“Come Onto The Streets And Protest”

An interview with Nora De Cortinas

AMONG the several foreign delegates attending the Asian Social Forum 2003, Hyderabad, Nora De Cortinas, an economist and a psychologist from University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, strongly empathises with and encourages any social movement which fights the neo-liberal economic policies of WTO, IMF and World Bank being pushed by the US.

In an exclusive interview to Prajasakti, she shared her experience about the Mothers’ Movement in Argentina. The Mothers’ Movement was a response to the infamous ‘disappearance scheme’ executed by the then military regime which seized power after the collapse of the constitutional government on March 24, 1976. Nora is, in fact, one of the co-founders of Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the May Plaza), an organisation formed in 1977 by women in Argentina originally to protest the disappearance of opponents of the military dictatorship and to recover children born in jail. According to her, the victims primarily were the children (both male and female) who were taken forcibly from their homes to unknown places against the will of the parents. Once kidnapped, nobody could know where the children were or whether they were alive at all or not. Reports suggest that most of them were killed in concentration camps and given a mass burial. More than 30,000 such children had been taken away.

To add insult to the injury, the military regime set up a pseudo-enquiry office providing false information to the hapless mothers, running from pillar to post in search of their children. The military regime had a smooth sailing as it could muster the support of the top clergy, landlords and some politicians who were hand-in-glove with the autocratic government. It was Azucena Villia Flar who mobilised the mothers to stop this enquiry and gather at the main square (Plaza), the hub of all social, economic and cultural activities, and protest against the kidnappings and murder of their children. The protest of the hapless mothers continued without any positive result for a long time. They used to meet at the Plaza every Thursday between 3.30 pm and 4 pm to protest against the government and express solidarity with the victims, a tradition which is continuing even today.

The military dictatorship came to an end in 1986, following the establishment of a constitutional government. The military rulers, though convicted, could get away with simple punishment like imprisonment because of enactment of new laws of impunity, which even after establishing the severity of the crimes committed by each of the military rulers, was very lenient and ‘the humanitarian ground’ was accepted as their defence. Nora says, the entire disappearance scheme was executed to curb any sort of protest against the government by the youth.

The present situation in Argentina, according to her, is no better. With the total surrender to the policies of the World Bank, IMF and WTO and withdrawal of the subsidies to most of the public sector, the enormity of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment has increased manifolds, causing extreme suffering to the common masses. Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo has also extended its support to the protest against privatisation and payment of external debt. 

Nora opines that the recent Piquetarors movement which saw large-scale protest against the policies of the government is one of the turning points in the history of struggle against privatisation. With the spontaneous massive protest on December 19, 2001, the finance ministers, along with five successive presidents, were forced to resign. The recent moves by the government to privatise water has also drawn widespread protest from different quarters, with the protest still going on.

On being asked about the reason for participating in the Asian Social Forum here at Hyderabad, she answers that she wants to share her experience with others on the ill effects of privatisation. As an economist, she also thinks that the reason for large scale disparities between the developed countries and developing countries lies mainly in the policies that are being followed by the governments on the dictates of the United States of America only to satisfy the interest of certain countries. ‘We must protest against this’, Nora says, adding that ‘it is high time we came out onto the streets, sensitised people and protested against these diabolic policies which are increasing the disparities between the rich and the poor and creating hunger and poverty all over the developing countries’.