New Social Movements with Old Party Politics

Abstract

The Movimiento Territorial de Liberación (MTL) is a radical piquetero (picketer) group formed by unemployed workers and activists from the Communist party in Argentina. The autonomous and radical nature of the MTL is primarily attributable to prior linkages of the Communist party to urban and skilled workers outside Peronist clientelistic networks and party access to project financing independent of state spending. The relationship is beneficial to both the movement and the party.