Global Condemnation: Domingo Cavallo at NYU
By Marsha Gall

The Tactic: “If there is not justice, there is “escrache”/Action/Protest”
From its formation in 1995, the human rights activist group H.I.J.O.S.
(Children for the Identity and Justice Against Forgetting and Silence) has signaled to Argentineans, that the people have a recourse to injustice, to the government’s command to forget, and the government’s inept handling of a violent and abusive past. There is recourse. There is social condemnation.

After the democratic governments of Alfonsín and Menem left the responsible parties for the criminal atrocities of the military dictatorship (1976-1982) free of any criminal repercussions, the children of political prisoners, exiled, disappeared persons and assassinated persons assembled to create a model of “escrache”, that is to say, the public calling out and naming of those who were responsible for the “disappearance” (torture, and in thousands of cases, death) of their parents. When the individuals responsible for these crimes now try to “pass” for common citizens, H.I.J.O.S use “escraches” to point out, “We know who you are”, offering a contrary strategy to that of the former oppressors which was to erase, eliminate, to leave no trace, to destroy evidence and to expropriate the right to historical consciousness. Recent escraches have included the “outing” of (government) ministers, speculators, and economists who, given the consequences of their performances, now integrate the category of genocides of the present democratic period. The act of using these figures in escraches of today gives evidence that there is a popular consciousness of the historical continuity between the terrorism of the state dictatorships and the economic terrorism of Neoliberal policies, ordered by the IMF and the World Bank, and executed by the supposed representatives of the public.

Escrache: What NYU doesn’t say about Cavallo
The Stern School of Business at NYU has appointed the Argentinean former Minister of Finance, Domingo Cavallo, as a visiting professor. Many Argentineans consider Cavallo as a responsible authority for the worst economic crisis in Argentina’s history. Dr. Cavallo arrives at NYU, according to an official announcement regarding his appointment, to share his “first hand” knowledge about the events that led to Argentina’s recent financial collapse. Concepts like “economic crisis” in the Argentinean case are no more than shameful euphemisms for what should be called the total dismantling of the economic base, of the social and political structure of a country which is now the case study of what not to do (in economic policy.)

Domingo Cavallo, Ph.D. from Harvard University, has in his resume titles such as Director of the Central Bank of Argentina during the last military dictatorship (1982), as well as the responsibility for the national assumption of private corporate debt. This implies that a large part of the $17 billion debt of these corporations was transferred to the Argentinean public.

Domingo Cavallo, Minister of Finance in the government of Carlos Menem, the post he occupied from 1991 to 1996, was the creator of the “convertibility” plan that fixed the Argentine peso to the U.S. dollar. This policy favored the growth and expectations of the middle class, and served to keep Carlos Menem in power for two consecutive terms. However, today we can see clearly that the plan did not have sustenance and jeopardized the future of the people of Argentina.

Domingo Cavallo, in March of 2001, was called to integrate the government of Fernando de la Rua, and was considered the only policy maker capable of saving the country from a deep recession. (Caused in part by the earlier Asian crisis and subsequent devaluations and fall-outs in Brazil, which reverberated throughout Latin American financial markets.) The people, who had not supported him in his bid as a candidate for office in the City of Buenos Aires, gave Cavallo the opportunity to serve; as the creator of a financial system, they hoped that he might have the key to unlock the problems. The result: by the end of 2001 the country has been left with no money (reserves) and the father of convertibility had to restrict access and the free movement of the money supply in private checking and savings accounts as well as a stop on (government and municipal) salaries and bond payments, a situation called a “corral” of the economy. From the dream of being part of the “first world” economies, Argentina slipped into a non-ranking status, a place that does not count in financial credibility.

On the 5th of December of 2001, the Argentine newspaper “Página 12” titled an article revealing the impertanancy of Cavallo: “There was something worse than convertibility. Cavallo achieved it. He was the one who created it and he finished by destroying it.” The article continued, “confirming what’s been said of him: that he was the only one that could liberate Argentina from the sin of convertibility. But what is in its place is nothing. Only a vestige of controls to be applied to a destroyed country.” (Article by Julio Nudler).

