[News] Turning Activists Into Voters in Uruguay

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/dangl12042009.html

December 4-6, 2009


The Frente Amplio and José Mujica


Turning Activists Into Voters in Uruguay

By BENJAMIN DANGL

Torrential rain didn’t keep voters away from the 
polls on Sunday, November 29th when José "Pepe" 
Mujica was elected president with 52% of the 
vote. The 74-year-old Agricultural Minister spent 
14 years in jail for his participation in the 
Tupamaro guerilla movement, and has pledged to 
continue the policies of his predecessor, current 
left-leaning president Tabaré Vásquez. Mujica 
also promised that while president, he would 
return to his farm outside the capital city at 
least 5 hours a week to tend his flowers and vegetables.

"It's the model of Lula," Alfredo Garcé of the 
University of the Republic in Montevideo said of 
Mujica’s strategy. "To win the elections [in 
Brazil] he put on an Armani suit and said he 
wanted a government of the left but moderate to 
permit a political economy respectful of 
capitalism." Garcé said, before the results of 
Sunday’s election were known, "It's not Mujica 
they were voting for – he will win because of the party."

However charismatic and popular Mujica is, he 
owes a lot to the Frente Amplio (Broad Front), a 
political party that over its nearly 40 years in 
existence has transformed the political and 
social landscape of the country, from the 
grassroots to the presidential palace.

The Frente Amplio’s Long Road

The Frente Amplio (FA) began as a broad coalition 
of leftists that pulled together the Christian 
Democrat, Socialist and Communist parties of the 
country in 1971. At the very beginning the FA 
founders said the "fundamental objective of 
Frente Amplio is permanent political action and 
not electoral competition." As part of that 
direction, the FA began nation-wide networks of 
base committees to open up the political process 
to more people, allowing for direct democracy 
from below, fewer political intermediaries, and 
grassroots power over decisions within the FA as 
a movement. Two primary goals of the FA from the 
start were land reform and a stronger public 
sector. The coalition faced widespread repression 
under the dictatorship, which began in 1973. 
After surviving this period, it emerged as a 
political force after the dictatorship ended in 
1984. The Uruguayan left and the FA’s base 
committees continued to grow throughout the 1980s.

The Uruguayan left was further sparked to action 
in a movement for justice regarding the 
dictatorship, an issue many people united behind 
in 1986 when a "law of impunity" was passed, 
protecting the dictatorship’s 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/190485933X/counterpunchmaga>
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members. This human rights movement participated 
in a referendum to get rid of the law; 25% of 
voters’ signatures were needed to convoke this 
referendum. Uruguayan analyst Raúl Zibechi 
writes, "To achieve this, neighborhood activists 
combed the country, going house-to-house, to 
dialogue with neighbors and explain what the law 
was about and to ask for their signatures. Some 
30,000 activists participated in the door-to-door 
campaign. They visited 80% of Uruguay’s 
households; spoke with over one million people; 
and in some cases had to return two, three and 
even seven times to obtain a signature." Though 
the referendum failed (42% were against the law, 
52% were for it) it led many activists to become 
more familiar with their country, their fellow 
citizens, and to achieve a political presence in 
rural areas. This development also aided in the 
electoral advances of the Uruguayan left.

The momentum of these years resulted in part in 
the election of Tabaré Vázquez as the mayor of 
Montevideo, the capital city, in 1989. When 
Vásquez took office in 1990 he established a 
broad network of organizations and methods to 
bring participation from the people into the 
local government. Communal councils were designed 
to actively monitor government operations, 
participate in budget-making, as well as design 
projects, and consider laws and policies at the grassroots level.

Another event that empowered the Uruguayan left 
was a referendum organized in 1992 regarding a 
law that would have put the national telephone 
company and other public-run services under 
private control. The referendum politicized 
people, spread awareness and galvanized movements 
and unions against the legislation. As a result, 
72% of the population voted against the law.

The FA established juntas locales (local boards) 
as administrative and political authorities in 
late 1993 in each of Montevideo’s 18 districts, 
while the neighborhood councils were made up of 
25-40 members and acted in an advisory role from 
the bases. Both the boards and the councils 
operated as an arm of the government and FA party 
to distribute public services, funding and deal 
with administrative issues. Yet typical 
bureaucratic and centralized power soon took over 
this very democratic structure, stifling and 
limiting participation and enthusiasm from below 
as the 1990s continued. Zibechi writes, "Two new 
structures (one political and one social) 
mediated the interaction between city residents 
and the local governments, and two parallel 
authorities filtered social demands, with little 
communication between the two. The limited power 
granted to the neighborhood councils, in contrast 
to the broad political responsibilities reserved 
for the local boards, discouraged social 
participation, as indicated by the growing rate 
of desertion among the councils, which in 1997 averaged 45 percent."

Leading up to the victory of the FA in the 2004 
presidential elections, the National Commission 
in Defense of Water and Life (CNDAV) was 
organized in 2003 by a broad based coalition of 
movements, groups and organizations to fight 
water privatization. The CNDAV produced hundreds 
of thousands of signatures in October of 2003 for 
the plebiscite on October 31, 2004, which took 
place along with the national elections. In the 
vote, over 62% of the people voted for a 
constitutional change to prohibit the 
privatization of water and sewage systems.

The base committees and the referendum helped lay 
the framework for the FA’s hegemony, support, and 
campaign network, which led to Vásquez’s election 
to the presidency. His chances for victory 
increased during a major economic crash in the 
country in 2002. Vásquez and the FA were seen as 
an alternative to the neoliberal plan which caused the crisis.

