Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo

Posted on 02/03/2019 by Michael

Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo – monthly publication

Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo

People considered to be ‘subversives’ started to ‘disappear’ soon after the military coup of March 1976 in Argentina – known about beforehand and supported subsequently by the government of the United States, especially by the ‘Nobel Peace Prize winner’, Henry Kissinger. Once it was realised that this new regime would rule based upon terror and the elimination of the opposition the mothers of those first ‘desaparecidos’ fearlessly established an organisation – soon to be called the ‘Madres de Plaza de Mayo – Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo’ (from their intention to congregate each Thursday afternoon in the Square of that name, directly in front of the Casa Rosada, the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires).

Little did they expect that more than 30,000 people would be abducted, tortured and killed by the military in the following seven years. Those mothers also soon learnt that virtually all the young women abducted whilst pregnant would disappear – and so would their babies. In 1977 another organisation was formed, this time called the ‘Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo’ – Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo – which sought to reunite those babies with their true families.

Although with slightly different agendas the two organisations have been working together (although at times there have been ideological rifts) ever since and now there have been 2133 (to date) uninterrupted manifestations in the Plaza de Mayo. Thursday 24th January 2019 saw demonstration No 2128.

Without in any way intending to denigrate the determination and steadfastness of these women and their supporters over the decades the presence in the Plaza de Mayo every Thursday afternoon (the march begins at 15.30 on the dot) has been turned into something more than a demand for the whereabouts and fate of the 30,000 ‘disappeared’ and the truth being told about, and to, those babies who were given or sold to those childless supporters of the military in the late 70s.

When just over a dozen women appeared in the square on 30th April 1977 they would have arrived from their homes on public transport and they must have felt very alone as they were faced by the might of the Fascist military in front of their political headquarters, the Casa Rosada. However, this was a situation where the perceived strength of the fascists was outweighed by the moral strength of the mothers’ demands. The Generals looking down from the upper balconies of the Casa Rosada realised that to have crushed this nascent movement would have caused them more trouble than it was worth, not least as the young conscripts would have been able to identify too closely to the protestors. (The first march was on a Saturday, I’ve not yet been able to discover exactly when the Thursday afternoon was selected as the regular day.)

From the very beginning they chose the most simple symbol of their unity – a white head scarf that represented the nappies of their children. This soon became ubiquitous and images to this day can be found throughout the country – see below. The head scarf has also been adapted to show support of other campaigns, especially those concerning women, with a green scarf – with the white design of the Madres in the centre – declaring the person displaying it is openly a supporter of women’s abortion rights which are constantly under challenge in a country with a right-wing, conservative government and where the Catholic Church still wields political influence. At the time of writing there has been a case of an eleven year-old rape victim having to undergo a C-section due to delays in the making of a decision over an abortion.

But now, more than 40 years after starting their protest, the event is much more organised. The Non-Government Organisation (NGO) that the Madres/Abuelas has become has funding now – much of it international – and there’s a van, with the name of the organisation and logo on the side which is used to bring both the people and the equipment needed to provide the spectacle that the Thursday afternoon has become.

There’s a substantial gazebo to provide protection from the elements, as people arrive more than an hour before the 15.30 start time. (In my ignorance when I went to the square on the Thursday before the demonstration against the G-20 summit taking place in Buenos Aires in November 2018 I thought this tent was a last minute addition to protect the Madres/Abuelas from the rain that had fallen heavily that day.) This large tent also houses the loudspeakers and amplification equipment used for the press conference that follows the march around the centre of the Plaza de Mayo. Associated with this is another, smaller tent which houses a temporary bookstall and souvenir table where those who want to learn more about the movements can pick up the increasing number of stories that have been published.

Again, I don’t deny the organisation these facilities but there are problems when a certain amount of money is made available to such popular organisations and working class representatives become ‘celebrities’, some of them being ‘welcomed’ by political and religious leaders, some of whom are from the very class of people who carried out, or condoned the abduction, torture, murder and baby-selling practices that the organisation was originally formed to counter and condemn.

