The demonstration aganist the G20 and FMI in Buenos Aires. Image: fueraG20. Some rights reserved.
The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.
Against the catastrophic summit of the G20 held in Buenos Aires on
November 30th and December 1st, the Confluencia Fuera G20
– FMI (Confluence against the G20 and the IMF) organised a week of action to repudiate
the presence of the G20 and the IMF in Argentina and create spaces of
convergence to continue building grassroots alternatives to neoliberalism.
An
achievement nothing short of inspirational considering the advance of
neo-fascism in the continent, the increasing repression and criminalization of
social movements, the militarization of territories and the exhaustion of a
fragmented Left following Latin America’s progressive cycle.
The G20: a farce that is no laughing matter
As expected, the final declaration of the G20 summit held in Buenos Aires did not provide any
ground-breaking solutions to address the systemic crisis we are currently
experiencing – and for which the neoliberal policies of the G20 countries, the
IMF and the transnational companies they support are directly responsible for.
To
cite only one example, the measures decided by the G20 countries – responsible
for 78% of emissions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – will actually exacerbate climate change. In other words, we are miles away from this year’s G20 slogan:
“building consensus for a just and sustainable development”.
The summit was made into a laughing stock by local media, as its unfolding was filled with diplomatic incidents: the
official Argentinian delegation arriving late to greet Macron on the tarmac –
who began shaking hands with the airport staff wearing yellow vests (imagine
the irony) – while another Argentinian delegation mistook Xi Jinping with a member
of his staff. Merkel arrived a day late after her private plane broke down and
Trump incessantly humiliated Macri who was desperately trying to get in his
good graces.
The cherry on top was probably the Wi-Fi collapsing during the
press conference held the first day of the summit that hosted 2500 outraged
international journalists. As laughable as it was, this farce of a summit cost
millions of euros to a country that is going through one of its deepest
socio-economic crisis since the peso collapsed last August, with inflation
rates close to 50%, poverty rates approaching 30%, unemployment reaching 12%
and an average loss in real salary of 15 points against inflation.
The G20 summit did not just leave behind disastrous environmental policies, funny memes and a hole in the public budget. It left Argentina much more militarized than before.
The G20 summit did not just leave behind disastrous environmental policies,
funny memes and a hole in the public budget (to be compensated with further cuts
in the public sector). It left Argentina much more militarized than before with
over 20,000 police officers and new high-tech anti-riot equipment – all of which
will be used to discipline future resistance movements.
This is especially
worrying as the current Minister of Security, announced on Monday the
implementation of a decree – denounced by human rights organisations – allowing armed forces to shoot whenever
they felt they were facing an “imminent threat” without having to provide any
justification. In addition, the Argentinian government carried out an incessant intimidation campaign against the social movements and organisations behind the week of
action against the G20 by portraying them as terrorist organisations – under
close surveillance – planning violent acts.
The Macri administration even accused
ATTAC of money laundering (ATTAC known world-wide for its non-violent activism
against tax evasion). Two militants from the Confederation of Workers of the
Popular Economy (CTEP) were killed by the police in a protest a week before the
G20 and fear was continuously spread by trolls on social media through false
testimonies of people begging for everyone to stay home. Meanwhile, the
government shut down all transports in the city centre and declared a Bank
Holiday on November 30th to ensure less people would attend the
demonstration.
The Week of Action against the G20
Despite this campaign of fear, intimidation and repression, the Confluence
against the G20 and the IMF organised over 50 activities between November 26th
and December 1st (without counting the acts of solidarity in other
cities of the world).
The Confluence is an (inter-)national alliance of social,
political and territorial movements and organisations, unions, cooperatives,
movements of women, feminists, afro-descendants, indigenous peoples, LGBTQI+,
migrants, amongst others, created in September 2018 to federalise and
internationalise the resistance against the G20 and the IMF.
The activities
organized by the Confluence consisted of various workshops, conferences,
creative acts of civil disobedience, a fair of the solidarity economy, a music
festival, a massive demonstration on November 30th and a two-day
“People’s Summit” – one of the highlights of this week of action.
Peoples’ Summits (often called “counter-summits) are essential instances providing platforms of collaboration and exchange among movements, collectives and organisations.
Peoples’ Summits (often called “counter-summits) are essential
instances providing platforms of collaboration and exchange among movements,
collectives and organisations to discuss the concrete realities and struggles by
peoples affected by the neoliberal system and to foster alliances – whether
local, regional or global – in the construction of grassroots alternatives.
