"I Am Not a Political Person, I Am a Peronist": Solidarity and Political Ideology Under Kirchnerism

• In Event: Política, Cultura y Afectos

Abstract

My paper examines the practice of being “solidary” (solidario) among compañeros of the Kirchnerist Movement—a contemporary iteration of Peronism. Specifically, I look at how Kirchnerist militancy encourages and produces notions of community, belonging, and exclusion that mobilize reifications and exaltations of Argentina’s populist past. By appealing to nostalgia Peronism’s past incarnations, Kirchnerist militancy tethers the concept of solidarity to politicized community service activities known as “territorial work” (trabajo territorial). Yet, as much as these activities reinforce solidarity between compañeros and those living in their communities, this work also becomes the site of conflict and rivalry. Militants doing territorial work compete with each other over who is the most solidary, while also interpreting their work as emblematic of differing and contradictory notions of Peronist loyalty. In this paper, I examine the case of Leandro, a Kirchnerist militant in Buenos Aires who believes that Peronism is divorced from politics, and that territorial work ought to promote solidarity between militants and the popular classes, while remaining devoid of explicit political content. In contrast, Leandro’s compañeros believe that his understanding of territorial work and solidarity demonstrates a lack of political education, an unformed political consciousness. For them, their militancy is meant to conjure the Marxist-inspired rhetoric of combatting capitalism and imperialism that characterized the leftist Peronism of the 1970s. Through ethnographic description and interviews, this paper gives insight into the contested nature of Peronist political subjectivity by foregrounding both the affective ties between Kirchnerist militants, as well as their ideological conflicts.

Author

• Julia Fierman