Argentina

Argentina: Workers Occupy Printing Plant

Printing plant workers in Buenos Aires showed up for their 6 a.m. shift as usual last Monday, only to find locked doors, police, and private security blocking their way. Grupo Clarín, the biggest media group in Argentina, had locked them out. The 380 workers were fired, with management planning to replace well-paid union workers with cheaper, non-union replacements.

quote:

Local union leaders quickly called an assembly, and workers unanimously decided to occupy the plant to demand their jobs back. The union says that Grupo Clarín is not in financial trouble, did not follow the steps the law requires for layoffs, and simply wants cheap labor.

The Buenos Aires-area graphic workers union that the local belongs to, the FGB, then called a 24-hour solidarity strike of all its members—and got an impressive 83 percent participation. Both the local, which is run by an opposition caucus, and the FGB called for solidarity marches. On Thursday, on two days’ notice, thousands of members of other unions marched through downtown to the Ministry of Labor.

INSIDE THE PLANT

Pablo Wowk works on a three-stories-high press that is the largest in South America. He says the Clarín plant’s machinery, which prints pamphlets, phone books, school books, and magazines, is modern but requires skill to operate—lots of “tricks” to make the machines run right.

None are functioning now, as workers settle in “until we get our jobs back,” said Ezekel Gatti, a member of the local leadership. He said management had given no prior notice of the planned lockout.

Union members from a mattress factory have brought mattresses to sleep on, replacing the cardboard used the first night, and Coca Cola workers have donated plenty of their own product. Other unions and activists are providing food. On Friday night, singers who are struggling to reform their musicians’ union performed opera solos including “O sole mio” in front of the plant gates, to great applause from the crowd of supporters.

On the occupation’s second day, police attempted to remove workers’ families and other supporters from outside the gates, a confrontation that was broadcast by a non-Clarín outlet. For now the union has obtained an order preventing the police from moving in....

quote:

Comments This was just one of many   JaneSlaughter | 01/24/17

This was just one of many demonstrations at Grupo Clarin properties around the country. The Buenos Aires protesters blocked the highway for about 3 hours.
Here is a song from supporters outside the occupied plant: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1211637032207054&id=10000082...

That is wonderful news. I actually know someone who may have voted for Macri, for that reason. Someone who is not remotely rightwing. But this person hates him now. 

Workers Run This Hotel

Fourteen years ago workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, occupied a downtown hotel that its owners had abandoned. Ever since, they’ve operated the Hotel Bauen as a worker-run cooperative, making it not only a hotel but a center for union and other movement events, sought out by progressive visitors from around the world.

Four months ago, it looked like the co-op members would finally see the hotel’s legal status regularized. “Legally, we are considered usurpers,” explained Federico Tonarelli, vice-president of the co-op. “We are a legal cooperative that illegally occupied a building in plain sight.”

In November the Congress passed a law for the national government to expropriate the hotel, putting an end to the claims of former owners who had filed suit. The 120 workers would continue to operate the hotel with a signed agreement. But the law was quickly vetoed by the right-wing president, Mauricio Macri. And on March 1, a judge turned the hotel over to a former owner, with an eviction notice for April 14.

Workers’ challenge now is both to stop the eviction and to get a two-thirds majority in Congress to overturn Macri’s veto. They are calling on the many people who have supported them over the years to lend a hand once again....

NorthReport wrote:

!!!

???

Argentina’s Anticapitalist Feminism

On August 8 the Argentine Senate, by a narrow margin, voted down the Law of Voluntary Pregnancy Interruption (IVE), which would have legalized abortion in the country. The Catholic Church rejoiced, having led a ruthless campaign against safe and legal abortion for women. Several political operatives, from bourgeois politicians to trade union leaders, had caved in to this intense anti-abortion rhetoric. This for two reasons: one, their general capitulation to the ideology of “family values” upheld by both neoliberal forces and the Church; two, because they were terrified of a new social force that had arisen in response to neoliberal predation and was now decisively shaping the political terrain: the feminist movement.

The Argentinian feminist wave galvanized around the Ni Una Menos (“not one less”) movement, which arose in 2015 to protest the murder of fourteen-year-old Chiara Páez. The movement began as a struggle against femicide but rapidly radicalized, expanding the ambit of “violence” as an analytical category to include the multifarious assaults of capitalism on the lives of poor and working women and gender non-conforming people. It was the political breadth and activity of Ni Una Menos and of the Polish feminist movement that provided the inspiration for the International Women’s Strike.

Here, we bring together Argentinian feminists who played a leading role in shaping Ni Una Menos and the International Women’s Strike. We do this at a moment of danger for feminist organizing in the United States. While anti-abortion lawmakers are also on the march here, they are being buttressed by anti-labor laws, laws attacking social provisioning, and unprecedented levels of violence against immigrants and Muslims.

This is a particular political conjuncture where feminism, if it is to become a threat once more to misogyny and misogynists, cannot confine itself to what liberal politics classifies as “women’s issues.” If feminism is to provide an alternative to capitalist violence it must be an anticapitalist feminism. In recent times, Argentinian feminists have in their concrete struggles given form to an insurgent, anticapitalist feminism, which we can learn from, and hopefully, replicate.....

