Social Classes and Capital Accumulation in Recent Argentina: The 2008 Agrarian Conflict

In March 2008, the passage of a law to amend grain export taxes in Argentina led to a clash between rural organizations and the national administration. Given its characteristics and political consequences, this clash was one of the most significant events of the Kirchnerist administrations and one of the most outstanding agrarian conflicts in Argentine history. An analysis of it in the context of Argentina’s specific pattern of capital accumulation, in which land appropriation by the industrial sector is significant in explaining valorization capacity, shows how economic determinations affected the political actions of the pertinent social subjects and how the conflict was resolved in favor of the rural bloc. En marzo de 2008, la aprobación de una ley para modificar los impuestos a la exportación de granos en Argentina condujo a un enfrentamiento entre las organizaciones rurales y la administración nacional. Dadas sus características y consecuencias políticas, este choque fue uno de los más significativos durante las administraciones kirchneristas y uno de los conflictos agrarios más destacados de la historia argentina. Un análisis del mismo en el contexto del patrón específico de acumulación de capital en la Argentina, en el que la apropiación de la renta de la tierra por parte del sector industrial ayuda a explicar la capacidad de valorización, da cuenta de cómo los factores económicos afectaron las acciones políticas de sujetos sociales pertinentes y cómo fue que se resolvió el conflicto a favor del bloque rural.

El hecho educativo desde la perspectiva y experiencia de una maestra “normal” / The educational fact from the perspective and experience of a “normal” teacher

Dada la importancia que han tenido las escuelas normales en la historia argentina, el presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar el relato de una maestra formada en dichas escuelas -una maestra “normal”- acerca del hecho educativo a partir de las principales perspectivas teóricas de la sociología de la educación y, con el fin, de determinar qué tipo de enfoque predomina en este caso concreto. La metodología empleada para tal fin consiste en el análisis de una carta escrita por ella donde cuenta su experiencia como docente entre 1966 y 1979. Se trata de una docente que se recibió a mediados de la década del cuarenta en una escuela normal dependiente de la primera escuela normal del país fundada por Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a saber, la Escuela Normal de Paraná, creada por ley en 1869. Esta carta es analizada desde los enfoques teóricos más importantes de la sociología de la educación como el funcionalismo, el crítico-reproductivismo, el interaccionismo simbólico, la pedagogía crítica y la teoría de la resistencia. A modo de conclusión, se puede decir que, más allá de que existen contradicciones en la experiencia, en el relato de la docente se encuentra una visión del hecho educativo más cercana a la perspectiva funcionalista que a cualquier otra que impacta en sus prácticas. ABSTRACT Given the importance that normal schools have had in Argentine history, this article aims to analyze the story of a teacher trained in these schools -a “normal” teacher – about the educational fact from the main theoretical perspectives of the sociology of education and, in order to determine what kind of approach prevails in this specific case. The methodology used for this purpose consists in the analysis of a letter written by her where she talks about her experience as a teacher between 1966 and 1979. It is about a teacher who was received in the mid-1940s in a normal school that depended on the first normal school in the country founded by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, namely the Normal School of Paraná, created by law in 1869. This letter is analyzed from the most important theoretical approaches to the sociology of education such as functionalism, critical-reproductivism, symbolic interactionism, critical pedagogy and resistance theory. By way of conclusion, it can be said that, beyond the fact that there are contradictions in the experience, in the teacher’s account there is a vision of the educational fact that is closer to the functionalist perspective than to any other that impacts her practices.

‘Devenir compositeur’: Notes on the Insertion of Argentine Composers in the Contemporary French Music Scene (1970–2000)

This article studies a group of nineteen Argentinean composers who settled in Paris between 1970 and 2000. In addition to social and political factors of Argentine history – including the last military dictatorship (1976–83) and the 1989 period of ‘hyperinflation’ (1989) – these composers wanted to develop their careers in a professional field with the history, size, and diversity of Paris. Since the 1970s, France began a strong state policy supporting the arts; this action promoted a process of internationalization of Paris's artistic life. Contemporary music was viewed by participants and creators as an open and cosmopolitan space. Although the paradigm of autonomy suggests that nationality is less relevant than the individuality of each composer, the latter continues to function as an identity marker and, therefore, as a classification strategy both in France and in Argentina.