This
one was first held in the University of Buenos Aires before taking the debates
in the public sphere on the Congress Square. More than 5000 people participated
from all Latin-America and a couple of European countries – though the majority
of attendees was from Argentina.
It brought together different assembly-style
forums on feminisms, corporate power, debt, migration, food sovereignty, the
commons and sovereignty, health sovereignty, self-managed economies, popular
education and the advance of neo-fascism and militarization in the region. The
Peoples’ Summit ended with a closing act, during which Nora Cortiñas, one of
the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, read the final declaration synthesising the results of these two days of collective
discussions.
(Inter-)national feminists at the forefront
After the Second
International Women’s Strike of March 8th, the World Social
Forum in Brazil last April, the campaign for free legal abortion in Argentina
and the #EleNão mobilisations against Bolsonaro in Brazil, Latin-American
women, feminists and queer activists have played a key role in the campaigns
against the G20 and the IMF. This is especially the case of the Feminist Forum
against the G20 which participated both autonomously and transversally to the spaces
of the Confluence.
This collective is a diverse, international and transversal alliance
of feminists, women workers, activists, trade unionists, migrants, indigenous
women, afro-descendants, peasants and the queer community. It emerged out of the
Feminist Forum against the WTO held last year in Buenos Aires, as a process of collective
grassroots feminist construction.
The "Foro Feminista contra el G20" pictured in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during 2018's G20 Summit. Image: Foro Feminista contra el G20. Some rights reserved.
Since then, the Feminist Forum worked the entire year to build its
own agenda of activities leading up to the G20 – voicing their repudiation of
the hetero-patriarchal capitalist system, expanding (inter-)national ties with other
feminist collectives, offering feminist tools to understand and build alternatives
to the current advances of neo-fascism and the intensification of violence
against women – especially against women of colour and queer communities.
They
also organised two days of actions to denounce the “empowerment” discourse of the rich, white,
entrepreneurial women of the Women’s 20 affinity group of the G20, which met
early October in Buenos Aires to provide market-based recommendations to the
leaders of the G20 on how to better including women in the world economy.
For the week of action, they put together their own agenda with an
international seminar about feminist perspectives on the current financial,
political and technological turbulences, a launch of a campaign called “our
bodies our territories” denouncing processes of capitalist expropriation and
the criminalization of defenders of women’s and LGBTQI+ rights, an Assembly of
Internationalist Feminists against the G20 sharing their experiences of feminist
resistance from the entire world as well as an Ethical, Popular, Anti-racist
and Feminist Tribunal against the G20.
During this Tribunal organised on the
Congress Square, the audience intervened to denounce crimes against women, women
of colour, migrant women and queer communities. After gathering all
testimonies, the jury condemned the criminal, perverse and deathly alliances between
capitalism, patriarchy, racism and (neo-)colonialism embodied by and expressed
through the G20 and the IMF.
Alliances leading to the destruction of Nature,
the precariousness of peoples, the militarization of all spheres of life, the
criminalization of protests, the feminization of poverty and the war against
women – especially women of colour – and queer communities.
In addition to their own agenda during the week of action, the
Feminist Forum was also strongly involved in the processes of the Confluence
against the G20. Having this simultaneously autonomous and transversal stance allowed
the Feminist Forum to manoeuver and organise their activities in non-mixed
spaces whilst influencing – and feminising – the Confluence, which, because of
its diversity and the politico-militant cultures in Argentina, were not the
most feminists – to say the least.
As repeated by feminist movements, there cannot be a successful fight against capitalism without simultaneous fights against patriarchy, racism, neo-colonialism and anthropocentrism.
The presence of many women and feminists in general inside the
Confluence helped navigate these militant spaces that are still prone to
machismo, mansplaining (men explaining things to women in condescending ways),
word monopoly and vertical, ego-protagonist behaviour. None of the activities of
the week of action would have occurred had it not been for the majority of
women and feminists in these spaces taking charge of coordinating the
organisational, logistical, communication and care work it required.
The
too-often ignored and silenced sexual division of labour – including of
militant labour – needs to be recognized if we are to move beyond the currently
devastating socio-economic system. As repeated by feminist movements, there cannot
be a successful fight against capitalism without simultaneous fights against
patriarchy, racism, neo-colonialism and anthropocentrism.
