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I just translated this note by a friend (below). However, if you can read Spanish (or suffer Google translator, it's not that bad actually) I encourage you to go over the whole, or most, of the last paper 'el aromo' which was dedicated to the issues of the bureaucracy, the 'social' conditions which support it and the inanities of the intellectuals who support the government -case in point, Laclau, Zizek's "compinche", thinks Nestor Kirchner was a Gramscian!- among many other things. http://www.razonyrevolucion.org/ryr/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=186&Itemid=114 I know comrades would not fall for the senselessness and distortions of Gorojovsky, but it's always good to take double precautions. The intestate. The death of Néstor Kirchner and the prospects of Argentina politics By Fabián Harari I thought it was a joke. I had not heard anything in the morning news, so I demurely washed my hands of the matter. When I turned the TV on again, that joke had become a reality: he was actually gone. Just like that, abruptly, unappealably. Without the preambles and agonies which usually prepare the mood and give time for secret meetings. Nobody believed he was going to die and nobody had prepared for it. For three days, it was unclear what was to follow. The state administration, the parliamentary fracases and the negotiations around campaigns, posts and internal elections remained frozen. The scale of the stupor is evidence of the quantity and quality of the relations that this man tethered around his person. There is no doubt about it: the bourgeoisie have lost their best cadre (in itself, this also is evidence of its state…). It is not strange that it is mourning and that it will take some time to rearrange the pieces. The virtues of Bonaparte Néstor Kirchner imprints his seal on a decade which, paradoxically, represents the awakening of the Argentine working class, after prolonged lethargy. With enough strength to forge alliances, impel and intervene in a political crisis, provoke an insurrection and win a number of social victories, the working class succeeded in detaining its enemy’s advance. However, due to subjective weaknesses, it did not manage to impose its own solution. This scene sets a draw. After a series of vacillations (with those who tried out for presidents: Puerta, Rodríguez Saá, Duhalde [1]), the bourgeoisie attempts to break this tie through a repressive maneuver (the repression of Puente Pueyrredón), but it must rapidly retreat, yield to the demands and rearm itself for something different. Duhalde himself starts this abrupt turnabout by giving 2 million social plans for jobs (“Planes Trabajar”) and, as a good soldier of its class, he resigns in advance to prevent the deepening of the crisis. That “something different” is Kirchner. The democratic resolution of 2003 had not begun well. The candidate of bonapartism had not only lost the elections but had only achieved a meager 22%. Adding insult to injury, the opponent (recall: Menem) refrained from going to a second-round election, speculating on a further sharpening of the crisis. As Néstor himself used to reminisce, “I had more unemployed people than votes”. If he wanted to carry forward his presidency, he had to put the pieces together in a special way. And so he did it. He performed as a real referee (who is never neutral). He froze up the public services fares to prevent an outbreak of protest. He offered resources to “piquetero” organizations and won quite a few of them to his side (MTD, Barrios de Pie). He rolled back the rip-offs of the project of cooperativism to a lot of organizations. Through transfers and concessions, he allowed for the expansion of the CGT and the enthronement of Hugo Moyano (the current leader of the CGT) as its leader, thereby creating a political base of workers in the formal sector with higher wages. He seduced the disobedient petty-bourgeoisie, separating it from the left through the politics of Human Rights, and taking in the way Mothers, Grandmothers and Sons and Daughters [this refers to organizations who seek justice for the victims of the military dictatorship of the 70’s]. But he also delivered to the right: inefficient industries and public services companies received subsidies. This added to the precarious conditions of employment and, after 2005, the inflation which started to eat away at wages. As far as political issues, he swept away anything that was in front of him. Not only did he keep a part of the “piquetero” movement, but he also built up the hopes of more than one leftist party (e.g. the communist party), he dissolved duhaldism, and broke the radicalismo movement into pieces. Of course, none of this could have been done without the rent coming from the agrarian and oil sectors, that is true. But the problem