Argentine Movement Research Articles

Mother-Led Science: Rethinking Science-Based Social Movements Through Temporality and Care

This article explores the subjective and temporal modes of organizing underlying science-based social movements through an analysis of two mother-led movements in Argentina. The Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo appropriated forensic anthropology and nascent DNA technologies to identify their disappeared grandchildren during the 1976–83 dictatorship. The Madres de Ituzaingó Anexo developed community-led epidemiology studies and agrochemical contamination mapping to argue for a causal relation between intensive pesticide use and high rates of childhood illnesses. We focus on how these movements delineate visions of time, responsibility, and collective action by closely examining the underlying histories and practices of each social movement as they politicized motherhood and appropriated scientific practice. We offer the concept of mother-led science through the temporal registers of constancy, desgaste, and durability to illuminate the iterative relationship between care work, creating sustainable communities and institutions, and the fragile processes of stabilizing facts. Mother-led science, with its dual claims to scientific authority in an epistemic register and maternal authority in an affective register, articulates a potent form of scientific organizing. We suggest that these affective temporalities may be present across all science-based social movements but can be obscured by narratives of linear progress toward objective truths.

Social Movements and Policy Entrenchment

A vast scholarship shows that social movements can play pivotal roles in bringing about policies that benefit marginalized groups. However, the role of social movements in entrenching those policies—ensuring they take root—remains insufficiently studied. We set a research agenda for the study of how social movements shape policy entrenchment by calling attention to three commonly used strategies—occupying state bureaucracies, engaging in pressure and persuasion tactics, and building alliances with political parties—and analyzing the relationships among them. We illustrate these strategies through short case studies of social movements that achieved significant change benefitting marginalized groups in Latin America: the health movement in Brazil, the unemployed workers’ movements in Argentina, and peasant and indigenous movements in Bolivia.

TRANSGENDERS’ RIGHTS IN ARGENTINA: REGARDING INDIA


 The transgender community has faced and continues to face discrimination in almost every part of the world. The inception, extent, and duration of such differential treatment coupled with violence may differ across the globe. The reason behind this could be the cultural and constitutional values of the concerned nation along with the traditional position of transgenders in the relevant society. The movement of LGBT community to assert their presence and voice their concerns can be traced in different countries. Argentina can be distinguished as a vanguard in the advancement of inclusive policies, notably with the passage of its Gender Identity Law in 2012, marking it as the inaugural nation worldwide to formally acknowledge an individual’s gender identity without imposing any prerequisites. This article provides a concise overview of the historical trajectory of the LGBT movement in Argentina, followed by an examination of the constitutional and legislative framework established to safeguard the rights of transgender individuals in the country. Subsequently, it delves into the enactment and notable attributes of the Gender Identity Law. It also provides a comparative analysis of transgender law in India vis a vis Argentina and criticises the contrasting approach followed by different States of India. It concludes with the finding that Argentina’s Gender Identity Law is quite progressive from which countries like India can take inspiration.

Is infrastructure a critical aspect of self-organized entrepreneurial activity?

The limitation of capitalist principles and ethics has long been an issue for self-organized enterprises. Even though capitalist modes of labor organization, administration, and management are expelled from the workplace, issues of growth, investment, production, and circulation remain exposed to dominant forms of production. Nevertheless, communities of solidarity, along with spatial and techno-material settings, constitute the infrastructure of commoning practices in those endeavors. We compare the cases of the factory occupation movement in Argentina and the occupation of the Vio.Me. factory in Greece (2010), where a shift to self-organization emerged in the context of the Argentinian and Greek economic crises. We focus on struggles revolving around the use and ownership of spatial-material infrastructure and the production of use-values, highlighting the emancipatory potential of self-organization. Space and objects appear as a contested terrain, while at the same time, material settings are transformed, through the collectives’ participation in networks of distribution and solidarity.

Belorusskie immigranty v stranah Latinskoj Ameriki: sovetskaya istoriografiya problemy

The article is devoted to the problem of the history of Belarusian immigration to the countries of Latin America. The authors focus on the coverage of this topic in Soviet historical science. The authors show that when analyzing this problem, Soviet historians focused on the factors of departure associated with the living conditions of Belarusians in the Russian Empire and in interwar Poland. Considerable attention was also paid to the participation of Belarusian immigrants in the anti-fascist movement in Argentina and other countries of the continent.

