The social and cultural project set in motion by the military regime has been consolidated under Menem. The cultural dislocation and embittered resignation that plagues much of Argentine society is the result of the dismantling of the social contract and the absence of real political debates. Through a brutal repertoire of disappearances tor ture, intimidation and exile, the military dictator- ship which ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983 attempted to transform the mentalities and identi- ties of its citizens. These practices were complemented by widespread censorship, black lists and other mea- sures designed to ensure the regime's tight control over memory and the production of national historical narra- tives. The regime's social project fractured a rich and long-standing political culture, inflicting deep wounds that will likely never heal completely. When the gener- als stepped down in 1983, Argentines had to come to terms with the legacies of the dictatorship and the Malvinas War debacle. They also had to reconstitute Anibal Ford is a writer and researcher at the Gino Germani Institute. He also teaches communications at the University of Buenos Aires. His most recent work is La marca de la bestia: Privacidad, vigilancia e infoentretenimiento (forthcoming). Jorge Elbaum is a researcher at Gino Germani Institute and teaches sociology at the University of Buenos Aires. He is author of Salir a bailar: Discriminaci6n y racismo en la noche urbana (University of Buenos Aires, 1997). Translated from the Spanish by NACLA. their shattered political culture, recuperate their history prior to 1976, and reconfigure their relationship to a world that had undergone deep transformations during the years of the military regime. It is difficult to describe contemporary Argentine cul- ture without mentioning at least some of the central ele- ments of the country's cultural history. Argentina embarked on the project of modernity early on. In the nineteenth century, the state implemented one of the first literacy laws in the world, guaranteeing free and compul- sory education for all residents of the country regardless of their citizenship status. At the turn of the century, there was already a large literate public which made the devel- opment of a national culture industry viable. By 1930, 60% of all the newsprint used in Latin America was con- sumed in Argentina. An entertainment industry, including film, radio and music, flourished during this period. The link between state-sponsored education and the rise of the mass media was crucial in the development of Argentine modernity. It is no surprise that the country's first labor union, the Typographers' Union of Buenos Aires, formed in 1869, was related to the print media. VoL XXXI, No 6MAY/JUNE 1998 35 VOL XXXI, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1998 35REPORT ON ARGENTINA During the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen- turies, Argentina was transformed by a massive influx of European immigrants. Between 1870 and 1930, over six million Europeans entered the country, dramatically transforming the capital city of Buenos Aires as well as Argentina's national identity. At the turn of the century, there were more foreign-born people living Buenos Aires than native-born Argentines. The immigration policies which stimulated this wave of European emigration to Argentina were implemented by an agroexport oligarchy as part of In the a social darwinist project to the racism of improve what they perceived as the "degenerative" mestizo stock against peol of the nation. The racist disdain interior took o for the people and cultures of the interior provinces has been a con- political dirr stant tension in the country's cul- tural history since the time of thousands Domingo Sarmiento, a prolific arrived in Bu author and prominent statesman of nineteenth century Argentina. search of ind Sarmiento perceived the Argen- tine national project as a struggle between civilization and barbarism, making Buenos Aires the symbolic embodiment of a modern civilized nation on the frontier. The immigration policies inspired by these ideas, however, soon created problems for the very elites who had implemented them. The rapid growth of the labor movement, spurred by recently arrived immigrants with strong anarcho-syndicalist influences, led to an average of over 100 strikes per year by the turn of the century. Ruling elites responded to this social unrest with violent repression and restrictive legislation. Out of this emerged one of the most strategic forms of disciplinary knowledge of the modem state-criminology-which targeted not only criminals but social agitators as well. Criminology has deeply marked Argentine history, from the turn-of-the-century projects for social hygiene to the massacres during the dictatorship of Gen. Jorge Videla (1976-1980), who perceived social unrest as the work of people who were "genetically predisposed" to subver- sion and thus a threat to national security. The racism of ruling elites against people from