Lovely!

Worker's fourth national strike brought Argentina to a standstill. | Photo: Reuters

A Sea Change for Argentina

Since Mauricio Macri’s December 2015 victory, Argentina took a slide into insanity. At one time representing a powerful force of opposition to the international financiers and vulture funds under the Peronist government of the late Nestor Kirchner and his wife Christina, Argentina under Macri has once again become a bankers’ fiefdom which brought the nation slavishly back under the whip of the financial oligarchy. Under Macri, austerity became the new norm and payment of debts the new priority for Argentina, while the vast majority of large scale infrastructure projects begun by President Kirchner were cancelled or postponed.

Somehow Macri was surprised that his monetarist strategies failed to win him the love of the people as unemployment continued to rise, and inflation topped 55% with no hope in sight.

The effects of the population’s suffering under the IMF’s monetarist diktats resulted in a surprise August 12 pre-election vote which gave Macri’s opponent Alberto Fernandez 47% of the votes (compared to a mere 33% for sitting President). Although this was only a pre-election vote, Fernandez demonstrated that he will likely become the President in the November elections. What is also notable is that Fernandez (a former Chief of Staff to Nestor Kirchner) is partnered on the Front for All ticket with his Vice-Presidential running mate Christina Fernandez de Kirchner herself. Fernandez and Kirchner promise to re-organize the unpayable IMF debts and end the age of austerity. Of course, speculators showed their disapproval of this return to a national power by collapsing the Argentina peso by 15% on August 13 and threatening more punishment if the “populist Peronists” are elected.

With Kirchner’s immanent return to power, many presume that the burgeoning golden age of China-Russian relations will blossom once more. Under Kirchner’s leadership a powerful “Argentina-China Integral Strategic Alliance” was formed along with 20 major treaties between the nations.....

from Mathew Ehret, Strategic-culture.org

,,,the growing alliance with China for latin american countries is crucial within the framework of the USA (Canada) vs China total war agenda

Argentina gets to vote Sunday on whether they want to become the 2020s version of the 1970s/1980s Chilean economics.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/11/16/americas/argentina-election-peso-economy-analysis-intl/index.html

Post-Election Argentina: Unions Respond to Privatization

Argentines weary of annual inflation soaring above 140% and a poverty rate that reached 40% have elected right-wing libertarian economist Javier Milei. On Sunday, November 19, 2023, Milei defeated Economy Minister Sergio Massa by a wide margin, 55.7% to 44.3%, winning all but three of the nation’s 24 provinces. He had campaigned on the promise to privatise state-owned enterprises, slash government spending, dollarise the economy, eliminate the Central Bank, and close key ministries, among them health and education.

quote:

Argentinian Trade Unions Call to Action

Hugo “Cachorro” Godoy, Secretary General of CTA-Autónoma, offered a first analysis of the factors behind the results. “We voted against this government [of Alberto Fernández], which did not fulfil any of the objectives and commitments made, and which were initially the antithesis of Macri’s policies and the IMF’s impositions. We ended four years of government being worse off than when it began, particularly in the economic and social spheres. Milei arrives on the back of the fragmentation of the popular camp [working-class base] and the fragmentation of labour relations, where precariousness has produced economic and social damage, including 43% poverty [and] 10% hunger. Regarding [Milei’s] … denial of the state as an instrument of equity and balance in a society, it is indispensable to build an alternative program to reconstitute the popular sectors and working-class base.”

The General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine Republic (CGT), the country’s largest trade union confederation, gathered its unions and warned that it will not accept any rollback of rights or delays in bargaining negotiations. He also rejected Milei’s threats concerning the paralysis of public works and the privatisation of the railways and Aerolíneas Argentinas.

“Many people voted for Milei knowing what he was going to do, but they thought he would not touch them. If it does, the CGT will be there. (…) We are not going to allow the stripping of rights and much less the payment of salaries,” said Héctor Daer, representative of the health sector in the CGT.

Pedro Wasiejko, Secretary General of the Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) participating union, the Federation of Energy, Industry, Service and Allied Workers’ Unions (Fetia), pointed to a recent federation summit which concluded in the unanimous understanding that “without autonomous productive development, there is no possibility of social justice or national sovereignty. (…) The [summit] highlighted the enormous potential of our state-owned companies as well as the deep knowledge and capacity of their workers that clearly emerged, in clear contrast to the proposals of those who claim that the only way out is to privatise and close them down.”

Julio Acosta, General Secretary of the Federation of Energy Workers of Argentina (FeTERA) shared reflections on the need to build a Public Pathway in Argentina. The following text was written just before the elections when FeTERA joined TUED:

“The denationalisation of public companies made Argentina lose its sovereignty, in this offensive of capital over labour, it brought our country to its knees to the point that currently economic policy is dictated by the IMF, and every three months, a delegation from the fund arrives in our country to check whether the objectives proposed by them are being met, which means more adjustments for the working people, more dependence, more backwardness.

