The 2008 agrarian lockout and the specificity of capital accumulation in Argentina

Abstract

One of the most significant agrarian conflicts in Argentina unleashed in May 2008. In brief, the confronting subjects gathered into two groups, leaded by the agrarian organizations, on one hand, and the national administration, on the other. This paper analyzes the economical determinations borne in the political actions performed by these social actors in the context of the specific form that develops capital accumulation in Argentina, where the appropriation of land rent by the industrial capitals takes great relevance as an explanation to its valorization capacity, and inquires about the outcome of the conflict. The point at stake in this conflict was the scale of the agrarian commodities export taxes, one of the main appropriation forms at that moment. In this regard, we will claim here that the portion of land rent appropriated in this way cannot exceed a certain magnitude without crashing against the “fiscal equity” and “non confiscation” principles, that is, the legal expressions of the form that takes freedom in capitalism. And that on this basis, the landlord class, which was represented by one of the contending groups, had enough strength to prevent the approval of the law