Argentina: Human Rights Witness Goes Missing and is Released

Written by Marie Trigona Wednesday, 07 May 2008
Juan Puthod, a human rights activist was kidnapped in Argentina; his disappearance prompted an intense manhunt and concern from rights groups. This is the third case in as many years of a human rights witness going missing since Argentina opened up Dirty War trials investigating rights violations.

Just hours after his disappearance, the government launched a massive manhunt and human rights groups started a media campaign for information on the whereabouts of the human rights activist. Puthod, who survived the terror inside several clandestine detention centers during the dictatorship was kidnapped and later released. During his 28-hour disappearance his captors blindfolded him, beat him and threatened him to stop participating in the trials against former military officers for crimes they committed.

His kidnapping sent a chilling reminder of the crimes committed during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. At a press conference last week, Puthod gave details of his kidnapping. "One of the things my kidnappers told me was clear. They said, ‘buddy, you don’t understand that we still have your life in our hands. Even after 32 years, your life still belongs to us. We decide when you live and die. You haven’t understood the messages we’ve sent to you."

President Cristina Kirchner and Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli expressed immediate concern over Puthod’s disappearance. In a televised speech Kirchner said that the government was "very worried" over Puthod’s disappearance. Hundreds of police flooded the Buenos Aires province looking for traces of the victim. Puthod was found just blocks from offices dedicated to investigating crimes committed during the nation’s bloody military dictatorship.

Juan Puthod was set to testify in several high profile trials involving military personnel who served during Argentina’s so called dirty war. Just days after the March 24, 1976 military coup, Puthod was kidnapped by a commando group. During his detention, he was taken to seven clandestine detention centers. He was tortured so severely, he lost his left eye.

Unlike the previous case of Julio Lopez who went missing September 18, 2006 – police reacted quickly. Lopez, a retired construction worker and former political prisoner disappeared just hours before he was slated to give his final testimony on the eve of the conviction of the former police investigator, Miguel Etchecolatz. Human rights groups are pointing to provincial police with ties to the 1976-1983 military dictatorship for kidnapping the witness.

Sara Cobacho, Mother of Plaza de Mayo and provincial human rights secretary warned that left-overs from the military dictatorship could be behind Puthod’s disappearance. “Forced disappearance means pain, trauma and open wounds. Returning to kidnappings, with the kidnapping of Juan, even though it was brief doesn’t make it less traumatic. When someone goes disappeared, we already have the case of Julio Lopez, the perpetrators know that the disappearance of someone is the most traumatic act possible.”

Puthod was last seen leaving human rights offices dedicated to investigating crimes committed during the nation’s bloody 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Relatives and rights activists worry Puthod was kidnapped in order to silence him and other witnesses. The first disappeared witness Julio Lopez went missing September 18, the eve of the landmark conviction of Miguel Etchecolatz, the first military officer to be tried for crimes against humanity and genocide.

He was set to testify in several high profile trials involving military personnel who served during Argentina’s so called dirty war. Relatives and rights activists worry Puthod was kidnapped in order to silence him and other witnesses.

Since his initial detention during the dictatorship, Puthod has relentlessly dedicated his life to defending human rights. He has a weekly radio program, organizes human rights activities and volunteers at the Casa de la Memoria de Zarate, human rights offices dedicated to investigating crimes committed during the nation’s bloody 1976-1983 military dictatorship. He was set to testify in a mega-case investigating the forced disappearance of individuals in the Camp de Mayo, a giant clandestine detention center used to hide, torture and murder so-called dissidents during the dictatorship. The case looks at the force disappearance of 150 people.

Puthod was organizing a commemorative act for two young activists kidnapped and murdered during the dictatorship – Osvaldo Agustín Cambiasso and Eduardo Pereyra. They were kidnapped on May 14, 1983, by a commando group during the last reigning months of the dictatorship when the disappearance of people had almost ceased completely. Tied up, his captors interrogated Puthod on the commemorative act, asking who else was involved in the organization. "Whose idea was it to commemorate the deaths of Osvaldo Agustín Cambiasso and Eduardo Pereyra and why do you have to dig up the death of those two terrorists?" were just some of Puthod’s questions during their interrogation.

Luis Patti, an ex-police senior office has been investigated in the case of Osvaldo Agustín Cambiasso and Eduardo Pereyra. Luis Patti has served time for the crimes, but was later released. Patti, also a politician served as a suburban Mayor deputy in the 90’s In 2008, while Patti's actions during the 1970s were still under formal investigation, the Supreme Court of Argentina ruled against the decision of the Chamber of Deputies, saying that he should be allowed to take his seat in Congress. Another witness who went missing, Luis Gerez, had testified that Patti was in charge of torture sessions he endured. Gerez went missing in December 2006 for 48-hours, in which he was allegedly interrogated and physically attacked.

Relatives and rights activists worry Puthod was kidnapped in order to silence him and other witnesses testifying in human rights cases. More than 200 former military personnel and members of the military government have been accused of human rights crimes and are now awaiting trial.

An estimated 30,000 were disappeared during the so called dirty war. Justice is now legally possible since the Supreme Court nullified the amnesty for military leaders through the full-stop and due-obedience laws passed in the 1990’s. Much of the evidence has been researched by human rights organizations, with very little support from the government. As the perpetrators face trial 32 years on, key witnesses are disappearing and terror is back on the streets. How long will survivors have to put their lives at risk in order to bring their captors to justice? Rights groups worry that military operating from their VIP jail cells will try to end the human rights trials. Until impunity ends, justice will be unmet, a historic memory incomplete and a new generation of activists in danger.

Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and filmmaker based in Buenos Aires. She can be reached at mtrigona@msn.com

May Day and Workers Without Bosses

May Day special coverage:

Tomorrow there is an FSRN May Day special. Just go to www.fsrn.org to download the program or play off of the KU Satellite feed during normal FSRN broadcasts.

Thursday, May 1, 2008: May Day Documentary Special

On a special May Day 2008 broadcast, we'll hear from worker's struggles around the world. We go to New York, where Abdulai Bah introduces us to domestic workers and day laborers asserting their rights and demanding justice. We'll hear from Rami Al-Meghari in Gaza,where worker's options are grim after the shutting down of nearly 4,000industries due to Israel's closure of the territory since June 2007.Garegin Khumaryan takes us to villages in Georgia where an entire generation of children have no idea what their fathers look like – as their fathers have had to leave to faraway lands to find work. Finally, Marie Trigona gives us a tour of one of Argentina's best-knownworker-run enterprises: theBAUEN Hotel in Buenos Aires.

Also you can read about the struggle of the BAUEN Hotel in a Znet commentary

Argentina's Recuperation Movement: The struggle to work without a boss continues

http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3477
Who wants to work for a boss? I'm guessing that most people would say no.Since the birth of capitalism,workers' movements have pondered the utopian dream of liberating the working class from exploitive bosses.Argentina has been home to a phenomenon called recuperated enterprises.When the owner decided to shut down a factory or business, workers decided to save their jobs and physically occupy their workplace.Overtime the worker takeovers caught on. Today more than 200 worker run businesses are up and running. In the very heart of Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, workers at a 20story hotel are making this utopian dream a reality.

I hope everyone is well and in the streets on this very important May Day.

