What is Casa Alternativa Joven? bout four years ago, a group of young people who were involved in community youth groups in Villa El Salvador founded Casa Alternativa Joven. Hundreds of youth groups have existed through- out the district since the 1970s, and they have done interesting things like organize sports tournaments, musical groups, theater groups, etc. Our idea in forming Casa Alternativa was to create a space where young people could come together not only for recreational activities but also to talk about politics. We called it "Casa" (House) because we wanted it to be a space in which young people could participate and feel wel- come. We called it "Alternativa" (Alternative) because we believe that Peru is desperately in need of new per- spectives and new possibilities. And we called it "Joven" (Youth) because as young people who com- prise the majority of the population in Peru, we believe we must take up the challenge of creating new ideas, new perspectives, new alternatives. What are the short-term and long-term goals of Casa Alternativa? One of the issues we are currently dealing with at Casa Alternativa is the growing problem of violence among Peru's youth. Youth gangs, which were not common in Peru, have proliferated in the past few years. They engage in random vandalism, and feuds between rival gangs in poor and working-class neigh- borhoods in Lima have become increasingly common. Another manifestation of youth violence are the "bar- ras bravas"-soccer clubs made up of young people who commit arbitrary acts of violence at soccer games against the fans of opposing teams as well as against innocent spectators. Where does this violence come from? Today's youth are the offspring of three "par- ents." They are the children of Fujimori and the savage individualism his neoliberal economic model has unleashed in this country. They are also the children of ex-President Alan Garcia and the corruption and abuse of authority his administration personified. And they are the children of Abimael Guzman and the violence unleashed by the Shining Path and the military. The values of Peruvian youth have been fundamentally shaped by these three elements. This is why in Peru today there is so much individualism, so little trust in public authority, and so much violence. VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 199747 VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 1997 47 I P E R UVOICES ON THE LEFT Many of these young people also have family prob- lems. Many of their parents are absent, alcoholics or abusive. Participating in a gang or a barra brava pro- vides them with a group identity, which makes them feel important. It also gives them an outlet for their frustrations. Remember that Peru is a country were there are few jobs available to young people, and going to a university is a distant dream for most Peruvians. Casa Alternativa began working with gangs and the barras bravas in early 1996. In contrast to the media hype, which portrays gangs and barras as security issues that require more police and stiffer sentences for juvenile offenders, we see them as a social problem that demands a comprehensive solution. Youth need to be given opportunities, the chance to grow and to learn, the chance to be heard. What are the longer-term goals of Casa Alternativa? The principles that underlie Casa Alternativa Joven are leftist principles-solidarity, peace, social justice, democratic participation-and we seek to promote these values among the youth. But while Casa Alternativa is a social space with leftist principles and objectives, it is not a political party. Anyone can partic- ipate in the activities and programs we organize. One of our long-term goals is to promote new mech- anisms of participation for young people at the local level. But there is a problem: young people are very skeptical of politicians and of politics in general. They see politicians as the problem, as unconcerned with their needs. This applies not only to political parties, but also to the many "independent" groups that have also failed to solve the country's problems. In an attempt to change these perceptions in Villa El Salvador, we have promoted different initiatives to incorporate young people into the local government. For example, Casa Alternativa has organized a series of meetings between young people and municipal author- ities. This has developed into an ongoing dialogue that we hope will form the basis of new and interesting ini- tiatives. We also seek to promote new leadership among the youth. We believe that young people can and should play a fundamental role in promoting a development project for the entire district of Villa El Salvador. But for that to happen we need to promote leaders who have strong links to their respective social bases. In the old way of doing politics, even among the left, it was not uncommon for party leaders to be candidates for any office or post, whether or not they had any real link to the grassroots. What we want to do is to build new lead- ership from the vantage point of local government; leaders who know that they are speaking for a specific group of people who support them. 48 You said earlier that Casa Alternativa considers itself part of the left. In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing the Peruvian left today? In the 1980s, several leftist parties came together in an electoral front called United Left (IU). As IU, the left became the second-most powerful political force in Peru. The IU governed Lima from 1983 to 1986, as well as several local districts in Lima and other parts of the country. This was the left's best moment. We had so much popular support that we had the possibility of win- ning the presidential election in 1990, but by the end of the 1980s the IU had fallen apart. I participated in the first-and only-national congress of the IU in 1989, when the violence was growing and the economic crisis worsening. But rather than focus on national problems and developing solutions, the parties fought amongst themselves, and the IU split into three different groups. Part of the problem was the existence of caudillismo within our ranks. Our leaders were more interested in their own quota of personal power than in building and consolidating a coherent left-wing project for Peru. Another problem was that in