Rosario, Argentina: Everybody loves a good party, but how good are they?
Action
Much of our time in Rosario has revolved around parties. I mean political parties, of course. We originally came to Rosario partly because it has been governed by the Socialist Party for the past 15 years, and we wanted to see how this has affected the city. In our first weeks here we were introduced to dozens of people in charge of municipal programs, many of whom were also actively involved in the Socialist Party.
We found our apartment through a different political party, although we didn’t know it at the time. Renate became involved with a local harm reduction organization, which has its office in the Medical School of the National University. The office coordinator had an extra room in his apartment, and he invited us to live with him. Since we moved in with Oscar, we’ve learned that in Argentina, each university department or school is controlled by a political party or coalition, which the students elect. The Medical School is controlled by the party Franja Morada. Oscar is a longtime organizer for Franja Morada. When we asked how he ended up at the medical school, he said that’s where the party wanted him to be. Since starting at this position, he’s been spending much of his time mobilizing medicine students around Franja Morada.
A couple months later, we witnessed the elections for the university’s Governing Council. The students re-elected a coalition of Franja Morada and the National Reformist Movement. Franja Morada is the student branch of the national Radical Party, which is actually not radical but center-left, pushing for reform of the political system through gradual change. The National Reformist Movement (the student branch of the Socialist Party) is actual more radical than the Radical Party and less reformist. They advocate for fundamental transformation of the political and economic system, away from capitalism and towards socialism.
The student elections: Franja Morada on the left, National Reformist Movement on the right, and other parties in the middle. The flag waving was accompanied by rowdy cheers and taunting between the parties, for several hours.
The Radical and Socialist Parties are most popular in Rosario, but they’re certainly not alone. The province is governed by the Justicialistas, a Peronist Party (Peronism was the distinctive heart and soul of 20th century Argentine politics). The Maoist ALDE Party (or as some call them, “The Chinese”) has recently become very popular at the university. Someone Renate works with recently announced that he’s forming a new political party: The Revolutionary Worker’s Party. Apparently, there’s already a Revolutionary Party, but it’s not worker enough, and there’s already a Worker’s Party, but it’s not revolutionary enough. Regardless, this new party will face lots of competition – there are already over 50 other established parties in Argentina.
Oscar tells us that all Argentines, deep down, feel affiliated to some party. Many people that we’ve met have disagreed, identifying instead as “apartidario” (non-partisan). They try to work for political and social change outside of the party system, for example through neighborhood assemblies, community cultural centers, or the participatory budgeting process. Sometimes the apartidarios clash with the political parties, for example, when parties opposed to the current government send infiltrators to disrupt participatory budgeting assemblies in the neighborhoods. I recently sat through one such incident, when a man sitting in the back of the room repeatedly interrupted a neighborhood discussion about a street paving project to denounce the Socialist government and rant about seemingly random issues.
Reflection
Living in the US and Canada, I tend not to think about political parties much. In Canada I support the New Democratic Party and in the US (or New York at least) the Working Families Party, but I don’t feel that either of these parties fully reflects my beliefs, nor that they’re particularly involved in my everyday life. Most of my “political” discussions in North America focus on issues (the war, health care, the environment, security, economic development, etc.) more than parties.
In Argentina, however, the issues often seem secondary to the parties. Many people have told me that they support their party 100%, regardless of what policies it takes or who it nominates for elections. A recent poster for a political rally illustrated this extreme devotion – the poster read, “Because we are loyal to Perón, we will stand by Kirchner”, plastered above facial images of Juan Perón (the founder of Peronism) and Nestor Kirchner (the current president). Perón died over 30 years ago, but for many people he remains the main reason to support the president, simply because Kirchner belongs to a Peronist party.
Although this party loyalty often seems to divide people and discourage dialogue, it can also lead to more holistic thinking. Compared to North Americans, Argentines seem to align their politics not so much around specific issues, but rather on a given party’s socio-economic analysis and long-term political vision. Perhaps as a result, people often discuss specific political issues within the context of broader societal concepts and institutions (such as neoliberalism, citizenship, the IMF, capitalism, or autonomy).
But I’m still not sold on the Argentine system, finding myself sympathizing with the apartidarios more than any party. In Argentina, “non-partisan” doesn’t mean apolitical, but rather in support of a different way of doing politics, one that isn’t based on political favors and a winner-take-all system. Many apartidarios are trying to build other forms of political decision-making that transfer power to the people, rather than party machines. That idealism sounds nice, but even nicer is seeing how people are working to put these ideas in practice, for example deciding at neighborhood assemblies what streets to pave or what community health programs to organize.
Question
Do you feel affiliated with any political party? If not, under what conditions would you? What do you think about the political parties where you live, in comparison with the ones in Argentina?
Much of our time in Rosario has revolved around parties. I mean political parties, of course. We originally came to Rosario partly because it has been governed by the Socialist Party for the past 15 years, and we wanted to see how this has affected the city. In our first weeks here we were introduced to dozens of people in charge of municipal programs, many of whom were also actively involved in the Socialist Party.
We found our apartment through a different political party, although we didn’t know it at the time. Renate became involved with a local harm reduction organization, which has its office in the Medical School of the National University. The office coordinator had an extra room in his apartment, and he invited us to live with him. Since we moved in with Oscar, we’ve learned that in Argentina, each university department or school is controlled by a political party or coalition, which the students elect. The Medical School is controlled by the party Franja Morada. Oscar is a longtime organizer for Franja Morada. When we asked how he ended up at the medical school, he said that’s where the party wanted him to be. Since starting at this position, he’s been spending much of his time mobilizing medicine students around Franja Morada.
