National strike. Fantino and the “war journalism” against the oil workers

The Fantino Multiverse is not one of zombies, but almost. From the multiplatform that broadcasts on FM 89.7, Twitch and YouTube, Alejandro Fantino spews hate daily. In search of the rating that will increase financial returns, a few days ago he had to come out and apologize for jokes about cancer and pedophilia. His streaming program is very nice.

“What I ask is that they throw them all out. That they don’t let people from this union in anymore.”. This is how the column of his program, Multiverso Fantino, begins on August 9th regarding the oil workers’ strike. And he continues to spew hatred against the workers: in reference to Daniel Yofra, leader of the Oil Workers Federation, he says that “This fat, filthy, disgusting guy won’t let trucks into the ports. They should never let them in again; they should throw out all those who depend on this guy.”The workers are on strike for their wages, which represent a minimal percentage of the multi-million dollar profits of agro-exporting companies.

The form is derogatory and inappropriate, the content is reactionary and the struggle of the oil workers is exemplary. https://t.co/XCDoA6tK3b

— Myriam Bregman (@myriambregman) August 10, 2024

Fantino spews hatred against workers who fight for their wages and who exercise their legitimate – and legal – right to strike. From his YouTube channel he plays the same role that journalists on the payroll of large companies played these days. The portals of newspapers such as La Nación, InfoBAE and also regional newspapers such as La Capital were filled with headlines against the “wild strike.” They are not isolated editorials: they do not attack the union bureaucrats who negotiate the adjustment with Milei’s government, but those who confront it. And they do so at a time when they are preparing anti-union laws of “essentiality” to prevent strikes in education, banking and transport with the complicit silence of the large union centers.

A tradition against workers

Let’s agree that Fantino’s work is nothing new. Chicago Martyrs They were sentenced to death in the United States in October 1887 for fighting for the 8-hour workday. Their demands were described by the American press as “indignant and disrespectful” and compared them with “asking for a salary to be paid without completing any hours of work”The New York Times newspaper said on April 29, 1886 that “In addition to the eight hours, the workers will demand everything that the craziest anarchists can suggest”.

In our country, in 1919, the Vasena family was already talking about the “worker insolence” of the workers who in their workshops were demanding 8-hour days and working conditions. The workers’ response was a general strike that paralyzed the city of Buenos Aires for a week and could only be defeated with brutal repression that left between 700 and 800 dead, thousands arrested and dozens of children missing in what became known as the Tragic Week.

In March 1971 Uriburu stated that in the rebellious Córdoba of workers and students “a poisonous snake is nesting there, whose head, I pray to God, will grant me the historic honor of cutting off with a single blow”The working class responded with the Vibrationknown as the second Cordobazo. The strike and workers’ mobilization was the final blow against the military dictatorship of Levingston, who had replaced Onganía as president after his fall months after the Cordobazo of 1969.

In March ’75 the press spoke of a “subversive plot” with epicenter in Villa Constitución. Under the Peronist government, an operation of more than 4,000 police officers and a caravan of Falcons landed in Villa Constitución on March 20, unleashing fierce repression that gave rise to the workers’ resistance known as the second Villazo.

This is the tradition of the conservative and reactionary press. The big media were the ones who denounced each of the workers’ actions of the 70s, those that rebelled against the brutality of the bosses, and Clarín and La Nación branded them as subversive or savage. Just as they continue to call “savage strikes” the subway strikes, the tire strikes or the strikes of the teachers who demand their rights. Or in this case, the strike of the oil workers.

Fantino believes himself to be the heir to this tradition. He climbs onto his pony and demands that the oil workers on strike “all be thrown out.” A piece of advice that CIARA and the employers may not have thought of. The question would be how. This Sunday, the workers are on their sixth day of a total strike. Not a single soybean moves through the agro-export terminals. Not a single truck enters, nor does a single ship leave for Europe and the rest of the world. It is the labor force that paralyzes one of the mainsprings of the country’s economy. By refusing to work, they show who produces the millions of dollars that the businessmen take down the Paraná River every day.

And the businessmen and their paid scribes have no choice but to cry.