Horizontalism - Voices of Popular Power in Argentina

 ‘This book is the story of a changing society told by people who are taking their lives and communities into their own hands. It is told in their voices. It is a story of cooperation, vision, creation and discovery.

Over the past ten years, the world has been witnessing an upsurge in prefigurative revolutionary movements: movements, that create the future in the present. These new movements are not creating party platforms or programs. They do not look to one leader, but make space for all to be leaders. They place more importance on asking the right questions than on providing the correct answers. They do not adhere to dogma and hierarchy, instead they build direct democracy and consensus. They are movements based in trust and love’.

Introduction to Horizontalism by Marina Sitrin.

I came upon a truly superb piece of descriptive writing on Z-Net in February 2009 - Sitrin: Cuban Book Fair. I was fortunate enough to find a copy of Horizontalism – Voices of Popular Power in Argentina, Edited by Marina Sitrin, at the London Anarchist Bookfair in October 2011.

Horizontalism is an excellent book, an essential read for those interested in the current Occupy movements. It details the collapse of Argentina at the turn of the twentieth / twenty first century; the realisation of some of the people of Argentina that their government was completely defunct and was incapable of providing assistance; the coming together of the people to try to help themselves in a participatory / self management way; the occupation of factories to keep them going to provide employment and money to the dismissed workforce; the ever present violence of the useless Argentinean government and its agencies; the struggle to stay horizontal in the years that followed the collapse with top down political parties only too keen to re-assert themselves; the hopes and dreams of the people.

The words are those of the participants skilfully edited by Marina Sitrin from hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of interviews to give a free flowing, easy to read, book that is an essential history of modern Argentina.