ARGENTINA: Political Buzz without the Parties

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 11 2002 (IPS) - A social movement that is increasingly diverse is influencing Argentina’s political life, but from outside the much-vilified political parties that — still unable to engage in constructive self-criticism — are preparing to compete yet again at the ballot box next March.

Among those who are mobilising through alternative political channels are citizens in neighbourhood assemblies, organised groups of the unemployed, workers at factories that have been abandoned by their owners, defrauded savers, members of barter clubs, intellectuals, artists, students and small business owners.

The common denominator is their determination to participate, to influence major decisions, to play a bigger role in state affairs and to ensure that the traditional political leaders — from parties across the ideological spectrum — keep their campaign promises.

If the politicians fail to comply, then they must leave, says the new movement.

The eagerness to participate directly in public life, without the parties serving as intermediary, was picked up immediately by a local television station, which has issued a call for individuals with “leadership qualities and political proposals” to build public recognition through a new programme, “The People’s Candidate”.

The new grassroots movement has a growing presence on city streets and has accumulated strong popular support since December, when in the midst of the eruption of the economic crisis, widespread looting and spontaneous protests prompted then- president Fernando de la Rúa to resign.

But the new organisations have yet to constitute a political alternative with a concrete electoral platform. Some only want to make sure their demands are heard, but others do seek to serve in political power, but with longer term plans than are allowed by the electoral timelines.

“It is not a case of lack of interest in participating. We want to launch a strong challenge against the traditional political regime,” said economist Julio Gambina, of the Argentine office of ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transfers for the Aid of Citizens), an international organisation known for its activism against the neo-liberal economic model of globalisation.

Even if they are not running candidates in the elections, “in each movement there is a political project,” Gambina told IPS.

Two of three Argentines surveyed earlier this month by the Hugo Haime and Associates polling firm said they do not have confidence in any of the presidential candidates currently in the running for the Mar 30, 2003, elections.

Argentina is experiencing the worst socio-economic crisis in its history, with a recession in its fifth year, unemployment above 20 percent and more than half the population of 37 million now living in poverty, several millions of whom fell below the poverty line since December.

“The country’s structural crisis led to record-breaking lack of confidence. Nobody has the profile that people seek. The voters don’t trust anyone and the strongest contenders do not have more than 20 percent voter support. In other words, there are no front- runners,” commented pollster Hugo Haime.

The scenario could be considered an ideal opportunity to make protagonists out of the social movements that grew out of the crisis of the last few years, but most groups are hesitant to intervene in the electoral scenario.

“We are interested in serving as the government, but we know that the support of just one sector of society is not enough,” said Jorge Ceballos, national coordinator of a grassroots organisation, “Barrios de Pie”, that represents thousands of heads of household from poor areas, most of whom are unemployed.

“We have to build a broad political and social movement from the array of those who are affected and excluded by the neo- liberal economic model. But there isn’t enough time. The new representatives of the discontented have not yet emerged. It is something that has to mature, something that is built through daily struggle,” Ceballos told IPS.

Like many community leaders in Argentina today, Ceballos says his organisation will not run candidates in the next elections. He does not discredit the ballot box as a way to transform politics, he says, but is frustrated because all of the presidential candidates so far are espousing variations of the same economic model that the people reject.

Meanwhile, Juan Alderete, head of an association of unemployed persons known as the Classist and Combative Current, said he does not believe in the upcoming elections and that they lack legitimacy.

The Anibal Verón cooperative of unemployed workers has the same position, and has opted to focus on demanding food for its soup kitchens over building a political movement.

Meanwhile, the traditional politicians continue to accumulate the public’s ire and to see their credibility dissolve.

In response to voters’ demands that “everyone must go” — a call for new elections for all elected posts –, President Eduardo Duhalde established a registry of leaders who would resign in order to run again as candidates. He signed it, but only two other political leaders joined him.

Among the traditional politicians in the running for the presidency, the one with most support is Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, former governor of San Luis province and member of the ruling Justicialista (Peronist) Party.

Rodríguez Saá was designated to the presidency in December after De la Ruá’s resignation, but he lasted only one week in office before he stepped down.

He declared Argentina’s default on its foreign debt and designated to important posts politicians who faced corruption charges, winning him criticism from many fronts. The leaders of his party who had supported him ultimately forced him to resign.

Today, Rodríguez Saá has 22.7 percent of the electorate’s support, according to the Hugo Haime and Associates polls. The next in line is lawmaker Elisa Carrió, an anti-corruption activist and former member of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) party. She currently draws 17 percent voter support, say the polls.

Carrió, who abandoned the UCR to form a new party, is also the politician who inspires most trust, say those surveyed. However, just 10 percent believe she would be a strong leader, and Carrió herself has expressed ambivalence about her desire to run for president.

Next in line, as far as voter support, is socialist deputy Luis Zamora, who was only a marginal figure in Argentine politics throughout the 1990s, but has gained recognition in the past year.

But Zamora also seems hesitant to seek the presidency of a country in crisis. “I tell people, ‘I am not the one who is going to save you, it is you who have to determine the path you want to take’,” he says.

Other Peronist candidates with less chance of winning include Néstor Kirchner, governor of Santa Cruz province, Juan Romero, governor of Salta, José Manuel de la Sota, former governor of Córdoba, and former Argentine president Carlos Ménem (1989-1999).

From the centre-right, economist Ricardo López Murphy is seeing his support rise, but it does not surpass six percent among those polled. He served as minister of defence and of economy under De la Rúa.

No presidential candidate has been able, so far, to convince the Argentine voters, who are sceptical about the politicians’ ability to keep their campaign promises and pull the country out of crisis. These demands may seem basic requirements to govern, but in the Argentina of the last few years, they are anything but simple.