Argentina - January 8th, 2018
Editorial of the paper “Democracia Obrera” (Worker’s Democracy) N°91 from LOI-CI of Argentina

DECEMBER 14, 18 y 19, 2017: THE ARGENTINEAN WORKING CLASS BEGAN TO FIGHT AS IN 2001… AN “INTIFADA” THAT MADE TREMBLE THE ARGENTINE OF THE ABOVE On December 18 and 19, Buenos Aires was the scene of a formidable mass political struggle against the pension reform of the IMF and the government of the CEOs. The working class collided head-on with the parliament, the repressive forces of the State and the set of institutions of the arch-reactionary and Bonapartist Constitution of 1853-1994, facing the plan of imperialist looting of the nation imposed by the G-20. On Monday 18, the working class staged a revolutionary general strike with pickets and barricades, a national strike imposed from below on the triumvirate of the CGT, which had agreed on the labor reform of the government and imperialism. Tens of thousands of workers and young people surrounded the Parliament and unleashed their anger in a veritable "Intifada". At night, the impoverished middle classes, outraged by the repression and the government measures, went out to make cacerolazos(pan pounding) in Buenos Aires City and the main cities of the country until the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

The repressive escalation of the State on workers and their organizations continues See more A Marxist position before the caste of life-tenure judges of the bourgeois state See more For a single list of minimum demands of the workers and the poor See more Emergency Motion to all the combative worker organizations of the Americas See more Against the reformist strategy of the FIT, a South American variant of the New Left, of "expanding democracy" See more

This irruption of the exploited brought 2001tothe Argentina ruling classes’memory. The CEOs, the big banks, the oligarchy of the Rural Society, did not expect such a response.
The workers broke any union bureaucracy policy of conciliation and submission to the bourgeoisie. With their actions, they divided the middle classes, whose lower layers, encouraged by the struggle of the working class, spontaneously took to the streets. Chants of "Unity of the workers!" and "Macri, motherfucker, go out!” were combined with the "Que se vayan todos" (“All of them must go out forever!”), the class independence cry of the 2001 revolution, which for years the reformist leaders of the labor movement had kept well buried and on Dec 18 was heard again in the streets.

This shows that a prerevolutionary situation is opening in Argentina. The working class has made the bourgeoisie tremble again. But this combat is not coming from the blue. It is part of huge mass revolutionary responses worldwide against the hard blows that imperialism, under the command of Trump, is unloading on the exploited.
The Argentine working class not only joins the struggle of their class brothers from Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Honduras against the Wall Street plans on Latin America, but also the Palestinian intifada, the uprising of the exploited of Iran against the ayatollah billionaires and the Tunisian masses who take up the revolutionary path facing the bourgeois power.
Although the FIT and the rest of the Argentine left want to hide this character of the revolutionary days of 18 and 19, the truth is that these were enormous actions that the workers and exploited must deepen, without stopping for a second in their combat, to prepare a true "hell" to defeat the Macri government and its reform plan; a "hell" like the one that made the working class and working youth of Germany and all of Europe against the G-20 in Hamburg last year.

 

the government, encouraged by a series of reactionary triumphs, collided head on with a huge mass response

