Argentina - May 17th, 2018
Editorial of the paper “Democracia Obrera” (Worker’s Democracy) N°93 from LOI-CI of Argentina

With the struggles in December, the working class weakened Macri’s government and the transnational companies J, Massa, Kirchnerism and trade union bureaucracy supported him and he, with hunger and repression, redoubled his attack: WALL STREET AND MACRI'S GOVERNMENT COME FOR EVERYTHING, LET’S GO FOR THEM! DOWN THE GOVERNANCE AGREEMENT OF PJ, MASSA AND K WITH THE GOVERNMENT!

The Jockey Club democracy A democracy for the rich that hides a ferocious bosses' dictatorship against workers and the people See more

MACRI GET OUT!
OUT WITH THE IMF!
Everyone out!

As on March 7, 2017... Open the road to the rebellion of the workers' grassroots!
Out with union bureaucracy!
Grassroots assemblies to disregard the top of 15% wage increase and all the agreements of surrender of workers' conquests!

Coordinating those who fight... We must resume the fight of December 18 and 19
General strike!

The vortex unleashed around Lebacs and the devaluation of the peso shows that Argentina has hit the underwater rocks of the global economic crisis. The water already floods the cabins at the bottom of the ship.
The bubble of Lebacs, fed by Sturzenegger, Dujovne and JP Morgan’s men in the government, almost explodes in Macri’s hand.
What we have seen these couple of weeks is a large-scale blackmail of financial capital. Not only was the fabulous winnings on the carry trade of Lebacs guaranteed, but under the threat of a massive flight, Sturzenegger was able to increase the annual interest rates from 28% to 40%!

The party will continue with redoubled parasitism and looting. The cost will be paid by the people with a devaluation of 27% of peso since last December -a new theft on wages- and with a new colony agreement with the IMF, which will mean a higher foreign debt with over US $ 20 billion to guarantee the continuity of the carry trade of the Lebacs.
The brutal plundering of the nation by a handful of Wall Street superbanks is behind all this, which in the last few weeks was over US$ 10 billion. Financial speculation, endless indebtedness, bubbles to steal on a large scale. That is the only thing that 1% of Wall Street parasites can give to the subjected and plundered nations like Argentina.
Nothing that happens here is resolved in Argentina but in the New York Stock Exchange and the TNCs’ boards. Macri’s government is a direct government of imperialism, which comes to continue Kirchners’ work of surrendering the nation.

Yankee imperialism is in the middle of a fierce trade war with Germany mainly for the markets and spheres of influence of the planet. It needs to take a leap forward the colonization of its backyard , keep the natural resources and impose labour flexibility. Its slogan is "America for the Americans".
The 4th US Navy fleet has returned to the South Atlantic. Rio de Janeiro is already under the command of the generals of the Brazilian Armed Forces. In Argentina, this offensive was expressed in the murder of Maldonado and in the penetration of the Pentagon in Patagonia and the Triple Frontier.
Clashes between classes have already begun in Argentina, Nicaragua, Brazil, Honduras. Imperialism and the working class, the two fundamental classes in every semi-colonial country, came face to face. Kirchnerism and the native bourgeoisie, like Lula, proved to be lackeys of the US and the IMF against the people. After burying the Latin American revolution at the beginning of the 21st century, they handed over Cuba to world capitalism. The Bolivarians withdraw from the historical scene, leaving hunger and massacres at the service of imperialism, such as Maduro (Venezuela) and Ortega (Nicaragua). The swindle of the Bolivarian "anti-imperialist" bourgeoisies is over. The fate of Latin America will be defined in the class war that has begun.

