Elas são mulheres desempregadas e mobilizadas entre a luta e a subsistência: o caso do Golfo San Jorge

Abstract

Esta tese analisa os processos de inserção e participação política das mulheres trabalhadoras desempregadas da Patagônia nas tomadas dos terminais marítimos de petróleo (TERMAP), ocorridas em 2004 no enclave petrolífero do Golfo San Jorge, cidade Caleta Olivia, Argentina. A partir da articulação das perspectivas de gênero, gerações e de classe social, a pesquisa na qual se baseia a tese indagou sobre os grandes significados, as motivações e as consequências dessa atuação, tanto na construção da categoria mulher desempregada como sujeito político, quanto nas mudanças em seu cotidiano e no contexto sociopolítico local e regional. A pesquisa, qualitativa, foi realizada através da análise das histórias de vida e das trajetórias políticas e laborais das mulheres que participaram das tomadas, da análise de entrevistas a informantes chaves e nas análises de artigos jornalísticos dos acontecimentos. O estudo reconstrói o percurso histórico das lutas das mulheres desempregadas patagônicas no marco do movimento de trabalhadores e trabalhadoras desempregadas, cujas origens remontam à recessão produzida, na década de 90, na região e no país, pela aplicação das "medidas de ajuste" neoliberais. E mostra que na demanda de trabalho às empresas petrolíferas privadas, as mulheres se assumem como trabalhadoras desempregadas, no marco da luta de classes sociais e de gênero, e reconstroem novas relações com o social e o político, emergindo como uma geração que vai mais além da luta pelo trabalho, ao denunciarem as desigualdades de gênero e a apropriação e saque dos recursos naturais por parte das empresas multinacionais. Nesse sentido, demonstra-se, por um lado, a existência de uma aliança estatal-empresarial e midiática para garantir a acumulação capitalista, e, por outro, que a luta das mulheres para conseguir trabalho formal nessas empresas petroleiras se confronta com fortes padrões de masculinidade reproduzidos pela dinâmica empresarial da região. Confirmase, assim, a apropriação por parte do capital da ideologia de gênero para obter maior beneficio econômico. Contrariamente à hegemonia de exploraçãodominação do capitalismo-patriarcado, as mulheres a confrontam, construindo novos sentidos na política, tais como, a importância política dos laços primários na luta, a formação política e a construção de laços solidários, contrapostas à imposição da ideologia desumana do neoliberalismo. Entendida como uma geração que soube interpretar o seu tempo histórico, esta continua lutando contra a nova ordem neoliberal do capitalismo por espoliação, ao enfrentar, na atualidade, o fracking e a megamineração. This dissertation analyzes the processes of insertion and political participation of unemployed Patagonian working women in the occupation of maritime petroleum terminals (TERMAP) that occurred in 2004, in the petroleum enclave of the San Jorge Gulf, in the city of Caleta Olivia, Argentina. Based on the articulation of gender, generation, and social class perspectives, the research upon which this dissertation is based inquired about the major meanings, motivations and consequences of their participation, both in terms of the construction of the category ‘unemployed women’ as political subjects, as well as in the changes taking place in their everyday life and in the regional and local sociopolitical context. The research, of a qualitative nature, was undertaken through the collection and analysis of life stories and political and work trajectories of the women who participated in the occupation, interviews with key informants, and on newspaper articles published while the events took place. The study reconstructs the historical course of the struggles staged by unemployed Patagonian women within that of the unemployed workers movement, whose origins remount to the recession of the 1990s resultant from neoliberal economic “adjustment measures”. It shows that in their demands to private sector petroleum industries for employment, women presented themselves as ‘unemployed workers’, intersecting class and gender struggles, constructing new relations with the social and the political, and emerging as a generation of women who goes much further in their struggle for work, in denouncing gender inequalities and the appropriation and looting of natural resources by multinational companies. As such, the study reveals, on the one hand, the existence of a state-entrepreneurial and media alliance to guarantee capitalist accumulation, and, on the other hand, that women’s struggles to guarantee formal employment in these petroleum industries had to confront the strong masculinity patterns reproduced by the entrepreneurial dynamics in the region. This confirms the appropriation of gender ideology by capital in order to obtain economic benefits. But contrary to the exploitation-domination hegemony of patriarchal capitalism, women confront it, building new meanings to politics, such as the political importance of primary links in the struggle, political formation and the building of solidarity links, in opposition to the imposition of neoliberalism’s unhuman ideology. Understood as a generation that knew how to interpret their historical time, they continue to struggle against a new capitalist neoliberal order for spoliation, confronting, at present, fracking and mega-mining.

This dissertation analyzes the processes of insertion and political participation of unemployed Patagonian working women in the occupation of maritime petroleum terminals (TERMAP) that occurred in 2004, in the petroleum enclave of the San Jorge Gulf, in the city of Caleta Olivia, Argentina. Based on the articulation of gender, generation, and social class perspectives, the research upon which this dissertation is based inquired about the major meanings, motivations and consequences of their participation, both in terms of the construction of the category ‘unemployed women’ as political subjects, as well as in the changes taking place in their everyday life and in the regional and local sociopolitical context. The research, of a qualitative nature, was undertaken through the collection and analysis of life stories and political and work trajectories of the women who participated in the occupation, interviews with key informants, and on newspaper articles published while the events took place. The study reconstructs the historical course of the struggles staged by unemployed Patagonian women within that of the unemployed workers movement, whose origins remount to the recession of the 1990s resultant from neoliberal economic “adjustment measures”. It shows that in their demands to private sector petroleum industries for employment, women presented themselves as ‘unemployed workers’, intersecting class and gender struggles, constructing new relations with the social and the political, and emerging as a generation of women who goes much further in their struggle for work, in denouncing gender inequalities and the appropriation and looting of natural resources by multinational companies. As such, the study reveals, on the one hand, the existence of a state-entrepreneurial and media alliance to guarantee capitalist accumulation, and, on the other hand, that women’s struggles to guarantee formal employment in these petroleum industries had to confront the strong masculinity patterns reproduced by the entrepreneurial dynamics in the region. This confirms the appropriation of gender ideology by capital in order to obtain economic benefits. But contrary to the exploitation-domination hegemony of patriarchal capitalism, women confront it, building new meanings to politics, such as the political importance of primary links in the struggle, political formation and the building of solidarity links, in opposition to the imposition of neoliberalism’s unhuman ideology. Understood as a generation that knew how to interpret their historical time, they continue to struggle against a new capitalist neoliberal order for spoliation, confronting, at present, fracking and mega-mining.