The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
May 1st, 2002. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
Subscription rates on request.
******************************
Argentina's Neighbourhood Assemblies
Argentina's economic crisis continued to deepen last week as the recently
appointed Economy Minister resigned having failed, on a trip to Washington,
to gain any financial relief from the International Monetary Fund. The
resignation of the Prime Minister, Eduardo Duhalde, is also a possibility.
Duhalde, in January, became the country's fifth Prime Minister in two weeks.
"A new form of political organisation"
The crisis in Argentina is yet another example of the widespread capitalist
economic crisis, the inability of the capitalist system to find any
acceptable solution to the situation which has created 20 percent
unemployment and 45 per cent poverty in Argentina.
The country's problems are not being solved by the fact that Argentina has a
multi-party electoral system either.
There is a widespread demand on the part of the working people and peasants
of Argentina that "They Must All Go!"
One Senator declared that "There are two positions: either we take the side
of the banks or we take the side of the people". Up to now the successive
governments have taken the side of the banks.
The latest ploy of the government is a scheme whereby people's bank deposits
are converted into bonds instead of cash.
The banks are facing bankruptcy. Last week the government ordered all banks
to close until Friday (of last week).
There have been massive and daily demonstrations taking place in Buenos
Aires and other Argentinian cities.
The question arises as to the alternative to the obvious inability of the
"normal" capitalist prescriptions to offer any acceptable solution to the
poverty and unemployment which are all aimed to save the capitalist system
and the profits of the corporations.
Neighbourhood assemblies
Neighbourhood assemblies have mushroomed throughout Buenos Aires since the
crisis broke last December.
They have organised community purchases of food at reduced prices, as well
as establishing volunteer brigades of skilled workers who reconnect homes to
the public service grids when their electricity, household gas, or water
supplies are cut off for failure to pay their bills.
Other projects include community vegetable gardens and a neighbourhood bank
in which people can put their savings in order to keep them out of the
financial system.
Neighbourhood associations in Buenos Aires successfully pressured the Edesur
power company to consider the possibility of a 180-day suspension of
cut-offs due to delay in paying bills. Assemblies in other neighbourhoods
are demanding discount electricity rates for the unemployed.
The main focus of the assemblies is usually on the crisis faced by the
public hospitals, unemployment, and the widespread hunger and inability of
families to buy food.
However, activists in the neighbourhood assemblies have become the target of
violence from the traditional political parties. Municipal employees and
sympathisers of the traditional parties -- the Justice (Peronist) Party and
the Radical Civic Union -- have attempted to intimidate the more active
members of the associations, some of whom have been beaten up.
A nurse at one hospital said she was beaten to unconsciousness by a stranger
who had trailed her for several days. She had complained that the leader of
her trade union did not defend the workers, due to his political ties.
Another neighbourhood association was attacked by around 200 men. They broke
into one of the meetings and beat local residents with axe handles.
Telephone threats and other forms of repression have become routine for
members of the neighbourhood assemblies.
The President of Argentina has criticised the assembly movement, saying that
''It is impossible to govern with assemblies. The democratic way to organise
and participate is through voting".
But the neighbourhood assemblies are filling what is seen as a vacuum of
power. It is this which has led people to take their problems into their own
hands.
"We are living in a cruel system, a society for the few, and the way to
change that is by participating in these new spaces created by the people",
said a nurse.
"If we are able to solve some of our problems, we will create a parallel
power. If we obtain, for example, a 50 percent discount in utility rates for
the unemployed and for people with low incomes, we will take a leap forward
in quality, and will have many more people participating", she said.
Many assembly members believe it is possible for their organisations to
eventually take on tasks that the government is unable to carry out
effectively.
Juan Mosca, an aeronautics industry worker, said the assemblies should
discuss "the issues of democracy."
"That's why I brought to this inter-neighbourhood meeting the proposal to
begin discussing who will govern tomorrow, what our political designs and
goals will be, and how we are going to replace our leaders and our judges".
The local Hugo Haime polling firm said that of the respondents to a poll, 35
per cent said the assemblies constituted "a new form of political
organisation".
*********************************************************
--
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/
Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop
Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink
Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
