24M: Memory as a response to fascism and cruelty

Forty-nine years after the military coup, the streets and squares of Argentina overflowed with people in a demonstration that articulated the legacy of the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in one of the most powerful responses to repression, fascism, and the ongoing attacks on human rights by the Javier Milei government.

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Social media coverage: Lucas Fauno, Ana Fornaro, María Eugenia Ludueña and Agustina Ramos.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina . Forty-nine years after the military coup, the streets and squares of Argentina overflowed with people in a peaceful demonstration that represented one of the most powerful responses to repression, fascism, and the constant attacks on human rights by the Javier Milei government. The message is resounding. The struggle of the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, which began in solitude—it never hurts to remember that—is today a legacy that not only inspires people of diverse ages—with a significant presence of young people—and social classes to take to the streets en masse to say "Never Again" (one of the most repeated signs) and "Memory is Untouched," in response to the statements of the president, his officials, and their denialist policies. That legacy serves as the driving force that inspires, sustains, unites, and contains many other struggles.

“Excessive homophobia, discrimination, and fascism,” black octagons imitating food warning labels proclaimed. “Not one more kid because of pesticides,” read one of the signs. The call for unity among human rights organizations, which marched together again after almost 20 years, was interwoven with the diversity of ideas and sectors. Behind the banner of Mothers and organizations, around the blue flag of the disappeared that stretched across several blocks, marched retirees, columns of students, families with children, groups of friends, political, social, and union groups. Argentine soccer jerseys mingled with those of other teams of supporters for social justice. 

Gladys walked along Avenida de Mayo arm in arm with her daughter, María Clara. They had traveled from Moreno. Her mother wore a white scarf that read "Never Again" on her head, and on her T-shirt, a mini scarf that echoed a phrase by Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers: "How beautiful it is to grow old fighting." Her daughter had light blue hair, was wrapped in a diversity flag, and carried the abortion scarf tied to her backpack. Together, they radiated a spirit of the times, intergenerational and synchronized struggle.

Along with the Mostri column and spaces for diversity and sexual dissidence, Vedette and La Kalo, drag queens and artivists, marched. On Saturday, they had participated in the "Drag Queens for Memory" event at the 911 Cultural Center, along with other drag artists who unite this discipline with history and memory.  "This society, which once again insists on forgetting and making us invisible, has been exposed. There aren't that many of them, but they also bombard us in the media to feign mass appeal," Vedette told us. Behind the Mostri column, a group of children sang songs. "They played with us and asked questions about the colors we wore, as if the world we dreamed of were a reality. Without diversity, we will never get out of this. We are already a people, and we also have our disastrous history during the dictatorship that we will not let be forgotten. 30,400 people present!" Vedette told us.

The poster with that number, highlighting the 400 missing LGBT people, also multiplied yesterday. “It’s crucial that we be visible on the streets, at marches, and in all the places where decisions are made about how the country will be built and how we will emerge from this disaster called Milei. Without us, there is no future, much less without our voices,” La Kalo told us. “As a trans person, a drag queen, a freak, and part of the working class, I reaffirm my place in this country; I stand up for myself and my comrades.” 

Diversities also marched in the Pride and Struggle Front. Along with other LGBT groups, Tehuel's mother, Norma, marched with a banner bearing the question for her son: Where is Tehuel?  

It was also filled with posters reminding everyone that, while a photographer, Pablo Grillo, was leaving, he was still fighting for his life following an attack by security forces commanded by Patricia Bullrich. The Minister of Security was also remembered on various posters—Patricia Bullrich, one read—while the walls were filled with crickets and calls for justice for Pablo, reminding everyone that it was not an accident, but the responsibility of the State, to which the streets yesterday also said: Never Again.  

On a balcony, a large sign read: "We feminists say there are 30,000 and it was genocide." All the activist movements seeking justice and equality were demonstrating and strengthening their voices. "We are here as migrants for the memory, truth, and justice of the more than 30,000 disappeared because the migrant community was also among them, at the service of the people," commented Jessica Paola Vargas.

“Brotherhood gives us the strength to move forward,” said human rights activist Alda Pedernera, a worker at the Pozo de Banfield Memorial Center and former clandestine center.

Never Again is Never Again

It was the first march without Nora Cortiñas and Lita Boitano, two leading figures in human rights. The document read on stage by representatives of the two major coalitions of organizations that joined yesterday—Estela de Carlotto, Elia Espen, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, and Taty Almeida—reminded the government of the long list of demands behind the march, which was also the best response to the denialist video released by the government earlier in the day.

The document called for the "Repeal of DNU 70/23, the corrupt Ley Bases, the delegated powers, and the RIGI!" and denounced "the social situation of poverty in which more and more families live, the closure or emptying of assistance policies for the most vulnerable." Because speaking of memory is remembering that economic groups were also part of the dictatorship. And it concluded by asking: "Enough of the hateful and misogynistic speeches of the Trumps and the Mileis. For a free Palestine. We repudiate the genocide in Gaza. The feminist, transfeminist, and LGBT+ movements won our rights in the streets, and in the streets we will defend them. In defense of free, legal, safe, and free abortion, of the transvestite-trans labor quota, of the ESI (Compulsory Secondary Education), and of the laws that guarantee the right to gender identity. Against racism, xenophobia, and the fascist policies of the government. Enough of attacking and persecuting migrants, young people, and indigenous peoples. Enough Milei. Bullrich out." 

"Never again is never again!!! 30,000 detained and disappeared, present!" After finishing the reading, Taty Almeida added: "Comrades, this march is going to be historic because after a long time we have achieved unity. We are demonstrating with actions, not words, that a united people will never be defeated."

Thousands of us flooded Avenida de Mayo, and there were no riots. It was proven that security forces can provoke and distort narratives. But yesterday, the phrase of the eternally retired activist Norma Plá lived on: "We are more people than soldiers." Many more of us were upholding memory as a way of illuminating the present. Because it's not just about the past, but about how our history is articulated and redefined today, in this context and political moment. Yesterday was clear: although the Milei government continues to attack policies of memory, truth, and justice with a chainsaw and a criterion of truth based on lies, they are already part of the identity of the Argentine people. Despite the bad news about human rights we receive daily in Argentina, there are catalytic axes that organize us as a society amidst the chaos and the crisis of political representation. This #24M is one of them. 

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