The Argentine bourgeoisie had arrived emboldened to December 2017. Trump's and US imperialism offensive on Latin America and the world pushed the servile regimes and governments to launch very hard attacks on the exploited, such as the plans of "labor reforms" dictated by the G-20 that are being applied in France, Brazil, Peru and Argentina.
Since the beginning of 2017, Macri was imposing this labor flexibility, not only liquidating the collective bargaining agreement of the oil workers, in the dairy industry, in metalworking, etc. -in agreement with the union bureaucracy of Pereyra and Ávila and the Kirchnerite bureaucrats of ATILRA (dairy workers union) and SMATA (autoworkers)-, but in the whole of the working class: 80% of the non registered workers earn less than $ 10,000 (USD 500) monthly, while the average of the registered workers earn only $ 17,000 (USD 850) monthly (according to state statics office INDEC data).
In turn, the anti-bureaucratic rebellion opened on March 7 - when the labor base of the unions controlled by the Peronist bureaucracy stoned the triumvirate of the CGT and took the box from it- had suffered severe setbacks with the workers defeats in AGR, the Unionized transit workers of Córdoba, Pepsico, teachers, etc., which thanks to the betrayal of the union bureaucracy, took the vanguard out of the scene and subjected the working class to the electoral farce of August and October. The FIT, with its electoral politics and its parliamentary cretinism, had played a fundamental role in this.
While the struggles of the working class were defeated one by one, the Macri government advanced in the Bonapartization of the regime by perfecting the repressive apparatus for the oncoming battles. The armed bands of the State assassinated Santiago Maldonado and Rafael Nahuel at the request of the Rural Society, Benetton and the oil companies in Patagonia. The South Command of the Pentagon took the bases of the Argentine Navy under the pretext of the disappearance of the ARA San Juan submarine.
In these conditions, after obtaining an enormous reactionary triumph in the legislative elections and supported by a pact with the governors of the Justicialist Party and the Kirchnerites and with the triumvirate of the central union bureaucracy, the government launched a brutal (labor, tax and social security)reform planpushed by the G-20 and the IMF. Its objective is to bring the working class to the conditions of exploitation of the nineteenth century, loot the pension funds and deepen the theft of the nation. To prevent the economic crash from exploding, the government has borrowed heavily in dollars indebting Argentina to maintain a fictitious cycle of consumption for the rich middle classes. And this has to be paid for by the masses. The bosses must defeat the workers' movement and deprive large sectors of the middle classes,their own social base,of their income with devaluation, skyrocketing prices of basic services and a hellish difficulty for the workers to make ends meetthat does not give peace.
In December Macri felt victorious and attacked harshly. He thought he had won the battle beforehand. But on 18 and 19, the exploiters came face to face with a huge response from the working class and the lower layers of the middle classes that they were not expecting: two huge days of political struggle with revolutionary methods that hit the government and radically changed the situation.

 

the working class gives a huge blow to the government with a general political strike, pickets and revolutionary combat

The actions of December 18 and 19 against the pension reform were true independent actions of the masses that broke all the containment dams and were not prepared or called by any union or party.

The advance of 18 was the clashes on Thursday 14. That Thursday about 200 thousand exploited were concentrated in front of the Congress of the Nation, with strikes by trade and pickets. In the face of government repression, the workers confronted the Gendarmerie and succeeded in imposing the suspension of the Congress session, which was postponed until Monday, October 18. The brutal repression with rubber bullets and grenades to workers and retirees, the more than 40 detained, the provocative scene of the quorum attempt using a "fake deputy" to complete the number, etc., were seen by TV all over the country and aroused the indignation of the exploited.

That's why on Monday,Dec 18 the mood was different. There was hatred, anger, desire for revenge. The rebellion against the union bureaucracy of March 7 was resumed and taken to a higher level. The workers' rank and file of the metal, state, Astillero Rio Santiago, telephone, etc. workersimposed a general strike on the triumvirate of the CGT, which was forced to announce it at 10 am to avoid being thrown down, showing that the union bureaucracy had lost control of the labor movement. The transport workers guaranteed to take the workers to the Plaza, which began to arrive from the morning despite the fact that the triumvirate of the CGT had announced that it was not going to mobilize. By noon there were 300,000 workers, retired workers, students, exploited, etc. in front of Congress.
While the triumvirate of the CGT disappeared from the scene, the "opposition" bureaucrats Moyano and Palazzo, who did not know how to deactivate the bomb, begged the employers' deputies to vote against the reform. In the parliament, the Kirchnerite deputies, who had agreed everything with the government, gave a quorum allowing to vote for the looting of the pension fund. The FIT, for its part, validated this session with the presence of its deputies.
But that day the workers, against the policy of all their leaders, no longer wanted to pressure any politician. They knew that to defeat the pension reform it was necessary to defeat the government, collide with the "democracy" of the oligarchy and Wall Street and enter into an open political struggle. That is why, after noon, the repressed hatred broke out and the workers of the Rio Santiago Shipyard, the metallurgists of the UOM (Metalworkers Union) of Quilmes, the movements of the unemployed, the base of the leftist parties, etc. began clashing with the police, which after 4 hours of fighting had to retreat momentarily under a shower of stones.
The bourgeoisie was divided around how to contain the masses. Frightened, the Kirchnerite deputies warned the ruling party "remember December 19 and 20, 2001!". For that Monday 18, the government had even defined a more defensive policy than that of Thursday 14, hiding the hated gendarmerie and putting a smaller number of police. He knew that, under the conditions of Monday, a hard crash like that on Thursday could end with dead and open a real civil war, with workers even being able to disarm the Gendarmerie.

