> On the Burgeoning Argentinean Soviets ("Asambleas

> On the Burgeoning Argentinean Soviets ("Asambleas

> Populares")

> The painful massacre of three teenagers in Floresta

> by a retired policeman showed that the people are

up against the government's "easy trigger" policy.

The neighbors of Floresta have organized to this end

a Popular Assembly, in imitation of those

> already existing in Almagro and San Cristbal

> uniting neighbors, students, workers and homeless

> In the mobilization ("cacerolazo") against Rodrguez

> Sa began to appear banners belonging to

neighborhood organizations that marched

> orderly to Plaza de Mayo. The "Popular Assembly of

> Almagro", for instance, after marching through

Angel Gallardo and Corrientes streets, went with its

banners and a thousand neighbors to the Plaza.

> This mobilization was prepared beforehand, with

> previous assemblies and a significant political

declaration (see below). In the "Popular

> Assembly of Almagro" take part, besides the

> neighbors, organizations of the neighborhood such

as the Coordinating Committee for Work and

> Housing (belonging to the Polo Obrero) and the

> Students' Center of the Faculty of Social Sciences

of the University of Buenos Aires (Ramos Meja

section).

> Even more than the cacerolazo of December 19, that

> of the 28th led to the creation of new

organizations. In San Cristbal, the neighbors

> which organized the cacerolazo on the 28th convoked

> a Popular Assembly for the 30th (80 people

attended) and new cacerolazos on December 30 and

January 1. To a large extent, it was these

> organizations, functioning through assemblies, which

> organized, in the face of media hostility, the

great cacerolazo of January 1, the night Duhalde

assumed the presidency.

> Against their media description as a "mob," the

> neighbors have begun

> a huge movement of self-organization.

> Extracts of the Declaration of the Popular Assembly

> of Almagro

> (Buenos Aires)

> "The People Say Enough:

> Let Us Have Politics Through Popular Assemblies"

> "(...) The people have defeated and expelled the

> starvation

> government of De la Ra and Cavallo. But (...) we

> have no

> expectations of the new government coming out of

> this crisis, because

> these people governed the country until a couple of

> years ago and

> govern today most of the provinces, implementing the

> same economic

> and social policy which the people have repudiated a

> few days ago.

> That is why we repudiate both peronismo and

> radicalismo and all their

> accomplices..."

> "(...) The state of assembly and mobilization (is)

> the only way to

> guarantee our right as workers, neighbors and

> Argentineans (...) We

> call all the neighborhoods of the Capital to create

> and take part in

> all the assemblies and forms of organization set up

> by their

> neighbors and organizations. And we call to create

> connection

> commissions (comisiones de enlace) with the

> assemblies already formed

> or about to be formed."

> "We condemn the repression of the past Wednesday and

> Thursday (...)

> we demand the judgment and punishment of those

> responsible for it..."

> "We demand the immediate resignation of the Supreme

> Court..."

> "We demand the immediate liberty of the political

> prisoners..."

> "Enough with the governments which obey the IMF and

> the World Bank.

> Enough with political opportunism."

> "We demand the immediate convocation of a free and

> sovereign Popular

> Constituent Assembly in all the country, based on

> popular assemblies

> in the neighborhoods, factories, counties and

> provinces, able to

> oppose the starvation policies of the government and

> reorganize

> socially, economically and politically the

> nation...."

> Approved in assembly, Saturday 22 of December, 2001