A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #337 - Argentinian chronicles of crises and resistance (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Last minute: Strike and demonstrations of January 24 ---- This day was a 
success for all the organizations which had called for the strike and 
demonstrations on the slogan "the homeland is not for sale". It follows 
the demonstrations of December 20 and 27 (see article p.33). ---- The 
strike was not total, but well followed in the sectors of industry, 
transport and public services. It was the demonstrations that were the 
most spectacular mode of expression: more than a million Argentines and 
immigrants took to the streets throughout the country.
The government's rhetoric and acts of intimidation only work at the 
margins, at least for now. But the threats to ban demonstrations, to 
prosecute those who block traffic, to tax the organizers... are intended 
to spread more fear than anger and to place an entire social camp on the 
defensive.
Through its threats, the government indicates its objectives: the 
remodeling of society (productive fabric, organization, regime of 
accumulation, political system) and the reconstruction of class 
relations on a new order aimed at making any conflict inoperative. By 
lazily fighting against Milei's "fascism" - slogans which constitute the 
main perspective of left activism, including its currents which claim to 
be revolutionary - we risk not grasping the real issues of this 
government and capitalist groups which he seeks to represent and defend. 
Making the question of democratic rights the central axis against the 
government can only aim to "cast a wide net", without questioning the 
current period, the type of support that we can hope to obtain without 
getting back in the saddle left-wing parties which have demonstrated the 
zeal with which they know how to defend capitalist interests and repress 
struggles. And in doing so, to open avenues for the extreme right.
With the democracy/extreme right divide, we run the risk of missing out 
on more crucial tasks, which attack the mechanisms of exploitation that 
capitalism has placed as a priority among its objectives and which it 
seeks to implement. place by striking quickly and hard with exceptional 
measures and repression.
It would be a question of debating an orientation capable of building 
resistance struggles on concrete objectives, on nodes of social 
recomposition, in order to make the government's program inapplicable 
and to undermine the bases of a social order that the Argentine and 
international capitalist class seeks to consolidate in a version adapted 
to its advantage.
This day of January 24 marks the start of a new stage of social protest. 
It is still impossible to foresee the consequences, the CGT having taken 
care not to say anything about its future intentions. Some activist 
groups have already indicated that they will mobilize on January 30, the 
day of the vote on the "omnibus law" in the Chamber of Deputies.
JF, January 25

December-January
In just over three months in power, the new libertarian president Javier 
Milei, inaugurated on December 10, 2023, announced a series of 
initiatives aimed at carrying out large-scale structural changes in 
Argentina as well as a hyper-repressive "protocol" responsible for 
enforcing them.

December 12, ten "emergency economic measures" with the aim of 
"neutralizing the crisis and stabilizing economic variables", including 
the devaluation of the peso which immediately led to an increase in the 
price of foodstuffs, directly and especially affecting the sectors the 
most modest in Argentine society, but also the reduction of transfers of 
public expenditure from the central State to the provinces, the 
reduction of subsidies on energy and transport prices (Minister of the 
Economy, ex-trader of the Wall Street Stock Exchange, Luis Caputo) 
December 14, a law enforcement "protocol" criminalizing, among other 
things, street demonstrations affecting vehicle traffic, announced by 
the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich. December 20, a Government 
Decree of Necessity and Emergency (DNU) which includes more than 300 
measures aimed at deregulating the economy, restricting the right to 
strike, making workers more flexible and precarious (weakly) guaranteed 
by salaried work legal, to broaden, clarify and legalize the repressive 
framework of the police "protocol".
December 27, an "omnibus" mega-bill with more than 600 articles 
extending the DNU to the repression of demonstrations, the privatization 
of public companies, the repeal of laws protecting the environment... 
These measures are real declarations of war against workers, legal and 
informal, the unemployed, the poor and even the middle class.
The first demonstrations broke out across the country as well as in 
Buenos Aires, defying the repressive anti-street blocking measures taken 
by the new government and forcing the bureaucracy of the CGT, the main 
Argentine Peronist union, to launch a "strike national" on January 24. 
At the end of December, around thirty appeals were filed in federal 
courts. The Supreme Court for its part will not make a decision before 
February, probably in March 2024.
Regarding the DNU, Milei reiterated his intention to impose it whatever 
happens. Faced with possible blockages and rejections emanating from the 
judiciary or the two chambers of Congress, he affirmed that he would 
call for a popular consultation... Except that, legally, the 
Constitution establishes that only Parliament can call a binding 
referendum. This call for a plebiscite is as much a bluff as it is a 
factor in populist agitation calling on the people against the corrupt 
elected representatives of the "caste"...
An even more devastating "omnibus" mega-bill
The term "omnibus" here designates a law whose articles relate to 
distinct and varied subjects. This voluminous project entitled "Basic 
law and starting points for the freedom of Argentines", made public on 
December 28, is made up of 664 articles and is a continuation of the 366 
articles of the DNU. Essentially, not one area escapes this law: 
economy, taxes, finances, pensions, energy, public order, repression, 
environment, education, health, culture, universities... A whole social 
project thus drawn up, but before this, an operation of massive and 
systematic destruction of an entire edifice of political rights and 
social guarantees, establishing a state of exception in which the 
executive, Milei and his cabinet, asks Congress to delegate all powers 
to him, for a period duration of two years (until December 31, 2025), 
renewable once, i.e. the entire presidential term.

