Re: [Marxism] Argentina's "Golden Age"

["NÃstor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro@xxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know if Louis's article "passes muster" or not. I believe it
is essentially accurate and very comprehensive, although -of course,
and it had to be that way- it does not broach "secondary" issues such
as what did the whole schema mean for the Inland country, something
that would burst to life with the industrialization of the 30s and
gain political expression with PerÃn.

BTW: I am famous here for defending Peronism against accusations of
Fascism, and so on, but I would think it twice if I had to say it is
or was a "left-nationalist" movement. I understand Louis's thrust, and
I understand why does he say that. But the "left" side of Peronism,
let it be understood, was simply PerÃn. He established the limit to
the Left, and those who trespassed it were object of very strong
"justice". The Right wing enjoyed much more freedom.

Finally, when Louis writes:

ÂWealthy landowners complained constantly about their tenant's
tendency to plough superficially and work in a top layer of mulch.
According to an American agronomist, the tenants:

"merely scratch the ground a little and leave the rest to providence.
. . . They dislike to spend money for help or better machinery if
they can possibly get the crop planted in any way without such
expenditures. They do not understand the wisdom of spending a dollar
to save five. Their only object is to get as much money as they can,
and keep it."Â

he adopts the point of view of the landowner, not out of his fault but
of that of his sources.

Because the tenants are not to blame. When they came here, by the end
of the 19th Century and early years of the 20th, they were _forced by
contract_ by the landowner to plant wheat, and only PLANT WHEAT, for
four years. The fifth, they were forced to plant alfalfa. And they had
to move to another plot of land on the sixth year. Cattle took their
place. And they were never allowed to rear cattle.

Not to speak of old stock Argentinean lower classes who reared their
own  herds of cattle somehow freely on other people's land up to the
late 19th Century. Their story is that of MartÃn Fierro. They were
simply expelled to the roads together with their herds. They were
excedentary population.

Thus, the "laziness" of the tenant is also a function of the interests
of the landowner.

And all of this has condensed in a non-reinvestment culture in Arg
agriculture that is still alive, EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE IT HAD
DISAPPEARED. I hope I will have the time to explain the most recent
developments some day soon, because if I ever have that time it means
that we have at last won this battle against the oligarchy and its
newly recruited host of agrarian petty bourgeois!

Not easy.

-- 

NÃstor Gorojovsky
El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autorÃa
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