Medals, Rings, and Olympic Dreams: A Review Essay of Antonio Sotomayor and Cesar R. Torres, eds., Olimpismo

Medals, Rings, and Olympic Dreams: A Review Essay of Antonio Sotomayor and Cesar R. Torres, eds., <i>Olimpismo</i>

Politics of Recognition: The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion in Argentina

This article charts the arguments, strategies, and struggles of the abortion rights movement in Argentina, with special attention to the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion. This heterogeneous coalition—widely recognized by its green kerchief—played a key role leading the impressive activist process that culminated with abortion legalization. The law approved by the Argentine Congress in December of 2020 provides for the right to voluntary abortion during the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy and allows for specific legal grounds for abortion after that period (rape or risk to the health or life of the pregnant person). Importantly, before legal reform was achieved, activists had patiently worked to advance the “social decriminalization” of abortion.

Radical Nationalist and Philo-Fascist Movements in Argentina in the 1930s

As in many Western countries, in Argentina in the interwar period, an influential right-wing radical movement arose, close in its ideological and political characteristics to European fascism. Initially, it was an intellectual movement that was able to form a political movement that took an important place in Argentine politics, the extreme expression of which was the military-civilian coup of J. F. Uriburu in 1930. In the ideological baggage of the philo-fascists there were theses about the totalitarian state, about the struggle against liberalism and democracy, about the corporate state structure, anti-imperialism and anti-Semitism. The peculiarity of Argentina was such a phenomenon as clero-fascism, a trend that arose from the union of nationalism and Catholic integrism under the banner of right-wing authoritarianism, philo-fascism and clericalism. An attempt to launch right-wing, corporatist reforms during the Uriburu dictatorship failed primarily because of the reluctance of the Argentine ruling elite to change the development model. As a result, philo-fascist groups and movements were pushed out of the political scene, marginalized, but at the same time they retained intellectual and social influence in the country, which was reflected in the following years with the advent of Peronism in the political life of Argentina.

Utopia, future imaginations and prefigurative politics in the indigenous women’s movement in Argentina

ABSTRACT In order to analyse how social movements build alternative futures, this article explores the relationship between prefigurative politics and utopianism. A case study of the ‘Indigenous Women’s Movement for Buen Vivir’ in Argentina will reveal how movement members shape alternative futures, while taking into account how everyday life influences their approaches to the future. Empirical data collected in 2019 shows that members define the present day as a crises-ridden dystopian age, exemplified by the conflicts they face which emerge from the resource-based development model of global capitalism. Extractivist activities are understood as destroyers of the planet and therefore are viewed as an imminent threat to human existence. Hence, the members aim to make the future possible by (re)constructing a reciprocity with nature as well as one between humans and other-than-human beings, in short, to realize Buen Vivir. To unravel how prefigurative practices and utopian imaginations intersect and co-constitute each other, I focus on how Buen Vivir is experienced in the movement through horizontality, spirituality, and autonomy. These experiences are framed by the actors as pre-colonial practices that are reconstructed in the present, as they seek to decolonise capitalist modernity ‘so that there is a future’. This understanding reflects a cyclical temporality that inspires a processual, non-linear view of social change, which accompanies the indigenous women’s ‘prefigurative walking’. Thus, the linking of prefiguration with utopianism helps us in grasping the role of imagination, hopes, and visions for future transformations in the process of building alternative futures.

ARGENTINE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1812-1850

Argentina is located in the continent of South America and it is considered the eighth largest country in the world in terms of an area of 2780,400 square kilometers. The city of Buenos Aires is the official capital of the country. The first European explorers reached it in 1516 were the Spanish who occupied most of South America. In opposition to them, Simon Bolivar and Jose San de Martín appeared, who imagined that the homeland would one day be born, free of Spanish intervention. The personality of Jose San Martin represented the pillar of independence in Latin America because he led the independence movement for three countries: Argentina, Peru, and Chile, in which he proved that he had the greatest role in the independence of these countries. The research dealt with three sections. The first topic included the naming of Argentina and its indigenous people, geographical explorations and the Spanish colonization of Argentina. The second topic focused on the personality of Jose San Martin because of its paramount importance in supporting the liberation movements in Argentina, his birth and his military upbringing. As for the progress of liberation movements and the emergence of the Argentine Republic was Among the third topic. The researcher concluded that the country of Argentina, which was called in Latin the country of silver, is inhabited by many ancient civilizations, including the Indians, the Mayan peoples and the people of Diaguita.San Martín benefited from his military and leadership experience, which he had accumulated in the leadership of the Andean Army to liberate Chile and then Peru. San Martín's victory in Chile was not to push him to invade, but he ceded to his friend Ohanes to lead Chile and harnessed all his energy to complete the liberation of Peru, the last stronghold of the Spaniards. San Martín cooperated with his friend Simon Bolivar to complete the liberation of Peru and offered him to be a soldier under his command. Martín's liberation of all the lands occupied by the Spaniards. After the liberation of Peru, San Martín did not cling to power, although he described himself as the protector of Peru, so after he sensed that there was opposition among the patriots to him, he quickly resigned, and left for Argentina, then to Chile, and after the death of his wife in 1823, he took his only daughter to France to spend the rest of his life In, He died in August 17, 1850. Key words: Argentina, War of Independence.

