By Carmen Esquivel, chief correspondent.
The sociologist and professor, who is participating in the Book Fair of Social Sciences in Chile, particularly in the Latin America debate on global geopolitics, held at the Recoleta commune, the venue of the event that will close on April 14, pointed out that it is much more difficult for the left wing to unite than for the right wing, and this was demonstrated in Argentina, where Javier Milei and Patricia Bullrich sat down to negotiate, despite the insults uttered by the incumbent president.
“But let’s not fall into pessimism and say that we have finished the game. No, it is a game that is being played and can turn around much sooner than you think,” he stated.
The Argentine essayist and doctorate in Political Sciences from Harvard University also warned about the importance of raising awareness among the people and the peasants to guarantee the irreversibility of reforms.
Redistributing income is not enough to change people’s minds, he said.
In his opinion, a lesson for the new round of progressive governments is that the same efforts in terms of economic redistribution must be made in popular education.
Borón noted that in the region, there are “very weak democracies, sometimes we say low intensity, that invite us to vote every four or five years and then there is a gap between the decisions made by governments and the aspirations of the population.”
This explains the results of the Latinobarómetro regional surveys that demonstrate peoples’ dissatisfaction with their democracies.
Today, the Social Sciences Fair launched the book “A contramano. Una biografía dialogada,” about the life, postulates and experiences of Atilio Borón, one of the most influential figures in the field of sociology, Marxism and anti-imperialism.
The text covers the impact of Peronism to the coup d’état in Chile, going through his career in various universities, in Santiago, Harvard or Mexico City.
Beyond the life story itself, throughout its pages is reflected not only about a history of contemporary Argentina, but on a complete panorama of the complex evolution of the left wing and Latin American thought from the mid-20th century to present day.
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