Familiar grammars of loss and belonging: curating trans kinship in post-dictatorship Argentina

On 24 March 1976, the Argentine military staged a coup d’état and established dictatorship. To eliminate radical left activists, the armed forces perpetrated mass civilian murder until democratic transition in 1983. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo emerged, protesting their children’s disappearance by mobilizing portraiture to make visible familial rupture and indict the state. This article examines the archival exhibit, Esta se fue, a esta la mataron, esta murió (2017), which displayed trans women’s vernacular photographs and family albums from the 1970s–1980s, the same years as dictatorship. Analyzing the exhibit’s curatorial choices and the photographs’ material and haptic qualities, this article reads the exhibit alongside the Mothers’ iconic activist visual culture and national narratives of family loss. In doing so, the author suggests the exhibit renders trans sociality familial and familiar to a national viewing public, thereby reinterpreting Argentine history by installing trans subjects as proper subjects of national mourning.

¿“Un paso hacia la libertad”? El anarcosindicalismo español ante el primer golpe de Estado en Argentina = “A step towards freedom”? The Spanish anarcho-syndicalism and the first coup d’etat in Argentina

Resumen: Este trabajo examina las representaciones del anarcosindicalismo español de un suceso trascendente de la historia argentina: el golpe de Estado de 1930, el primero desde la organización política definitiva de este país. En esta línea, analizo la recepción de las noticias sobre la situación política y social argentina, atendiendo a la evolución de una desconocida y llamativa simpatía por el golpe militar que se plantea inicialmente en las páginas de Solidaridad Obrera, el periódico de la CNT. Se adopta una perspectiva transnacional que tiene en cuenta los diálogos y relaciones entre las distintas tendencias anarquistas a ambos lados del océano y la incidencia del contexto político de cada país. De este modo, además de dar cuenta de los posicionamientos cambiantes de la CNT, el trabajo aporta elementos para examinar el poco conocido devenir del anarquismo argentino en este período.Palabras clave: Anarcosindicalismo español, Representaciones de la Argentina, Primera mitad de los años 30, Golpe de Estado de 1930, Relaciones transnacionales.Abstract: This paper examines the representations of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism of a pivotal event in Argentine history: the coup d'etat of 1930, the first since the final political organization of this country. In order to do so, I analyze the reception of the news about the political and social situation in Argentina, charting the evolution of an unexpected and striking sympathy for the military coup, initially presented in the pages of Solidaridad Obrera, the CNT newspaper. A transnational perspective is adopted, which take into account the dialogues and relationships between the different anarchist tendencies on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the impact of the political context of each country. Thus, in addition to providing an account of the changing positions of the CNT, the article also explores the little known development of Argentine anarchism in this period.Keywords: Spanish anarcho-syndicalism, Representations of Argentina, First half of the 1930s, Coup d'etat of 1930, Transnational relations.

