Abstract

Social Classes and Capital Accumulation in Recent Argentina: The 2008 Agrarian Conflict

Abstract: In March 2008, the passage of a law to amend grain export taxes in Argentina led to a clash between rural organizations and the national administration. Given its characteristics and political consequences, this clash was one of the most significant events of the Kirchnerist administrations and one of the most outstanding agrarian conflicts in Argentine history. An analysis of it in the context of Argentina’s specific pattern of capital accumulation, in which land appropriation by the industrial sector is significant in explaining valorization capacity, shows how economic determinations affected the political actions of the pertinent social subjects and how the conflict was resolved in favor of the rural bloc.