For an 8 hour work day!
Long live the Chicago Martyrs!

Argentina’s Soy Storm: Tensions Rising Among Farmers

Written by Marie Trigona Friday, 18 April 2008
Argentina has often been described as the bread basket of the Southern Cone, with plenty of fertile land for grains and cattle. In fact, the economy is based on agro-exports. But with soy production taking over massive tracks of land, producing food crops for domestic consumption has become an increasing challenge for the resource rich South American nation. With world food prices soaring, soy critics worry about Argentina’s ability to feed its own people at affordable prices.

The debate over soy has riveted the country, and has proven to be a major crisis for the first woman elected president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner. The president's decision to increase the export tax on soy has been in the eye of the storm.

Crippling Farmers’ Strike

The government implemented a tax on soy exports at a rate of 45%, up from 35% in early March. Farmers became angry and went on strike. For more than 20 days the nation-wide farmers’ strike paralyzed food deliveries. The strikers, demanding that the government roll back the tax hike, threw the country into turmoil for much of March. Supermarket shelves were scarce and meat coolers in butcher shops were completely empty for nearly two weeks. The strike had almost entirely blocked food supplies from being delivered to Buenos Aires, the nation’s capital. Farmers finally suspended the strike for 30 days in late March to facilitate negotiations with the government. Had the strike continued, city residents could have further suffered from real food shortages and skyrocketing prices.

Global soy prices have soared in recent years, making the agro sector the nation’s most profitable. Cristina Kirchner’s soy export tax is a policy carried over from her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, who upped the tax to 35% as an emergency measure to revive the economy after the 2001 crisis. According to political economist Atilio Boron, the tax hike hit small farmers while large land owners could afford to move production to more lucrative nations like Brazil. Boron says the tax hike was uncalled for: "The country is not in an emergency. Argentina has a strong financial base, more than 50 billion dollars in liquid reserves in the central bank, which is a lot. The taxes are still going on."

In response to the farmers’ strike, president Kirchner has vowed not to back down on the tax hike. This is the biggest conflict so far in president Kirchner’s first 100 days in office, especially after upper-middle class citizens poured into the streets of Buenos Aires banging pots and pans in opposition to the president and in support of the farmers. Feeling pressured from the opposition, Kirchner held a massive pro-government rally in downtown Buenos Aires. She slammed the farmers, accusing them of destabilizing the economy and social order.

Farmers’ Plight

The farmers were enraged at Kirchner’s attacks against soy producers. "Most people blockading the highways were people who make their living with a lot of effort, hard work and sacrifice, it is unfair to tax the little guy," explains Boron. How much money has the soy tax made? In 2006 with the 35% tax, the government collected $11 billion in soy taxes.

On the farmers’ side, small and mid-sized agro producers organized the blockades in what they said was a reaction to a tax that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The tax hike is hammering small farmers, who have had increased costs in fertilizers and fuel. In an unusual pact, the large land owners allied with small farmers during the farmers’ strike. These two sectors have historically despised each other.

Along the nation’s highways, soy farmers stopped trucks transporting food goods from arriving to market. However, large land owners which own more than 500 hectares of land were not the leading protagonists in the barricades. Small farmers who control only 20% of Argentina’s agro production made the farmers’ plight a national conflict.

Hector Bitonte is one of those farmers who blocked a major highway leading from the nation’s grain harvesting cradle to Buenos Aires. He says that the new 44% tax is unfair for small farmers already struggling with increased costs in soy production. "I was hurt by the food that was thrown out due to the blockade. It’s bad for the country. The strike is a hard action to take -- but how many years have we suffered tax increases? The latest tax was the last straw. Either we disappear as farmers or we take this action to see if the government reacts with policies in favor of small farmers."

Soy, Rising Inflation and Food Prices

Argentina is a leading producer of soy and grains at the global level, trailing the United States and Brazil as leading soy producers. In 2006, Argentina produced more than 47 million tons of soy. Top soil erosion and pollution caused from pesticides and fertilizers have been just some of the side effects to soybean plantations which have expanded exponentially at a rate of 10% annually. More than 550,000 acres of forest land are cleared each year for soy production. The situation is so severe that the National Agro Tech Institute studies predict that in 10 years 70% of Argentine land will become desert.

Economists worry that mono-crop production like soy for plant-based fuels and feed will cause food prices to soar in Argentina, where food inflation continues to rise over 15% annually. During the strike, millions of liters of milk were dumped and millions of chicks were drowned for lack of chicken feed. The strike has had a significant impact on the prices on many goods like meat, chicken, vegetables, and dairy products. Consumers may have to pay high prices on these products for months to come. The strike may also have sparked inflation, which was already rapidly rising. The government’s official inflation rate is 10%, but independent analysts put the rate at 20%.

Cristina Kirchner thought it would be easy to target large soy producers who historically have been characterized as detested oligarchs. Unlike other parts of Latin America, farming is high tech in Argentina, mostly mechanized and creating few jobs. Kirchner claimed that the commodity boom can be used to redistribute wealth to Argentina’s eight million poor. She also raised concerns over Argentina’s ability to feed its people, the environmental effects of soy and checking inflation on food products.

Could the farmers’ conflict be a warning sign that Argentina could be poised for a food crisis? Even the International Monetary Fund is beginning to plead governments to "tackle the extremely serious" problem before wars are triggered over food shortages. With riots in Haiti, violent bread lines in Egypt, tortilla wars in Mexico and severe shortages in Zimbabwe, the world must brace itself for a culminating global food crisis.

In Argentina, there is rising alarm over the cost of food and the depleting supply of domestically produced food stuffs. The production of Argentina’s famous beef has plummeted in recent years. Many producers simply see soy farming as more profitable and lucrative, especially as speculations over global prices continue to increase due to the biofuels market. Grain production for biofuels could make the world wide price of food skyrocket 76% by 2020. More than 90% of Argentina’s soy is exported. Argentines do not eat soy, and as the production of meat, milk and vegetables continues to decline, the likelihood of a major food crisis in Argentina grows.

Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and filmmaker based in Buenos Aires. She can be reached at mtrigona@msn.com. All photos by Trigona.

From sweat shop to co-op

By Marie Trigon
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
For some, it may come as a surprise that Buenos Aires's fashion industry relies on slave labor. Even with Argentina's miraculous economic revival, the practice of using undocumented immigrants as slave laborers in sweat shops continues. An estimated 400 clandestine shops operate in Buenos Aires. And tens of thousands of undocumented Bolivians work in these unsafe plants.

Diseases like tuberculosis and lung complications are common due to the subhuman working conditions and constant exposure to dust and fibers. Many workers suffer from back injuries and tendonitis from sitting at a sewing machine 12 to 16 hours a day.

One worker, Naomi Hernández, joined the Union of Seamstress Workers "UTC", an assembly of undocumented textile workers, after escaping a sweat shop.

"For two years I worked and slept in a three square-meter room along with my two children and three sewing machines my boss provided. They would bring us two meals a day. For breakfast a cup of tea with a piece of bread and lunch consisting of a portion of rice, a potato, and an egg. We had to share our two meals with our children because according to my boss, my children didn't have the right to food rations because they aren't workers and don't yield production."

