AUT: [Fwd: [loveandrage] Direct Democracy: Article on Neighbourhood

[pmargin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

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I thought someone would have forwarded this to the list already -
anyway, are there many press articles like this kicking around?
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Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 03:29:30 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [loveandrage] Direct Democracy: Article on Neighbourhood Assemblies in Argentina
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Hi all,

This is an interesting in-depth article about how people in Argentina
are taking back control over their lives in the wake of the failure of
elected politicians (and neoliberalism).

Sorry if it's a bit long :)

--------------------------------------------------


Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS)

ARGENTINA:
Rebellion in the Neighbourhoods

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 (IPS) - Neighbourhood assemblies are springing up
in cities throughout Argentina, particularly in the capital and
surrounding areas, as a groundswell of people seek to change the
political landscape amidst the country's social and economic collapse.

Many assembly participants are young people who are fed up with the
political parties they say have betrayed their ideals. But there are
also many unemployed, out-of-business shopkeepers, retirees, teachers
and professionals also taking an active role in the meetings. Many had
never taken part in any citizen-based mobilisation before in their
lives.

There are several common denominators among the assemblies held each
week since late December in more than 50 neighbourhoods, such as the
rising anxieties of the most desperate and the increasing calm among
those attempting to organise grassroots participation to make their
demands heard.

The vast majority of the neighbours participating in the assemblies
believe that political leaders are ignorant of the people's needs. In
many cases residents do not personally know their elected city council
members and local legislators, nor where they live. They are seen as
mere representatives of political parties.

Now, however, independent citizens are adopting the terminology
characteristic of party politics: assemblies, agendas, motion for
order, moderators, committees, and liaison commissions.

But few assembly participants have grand hopes for change. They say, at
least, that they want to remain alert to the government's measures,
channel their need for participation and expression, and try to put
some new faces in the political arena, even if the new politicians lack
experience.

"Everyone is completely fed up with corrupt politicians. We are not
against democracy, but the neighbours seem to be allergic to anything
that smells like politics," Carmen Fernández, a teacher from Buenos
Aires' Palermo neighbourhood and head of her district's Education
Committee, told IPS.

There is a great deal of talk at the assemblies about the "common
enemy", which everyone agrees are Argentina's political leaders. The
neighbourhood organisations have been careful to maintain a horizontal
structure, in which everyone has the right to make proposals, and
leaders seem to emerge based on who best facilitates participation.

Usually someone offers a warehouse for a meeting site in case of rain,
and someone else offers a printing press to print posters or a
newsletter. At one assembly, young filmmakers proposed to record the
sessions for a documentary. Attorneys, accountants and doctors offer
their professional services.

The slogan heard most often is "all the politicians out", but the
assembly-goers insist this is not a call for an end to the democratic
system.

"On the contrary. To get out of this crisis requires more politics, but
real politics. These meetings of common people on the street are the
fundamental form of doing politics," Roli Sampieri, an accountant in
charge of the Press Committee for the Almagro neighbourhood assembly in
the capital, told IPS.

"When a married couple decides to separate, that doesn't mean that they
won't go on to marry someone else. This is the same thing: we don't
want these politicians. We want a change," Sampieri said.

Only the ongoing street protests by the Argentine people can convince
the career politicians to think of the common good and not about
personal gain, according to the activist. In the long term, there will
have to be a change in leadership that is founded on a more
community-based conception of politics, he added.

Another Almagro neighbour, Mario Colombati, agrees. "We are not
satisfied with merely casting a vote at election time. We want to
participate and we want them to listen to us more often, because that
is the main problem, they don't listen to us," he said in a
conversation with IPS.

In last October's legislative elections (the vote is compulsory in
Argentina), Colombati annulled his ballot in protest to express his
discontent with the political parties. But, he said, "we cannot live
without politicians, because that would be anarchy. We want those who
robbed us to leave, and we want to closely monitor those who replace
them," he said.