cannot be reduced to these terms. First, because it is not true that without the recuperation coming from ground rent revolution was around the corner. Secondly, because money does not forge alliances by itself. In other words, capital is not God in solid form. It takes a notable capacity to organize all these alliances in a relatively stable movement and sustain them for seven years. Thirdly, because the crisis is, precisely, an economic crisis which, as all crisis, must be resolved in the political arena. Lastly, because failing to recognize the kirchnerist alignment does not allow us to envisage where all this is going, once the one who commanded it is departed. The fact is that Néstor Kirchner demonstrated the political qualities which were necessary to occupy the fitting place in the most difficult moment for the Argentine bourgeoisie, and come out of it gracefully. His case is evidence of the capacity for production of cadre of a class, on the one hand, and the calamitous state in which bourgeois politics was, on the other. His achievements have no points of comparison with those of the founder of the peronist movement. If the data of the press are correct, there were less people in his funeral than those who went to mourn Sandro [2] (40,000 approximately) and less than those who came out for Alfonsín (the president of Argentina who assumed power in 1983 when the dictatorship ended, coming from the radicalismo movement –of antiperonist origins- ) with 70,000. His stature can only be measured with this fact: he partially reconstituted the politics of the bourgeoisie and provided it with breathing space. Like Perón, he concentrated his action as the necessary arbiter in class conflict. And like his predecessor, he bid his farewell before the creaking got too bad. But only that. Children, and stepchildren In King Lear, Shakespeare warned the absolute monarch of the dangers of recanting power, or worse yet, doling it out. Unless a strong hand showed itself, it would all be wars and treachery. In this piece (a true masterpiece which disembowels the laws of political dynamics), the monarch took the work of preparing his succession. But even when it was done with a certain degree of anticipation, the bid was unadvised. In this case, the situation is even worse: the leader did not only lack enough time to direct a succession, but he could not even prepare his testament. He had to turn back. If he wanted to survive, he had to go retrace the road. The institutional normalization (the term for the reestablishment of full bourgeois hegemony) required eliminating the concessions and social victories in a country whose capitalism, if it wants to be competitive, cannot afford a decent like for the working class. That turnabout meant breaking the alliances in the least painful way possible for the regime. As long as agrarian rent remained vital, there was no need for harsh interventions. But when it starts to show alarm signals, it would have to take recourse to the scalpel. The death of Néstor Kirchner does not modify these tasks significantly, but it brings forward the political crisis that they fomented. In his last night, the ex-president had three issues between him and sleep: the murder of Mariano Ferreyra , [3] he argument with Moyano and the “treason” of Scioli [4]. The first, because it threatened an investigation which could lead to the very entrails of power: the Secretary of Transport and Julio De Vido [5]. Pedraza [6] was a political corpse, but he was not going to give up without talking. In any case, he could not permit that the railroad sector approached, not even closely, the situation which had taken place with the underground train system and the struggle for an independent trade union. Not even as a possible hypothesis. Secondly, because, with the comatose state of Balestrini [7], the trucker (Moyano) had a right to claim the leadership of the province as first vice-president of the Partido Justicialista-PJ (Justicialista party, the main Peronist party). Néstor had programmed a collegiate body to avoid the battering of Moyano, but the latter moved ahead and convoked a congress of the party. Kirchner and the governors emptied it out, but he (Moyano) managed to make himself voted nonetheless, without giving information on the number of delegates. As a threat, the ex-president approved that judge Oyarbide [8] provided data to the judge Bonadío, who investigates the truckers trade-union for its connections with the “medicines mafia” (the racketeering of adulterated medicines which has been reaping rapidly growing profits in the Kirchner period and, some maintain, involves the government and its milieu). That last night, Hugo (Moyano) has asked Néstor to put the brakes on the proceedings, and received a “door slam” negative. The second vice-president of the PJ of the province is another