Main measures
The repression of demonstrations

increase in penalties for interrupting the movement of transport or 
services (from 1 to 3 and a half years in prison), placing the right to 
travel above the right to demonstrate.
"organizers", defined as any group of more than three people, are liable 
to fines and 2 to 5 years in prison if there is "injury to persons or 
damage to property", regardless of whether the organizer "is present or 
not to the demonstration"; in addition, under the pretext of child 
protection, anyone under the age of thirteen will be reported by the police.
obligation to authorize any meeting/demonstration on public roads within 
at least 48 hours; the Ministry of Security may refuse for reasons of 
"personal security" or "national security", and this without possible 
recourse.
the project also formalizes the idea of making demonstrators pay for law 
enforcement operations decided by the executive power,
and specifically for the unemployed and beneficiaries of social 
assistance, the abolition of the payment of their allowance if they are 
arrested, spotted or denounced for having demonstrated on the road 
according to the slogan of a minister: "the one who cuts the road, will 
not touch anything."
Privatizations, another of the big pieces of this law
State companies number 41 and employ between 90 and 100,000 people. 
Among them, some flagships: Aysa (water distribution and sanitation in 
the urban area of Greater Buenos Aires, i.e. 15 million inhabitants), 
Banco Nación (first bank in the country), the historic oil company YPF, 
Correo Argentino (the post office), Enarsa (distribution of gas and oil 
products), the press and communications agency Télam (among other state 
media including radio-TV channels) and the airline Aerolíneas 
Argentinas, 49% of which is already in the hands private and listed on 
the stock exchange. Plus 7 other banks and financial companies of less 
importance, and companies in the fields of aeronautics, military 
equipment, energy, etc. There is talk of around thirty privatizations 
considered priorities from which potential buyers will be able to grab 
for a pittance, given the devaluation of the peso on December 12 and the 
coming recession.

Pensions
The increase in pensions can now be set by the executive power, and not 
almost automatically based on inflation as the current "retirement 
mobility" law organizes. The Guarantee Fund for the Sustainability of 
the Public Distribution Scheme (FGS), created in 2007 during the 
nationalization of the basic pension scheme ($76 billion for 5.7 million 
people), currently in the hands of the Administration National Social 
Security (ANSES) will be transferred to the National Treasury.

Legalized self-defense
It will be extended to any victim of an attack which causes harm to the 
aggressor in addition to the impunity of the police when they use their 
weapons: "the proportionality of the means used must always be construed 
in favor of those who act in accordance with their duty or in the 
legitimate exercise of their right, authority or position."

An electoral system closed to minorities
"Omnibus" proposes the abolition of primary elections, the use of the 
single ballot, the end of proportional representation and the 
establishment of a single-member constituency system with one round for 
the election of deputies in the national parliament. With such a system, 
small parties are eliminated and only the major majority currents 
prevail locally. Based on their results in the last presidential 
elections, Milei's supporters can dream of a majority in the Chamber of 
Deputies.

Planned disappearance of environmental protection laws
"Omnibus" includes a section that seeks to eliminate regulations and 
controls on productive activities carried out in forests, grazing areas, 
wetlands and glaciers, areas protected by specific laws adopted over the 
last 15 years thanks to a vast struggle by environmental organizations 
which today warn against the risks that this could logically imply for 
the future.
Modification of the laws: - on glaciers, adopted in 2010, to allow 
mining activity in periglacial areas, - on the protection of native 
forests (2007) to authorize deforestation in areas where it is currently 
prohibited or limited, - on environmental protection relating to the 
control of burning activities, to grant permits to light fires that have 
until now been strongly limited or prohibited, depending on the areas 
for productive purposes such as the extension of areas dedicated to 
agro-industry (soy, genetically modified crops, industrial livestock 
farming, forest monoculture, etc.) or real estate and tourism.