Most of the neighbourhood assemblies were founded after the first major
"caceroleo" protest, when Argentines came out in masses, banging pots
and pans in protest against then president Fernando de la Rúa, who
resigned Dec 20.

At first it was just a handful of neighbours who gathered together,
concerned about preventing the new government from being made up of the
same leaders with a different disguise.

With the series of political turnovers and the ever-deepening social
and economic crisis, the meetings have achieved greater impact, and new
leaders are emerging. The neighbours at the assemblies choose delegates
who participate every Sunday in an inter-neighbourhood plenary session,
which draws some 4,000 people.

There, representatives from middle-class districts mix with those from
the wealthiest and the poorest neighbourhoods. Their proposals often
become radicalised, and protests are expressed on behalf of an array of
groups: the unemployed, merchants, former party activists, and savers
who have been hurt by the government's economic measures of the last
two months.

The non-governmental organisation 'Poder Ciudadano' (Citizen Power)
offered the assembly participants a free course in institutional
monitoring. The programme is called "Citizens as protagonists of
change" and seeks to provide practical tools to the movement that
expresses itself in 'cacerolazos', neighbourhood meetings and marches.

But there are many who appear already to possess some working knowledge
as a result of their activism in student organisations, political
parties or labour unions.

"The assembly shall be considered constituted when at least 20
neighbours are present. All who live in the neighbourhood may
participate with voice and vote," reads a woman, aided by a brand- new
megaphone, on a street corner where more than a hundred residents have
gathered.

"The executive committee shall meet 15 minutes prior to the assembly to
draft the agenda with the proposals provided by the neighbours," she
says, handing the word - and the megaphone - over to the "moderator".
It is clarified repeatedly that "here, no one is in charge, we are
going to take turns."

One of the proposals made during the assembly was to set aside 15
minutes each week on a neighbourhood radio programme to provide updates
about the movement. The proposal was readily accepted.

But when the moderate announced that a television news programme has
sent a reporter and a camera operator, the reaction is one of absolute
rejection, with the neighbours shouting for the media representatives
to leave.

The reporter is from a programme whose host has supported the
government's economic reforms in the past few years and who now is seen
as inciting protest with a right-wing discourse. The neighbours make it
clear they do not want anyone to use them to advance a cause they do
not agree with.

In fact, in the assemblies and in mass e-mails, Argentines are calling
not only for the removal of the career politicians and entrenched union
leaders, but also for the rejection of the privatised entities
entrusted with public services and of the news media which, they say,
are not accurately portraying the population's suffering.

"I am very surprised because there are people participating who
otherwise never left their homes. My 70-year-old neighbour had never
taken part in anything, but now she has such an extremist stance that
it is truly astonishing," said Palermo neighbourhood assembly
participant Fernández.

She said one of the slogans repeated in her neighbourhood is "the
politicians must go because they do not understand a thing." Fernández
explained that this reflects the sentiment that political leaders no
longer comprehend, nor can they express, the citizenry's problems
because they are too far removed from that reality.

For Sampieri, the national crisis was a long time in the making and
these assemblies are a response to the loss of credibility of the
political system in general. "Politics continues to be the only way to
express one's self, but the people reject the political parties, and
therefore are gathering in the streets," he said.

Some of the initiatives coming out of the assemblies include organising
a volunteer corps to provide assistance to retirees and the unemployed
and to help with the needs outlined by hospital personnel, but the
priority is ultimately to take their proposals to the national level.

The neighbourhood assemblies are planning a march on the legislative
palace when the lawmakers gather to debate the government budget,
protests outside bank headquarters to protest the transfer to pesos -
the national currency - of dollar deposits, and demonstrations against
the representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who visit
Argentina.

"I don't know if this will lead to change, but at least it is teaching
us to be more alert," said one resident as she headed home after an
assembly meeting.





=====
"Criminal: A person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation."

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