Institutional Strengthening in a Receding Movement: The Trajectory ofPiqueteroOrganizations between 2003 and 2015

This article contributes to the current debate on social movements and popular politics in Latin America by exploring the trajectory of organizations within the unemployed workers movement in Argentina, also known as thepiqueteros. Analysts agree that the recent history of this movement is characterized by a pronounced decline due to closing political opportunities. I suggest that a shift in the level of analysis toward organizational dynamics indicates a more complex scenario. While the influence of the movement as a political actor has declined, some piquetero organizations have in some aspects strengthened. I argue that this strengthening took place not despite the post-2003 context, but rather because of it. I advocate for an alternative conceptualization of piquetero groups, emphasizing their immersion in a particular political context and culture rather than their separation from it. I use interviews, participant observation, databases of contentious events, and a diverse literature to sustain my claims.

At the Margins of Time and Place

At the Margins of Time and Place

Response of Domestic Prices to Exchange Rate Movements in Argentina

Based on an extended IS-LM-AS model, this study finds that if the Argentine peso depreciates 1% versus the U.S. dollar, the consumer price in Argentina would increase by 0.2518%. In addition, more structural fiscal deficit as a percent of potential GDP, more M2 supply, a higher U.S. price level, and a higher expected price level would raise Argentina’s consumer price level. Therefore, partial exchange rate pass-through is confirmed for Argentina.

The Pro-Life Movement and the Fight for the Constitution in Argentina: Between Law and Transcendence

The constitutional history of abortion in Argentina is long and complex. This paper overviews a small part of it: how Catholic legal academia developed, since the early 1980s, constitutional arguments to dispute with the feminist camp the meaning of the Constitution. This process has two dimensions. One is linked to the intellectual history of Catholic ideas over reproduction and how they were adapted to the peculiarities of Argentinean law. The other is related to the way in which these arguments formed the framing of the “pro-life” movement in Argentina. Exploring this normative world reveals the “depth of field” with which social movements seeking constitutional change work (Cover, 1983). It also reveals the stakes involved when the battle is waged in that terrain. This article explores what this means for constitutional theory.

Marxism in the Emergence and Fragmentation of Liberationist Christianity in Argentina

AbstractStudies of liberationist Christianity in Argentina have largely explained its emergence with reference to changes or continuities within the Catholic Church. This article instead analyses firstly how Marxist humanism, dependency theory and left nationalism shaped a rapprochement with Christianity in the 1960s, with Peronism often functioning as an intermediary. Moreover, it demonstrates the ways in which the ongoing ambivalent relationship between Marxism and the liberationist Christian movement in Argentina manifested in the fragmentation of the Movimiento de Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo (Movement of Priests for the Third World) in the first half of the 1970s. In doing so, it identifies Marxism not as merely a passive repository of ideas but as an active agent in liberationist Christianity's development, and adds a new layer of understanding of the dynamics and fragmentation of the movement.

Memorialization and Escraches: Ni una Menos and the documentation of Feminicidio in Argentina

This article explores the recent history of the Ni una menos movement in Argentina as well as investigating two specific methods of activism employed by the feminist collective. The collective, in seeking to cast feminicide as a human rights abuse, actively positions it as a public crime through the employment of escraches (public shaming of public officials) and memorialisation. The article investigates how using social media to archive feminicide produces a new public recognition and awareness of feminicide as a crime against women because they are women. Furthermore, it closely explores how the collective revises the tactics of memorialization and escrache employed by activists in Argentina's post-dictatorship period to create spaces for activism on social media and within public spaces.

Rethinking Victimhood: Violence and Female Agency in Contemporary Argentine Memory Cinema