She reported the subhuman conditions in her workplace and was subsequently fired.

Taking on sweat shops

Who would think that a Sunday social gathering could transform into a movement to fight sweat shops? For many Bolivian immigrants residing in Argentina, it was a question of survival. What began as a Sunday family outing grew into an organizing space for undocumented immigrants forced to work in subhuman conditions inside clandestine textile shops.

In the midst of Argentina's 2001 economic crisis, local assemblies sprouted throughout Buenos Aires. One assembly in particular dedicated its efforts to fighting slave-like conditions for undocumented immigrants. In the working class neighborhood of Parque Avelleneda, Bolivian workers began to meet on Sunday's at The Alameda Assembly.

Co-op and the road ahead
The Alameda Assembly is a busy place. Aside from the soup kitchen which provides a nutritional meal for dozens of men, women and children, it also houses the Alameda Workers Cooperative. Workers who escaped sweat-shops formed the in 2006.

The men and women who work at this coop have equal wages and work a maximum of 8 hours a day. They make decisions in a collective assembly. For Olga Cruz, working in a cooperative means that there's not a foreman or boss who takes away the profits and pays workers pennies.
"The worker is the one who has the most work and knowledge. They have to sew and give the garment its shape. The manufacturers and foremen of the big brands only know how to design, they don't know how to sew, which is the hard part." Now the cooperative is creating its own designs. T-shirts and sweat shirts display graphics with lettering, "a world without slaves - eight-hours period." With the help of a local fashion designer the co-op is set to launch its very own brand: Mundo Alameda. The UTC has also proposed that clandestine textile shops be shut down and handed over to the workers to manage them as co-ops and, ultimately, build a cooperative network that can bypass the middlemen and the entire piece-work system.

Thirty Two Years Later, Argentines Still Seeking Disappeared

Written by Marie Trigona Thursday, 27 March 2008

Argentina marked the 32nd anniversary of the nation’s 1976 military coup on March 24. An estimated 30,000 were disappeared during the so called dirty war. Thirty two years later, the bodies of the disappeared still remain to be found and identified. Since 1984, a team of anthropologists, The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, has investigated human rights violations committed by bloody military junta.
Open wounds

In the offices of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, Pedro Cerviño overlooks the remains of his sister who was kidnapped by the military in 1976. María Teresa Cerviño was murdered and buried in a cemetery in a Buenos Aires suburb. Cerviño and an anthropologist touch the bones laid out on a table as if they were transported 30 years into the past.

The Anthropologist gives the gruesome details of María Teresa’s death. The hands and feet of the skeleton are missing. She says that it was common for the military to cut the hands off of the disappeared before burying them in unmarked graves in cemeteries. From the marks on the skull it is apparent that before her death she received several injuries to the head.



"With the disappearance there’s a perverse feeling of not knowing. Not knowing what happened, if the person is dead or alive," says Luis Fondebrinder. Luis Fondebrider has worked as a forensic anthropologist with the The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) since its founding. The EAAF has identified the remains of 300 disappeared since 1984.

The anthropologist says the identification of remains allows family members to have closure after 30 years of searching. "It’s a cultural and psychological need of having certainty. It also allows for family members to know their loved ones are dead and to recover the bodies and to hold funeral services depending on the religion and culture. It allows for them to close a period of so many years of pain and anguish."

Anthropological and forensic methods

In this past year the team identified 45 bodies. The team completes three stages to identify the remains of the disappeared. The most extensive is the preliminary research, the research of documents from the dictatorship and the state such as archives from cemeteries and intelligence reports carried out by the Argentine State. The second stage is a reconstruction of events based on interviews with family members and witnesses that allows the forensic anthropologist to develop a hypothesis of events and where the body may be buried. The final stage is the scientific field work in excavation sites.

Much of the team’s work has helped to reconstruct the historical void surrounding the Argentine military dictatorship’s organization and methods. In order to disappear 30,000 the military dictatorship organized an extensive network of clandestine detention centers and methods of terror. Human Rights groups have investigated the existence of 375 clandestine detention centers that operated throughout the South American nation.

The "Vuelos del Muerte" (Flights of Death) were the military dictatorship’s most common method of terror – drugging dissidents and dropping them from planes into the Atlantic Ocean. Many of the bodies have never been found, let alone identified. The Argentine military weren’t as careless as the Nazis, they did not regularly use mass graves to dispose of bodies, although they adopted the fascist ideologies and methods of mass extermination. To date, two mass graves have been discovered. When the disappeared were buried, their remains were put into unmarked graves in cemeteries.

Bringing back identity

Family members and fellow activists carry the remains of María Angelica Pinto Rubio to a cemetery in Buenos Aires. María Angelica Pinto Rubio was disappeared in 1977 at 21 years of age. Her sister Margarita reads a memorial letter at the funeral in 2007. "For 30 years the military wanted us to believe the families were responsible for our brothers’ and sisters’ disappearances. For 30 years they wanted to take away María Angelica’s identity, transforming her into a Jane Doe."

While choking back tears that carry 30 years of pain and longing, Margarita commemorates María Angelica along with Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and fellow activists. "Thanks to the struggle and the work of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team we were able to bring back a face, name and history of struggle for our dear María Angelica. Today we can say, María Angelica, disappeared social activist, disappeared for believing that our country had to be more just. We can say María Angelica you’re present now and forever."

Thanks to the work of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team relatives and fellow survivors can bring closure to a painful past. The team has allowed relatives and fellow activists to bring back the identity of the disappeared – every single one of the disappeared has a name, a history, commitment to social justice – each one of them gave their lives in the struggle for a better world.

Thirty two years of impunity

Thirty two years after Argentina’s bloody military junta human rights groups and relatives continue to demand justice for the crimes against humanity committed during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. "The identification of the disappeared also gives objective evidence to the courts in the trials of those responsible for these crimes," says Fondebrinder.
Justice is now legally possible since the Supreme Court nullified the amnesty for military leaders through the full-stop and due-obedience laws passed in the 1990’s. Much of the evidence has been researched by human rights organizations, with very little support from the government. More than 200 former military personnel and members of the military government have been accused of human rights crimes and are now awaiting trial. However, groups worry that the trials are advancing at a snail’s pace.

Emi Dambra is the mother of two disappeared. She does not know where the remains of her son or daughter are located. According to Dambra, those responsible for leading the bloody military junta should be put behind bars. "We want to know what happened to each one of the victims, we want the people who organized this slaughter to be put in regular jails, with life sentences."
The EAAF has launched a national campaign for DNA testing of relatives of the disappeared to help in the identification of 600 unidentified skeletons the team has excavated from unmarked graves throughout the country. From preliminary investigations, the team believes the bodies belong to individuals disappeared by the military dictatorship.
To learn more about the work of The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team visit http://www.eaaf.org/
Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and video maker based in Buenos Aires. She can be reached at mtrigona@msn.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Her website is http://mujereslibres.blogspot.com/

32 Years Later, Argentina Still Seeking its Disappeared

Argentina marks the 32nd anniversary of the start of the nation's 1976 military coup today. An estimated 30,000 people were disappeared during the so-called dirty war. More than three decades later, the bodies of many of the disappeared have yet to be found and identified. FSRN's Marie Trigona reports from Buenos Aires on the work of a team of anthropologists that investigate human rights violations.