But while the bourgeoisie had prepared itself to the millimeter, no workers' union or party had prepared the workers for the political struggle on Monday. Nobody had called to organize a political struggle in the streets, or to put in place the necessary organization for that combat. No one had called to throw down the triumvirate of the CGT. No one had organized unified self-defense committees. The "opposition" bureaucracy sought to control the workers' rank and file and take it to the feet of the bourgeoisie and the parliament. The program of the FIT, opposed in 180º to the mass action on Dec 18, had been to “put more deputies of left in the Congress”, editing bills, pushing "do not buy Lays potatoes" campaigns, festivals.
The workers and combative youth outdid their leaderships, and rammed. Even in the worst conditions, and already in the combat, having 60 detainees and dozens of wounded, they improvised their self-defense and sent 88 policemen to the hospital.
Finally, the police managed to retake the square with a brutal repression. At dusk, when the day seemed to have ended, large sections of the middle classes, impacted by the workers' fight in front of the Congress (who even aidedthem giving them water and shelter in their buildings before the brutal repression), took to the streets to make “cacerolazos”(pan pounding) as in 2001. At night, more than 20 thousand people gathered in front of the Congress after midnight. 10 thousand people protested in front of the presidential residence. In some neighborhoods there was looting, attacking the property of supermarkets and distribution trucks. This scene was repeated in Rosario, Córdoba and otherbig urban centers of the country. The task was posed to weld the worker and popular alliance in the streets as in 2001. The general strike, even with the limits imposed by the leaderships, had already become a general, political, revolutionary strike, an independent mass action that dragged large layers of the exploited to a fight against the government, breaking the frames of professions and unions and unifying the different sectors of the working class. It was the first decisive political blow given to a government and the regime since 2001.

This mass action changed the relationship of forces between the classes in Argentina. What really stood out is who commands in the country: whether imperialism and its lackeys of the native bourgeoisie, or the proletariat. As Trotsky said about the France of the 1930s: "Whatever the slogans and the reason why the general strike has arisen, if it really embraces the masses and if these masses are determined to fight, the general strike inevitably raises before all the classes of the nation the question: who is going to be the owner of the house? "(L.T., "Whither France?", our translation). This is what happened on December 18 and 19.

 

En 18 and 19 we could not defeat macri because he was supported by a covenant with the justicialist (peronist)party, the kirchnerites, the frente renovador of massa, and the union bureaucracy

Unlike December 2001, when the bourgeois regime was corroded, in December 2017 the working class faced aregime and government that were stronger than the Alliance’s (in 2001). The bourgeoisie learned from 2001: it reconstituted its party regime and shielded its "democracy" with 600 thousand armed men of the different police, Gendarmerie, Coastal Guard, Airport Security Police (PSA), Federal Police (PFA), etc. commanded by the government and the caste of judges, who have behind them the Pentagon, the CIA and the MOSSAD. The "house prison" to Etchecolatz and the promotion of the gendarme Echazú (killer of Maldonado) were an award for these murderers and a provocation for the people.
Second, Macri conquered, unlike De la Rua, an anti-worker and reactionary social base in the rich middle classes that demand worker slavery to be imposedby blood and fire so that the merry-go-round of consumption and the financial "carry-trade" are not cut off.

