  Buenos Aires. Middle class Argentines have a
reputation for a  narrow self-interest mentality, Malfe notes. "Perhaps this
 crisis  will force us to reshape the very way we view ourselves, run our
 economy and organize our lives."

 Military intervention appears out of the question at the  moment -- the
 military is ranked even lower in polls than the  political class. For now,
the picketers, pot-bangers and popular  assemblies are driving the political
 process, although where they  will be able to take the country is
uncertain.