Which is why feminisms
– for their catalytic, transversal, intersectional and internationalist
narratives and practices – not only provide the tools to understand and resist
against the devastating effects of our current system; they allow us to
radically rethink our own practices and modes of organization – including
within the most “progressive” spaces. The week of action against the G20 and
the IMF was yet another proof of that.
The demonstration of November 30th
On November 30th, around 50 000 people marched to the
Congress Square to repudiate the presence of the G20 and of the IMF and their
neoliberal policies. This protest was considered a success given the context of
repression, the city being on lock-down and the absence of many strong unions
such as the CGT.
As relieving as it was, the fact that the demonstration went
on peacefully was a surprise to many, especially considering the atmosphere of
repression, the depth of the current socio-economic crisis and the presence of
the IMF in the country– whose responsibility for the devastating crisis of 2001
remains rooted in Argentinian collective memory. The situation was expected to
escalate like it did during the last G20 summit held in Hamburg last year, when violent confrontations occurred
between the police and the protesters attempting to disrupt the summit.
However, the Confluence always upheld a non-violent stance and
never intended to prevent the G20 from happening. Indeed, from a strategic
point of view – except for its symbolic dimension (like the 1999 battle of Seattle) – shutting down such forums bares little impact on moving beyond
neoliberalism.
For example, it would not have prevented the G20 leaders to meet
again and advance in their neoliberal, corporate agenda, especially through the
use of bilateral free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties – a
more common form of organising the current world trade system.
Bluntly put, Argentinian armed forces are in a position where they can repress and kill people with complete impunity.
Furthermore, in
the current context of militarization and repression, attempting to shut down
the G20 would not have been only nonsensical; it would have been suicidal. It
was neither possible (nor desirable) to replicate the attempts to shut down the
G20 in Buenos Aires, like it was done last in year in Hamburg. This is because
responses to the presence of neoliberal forums such as the G20 are place-based,
contingent and context-specific. Indeed, Germany and Argentina are distinctive
countries with regards to the culture of protests, the respect of human rights
and the levels of police repression.
Bluntly put, Argentinian armed forces are
in a position where they can repress and kill people with complete impunity. On
the contrary, Germany would have faced an international scandal had any
casualties arrived during the attempts to sabotage the G20 in 2017.
However, sharing these contingent experiences from different
territories is both insightful and necessary as it nurtures future processes of
collective strategizing whilst building alliances between movements, much like
the people of Hamburg did by participating in the week of action in Buenos
Aires and compiling their experiences from last year in a book dedicated to the people of Buenos Aires.
By way of conclusion: on the importance of such
weeks of action
A week of action is not just a weeklong
event. It is an entire year
(sometimes two) of work in national and international territories. It provides
opportunities to raise awareness, provide information, link grassroots
struggles to broader, more systemic processes and work towards the convergence
of communities and movements fighting against the same socio-economic system
and its agenda of exploitation, violence, destruction, poverty and inequality.
A
week of action cannot be assessed only in terms of outcomes or of the number of
participants. It should take into account all the “ant work” carried out
throughout the year, the knowledges produced and disseminated throughout the
entire process, the common agenda articulated for the future to come and, more
importantly, the alliances, ties and affections created between peoples and the
transformation of personal subjectivities throughout such processes of
collective construction.
The capitalist elites of our system organise internationally to consolidate their power. Social movements should do the same.
As we are entering a new phase of authoritarian neoliberalism
marked by the advance of neo-fascism and new forms of capitalist, patriarchal,
misogynistic, racist, statist violence in all spheres of life, it is essential
that we continue strengthening ties between movements fighting these structures
of oppression and advance in the construction of better worlds.
The capitalist
elites of our system organise internationally to consolidate their power. Social
movements should do the same in order to dismantle it, by simultaneously strengthening
our militant roots in local territories whilst weaving tapestries of resistance
transnationally.
As the G20 leaves Argentina, it does not leave behind only a
militarized country; it leaves behind inspiring ideas, incredible memories and
stronger ties between peoples who will continue articulating common
transformative agendas locally, regionally and globally in the collective
construction and strengthening of grassroots, systemic alternatives to
neoliberalism.
******
I would like to thank all the inspiring people whom I had the
chance of meeting and the honour of walking together with for the past two
years on the collective roads to building an anti-capitalist, feminist,
anti-racist pluriverse.