Forum response to “Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the ‘popular economy’ in Argentina”

Abstract

The current proletarian landscape in Argentina cannot be understood without tracing a genealogy in which the emergence of the piquetero movement at the beginning of this century stands out as a crucial moment of “insubordination.” Widely acknowledged in social movements themselves, the eruption of the piqueteros changed the terms of debate about work and dignity as necessarily tied to the wage, and also the nature of territorial location of worker political organization (see in particular Colectivo Situaciones and MTD de Solano, 2002). Such changes reflect the complex character of the so-called popular economy that prevails today in Argentina. The “popular economy” which incorporates forms work linked to self-management, work without a boss, and the invention of labor forms outside of the wage, a heterogeneous proletariat with diverse means of making a living has become a stabilize feature of the Argentine socio-economy. The emergence of such practices must be seen in historical terms as not being possible without the prior destabilization initiated by the social and popular protagonistic forces that fueled and sustained the crisis initiated in 2001.