But the government has another support: a Bonapartist pact with the PJ governors and the Kirchnerteswhich also includes the CGT bureaucracy and the state-ized trade unions. It is an extra-parliamentary co-government pact that the national Executive Power has sealed during and after the legislative elections with the Provincial Executives behind the back of the people, such a Bonapartist an agreement that it is not even contemplated in the Argentine arch-reactionary Constitution. This shows that the pension reform did not depend on the vote in Parliament, as it had been fully agreed in advance in the backstage. So much so that even Macri threatened to enact it by decree if the Congress could not sanction it.
This pact was expressed in Parliament on Dec 18. The government not only had a secure majority in the Chamber of Deputies to approve the pension law, guaranteed by the PJ, but also had the Frente Renovador and above all the Kirchnerites, who were responsible for giving quorum so the Chamber could meet. It was a real parliamentary circus to deceive the masses with the K parliamentarians posing as "opposition", when they had already voted in favor of the pension reform in the Senate.
The Kirchnerite governors (those of Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego provinces) signed the Fiscal Pact to the government and apply the same IMF plans with the help oflive bullets as Macri does (and yesterday Cristina did). The Ks are guaranteeing Macri's governability from the first day he took office, including voting all his anti-worker laws in parliament. The Pension Reform was no exception.
But the great role of the Kirchnerites was not only this; from the "opposition" trade union bureaucracy of Palazzo and the two CTAs, they sought to subject the exploited at the feet of parliamentarians and this armored "democracy" of the Constitution of 1853-1994; although they did not succeed on12/18, when the masses broke with this policy.

 

The subordination of the FIT to the parliament amidst the combats of the Plaza del Congreso

At no time did the FIT or the rest of the currents of the Argentine left prepare the vanguard for a political struggle that day, which was the most formidable combat of class independence since 2001.
They did not call for the establishment of any body of direct democracy or common self-defense of trade unions, piquetero movements or left-wing parties. Nor did they pose the physical struggle in the streets against the triumvirate of the CGT, or organize a march to the unions to drive out the hated bureaucracy - which they continue to support.
Their policy of "putting left deputies in the Congress" and organizing "non confrontational strikes" had disorganized the vanguard throughout the previous period. And during the days of Dec 14 and 18, they promoted openly a policy of class collaboration, subordinating themselves to the bourgeois pact that imposed the pension reform.

The FIT leadership called to pressure the "opposition" deputies to vote against the law. They sowed confidence in the bosses 'parties when they knew perfectly well that the Kirchnerites had agreed over everything with Macri, that the government already had a parliamentary majority, that the law was going to be voted and that the session was a circus validated by all the employers' parties. But instead of denouncing this pact, the FIT concealed it from the workers, telling them together with the Kirchnerites, that the struggle was to get the PJ, Frente Renovador, etc., deputies to vote against the reform. That is to say, they said that the reform could be defeated in that den of bandits of the Parliament, within the framework of the institutions of the Constitution of 1853-1994.
This policy was clearly seen in the "Open Letter" of Del Caño and Seligra to the employers' deputies: "we urge the deputies that are not willing to contribute with the greater impoverishment of our retirees, not to follow the 'block disciplines' and instead, join in the rejection of this nefarious Law. Nothing and nobody can force you to carry out this 'ungrateful task' "("Open letter to the rest of the deputies",La Izquierda Diario, December 4).

On Monday, the FIT deputies attended the session and legitimized it, while the masses were fighting in the streets against the police. That day, the duty of Del Caño, Del Pla, Seligra, etc., was -as the Third International Revolution affirmed that the parliamentary workers should act- to be at the forefront of the workers' combat, and if there were detainees, to be detained with them.
This would be as if a worker delegate in a factoryfinds out,while at a negotiation table with the employers, that the police are repressing his comrades on the front yard of the plant and nonetheless he continues to sit down negotiating as if nothing has happened. A delegate who really represents the workers would break the negotiation with the employers and would go out to fight and resist together with his comrades.
But this was not the attitude of the "worker deputies". (FIT deputies) Del Caño and Del Pla remained in the parliamentary session to demand a "popular consultation" (contemplated by the bourgeois Constitution) against the pension reform. The FIT opposed to a direct attack by the G-20 and the IMF, the proposition to bring the masses to decide with a ballot whether the retirees have to loseAr. pesos 540 (USD 27) a month with the law of Macri or are to continue starving with the Ar. pesos 7,500 (USD 375) a month given byCristina Kirchner, as if the workers had not more than pronounced themselves in their magnificent political struggle in the streets!
Not only they were kilometers behind the battles of the masses, but with the plebiscite that they proclaimed they liquidated the fight for 82% mobile (the demand for the retirees to receive a monthly wage an 82% of the active workers wages and not of the minimum wage as the government says, NT), which is the program that must be imposed to win a dignified retirement for workers.