And where there’s money, often a lot, there will be accusations of corruption – which in Argentina are thrown around like confetti and are an everyday news item with accusations and counter-accusations flying around from all sides. Such accusations are being made against the current leadership of the Madres. I have no detailed information about, and have no opinion on, those accusations but suffice it to say that when a lot of money gets involved the opportunists and the jealous will get in their two-penny worth. And however innocent the accused might be mud sticks and the weak and impressionable will remember that more than the 40 plus years of struggle to get answers.

And that 40 plus years is an indictment of Argentinian society, from top to bottom. Various ‘democratic’ governments have ruled in Argentina since the end of the military dictatorship in 1983 – after the generals showed themselves to be totally inept in the prosecution of the military campaign to liberate the Malvinas from British imperialist occupation. But none of them have even got close to answering all the questions that have been asked – more than 30,000 times.

(The Madres/Abuelas have commissioned a video called ‘Todos son mis hijos – They are all our children’ but, so far, I have only been able to locate the trailer. It’s strange that the full documentary isn’t available as the trailer has been out in the public domain since June 2016.)

Whether from an unwillingness to open all the books (due to the fact that they could be tainted by association, or even active participation in the disappearances), reluctance (due to the fact that doing so would open a can of worms and no one could be sure to what other nefarious aspects of Argentinian society such investigations would uncover), fear (due to the fact that until you truly slap down the military and change the whole ideology of the culture they will always hold the threat of another coup over society – this was/is especially the case in neighbouring Chile), or just sheer incompetence and stupidity (which is the norm for most ‘democratic’ politicians who aren’t from the traditional ruling elite) many answers are still not forthcoming. There have been a few trials and many revelations but still many still walk free for their crimes.

In a sense the Thursday event has become part of ‘revolutionary tourism’ with many left visitors to Argentina attending if they are in Buenos Aires that day. Indeed as was I. But that’s not necessarily a negative matter. On my second visit, at the end of January, there were banners condemning the Yankee threat to Venezuela;

Fuera Yankys de America Latina

calling for the closure of the military prison in Callao, Peru, where Presidente Gonzalo, the leader of the Communist Party of Peru (Sendero-Luminoso) has been held since 1993;

Close Callao Military Prison

political prisoners in contemporary Argentina;

Imprisoned for fear, hate, misogyny and racism

against the consequences of ‘austerity’ that is having a devastating effect upon the poorest in Argentinian society;

Wages fall 50%, prices rise by 54%

as well as the ongoing campaign for justice for those murdered in the late 1970s and early 1980s;

Not a step backwards

You can watch and hear what was said at the press conference on Thursday No 2128 on the Madres website but one statement that I thought was interesting is that in Venezuela the army are on the side of the people and not against them as they were in Argentina all those years ago. Events will show how true that statement was.

There are definitely fewer people who are prepared to make an effort to attend the Thursday demonstration but as long as the spark remains it won’t take much for it to become a prairie fire. In all popular movements in Argentina now there is always a reference to the Madres and their struggle, and a handful of their representatives led off the demonstration against the G-20 on 30th November 2018.

For more information:

Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo – in Spanish

Here you will be able to watch the press conferences that follow the Thursday afternoon march as well as other material about various activities sponsored by the Association.

There are guided tours, each Wednesday for the general public, in the HQ of the Madres, which is close to the National Congress building in the centre of Buenos Aires. This gives an idea of the what the organisation has done over the last 42 years and also an introduction to some of the successes. These tours have to be booked in advance (and looking on the site it seems that 3 weeks in advance should be sufficient). The tours will predominantly be given in Spanish but there’s a likelihood that the guides would speak English, at least for a translation of certain important points. I didn’t learn about the tours until I left the country so haven’t followed one myself. Any further information would be appreciated.

Book online

Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo – in Spanish:

Where digital versions of the publication shown at the head of this post are available (in Spanish).

