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Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina

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From the military dictatorship to the dictatorship of the market, the lives of the Argentinian people have been shaped by hardship, loss and tears. Though not lately receiving quite as much attention in the mainstream press as the Bolivarian revolution in Venezeuela, the social rebellion in Argentina is in many ways even more exciting as it is happening outside the realm of traditional politics and statecraft. In this wonderfully engaging oral history project, Marina Sitrin chronicles the lives of various women and men involved in the neighborhood assemblies, recuperated factories, the unemployed workers' movement, alternative media collectives, human rights organizations, radical student groups, lgbt activism, and feminist struggles that constitute the piquetero movement. Devoid of a populist leadership and a vanguard party, this is a movement that emphasizes decentralization, egalitarianism, horizontalism, consensus decision-making, autonomy, social protagonism, and face-to-face democracy. Rather than fighting for a centralized, authoritarian, bureaucratic state socialism, the piqueteros are building a grassroots, participatory socialism from below. Unlike other radical Latin American movements, this is largely a rebellion of the underclass rather than the working-class. While the industrial proletariat does play a critical role in the movement (i.e. the garment workers at Brukman, the print shop workers at Chilavert and the workers at the Zanon ceramics factory), other important groups play a vital role like students, queers, housewives, sex workers, artists, and the unemployed. Faced with overwhelming poverty and state repression, the brave Argentinian women and men in this book are pioneering a new form of social activism against the tyranny of global capital. For activists interested in the history of the Argentine financial meltdown, alternatives to neoliberal economics, and the hopes and dreams of the piquetero movement, this is a really important and extremely readable book!!!

This is an inspiring collection of oral history excerpts detailing the anarchist ethos of Argentina's Horizontalist movement of the early part of this decade, in which thousands of people joined together in grassroots, participatory, anti-hierarchical struggles to rid themselves of government and take collective control of their lives and neighborhoods. Dozens of factories were taken over and run by the workers, 4 governments were ousted in a matter of days, and hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demand "Que se vayan todos!" Everyone must go!

Sitrin records many stirring accounts of the political awakening and empowerment of ordinary people. They explain in their own words, humbly but eloquently, their anarchist principles of "autogestion" (self-management), and horizontalism, and their refusal to vie for government.

My only qualms with the book are that it gets to be somewhat repetitive, and could have been shortened by 50 pages without losing much detail. Also, as this is history from the grassroots, we never get a clear overview of the arc of the events of the late 90's and early 00's, or an explanation of how the movements fell short of their lofty goals, and what lessons were learned to help prepare for the next upsurge. And the lack of detail about the interviewees, such as age, class, occupation, family circumstances, prevents the speakers from fully coming alive in my mind the way that the interviewees of Studs Terkel or Robert Coles do.

But overall, this is a unique and valuable contribution to the literature on cutting edge of grassroots social struggle.

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