After the days of December, which as is more than clear, were in spite and against the policy of the FIT and other leftist groups, the reformist currents have dedicated themselves to talking about them and acting as if nothing had happened. The PTS, already uncontrolled, has written that there was "a confrontation with stones with the Police" that could not "defeat this paquetazo (packet of evil measures, NT)". The FIT leaders keep concealing the true character of these revolutionary days, so that the masses do not conclude that they gave a hard blow to the government and that there are more than enough conditions to organize a superior fight to defeat Macri and his reforms.
That is why, after Dec 18, the FIT deputies used their parliamentary rostrum not to vindicate the struggle of the masses and call for deepening, developing and extending it, but to reprimand the workers of the Provincia Bank for having insulted Lousteau (former ambassador in the USA and former president of that bank) and cowardly excuse themselves before the bourgeoisie, as Del Caño did when affirming "we do not support what happened to (National) Deputy Lousteau".
Meanwhile, these currents - like the PO - invent the fable that the judges of the bourgeoisie can be "impartial" when it comes to judging the militants and activists of the working class, who are actually being brutally persecuted and imprisoned by the bourgeois state.

The FIT wants to make the "democracy" of the exploiters more "generous" with reforms to the regime of the Constitution of 1853-1994, Greek Syriza-style, or as Podemos of the Spanish State and other liars of the New Left. That is why they say, as the PTS does, that on Dec 18there was a confrontation between "republic”and“democracy", trying to hide that we are facing a real war of class against class, of the oppressed against the oppressors.

Today it is more than clear that the masses in their spontaneity had a million times more insight and class instinct than the entire direction of the FIT. The working class and the exploited, in a matter of hours, demonstrated the course to follow to defeat the attack of Macri and the IMF against all the impotent recipes of the reformist staffs of the Argentine left that are in London with the SWP English or hanging on the skirts of the Spanish Bourbons like Podemos.
Against the preachers of the struggle for a "real democracy", we Trotskyists affirm that in capitalism the only possible democracy for the workers is that of their own self-determination organizations, that of their self-defense against the fire-weapons of the murderous police; their defense of "democratic liberties" with their own methods of revolutionary struggle. Therefore, the road to conquer this "generous democracy" is the one that we must open now, which is the one that was proposed on December 20, 2001: to put on foot the power of the exploited to demolish the regime and its institutions, and take the power.

 

the war between classes is sharpening:
the government, wounded, intensifies its attack
the workers respond to the offensive of the capitalists

The working class leaders pour water over the December 18 fire

A phase of mass political struggle has been opened against the Macri government, which puts the entire bourgeoisie on alert, including the Kirchnerites. The government has been wounded. Broad layers of the working class and a fringe of the middle classes have already broken with the government.
The working class has put itself in a position of counter-offensive. Macri has to push it back and kneel it down if he does not want to end up like De la Rua. The situation is polarized to an extreme degree and the class war does not give peace. It is an Argentina that has nothing to do with the world of "peace and democracy" painted by the FIT.

After the fighting of Dec 18 and 19, the working class has entered a state of rebellion against the government and disrespect to the bureaucracy. Here and there it responds to the dismissals with takeovers of factories like the metallurgists of Stockl, Rapi Estant and Envases del Plata; by thousands, the state workers occupy municipalities and public dependencies; with pickets and roadblocks such as the oil workers of Santa Cruz; with puebladas (popular uprisings) like in Azul.
The workers know that they are no longer alone. The lower middle classes are in solidarity with these struggles and seek a leadership against the attack of the government and the IMF, a question that posesthe necessity of welding the workers' and popular alliance.

In this scenario, the government is deepening its attack. A brutal devaluation pushes inflation upward. Newlyincreased fees and prices of basic services were announced. Layoffs in the state offices and enterprises, dozens of factories and also among oil workers.
The Fiscal Pact with the governors and the 2018 budget meant a brutal offensive on the state workers, with dismissals and job flexibility to guarantee the payment of the external debt.
The repression has been redoubled with the imprisonment of Arakaki and Ponce and the arrest warrant of Romero, while Facundo Jones Huala, the anarchists Diego and Pablo and the comrades detained on December 14 remain in prison. In Jujuy province the authorities unleashed a brutal repression with the arrestof the workers of the La Esperanza sugar mill. On Thursday 12/29state workers, teachers and retirees in Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz province were brutally repressed by the government of Alicia Kirchner. In Tierra del Fuego, Kirchnerite governor Bertone froze state workers’ salaries.