El lado de afuera. Idea de la historia en "Historia argentina" de Rodrigo Fresán

El objetivo de este trabajo es reflexionar en torno a las categorías de pensamiento mediante las que se trata de aprehender la historia en el volumen, híbrido entre cuento y novela, Historia argentina, de Rodrigo Fresán, a partir de un análisis de las formas narrativas mediante las que se construyen los relatos, puesto que la estructura de la obra, a modo de cuentos que funcionan por resonancia, espejea la manera en que se concibe la historia. Para ello, parto fundamentalmente de las ideas de Ricardo Piglia acerca de la relación entre política y literatura, para quien la ficción reproduce el lenguaje del Estado y crea su reverso; y también acudo a las teorías de Eloy Fernández Porta, ensayadas en Afterpop, para deslindar la manera en que el uso de referencias pop en esta obra responde a una crítica de las formas de la cultura oficial. Por tanto, el punto de llegada de este trabajo consiste en el análisis de la revisión del lenguaje con el que se ha articulado la historia argentina, y la búsqueda de un lenguaje otro para escribir y aprehenderla en Historia argentina, tomando como idea central el concepto de distanciamiento, puesto que cifra la actitud, tanto emocional como intelectual, respecto a la escritura de la historia. The objective of this work is to reflect on the categories of thought through which it is a question of apprehending the history in the book, hybrid between story and novel, Historia argentina, by Rodrigo Fresán, from an analysis of the narrative forms through those that build the stories, since the structure of the work, by way of stories that work by resonance, reflects the way in which history is conceived. To do this, I fundamentally start form the ideas of Ricardo Piglia about the relationship between politics and literature, for whom fiction reproduces the language of the State and creates its reverse. And I also turn to the theories of Eloy Fernández Porta, studied in Afterpop, to demarcate the way in which the use of pop references in this work responds to a critique of the forms of official culture. Therefore, the objective of this work is the analysis of the revision of the language with which Argentine history has been articulated, and the search for another language to write and apprehend in Argentine history, taking as a central idea the concept of distancing, since it figures the attitude, both emotional and intellectual, regarding the writing of history.

“In Defense of Our Livelihoods”: Rethinking Authoritarian Legality and Worker Resistance during Argentina’s Proceso de Reorganización Nacional

This article examines a series of worker strikes that culminated in the takeover of the Deutz Argentina tractor factory in October 1980. These mobilizations occurred under the most violent military regime in modern Argentine history—the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (Process of National Reorganization, 1976–83)—yet they did not provoke legal or extralegal repression. Instead, over a week of highly visible conflicts, the Deutz workforce challenged the company’s decision to close the plant and publicly attacked the dictatorship’s economic policies and failure to defend Argentina’s national interest. This episode has been largely ignored within the history of labor relations during the Proceso. In this article, I advance two related arguments. First, I suggest that while several factors contributed to the lack of violence, the workers’ discourse demands serious analysis and shows important continuities with historical Peronist ideologies. Rather than passive victims or heroic revolutionaries, I demonstrate that Deutz workers pursued a pragmatic and occasionally aggressive strategy centered around ideas of patriotism, family, and religion—all ideas that the Armed Forces rhetorically celebrated. Second, I argue that this case challenges accepted notions related to the “state of exception” that nominally suspended the normal functioning of the law. Instead, I show, the law and legal precedent remained critically important to workers, trade unionists, management, and state actors as they navigated this situation. Labor legislation played a key role in the development, understanding, and resolution of the confrontation. This reading takes seriously the Proceso as a government and offers new insight into authoritarian legality.

Rock ’n’ Roll, Tango, and Italian Boogie-Woogie: Transnational Music and Immigrant Life in Buenos Aires

This article explores the immigration experiences of Italian migrants from the Campani region who travelled to and settled in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It does so by exploring their relationship to popular music throughout three periods in Argentine history: the rise of tango leading up to the First World War; the post-Second World War boom of ‘pop’ music and media; and the politicized Rock'n'Roll of the ensuing decades. Using these three periods as reference, the article argues that immigrants from the Campania region used music as a ripe field for negotiating and developing ideas of ethnic identity that traversed borders and oceans and created a transnational musical exchange.

Exile and Homecoming

This chapter discusses the lives of refugees who fled from Spain in 1939 and evaluates the significance of this transnational history on migration studies as well as Spanish and Argentine history. Population movements transfer more than just individual immigrants. They also transmit ideas from one nation to another. And since migration sometimes leads to a return, those ideas can come back, altered by experiences abroad, and affect the country of origin. If Argentina became a nation of immigrants, Spain became a nation whose returning immigrants helped to shape its history. In the end, each country proceeded on its own trajectory with regard to the working class. The death of Abad de Santillán death represented the severing of the final thread connecting the two worlds.