Abstract
The objective of this chapter is to introduce the third constitutive internal nonterritorial dynamic shaping the formation of democratic subjectivities in a posttransition context: demanding. As with self-organizing and networking, I use demanding as a process that conveys activation, agency, and a complex political dynamic built through actions of ceaseless petition, authoritatively, to the authorities. The contention is twofold: 1) organizations showed the presence of foundational markers constructed within territorial struggles. Organizational demands were forged in connection with the territory. The FTV demanded housing; the MST demanded land reform; and the CUT and the CTA demanded union democracy, all of which were produced within defined territories of actions and interactions. Such struggles adopted the form of needs, lacks, grievances, and problems. 2) Single demands tended to be in hegemonic tension with demanding as a broader dynamic because of its deterritorializing effect, producing the development of a general struggle upon the resignification of specific petitions.
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Notes
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony & Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London: Verso, 1985).
Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance (London, New York: Verso 2007): 14.
Jacques Rancière, Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999): 59.
Elizabeth Jelin and Victoria Langland, “Prólogo De Las Compiladoras,” in Monumentos, Memoriales Y Marcas Territoriales, ed. Elizabeth Jelin and Victoria Langland (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 2003).
Sebastián Pereyra, “¿Cuál Es El Legado Del Movimiento De Derechos Humanos? El Problema De La Impunidad Y Los Reclamos De Justicia En Los Noventa,” in Tomar La Palabra: Estudios Sobre Protesta Social Y Acción Colectiva En La Argentina Contemporánea ed. Federico Schuster, et al. (Buenos Aires: Prometeo, 2005).
Juan Carlos Torre and Liliana De Riz, “Argentina Desde 1946,” in Historia De La Argentina, ed. John Lynchm, et al. (Barcelona: Critica, 2001).
Sue Branford and Jan Rocha, Cutting the Wire: The Story of the Landless Movement in Brazil (London: Latin American Bureau, 2002): 5
The agrarian reform was not something new in a country with one of the worst land distribution in the world, i.e., 1 percent of landowners own 50 percent of the land in Brazil. The Rural Leagues [Ligas Camponesas] represented the most recent historical antecedent, which despite their short life span (1954–1964) managed to introduce the debate about agrarian reform by promoting peasants’ political organization for the very first time in Brazil. See Clodomir Santos de Morais, “História Das Ligas Camponesas Do Brasil: 1969,” in A Questão Agrária No Brasil, ed. João Pedro Stédile (São Paulo Expressão Popular, 2006).
Horacio Martins Carvalho, “The Emancipation of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers within the Continual Movement of Social Emancipation,” in Another Production Is Possible: Beyond the Capitalist Canon, ed. Boaventura de Sousa Santos (London: Verso, 2006).
Merklen 1991 and 2001, in Maristella Svampa and Sebastián Pereyra, Entre La Ruta Y El Barrio: La Experiencia De Las Organizaciones Piqueteras(Buenos Aires: Biblos, 2003): 43.
Dolores Calvo, Exclusión Y Politica: Estudio Sociológico Sobre La Experiencia De La Federación De Trabajadores Por La Tierra, La Vivienda Y El Hábitat (1998–2002) (Buenos Aires Miño y Davila, 2006): 63.
1991: 28, cited in Cecilia Cross, “La Federación De Tierra Y Vivienda De La Cta: El Sindicalismo Que Busca Representar a Los Desocupados” in El Trabajo Frente Al Espejo: Continuidades Y Rupturas En El Proceso De Construcción Identitaria De Los Trabajadores ed. Osvaldo R. Battistini(Buenos Aires: Prometeo, 2004): 297.
M.E. Keck, “Brazil’s Workers Party: Socialism as Radical Democracy,” in Fighting for the Soul of Brazil, ed. Kevin Danaher and Michael Shellenberger (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995): 233.
Marieke Riethof, “Changing Strategies of the Brazilian Labor Movement: From Opposition to Participation,” Latin American Perspectives 31, no. 6 (2004): 32.
Margaret E. Keck, The Workers’ Party and Democratization in Brazil (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).
I use this nomination for the purpose of language economy and because it is widely used and accepted in the specialized literature. However, I am aware of the limitations related to oversimplification that it might convey regarding the relationship between trade unions and the state. Briefly, the notion verticalismo aims to characterize a type of pragmatic trade unionism rather than ideological, and which organizational model tends to prioritize a strong relationship with the state at the expense of a working-class autonomic positions. In addition, the type of trade unionism that falls under this category (usually Brazil and Argentina) is less likely to manage internal different opinions through pluralist methods, but to follow instead the unwritten code of practice dictated by values such as discipline and loyalty. For a good review of the matter, see Torcuato S. Di Tella, Perón Y Los Sindicatos: El Inicio De Una Relación Conflictiva (Buenos Aires: Ariel, 2003).
Maria Silvana Gurrera, “La Redefinición Del Conflicto Social. La Conformación De La Central De Los Trabajadores Argentinos (Cta),” in Ciudadanía Y Territorio: Las Relaciones Políticas De Las Nuevas Identidades Sociales, ed. Gabriela Delamata (Buenos Aires: Espacio, 2005).
Arturo Fernández, “Modificaciones De La Naturaleza Sociopolítica De Los Actores Sindicales: Hallazgos Y Conjeturas,” in Sindicatos, Crisis Y Después: Una Reflexión Sobre Las Nuevas Y Viejas Estrategias Sindicales Argentinas, ed. Arturo Fernández (Buenos Aires: Biebel, 2002).
Claudio Lozano, “Razones Para Un Convocatoria: Crisis En El Pensamiento. La Relevancia Del Debate Acerca Del Trabajo Y La Politica En La Sociedad De Fin De Siglo,” in Primer Encuentro Nacional Por Un Nuevo Pensamiento: El Trabajo Y Política En La Argentina De Fin De Siglo, ed. Claudio Lozano(Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 1999): 18.
De Gennaro, quoted in Isabel Rauber, Una Historia Silenciada: La Discusión Social Y Sindical En El Fin De Siglo (Argentina: Pensamiento juridico Editora, 1998): 111.
The perception of injustice has also been expressed by Kelly, Rethinking Industrial Relations: Mobilization, Collectivism and Long Waves (London and New York: Routledge 1998). He aims to construct a different intellectual agenda for the field of industrial relations. “Instead of starting from employers’ need for cooperation and performance or from the general problem of ‘getting the job done,’ it begins with the category of injustice,” ibid.: 126. His analysis is largely based on industrial societies seeking to explain mobilization in conditions of full employment. The context of my research is, in contrast, of high unemployment and extended levels of shadow economy. I share with Kelly the notion of mediation between the workers’ conditions and the perceptions experienced by workers in such conditions. The elaboration of this analytical differentiation remains critical. My understanding of the “sense of injustice,” however, departs from his view of employment relationships and its implications because he grants trade unions a privileged position over social movement organizations in the generation of collective action. The argument of this book is that collective action in the context of the posttransition in Argentina and Brazil lacks a privileged locus.
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© 2014 Juan Pablo Ferrero
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Ferrero, J.P. (2014). Demanding: The Political Effect of Social Demands. In: Democracy against Neoliberalism in Argentina and Brazil. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137395023_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137395023_6
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