Populations exposed to agrotoxics: Citizens' self-organization in the defense of life and health, Córdoba city, Argentina

Abstract

This paper presents a preview of our doctoral research work, based in the political action of the groups selfdenominated "Madres de Barrio Ituzaingó Anexo" in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. Since late 2001, the members of this group started fighting for life, health and environment, in the context of an environmental problem that produces over 200 illnesses and deaths in a population of 5,000 habitants in the neigborghood, mainly caused by fumigations with agrotoxics in the soybean fields adjacent to the houses. The modes of self-organization displayed by "las Madres" against the infringement of their rights plus the inefficiency and also abandonment of the State in the protection of the ones affected by the pollution, made this citizenship practice an example to think about the struggle for rights. This paper is divided into three sections. First, we present the methodological and conceptual elections that frame our reflections: the contributions of pragmatism (Dewey and Joas), the narrative turn (Ricoeur) and contemporary discussions in biopolitics (Agamben, Hardt y Negri, Virno). Second, we join the fight of the Madres de Barrio Ituzaingó Anexo and their contexts. Third, we describe some scenes of the fight of the Madres against the fumigation with agrotoxics, and to that purpose we introduce three notions to think the citizen self-organization: body, experience, narrative. These will be considered key aspects of the political practice in which the sense of politics as action is played, as the power of making and speaking of the citizenship that acts in self-defense. Through the act of their affective, cognitive and linguistic capacities, these citizens create learnings, practical wisdoms and achievements in the defense of their rights, but they are not free from problems and obstacles in their claim for justice.