These give a precise history of the movement, an interesting video asking the question ‘Who are the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo?’, as well as a list of the babies they have identified as having been kidnapped within hours of their birth and the successes achieved in uniting some of those children with their genetic families.

The ‘stolen’ babies in popular culture

Within a couple of years of the end of the military dictatorship a film took as its subject matter a woman who was unable to bear children adopting a little girl. Although she is depicted as not really wanting to know where the child came from, in 1978 – when the child was supposed to have been born – all within Buenos Aires society, no matter how privileged they might have been would have been aware of the issue. But often people only see what they want to see and disregard the difficult issues. Her husband, on the other hand, knew exactly where the child had come from and was financially, personally and possibly militarily linked with the Fascist regime. His true nature comes out at the end of the film.

The film is ‘La historia oficial – The Official Story’ (1985), directed by Luis Prenzo. Recommended for a view of the situation so soon after the end of the military dictatorship.

‘Madres de Plaza de Mayo’ in other parts of Argentina

I didn’t spend a lot of time in the major cities of Argentina and therefore probably missed locations where the ‘desaparecidos’ were an everyday reality during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. It would have been in the more industrial and commercial cities where the working class and organised opposition from the academic community would have been more active, and hence more of a target. Patagonia would have been even more isolated in the 1970s than it is now but the 30,000 + subjected to fascist terror are still remembered even in the smaller towns. Often this remembrance was in the form of the white headscarf being painted in a circle around the centre of one of the principal squares of the town – but not always.

In Rio Gallegos in Plaza San Martin:

Madres de Plaza de Mayo – Rio Gallegos

In Bariloche in the Centro Civico. This was slightly different from other places in that here there was a very large of the scarf, names were associated with the various scarf images, as well as the dates they disappeared, and a slogan stating that the murdered would always be with those that remained:

Madres de Plaza de Mayo – Bariloche

In Ushaia the images were painted on a wall on the main shopping street, San Martin:

Madres de Plaza de Mayo – Ushuaia

In Salta there were small images in Plaza Belgrano:

Madres de Plaza de Mayo – Salta

but there was also a small arch, el Portal de la Memoria, close to the main bus station.

Portal de la Memoria – Salta

and there must be many more which I just didn’t see.

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Riot Police in Argentina

Posted on 10/02/2019 by Michael

Barrios de Pie – Enough of the price rises

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Riot police in Argentina

Another day in Buenos Aires another demonstration against the conditions in which the majority of the working people have to live. On my last full day in the country I encountered yet another demonstration that had formed up at the Obelisk on Avenida 9 de Julio at the normal meeting time of 12.00, midday. But whenever there’s a demonstration in Argentina the riot police aren’t that far away.

This demonstration was called by, and was formed of, the organisation ‘Barrios de Pie’. My understanding after talking to some of the stewards present is that this can be translated as ‘Neighbourhoods on the March’ or as ‘Neighbourhoods standing up’. The reason for the march was the usual – against austerity, which is increasingly having a detrimental effect on an increasing number of the poor, and the problems that are being created with an annual inflation rate (for 2018) of almost 57%.

Although all the peaceful demonstrations that have taken place in Argentina in recent months, including that against the G-20 summit at the end of November 2018, achieve no change of heart on the part of the government – who is more prepared to listen to the ‘neo-liberal’ economic strictures of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund or the Inter-American Development Bank which lead to even more privatisation and cuts in whatever remains of any social welfare provision – many Argentinians are still prepared to go into the streets to make their feelings known. (This is so different from the lack of any such activity in Britain in the ten years since finance capital caused the crisis of 2008 which has led to the ‘austerity’ of the intervening years which has seen a worsening of the living conditions of the majority of working people in the country.)

In this post I want to look at an aspect of the Argentine state activity that demonstrates that they know exactly what is happening in society. However, rather than seeking ways to ameliorate the effects on the general population what they do is to put ever more resources into efforts to protect capitalism (and their own privilege). What I want to look at here is the use of the riot police both to intimidate people on the streets at the time and to reinforce the idea of letting everyone know who is in control.