The governance agreement with the PJ and Kirchnerism and the social pact with the union and picketer bureaucracies supports Macri's attack

Financial capital forced its servant Macri to accelerate the onslaught on the people. The devaluation of the peso is added to the top of 15% wage increase signed by the bureaucracy. Also we need to add an escalation of the scarcity of life that does not stop, which with the tax hike even hits the middle classes. Every sector of the exploited classes is being affected by Macri's attack.
Where did this hated government get strength to attack after the struggles of December 18 and 19, which had left it weakened and badly wounded? Those days revived the ghost of 2001 and put the entire bourgeoisie on alert. So they strengthened the governance agreement between Cambiemos, PJ, Massa and Kirchnerism, a real conspiracy against the exploited. When it was ready to be thrown down, those from above closed ranks and the union bureaucracy was prevented a second attack.

Therefore, to say that Kirchnerism and the bourgeois "opposition" face Macri is a scam to the workers. The PJ, Kirchnerism and Massa voted for all the essential laws requested by the government: 2017 and 2018 budgets, the payment to the vulture funds, etc. From the provinces and municipalities they directly applied the same plan as Cambiemos. These days, Macri and the governors agreed on the steps to follow, which shows that the Congress is a lie where nothing is decided.
In front of the last tax hike, they set up a circus in the parliament with a bill that only brings the rates back to November 2017 and legitimizes all the previous increases. As soon as that puppet vote was over, "pro-government" and "opposition" deputies voted together for the Capital Markets Law, which banks and investment funds demanded.
The government's call for the "opposition" to make a "great national agreement" exposes the governance agreement that has been in working.

Clearly, Wall Street commands in Argentina. All employer gangs are under the orders of the "Group of 6": foreign banks, the UIA (Industrial Bosses’ Organization TN), the employers' association of construction and commerce, Rural Society and Stock Exchange.
Kirchnerism ruled in the service of the imperialist transnationals and Wall Street for 12 years. They paid the IMF the illegitimate foreign debt acquired by the genocidal Army and on top they took the debt from US $ 178 to 250 billion and they were submitted to a fifth-order judge in New York, as Griesa, on the issue of "vulture funds".
Kirchnerism is as much an agent of imperialism as Macri. As Lula in Brazil, the national bourgeoisie proves incapable of confronting imperialism completely, because it fears more the mass movement than the offensive of imperialism. When Kirchnerism and bureaucracy call to confront Macri in the 2019 elections, what they are really doing is guaranteeing that Macri stays carrying out the attack of TNCs and Wall Street until 2019.

The only difference between K and Macri is about how to control the mass movement. Kirchnerism advises the government to regulate

inancial capital a little more. But they both agree on the people being the one paying for the crisis.
Before this situation, it is clear that it is impossible to respond to such an onslaught with isolated economic struggles, as the Argentine left suggests. We must defeat Macri and his governance agreement with the "opposition" to stop the onslaught. It will take an organized revolutionary political struggle on the streets, higher to December 18 and 19. But that can never be done without breaking all subordination of the workers' organizations to the Kirchnerist bourgeoisie and the "opposition", servant of imperialism.
The social pact of the government, the bosses, and union and picketer bureaucracies
Union bureaucracy - CGT triumvirate and the "opposition" Moyano and the CTAs - was an essential part of the conspiracy that supported Macri’s government. While the triumvirate was not able of walking freely on the streets, Moyano and all the "opposition" bureaucracy managed to close the road to the general strike, held since December.
Today, in a true "social pact" policy, they have signed the 15% wage increase top and are guaranteeing dismissals, the liquidation of Collective Labour Agreements by sector and paving the way for Macri and the employers to return to the offensive in their attempt of imposing the Labour Reform. The –hated- CGT triumvirate is fully integrated into Triaca’s Ministry of Labour.