the interior intensified and took on increasingly political dimensions, as hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in the capital in search of industrial jobs begin- ning in the 1930s and continuing through the period of classic Peronism (1946-1955). These migrants, who would become Per6n's key constituency, were vilified by Per6n's enemies as "the little black heads" and the "zoological avalanche." Like Per6n, Carlos Menem, who is from La Rioja, one of Argentina's poorest provinces, came to power in 1989 with the support of urban and rural workers, crafting a look for himself reminiscent of Facundo Quiroga, the caudillo from the provinces vilified in the writings of Sarmiento. Numerous political projects have attempted to envi- sion a nation without cultural prejudices against either mestizos or foreign immigrants, including the anti-oli- garchic radicalism of Hip6lito Yrigoyen and the pop- ulism of the Peronist movement. These political projects, and their 1930s, underlying visions of the nation, ruling elites were systematically attacked by ultranationalist elites and the )le from the land-owning oligarchy. The coup n increasingly that ousted Yrigoyen in 1930- the first of the numerous army- nensions, as led coups of the twentieth cen- tury-brought together an )f migrants ultranationalist Catholic military enos Aires in leadership and a conservative elite that favored the liberal eco- lustrial jobs. nomic policies of Britain and the United States. This unholy alliance would reemerge again in the military coups led by Gen. Juan Carlos Onganfa in 1966 and Videla in 1976. Through a horrific dirty war, Videla set out to consolidate the hegemony of this mili- tary-economic alliance once and for all. Despite the military debacle in the Malvinas, which prompted the generals to relinquish power and hold democratic elections, efforts to consolidate a transition that was less controlled by the military and more closely linked to the proposals of the Multipartidaria of 1982-a coalition made up of the country's major political parties-were unsuccessful. While the members of the military juntas that ruled the country between 1976 and 1983 were brought to trial by the Alfonsin government, the impact of these judi- cial proceedings was undermined by the Final Stop and Due Obedience Laws. This attempt at "reconciliation" eventually led to Menem's infamous pardon of the jun- tas, through which he inaugurated a regime of institu- tionalized impunity where corruption reigns and civil society is weak and defensive. As was the case in other countries in the Southern Cone, the military conditioned its retreat on maintaining its role as the nation's institutional "protector." The shroud of forgetting cast over the atrocities of state ter- rorism was favored not only by the military, but also by the business elites who had supported the dictatorship and who were the main beneficiaries of the economic liberalization that the regime had implemented-an NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 36REPORT ON ARGENTINA unholy alliance indeed. The permanent threat of another coup assured that impunity would become official state policy. While hundreds of bodies were being exhumed from the clandestine graves of the dictatorship, President Ratil Alfonsin promoted a conciliatory discourse based on the "theory of the two demons," which explained Argentina's recent past as the result the conflict between two camps of warring state on one side and' on the other. The docui Lost Republic is one expressions of this his tive, presenting both ments for social chang nized state terroris products of institutions tence and political i The historical dichoto barbarism and civi- lization reappeared, now refracted through the distortions of the transition. In effect, the theory of the two demons expressed the final triumph of Argentina's political and social establish- ment, for it com- pletely denied all social legitimacy to the progressive move- ments that were exterminated by the military regime. In this context, both the official story and the discourses of the Alfonsin govern- M enemismo emerged using populist and nation- alist rhetoric that had a strong messianic under- current. The Menem government, however, had no trouble shedding its nationalistic rhetoric when it was required to comply with the prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and become an unconditional ally of the United States. As Menem shed his populist-nationalist discourse in favor policies-which have ices that were so crucial ctory in 1989-he also cial hairstyle and unruly cess of Menemismo is y the defeat of inflation, it has failed to deliver se of a "productive revo- the alleged benefits of its the United States have been less than forth- coming. Yet beneath the optimism of Menemismo, there are other realities lurking. Reckless privatiza- tions, the flexibiliza- tion of labor markets, growing unemploy- ment, the exclusionary modernization of vari- ous sectors of the economy, the system- atic destruction of the public university