I have already written how during the G-20 bash at the end of November 2018 the Argentinian state showed that it was prepared to lock down the country’s capital for the best part of three days just to allow the world’s most insidious gangsters to feel safe as they travelled around the deserted streets and to pig out at banquets where ‘important’ decisions were made. It was reported that 20,000 police and army personnel were deployed in Buenos Aires over that weekend, all geared up in state of the art riot gear and with, no doubt, more lethal weaponry close to hand.

(It’s difficult to understand the mindset of these ‘leaders’ who now must consider such a situation being the norm at their international meetings. With them living in such a bubble – not that they weren’t in a similar bubble in the past – their statements of us ‘all being in this (i.e., austerity) together’ rings even more untrue.)

Riot Police at rear of Barrios de Pie demonstration

I came to the ‘Barrios de Pie’ demonstration by chance at the Obelisk just after it had moved off and what struck me was the number of fully kitted out riot police still in the area and preparing to march at the side of the rear of the march. It wasn’t a surprise to see them there as they had been in evidence at the first demonstration I was to experience on my first Monday in the country but it made me think of their role in Argentinian society.

Riot Police escorting head of demonstration

Argentina is not unique in having riot police prepared to appear on the streets when workers seek to make their grievances known to the rest of the population but I’ve now had the opportunity to see how it works on a number of occasions. This approach is slightly different in a country such as Britain where the state places a few, less intimidating police on the streets but with the ‘iron fist’ prepared to appear on the scene within minutes if called upon.

The march and the Obelisk

The issue in Argentina (and probably in most Latin American countries, more than likely due to the continent’s history of military dictatorship) is that the armoured police are there from the start – even though they would know that in such circumstances it only takes a slight misunderstanding for matters to escalate (perhaps the reason they are placed there in the first place). And many others would be on call if a peaceful march was to take a violent turn.

Porteños – the citizens of Buenos Aires – are also constantly reminded of the preparedness of the state to react to any civil disturbance by the number of ‘vallas’ (large, black, metal barriers) that are dotted around different parts of the city centre. I wrote about these in the posts in reference to the G-20 of November last year. The vast majority of – it must be – hundreds of new ‘vallas’ have been removed from the streets and now in some unknown (to me) storage facility, ready for any eventuality (if they aren’t already on a ship mid-Atlantic heading to Osaka, Japan, the location of the next G-20 at the end of June 2019). However, there are always some stacked in a corner near the Casa Rosada and, strangely, the Cathedral at the top end of Plaza de Mayo seems to have a screen of ‘vallas’ in a semi-permanent state.

Vallas ready for use at the Casa Rosada

It’s the heavy hand at the beginning which shows the contempt the state has for the people’s right to demonstrate. They try to frighten people from coming out in the first place and then by escorting the march along its short route (from the Obelisk to the Casa Rosa is much less than a kilometre) they are reinforcing the message.

The marchers from the ‘Barios de Pie’ understood this well and knew what the state was attempting and the demonstration was very heavily stewarded, many men and women walking between the police and the general body of the march. And they ‘policed’ their own people. That Thursday was very hot and once the march reached the top end of the Plaza de Mayo (the square in front of the Casa Rosa – the Presidential Palace) a few women, a number of them with babes in arms, moved out of the march to seek shade from the few trees at the top end of the square. This caused a couple of the stewards to come over and ask them to re-join the group as ‘they didn’t want trouble from the police’.

Stewards – in blue vests – between marchers and Riot Police

I wasn’t aware of the idea that the square was a no-go area before that incident. And that knowledge explained the manoeuvre of the police who had been escorting the march at the front into context. As the lead marchers turned the corner from Avenida Peña into Avenida Bolivar the police peeled off and stood in a line between the marchers and the Casa Rosa. It wasn’t a substantial line and they would have had problems holding it if there was a concerted effort to enter the square, their stand was more symbolic, wordlessly making the challenge ‘pass if you dare’.

