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Send to friendIn 2002, Poder Ciudadano (Citizen Power) collected signatures on two petitions that, through a constitutional provision, obligated the Argentine Congress to consider community-proposed legislation regarding two socio-economic issues: pensions of privilege, a system of excessive retirement benefits for
former government officials (even for those known to be corrupt); and hunger, especially of children and pregnant women. The
overarching goal of the petition campaign tactic was not only to obligate the Congress to
address these problems, but also to propose solutions to alleviate
them. The constitutional provision requires the Congress to deliberate over any proposed legislation brought before it by community members or organizations, but such legislation must bear the signatures of 1.5 percent of Argentine citizens in at least six of 24 districts. Poder Ciudadano was created in 1989 by a group of citizens concerned about the defense of civil rights in Argentina. The tactic was initiated with the encouragement of journalists who were interested in overturning the pension system. To begin the process, Poder Ciudadano wrote the petitions, and compiled crucial signature and instruction sheets for volunteers. In cooperation with several other organizations, Poder Ciudadano recruited 250 volunteers from around the country. Most of them were recruited through the organization’s website and the project coordinator. The volunteers then met at various public locations in their respective communities to collect the signatures: markets, bookstores, pharmacies, newsstands, and phonebooths. As petition pages were completed, volunteers returned them to Poder Ciudadano so that the organization could present them to the Congress en masse.
The instruction sheets provided an important guide for the volunteers, providing them with information such as who was eligible to sign the petitions, what information was needed from the signatories, how many signatures per page were allowed, and what volunteers should do with completed petitions. These instructions also included a section of frequently asked questions, and their answers, about the initiative, the process after collecting signatures, and about Poder Ciudadano and human rights issues in general.
A key part of the campaign to collect signatures, especially outside of urban areas, was the participation of the media. A prominent radio personality was heavily involved in the campaign and made information on the petitions available to listeners. He used some of his air time to explain the petitions and the process, as well as to publicize the locations and times of signature collection tables. This publicity was particularly useful in reaching people in smaller, more rural communities.
One of the major newpapers dedicated a full page to update the readers on the number of signatures that had been gained so far. The newspaper also highlighted human interest stories, such as accounts of middle class housewives who had set up soup kitchens to provide much needed relief to those who have been suffering from the economic collapse. In addition, one of the journalists who was active in inititating the first petition continued to call the President of the Senate regularly to get updates on the progress. Since he didn’t know the purpose of the journalists calls, the Senate President always accepted the phone call.
Both of the initiatives were very well received by Argentine citizens and Poder Ciudadano presented each to the Congress. By late 2002, both proposals were passed by the Congress with some modifications. The initiative to eliminate pensions of privilege collected the necessary 500,000 signatures and was presented to the Congress in 2002. After lengthy debate in August 2002, the lower house of the Argentine Congress modified the legislation so that retired bishops, diplomats, and judges would still receive some additional benefits, and then it passed the bill. The Argentine Senate passed the bill as amended, however, the Argentine president used line-item veto power. As approved by the president, the law repealed only the pensions of privilege of former national legislators, ministers, secretaries, and subsecretaries.
The hunger initiative, ‘El hambre más urgente’, proposed a program to feed all impoverished Argentine children under age five, as well as impoverished pregnant women, at centers around the country. The program is currently in the early implementation stages and the first food centers have very recently opened.
This tactic would be useful in countries with a Constitution that provides citizens with a method of direct access to the national legislative body, or that compels the legislature to consider community-proposed legislation through some other type of popular initiative.
Summary completed in March 10, 2003.
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On the February 11 2001, Elkarri set in motion a process to engage the population in the Basque Country in a dialogue toward peace called the Peace Conference. In the initial phase, Elkarri enlisted the support of more than 50,000 people with a petition asking all the major parties to come together to dialogue. In addition to signing the petition, people made a contribution of 6 Euros (about US$7) each and raised a total of US$500,000 to support the process. Based on what they learned in the first Peace Conference Elkarri launched a new signature campaign on March 6, 2004. About 44,000 signatures were collected in one day in the Basque Country and Navarre to be presented to the Basque Parliament and over 2,000 volunteers collected a total of 122,000 signatures in total, compelling the Basque Parliament to discuss dialogue as a way to peace.How this tactic was adapted in Canada