and the reckless condem- nation of the entire national education system, are the struc- tural pillars of a social project that was first ment, wmicn claimed Above: A sketch of Juan "Facundo" set m moon i y Jose to be acting within the "limits of the Quiroga, a prominent nineteenth cen- Martinez de Hoz, Finance Minister possible," implicitly accepted that tury caudillo from the interior. during the Videla regime. Under certain aspects of the dictatorship's Below: Carlos Menem during a visit to Menem, the project begun by the provinces in his 1989 presidential social project were inevitable, irre- campaign. Martinez de Hoz has been fully con- versible, and thus somehow linked to solidated. The dismantling of the an evolutionary notion of progress. This point is crucial social contract-and its promise of social mobility-is to understanding the transition. It is also what best most evident in the crisis of the school system and in the explains the fundamental contradiction within contem- recurrent protests against cuts in public education. The porary political culture in Argentina, which is the fact teachers' union, for example, has organized a series of that the orderly and disciplinary authoritarianism actions to protest cuts in the government's education implanted by the dictatorship is a key component of budget. Teachers have also taken part in demonstrations Menemismo's globalized and "efficiency-oriented" cul- around other issues, playing a role that in earlier times tural project. was played by industrial unions. 37 VOL XXXI, NO 6 MAY/JUNE 1998REPORT ON ARGENTINA Menem's frivolous mass-media strategies, moreover, have trivialized political culture by transforming poli- tics into a televisual spectacle. This process mirrored the emergence of the global "info-tainment" industry, the logical result of the concentration of the mass media in the hands of a few powerful conglomerates. The assassination of photographer Jos6 Luis Cabezas, who was investigating government corruption, illustrates the way in which the media transforms events into important but depoliticized public issues. The list of suspects in Cabezas' murder range from Buenos Aires police offi- cers to businessmen and politicians with close ties to Menem. This case generated a feeling of widespread public insecurity and at least momentarily revealed the corruption within the state apparatus. What is problem- atic here is that the kind of media coverage received by the Cabezas case and others like it forecloses the possi- bility of more profound discussions because stories are framed as one-dimensional news events without any structural implications. Thus, despite the fact that they receive widespread coverage and generate outrage among the national citizen-audience, they have no sig- nificant political impact. Global communication technologies, moreover, have also wrought important changes in Argentine culture. At the same time that a majority of Argentines have been economically impoverished, Argentina has become one of the countries with the highest percentage of cable-TV subscribers. The predictable clash between material poverty and symbolic "wealth" reveals the current hypersaturation of imported mass culture as well as the neglect of local cultural production. Globalization has also affected local patterns of con- sumption. The stabilization of the economy opened the way for a credit-driven consumer frenzy underwritten by the logic of comfortable monthly installments. The political implications of this have been noted in the pub- lic references to the importance of the "appliance vote" in the successive electoral victories of Menemismo. Elections have also been influenced by the other face of the appliance vote-the inflation syndrome-the fear on the part of economic elites that the fixed exchange rate could unravel, and with it, the entire credit system. Meanwhile, the deregulation and flexibilization of labor continue to exacerbate individualism and the fear of unionization or association. At the same time, cor- ruption is growing like an oil spill--each day implicat- ing more and more people tied to the business sector and to the state. Disillusionment and skepticism, or simply an embittered resignation, populate the minds of Argentines, as accusations against public officials are diluted in an inefficient and corrupt judicial system. Public outrage over corruption is also defused through everyday humor and satire and popular TV talk shows, whose growing success feeds off the vacuum produced by the absence of real political debates. For those sectors that have always dreamt of Argentina's full inclusion in the geopolitical world order, Menemismo has been a godsend. Its grand cele- bration-"pizza with champagne"-expresses the tri- umph of that strategic subalternity which figures that the closer one gets to the centers of geopolitical power, the easier it is to access their privileges. For the rest of the country, it has foregrounded the urgent need to elaborate possible futures in which new projects for social justice may be born.
