The day after the PASO, Sergio Massa devalued more than 20% and caused a stampede in prices that were already at a high growth rate; that’s why It was not a surprise that inflation was the axis of the discussion regarding the economy in the presidential debate Sunday. Both the Minister of Economy, Milei, Bullrich and Schiaretti agreed to propose different variants of adjustment plans as the only answer, unlike Myriam Bregman who presented a solution based on the needs of the vast majority.
The Left Front candidate, in her first intervention on the subject, stated that: “When the agreement with the IMF was discussed in Congress, with Nicolás del Caño and Alejandro Vilca, we warned that it was going to be inflationary and we were right. Just as now, we warn, that, down this path of the IMF, what is coming is going to be much worse for working people. Therefore, there is no way out if this illegal, illegitimate and fraudulent debt is not unknown..”
The dollars granted by the Fund to Macri’s management were mostly used for capital flight and Peronism validated that this debt was paid by workers and their families who did not obtain any benefit from said credit, quite the opposite. The IMF knew that the debt was unpayable and its main objective was not (and is not) to collect it, but to subject the country to its adjustment policies for the benefit of large international capital. Since the signing of the agreement, poverty has risen from 27.3% to 40.1%.
Myriam Bregman had started by stating that: “It is very good to remember history, in ’89 we suffered hyperinflation for doing what the IMF said, in 2001 the country went bankrupt for doing what the Fund said, in 2018 Macri brought it back but this government and Sergio Massa subjected us to the IMF. If we reached 60% of child poverty it was not because we faced the IMF too much, it was because we followed each and every one of its recipes.”
It is not possible to resolve the critical social situation and continue paying the foreign debt, which is why Bregman raised the need to ignore it. The other candidates propose that a measure of this type would generate chaos and sink the economy, but that is already happening and is due to remaining under the conditions of the IMF. With the support of popular mobilization and seeking international solidarity Ignorance would not only be possible, but would open the possibility of allocating what was produced in the country to an overall plan. that generates decent employment, combating poverty.
In her speech, the FIT candidate added that: “Now Milei appears, who wants to present her ideas as “new” when they have already been applied with another great IMF employee, Domingo Felipe Cavallo. Contrary to what he says, to strengthen the currency, We must nationalize foreign trade and end the revolving door of dollars in the Central Bank. Because there are dollars, there are plenty of escapers.”
Today there is a private monopoly on foreign trade, few companies concentrate between 50% and 75% of the country’s exports. They are the marketers of cereals and derivatives, oil and mining companies, and in the manufacturing sector some large firms in agribusiness, automobiles, aluminum and other metals.
In this small group we find some of the main imperialist companies that operate in the country such as Cargill (USA) and Cofco (China) along with local economic groups such as Aluar or Techint. Nationalizing the management of foreign trade, under the administration of workers, is a fundamental measure to end the flight of foreign currency.
These multinationals control a large part of foreign sales, manage the fields and have private ports from where they carry out undeclared operations. Myriam Bregman repeatedly explained that it is necessary to nationalize them in order to control this productive chain, which has an impact on the internal prices of basic goods. The decisions about what the country needs to import and what not, what can be exported without depriving the population of supplies, cannot be left in the hands of a handful of capitalists.
Along with this measure, it is essential nationalize banking, forming a single public bank, managed by its workers; to prevent concentrated capital from taking the fruit of what is produced in the country abroad. Banks continue to increase their profits, benefiting from financial speculation. The nationalization of the banking and financial system would allow access to cheap mortgage credit and also to microenterprises or for small merchants hit by the crisis. And it would take care of the deposits of small and medium-sized savers.
The conclusion expressed by Myriam Bregman was very clear: “The truth is that as long as you don’t make ends meet, you can’t pay the rent, the money is less and less enough for you, there are some like the banks, the big businessmen who earned like never. We who are the only one independent political force of economic power We have a comprehensive program so that this time the crisis is not paid for by the working people.“.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
