Coping with Collapse; Examples from Argentina

The story of what happened to Argentina and how the population is coping with it holds many valuable lessons. It is a story that offers hope, and that holds warnings, particularly for those of us living in the United States. But, before we begin our examination, let us keep in mind that these are human beings we are talking about. Humans who have suffered the loss of their livelihood and their savings, people who have had to endure starvation, torture, and the disappearance and murder of loved ones. While we seek to draw lessons from what has happened in Argentina, let us not forget the sufferings and deprivations that the Argentine people have had to endure.
Introduction The past fifteen years have seen the collapse of four industrialized countries from which those of us who are aware of energy depletion and the collapse of complex systems can draw useful knowledge. Dmitri Orlov has presented us with examples of how the Russian people survived the collapse of the Soviet Union. (Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century & Our Village, GRITS; Grassroots Ideas to Survive, Edited by Dale Allen Pfeiffer, Lulu Press, Nov. 2005, also available at survivingpeakoil.com.) And this author has examined what happened in Cuba and North Korea. (Drawing Lessons from Experience: North Korea & Drawing Lessons from Experience: Cuba, The End of the Oil Age, by Dale Allen Pfeiffer, Lulu Press, March 2004. Eating Fossil Fuels, due out in fall of 2006, New Society Publishers. Learning from Experience: Cuba is also available at survivingpeakoil.com.) Here we will examine a fourth industrialized country that has collapsed recently: Argentina.

The story of what happened to Argentina and how the population is coping with it holds many valuable lessons. It is a story that offers hope, and that holds warnings, particularly for those of us living in the United States. But, before we begin our examination, let us keep in mind that these are human beings we are talking about. Humans who have suffered the loss of their livelihood and their savings, people who have had to endure starvation, torture, and the disappearance and murder of loved ones. While we seek to draw lessons from what has happened in Argentina, let us not forget the sufferings and deprivations that the Argentine people have had to endure.

The crisis in Argentina was in the nature of an economic meltdown. It was a manufactured crisis, entirely due to neoliberal policies and globalization. The collapse of Argentina was engineered by the IMF, the World Bank, international financial players and the corrupt elite of Argentina. It was a crisis that did not have to happen. At one time, Argentina had the most robust economy in South America. It was an economic power on par with France. Argentina is a country rich in resources. It was once a world provider of quality meats and grains. It was the industrial powerhouse of Latin America.

The story of what happened to this wealthy country is the story of the ultimate result of fascism and neoliberal economics. It is the story of how privatization, a thoroughly exploited working class, and an economy unprotected from foreign speculators led to unprecedented disaster.

The Making of an Economic Crisis

To understand what happened in Argentina, we must first hearken back to the military coup of the 1970s, and the military dictatorship that initiated the process of running a proud country into the ground. The early 1970s saw a rise of populist and activist politics in Argentina. These progressives and radicals were used by ousted President Juan Domingo Peron