Incorporated in the debates about ruptures and continuities between Argentine governments of the last decades, the article analyzes the social policies focused on the fight against poverty. The paper examines in particular the relationship between the State and grassroots organizations during first Kirchnerist governments (2003-2011) and the implementation of a social inclusion program called “Social Income with Labor”, which aims to create worker cooperatives in high-poverty neighborhoods. On one hand, the results show a continuity of social policies design and implementation during the 1990s and 2000s through the model of conditional cash transfers programs, that grant a discretionary power to the brokers. On the other hand, the research illuminates the reconfiguration of working class relations with the State through the political alliance between the national government and grassroots organizations. The methodology is based on interviews and observations of a local organization of the Evita Movement that manages numerous cooperatives of the program “Social Income with Work” in a district of Buenos Aires suburb.
Keywords:
Social Policies; Grassroots Organizations; Working Class; Kirchnerism; Argentina