Ultra-liberal government measures, an accelerator of the social crisis
In transport, measures already in force are causing current fare prices 
to explode by stopping subsidies for public transport: 45% increase in 
urban transport tickets in Buenos Aires Aires in January, while bus 
frequency was halved. Another increase in February is planned...
For Health: increase in mutual insurance by around 40%, from January 
2024, with a prepaid card system now deregulated. This is in addition to 
the dizzying increases in pharmaceutical products due to the 
liberalization of the medicines market, in a country where basic social 
security (Obras sociale) covers barely 50% of the population and where 
many Argentines are already no longer able to treat yourself. So much 
the worse for human capital!
Housing: end of rent control, new rental contracts will be in dollars or 
cryptocurrency with no price increase limit, in a country where 
inflation (160% over one year) will further increase following the 54% 
devaluation of the peso which occurred on December 12. With the brake 
applied to public works financing expenditures by the federal 
government, the provinces and the municipalities, the construction 
sector is already forecasting job losses in the tens or even hundreds of 
thousands...
In a country which until then had 40% of its population below the 
poverty line, a recent report from the Argentine Observatory of Social 
Debt (ODSA) of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA) assured that 
poverty amounted to 44.7% in the third quarter of 2023, with a level of 
indigence which reached 9.6%. Employment measured since 2004 has never 
been so low: 33.1% of the active population over 18 years old, 8.8% 
totally unemployed and 24.3% in precarious underemployment. Between 1998 
and 2002, at the depths of the then recessionary phase, the poverty rate 
reached 57% and that of unemployment 28%. Milei's Argentina is heading 
straight and full speed in that direction.

The CGT calls for a national strike on January 24
The different currents that make up the CGT bureaucracy agreed on 
December 28 on a call for a 24-hour "national strike" on January 24, the 
date on which the Chamber of Deputies must discuss the "omnibus" law. At 
the same time, the leadership of the CGT stressed that "any government 
project which requires a modification, a repeal or the creation of laws 
must, necessarily, go through a parliamentary debate". So much for the 
official communication. She clearly says that the CGT is playing the 
parliamentary and legal card, with a speech which contains some class 
elements but drowned in the defense of society, the nation and respect 
for legality and its institutions.
All other trade union, social and human rights organizations, etc. 
immediately joined the initiative. The CGT, which claims 7 million 
members, but more likely brings together a little less than half (which 
is not negligible), can on its own, if it gives itself the means, to put 
people in the street and almost completely block the country's economy 
for 24 hours. Everything seems to indicate that the strike will be 
massive, the rallies and demonstrations even more so and that this day 
will mean a total paralysis of the country's activity.
On the other hand, it is almost certain that such a day will not be 
enough, to match the challenge, if nothing major is done before, in the 
days and weeks to come... and also after.
In the absence of a climate of permanent mobilization, it is to be 
feared a weak battle of endless discussions in committees between 
politicians from factions and parliamentary subgroups in a Congress 
which clearly leans to the right and in favor of liberal policies. And, 
alongside the parliamentary uproar, a partial censorship of the DNU in 
March by the Supreme Court.

The search for ways of mobilization
We hear and read here and there that Argentines are exhausted, depressed 
by the succession of crises that the country has been experiencing since 
the 1990s... It is certain that the militant, organized circles, the 
unemployed movements, the struggle collectives inserted in social, class 
conflicts... have lost a lot of strength and vitality over the years, as 
many of them have become involved in managing a clientele, and have 
gained positions in the co-optation processes that have knew how to 
establish Kirchnerism during the twelve years he governed the country 
(1). It is equally certain that the least institutional, most basic and 
assemblyist currents of these movements did not know or be able to 
maintain the political spaces and areas of conflict that they had 
occupied, during the great ascending wave of protest and of uprisings of 
which they were the actors and the driving forces, from the mid-1990s 
until 2002. A date when, after the first repressive measures of the then 
executive against the most combative fringe of piqueteros, Kirchnerism 
is presented and appeared as the natural political outlet for this cycle 
of struggles and its exhaustion... Many of these movements then split 
up, disappeared or became shadows of themselves, and many activists 
became distant or set back. As is often the case, the "political outlet" 
corresponded to a moment of ebb of antagonism; it marked the end of a 
cycle and the opening of a new sequence.
Also note that, if the situation is no longer that of the 2000s, it is 
not absolute desert either. Significant mobilizations, violently 
repressed, took place under the liberal Macri government, particularly 
at the end of 2017 (2). The mobilizations of the unemployed resumed in 
2022 and the entire last decade has been marked by the rise of protests 
on two main themes: gender violence (and in particular feminicides) by a 
vigorous women's movement which does not hesitate to taking to the 
streets and calling for feminist strikes, and dozens of conflicts over 
environmental issues, particularly against mining mega-projects.