Protests began Wednesday against the austerity and deregulation measures announced by Argentina’s newly elected President Javier Milei, whose government had also warned against blocking streets.

Argentinian Court Overturns Javier Milei’s Labor Rules

An Argentinian court has overturned labor regulations proposed by newly elected far-right President Javier Milei that would have cut benefits and made it easier to fire workers who participate in union strikes and blockades. The three-judge panel argued such reforms are unconstitutional, stating they first must be approved by Argentina’s Congress. The ruling comes just days after labor unions led tens of thousands of protesters in a general strike against Milei’s austerity policies that have led to the severe devaluation of the Argentinian peso and other massive spending cuts.

Milei says he wants a society without a state – he’s building a market without a society

“In both content and form, President Javier Milei’s political project is an attempt to establish an authoritarian and autocratic regime in Argentina. It is an undercover reactionary constitutional reform,” reads the political platform of the national general strike called on Wednesday by labor unions and a number of Argentine human rights movements and groups, such as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

The strike is part of a radical clash against a project of savage capitalism – as outlined by Milei in his speech at the recent Davos forum – which has drawn the concern and focus of Latin American leftists and progressive movements.

quote:

The prospect is of a state reduced to only fiscal and social control duties. President Milei “is taking advantage of the negative view of Congress and traditional politics to set aside the institutions of liberal democracy and concentrate all political power in his hands,” says a document in support of the strike signed by dozens of intellectuals, activists and trade unionists. In accordance with this plan, which includes the repression of protests and the opposition, President Milei has proceeded to revamp the leadership of the Armed Forces, in a move that “further deepens (Argentina’s) alignment with the United States and Israel and prepares for a possible repressive scenario.”

quote:

Milei’s political “manifesto” in Davos – with its implementation in Argentine politics – represents the rise of an ultra-right that is less apathetic and more skeptical of Latin American progressivism. This should give leftists pause for thought, on a continent that is looking at the real possibility, if not probability, that Donald Trump could be re-elected to the White House.

In several countries of the South – Ecuador, Peru, the Colombian opposition, among others – the “Bukele model” is being openly praised. The autocratic president of El Salvador is celebrated for having routed the pandillas, the organized criminal gangs, while flouting human rights, and is also famous for building a mega-prison under military control.

Cuba is very concerned about these developments. Since early February, the Cuban government has been preparing to implement a package of as-yet-unspecified reforms “to stabilize the economy.” The measures include price increases in energy and various services, cuts in subsidies to sectors with higher consumption and a new exchange rate to curb the fall of the Cuban peso. As President Díaz-Canel admitted, these are painful measures, but “necessary to preserve the Cuban social project.” Certainly, this project is also threatened by domestic political mistakes, but more than anything else, it must contend with the 60-year hostility of the U.S. – and now also with that of the ultra-right across the subcontinent.

..more from above

quote:

On the one hand, we have to return to each workplace to assess this mobilization and this half-day strike, which were very important—to value it and to demand each union to convene meetings of delegates and rank and file assemblies to debate and decide how to continue the struggle. And where the union leadership does not want to do so, we have to organize all the activists among workers who do want to, to evaluate and debate together what measures can be carried out. We must coordinate with other working class sectors in struggle, providing support and solidarity to those who are in processes of struggle against layoffs or privatizations, or for wages.

At the same time, we have to convene assemblies in each neighborhood and debate in depth with all the neighbors to prepare for the coming struggle for food and increases in social assistance.

In the neighborhood assemblies that were also protagonists today, we have to take advantage of this momentum to strengthen them, to call more neighbors and youth to participate, to hold well prepared meetings in the coming days to assess everything, and to prepare new and bigger “cacerolazos” [pot-banging protests-Eds.] to make the strength of all our demands felt.

In the culture sector, which today participated with great strength and massively, we have to guarantee the following measures that were decided at its last assembly, such as the festivals, the carnavalazo, the federal cultural march and the national culture assembly.....

Milei plans on moving Argentina's Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. (Al Jazeera)

Mexican president snaps back at taunts from Argentinian leader

After Argentine President Javier Milei called his Mexican counterpart "ignorant," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador responded Thursday by criticizing the government in Buenos Aries. 

Milei spent time criticizing Latin American leaders in an interview March 26 for CNN Espanol,

Regarding Lopez Obrador, who had previously called Milei a "conservative fascist," the Argentinian said: "It's flattering that an ignorant man like Lopez Obrador speaks ill of me, it exalts me."

López Obrador responded to those comments and referenced Pope Francis, whom Milei had previously insulted.

"I still do not understand how the Argentines, being so intelligent, voted for someone who despises the people and who dared to accuse his countryman Francis of being a ‘communist’ and ‘representative of the Evil One on earth,’ when he is the most Christian Pope and defender of the poor that I have ever known or heard of," Lopez Obrador wrote X.

The Mexican president also sent “A hug” to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who Milei accused of being a "terrorist murderer," in the interview with CNN.....