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On film and inspiration

Film is an incredible medium, one that over a century at work continues to inspire and amaze humanity. This year I have relied a lot on film. Moments when I needed to escape from my day to day happenings, moments when I needed to feel anguished, and moments when I needed inspiration. I thought it would be fun to inaugurate my blog with a list of the best films of 2007. These are not all new films, just films that I saw in 2007. Some of these films are political, others just inspired me.

Requiem, directed by Hans Christian Schmid

Social, religious and family pressures envelop a young woman who fights a mental illness. The film Requiem follows 21-year-old Michaela, who tries to find her independence knowingly plagued by mental problems. Ultimately, religion and family kills Michaela who is left untreated and subjected to a number of exorcisms.

This film treat’s Michaela’s struggle for independence as a struggle for survival. I identify with the main protagonist’s struggle against guilt, religious traditions and family pressures. This beautiful film reminded me that it is not easy for young woman (and men) to break free from societal pressures and oppression.

Midwinter night’s dream, Directed by Goran Paskaljevic

A man recovers from war and prison with the love of an autistic child and her mother. An ex-convict (Lazar) returns home after 10 years in prison when he finds a young mother and her autistic child living as squatters in his childhood home. He wants to kick them out, but changes his mind after seeing the horrid conditions of the shelter where they must go. They soon form a makeshift family. Lazar soon finds inner peace from his violent self-destructive past through love.

This film gave me hope that lives and destinies can turn around for the better. But it has a tragic end, which reminds us that

Salvador (Puig Antich), Directed by Manuel Huerga

A profile of the life of anarchist and expropriator Salvador Puig Antich who was executed under the dictatorship of Fransico Franco. This is the quintessential political film of this year. This film inspires direct action and struggle against the state with un relentless support of Puig Antich’s actions. Puig Antich became involved in the MIL- clandestine anarchist cell robbing banks to distribute funds to workers’ struggles in the hopes of finally overthrowing the Franco dictatorship. He was a fervent anti-capitalist and grass roots militant.

The films’s photography, music score and script re-invent the passionate story of Salvador Puig Antich who dedicated his life to liberate generations from oppression. This film destroyed me and inspired me at the same time. I loved the film’s unrelenting support of the protagonists’ ideals and decision to raise up arms against the Franco regime. A very important film in conserving the historical memory of resistance and liberation.

Eden, Michael Hofmann

This is a silly tale about a woman who falls in love with a fat man’s gift of cooking. I would fall in love with any man who cooked liked this main character in Garden of Eden. Gregor is a man obsessed with cooking but a little lonely in his inspirational quest for making his restaurant goers squirm in ecstasy. His restaurant would be my quitessential dream – either to work there or to eat there. His aphrodisiac inspired restaurant has only three tables, and clients must wait up to a year to enjoy the delicacies served. From afar he becomes infatuated with a waitress from a local café, Leonie. She is uninspired in her marriage and wants more children. When she meets Gregor they begin an innocent but complicated love based on Gregor’s ability to fill her with happiness and food. But as in most films, the plot thickens as each protagonist must face the bleak realities. Gregor is unattractive. Leonie is trapped in a marriage with a sexist, aggressive but charming guy.

This is the best food movie of the year. It will make you hungry for exquisite food and for someone to share it with. The power of food is profound, so strong the unimaginable can happen over a plate of wonderful food.

Lady Bird Lady Bird, Directed by Ken Loach

Never in my life has one film made me cry so much. Within the first minutes of Lady Bird I began to cry and didn’t stop for two days. This film demonstrates the violence and ineffectiveness of any state to decide what is best for children or mothers.

The title of the film comes from the nursery rhyme, ‘Lady Bird, ladybird, Fly away home, Your house is on fire, And your children all gone,’

Lady Bird begins with the life of Maggie, the troubled mother of four children, all of whom have different fathers. English social service workers have taken away all of her children. In the film’s opening, Maggie meets Jorge, an immigrant from Paraguay. During her introduction to gentle Jorge, she tells him of her past. An abusive father and subsequent abusive partners. She lost her children to social services after she left her children home in government-housing to go out singing. The film doesn’t take sides, simply lets the audience make decisions whether Maggie is a fit mother. The patient and calm Jorge falls in love with Maggie and as they begin their relationship they also begin their fight to get back Maggie’s children. When Maggie and Jorge have their first child, it is taken away. It happens yet again, in a scene of hopelessness and grief. A social service worker comes to remove the newly born from Maggie’s arms in her hospital bed. But Maggie and Jorge continue on in their struggle to get back their children. Years and years of struggle with little results.

Arna’s Children, Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel Danniel

Quite possibly the best documentary I have ever seen, because of the film’s complexity, narrative and political commitment.

ARNA'S CHILDREN tells the story of a theatre group that was established by Arna Mer Khamis. Arna comes from a Zionist family and in the 1950s married a Palestinian Arab, Saliba Khamis. On the West Bank, she opened an alternative education system for children whose regular life was disrupted by the Israeli occupation. The theatre group that she started engaged children from Jenin, helping them to express their everyday frustrations, anger, bitterness and fear. Arna's son Juliano, director of this film, was also one of the directors of Jenin's theatre. With his camera, he filmed the children during rehearsal periods from 1989 to 1996. Now, he goes back to see what happened to them. Yussef committed a suicide attack in Hadera in 2001, Ashraf was killed in the battle of Jenin, Alla leads a resistance group. Juliano, who today is one of the leading actors in the region, looks back in time in Jenin, trying to understand the choices made by the children he loved and worked with. Eight years ago, the theatre was closed and life became static and paralysed. Shifting back and forth in time, the film reveals the tragedy and horror of lives trapped by the circumstances of the Israeli occupation.

New films from Grupo Alavío

Buy a DVD and support Grupo Alavío!

Grupo Alavío would like to send a special holiday greeting and give a special fund raising appeal. Keep the group’s video production and website Ágora TV up and running by purchasing a DVD. We are completely viewer-funded and volunteer based: your contributions help us to produce ground breaking videos from the Third World. Ágora TV provides a radical space for cutting edge video activists all over Latin America.

Ágora TV is a community television production collective that currently broadcasts over the internet. The project reaches a global audience of grassroots activists and citizens tired of status quo media. We work on issues including Argentina’s recovered factory movement, labor conflicts,social movements, indigenous struggles, and gender equality. The Buenos Aires-based video collective Grupo Alavío built the website (www.agoratv.org) in 2006 as an organizing tool and alternative media space for groups that would not otherwise have access to the airwaves.

For more than 15 years, Grupo Alavío has participated in working-class struggles and dedicated efforts to supporting them with social and political documentaries. Making technologies and skills accessible and available to exploited sectors by democratizing audiovisual production is a priority of Grupo Alavío. Through Ágora TV, Grupo Alavío is radically changing how media is created, managed, and distributed.

All films have English subtitles and are in U.S. DVD format. Shipped from the US.

