> On Mon, 3 Mar 2003 topp8564 at mail.usyd.edu.au wrote:
>
>> I don't want to play into this too much, but the World Social Forum was
>> replete with middle class Argentinian sociologists wearing Hessian bags,
>> the piquetero uniform.
>
> They were wearing sack cloth? You mean like over their clothes?
>
> Michael
Yes, over the clothes and with slogans written on them. A large number were affiliated with the Barrios de Pie group, which was promptly denounced by the radical end of the piquetero movement (my hunch is that means five people sitting in a campus computer lab somewhere in Buenos Aires.) I am told that there is an immense degree of sectarianism amongst piqueteros.
>From what I understood - my grasp of academic Spanish leaves something to be
desired - the WSF presentations by these 'reactionary' piqueteras were very
good. Very much in the Italian autonomist end of the spectrum. One suggested
that the sectarianism was a sign of vibrancy. On the other hand, the MST does
have a point when they say the Argentinians have little to show for their work:
they got rid of a couple of presidents but nothing changed and the factory
occupation thing seems to have run out of steam.
There is no doubt about it: B.A. is looking a lot poorer than it used to, but I would still much rather live there than in Rio de Janeiro, which is currently nearly in a civil war state. I am told that some 60 buses were burned over the weekend in a show of strength by criminal organizations and now the army might be deployed. Apparently the festivities began just as I left for Sydney last friday; they are obviously timed to ruin Carnaval.
Thiago
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