...and a balance of power to be built
The DNU and the "omnibus" law appear in many respects as ideological 
manifestos which would have added in a single large volume all the 
demands and themes of the Argentine right of the last 100 years, from 
the most moderate centrist liberalism to the extreme. pro-dictatorship 
hard right through current libertarian implausibilities.
On paper, the success of such a synthesis can make the camp of 
capitalists in search of cultural hegemony in the service of a social 
order and a political regime guaranteeing "to perfection" the 
maximization of profits and the forced commodification of the totality 
of what exists. Alongside what appears to be the steamroller of a 
"chainsaw" policy, there is also an element of staging, a lot of 
improvisation, amateurism, haste because for the passage of ideology In 
practice, it is advisable for governments in general not to fight at the 
same time all their future victims or, if you like, all their obstacles 
and all their enemies.
Not to mention the gross inconsistencies in diplomatic and economic 
matters: when Milei declared a few days before his election that he was 
going to break all relations with "communist" and "murderer" countries 
like China, even though it is his main partner economic (purchase of 
soya, beef, etc. and investments in mining such as lithium and other 
infrastructure projects), and even though the previous government signed 
commercial agreements with the Asian giant (notably for a space research 
center in Patagonia) and above all financial: a crucial agreement for 
Argentina on currency exchanges (of 6.5 billion dollars) allowing it to 
finance on credit the settlement of the due dates of its debt with of 
the IMF and thus avoid payment default. - borrow from China to pay its 
debts to Washington... So very quickly, the government in Buenos Aires 
had to reconnect with Beijing by assuring it of its total loyalty to 
past agreements.

Domestically, Milei did not benefit from any "state of grace" after 
taking power. Its support is discreet, most contest the "form" of the 
DNU and the exceptional regime that the executive seeks to impose on 
them, many want to discuss the articles to amend them, some like the 
group of UCR deputies ( Radical Civic Union, right-wing) have even 
chosen to remain "silent"! As support, we do better.
The other encouraging data was the speed of reaction and the relative 
massiveness of the first popular mobilizations, on December 20 and 27, 
which defied the repressive protocol and forced the CGT to emerge from 
its long lethargy and call for a day of strike. Everything will 
therefore depend on what happens on the streets during the month of January.

JF / December 31, 2023

Notes
(1) Kirchnerism is an Argentine center-left political current mainly 
stemming from Peronism, which truly appeared in 2003, with the arrival 
to power of Néstor Kirchner (until 2007) then of his wife Cristina 
Fernández de Kirchner , between 2007 and 2015.
(2) Billionaire Mauricio Macri governed Argentina from 2015 to 2019 
following Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Elected on a liberal program 
very clearly marked to the right, his economic and budgetary revenues 
have caused innumerable social damage while putting the country back on 
the brink of the abyss. He will be thanked by voters in 2019 and 
replaced by a center-right Peronist, the very opportunist Alberto 
Fernández (no relation to Cristina). He will take some emergency 
measures to avoid the country's bankruptcy, but without deviating from a 
generally liberal orientation. His 2023 candidate will be soundly beaten 
by Milei.