Cost: $15 plus shipping for individuals, $30 plus shipping for universities

Contact: Marie Trigona

mtrigona@msn.com

FILMS available for purchase:

1. Chilavert Recovered, 38 minutes, 2004 Newly released withENGLISH SUBTITLES

Chilavert is a leading member of the 'recovered factories' movement which developed during the collapse in 2001 when many factories in Argentina were taken over by the workers. As the owner of a printing plant began to shut it down and turn it over to his creditors, the workers seized control and formed the Chilavert Cooperative. The documentary gives a realistic overview of the recuperation movement and workers’ self-management.

2. Obreras en lucha (The struggle of Brukman workers).Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

This documentary tells the story of the' recuperation' of Brukman textile factory in Buenos Aires by its workers, after its owners decided to close it down in December 2001. Workers (most of them women) decided to occupy the plant on December 18, 2001to protest their reducing and delayed salaries. Only two days after, the economic and political crisis exploded in Argentina.This documentary contains impressive images of the expulsion of the workers from the factory by the police in 2003, the massive popular protests which followed and the brutal repression with which Duhalde's government replied. it contains as well interviews with workers and images from the assemblies at the factory.

3. Hotel BAUEN: Workers’ Cooperative

20min, 2004 Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

The Hotel BAUEN was an emblematic symbol of neoliberalism in Argentina.The hotel was constructed in 1978, in the glory of the military dictatorship, with government loans and subsidies. In the height of Argentina’s economic meltdown, the owners ransacked the hotel and closed the hotel’s doors,leaving the workers in the streets. In March 21, 2003the workers decided to occupy the hotel. The workers cleaned up the hotel and slowly began to rent out services. With over 150workersemployed at the hotel, BAUEN hotel has become a symbol for the working class.

4. Zanon (Constructing resistance)

18min, 2003, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Argentina’sPatagonian province of Neuquén,is home of the Zanon ceramics factory.In 2001 Zanon’s owner fired the workers and abandoned the factory forgreener pastures. After resisting outside the plant, the group ofworkers decide collectively to recuperate and put the plant to produce.Since 2001, the workers at Zanon have occupied and managed the plant,which is Latin America’s largest ceramics factory. In the film, Zanonceramists narrate their day-to-day work, struggles and hopes tocontinue production under worker control.

5. La Foresta belongs to the workers

52min, 2005 Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

The film tells the story of a group of workers who are fighting to recuperate La Foresta meatpacking plant in La Matanza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires city. Most of the factory’s employees have worked their for decades, through the good times and bad times. In 1999, the plant went bust, a series of businessmen rented the facilities, making quick profits and then abandoning the factory for greener pastures. Grupo Alavío’s film follows the 70 workers who’ve put up a legal fight to keep their factory and start up production without a boss or owner,under worker-self management.

6. Music in Solidarity with Zanon,

90min, 2005 Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

This film was produced as part of a video work shop for the workers. Musicin solidarity with Zanon: musicians León Gieco, Rally Barrionuevo, Ciro(Ataque 77) and other artists performed a concert in December, 2004. The workers organized the super event, with more than 10,000 supporters from the community of Neuquén.

7. Argentina:30 years after the military dictatorship (compilation of short films)

Letter to the Military Junta, 6min, 1996

Rodolfo Walsh wrote the “Open Letter to the Military Junta”on the first anniversary of the military coup in 1977 reporting the tortures,mass killings, and thousands of disappearances. The political writer was disappeared just one day after the letter was distributed. This 6minute video essay reconstructs Walsh’s powerful report, imagery from the bloody dictatorship and the writer’s disappearance.

Escrache a Videla, 12min, 2006

Events to mark the 30 years since Argentina's military junta kicked off with an escrache or “exposure” protest against the coup's first dictator,Jorge Rafael Videla. Over 10,000 people participated in the protest in front of Videla's home, where he is under house arrest in connection with numerous charges of human rights abuse. Human rights group H.I.J.O.S. brought a crane and gave the ending remarks directly in front of Videla's fifth floor apartment.

Memories of Struggle and Resistance: Rio Santiago Ship Yard, 10min, 2006

The dictatorship attempted wiped out an entire generation of working-class resistance, which the nation decades later is still recovering.This year for the first time, over 1,500 workers from the Rio Santiago ShipYard in Buenos Aires commemorated the ship yard's 48 disappeared.

8. Compañeras

45min, 2005, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Compañeras brings together four working women who give testimony of their lives and daily struggles. MAGDALENA,works on a small farm in the province of San Juan. KARINA is a train conductor. REGINA lives n VillaFiorito, she collects cardboard from the streets, classifies and then sells it. NINA is a militant from the 70’s, during which she exiled from Argentina to Nicaragua and participated in the Sandanista revolution. Stories that mix with other history, women who revindicate their identity as workers, but without easing to be mothers, without giving up the struggle, continuing to be compañeras.

9. The Face of Dignity, Memories of MTD Solano

58 minutes, 2002, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

In the shambles of an economically ruined Argentina,a new practice of protest emerged, blockading roads. Since 1997, what is now known as the unemployed workers movement has taken root. Without access to the factory and utility of tools for liberation—strike,sabotage, and occupying the factory, unemployed workers sought out new practices for struggle. Unemployed confronted globalization by fighting for jobs. One of the most important experiences that emerged in these years was Unemployed Workers Movement-MTD (Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados) in Solano (inside Quilmes, a city in the province of Buenos Aires). MTD's formation was based on the principles of horizontalism, direct democracy, autonomy from the state and power, and the integral political formation among members. Work, popular education, democratic debate of ideas, sharing life in the struggle for work, dignity and social change are some of this memory's content.

10. For a 6 hour workday

20min, 2004, Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Reducing the workday to six hours with a salary increase for all workers would create jobs for more than 3 million unemployed and lift many out o poverty. Subway workers who have been organizing wildcat strikes for salary increases have spearheaded Argentina's movement for a six-hour workday. In 2003, subway workers (in all sectors from ticket office to train drivers) won a six-hour workday.Since this victory,subway workers, other labor conflicts, economists and unemployed workers organizations have formed a movement for a6-hour workday for all workers, with increased salaries.

11. Organizing Resistance (Chronicles of Freedom, Martin,Recuperating Our Work) Spanish with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Chronicles of Freedom (organizing resistance) , 45min, 2002

June26, 2002two activists Darío Santillán-22 and Maximiliano Kosteki-25from Argentina’s unemployed workers’ movement were killed during a road blockade of Pueyrredón Bridge in police repression. The repression was part of a known and announced government plan to control growing social protest. 33 were wounded from lead bullets, 160detained and hundreds injured from rubber bullets. Unquestionably,the deaths and repression have left an unforgettable mark on the movement—generating internal debates and self-criticisms. Chronicles of Freedom includes interviews on the right to identity, self-defense and organizing to confront state repression.

Martín, 2002, 7 minutes

Synopsis: Martín, 27 years old, Argentine, brother, compañero from the barrio Floridai n Solano was killed during a fight with a neighbor. The experimental narration explores inner-violence and questions the absurdity of the system’s violence that is imposed on us.

Recuperando nuestro trabajo, 2003, 18min

Argentina's worker occupied factory movement has been an example of resistance for workers all over the world. In response to the process of deindustrialization and flexible labor markets, thousands of workers have said enough to exploitation of the working class by bosses and owners.