In the 2004 presidential campaign, the FA 
prioritized policies to fight marginalization and 
poverty, expand healthcare and education services 
and increase democratic participation in the 
development of government policies. Yet as 
election day neared, the FA was willing to water 
down its plans in order to expand its voter base. 
José Mujica said, before the 2004 elections, "I 
do not believe that we would come to power, 
precisely now, on the crest of a revolutionary 
wave. We are almost asking permission from the 
bourgeoisie to let ourselves in, and we have to 
play the role of stabilizing the government if we 
get there, because we are operating under the 
rule of law. A government of our own will have to 
maneuver. And furthermore, I sincerely believe 
that we have many things to do before socialism. 
And we have to send the right signals, from an 
electoral point of view. What do you want me to do, scare the bourgeoisie?"

The Hope of Vásquez

Vásquez was elected president in 2004. On March 
1, 2005, the night Tabaré Vázquez was inaugurated 
President of Uruguay, a sea of people, flags and 
drum brigades surged through the streets of 
Montevideo. Fireworks pounded the air and car 
horns shrieked. The city bubbled with a cathartic happiness.

"Vázquez’s victory is a powerful change for 
Uruguay," asserted Martin Bension, a history 
teacher in Montevideo. "Now the people will have 
more opportunities to participate in the 
government. Right from the foundation of the 
Frente Amplio, decades ago, there has been 
popular participation in it. The Frente makes 
people feel more connected, so more people become involved."

"A lot of people died and went to jail in the 
seventies to win what the Frente Amplio has 
today," Bension said. "Besides improvements in 
Uruguay, the nations of Latin America should 
unite – just as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez 
is trying to do – in spite of our soccer rivalries!"

Bands played in the streets and people waved 
flags, pounded drums and drank the liquor stores 
dry to celebrate the inauguration. When the 
parties were over, much of this enthusiasm was 
channeled into the base committees of the FA.

Oscar Gandolo, a painter, had been active in his 
committee for five years. "The economy was going 
from bad to worse," he recalled. "I had to do 
something... We have meetings every week where we 
get together and decide what we think the 
government needs to do, and cover issues that the 
government misses." A couple of days after the 
presidential inauguration, the mood at a base 
committee in Montevideo was upbeat. The setting 
was typical of other party offices around 
Montevideo: a cluttered meeting room with books 
and political pamphlets stacked along tables, a 
picture of Che Guevara painted on the wall and 
campaign posters plastered everywhere. People 
filed into the room, joking, patting each other 
on the back and passing around yerba mate, a 
thick herbal tea popular in Uruguay and Argentina.

Eventually participants sat down and introduced 
themselves. They were carpenters, school 
teachers, plumbers, students, electricians, 
unemployed people and musicians. Some had been 
members of the party for decades, and others were 
showing up for the first time. They planned a 
cultural event with artists and musicians from 
Uruguay and Cuba. Then, after lengthy 
discussions, they elected a secretary, 
representative and treasurer. Security in the 
neighborhood and the condition of one of the main 
roads was the next topic of discussion.

Toward the end of the meeting, a long-standing 
member of the base committee spoke to the group: 
"For those who just arrived for the first time, 
we ask for your participation. It doesn’t matter 
if you don’t know anything about politics. You’ll 
learn while you’re here. With this new government 
in office, the responsibility of the people is greater than ever before."

Activists and Voters of the Frente Amplio

At a dinner with businessmen at the 
Inter-American Development Bank, Vásquez 
announced that Danilo Astori would be the 
Minister of Economy and Finances for his 
government. The selection of Astori, a former 
leftist but at that point a proponent of 
neoliberalism, produced applause from the right 
and condemnation from the left. Astori said he 
would continue the economic policies of his 
predecessors. (Astori is now vice president-elect under Mujica.)

However, Vásquez did begin a "Social Emergency 
Plan" which allocated $100 million to social 
programs and relief for economic problems in 
areas such as housing, food, healthcare, and 
jobs. Once in the presidential palace, the FA 
administration decided to pay the country’s 
external debt in spite of campaign promises; the 
government even paid their IMF debt in advance – 
a far cry from demands from the FA base to send 
that money to social projects. In spite of these 
setbacks there have been improvements in the 
relationship between the government and social 
sectors in their discussion on policies regarding 
workers’ rights. The government has also set 
aside funds toward addressing the needs of the 
massive amounts of unemployed and impoverished in the country.

Under Vásquez, poverty has dropped from its 32% 
level in 2004, to 20%. In addition, the Ceibal 
Plan was developed to give a laptop with an 
internet connection to every primary school 
student in the country, and will now expand to 
reach secondary school students. A tax reform was 
also implemented which increased taxes for wealthier citizens.

However, two years into the Vásquez 
administration’s time in government, 
Argentina-based writer Marie Trigona wrote of the 
situation in Uruguay, "social movements have 
become stagnated with the crucial question of 'what next?'"

Helios Sarthou, a former FA Senator and veteran 
lawyer for the FA, told journalist Mike Fox, "The 
issue of power is extremely serious. Companions 
of mine, that were together in the struggle... 
are today, all silent, exercising their positions 
in the conquest of power." He said that the FA 
has shifted from its initial grassroots 
strategies, leading to a situation in which "the 
left converted its activists in to voters."

In any case, it is thanks to those votes that 
Mujica will be Uruguay’s next president. Now the 
Frente Amplio’s long road winds on, leading to 
political policies Mujica himself probably 
wouldn’t have supported as an idealistic Tupamaro 
guerrilla. As he said in the days leading up to 
the election, "we are not waiting for paradise, 
above all among the older people, but trying to 
escape from hell and cultivate hope."

Benjamin Dangl is currently based in Paraguay and 
is the author of 
"<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/190485933X/counterpunchmaga>The 
Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements 
in Bolivia" (AK Press). He edits 
UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and 
politics in Latin America, and TowardFreedom.com, 
a progressive perspective on world events. Email: Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com.




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