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Rise of the Unemployed
Neoliberalism took a terrible toll on Argentina's robust working
class. The privatization in the 1990s of the country's state industries
had resulted in the dismissal of large numbers of laborers. Company
towns in the oil fields of Salta Province experienced out-migration
and decline. Unemployment rates hovered around 20 percent, even
in the financially flush times of the Menem presidency. As informal
work contracts, subcontracting, casual labor, and self-employment
were becoming the norm, labor unions lost their traditional influence.
Strike activity declined dramatically, as did union membership. The
caserola movement of December 2001 had not been led by industrial
workers, as had the great Peronist demonstration of October 17, 1945,
but by the urban middle classes and the unemployed. Meanwhile, the
working poor and especially the unemployed developed new forms of
protest. The marches of the banging of pots and pans ( caserolazos ),
the blocking of rural highways and city thoroughfares ( cortederuta ),
noisy demonstrations at homes of corrupt public officials ( escraches ),
and the seizure of public buildings ( saqueos ) replaced the labor strike.
These were the tools of the formerly employed and the permanently
unemployed residents of the villas miserias —a growing population
of citizens in 21st-century Argentina. On occasion, workers facing
factory closings took over their places of employment, such as a
clothing plant or brick yard, and attempted to operate the industry
themselves. “Those who unite to make these new [factory] seizures
are a heterogeneous group,” reported one sociologist, “but the major-
ity have little or no trade union experience” (Dandan, 2003).
In the big cities, two notable formations of the poor began to gain
prominence. New organizations reminiscent of the old labor unions
but organized for those who lacked jobs established the piquetero
movement. Piqueteros (literally, “picketers”) marched through the city
streets in downtown business districts in tight, disciplined formations,
usually at rush hour. These demonstrations brought public attention to
the growing population of the destitute. Their leaders gave loud press
conferences before TV cameras, demanding government action on
their behalf. Provincial and federal authorities usually responded with
temporary jobs and food supplies. President Kirchner negotiated with
piquetero organizations and concluded a tacit political agreement with
one the largest, the Federation of Land and Housing, led by Luis D'Elía,
who claimed a membership of 120,000. These organizations operate
thousands of soup kitchens to feed the poor in many shantytowns of
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