Marina Sitrin

Decisions made by many people speaking at great length, as well as by raising political demands that the assembly must adhere to-such as an end to all imperialism and the creation of a workers’ state. Many people described to me a high level of frustration a bout this. The nature of the assemblies, which were based on trust and listening with respect, many say, opened the space for this problem. Party members used this to enter the assembly and talk or shout endlessly until many neighbors left out of frustration. Many explained that it was not that they were against the political demands raised per se, various autonomous movements around the globe have been created over the past decade-groups and gatherings including Peoples’ Global Action (PGA), the World Social Forum, Via Campesina, and Indymedia, to name j ust a few.

Many of these new global networks, such as PGA and Via Cam pesina, for example, were created and facilitated by participants pg 16
the street and meet others on the corner.

It isn’t that there was a deci­sion to be horizontal-it’s not that there was a decision to use direct democracy as if someone had j ust thought it up. It wasn’t a decision. We simply came together with a powerful rejection of all we knew. A strong rejection of political parties and their structures, a strong rejection of all those who represented the state or who wanted to occupy positions in the state. We made a specific decision that we are going to do things for ourselves. To understand right.

Let’s decide for ourselves. Let’s decide democratically, and if we do, then let’s explicitly agree that we’re all equal here, that there are no bosses, that we don’t want bosses, and that no one can lead us. We lead ourselves. We lead together. We lead and decide amongst ourselves . Someone said, this is horizontal, and well, yes this is horizontal because it’s not vertical.

We don’t want bosses, and because of this it isn’t vertical, but it isn’t part of any theory of hori­zontalidad or direct democracy. Like the cacerolazo, pg 44
things is to engage with real problems every day. Something that I remember from the first assemblies is that we vot­ed on millions of things, and then didn’t do any of them. We learned that to vote was really easy. It was like, ” yes, let’s do this, let’s go, ” but then no one did anything.

The issue came from the practice of the assem­blies. People got a little tired and frustrated and were like, ” why do you come and say these things. 50
verything else disappeared. Everything in Ar­ disappeared. Money disappeared, the institutions disappeared, and trust in leaders and government disappeared. The system had been becoming increasingly decadent, and then it was left naked. And it was a natural response, for people to begin to organize horizontally.  51

Some of the questions we discussed in this assembly were how to distribute yogurt and food, generally, as well as who we are in relation to others in the community, the assembly, and the merendero. We also asked ourselves if our getting the yogurt from donors gave us the power to decide who gets it and who doesn’t. Or if we should give it all out in one day, leaving no yogurt for the foll owing day. One of the propos­als we came up with, in light of these questions, was that those who eat at the merendero should also come with us when we ask people to donate yogurt and other food. We decided that we would all-children and adults-go together to ask for food. This was especially important for us because it reflected that we’re not the owners of the food, or in charge of the process of getting food.

I guess this is just one example of power relationships that are developing, and how we’re learning to think about them. It’s all a real process, and one that is created as we go. It takes time, and we’re changing bo
MABA: It’s like we were saying today, in the encuentro. We’re all so full of the habits of capitalism, it’s hard to shake them all off. Sometimes there’s a compaiiero that has just joined the movement and has never felt like a protagonist. Suddenly, they’re chosen as a delegate and they misun­derstand and think.

BUl, as we were saymg: autonomy, direct democracy, and horizontalidad are built. We don’t say, ” Today we’re all autonomists, we’re all horizontalists, and it’s a rule that has to be complied with. ” It’s a process. 67
water here. The water here made all of us sick to our stomachs. When all the grown-up Guaranies were working, clearing the jungle, Ledesema Corporation took the little twelve- and thirteen-year-old boys and put them to work early in the morning, while they were still sleepy. They made them plow with a mule, and sow seeds in the part that was cleared. Imagine with all the heat here! They put the little girls in a school with a white teacher, near where we were living. We weren’t allowed to speak Guarani-they taught us Spanish, instead-but we hid and spoke it anyway.

They wouldn’t let us grow our crops, though we tried to find time to plant and grow them anyway. They made the Guaranies clear all the jungle. I miss everything about the jungle [crying] . Even just to eat ­now I have to have money to go buy things at the supermarket-before my father would just bring home food, and we had enough to eat. You give your life. We ended up giving up our lives and everything, j ust so that this gigantic industry gets even bigger. 103

Political parties are the most pacifying commodities. It’s much more comfortable to vote, and to remain within the system of representative politics. It’s easier, for example to eat at McDonald’s when you can af­ford it, to drink Coca-Cola, and to blame the President, than to partici­pate in the day-to-day creative initiatives of the assembly, the piqueteros, the occupied centers and factories, indigenous communities, and other self-organized initiatives throughout Argentina. It’s much more comfort­able to complain and vote, and to vote and complain. 125
positive, nothing positive at all. Without land, there will never be anything positive; never in a thousand years or in 10,000 years. We should make this clear. I want the government to understand this. Without land we’re nothing. 132