Call from the Coordination for Social Change
Strengthen the general strike through mobilization to overthrow the DNU 
and the package of measures against the people. December 28, 2023
For a little over two weeks, Milei's ultra-right government has been 
trying to sweep away all social gains and in its escalation targets all 
sectors equally. (...) The DNU on the one hand, and the "omnibus" bill 
sent to Congress on the other hand, testify to the fact that Milei needs 
to activate these tools at high speed to try to rebuild "a new country", 
ostensibly oriented towards the ultra-right. In reality, it is an 
institutional dictatorship no less harmful than those accompanied by the 
rifles of the military. but it is also true that our people are not 
asleep and have quickly mobilized their antibodies. So in just over two 
weeks, there have already been two major mass mobilizations, on December 
20 and 27, defying Bullrich's entire repressive apparatus, and 
circumventing a repressive protocol worthy of the years of lead. But 
that's not all, the pans have started to call for mobilization against 
bad government and are multiplying in all corners of the country. Faced 
with this popular determination and the slogan that emerged from below, 
calling for a general strike, the CGT leadership was forced to call for 
a national strike with mobilization on January 24. On the other hand, 
various declarations from the ruling clique suggest that it is not 
completely unanimous, that it is starting to contradict itself and 
backtrack on certain aspects. This is clearly the result of the pressure 
that our people exert in the streets and it encourages us to reaffirm 
our line of combat in this area and in all those that are necessary to 
make those who thought to intimidate us bend. We all know that if we 
overthrow the DNU as quickly as possible, not only will we have 
significantly weakened the neo-fascist government, but we will also 
protect ourselves as a country. This is why, on behalf of the 
Coordinating Committee for Social Change, we call for REINFORCING THE 
ACTIVE NATIONAL STRIKE of January 24, and from now on, we will work on 
the methods of struggle in our neighborhoods and in all places where we 
are developing our activist activity. n January 24, we will be hundreds 
of thousands in the streets of the country to tell them to their faces 
that NO PASARÁN
Only the people will save the people
COORDINATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
FOL (FRENTE DE ORGANIZACIONES EN LUCHA) - MOVIMIENTO DE LOS PUEBLOS 
(FRENTE POPULAR DARÍO SANTILLÁN CORRIENTE PLURINACIONAL; MULCS 
MOVIMIENTO POR LA UNIDAD LATINOAMERICANA Y EL CAMBIO SOCIAL; MOVIMIENTO 
8 DE ABRIL) - FAR Y COPA EN MARABUNTA - FOB AUTÓNOMA (FEDER 
ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS BASIC, AUTÓNOMA) - PLO RESISTIR Y LUCHAR - 
MOVIMIENTO JUANA AZURDUY - ARRIBA LXS QUE LUCHAN -December 30.

Haro on the Potenciar Trabajo plans
These "socio-productive inclusion and local development" plans (official 
definition), which can be translated as "Promoting Work", have operated 
since the 2000s as an allocation system for return to employment, either 
through aid for education and professional training, or in exchange for 
services, work (4 hours per day maximum) carried out in a local, 
community setting, in non-market sectors or uncompetitive market 
segments... The amount of the monthly allowance corresponds to half the 
minimum wage with just over 1.2 million beneficiaries. This program also 
aims to legalize part of the informal work, that generated during the 
great crisis of the 2000s by popular, community, social economy type 
initiatives, by formalizing and registering micro-enterprises, by 
formalizing and legalizing their existence.
However, these plans are in the sights of those in power, which is 
calling for a rapid audit because it has already decreed that there were 
at least 160,000 too many, therefore perceived by fraudsters, and that 
it was going to be necessary to find the culprits, remove the charges 
from them. allowances and, if necessary, take them to court... Hence 
increased surveillance of the Internet, purchases of plane or train 
tickets, information on family and friends, with anonymous denunciations 
widely encouraged , to confuse the false unemployed, to invent some: 
these false poor living intolerably beyond their means! For the moment, 
the amount is frozen and almost in reality halved in less than a month 
due to inflation estimated this month at 30%, successive increases in 
transport, energy and food prices. many current products due to the 
devaluation of the peso and the increase in the tax on imports from 7.5 
to 17.5%.
Secondly, it is a question of "starting from scratch" and taking over 
the entire management of these allocations entrusted to local managers. 
What the liberals want to bring down is the management of this regime 
which is not in the hands of the State, but... privatized. Membership in 
the Potenciar Trabajo plan is only possible if the person binds himself 
to an entity in charge of applying it, that is to say to groups of 
piqueteros or to social organizations, often dependent on political 
parties , municipalities.
These Potencia Trabajo plans are the legacy of the social policies of 
Kirchnerism and the distant result of a decade of fierce struggles, led 
by the most deprived layers of the proletariat, by those who called 
themselves piqueteros in reference and in homage to the pickets of 
strikes that they could not lead, and who fought with road blockades, 
marches on provincial capitals, clashes with the forces of repression, 
wild makeshift camps in the centers of cities, occupations of land and 
their transformation into collective vegetable gardens and places of 
socialization and organization, and who knew how to invent new forms of 
mutual aid, popular self-education and solidarity, cores of 
counter-society in rebellion .... This is all that the new regime wants 
to tear down and erase.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4078
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