Riot Police deploying at top of Paza de Mayo

But there was no chance of that happening. There were perhaps around a couple of thousand people on the march but a not inconsiderable number of them were mothers with very young children. There was no way such a group of people would carry out a suicide attack to get into a square which would achieve nothing even if they were successful. This was not a group of people such as the present day ‘gilets jaunes – yellow jackets’ in France who are expressing their anger at the effects of government policies on living standards and prepared to face the flunkies of the capitalist state.

Riot Police between marchers and Plaza de Mayo

After spending some time at the top of the square the march moved just a couple hundred of metres to get as close as possible as it could to the Casa Rosada – the palace has two sets of very high yet thin metal fences from the centre of the Plaza de Mayo to the entrance of the building – the second is only closed off when there’s some anti-government activity in the vicinity, in the process disrupting the traffic as the roads are also blocked. Such a fence would be no deterrent to a determined force as they would bend easily if enough organised force was used to pull them down. Just in case of such an unlikely eventuality there were a number of police inside the grounds of the Casa Rosada ready to react if called upon to do so.

Riot Police inside first fence of the Casa Rosada

But once here the march became quiet after making quite a lot of noise with the drums and whistles when on the move. And it stayed there for a long time, with me not quite understanding why. They were being totally ignored by the authorities in the palace and staying in the street just meant that their own people were being cooked at the hottest time of the day.

Matters eventually became much more relaxed. People started to drift into the shade of the trees in the square, the police totally ignoring this transgression, and some of them opened up their bags and had a picnic on the grass – on all the demonstration to which I’ve been a witness, including the big anti-G-20 march – many people came with some sort of food and drink. Others queued up at the public water fountain close to the fence. They had left the demonstration but hadn’t drifted off as is normally the case in such situations and they were ready to be called back once the decision to move was made.

Even the police became more relaxed, first resting their shields on the ground which was soon followed by them removing their helmets which changed the whole general feeling of the situation, any tension being dissipated. These movements were all organised and it seems that the Argentinian police are organised in squads of seven or eight as that was how they moved. As mentioned in the post on the demonstration in Buenos Aires back in November there are women in the riot police and here there seemed to be a squad made up of only women – all of them with long hair tied into pony tails – which indicates that there was no serious thought of violence on the side of the authorities as that long hair would have made them extremely vulnerable in the event of a flare up.

Whilst I was watching not very much happening I wondered what these young riot police thought of their role in the state machine. I don’t know if the state had decided to protect their salaries from the force of 57% a year inflation but even if it did all these officers would have known people who would have had no such protection. 2018 wasn’t a good year for Argentinians and the vast majority would have ended the year worse than they started. Yet these people were still ready to stand between an angry population and the state and its capitalist supporters.

In the past the police have not shown restraint when let loose on anti-government protesters, there being a number of deaths under ‘democratic’ governments, at least three in the final months of 2018, although on no occasion did I witness such an attack. Whether that reflects a change in the policy of the state which realises that such an approach doesn’t stop people from going on the streets or whether the state is not sure of the total loyalty of the police and asking them to attack people with widely accepted and recognisable grievances might eventually backfire I can’t say.

The march along Avenida Peña

However, these forces of ‘law and order’ are a vital for the existence of the capitalist state and having the riot police out at least a couple of times each week in Buenos Aires alone must eventually get some of them to question what their role is in Argentinian society.

Or perhaps not. Their predecessors in the 1970s were either active participants or passive onlookers to the ‘disappearance’ and murder of more than 30,000 Argentinian citizens – the very people who they pledge to protect when they take their oath on becoming police officers.

(The more observant of my readers might have noticed that both Evita and Che appear on the lead banner of the ‘Barrios de Pie’. I hope to address the issue of Evita and the way she is considered in present day Argentina in a post in the not too distant future.)