Moyano, the trade union bureaucracy related to Kirchnerism, Yasky and Michelli (the trade union leg of the "opposition" bourgeoisie), fulfill the role of subordinating the PJ and the Church to the struggle of the sectors that resist the government's attack, to put out the fire of the revolutionary struggle of the working class of December 18 and 19 and guarantee social peace.
On February 21st, they set up the anti-Macri front (a political and social front of class collaboration) with the Majors of the PJ, Kirchnerism and the Church that prevented the general strike latent in large sectors of the movement worker, such as Río Turbio, INTI, Hospital Posadas, sugar cane workers, etc.
Before with the government's new rate hike, their policy is to subordinate workers' struggle to the parliament. This is what they did on May 9, when they organized a mobilization in support of the Massa and Kirchner’s bill.
Picketer bureaucracy of the CCC, Barrios de Pie and CTEP, blessed by Bergoglio, is the other leg of this "social pact". They are to prevent millions of hungry people from resuming the struggle of the revolutionary picketer movement for genuine jobs alongside the working class, as in Cutralcó ('96) and Mosconi (2000), in the midst of layoffs and the social crisis.
We are before a true "social pact" to support a government that was saved from ending up as De la Rúa’s. Workers grassroots fought, union and picketer bureaucracies betrayed them.
That is why any policy of passive demand for "national strike" is criminal. It is to subject the working class to the scab bureaucracy of the nationalized unions. The road was already marked by the grassroots on March 7, 2017, when workers expelled CGT bureaucracy, or December 18 and 19, when the general strike was imposed on the streets: without defeating the bureaucracy it is impossible to defeat Macri.

The FIT, caboose of the "opposition front", legitimizes by the left the governance agreement

On May 9, when Deputies dealt with the question of the rate of public services, FIT parliamentarians voted in favour of Massa and Kirchnerism’s bourgeois bill, which brings the rates back to 2017 and legitimizes all the previous theft to the workers’ pocket.
FIT program was clear: "palliating the hikes", moderating capitalists’ attack. It is a bourgeois program, totally hostile to the interests of the workers. It was used, for example, by the Stalinist and Social-Democratic trade union bureaucracy of Europe to prevent all continental revolutionary combat of the working class in 2009-10 against Maastricht.
FIT abandoned all glimpses of class independence and openly entered into the "opposition front" of class collaboration on February 21st with PJ, Kirchnerism, the Church and the trade union bureaucracy of Moyano and the CTAs.
The rickety concentration of Moyano, the CTA's and FIT on May 9th at Plaza Congreso was the opposite of the anti-capitalist struggle against the state of December 18 and 19. There, workers and youth clashed in the streets with the police to prevent the G20's pension reform to the war cry of "Macri get out! Everyone out!". On May 9th, however, FIT (the "anti-capitalists" who on 18D had called for a "popular consultation") called for press the parliament to moderate the hike.
Clearly FIT has nothing to do with the struggle of 18 and 19D. Its program is not "Macri get out!" but to temper capitalists’ attack.
Its policy of a united front with Moyano, Yasky & Cia., when they are betraying the fight against dismissals and for the salary, it is a policy of supporting the bureaucracy, opposed to organizing working grassroots’ rebellion against union bureaucracy, the creation of direct democracy organizations for political struggle, breaking with the bourgeoisie and preparing a fight in the streets against the government. This is how the FIT ends up turning its back on the heroic teachers of Neuquén.
FIT policy has become another hurdle to be overcome by the working class in its struggle. It is part of a front of class collaboration with sectors of the bourgeoisie, which disorganizes the working class against the capitalists’ attack. When imperialism’s attack gives no room to concessions to the workers and the bourgeois regimes are bonapartised to impose labour slavery, FIT program is fighting for more democracy with the bourgeois "opposition".

To stop capitalists’ attack, we must defeat Macri's government and Cambiemos governance agreement with the PJ and Kirchnerism...
We must resume the road of December 18 and 19 and conquer the revolutionary General Strike

There are no half measures in this class war. Imperialism wants everything. We are not going to stop Macri with bills in exploiters’ parliament of the.
It is necessary to resume the revolutionary path of December 18 and 19. The workers of France and South Africa, with their struggles, pickets and general strike, show how to face labour flexibilization. The working women made a global strike on March 8, breaking all division by country. That is the fight that must be prepared!
The tragedy is that the union and picketer bureaucracies keep workers subjected to the gangs of Kirchnerism, the PJ and Massa. We cannot allow our fighting organizations to be subjected to these criminal bosses for another minute!
The first step is overthrowing union bureaucracy, putting up assemblies, local coordinators, etc., bodies of mass political struggle.
The state of rebellion that nests in the deep working class begins to impose strikes by sector: dockers, oil workers, the heroic struggles of teachers of Neuquén, Chubut and the entire Patagonia. Open the road to a new March 7! Open the road to the rebellion of the workers' grassroots against the bureaucracy!

