Neighbors in Argentina Weave a New Solidarity

The Argentine Neighborhood Assemblies, born in early January 2002 from the December cacerolazos, are almost a half a year old. Despite repeated rumours that the assemblies are "dying out", the opposite seems to be true.

Though the individual assemblies are smaller in attendance than they were in January, and some are still beset by problems in organizing and finding common aims to work on, these 200 plus groups of neighbors continue to be an important force making "politics without politicians" in Buenos Aires and other major cities of this country, where poverty, unemployment and an unpopular bank freeze have magnified the struggles of every day life.

One assembly is actively participating in the administration of a local hospital, another is working with the streetside recyclers to help them maintain their source of income in the face of city government threats to turn over the recycling to private business, and others have continually showed up en masse to support the efforts and actions of their neighbors. Three weeks ago two pot-banging assemblies showed up to help a retired couple get their savings back in Colegiales (see argentina.indymedia.org article), and assemblies in Pompeya and San Telmo have gathered in large numbers to support workers who took over factories in those neighborhoods.

Julio Tamae of the Pompeya assembly says new participants are showing up every week at the meetings in his barrio. Another resident of Pompeya, Hernan Gonzales, says: "The assemblies continue to be the red line that is drawn before repressive government policies, the line that says "Here, and no further."
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