Plan Condor: Crimes without borders in Latin America

Znet

By Marie Trigona

Former military dictator Jorge Rafael Videla and 16 other military leaders in Argentina will be prosecuted on charges of conspiring to kidnap and kill political activists in a scheme known as Plan Condor, developed by Henry Kissinger and George Bush Sr., head of the CIA at the time. Dictators in Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina killed opponents in the 1970s and 80s under the plan, also known as Operation Condor. The United States and Latin American military governments developed Operation Condor as a a transnational, state-sponsored terrorist coalition among the militaries of South America. In Argentina alone some 30,000 people were disappeared as result, leaving loved ones to seek justice decades later.

Coordinating Terror with U.S. support

Plan Condor began with the U.S. supported military coup against Chile’s democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende. Allende's government was targeted as a threat to U.S. strategic policy in Latin America early on. White House tapes reveal that on Sept. 14, 1970, then-President Richard Nixon ordered measures to force the Chilean economy into bankruptcy. "The U.S. will not accept a Marxist government just because of the irresponsibility of the Chilean people," declared Henry Kissinger, Nixon´s secretary of State.

Declassified U.S. Department of State documents have provided evidence to Plan Condor’s broad scope. The Operation was an ambitious and successful plan to coordinate repression internationally. FBI special agent intelligence liason to the Southern Cone countries Robert Scherrer (now deceased) sent the letter to the U.S. embassy in Argentina on September 28, 1976: ‘Operation Condor’ is the code name for the collection, exchange and storage of intelligence data concerning so-called ‘leftists,’ communists and Marxists, which was recently established between cooperating intelligence services in South America in order to eliminate Marxist terrorist activities in the area.”

The memo also specified Argentina’s enthusiasm over the plan. “Members of "Operation Condor" showing the most enthusiasm to date have been Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. The latter three countries have engaged in joint operations, primarily in Argentina, against the terrorist target.” Operation Condor has been difficult to investigate, due to the selectivity of victims and lack of official declassified documents from the CIA and Department of State. Many of the documents that have been released have been heavily censored. However, following an extensive investigation by Argentine courts beginning in 1999 and the decade long work of human rights groups to collect forensic evidence, 17 military leaders will be put on trial for their participation in the illegal persecution of social activists.

Argentina’s dictatorship and Plan Condor

Former dictator Jorge Videla, now 82, is currently under house arrest, already found guilty for stealing babies born in captivity during the bloody junta. The former dictator may now face a jail cell for his participation in Operation Condor.

In 1977, Videla speaking to journalists recognized the phenomenon of forced disappearances but suggested they were disappeared because they were participating in armed, clandestine struggle. “In our country people have been disappeared, this is a sad reality. But objectively we should recognize why and through whom they were disappeared. These people went disappeared because they went clandestine.”

At least 25 Bolivian citizens were disappeared in Argentina during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Another 5 Bolivians were disappeared in Chile during the regime of dictator Augustin Pinochet.

Ruth Llanos, a representative from the Bolivian Association of Family Members of The Detained and Disappeared said regional dictatorships used Plan Condor to target dissidents with the support of former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. “Plan Condor was a joint plan developed through Henry Kissinger, a criminal who hasn't been punished yet. The plan established with the military dictatorships in Latin America was a process of forced disappearances of all social activists who in the 70's and 80's were looking for social transformation in their respective countries.”

Orletti Auto Garage, Prototype for Plan Condor

“My name is Emi Dambra, mother of two disappeared. A girl and a boy. The girl was disappeared here in Buenos Aires and taken to the Orletti Auto-Garage.” In front of the clandestine detention center where her daughter was tortured while pregnant and later murdered, Emi Dambra participated in a homage to victims of Plan Condor. “Orletti was the prototype example of Plan Condor, here they held prisoners from Uruguay and other countries,” said Dambra Inside the Orletti Auto-Garage, which also functioned as a clandestine detention center tucked in a residential neighborhood in Buenos Aires, hundreds perished, not only Argentines but also citizens from Uruguay, Cuba, Chile and Bolivia.

Some 132 Uruguayans were “disappeared” through the Condor years (127 in Argentina, three in Chile, and two in Paraguay). Orletti functioned as the clandestine detention center for international prisoners. The clandestine detention center was rented out to the military under the guise of a Auto-Garage, secretly tucked in between homes. Commando groups would bring prisoners to the Garage in the middle of the night. During the day, witnesses say the torturers inside would leave the front gate half-way open. In one instance a Uruguayan couple were able to escape Orletti, naked and brutally tortured, in the middle of the night.

According to Dambra, those responsible for leading the bloody military junta should be put behind bars and not like former dicatotor Jorge Rafael Videla under house arrest. “We want to know what happened to each one of the victims, we want the people who organized this slaughter to be put in regular jails, with life sentences.”

Fight against forced disappearances

The practice of forced disappearances was systematized in the Southern Cone by military governments in the 1970’s with U.S. financial support and trainings. It is estimated that 90,000 people in Latin America have been disappeared since the 1950’s. And the practice continues today in places like Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Argentina.

Patrick Rice, an Irish Priest who was disappeared by a commando group in a Buenos Aires shanty town in 1976 said that internationally coordinated disappearances of people continues today. “The phenomenon is occurring more and more now in the context in what is called the global war on terrorism. The practice of forced disappearances continues with secret detention centers such as Guatanamo. With the return to the use of the hood, the hood for us is a symbol of forced disappearances. People detained on places of undisclosed location, the practice of extraordinary renditions. All of this points to a new form of Operation Condor.”

Operation Condor set precedents for internationally coordinated torture crimes that have transcended from the alleged “war on communism”, “the war on drugs”, to “the war on terror.” Today, prisoners in undisclosed locations in Iraq face torture techniques similar to those used during Argentina’s 1976-1983, a carry over for U.S. policy implemented during the Plan Condor years.

Long time human rights activists like Ruth Llanos who lost her husband in the scheme known as Plan Condor say that it is more important than ever to push for the ratification of the U.N. treaty against forced disappearances. Even in countries like Argentina which ratified the treaty in November, 2007 disappearances continue with cases like missing witness Julio Lopez. Lopez, a retired construction worker and former political prisoner disappeared just hours before he was slated to give his final testimony on the eve of the conviction of the former police investigator, Miguel Etchecolatz. With Julio Lopez disappeared for more than a year, it is almost certain that he is dead. His capturers are using his body as a negotiating tool to protect military personnel from any further criminal charges or trials.

Videla and other military leaders will face trial early next year. Human rights groups continue to push for nations to sign the UN sanctioned treaty against forced disappearances, which the U.S. has refused to ratify.

Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and filmmaker based in Buenos Aires. She can be reached at mtrigona@msn.com

For videos on the ongoing human rights trials in Argentina visit www.agoratv.org

Plan Condor in Latin America

RADIO STORY on Plan CONDOR
Free Speech Radio News
by Marie Trigona

Former military dictator Jorge Rafael Videla and 16 other military leaders in Argentina will be prosecuted on charges of conspiring to kidnap and kill political activists in a scheme known as Plan Condor, developed by Henry Kissinger and George Bush Sr., head of the CIA at the time. Dictators in Uruguay, Chile , Paraguay, Brazil , and Argentina killed opponents in the 1970s and 80s under the plan, which was also called operation condor. Marie Trigona reports from Argentina where some 30,000 people were disappeared as result, leaving loved ones to seek justice decades later.

