|
|
|
|
Argentina went into a recession in July of 1998 and as of July 2000 it's still not growing. The new government of President Fernando De La Rua has had to cut a lot of spending to control the deficit and keep the IMF and World Bank loans flowing. In practice this has meant cutting the salaries of a lot of public employees. Not surprisingly this has generated a lot of protest. There have been several national strikes and during the month of June there were almost daily protests in the Plaza De Mayo.
On the day I took this photo I was just going to the bank to cash a check when I stumbled upon this group forming a few blocks from the Plaza. The protest was smallish, several thousand people, but on other days I have seen up to 50,000 striking workers block off Avenida 9 de Julio, the main avenue thru downtown Buenos Aires. The Papelazo is what office workers do to join in on the fun; dump vast quantities of paper onto the sidewalks below. I took these photos in June of 2000 with my Yashica T4.
Previous: Scenes from the Subte
Send me email: hobbs@post.harvard.edu
|