[Marxism] CUBANOW: Argentina: Unfinished Business

[Aaron Aarons <aaron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The article reproduced below was posted in mid-June by Walter Lippman to a 
couple of lists, but not to this one. It seems to be very relevant to the 
discussions on Argentina that we've been having.

It's interesting that (1) this appeared on what appears to be a semi-official 
Cuban web site and (2) that it is no longer possible to find there -- or 
anywhere else on the web except in the archives of two lists where Walter 
posted it:

<http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/cubanews/2008w23/msg00219.htm>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Argentina_Solidarity/message/5541>

I also tried various combinations of search terms for the presumed original in 
Spanish, but without any luck! Is there a political/diplomatic explanation for 
the disappearance of this article, or is it a purely technical problem?

 - Aaron

P.S. The words "That dust caused this mud"appeared at the very end of the first 
pragraph. I have deleted them since they obviously don't belong and probably 
got included by accident when Walter copied the article from its web page.

--------------- Begin Reposted Article: ---------------
Argentina: Unfinished Business
By Jorge Gomez Barata

http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=10&item=4993&c=2 [URL NOT 
WORKING!]

Cubanow.- The crisis in Argentina is not agricultural, but structural. It's 
another chapter in a recurrent story that started in the historical minute that 
the large estates defeated the small farm and the oligarchy submitting to 
foreign capital prevailed over the national bourgeoisie; dilemmas that 
voluntarism, dictatorships and above all, the long neo-liberal interregnum 
accentuated.

Everything started when Columbus arrived by chance in America instead of China, 
and without asking anybody, the Spanish kings, who very precariously scarcely 
governed their own country, took possession of an immensely rich fifty million 
square kilometres of territory, almost five times bigger than all of Europe and 
10 times more populated than Spain. 

Although gold and silver awakened the conquistadors' greed, the feudal mode of 
production, its political superstructure and corresponding culture were closely 
linked with the land and it was land that the Crown awarded its servants, who 
received huge tracts, sometimes including its original population and other 
times with the possibility of importing slaves. 

Such obsequious colonial land distribution policies, in a cattle ranching 
version, was fostered in Argentina, where it served as the germinator for the 
agro-exportation model. As in other places, the plantation, the extensive 
raising of livestock and cereal cultivation was imposed, based on large estates 
that eliminated possibilities for the development of a diverse, robust rural 
society, protagonist over its destiny. Nor did this situation stimulate 
capitalist development of the countryside. 

The large estate and the plantation, the biggest structural distortions of the 
Latin American economy, destroyed any possibilities of developing a real class 
of farmers or a caste of rural businessmen, in the style of North American 
farmers. 

It's a case of agricultural countries that grew at the countryside expense, but 
with structures, practices and legislation against the countryside that 
prevented the promotion of a diverse and prosperous rural society. Without able 
and independent farmers, neither competition nor concurrence developed; there 
was no demand for seeds, fertilizers, farm tools, draught animals or 
agriculture machinery, elements that together with consumption form the basis 
of the internal market without which no economy and no society can progress 
harmoniously. 

The existence of countries like Argentina and Brazil that have become 
agricultural powers, without eliminating the large estates or developing a 
prosperous class of farmers, is one of the anomalies that best defines 
underdevelopment. 

A type like Nils Orgerson who enjoys a perspective of the Argentinean, 
Brazilian or Uruguayan landscape from the air and sees their vast and well 
tended soy, sugar cane and eucalyptus fields, will have the impression of 
agricultural progress, basis for the existence of prosperous and happy 
communities. He'll be surprised to know that in many cases they are virtual 
'green deserts' in which there are not only no birds nor butterflies, no 
expression at all of any biodiversity, nor people either, much less happy 
communities. 

What's happening in Argentina today is not a protest of the peasant class, but 
demonstrations of nonconformity with the fiscal policies of a government of a 
caste of large landowners with computers and high technology, but 
sociologically as reactionary as those who initiated the reign of the oligarchy 
under the colonial administration. 

In strictly sociological terms, it doesn't matter if the land is unproductive 
or operated as plantations, if the owners are national or foreign, if they 
raise sheep or sow soy, cane or peanuts; the impact and the significance of the 
large estates system is always the same. 

To favor this situation and condition the development and progress of the 
nation to it is taking a risk with perhaps a price to pay. Cristina, the new 
president who has shown capacity and determination for managing the crisis, 
shouldn't forget that the structural solutions are still unfinished business 
and incidentally -- not only in Argentina. 

*Translated by Rodney López 

*Revised by C.F. Rey 

June 11, 2008 
--------------- End of Reposted Article ---------------


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