Cristina (not Cristina Kirchner) whose name the reader will begin to hear more frequently: Cristina Álvarez Rodríguez, Infrastructure minister of the province of Buenos Aires. That is to say, the one who handles all the money for public works. Cristina built the group Peronismo 2020, aligned with Scioli. This was his third problem. The governor of the Buenos Aires province and vice-president of the Justicialista party had begun a rapprochement with the dissident peronism movement, through the “group of 8” (8 critical intendants, among them Bruera and Massa [9]) and José Pampuro [10], the nexus with Duhalde, who was kicked out of kirchnerism. These three ruptures, which could have been amortized, will explode, each one in its own way. The case of Mariano Ferreyra already has a sixth arrested suspect. In an action with little forethought, and somewhat desperate, the government promised to pass the 1,500 “tercerizados” (workers in informal conditions) to permanent plant [11]. It is, except for the intervention of some miracle, the end of Pedraza in the leadership of the Unión Ferroviaria. He is thus to lose his assets in the Roca railroad line and his overall mandate is in grave peril because, who will these 1,500 compañeros vote for? Those who gave their life to get normal job conditions or the boss who wanted to stop them at gunshot? The other two problems synthesize the heart of the bourgeois political structure: the Buenos Aires province. With Kirchner deceased, there is no reason for some of the leaders of federal peronism to hold back and return to the fold. Felipe Solá [12] seems to have signed up and De Narváez [13] had already stricken up conversations with incumbent akin to the government. The bridge is Scioli, then there is the usual refuse, unpresentable characters for any election like Duhalde, Rodríguez Saá, Puerta and Barrionuevo. On the other hand, the lures of the PRO [14] will also be eroded in the proximate future. The obstacle to all of this is, in principle, Moyano. Not because of his “style”, but because he requires the sustenance of transfers to his trade-union in order to maintain his social base. After the funeral, Moyano met with Méndez, the incumbent of the UIA –Argentine Industrial Union-, and with De Mendiguren [15]. He offered to formalize the Economic and Social Committee to maintain the “peace”. The industrial groups put the condition that he lifted his profit sharing project in the deputies’ chamber. The trucker suspended the project, but this will not be enough. If the rapprochement with federal peronism begins to prosper, the whole arc represented by Pérsico, D’ Elía, Madres (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who seek justice for their children and victims of the military dictatorship) y la CTA (Spanish: Central de los Trabajadores Argentinos, is a trade-union federation in Argentina) [16] will have to abandon the kirchnerist experience. Perhaps this will be the opportunity for Pino Solanas [18] to amass people for his project (including the unification of the CTA). In the radicalismo movement, the figure of Cobos [18] the guides which impelled him (Aguad, Morales) [19]will begin to haze in favor of Ricardo Alfonsín [20], who will try to show himself as progressive leader, but without the awkward alliances which peronism usually demands. At last, the Lady... It is not about establishing an immediate forecast, but of pointing at a tendency. The political motions augured a crisis after the elections of 2011. This crisis will come to a head because the bourgeois leadership will attempt to close the cycle of this era. These motions will not be painless. More than one party will be put to the test and more than one party will stay in the middle of the road. The left will not have an easy scenario, but it has an opportunity to grow in a dynamic which will be marked by a transitory confusion of the enemy’s ranks, as the product of the death of one of its generals, with no testament of order of succession. Beyond whether these new alliances will be forged, as things are today, the candidacy of Cristina Kirchner in 2011 will hardly be questioned. Looking at the polls, there is hardly anyone to take her place. However, the problem is in the alliances which will support the lady. If kirchnerism breaks up, it appears more probable that the president will stay in an Alliance with sectors of the right, once it is purged of its more unpresentable characters. The one who will operate and truly lead this space will be Daniel Scioli. Those who join up (Solá, De Narváez) will surely request a garment in exchange, but today this is only speculation. The only way such resolution would be avoided with the entering in the scene of an intransigent Máximo (Kirchner’s son) and his “Cámpora” [Máximo Kirchner’s political group], which is a whole mystery in itself. Notes 1- Eduardo Duhalde commands the political apparatus of the Justicialista Party in the Buenos Aires province. Having been the president who ceded power to Kirchner, he confirmed on December 23, 2009 his intention to run again for the Presidency. Stating that former President Néstor Kirchner “has now become addicted to power”, he will face whichever candidate backed by current President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a primary within the Justicialista Party. 