REVIEW of STORY by James Reiss

Marie Trigona's reports from Argentina regularly appear on PRX. Rather than riffing on the tango or on Buenos Aires's fun-filled night life -- a bargain during this era of The Depressed Yankee Dollar -- Trigona's essays circle like condors high above the Rio de la Plata. With unerring instinct, her pieces dive into the wreck of recent Argentine history, and they make a feast -- of dead meat.

If this sounds disgusting, I am sorry to say that it is. Imagine our situation in Guantanamo, where hundreds of suspected terrorists have been imprisoned for years. Multiply that by, say, 30. Now imagine a bullet in the back of every suspected terrorist's head.

Thanks to the military dictators ruling Argentina not that long ago, the verb "disappeared" has been broadened to become a kind of noun, as in the case of "On the night of June 14, 1979, Juan was disappeared" or "Maria has been disappeared ever since she marched in the Plaza de Mayo." While it may be a semantic breakthrough to equate "was disappeared" with "got dead," the real human meaning of the phrase is a setback recalling Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and that master sleight-of-hand man, Adolph ("the Disappearer") Hitler.

Once in a while Americans hear that Argentine junta thugs like Jorge Rafael Videla are finally being prosecuted for their crimes. The big news about Trigona's piece under review here is that it implicates our own fellow Americans Henry Kissinger and George H. Walker Bush in the scheme to make a killing field for Argentine dissidents. Back when he was CIA chief, Bush, with Kissinger, actually developed Plan Condor. This would be the rough equivalent of saying that President George W. Bush and a high administration official like Colin Powell secretly masterminded the abuses, torture, rape, and killing of prisoners in Baghdad's notorious correctional facility, Abu Ghraib.

Wal-Mart Faces Accusations of Anti-union Practices in Argentina

Marie Trigona | November 16, 2007

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

Wal-Mart's aggressive efforts to keep labor unions out of stores worldwide have come under fire across the hemisphere. Workers report how the retail chain systematically violates international labor laws protecting workers' rights to free association and union organizing. As the world's largest private employer, Wal-Mart has set a precedent for bad working conditions for employees in the United States and abroad.

Due to weak U.S. labor laws, Wal-Mart's most impressive violations of workers' rights take place in the United States, where Wal-Mart's founder Sam Walton opened his first store in 1967. The mega chain's legacy was built over decades based on providing shoppers with low prices, but at the cost of workers, who face aggressive anti-union tactics, low salaries, often no benefits, tight surveillance, and degrading working conditions. In some cases, they are even forced to work without pay and off the clock.

Human Rights Watch's extensive report "Rights: Wal-Mart's Violation of U.S. Workers' Right to Freedom of Association" details how aggressive efforts to keep out labor unions have often violated federal law and infringed on workers' rights. The report found that unions and workers had brought 292 cases against Wal-Mart for violating labor laws in the United States.

The mega-chain's sales have hit record levels since opening stores internationally. Wal-Mart's total revenues of $315.65 billion for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2006 , would rank it as the twenty-first wealthiest country in the world. Wal-Mart operates approximately 2,700 stores internationally in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, China, Argentina, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Wal-Mart currently employs approximately 1.8 million workers, called "associates," worldwide, 1.3 million of whom work in the United States. Workers in nations such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have been able to win minimal union representation due to strict labor laws on the books in each country, but not without withstanding intense opposition from Wal-Mart's local management.

The Case in Argentina

Wal-Mart has drawn the attention of Argentine lawmakers for anti-union practices in the corporation's stores throughout the South American nation. Earlier this year, Argentina's national congress led an investigation into Wal-Mart's labor practices in the corporation's 15 Argentine retail outlets. Following reports of the firing of union delegates and abusive working conditions, Wal-Mart was called before a congressional investigative committee in July 2007.

Gustavo Cordoba, a labor activist at a Wal-Mart store in Buenos Aires, was fired in May for his union activity. He testified before the investigative committee about the corporation's anti-union practices. "We appreciate our jobs, but we also want to make it clear that Wal-Mart abuses workers' rights. We demand that those abuses cease and that firings for union activities stop. Behind closed doors Wal-Mart violated Argentina's constitution and it employs corporate practices that discriminate against workers."

Representatives from President Nestor Kirchner's Victory Front Party have taken issue with Wal-Mart's anti-union aggressive tactics. Appearing before the investigative committee, national congressman Santiago Ferrigno expressed his "concern over the working conditions and persecution of union activists in Wal-Mart Argentina." He also noted concerns that Wal-Mart has hired ex-military officers who served during the nation's bloody 1976-1983 military junta for administrative and security positions within the company.

At the congressional session in July 2007 Wal-Mart representative Gaston Wainstein reported that the company has allowed employees to join unions while providing customers low prices. "The Wal-Mart stores have affiliated personnel. Secondly, the company currently has 31 active union delegates. Third, far from not having unions, in our company two unions operate: retail and truck drivers." Wal-Mart representatives stressed to the investigative commission that the 15 stores operating provide customers with the "lowest prices" possible.

Wal-Mart currently employs 5,800 workers in Argentina throughout the nation. According to labor laws, the retail chain has less than half the union delegates needed to represent the total amount of employees. Martín Falcón, a union delegate at the store's Avelleneda location, says that employees' reports have helped stop unfair firings, but the company continues to discourage union organizing efforts. "After all of our reports of accusations, Wal-Mart in Avelleneda doesn't want to fire any workers out of fear. But the company continues to hold meetings with workers telling them they are 'associates,' telling them that Wal-Mart is the best place to work in the world. Wal-Mart is known for persecuting its workers because Wal-Mart doesn't want its workers to organize."

Workers report that Wal-Mart uses humiliating tactics in the stores, in some cases going as far as prohibiting workers from taking bathroom breaks. In a particular case, a 19-year-old cashier was prevented from going to the bathroom after she asked for permission. Although she was menstruating, the supervisor made her wait for 30 minutes. When she had stained her pants, the supervisor accompanied her to the bathroom and brought her new pants and underwear for her to continue working her shift.

In October 2007, workers and human rights activists protested outside a Wal-Mart store to call attention to the retail chain's working conditions in Argentina. During a theater performance actors mocked the humiliation that Wal-Mart workers must endure. In one particular scene, a performer explained what a "mystery shopper" is—a supervisor disguised as a customer to spy on Wal-Mart employees. The theatre troop also parodied the mega-store's pin system, a way to award workers for missing bathroom breaks and working overtime without overtime pay.

The retail chain prohibits workers from referring to themselves as employees, and insists on the term "associates." They are forced to sing the Wal-Mart anthem at work, complete with pom-poms.

Dark Pasts in Private Security

In addition to reports of anti-union practices, Wal-Mart has come under public scrutiny for hiring a former military officer connected with the 1976-1983 military dictatorship as head of security. Alfredo Oscar Saint Jean served during the nation's bloody military junta in cities where clandestine detention centers operated. Outside a Wal-Mart store, human rights representatives participated in an escrache or "exposure" protest calling for an end to impunity for military officers who participated in the systematic disappearance of 30,000 people in the so-called Dirty War.

