Notes!: Alcañiz and Scheier 2007

Alcañiz, Isabella, and Melissa Scheier. 2007. "New Social Movements with Old Party Politics". Latin American Perspectives. 34 (2): 157-171.

groups that are more likely to enter into agreements with the state, the FTV and the CTA
moderate groups with the CCC
radical groups with the Movimiento Territorial de Liberacion (MTL) and the National Piqutero Bloque
Bloque piquetero gets fewest subsidies (158)

Argument: preexisting partisan networks (linking unemployed to institutional political forces) determined the specific development of piqutero coalitions, and these coalitions in turn limited the strategies available to movements and ther iability to persist over time

second try: piquetero groups formed along lines of previous partisan networks, which subsequently meant these groups had varying access to parties

while others have shown that clientelism is important, authors show that other mechanisms of political organization can replace the need for such links
The piqueteros are coming

piqueteros first appeared in oil towns, places with long and rich histories of social, political, and labor organization (159)
first wave of piqueteros tended to be unemployed union workers
second wave (2001) were independent of, and often vocally rejected the lead of Peronist unions
Leaders in the first wave had been labor organizers, second wave were mostly from leftist political parties (160)...even those with prior union exerience rejected verticality of peronist unions

previous social networks among piqueteros shaped the way they saw the unemployment situation, which in turn shaped coalition strategies for piqutero groups
MTL was specifically founded around rejection of neoliberalism, distrust of peronist politics (161)

unions and PJ had been based on full-employment economy, so downturn in economy in 1990s resulted in piqueteros who weren't used to being unemployed, felt they were owed a job by society (more or less) (162)
but unions were too weak to demand them, so they protested

social policy was decentralized, making municipalities and non-state actors the coordinators/distributors of state resources (163)

this prompted organization on the part of these unemployed, so their groups could get control of resources
also promoted growth of clientelism

importantly: piquetero organizations were a place where opposition parties could get an ally in the popular sector

the communist party helped found the CTA, which in turn got the PC involved in te unemployed movement (164)
FTV head D'Elia endorsed a teachers protest in 1997, which got the FTV closer to the CTA, which got the PC involved with the FTV
1998 FTV officially joins CTA (165)
in June 2001 MTL created because the communists don't like the soft line taken by the FTV
"The issue of autonomy is a central concern of the MTL movement" (165)

but how can the MTL stay autonomous and still have the funding necessary to help its people?
through the IMFC, Institute for the Mobilization of Cooperative Funds)
MTL got employment through the IMFC and financial autonomy for the MTL (166)
IMFC is a buffer between the MTL and the PC, meaning MTL has real autonomy

MTL not initially excited about cooperatives idea, which was proposed by PC and the IMFC
eventually all three collaborate to buy/operate a mineral processing plant in 2005 (expropriation not supported by government) (166-167)
MTL also started a large housing project in BA, supported by loans from the city (167)

city and the MTL consider this a pilot project for future housing projects developed by social movements and paid for by government (168)

MTL's association with the PC offered and alternative to traditional patterns of government-labor relations

my take: but not really, as housing project shows, government still has biggest coffers

odd coalition, between the horizontal MTL and the hierarchical PC, but these ties were based in historical ties
MTL voters, of course, vote peronist (169)

Notes!