In his web page, www.domingocavallo.org.ar, the ex-Minister says heresigned from his post in December of 2001, but he leaves out an important detail- the circumstances in which he resigned. On the evening of the 19th of December, after an address by President De La Rúa, in which he called for civil calm and installed marshal order, thousands of civilians took this call to be a provocation, an indication that only civil protest could represent their concerns. Even with their civil rights suspended, the people spontaneously took to the streets, to the Plaza de Mayo, to call for the resignation of Domingo Cavallo. A riot ensued, and, at the hands of the police, more than 25 people were killed and over 400 wounded across the country. To this day, no one has been held accountable for these casualties.

For export: An Argentine in New York
This September 17th, Argentines were informed by an article by Silvia Naishtat published in the newspaper “Clarín” that Cavallo was in New York to take the Henry Kaufman professorship at NYU, previously held by the former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volker, a personal friend to Cavallo.
The article noted, “New York University again gives Cavallo a hand when he is in trouble. In 1996, after a disagreement with President Carlos Menem, he became a visiting professor.” Naishtat added that when Cavallo and his wife left Argentina for their new home in the Village in New York City, they took a private plane to avoid any chance of public condemnation.

Students and professors at New York University, as well as students at Columbia University, where Cavallo lectured in a conference titled “The Argentine Economic Crisis and its Implications for Emerging Markets”, are organizing a series of diverse actions to protest the presence of Cavallo at these institutions and to debate the implications of sponsoring this controversial person in an academic setting. Authorities at New York University have already responded in defense of Cavallo, when asked about the controversial nature of his presence, saying he is “an excellent economist”. This answer initiates a first debate: why has NYU decided to focus on the theoretic work of Cavallo and not his recent political experience? Why aren’t they sharing information about Cavallo’s recent political office with students? Why isn’t Cavallo appearing in open forums or discussions at NYU, instead keeping a low profile, not lecturing formally or holding an open class session with students? It is to say, “Why is NYU protecting Cavallo?” Why would a progressive university like NYU serve the interests of an elite who plays the lottery with the economy of our country? Is this in the general interest of the Stern School? In any event, one thing is clear: if NYU presents Cavallo as a successful economist, NYU
is declaring that Argentina got its just rewards, that it deserves the financial crisis in which it finds itself. Taking this in account, our “escrache” puts this individual and this institution in the open. Now the institution needs to give the evidence. What makes Cavallo a good economist?

Epilogue as Preface
Domingo Cavallo should not be a “distinguished visitor” at NYU. The most ethical place for Cavallo to be is in Argentina, where he should be doing his job, responding to accusations against him, like any other professional who leaves a questionable situation. In any case, his skills as an “excellent economist” should be put to work, rebuilding his country. It is offensive that he should be thousands of miles away giving lectures about what should or should not be done, when he supposedly had the necessary instruments (including the “super-powers”, or the support of the Congress) but yet, he was unable to achieve any results, or better said, he achieved the results we all see and know now in Argentina. It is violent to witness the scientist’ s lecture that, in the presence of the cadaver of the victim (his victim), teaches the lesson on what should have been done to save him. It is unethical and NYU is backing or, even, generating this unethical behavior. Therefore, the “escrache”, or outing, becomes absolutely necessary.

“Escrache” is to get your shoes dirty; it is to go out in the streets, to expose yourself to the reasoning of others. “Escrache” is visibility, denouncement, scandal, and confrontation. It happens in a determined time and place. But “escrache” is also a process in which something comes to light through diverse mediums, in a sustained manner. It is the dissemination of information by ways of live and mediated performances: a petition, a conference, a
phone call, a series of emails, a web page, a radio interview, this article— all are escraches. It is the strategy of the “swarm”, of the network.

These days there is a lot of buzzing in New York. We want to signal this presence, and also, to denounce that Neoliberalism’s math does not work well, and that math that is not just is equal to bombs and bullets, and makes “bad technical practice” translate to social genocide. So we must put the question in the minds and voices of Stern students, students of Cavallo, “An excellent economist for whom? For what people?”.
Stern should teach its own. The swarm says, “We know who you are.”