OVERSEAS BRIEFING

Author: BERNARDO PURON

BUENOS AIRES - On Nov. 2, 2005, the U.S.-based group Youths Against War and Racism called for a nationwide student walkout in opposition to the war in Iraq. Most high schools required students to have their parents sign permission slips in order to "walk out."

Following the protest, The Star Tribune, Minnesota's most widely circulated newspaper, printed an opinion piece concerning the demonstration. The author had visited the Web site of Socialist Alternative, one of the key organizers of the Minnesota protest and her findings shocked her.

The Web site recommends the reading of Marx, Trotsky and Lenin. The editorialist exhorted parents to be more prudent in the future, and to explain to their children the fate of these authors and their ideology.

That same month, I was studying at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in Argentina, a place where the even hippiest of Middlebury students would discover the true deep end of liberalism.

There, Argentine students were preparing for the arrival of U.S. President George W. Bush. Demonstrations against President Bush's visit began in early September and by November the walls of the UBA were plastered with "Fuera Bush" (Get Out Bush) posters and graffiti.

Air Force One touched down at the coastal resort town of Mar del Plata, host of the Summit of the Americas. In reaction to the summit, socialist organizations - or as they preferred to be called, "anti-imperialist" groups - organized their own summit: the Summit of the People. Soccer legend Diego Maradona gave the rogue summit a media-friendly face, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made an appearance at both.

The tension between the two events was felt even five hours north in Buenos Aires. The capital experienced about seven significant demonstrations and a terror scare in the subway system.

For most Argentines, the month of November was just another chapter in their turbulent history. Political demonstrations are quotidian. November was highlighted merely because of President Bush's visit.

The 2,000-person demonstration at the University of Minnesota, on the other hand, was a solitary, unusual event for the state, which sparked a number of interpretations. Many people became nostalgic for the politically active students of the Vietnam era. Others, like the Star Tribune writer, viewed the event through a quasi-McCarthyist lens.

The demonstration in Minnesota was more harshly criticized for being organized by a socialist group than for being anti-war. In contrast, as a student in Argentina, your position on the war is more important than your ideological affiliation.

Though Argentina and Minnesota may be like apples and oranges, perspectives like these can serve as a reminder as to how different apples and oranges really are.