President Néstor Kirchner last week decided to soften his stance towards the piquetero movement, after floating, then ditching, a plan to create a special unarmed police brigade to disperse the roadblocks which are the piqueteros' main weapon. Though the government portrayed this as a shift from repression to dissuasion, the more radical piquetero organisations succeeded in depicting it as the second step in a repressive campaign that began with the order to prosecute those who had trapped the labour minister in his office (WR-03-42).
Underlining that the government has not dropped the charges related to that incident, nor has it agreed to their principal demand — an extension of the subsidies distributed among the unemployed — these piquetero groups announced that they would muster a crowd of 100,000 to protest in front of the Casa Rosada on 4 November.
The more radical piqueteros accuse the government of planning to break up their movement and dealing instead with the unions. There is an element of truth in this. Pressure by the piquetero organisations was the main force behind the official `heads of household' subsidy programme, which hands out Arg$150 (about US$52) a month to each of 2m households. The funds are allocated by local piquetero bosses, who have each built up their own clientele. The government's refusal to countenance any broadening of this programme is intended to prevent further growth of the clientelistic power enjoyed by the piqueteros.
Wielding power
The other manifestation of piquetero power is their ability to disrupt economic activity through their trademark roadblocks. Between 1997, when the movement first appeared, and last September, the constellation of piquetero groups is known to have staged 5,637 roadblocks. The peak year was 2002, with 2,336 roadblocks. In the first nine months of this year there were 961.
There is also an ideological element to the phenomenon. Rodrigo Conti, a journalist who has been monitoring the piquetero movement's development since its inception, and has recently published a book (Piqueteros: una mirada histórica), says, `This entire movement is linked to some political line, usually a leftwing one [...] I see a political future for the movement.' He emphasises that, `save some leaders, those who take part in the piquetes [roadblocks] are the excluded, who are suffering misery and hunger.'
That many have a motive to protest is quite evident: Argentina's open unemployment rate is 15.7%; 54.7% of the population live under the poverty line, and just under half of these are deemed to be indigent.
President Kirchner has held meetings with some piquetero organisations and made a show of granting requests linked to such initiatives as the creation of worker cooperatives to rescue failed businesses. His officials have even said they will study a demand for a lower value-added tax rate for such ventures. His strategy is presented as a response to the fact that there is among the unemployed `a sector more willing than others to work, to understand that the dynamics have changed and there is a state that is providing answers to their problems.'
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