2- Sandro, famous singer of romantic ballads. 3- Mariano Ferreyra, 23 year-old militant of the trotskyist party Partido Obrero who was murdered by the hooligans of the Union Ferroviaria for participating in a protest in support of workers who were enduring precarious labor conditions. 4- Daniel Scioli is the current governor of the province of Buenos Aires, he started in politics in the menemist movement, largely to improve its decaying image. 5- The current President's Minister of Planning and Public Works, who is having a fight with Moyano for the subsidies of the Secretary of Transport. 6- José Ángel Pedraza controls the Union Ferroviaria –the main railroad union - who has a long-standing history of managing the politics of its bureaucracy with hooliganism and was backed by the government, until the murder of Ferreyra at least. 7- The vice-governor of the province of the Buenos Aires province and president of the Justicialista party of the province since 2009, who has been hospitalized since April-2010. 8- Norberto Oyarbide, a controversial judge who has dealt with important cases, from the prosecution of the military junta to the investigation of government functionaries since the Menem period and including the Kirchner presidential couple itself. 9- Pablo Bruera, incumbent of the La Plata section of the Justicialista party. Sergio Massa, Justicialista Party politician who was the President's Cabinet Chief from July 2008 to July 2009, until the current incumbent Anibal Fernandez took the post. He oversaw the transference of private pension funds to the ANSES -the social security system. 10- José Pampuro, member of the Justicialista Party, was formerly a Defense Minister and is currently a senator for Buenos Aires Province. He serves as the Senate provisional President and is second in line for the presidential succession. 11- The very reason the protest had been organized for, which ended tragically in the murder of the 23 year-old militant of the Partido Obrero at the hand of the Unión Ferroviaria hooligans. 12- Felipe Solá, politician of the Justicialista Party (Peronism) and was the governor of the province of Buenos Aires until he left office in 2007. Solá left duhaldism to align with the Kirchners for some time but the then became estranged from the leadership of the Kirchners and left their Front for Victory to sit as a dissident Peronist. Ahead of the elections of June 2009, he has been working with Francisco de Narváez and Mauricio Macri to present a united centre-right coalition of fellow dissident Peronists and the Republican Proposal (PRO) party. 13- Francisco De Narváez, politician who ran for governor of Buenos Aires Province on the PRO (in the right of the political spectrum) ballot in the 2007 elections in Argentina. He is currently a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. 14- PRO, Center-right political party of the opposition to the government. 15- Jose de Mendiguren leads the Ministry of Production, created in 2008 as a division of the Ministry f of Economy and dealing largely with plans in agriculture, stockbreeding and commerce. 16- (Spanish: Central de los Trabajadores Argentinos, CTA) is a trade-union federation in Argentina. Its general secretary is Hugo Yasky. It was formed in 1991 when a number of trade unions disaffiliated from the General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Though the CTA is a multi-tendency organization, it is led by unionists with a Social Christian viewpoint. There are also Peronist, Communist and Trotskyist minorities in the CTA. 17- Fernando (Pino) Solanas, [Argentine film director, screenwriter and politician. An outspoken critic of the Menem government who was physically attacked for his views. In 2009, Solanas was elected as National Deputy for the city of Buenos Aires on the June 28th parliamentary elections, as his party Proyecto Sur became the second force on the city by collecting the 24.2% of the votes. 18- The current vice-president. Cobos, who was governor of the Mendoza province, comes from the radicalismo movement but he was kicked out when he joined the Kirchner candidacy. Later he aligned with the opposition and his expulsion was revoked. 19- Aguad and Morales are members of the Union Civica Radical, main party of radicalismo. 20- Ricardo Alfonsín, son of Raúl Alfonsín. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
