BY ROHAN PEARCE
Argentina is undergoing a transformation, into something rare in Latin America — a beacon of hope that offers a different choice to the only one normally offered by corporate globalisation: submit. Argentina isn't an "ordinary" victim of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), because the people are fighting back — and they might win.
The explosion of mass anger at the downward-slide of the economy, and the measures implemented by the government to combat it in December — partial freezing of US-dollar deposit accounts, etc. — led to the downfall of four successive presidents within just one week.
The corporate media tried to present the protests as little more than riots os and looting. However, beyond the images of supermarkets being trashed lay the awakening class consciousness of Argentinian workers.
On the streets it was not just despair at the grim situation the workers (employed and unemployed) and the middle class were facing, but a growing awareness that "ordinary" people could make a difference.
On December 13, Argentina's three union confederations — the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), the CGT-Moyano and the Argentine Workers Central — held a general strike to demand an end to the restrictions on bank withdrawal imposed by the government and the resignation of the then economic minister, Domingo Cavallo.
Raiding of supermarkets by the poor and the desperate began on December 14, with large, predominately multinational-owned, supermarkets targeted. Cash, alcohol and non-essential items were typically left untouched during the initial raids, people taking only what they needed to survive. Soon, however, the large supermarket chains employed guards, forcing the poor to attack smaller shops owned by middle-class business people. Lacking centralised co-ordination, and with the situation growing steadily worse, the looting gradually spiraled out of control.
Street battles between youth and police erupted on December 19, while the looting of supermarkets continued. By December 20 every major city in Argentina was paralysed by massive demonstrations.
Through mass mobilisations, the pot-banging cacerolazos, workers' protests and piqueteros blockades ("the picketers" are unemployed activists who block roads, preventing materials from reaching or leaving factories) the Argentinian people fought back against the neo-liberal assault of the IMF and the Argentinian government.
Popular discontent hasn't died under the regime of the latest president, Eduardo Duhalde. Duhalde has shown no more interest in the fate of the rapidly growing numbers of poor than his (very) recent predecessors and has not been able to restore credibility to the tottering political system.
During a speech broadcast on national television on February 8, Duhalde stated his intention to "reform" the political system, reestablishing the political and economic stability of Argentinian capitalism, and outlining measures that he would attempt to implement to this end.
A poll conducted by Argentinian newspaper La Nacion following the speech indicated that Duhalde would have great difficulty getting people to believe him — 31% of people surveyed felt that Duhalde announced his plans because the political system is broken, and he had no other choice; 19% said it was because he wanted to win popular support and just 4% said it was because he was serious about reform.
Even more convincing proof of the lack of credibility of the government was provided by the 10,000 protesters who gathered in Plazo de Mayo, in downtown Buenos Aires, in a demonstration organised immediately following Duhalde's speech by the neighbourhood-based popular assemblies.
The political crisis in Argentina has meant that people have formed their own organs of democracy and have created, potentially, a new type of rule for Argentina — the rule of the exploited instead of the IMF stooges.
Popular assemblies have been formed in all major cities, more than 50 in the Greater Buenos Aires area alone, and accounts indicate that they have been growing.
The assemblies have begun adopting anti-government demands. An example is the Assembly for San Cristol and Boedo, whose demands include: punish the police murderers who killed demonstrators last month; the release of political prisoners; abolition of VAT on basic goods; taxation of the rich; and benefits for the unemployed. It also demands: work for all, with sharing of work between the employed and the unemployed without any reduction in wages; dissolution of the supreme court; nationalisation of the banks and the privatised firms, to be controlled by the workers; no payment of foreign debt; and a popular constituent assembly.
The broadness of the participants in the assemblies — workers, unemployed people, professionals, shopkeepers — and the anti-government, anti-capitalist demands many are adopting indicates that they have a potentially revolutionary implication, as an alternative form of power based on the working class and its allies.
The assemblies are becoming more organised. For the last month, neighbourhood assemblies within Buenos Aires have been sending delegations to the Interbarrial (inter-district) Coordinating Assembly of Popular Assemblies, held in Parque Centenario in the centre of Buenos Aires.
The fourth interbarrial assembly, held on February 3, issued a series of resolutions and the pronouncement, "Pickets and pots, one single struggle". Among the measures called for were a living wage, subsidies for the unemployed and repeal of article 22 of the constitution ("'the people govern through their representatives"). Plans for further protests were adopted, including further cacerolazos and support for piquetero protests.
On December 18, the employers' association abandoned a Brukman factory, leaving behind the machinery and owing workers four months of wages, Christmas bonuses, vacation pay and family wages for five years. The response of the workers gives an indication of the mood of resistance within Argentina: they took over the factory and have run it under workers' management. They issued a manifesto calling for workers' control of all factories that are closed down because of the economic crisis.
The workers have received support from the popular assemblies in the area, and have begun sending delegates to the coordinating assembly and popular assemblies have sent delegates to the Brukman assemblies.
Every week sees further protests.
The piqueteros are continuing to mobilise. On February 6, the National Picketers Bloc rallied in Mayo Square, Buenos Aires. They demanded 100,000 jobs, 130 tonnes of food, equitable distribution of income and the release of imprisoned piqueteros leaders.
On February 8, more than 100,000 pharmacies closed for six hours, protesting the high cost of medicines, the price of which has increased 30% since the beginning of the year. Three thousand employees of pharmacies protested in Mayo Square.
The anger — and spirit of resistance — of the Argentinian people shows no signs of abating.
The Argentinian uprising offers hope to those around the globe engaged in struggles against corporate-globalisation — not just to beat back the neo-liberal assault, back to demonstrate in practice that "another world is possible" by replacing the rule of capital with workers' power.
A statement issued December 21 by five Argentinian socialist parties — the Workers Party (PO), the United Left (Communist Party and Socialist Workers Movement, MST), the Revolutionary Socialist League (LSR) and the Socialist Workers Front (FOS) — declares: "[T]here is a way out, but this way out is incompatible with those that promote chaos for the benefit of surrender, for finance capital, for monopoly capitalism, national or foreign. This is the point. Neither dollarisation nor the devaluation promoted by ruling sectors will get us out of this endless torment. They are variations of a new turn of the screw aimed at the confiscation of our own labour."
Only a different Argentina offers a solution for the working people: "The Argentina of the workers, one that will expropriate those who have always exploited us."
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, February 20, 2002.
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