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In Chile, in the late 60’s, it started a wave of urban land occupation in the regions of “callampas”, that’s how several ranches were called, which were built with cartons, tin can or whatever was available. They were called like that because they were appearing everywhere, like mushrooms after the rain. Many of those occupations gave rise to programs and task of self-organization and they constituted truly rebel spaces from which massive amount of people got out of if to protest the right to land and housing. During the government of Allende, these places multiplied even more and some of them were bombed under orders of the Junta Militar that assassinated the president. Together with the industrial links (’cordones’)they constituted the communal councils or commands of workers and they were in process of construction of the popular power.
In Peru were the ‘young towns’, they also occupied urban areas with thousands of poor people that organized in such a way that constituted an important social force.
Both experiences were undermined by the military; however, important lessons remain with several contingencies of those who struggled. Nowadays some of them are dispersed and others are in a process of reorganization under other type of modalities.
In Brazil, the Homeless Worker’s Movement (MTST), especially in the city of Sao Paulo, have developed the idea of the rururban settlements during the last years, where the previously organized people occupy an area in the periphery of the city and there, beside of facing housing problems, they develop self-organized activities such as market gardens, animal crop like poultry, pig, etc. One of the settlements was organized in Guarulhos, located in the northeast of the city of Sao Paulo and another one was in Osasco, which is in the northwest area of Sao Paulo as well. Both of them have been very repressed and ousted, but, either way, they have been able to conserve certain continuity in the group, where there has been an important enrichment of experience.
In Rio de Janeiro shanty town areas have been organizing in an autonomous way with an enormous pressure of drug dealers and the police, which are two institutions that work hand by hand. It is still recent, but there have been news that they are progressing on it, this is especially spread out by the Popular Struggle Front of that city. In the city of Fortaleza, northeast of Brazil, there has been news that in some peripheral neighborhoods there is advancement in the organization of autonomous groups. In some neighborhoods of Belem, also to the northeast of Brazil, there have appeared the formations of autonomous committee in struggle against ALCA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, FTAA) where they have constituted a horizontal coordination.
As for Argentina, the presence of autonomous committee is very well known, which are also coordinated horizontally in the MTD Anibal Veron that are developing important experiences of self-organization in peripheral neighborhoods. There is a truly proliferation of other type of groups and neighborhood movements that are very variable ideologically, some of them are more concerned with the institutional relations than with the building of strategic capacity of struggle and resistance. But anyhow, it represents, together with Dominican Republic, the most advanced level of neighborhood organization in the continent.
In Chile, the autonomous links (’cordones’) of education and health are articulating in neighbors through Assemblies of the People, in which are incorporating youth groups and other local neighborhood organizations. A few days ago, Redpi was announcing from Chile in the web page of Clajadep, the constitution of three assemblies in populous regions of Santiago. The information was that there are more assemblies that are emerging in other peripheral regions of the capital city and in other cities as well.
In Paraguay, in the periphery of the capital, Asunción, the settlement of Marquetalia has been established, where the population has even set up its own systems of community watch and have organized their first attempts of self-defence, even though they are under the watchful eye and repression of the government, to the point that their lawyer has been detained and accused of carrying armament from Brazil.
In Uruguay news are circulating stating that there is a rising movement of autonomy in some districts of Montevideo, but there is little information on the matter. In Bolivia the communities of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz don’t count with organization and capacity of struggle, even though in Cochabamba, the Coordinadora del Agua y la Vida (Coordinator of Water and Life) make efforts to create groups of discussion and action.
It is different in La Paz, where the community of El Alto is known for its great combative stand due to the organized Aymará community that resides there.
From Ecuador there are no reports of community organizations and in Colombia the Comuna 13 in the periphery of Medellín continues to stand out, where a few days ago another ambush against the army was organized, a self-organized community with its own militia where the state has had to enter and militarize the area to contain the struggle of the population which with the support of guerrilla groups who came to join the popular militias, confronted the paramilitary . That district is a gigantic labyrinth of intricate side roads making the entrance of heavy vehicles difficult, facilitating ambushes.
There is no news from Venezuela either, other than the vertical organizing machine given to some communities by the bolivarians. In Panama, the community of Chorrillos, once Torrijos stronghold and where militias led by him had organized and faced the Yankee invasion that ended with the capture of Noriega, and where the marines concentrated their fire power, today seems quiet. There appears to be no form of autonomous periphery resistance organizing in any Central American city. In Mexico there are some beginnings of new forms of organizing in certain districts, particularly in Mexico City, but in no case of masses as one would have hoped given the support that the Zapatista Front enjoys in urban peripheries.
And Dominican Republic, finally, where the autonomous organizing of neighbourhoods has surprised us due to their organization, coordination and capacity of struggle, so much so, that it has influenced other organizations such as the bus drivers and some circles of urban workers. So strong and serious is the neighbourhood self organizing, which added to other sectors form wider social coordinators, that they have gained the respect of left wing parties, as their existence cannot be ignored or under appreciated. We do not know to what extent there has been a mutual influence between those autonomous social organizations and some university intellectuals, but the case is that there is a very great theoretical potential in regards to autonomies in that country, with authors of great capacity, one of which has already been published in the web-page of Clajadep and other international left media. There are also investigations and discussions on the subject and, without a doubt, that country still reserves some other surprises for us. We believe that this is one of the few countries where social organizations are forcing the left to follow them. The capacity of the neighbourhoods to mobilize, to paralyse and to cut streets in coordination is remarkable, as well as their combat readiness to confront the repression in the barricades.
With this overview we have wanted to show that there is a great deal of gained terrain in the struggle of resistance of the city’s peripheries, but there is still much left to be done.
We shouldn’t hurry, but we must do it, we have to know and to study these experiences, to share and to discuss them. We have to make known the links of web-pages and media containing these experiences. We have to increase the discussion on the subject. In short, we have to swim in those waters, because the sea of resistance expands little by little.
Profesor J