On Dec 27 at the COFCO oil mill (ex-Nidera), a fire caused by the negligence and thirst for profit of the employers’ claimed the lives of two workers and more than 20 injured. The response of the workers was a national oil-mill strike in mourning, as it had not been seen for years.
The state workers made a national strike against dismissals and multiplied the occupation of municipalities and dependencies in Quilmes, La Plata, etc. In Azul, there was a pueblada in solidarity with the dismissals in Fabricaciones Militares and pickets arepresently made on Route 3. In Mar del Plata 10 thousand people were mobilized against murderer Etchecolatz's "house arrest" in that city. The oil workers of Santa Cruz were on strike against the dismissals. In the Great Buenos Aires, the metallurgists of Stockl, Rapi Estant and other factories are facing layoffs by taking the plants. Chicken processor Cresta Roja has been on strike.

But while the class war is turning red-white, the leadership of the working class tries to disorganize everything the base conquers. The triumvirate of the CGT supports Macri and has agreed to the labor reform with (Labor Minister) Triacca.
Meanwhile, the “piquetera” bureaucracy keeps the unemployed and sub-employedworkers of the cooperatives, subject to the misery crumbs of the Ministry of Social Action and the state.
The FIT, which directs a minority but combative sector of the working class, has refused to call for the establishment of a Coordinating Committee or the conquest of a National Workers' Congress to face the brutal flexibilization that has already been imposed on the working class, when the only way to defeat it is to prepare a superior fight for this time to give Macri the decisive blow he deserves.

 

THEY DESERVE HELL!
WE HAVE TO PREPARE A NEW,TRIUMPHANT 2001!

IT IS NECESSARY TO UNITE THOSE WHO ARE FIGHTING! NATIONAL COMMAND OF STRUGGLE!
PICKETS, ASSEMBLIES AND GENERAL STRIKE UNTIL ALL OF THE EXPLOITERS AND THEIR POLITICIANS ARE LEAVING AND NOT EVEN ONE REMAINS!

OUT WITHMACRI AND THE REGIME OF THE PJ, THE KIRCHNERITES, THE BOSSES’ POLITICIANS AND THE JUDGES, AGENTS OF IMPERIALISM!
DOWN WITH THE TRIUNVIRATE OF THE CGT!

To defeat the reforms of the IMF and the Macri and bosses’ attack, the working class must defeat the government and its pact with the PJ, the Kirchnerites and the trade union bureaucracy. The fight is already on the streets. But it will not be peaceful. The capitalists have been armed with 600,000 armed men. It will be necessary to fight higher than in 2001, putting in place the organizations where the working class and the exploited in struggle weld their unity and decide their future. It is about preparing the actions capable of defeating the government and the regime, and the organizations capable of opening the struggle for power. The programs of the Argentine left are far from responding to these tasks of the working class.

The road is that shown by the working class and the exploited of Iran and Tunisia, who won the streets against the government and the regime, carrying out enormous revolutionary actions. To put down the reforms of imperialism in Argentina, Macri has to end as (ousted former president, NT) De la Rua. As the workers shout: Macri, Go Out!
We have to climb a new step in our battle: we must prepare a centralized revolutionary action to defeat the government and the bourgeois power. That is, we must organize the revolutionary general strike, a combat superior to the one of 12/18, organized and centralized, until Macri leaves and we defeat the regime of the Constitution of 1853/1994, of the bosses’ parties and the videlista-peronista-radical caste of judges, all agents of the IMF and imperialism.
We have to prepare a new victorious 2001 so that everyone of the exploitersand their politicians leaves for good and not a single one remains!
Let’s open the way to the puebladas, the pickets and the factory takeovers!They must go on!

For this, the first task is to defeat the union bureaucracy. Down with the (CGT Central Union leading)triumvirate and businessman Calo (The sellout that is head of the metalworkers union, NT)!
The unions are the workers’, not the government or the IMF’s organizatios. Rank and file assemblies in each factory and establishment to repeal these traitors! We have to take the CGT and throw the bureaucrats out of the windows!

