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AGRICULTURE-ARGENTINA: Rival Rallies Disagree On More Than Taxes

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 17 2008 (IPS) - Two major rallies took place in the Argentine capital, one for supporters of the government’s decision to increase the export tax on oilseeds, and the other for those in favour of farming associations, which have been opposing the tax measure for four months.

Earlier this week the four bodies representing farmers’ associations held a demonstration in the Palermo neighbourhood attended by 220,000 people. Opposition politicians and trade union activists critical of the government were in attendance.

Entire families, rural producers, employees in suits and ties and elderly people – from the country and city alike – attended the rally to listen to speeches by the main leaders of Argentina’s prosperous agricultural and livestock sector.

Meanwhile former President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) – husband of President Cristina Fernández and head of the governing Justicialista Party (PJ) – convened a mass rally attended by some 90,000 people in the Plaza de los Dos Congresos, in front of the national Congress.

Surrounded by ministers, governors and trade unionists, Kirchner proclaimed that the government “is not the enemy of farmers” who have experienced “unprecedented growth” during its term. But he had harsh criticism for those who “want to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.”

“We are at a point of inflection in the construction of a country with room for us all,” said Kirchner in defence of the tax increase on oilseed exports which unleashed passionate protests and a sharp fall in the popularity of the Fernández administration, which took office in December.

On a platform near the Monument to the Spaniards, surrounded by a public park in the Palermo neighbourhood, representatives of farmers’ associations criticised the government and demanded that senators create a law “that will solve the conflict,” in the words of Mario Llambías, leader of the Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA).

“We need a national agricultural and livestock plan,” said Alfredo de Angelis of the Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA) of small farmers. Meanwhile, his colleague Eduardo Buzzi called for “a different model for the country that will really solve poverty,” a proposal that goes beyond the specific demand to reduce export taxes.

Buzzi, head of the FAA, said that, “it is immoral that there are people being given 150 pesos [50 dollars] a month [as a subsidy for unemployed heads of household]. From some of us they take away, but to others they do not give.”

“I live in the capital and I don’t own any land, but I don’t agree with the way the president is handling all this,” Liliana Gorosito, attending the farmers’ rally, told IPS.

Carrying an Argentine flag, she said she rejected “the confrontation between Argentines” that the government, in her view, is inviting with the export tax increase. “This is not the way to do it, a government has to keep the peace and participate in dialogue,” said Gorosito, who said she was “a homemaker.”

Ada Iriarte, retired, remarked that in her youth the Justicialista government of Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955, 1973-1974) also had a confrontational policy towards middle and upper social sectors, “as though people had no right to earn a decent living.”

Another demonstrator, Daniel Pérez from Cañada de Gómez in the northeastern province of Santa Fe, told IPS that in his region, producers have “a lot of climate problems, on top of which we have to fight against these government measures.”

Pérez raises cattle on his 1,000-hectare ranch, but the number of head of cattle is constantly falling as restrictions on beef exports have increased. “I can’t say we’re doing better than in the 1990s – when ‘neoliberal’ free market economic policies were introduced – but I do say that now, when we have the opportunity to do better, the government won’t let us.”

Meanwhile, members of neighbourhood movements, especially women, young people and children, trade unionists and groups of intellectuals and professionals who are giving the government critical support at this juncture, were arriving at the pro-government rally.

“This is a headlong attack [on the government] by the so-called rural sectors, which goes beyond their sectoral claims,” Néstor Gaveta, of the Espacio Carta Abierta, a group of intellectuals, academics and artists who have been meeting, debating and making their views public since the crisis began.

“I criticise a lot of things about this government, but these sectors have gone beyond an economic demand to a political proposal for removal from office, which is very dangerous,” said Gaveta, who is a musician and singer. “The institutions must be preserved, and when a wealthy economic sector attacks like this, we must support the government.”

Gaveta was referring to the roadblocks put up during the farmers’ strike, which caused food shortages for several weeks, and to the attacks and protests in front of the homes of politicians and lawmakers because of their support for the new government policy.

A social movement member, 48-year-old Sara Pérez, told IPS why she was at the rally in spite of having “really bad back pain.” “We’re from a community centre in Barracas, near Villa 2 (the shanty town where she lives). The government supports our soup kitchen,” she said.

“I have worked all my life,” she said. She was a maintenance worker for Aerolíneas Argentinas, the national airline, and later a cleaner for a service firm contracted by the newspaper Clarín. “It was a phantom company, and in 2001 I was turned out on the street without a cent, just when the country was collapsing,” she said.

At that time, when Argentina was experiencing one of its worst ever economic crises, Pérez contacted Barrios de Pie, a social movement for unemployed people, which supports the present government. She has never made it back into formal employment. She receives a subsidy of 150 pesos a month and food aid, and she does community work.

“The farmers, who have already made a lot of money, could spare a thought for the poor who need to eat better, and have better education and health care. We still have very little. I haven’t been able to find a decent job,” said Pérez, now a widow and mother of six.