Javier Auyero, Contentious Lives: Two Argentine Women, Two Protests and the Quest for Recognition, Duke University Press, Durham, 2003

Abstract

In December 2001 Argentina, the showcase of neo-liberalism in Latin America, began to implode. Over a few months the vile concoction of corruption, bad policies and IMF dictates led millions of Argentineans to lose their savings. become unemployed and /or sink deeper into destitution, hunger and despair. These events not only led to numerous changes within the government, and a spate of massive angry demonstrations with the police killing thirty-eight unarmed demonstrators, but also a rich bouquet of democratic and socialistic experimentation. Workers began to take over abandoned factories and run them themselves; in the poorer suburbs masked piqueteros blockaded roads and demanded concessions for the unemployed; across Argentina a vast network of soup kitchens, barter markets and mutual aid organisations were organised and in the wealthier suburbs of Buenos Aires people began to make decisions through popular assemblies. Argentineans had had enough of lies, corruption and poverty and they were beginning to fight back. Javier Auyero's recent work, Contentious Lives: Two Argentine Women, Two Protests and the Quest for Recognition, offers some insights into the historical roots of resistance to neo-liberalism in Argentina.