A couple months later, we witnessed the elections for the university’s Governing Council. The students re-elected a coalition of Franja Morada and the National Reformist Movement. Franja Morada is the student branch of the national Radical Party, which is actually not radical but center-left, pushing for reform of the political system through gradual change. The National Reformist Movement (the student branch of the Socialist Party) is actual more radical than the Radical Party and less reformist. They advocate for fundamental transformation of the political and economic system, away from capitalism and towards socialism.
The student elections: Franja Morada on the left, National Reformist Movement on the right, and other parties in the middle. The flag waving was accompanied by rowdy cheers and taunting between the parties, for several hours.
The Radical and Socialist Parties are most popular in Rosario, but they’re certainly not alone. The province is governed by the Justicialistas, a Peronist Party (Peronism was the distinctive heart and soul of 20th century Argentine politics). The Maoist ALDE Party (or as some call them, “The Chinese”) has recently become very popular at the university. Someone Renate works with recently announced that he’s forming a new political party: The Revolutionary Worker’s Party. Apparently, there’s already a Revolutionary Party, but it’s not worker enough, and there’s already a Worker’s Party, but it’s not revolutionary enough. Regardless, this new party will face lots of competition – there are already over 50 other established parties in Argentina.
Oscar tells us that all Argentines, deep down, feel affiliated to some party. Many people that we’ve met have disagreed, identifying instead as “apartidario” (non-partisan). They try to work for political and social change outside of the party system, for example through neighborhood assemblies, community cultural centers, or the participatory budgeting process. Sometimes the apartidarios clash with the political parties, for example, when parties opposed to the current government send infiltrators to disrupt participatory budgeting assemblies in the neighborhoods. I recently sat through one such incident, when a man sitting in the back of the room repeatedly interrupted a neighborhood discussion about a street paving project to denounce the Socialist government and rant about seemingly random issues.
Reflection
Living in the US and Canada, I tend not to think about political parties much. In Canada I support the New Democratic Party and in the US (or New York at least) the Working Families Party, but I don’t feel that either of these parties fully reflects my beliefs, nor that they’re particularly involved in my everyday life. Most of my “political” discussions in North America focus on issues (the war, health care, the environment, security, economic development, etc.) more than parties.
In Argentina, however, the issues often seem secondary to the parties. Many people have told me that they support their party 100%, regardless of what policies it takes or who it nominates for elections. A recent poster for a political rally illustrated this extreme devotion – the poster read, “Because we are loyal to Perón, we will stand by Kirchner”, plastered above facial images of Juan Perón (the founder of Peronism) and Nestor Kirchner (the current president). Perón died over 30 years ago, but for many people he remains the main reason to support the president, simply because Kirchner belongs to a Peronist party.
Although this party loyalty often seems to divide people and discourage dialogue, it can also lead to more holistic thinking. Compared to North Americans, Argentines seem to align their politics not so much around specific issues, but rather on a given party’s socio-economic analysis and long-term political vision. Perhaps as a result, people often discuss specific political issues within the context of broader societal concepts and institutions (such as neoliberalism, citizenship, the IMF, capitalism, or autonomy).
But I’m still not sold on the Argentine system, finding myself sympathizing with the apartidarios more than any party. In Argentina, “non-partisan” doesn’t mean apolitical, but rather in support of a different way of doing politics, one that isn’t based on political favors and a winner-take-all system. Many apartidarios are trying to build other forms of political decision-making that transfer power to the people, rather than party machines. That idealism sounds nice, but even nicer is seeing how people are working to put these ideas in practice, for example deciding at neighborhood assemblies what streets to pave or what community health programs to organize.
Question
Do you feel affiliated with any political party? If not, under what conditions would you? What do you think about the political parties where you live, in comparison with the ones in Argentina?
2 Comments:
At 2:49 PM, Jen said…
I think one odd thing here is how, yeah, people talk about issues more than the party here, but they still usually vote by party lines. So even though they claim to care about the issues, they don't really know what "their party" is doing.
It might be regional too. I'm just noticing this a lot recently down here.
I've just spoken to so many people who just say "I'm voting Republican, because that's what I am" even though the things they claim to stand for are not what the party stands for any more (smaller government, fiscal responsibility, etc). Or vice versa.
I think the biggest issue that bugs me is that there are only 2 major parties that are taken seriously in this country.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the reformist party who's not really reformist and the radical party that's not too radical :) I need to think about this post more.
At 8:39 AM, lernerm said…
Very interesting. In America, 30 or more years ago, people did identify with political parties a bit more than they did today, which is why the Democratic party dominated elections in the south even though many ordinary Southerners were probably more likely to share the political views of Republican politicians rather than Democratic ones. The issue of political patronage on a local level was also pretty important , as in Chicago. Today very few people identify with the Democratic party, which seems to have lost its soul. On the other hand, many people (as least among those Repubicans I see on a daiy basis in Frederick County Maryland) seem to identify with the Republican party, and vote Republican even though they recognize that they disagree with much if not most of the Republican Party platform. As Thomas Frank points out in his book people can be for a party even though it is not in their best interests. One of the problelms I think we have with the two major political parties in America is that the major parties are so inconsistant - the Republican party really isn't conservative or libertarian - if it were, it wouldn't be in favor of big (military, energy, homeland security, etc.) government, nor would it favor government intrusion into private matters like Terri Schiavo. The Democrats on the other hand certainy aren't consistently liberal. Alas, the two major parties have colluded to suppress third parties (Green, Libertarian) which in fact are fairly consistant in philosophy and which I believe would lead to a good deal of devotion to the party, if only they could break the stranglehold that the major parties have on the media and fundraising. I'm not sure that it's a good idea however to have so many parties as they seem to have in Argentina, or to have such devotion to the party rather than to the issues. It sure is different than Kansas down there!
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