Rethinking Victimhood: Violence and Female Agency in Contemporary Argentine Memory Cinema Ana Marina Gamba In the opening images of the 2011 film Infancia clandestina a young child asks his parents to quickly open the door of the house as he needs to go to the bathroom. What appears to be a rather ordinary event abruptly becomes a scene from an action film. Gunshots are fired from a moving vehicle towards the family, in response to which the parents draw their own guns. Using an aesthetic that distinctly evokes a superhero comic book, the film shows the famous actress and pop singer Natalia Oreiro firing back at the unknown aggressors. In spite of the considerable number of Argentine movies depicting the events that took place in that country in the 1970s, the scene described above appeared as quite novel. As pointed out by Gonzalo Aguilar, this film was the first one to give a fictional portrayal of the activities of the revolutionary groups from that period (17)—more specifically in this context, of the political organization called Montoneros.1 This article addresses a yet unstudied aspect of this wider phenomenon: the specific transformation that the figure of the female activist suffered in this strain of “memory cinema.”2 It argues that there is a fracture in contemporary cinema concerning previous cinematic representations of female revolutionary activists. The main aim of this essay is to comprehend the relationship between narratives portraying women as mere “innocent victims,” on the one hand, and figurations more centered on the political agency of female characters, on the other. The former narratives appeared in the immediate aftermath of the return to democracy, while the latter emerged in the second decade of the 21st century, exploring the duality of the female characters as both victims and perpetrators of violence. The present analysis is inspired by the theoretical framework of memory studies which holds that any discourse about the past should also be considered an expression of the present where it emerges. In this case, the unprecedented growth of feminist movements in Argentina in recent years3 will provide an essential background to our analysis. From this perspective, the shift in the way female victimhood is portrayed should be analyzed as twofold: as a new perspective on the social understanding of events that occurred during the last dictatorship (1976–1983), and as a transformation in the relationship between women and politics that characterizes contemporary culture and politics in Argentina. [End Page 17] 1. Innocent victims The production of films—both fictional and documentary—has been of great significance in the construction of social memory throughout history, as the case of the Holocaust has clearly demonstrated (Lewis, 7). Argentina is by no means an exception. In the years following the end of the dictatorship in 1983, audiovisual productions constructed a narrative about that period that compensated for the absence of historic visual records—the clandestine character of the repression meant that there were no traces of the action of the army (Feld and Stites Mor, 20). The cruelty and cynicism of the atrocities committed by the military were so disturbing and inconceivable that the Argentine society resorted to visual representations to comprehend what had happened during those years. Therefore, artistic discourses—notably cinema—were granted a very important role in the collective production of memory, and, since the return of democracy, numerous films problematizing the 1970s have been released.4 Regarding this cinematic repertoire, Ana Amado distinguishes different cycles in post-dictatorship memory (13). The years immediately following the return of democracy in Argentina, identified as the first cycle, were characterized by a heated public debate on the events that took place in the country during the military government. Central issues were the responsibility of the different parties involved and the most viable alternatives to overcome the tremendous suffering as a society. The new government, backed by human rights associations, instructed a commission5 to investigate the crimes perpetrated by the military. The purpose of such investigations was to pursue legal action on the basis of the information gathered. The version about the past supported by these social actors tried to decouple the victims of the State repression from their...

Sex Trafficking in Argentina Now and Then

In his 2017 documentary The Impure Daniel Najenson straddles the notions of past and present to denounce the horrors and the injustice of sex trafficking in Argentina. Following a family tale of a great-aunt who migrated from Eastern Europe to South America at the beginning of the twentieth century, he digs deep into Israeli and Argentine archives to tell the story of the Zwi Migdal and the way Jewish women were forced into prostitution. To give voice to these women, he brings in Sonia Sánchez, originally from northern Argentina, and forced into prostitution in Buenos Aires when she was seventeen years old. Sánchez tells her own story, but also reads letters from the now deceased victims of sex trade a century ago. This self-professed feminist and activist is also shown in demonstrations and interviews fueling the NiUnaMenos movement in Argentina, while the #MeToo and TimesUp movements explode in the U.S.

Reconceptualisation Movement in Argentina: theoretical, political and cultural influences

This article addresses Argentine social work from the 1960s to the 1980s. In this analysis, it prioritises the Reconceptualisation process in Argentina and its dilemmas in the Latin American Reconceptualisation Movement as a whole, debating it in the context of capitalist-monopoly globalisation and its expressions in Latin America.

The power to control: State forces’ action and student contentious politics in the Argentine educational field

Student movements in Latin America have historically been at the forefront of democratization and progressive social action. This article seeks to understand state-led protest control against students and their movements in Argentina in the last decades (1997–2007). By drawing on a database of contentious politics events in Argentina using newspaper data, analysis of secondary sources, and in-depth interviews of actors, it closely examines when, why, where, and how the state contains student protests and how the power relations between them and the state unfolds over time. A main finding underlying this study is that the nature of state repression of students is related to (a) the tactics being used, (b) the demands being made, (c) the actors that are protesting alongside them, and (d) the political party in power. The article shows how the associational ties between students, teacher movements, political parties, and other movements change during moments of economic crisis and political shifts in government, and how this, in turn, results in changes in state control. Against common sense understandings, we find that changes toward more politically ‘progressive’ governments do not necessarily imply less amount of repression even though the nature of state control changes.