A representative from Wal-Mart Argentina defends the corporation's decision to hire retired military personnel who served during the dictatorship. "We have not had any formal notification from the judicial system that Saint Jean is connected to any crime." Military officers in Argentina have benefited from long-standing impunity. In total, 256 former military personnel and members of the military government have been accused of human rights crimes and are now awaiting trial.

However, this adds up to less than one ex-military officer for each of the country's 375 clandestine detention centers that were used to torture and forcefully disappear 30,000 people. Aside from numbers, human rights representatives report that the trials are advancing at a snail's pace, if at all. Saint Jean Jr.'s father served as general and later as dictator for five days in 1982, and is charged with 33 criminal charges for human rights crimes.

Saint Jean currently heads the retail chain's security department. Although he hasn't been charged for human rights violations by a criminal court, he was stationed in Tucumán during the Independence Operative. Beginning in 1974, one year before the coup, right-wing Peronists initiated the Independence Operative to hold military operations in the Northern Tucumán province. This became the first testing ground for torture tactics. The operative supposedly targeted left-wing guerillas operating in Tucumán's mountainside. However, the military kidnapped and tortured workers from the region's sugar fields. They terrorized entire villages to make sure that no workers complained of the slave-like working conditions in the sugarcane fields and mills.

Wal-Mart worker Falcón along with human rights organizations have called for the immediate dismissal of Saint Jean. "When I was hired at Wal-Mart they asked me what my mother and father did for a living. They investigated my police record. I don't understand how this man with a position as important as head of security could be hired at Wal-Mart with his background," Falcón says.

Later Saint Jean worked in the coastal port town Bahía Blanca in the Buenos Aires province and later in Tandil and Azul where a network of clandestine detention centers operated. Several of Saint Jean's coworkers at Wal-Mart are ex-members of the military who served during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship including Miguel Cavazza, Alejandro Patzold, Cristian Thomanssen, Roberto Masilo, Patricio O'Brien, Martín Mundo, Juan Muiño, Roberto Salmon, and Raúl Salazar.

Unions Beware

In line with Wal-Mart stores in the United States, the retail chain in Argentina has taken measures to ensure limited union organizing. Tactics detailed in Human Rights Watch's report mirror the working conditions reported by workers in Argentina's stores, although conditions in Argentina for union organizing are slightly better than for U.S. Wal-Mart associates.

Workers organizing a union at the Wal-Mart Avelleneda store have faced firings and even violent threats. The retailers union that represents Wal-Mart workers and is affiliated with the CGT umbrella union, has been all too compliant with the company's resistance to unionize workers. When Falcón and Cordoba were elected as union delegates independent from the CGT's retail union, Wal-Mart fired Cordoba on two occasions. Both delegates have received phone calls from anonymous callers threatening that if they do not stop union organizing activity they will be physically assaulted.

One single store in Buenos Aires reports sales of more than $3.3 million per month, and an employee makes about $300 a month. With rising inflation, Wal-Mart's salaries fall below poverty levels, where a family needs a minimum of $600 a month to meet basic needs.

Worldwide Wal-Mart has been reported for paying employees low salaries and for unfair labor practices. The situation for the retail chain's employees in Brazil is similar to workers in Argentina. In Mexico, Wal-Mart has faced allegations of unlawful labor practices. Newsweek magazine, in a 2006 article, reported that Wal-Mart had been using some 19,000 teenagers to work as unpaid baggers at its stores in Mexico. The teens between 14-16 were denied wages and had to rely entirely on customers' tips as compensation. Wal-Mart officially describes the youths as "volunteers."

Wal-Mart's success has been due to a key motivation: driving out competition. Wal-Mart stores offer incredibly low prices, which some call predatory pricing, until many potential competitors are driven out of business, unable to keep up with the mega-store's buying power. Later, when Wal-Mart is left with little competition, it can manipulate higher prices for customers accustomed to buying everything from groceries, clothes, electric appliances, to gasoline in one convenient location. Globally, workers face a bleak horizon with many retail giants and manufacturers using competition to drive down wages and labor costs.

The retailer has also used this method with the workforce, hiring young people with little organizing experience and poor work histories to comply with high production rates. With an army of young people eager to find work, Wal-Mart has an endless supply of "associates." Like Ford in the 1920s, Wal-Mart has also created a production model.

In Ford's factories, workers had the benefit of stable jobs and livable wages, although workers endured social control and exploitation. Whereas Ford's model was designed so that employees could buy the final product, a Ford vehicle, the situation for Wal-Mart workers is dismal. Many of Wal-Mart's employees can't afford to shop in their employer's stores, and they must endure unstable and precarious work conditions.

According to union activist Falcón, Wal-Mart has a good image in the eyes of shoppers but a bad reputation for its treatment of workers. Wal-Mart may have met its match, with union delegates eager to improve working conditions and unionize more workers in stores. Argentine workers are pushing for independent union representation, and seem to be making strides despite pressures.

Marie Trigona is a journalist based in Argentina and writes regularly for the Americas Policy Program (www.americaspolicy.org). She can be reached at mtrigona(a)msn.com.

For More Information

Resources:

Human Rights Watch's report "Rights: Wal-Mart's Violation of U.S. Workers' Right to Freedom of Association"
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0507/

Day of Action Against Big Box Retailers (November 17, 2007)
http://intldayofaction.bbc.wikispaces.net/

Agora TV Wal-Mart video
http://www.revolutionvideo.org/agoratv/secciones/luchas_obreras/wall_wart.html

Wal-Mart Watch
http://walmartwatch.com/

Wal-Mart No
http://wal-mart-no.blogspot.com/

Wake Up Wal-Mart
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/

Propagandhi: A Band With Values

By Marie Trigona

They are thrasher, punk, and political. With almost 20 years on the music scene, Canadian punk rock band Propagandhi has made more than just a musical name for themselves. Propagandhi has come a long way politically and artistically since forming the band in the mid-1980s, when Chris Hanahh posted the ad: “progressive thrasher band looking for bassist” at a local record store. The members of the band— singer/guitarist Hanahh, bassist Todd Kowalski, and drummer Jord Samolesky decided to put the band at the service of social change, which has inspired their lyrics, benefit shows, and volunteer work in their hometown of Winnipeg, Ontario.

The band embarked on their first tour through Latin America in October. While in Buenos Aires, Propa- gandhi stayed at the BAUEN Hotel, which has been under worker control for the past four years in the heart of the city. Enthusiastic about staying at the 19 story hotel with no boss or owner, they asked all kinds of questions about how the cooperative is organized. Many of the questions were rooted in their own experience self- managing a band and record label, G7 Welcoming Committee. Long- time Parecon [Participatory Economics] advocates and Z readers, Hanahh and Kowalski sat down in the basement of the BAUEN Hotel, at video collective Grupo Alavío’s office, to talk about Propaghandi’s political growth and artistic future.

TRIGONA: What is Propagandhi?

HANAHH: The name is just something that we came up with when we were 16. Maybe it still has meaning, but it’s basically a name to us now. The band is value based.

KOWALSKI: I think in terms of what the band is—songs, lyrics, things that we support, benefits we play.

How do you produce music?