-------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: [CrashList] Dollarization: The Greenback Goes Global Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 13:16:21 -0300 From: Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> En relación a RE: [CrashList] Dollarization: The Greenback Goes, el 20 Apr 00, a las 16:02, Mark Jones dijo: > > here it is again. sorry to hear about these appalling events which > seem to have come from nowehere; naturally there is dead sielnec here; > also about your vp's visit what's more. > > can you write a few paragraphs explaining for idiots liike me how this > somewhat unexp[ected turn of events fits into the post-menem or > whatever it is conjuncture, and how the IMF etc fits in? for the > crashlist? A few paragraphs? Will try, though not easy. To begin with, one must start with basics. That is, whatever the news agencies write on Argentina is either deformed or false. The general schema diffused abroad is, usually, something like this: a) in Argentina there is a Right and a Left, just as anywhere else. b) the Right is militaristic, authoritarian and nationalistic, just as anywhere else. c) the Left is civilistic, democratic and internationalist, just as anywhere else. d) the name of the Right in Argentina is Peronism; the name of the Left is the variegated array of midget or small sized parties that call themselves Left; right in the middle you have the mainstream center parties, particularly the Radical party which is essentially center-left and of middle class constitution. e) thus, when a Menem is replaced by a De La Rúa then the common sense explanation is "ah, at last the Rightist has been replaced by a Leftist!". When the Leftist attacks the workers, then amazement is soon replaced by the caveat "Ah, but these were Peronist, foolish workers who are traitors to their class (even bankers may turn Trotskyists on these occasions if need be)". In fact, Menem had only two dead along his ten years of rule. De La Rúa is menacing a much bloodier regime. How can this be? Well, just as in the case of Achilles and the turtle, if logics does not fit with reality then there must be something wrong with the logic. What is wrong is the interesting oblivion that Argentina is a semicolony, and that in such a case there is not a single, left- right, cleavage, but a complex left-right / national-colonial cleavage. On these cases, it is naive (at best) to expect an administration of anti-Peronist (that is, basically, colonial) credentials (such as that of De La Rúa-Alvarez we are now having) to be in any way "better" than one which holds Peronist credentials (even in such a case as that of Menem, who was a traitor to the Argentinians as a whole, to the workers in particular, and to the Peronist workers specially). Both Menemism/Justicialism (names carried by former Peronism) and Radicalism/Frepasism (names carried by the mostly petty bourgeois anti-Peronist alliance now in power) share their obsequent standing towards the American Empire. For Radicals (and even for Frepasists) it was not too difficult a routine to perform. In fact, Radicalism had already been deprived of its core of national pride during the 30s, when their revolutionary flame was objectivelly passed on to the hands of the nascent Argentinian working class, a process that ended up with the birth of Peronism in 1945. From that date onwards, Radicalism acted as the tailing party of a mostly reactionary oligarchic-imperialist bloc, which could only reach power, however, through the good offices of Radicalism. As to the Frepaso (the so-called "left") suffice it to say that they consider Tony Blair the perfection of a socialist politician, a Lenin of swank cafeterias, and to the extent they can feel something stronger than a slight rash of enthusiasm, they idolize him. With Peronism, however, things have never been easy. The whole parable described by the Menem regime was the parable of the "taming", that is of the castration, of Peronism. In order to achieve this, Menem had to set himself up to the task of emptying Peronism out of the "national", that is political sovereignty and economic independence, ideals: he thus transformed the Justicialista party exactly in what their "leftish" opponents had always, wrongly, denounced it to be, a conservative populist formation deprived of any other sense but that which arises from the fact that the poorest layers of the society voted for Peronists, so that something was to be returned in specie or in small sums of money to those layers. Once exhausted the revolutionary contents of their party (much more than that, Peronism is an integral part of the personality of Argentinian workers), the lower strata had it clear that, however, it was best for them to vote Peronism, because Radicalism or Frepaso would keep any benefits from State help for the middle strata, not for the lower ones. This was all that remained of the great social movement that had given the working masses full human dignification in Argentina forty years ago. In this context, there arose a strong movement within the unions, led by the MTA essentially, to restore the combative tradition of the CGT. At the same time, the Radicals received a country in a mess and clear directives from the IMF and the World Bank to make some basic laws pass, not so much because they actually needed these laws, but just to test the strength of the government. If the Argentinian administration could pass the Labor Code, then they would find us reliable, and they would open up their poisonous purses to allow for further indebtedness, etc. If they proved weak, then foreign investment would flock away in a minute's time, and a currency shock might take place. A series of actions were generated by the combative CGT against the attempts of the Government to have the labor code approved. This drove the politicians of the Frepaso and Radicalism into fits of hysteria. We should not forget that, a few days after De La Rúa entered Presidency, protesters on the Corrientes-Chaco bridge were stormed by militarized police, and that there were dead people there; I have also been posting warnings that the government was stationing fast deployment units in the Army bases of Campo de Mayo, less than 20 miles off downtown Buenos Aires; now, they have reacted with their full nerves blown up. Petty bourgeois human dust blown strong by the IMF on one side and the workers on the other, by the Argentinian senile capitalism and the destruction of our industry, by the foreign debt, and the gang of robbers that has imposed it on us, they find themselves pushed against a working class that is decided not to step back further without struggle. And, of course, they react in hysteria and madness. This De La Rúa government keeps many satisfactions for us in their vault. We are just beginning. I have been posting some information to Marxmail and to L-I, which I did not know if it was reasonable to post to CrashList too. Anyway, Mark Jones is subscribed to both, and I leave it to him whether there is something useful on those postings. Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Whatever you want, chances are you'll find it at one of the hundreds of sites in The PointClick Network--like Disney.com, eCost.com, FogDog.com and many more. You get paid as you shop and an additional 10% off any purchase, anytime. http://click.egroups.com/1/2994/3/_/_/_/956248305/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
