Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina

by Marina Sitrin

In the wake of the global financial crisis, new forms of social organization are beginning to take shape. Disparate groups of people are coming together in order to resist corporate globalization and seek a more positive way forward. These movements are not based on hierarchy; rather than looking to those in power to solve their problems, participants are looking to one another. In certain countries in the West, this has been demonstrated by the recent and remarkable rise of the Occupy movement. But in Argentina, such radical transformations have been taking place for years. Marina Sitrin tells the story of how regular people changed their country and inspired others across the world.

Reflecting on new forms of social organization, such as horizontalism and autogestión, as well as alternative conceptions of value and power, Marina Sitrin shows how an economic crisis spurred a people's rebellion; how factory workers and medical clinic technicians are running their workplaces themselves, without bosses; how people have taken over land to build homes, raise livestock, grow crops, and build schools, creating their own art and media in the process.

Daring and groundbreaking, Sitrin shows how the experiences of the autonomous movements in Argentina can help answer the question of how to turn a rupture into a revolution.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2012

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've struggled to find an ethnographic text that links Peronism, the military regime years, neoliberalism, and then resistance to neoliberalism in Argentina for my class on Latin America. This one does a clear and succinct job of it - great find! I am only using a few chapters, but I could see assigning the whole book. It would be a great text to teach in a class on social movements.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sociologist Marina A. Sitrin’s 2012 book, Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina is on the Horizontadid (Horizonalism in English) Movement in Argentina in the 2000s. The Horizontadad Movement was an example of a “new autonomous social movement” that tried to use “direct democracy” that does not use any formal hierarchy (61). Large portions of the Argentine population practice Horizontadad in their everyday lives from how to monitor their neighborhoods, factories, and other communities of everyday lives, after the Argentine economy collapsed in 2001. This economic collapse led to a general lack of trust in the government. These led to a feeling of disgust in the status quo of the Argentine political system among many Argentines. The Horizontadid Movement was one of more successful “new autonomous social movement” (61) of the 21st Century. Some other examples of “new autonomous movement are the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the United States and the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. The first 2 chapters are the background and beginning of Horizontadid Movement. The next 4 chapters are on different parts of Horizontadid, from “direct democracy” (61), to factories run by the workers, and other aspects of Argentine life. Chapter 7 is on how the Argentine state interacted with the Horizontadid Movement under the Presidencies of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner. Chapter 8 is on if the Horizontadad Movement was a success or not. Marina’s book is a well-done sociology overview of the Horizontadid Movement.