Position in the organization: President
Proposed position: President, Vice President, Treasurer
Seconders organization from the region: Unión de Clasificadores de Residuos Urbanos Sólidos (UCRUS-PIT CNT)
Alternate seconder organization: Association des Marchés d’Economies Locales et Individuelles Organisés de la Récupération (Amelior)
Profile:
I was almost 40 years old, I was a father and I supported my sons and daughters by working hours as an operator in a factory. In 2001, with the economic crisis, they fired me and I was left unemployed, desperate. A friend invited me to collect cardboard in the City of Buenos Aires because its price had risen a lot and it was the easiest way to earn an income to support my family. I became one of thousands, pulling a cart full of material to survive.
Working on the streets I learned about injustice and discrimination, but I also learned that the only possibility of improving our living conditions is in unity. Without realizing it, I began to become a leader. First, among those of us who worked together in the same area, and then we grew. I met a group of militants, law students, with whom we made soup pots every day to be able to eat during our long days, and who accompanied us to the police stations to fight for the waste pickers arrested for recycling. In those years, collecting recyclable material was considered theft from private companies, according to the laws of that time. In 2002 we founded the Movement of Excluded Workers and began a fighting plan to fulfill our dreams: to stop being persecuted for wanting to work, and to have our work recognized.
As unity is strength, we seek alliances: with popular assemblies, with other movements, with other cooperatives, with politicians, even with a Cardinal of the Catholic Church, today known as Pope Francis. With the support of many sectors we managed to get the Zero Waste Law passed in 2005, which recognized for the first time in the country the work of recyclers to stop being persecuted. From that moment on, the changes were many and very rapid.
In 2007 we legalized the Amanecer de los Cartoneros Cooperative to be able to advance in the management of the public recycling service of the City of Buenos Aires together with the Government. Salaries, trucks, uniforms, social work, contributions to our future retirements, the recycling center we dreamed of, as well as our two MRFs. To date, more than 4,700 people are members of this Cooperative of which I was president for 2 consecutive terms.
But I knew the pain of not knowing if tomorrow there will be a plate of food for my family. And until the last excluded person has access to his rights such as food, health, work and a home, I cannot rest assured. That’s why we continue.
In 2011, together with other colleagues, I founded the Argentine Federation of Cartoneros, Carreros and Recyclers. Today, we are more than 150 Cooperatives throughout the country that add up to almost 20,000 cartoneros and cartoneras. That same year, we also founded the CTEP (today, UTEP), our Popular Economy union that defends and represents the excluded: cartoneros, peasants, artisans, street vendors, fairgrounds, seamstresses, workers from recovered companies, construction workers , socio-community workers. I founded community houses for women and men to recover from drug consumption, we fought against slave labor in clandestine textile workshops, and even, in 2018, I was arrested one night for defending street vendors who came from Africa, from Senegal, because my motto is: If they touch one of us, they touch us all!
I believe in my heart that leading is teaching, accompanying the growth of my colleagues. For this reason, I support and accompany my fellow recyclers so that we, the cartoneros, the excluded, can proudly bring our voice to spaces that were previously denied to us. I feel part of and proud that colleagues like Jacky Flores and Mari Castillo occupy important positions in the executive branch of the Argentine State, that Naty Zaracho is the first national cartonera representative in history, and that Paola Caviedes is a recycling spokesperson at the ILO , and that Leo Larraburu is a Latin American leader in the Red Lacre.
Also, I believe that the international struggle is very important to transform our lives. For this reason, since 2014 I have coordinated, participated and promoted the World Meeting of Popular Movements together with Pope Francis and hundreds of colleagues from the grassroots organizations of our world. Meetings have been held in the Vatican, in Bolivia and also virtually, spreading our voice to every corner of our land.
Since 2010 I have participated with my colleagues in the International Relations Team of the Lacre Network. We believe that many things have not worked well in this space, but we achieved important changes, such as the opening of the Secretariats to new countries and new regional leaders who wanted to learn and grow internationally. For this reason, since the last assembly in 2022, I have been part of the International Secretariat of the Lacre Network, assuming different responsibilities while my grassroots work continues.
And since we did not want to repeat the mistakes of our region, I made a very strong bet on our beloved International Alliance of Recyclers. From FACCYR, in 2018 we were organizers of the Global Exchange of Recyclers in Buenos Aires, where we developed an important final document that was the basis of our Alliance and the commitment of this organization to have a clear positioning against the privatization advances in the Laws. REP. Later, we assumed an active role in the drafting of our Constitution, (we wrote its Preamble!) because we believe that democracy is a value and a human right. Whatever the result of this Congress, we believe that it is already a historic achievement that the recyclers of the world have a union whose statutes regulate internal norms and that the leaders alternate, but fundamentally it matters to me that they are based on the value of the fight for the rights of recycling workers.
Motivation:
I have many motivations to run as a candidate for the International Alliance of Recyclers, although I don’t show it constantly. Many know me, others less, but I think everyone knows that my motivation in life is to fight for the rights of those who have the least, and that is the imprint that a cartoneros union should have. Every day of my life I work for it. I believe that I can make an important contribution so that the founding mandate of the AIR is characterized by giving visibility to the most excluded.
I also want to be a candidate because my bases support me. In each national plenary session, in each assembly, when we transmit the international struggle, our colleagues are filled with pride and encourage me to continue this battle.
I always bet on the replacement of leaders, on teaching our history and our experience. I believe in humility as a leader and in the duty to train more and more recyclers on this path.
From FACCYR, we can make an important contribution to the union character of the AIR. We already have a unique experience in unionism, having founded the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy. Only with solid unionism can we confront our powerful enemies: private companies that want to profit from our source of work, governments that ignore our claims, the IMF that advances against our people.
Also, we know in depth the negotiation processes with national and local governments. The results are visible and materialize in each life story of the unionized recyclers in Argentina. At the same time, we have the necessary experience for good resource management, FACCYR is an organization that has grown with little, and we also had a lot. Now that we are losing everything with this anti-rights government, that is when our militancy is stronger. I want to guarantee a transparent, sensible economic administration of AIR resources under the guidelines that any expenditure is reflected in structural changes in the living conditions of recyclers. On my part you will find austerity and commitment, and never waste on unnecessary expenses.
As part of this presentation, please consider the nine Resolutions presented by FACCYR before this Congress. I think it reflects our ability to think and do for the world’s recyclers. United for our rights!