Crisis and Re-composition in Argentina. Assessing Peronist Transformismo

EMILIA CASTORINA

London University (London)

Conferencia; V Historical Materialism Annual Conference; 2008

Revista Historical Materialism

By analyzing the process of political re-composition and re-institutionalization that followed from the crisis of 2001-02, this paper aims at explaining: 1) the failure of the new social movements and overall the so-called new politics from “below” (the multitude/anti-power) based on autonomy and horizontalism to effectively resist Peronist transformismo; 2) the extent to which the crisis involved not a radical change in Argentine politics –as prophesied by the new Left- but a re-production of “old” politics (clientelism and patronage) in an unprecedented ways. At stake is a classic question for Leftist politics within a capitalist society, in general, and Peronist politics, in particular: how a contentious part of society which could have built a counter-hegemony was instead turned into a part of the existing structure of domination and, in some cases like the Piqueteros movement, co-opted into the existing power (state) apparatus and even used as a kind of “auxiliary private police” of Kirchner.