In order to advance along this path, it is necessary to put on foot the organizations of the working class and the exploited that are capable of deepening the political struggle that has been opened. As Trotsky affirmed in France in 1936, "The organization cannot coincide anymore with the unions, because the unions only cover a significant part of the class and are subject to an arch-reactionary bureaucracy. The new organization must respond to the nature of the movement itself, reflect the struggling masses, express their firmest will. It is a direct government of the revolutionary class. There is no need to invent new forms here: there are historical precedents. The workshops and the factories choose their deputies, who meet to elaborate the plans of the struggle in common and to direct it. It is not even necessary to invent the name of such organization: they are the soviets of worker deputies. "(L.T., op.cit., our translation)
That is to say, the self-determination, direct democracy and coordination organizations of all the workers and exploited who fought on Dec 18 and 19 must be built, above the divisions imposed by the unions. The Factory and Company Committees must be set up to unite the forces ofregistered, black-economy, full-time, part-time, temporary, outsourced, native, immigrants, laid-off and unemployed workers! We have to put the zonal coordinators back on their feet! For Committees of retired workers!
Let the revolutionary piquetero movement of 2001 return! Down with the union bureaucracy!
Let the Popular Assemblies return!

The Argentine left, again at 180º of the tasks of the working class, does not propose any course of immediate action. It seems that for them it is necessary to wait until the parliamentary sessions are resumed in March and the labor reform is debated. No! The combat is now! We have to unite those who are fighting! We must set up a true National Struggle Command of all workers' organizations and sectors that are facing the attack of the government as the workers of Stockl, Rapi Estant, Envases del Plata, Cresta Roja, UOM de Quilmes, Astillero Río Santiago, Oil Mill workers, oil workers of Santa Cruz, the print workers of Morvillo, the workers of Ingenio (sugar mill) La Esperanza, the state workers all across the country, the dismissed in Fabricaciones Militares state factories and all the rebellious people of Azul city! They have all the authority to call to put it on its feet right now to defeat labor flexibilization, stop the dismissals and conquer our just demands for better wages, jobs and decent pensions, against imperialism and the slave-owner bosses.
The workers' organizations taken from the bureaucracy like SUTNA (tires workers union), Rail workers union Local Haedo, BusLine 60, the SUTEBA (teachers union)locals in the hands of the opposition to the bureaucracy, together with the militant student federations and centers (student unions) must put themselves at the service of this fight!
The Moyanos, the Palazzos and the leaders of the two CTAs (“opposition” central unions) say they are of the opposition but they still do not call the sectors they lead to win the streets to defeat the attack and the labor flexibilization of the government and the bosses. If they are really against the anti-worker reforms, then, break with the PJ, the Frente Renovador of Massa and the Kirchnerites and call this National Struggle Command to organize the General Strike!
The FIT cannot continue to subject the workers' vanguard to the capitalist Parliament. They should break with that notary of Wall Street that is the Congress and put their forces at the disposal of this perspective.

This is the way to conquer a National Worker Congress, that is, the III National Piquetero Assembly with rank and file delegates of the employed and unemployed workers. Let's make reality the cry of "unity of the workers, and who does not like it, is screwed"!

In order to face the repression of the state, a unified self-defense committee ofworkers' organizations must be formed. Enough of comrades wounded and killed! Dissolution of the police, the gendarmerie and all the repressive apparatus! Dissolution of the videlista-peronista-radical judge caste!
Freedom to all the prisoners for fighting! Labor and popular tribunals to judge and punish all the assassins of Santiago, Rafael and all the dead comrades!

We must re-forge the worker and popular alliance! As we shouted in 2001: "Piquete y cacerola(workers’ pickets and middle class pan pounding, NT), the fight is one!". For this the working class must lead the impoverished middle classes that are being attacked by the government of the CEOs, with an anti-imperialist program that attacks the property of the capitalists.

The future of the working class and the exploited masses cannot remain in the hands of the capitalists and their politicians. Enough of this democracy for the rich! The workers must prepare the struggle to seize power and establish a workers' and people's government, based on the direct democracy and armed organizations of the exploited, on the ruins of this oligarchic regime of the Constitution of 1853-1994. Open the way to the revolution of the working class and the exploited!

British pirates, out of the Malvinas! US imperialists, out of Latin America!

ARGENTINA WILL BE SOCIALIST
OR IT WILL BE A WALL STREET’S COLONY!

 

Editorial Board
Democracia Obrera Nº 91