terms of corruption and authoritarianism, some of the local IU governments were not very different from those of the right or of APRA. As a result, people lost faith in the promises of the left to be more transparent and more democratic. Many progressive activists went home and refused to participate. That is why it is so important for the left to create new styles of leadership. I think it was easier for the left to be the opposition than to actually govern. People got tired of going to marches, throwing rocks, writing graffiti. They wanted the left to govern the coun- try and provide alternatives. The left in Peru failed to do that; it never had a national project for the country. It fell into the trap of criticizing without creating new alterna- tives. This is the greatest challenge we face today-not just criticizing neoliberalism but coming up with viable alternatives that respond to people's basic needs. How would you characterize the different relationships that your group has been building over time with other progressive actors in Peru? What problems and benefits have they brought? We have cultivated a very fruitful relationship with the municipal government. The mayor, Michel Azcueta, recognizes the importance of the youth, which make up nearly 75% of the district's population, and he has been very supportive of our efforts. My election to the city council has facilitated and strengthened that relation- ship. But even before that, we started from the premise that local government is society's closest link to the state, and therefore the most critical space for us to impact in terms of local and even national politics. NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASVOICES ON THE LEFT Representatives from the Casa Alternativa would meet with the mayor or members of the city council to nego- tiate specific initiatives. But after several years, we decided that we needed to be on the inside. Of course municipal governments in Peru have scarce resources, and there is no money budgeted for youth or women's programs. So we have to be creative. The official postal system is not very effective in poor districts like Villa, and seeing this need, Casa Alternativa decided to start up a messenger service. We negotiated a one-year con- tract with the municipal government, and a dozen youths began to work as messengers. Once we proved ourselves, we began winning other contracts with other institutions, including private companies, in the district. Aside from the municipality, what other relationships or alliances with outside groups have been important for Casa Alternativa? Has Casa Alternativa had any kind of relationship with other levels of government? We've had a few meetings with Vice-President Ricardo Mirquez in which we discussed the problem of youth gangs and the barras bravas. We think this kind of dialogue is vital in building new state policies for the youth. The state must dialogue with all social sectors- campesinos, women, small business owners-to build a truly national development project. Given the neoliberal bent of the current regime, what possibilities are there of building a national development project? Today's youth are the children of Fujimori and his savage nanliharnlicm" The growing problem of political violence in Lima, which was espe- of ex-pre cially acute here in Villa El Salvador, prompted us to coordinate our efforts Garci with different groups, most notably the National Human Rights corr Coordinating Committee (CNDH), and of which represents human rights groups nationwide. The CNDH took Guzm6 notice of us in the early 1990s, when some of us began to organize differ- violence u ent activities in response to the grow- Shining P ing presence of Shining Path in the district. For example, we organized mil campaigns to clean the district of Shining Path's graffiti. We painted over their slogans promoting war with graffiti promoting peace and life. We participated in peace marches here in Villa and in other districts as well. Our relationships with outside groups such as non- governmental organizations (NGOs) have not always been smooth, however. Many NGOs do not treat grass- roots organizations like Casa Alternativa as equal part- ners. We found that many NGOs cared more about their own particular interests than about building something for the community. And many NGOs do not have broad social objectives, and instead are organized as a series of small-scale projects. This does not help to strengthen social organizations, which we think should always be the main objective of any development project because strong local organizations form the basis of a strong civil society. sident Alan and his option; Abimael n and the unleashed by ath and the litary. I think that the state is an arena to promote dialogue among different sectors of society and to coordinate efforts that promote peace and social justice. The neoliberal state has abdicated this responsibility. For example, it recently sold the telephone company to Spanish interests, and as a result the state no longer has any say in how the com- munications industry is run. Telef6nica does whatever it wants to. They put up telephone lines where it is most profitable, not where they are most needed. Nor do they respect the municipal govern- ment's development plans or even try to coordinate their plans with the local government. It's the same with the electric company. The state has no power over what private companies do, which undermines the ability of the state or the munici- pal government to promote local development. Villa El Salvador in the 1980s is an example of how the state, in this case local government, can promote integral development. With the help of urban planners, the municipal government, then run by the IU, created a development project for the district, which included among other things an industrial park and an agricul- tural zone. People said that we were dreaming, that we couldn't achieve these things. Yet by the end of the 1980s we had an industrial park and an agricultural zone where residents of Villa El Salvador set up their workshops and make their living. We can do this at the national level. It's a matter of projecting what we want and mobilizing our resources to build it. And the young people of Peru must be an integral part of any national development project.
