Abstract

SALOMONE, Mariano. Political traditions and memory: connotations of the notion of common property in the experience of the railway struggle. Intersecciones antropol. [online]. 2012, vol.13, n.1, pp.251-267. ISSN 1850-373X.

In mid 2007 three social organizations in Mendoza started a common organizational process to defend the grounds of the former Central Station of the Ferrocarril Gral. San Martín (General San Martín railway) as a public space, currently abandoned after its closure. Confronted with new projects of private investment, mainly related to Real Estate, these organizations united in common struggle under the slogans "No to the private use of public land" and "Participative planning and management for the use of these lands". In this article the experience of one such collective--the railway collective--is reconstructed. The aim is to ascertain the viewpoint of the collective on the conflict, examining their experiences and historical memory to track the traditions and political practices that allowed them to shape the space as common property. Territory has become one of the key areas of dispute; the process of spatialization of class struggle entails the progressive privatization of all things public and common, including territory. The notion of common property is essential in order to think from a counter-hegemonic perspective. Hence, the importance of probing the railway workers' experiences and recognizing, in their praxis, the elements that allow us to carry out an against the grain reading of privatization and commoditization as the sole purpose of life.

Keywords : Railway; Political traditions; Memory; Experience; Common goods.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )