Argentina

[peaccenicked]

Post this link, rather than my own views which are very similar. call me lazy.
but I dont like taking all the credit.

http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/argentina_w...kers_power.html (http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/argentina_workers_power.html)

[peaccenicked]

To get up to date....Here is an indication of how deep rooted the revolution has become.

Argentina's Orchestras Start Taking Their Music Beyond the Concert
Hall (and the Capital)
Marcela Valente

Inter Press Service - 12 March 2004

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 10, 2004 (IPS/GIN via COMTEX) — Accustomed to
playing for a small cultural elite in fancy theatres and churches,
the National Symphonic Orchestra of Argentina, created in 1948,
performed for the first time ever in a factory, as part of a novel
programme aimed at reaching out to new audiences.

The concerts, offered by the Culture Secretariat's Music in the
Factories programme, will be held in workplaces, trade union
buildings, and recreational spaces frequented by workers who
generally do not attend symphonic orchestra performances, even when
no entrance fees are charged.

Of Argentina's three symphonic ensembles — the National Symphonic
Orchestra, the Philarmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires (based in the
Teatro Colón) and the Buenos Aires Symphonic Band — only the latter
has followed the motto of "bringing the music to the people" by
frequently offering free concerts in public spaces.

Created in the early 20th century, the Symphonic Band reaches an
estimated 60,000 people a year in city parks and squares,
universities, schools, business chamber auditoriums, social clubs
and, more recently, train stations.

But the orchestras rarely perform outside of the major theatres.

The new programme is aimed at bringing workers not only classical
music but also popular artists, in concerts in which the audiences
will also have the opportunity to meet and talk with the musicians,
the Culture Secretariat's National Director of Arts, Rolando
Goldman, told IPS.

"There are many workers who do not come, even when the concerts are
free, because they can't afford the bus or subway ticket, or they
think they don't have the right clothes to wear, or perhaps because
they believe that for some reason they won't be allowed in. That's
why we are going out to find them," said Goldman.

If the initiative finds an echo, concerts will be held in trade
union halls, industrial complexes and parks, added Goldman.

"We are going to keep up a presence wherever there is demand," by
returning to factories and other venues where the orchestras have
received a warm welcome.

To inaugurate the programme, the National Symphonic Orchestra
travelled early this month, for the first time ever, to the southern
province of Tierra del Fuego. There, in the city of Ushuaia, they
performed in a factory — another first.

However, they did not play in just any old factory, but one that
closed down during the economic crisis of the 1990s and was just
reopened by its former employees.

Workers at the former Aurora Grundig home appliances company
transformed the abandoned factory into the Renacer Cooperative —
"renacer" means "to be reborn" — which belongs to the National
Movement of Recuperated Companies.

In the last few months, the members of the cooperative finished
producing their first batch of washing machines.

The musicians were excited about playing for the first time in the
southernmost city of the Americas, where they performed works by
Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), Italy's
Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868) and France's Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–
1894).

"We totally agree with this idea," Andrés Spiller, assistant
director of the National Symphonic Orchestra, told IPS. He said the
musicians were interested in maintaining the orchestra's "artistic
prestige while reaching out to new audiences."

Spiller said the orchestra performs nearly 50 concerts a year
before "an aging" audience of classical music lovers. But he said
that while there are also young people who enjoy classical music,
they do not come to the theatre because they are intimidated or put
off by the formality of the atmosphere that tends to surround the
concerts.

Earlier attempts to offer outdoor symphonic concerts in Buenos Aires
drew large audiences of all ages sitting on the grass under the
stars. But neighbours complaining about the "noise" put an end to
the experiment with music in the parks.

Goldman is now proposing that several concerts targeting workers be
added to this year's schedule, and that the orchestra return to
those places where the music has had a strong impact. He said he
would also like to see the repertoire include both classical and
popular songs, and he insisted that audiences must not be
underestimated.

[Kez]

Its sometimes overlooked by the left, maybe due to lack of information, but Latin America seems to be the REAL hotbed of revolution in the world at the moment.

We have Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, all of which have gone through either revolts, or general strikes. The only other big country is Chile, and one wonders how long they can stay out of the revolutionary situation. And it is that. Venezuela has passed the stage of "revolts" but is now is a revolutionary situation. The counter-revolutionary forces are preparing for what seems like one final attack, backed by US imperialism.

Chavez has had to lean on the workers to defend himself, and has given many progressive concessions to the workers and poor. One example is the massive redistribution of land to the peasants.
It would seem like the next step is to cut the power of the capitalists, and this would be by cutting their oil resources, media strangleholds and so on.
Chavez has also gone so far as to thank international marxist groups (http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/thankyou_note_from_chavez.html)for their support in campaigns such as Hands off Venezuela (http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/hands_off_venezuela2.html), before returning to the origin of the thread, just a reminder that a list of signatures (http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/signatures_venezuela.html) are being collected. I would urge all comrades with trade union, labour party positions, to go to branch meetings and discuss these ideas for solidarity with the venezuelan workers.

Back to argentina, for me there has been a recent quietning down of information coming from the situation in Argentina, do people have recent news of the situation? I think the venezulan revolution is going to be a brilliant example for Argentinian workers if the capitalists power is cut off soon. Once Argentinian workers are fucked over again, and they see an anti-capitalist (loosely socialist) solution in Venezuelan, all paths will lead to one solution in Argentina...revolution!

However, from what i know in Argentina, there are still strikes, occupations, and best of all embryonic soviets. These leading to dual power will surely become more and more influential when workers turn to the soviets rather than bourgeois democracy, and at least this gives us hope that not all is lost in argentina. By the way, in Bolivia there are already soviets established in the last period of revolutionary upheaval, and dual power still exists through the trade unions and soviets. Does anyone have up to date news on the situation in Argentina?

What do others think of situation, where it should go, how it should go.

[Reuben]

on a semantic point of view surely if workers power is the ONLY alternative then by definition its not an alternative

sorry just being a wanker will read tmo

[peaccenicked]

An Interesting semantic point Rueben.

There is a Argentina mailing group at yahoo.
You need to get a yahoo e mail account first. it is free.

[Don't Change Your Name]

Ok I will give my points of view.
In first place I must say that here there isn't a "revolutionary climate".
The piqueteros are a group of poor, unemployed people who started cutting roads, routes, etc. to get some attention so that the government could give them jobs. But nowadays that movement seems to be infiltrated by a lot of opportunists who just want to live off the government (yes, even if it sounds like I am supporting the cappies, it seems there are some opportunists). Anyway the middle class (and of course the bourgueoisie), as you might expect, get angered with this group of "black criminals who cut streets and don't let us the working people get to our jobs and are lazy black crap that the police should kill", so they will attemp to use any argument to stop them.
It seems some organizations have started different projects to survive, such as collectivizing and re-opening abandoned factories, creating new enterprises, creating places to feed poor kids, many times with a democratic, descentralized system. However they aren't very relevant and people keeps worrying about what the government wants to talk about (one week it might be the piqueteros, the next one the debt with the IMF...).

On the different provinces things are really "interesting". A lot of authoritarian caudillos keep been the governors for decades, while their families are misteriously pretty rich, and usually involved with illegal situations and anti-democratic attitudes. Many protests pro and against those populist idiots happen from time to time, together with new attemps of showing how corrupt they are.

Overall I don't see a revolution coming soon. Since Peronism (and many different capitalist promises) the Anarchist movement dissapeared, and most leftist parties lost a lot of support. So this country has been condemned for decades to be under mediocre fascist dictatorships and various capitalist governments.