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Madres de Plaza de Mayo

Posted on 09/02/2019 by Michael

Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

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Madres de Plaza de Mayo

Since 30th April 1977 mothers of those Communists, trade unionists and other social militants who were abducted and murdered by agents of the military dictatorship walked around the monument in the centre of the Plaza de Mayo, next to the government building known as the Casa Rosada. It was a Thursday and the time was 15.30.

On Thursday 29th November 2018 they did so for the 2120th time – without interruption.

There was a fear that the preparations for the G-20 Summit due to start on Friday 30th November (described above) might have caused that unbroken series by the blocking off of the square as it is in part of the no-go area. In order that such a situation could be forestalled a number of the women from the organisation, together with supporters and various members of the international media, arrived before midday and installed themselves in the centre of the square. They reasoned, accurately I would have thought, that the Argentine government would not like to have images of women in their 80s and 90s being dragged off by heavily armed riot police.

The stupidity of governments can never be overestimated but there was no move to prevent the traditional even from taking place and I saw no obvious police presence at the time. What might have happened since I’ll discover on my walkabout tomorrow morning.

More than 30,000 men and women were ‘disappeared’ by the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. They were abducted by agents of the fascists, more often than not tortured (for no other reason than because they could be), murdered and their bodies disposed of in unmarked graves in the countryside or just thrown from helicopters into the Atlantic ocean.

Although more than 40 years have passed there are still many parents and family members who know nothing about the whereabouts of their children’s remains. And justice is as far from being given these murdered champions of the working class now as it was then. The killing goes on. As I wrote about the demonstration in the centre of Buenos Aires on Monday 26th November, two militants have been killed by the police in the last week.

The symbol of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

Anyone who goes to the square today can see white scarves, the symbol the women adopted from the very start of their campaign, painted in the circle they walk each Thursday.

Due to the proximity of the G-20 and the threat that the women (and their supporters) might have been prevented making the traditional circuit of the square I don’t know if what happened on Thursday 29th November was the norm – but I don’t think the process would have been much different. The Press Conference wouldn’t have taken place but the procession, I’m sure, has established its format over the years.

What happened was that a small group (just after 15.30), with the old women in the front, holding a banner from the top edge in front of them, walked slowly around the square (probably getting slower each passing year) and someone read out a list of names. Once the name was announced the crowd would shout ‘Presente!’ in the idea that even though no longer alive they were forever in the memories of those who knew them. I didn’t count but they must have walked around the square close to ten times. As was the tradition from the start there were copies of photos of those who were abducted and murdered either pinned to their clothes or held up as placards.

Then the women from the leadership of the organisation, who had arrived at midday and had spent the time under a temporary bodega (to protect them from the sun but on that Thursday it rained in the early afternoon but, fortunately, it had stopped by the time the clock struck the half hour past three) stood up so there were now two groups walking around the monument in the centre of the square. They didn’t read out names – but did carry photos of those ‘disappeared’ – but sang songs and from time to time started anti-government, workers solidarity chants.

This went on for about half an hour when the press conference took place. (This can be listened to on the official website of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.)

There’s no shadow of a doubt that this is a very emotional occasion. The determination and steadfastness of these women has to be admired. As has their development of the organisation that is not only seeking justice for their dead children but expanding into one that fights for social justice in present day Argentina – when so-called ‘democracy’ has changed little for the better for the workers.

However positive their struggle and the lessons it has provided for movements around the world there is still a problem with (what I consider) a lack of understanding of the society in which we all live.

My knowledge of Argentinian politics and history has never been that good and it will take me some time to get up to date. That means that some of the statements made and slogans chanted in the press conference were lost to me – I’ve gotten out of the habit of understanding how Latin Americans refer to their political leaders.

If I understood matters at all, after all that the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo have suffered during the period of the military dictatorship and through the different governments since they are still peddling the idea of parliamentary cretinism, supporting some leaders because others are worse. I don’t know if there is potential in Argentina for a radical change but if aggrieved mothers haven’t got justice in 40 years I think it is time they looked for a more radical and revolutionary change in their society.

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