Argentina

La movilización social entre la crisis local y la crisis global

Abstract

The days of 19th and 20th December, 2001 marked a crucial turning point in the recent history of Argentina and significantly influenced the debates about the limits of neoliberal globalization and social responses to their introduction worldwide. The massive social mobilization that developed in those days, continued to condition the country’s political life for a long time, and made visible a situation of social explosions that could be traced without difficulty to previous years. In the academic social sciences, the enormous power and influence of popular mobilization attracted, perhaps belatedly, attention to the social phenomenon that crossed the country. In this paper we analyze the immediate background, context and characteristics of the unprecedented social mobilization that brought down the government of Fernando de la Rúa and the evolution of social groups and sectors that emerged in the following years, until the government Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Throughout this analysis, we question the categories of “new social movements” generally used in academic circles around the social situation in Argentina during this period, trying to reflect on their characteristics and their relationship with the profound consequences of neoliberal hegemony, the transformations in the working class and its organizations, and the emergence of an unprecedented social mobilization “of the right” to use street protest as leverage for real or imagined interests.