Argentina

2005 saw two trends in the mining industry: the spectacular rise in gold, silver and copper prices accompanied by a growing interest in the activities of the industry in Latin America. Investigative reports focusing on the "dirty deeds" of big global companies such as Placer Dome, Barrick, Newmont, and Anglo American appeared in major dailies such as the New York Times. I want to bring to your attention the activities of smaller gold mining companies in Latin America know as "juniors".

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From the La Gomera Community Center, for the whole neighborhood and under the slogan "Down With TV," Channel 5 is intercepted in order to make a different transmission. Videos, music and parties made up part of the experience that refreshed a sweltering Sunday.

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It is one of the biggest "recuperated factories" in Argentina with exemplary worker management. It has created jobs, conquered the market, and managed to involve a whole community in its defense against repeated threats of eviction. After long legal maneuvering, a bankruptcy judge decided to hand the factory over to the Fasinpat cooperative in exchange for payment of 30,000 pesos (about $10,000) a month in taxes. It was a big step toward final expropriation and a recognition of the solid work of its 470 workers. Here is the story of this struggle, as told in La Vaca‘s book, "Sin Patrón" ("Without a Boss"). […]

The Argentine beach town of Mar del Plata became a symbolic site in the historical struggle between neo-liberalism and social movements in Latin America last week, when President Bush and the 34 other presidents participated in the IV Summit of the Americas. They were met by hordes of protestors against Bush and his free trade agenda. As Argentine President Nestor Kirchner hosted the official Summit of the Americas behind miles of fences, the People’s Summit brought together social movements, labor unionists, piqueteros, non-profits, and community groups from Argentina and the across the Americas to create a more just and humane form of Latin American political, economic and social integration.

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Click here for coverage of this same story en espanol I first saw the deserts of the Argentine west while crammed in the backseat of a pickup with three other people. Two of those people […]

By training ordinary community members to be neighborhood-based advocates of health and harm reduction, a unique program in Rosario, Argentina is reaching out to drug users with limited access to information and health services. Volunteers […]

Walk past the elegant art galleries lining Avenida Defensa in San Telmo, Buenos Aires then skip the Parisian style cafes surrounding cobble stoned Plaza Dorrego, shut down your senses to prevent detouring to one of […]

One day before Argentina’s economic crash on December 19, 2001, fifty-two workers from the Brukman Textile Factory, the majority of them women, refused to continue working until their bosses handed over their back-wages. Plagued by […]

While the Argentine economy may still be recovering from its 2001-2002 crisis, life at Hotel Bauen in Buenos Aires has only been heating up. After more than two years of being taken over by the […]

"Imagine you lost your job and the government closed down the banks, so you couldn’t get out your savings. What would you do?" asks the narrator of the new film, Argentina: Hope in Hard Times. […]