What has become an urgent task is setting up a National Fighting Command the port workers, oil workers, teachers, the miners of Turbio, Posadas Hospital, INTI and teachers of Neuquén, workers of Cresta Roja, Astillero Río Santiago, militant students, to vote for a unified struggle plan. That must be the first step to conquer a great National Congress of Employed and Unemployed Workers with grassroots delegates, which will impose the General Strike.

SUTNA calls the militant workers' organizations "to an open meeting to collectively discuss actions to fight against the onslaught and exploitation plans of the government." It is an excellent opportunity to advance on this path.
Workers' organizations torn from the bureaucracy led by the FIT –like SUTNA, UF Haedo, SUTEBA's, the National Oil Federation, etc.- doubtlessly should head this fight. It took years to conquer them. They cannot end up as appendices of the bourgeoisie, which is where the FIT policy is leading them. Turning our backs on this situation will seriously jeopardize these gains.
Macri and IMF get out! Down with the governance agreement of the K, PJ and FR!
As it was shouted in 2001 and on December 18 and 19: Everybody out, nobody left!
To end the looting of currencies: Disregard the external debt! Nationalization of banking, without compensation and under workers control, to create a unique state bank at the service of the people! The monopoly of foreign trade must be established to control what goes in according to the exploited’s needs.

No hike! To know the production costs and the super profits of monopolies of public services: Down with the trade secret! Open the accounting books! This will show that not only they make fortunes but they stole millions with the K and today with Macri. Nationalization without compensation under workers control of all the oil companies operating in Argentina! For a single state energy company so that all the people have free electricity and gas!
Down with the pension and labour reform the G20! No to the educational reform, which ends with public education and creates slave labour for the capitalists!
Down the salary top of 15%! Disregard all the agreements signed by union bureaucracy! Salary equal to the family basket with trigger clause according to inflation! Enough layoffs! Decent work for all! Expropriation without compensation and under workers control of all factories that closes, suspends or dismisses. Enough picketer bureaucracy! Sliding scale of work hours without salary cut and one more shift in every factory so that all available hands can work.

Enough repression and persecution of workers and fighters! Self-defence committees of the workers' organizations to face the State repression! Dissolution of the repressive apparatus and the judge caste!
Freedom to Facundo Jones Huala, Diego Parodi and to all the political prisoners! Acquittal of Las Heras and Tierra del Fuego workers! No to the incarceration of Ponce and Arakaki! Enough persecution against Sebastián Romero! Drop all charges against the more than seven thousand workers and popular fighters!

Worker and popular courts to judge and punish the murderers of Santiago, Rafael and all the comrades!
But this struggle can never succeed if it is not internationally coordinated with the rest of the world working class. The workers of Conlutas, the militant trade union center of Brazil, have voted in favour of unifying with the Argentine working class the struggle against Macri, Temer and imperialism. The Argentinean working class must return to the militant internationalism of its origins! A single classe, a single fight around the world!

The great international strike of the working women of 8M, one of the most super-exploited layers of the world working class, proved that there are conditions and predisposition of the class to fight.
The only way out for the workers is to conquer their worker and popular government, based on the direct armed organizations of the exploited, over the ruin of this oligarchic regime of the Constitution of 1853-1994. The future of the working class and the exploited masses cannot stay in the hands of the capitalists and their politicians.
Enough of this democracy for the rich!
Open the road to the revolution of the working class and the exploited!
Out English from Malvinas! Out Yankees from Latin America!

ARGENTINA WILL BE SOCIALIST OR IT WILL BE A COLONY OF WALL STREET!

Editorial Board