Last Wednesday, the screens across the country showed nothing but the repression of Milei and Bullrich’s robocops against elderly people who beat their shields with their canes to keep them at bay. “They are hitmen of power” said one of the elderly, in the front row, with a sign that shouted “Do not kill us, not with beatings or hunger.” There are several paradoxes. The demands of the retirees concern all workers sooner rather than later. It is the most vulnerable adult sector but also the one that concentrates the most years of struggle. By showing itself determined in the streets, it revealed several facts and conclusions that contribute to confronting the course of impoverishment to which this government is leading us without much opposition.
The scene on Wednesday was so powerful that it served as a suspended time that the official media could not cover up or justify as usual. It exposed not only the government’s guarantors of hunger and misery but also the representatives of the popular majorities who were not present.
Chainsaw Plan Photo of the Day: Milei and Galperin
It is obscene that, while the repressive forces were throwing pepper spray in the faces of the retirees in Congress, President Milei was participating in the celebration of the Mercado Libre company. But it is a clear example of Milei’s ultra-neoliberal canons for whom its owner, the successful businessman Marcos Galperin, the biggest evader in the country, “is a social benefactor.”
The billionaire doubled his net profits in the same period, between January and July, that pensions account for almost 30% of the total adjustment made by the Government. His profits and promises of employment have no magic: the magnate is the king of precarization, which he manages to apply in multiple forms to his staff of 6,500 “collaborators,” as he calls them. Behind the meritocracy he promotes, he uses algorithms to super-control productivity and work rhythms, both for those who work lifting heavy boxes for 10 hours with almost no time to go to the bathroom, and for punishing young people with dismissal. call of the company.
While even the foreign press is pondering that people live on Argentine salaries but with food at European prices, the government never tires of reassuring big businessmen and price-setters about the “battle against that many-headed monster that is the Argentine cost,” that is, the cost of labor. It is not the payment of the fraudulent foreign debt, nor the evasion of various foreign debts of our “social beneficiaries.” The cuddly cat of economic power still promises to reduce more rights granted by the State to transfer to the private sectors.
The “common sense” that Milei uses that the problem of problems are the “politicians” is not fulfilled. In fact, from the formation of his government to the laws or decrees that he issues, everything is con the caste, together with the usual tricks of power, buying wills through positions, embassy positions, with politicians from all the traditional parties, also has no relation to the facts, which sectors it benefits and which sectors it harms.
“Democracy and freedom”, what the fuck?
The attack on our interests is everywhere. The basic law prepares for more distribution of natural resources, of historic labor conquests, and grants more favors to those who have more. It is the exponential increase in services and transportation, the unrestricted increase in prices, the constant loss of purchasing power due to “parities” that seem like jokes in bad taste, the precariousness of work, retirees and children who are the worst off. In a food-producing country, 7 out of 10 children go hungry.
The Church, Parliament, the judiciary and the opposition are collaborating with the government, each in their own way and role, so that Milei, without a party and with periodic scandals, continues to advance with a plan that has nothing to do with democracy. Above all, Peronism, which promised to confront the right in the electoral campaign, has been doing nothing but lying low, focused on its deals for the next elections. At most, they believe that by making speeches – as Cristina did a few days ago and Grabois almost every day, as did Moreno – they can save the day from the political crisis of a Peronism that cannot find a way out but which until now has given Milei more “beans” than restraint.
“Democracy” is a short-term policy, it is only for the rich and the IMF. Milei’s “freedom” is a scam. How can there be freedom in a country where you cannot protest? How can you talk about freedom when the only freedom is to vote for someone every four years as a “lesser evil” so that they can then do whatever they want? How can you talk about freedom under a government that intends to benefit a social minority?
It has already been said that this is everything that the Onganía dictatorship, the Videla dictatorship and the Menem government wanted, but did not achieve in its entirety. And the retirees who have lived under all these governments know it: “A lot of blood was shed to have these rights and these people matter absolutely nothing to them,” said a retiree loudly in front of the cameras. They know that Milei’s plan to triumph will imply a very big defeat for the popular majorities. Hence, the complicity of Peronism – beyond the speeches and the acting – and of the union leaders who do nothing to prevent this far-right government from getting its way.
Unity and democracy of the great majorities
Both the individualistic meritocratic clichés and the lamenting speeches of the opposition that has governed before have collided with a reality where post-truths are shattered: “I have 41 years of contributions and my pension is not enough for anything”, “all the money you spend on the military, you should invest in universities and schools”, said a protesting woman, and she finished by saying, “I am fed up, I am not going to stop”. “There are important reasons to carry out a general strike for an indefinite period of time,” said a man wearing an Argentine flag, “the role of the CGT is unknown”.
The statements of the union leaders of the CGT and the CTA, with the image of the injured woman from a seat hitting the wall of police with her baton, about an upcoming action was the manifestation of their wrong foot. Neither in the first nor in the last line of the struggle, Pablo Moyano came out to justify himself in vain, “There is no effervescence to go to a general strike” but he had to readjust himself.
The retirees who fought all their lives did more for unity by forcing the CGT and the CTA, UTEP to call for action on Wednesday the 11th, and by re-adjusting themselves that same day in the face of their obvious absence. The fight of the retirees also shows that there is no way out of this without uniting. The problem of the retirees runs like a weak link through all sectors of wage earners, whether they are young people in precarious conditions who will not be able to have a pension, or our grandparents or parents, or we who in a few years will be the same. Defeating the veto has to be the spearhead that allows us to measure again the strength of the popular majorities to stop it. That is why, in the first place, we must demand that the union leaders call for a strike on the 11th. It is the only way for the deputies to think very carefully before negotiating with Milei even the miserable increase proposed by the new mobility.
In turn, the strength of the retirees, due to their history, experience and conviction, brings together all sectors and generations: from the youngest, today trapped in precariousness and lack of prospects, to state workers, teachers and health workers who are severely attacked by the government, and even industrial workers threatened by layoffs. It is necessary to unite this force in order to succeed.
If Moyano has doubts about the “effervescence to call a strike” he should consult the rank and file, call assemblies everywhere. It is with unity in the factories and workplaces that the self-confidence of the workers will increase. It is the key to fight to recover purchasing power, the lost conquests, the divisions in ranks between the same workers’ positions and the payment to the IMF with the hunger of the majority of the country. It is to fight to put an end to the precariousness that our youth suffers.
Students cannot be alien to the cause of the retirees. They can call assemblies in their faculties and make statements, and accompany their grandparents. It is also necessary to discuss a collective solution. Without democracy from below, it is not possible to defeat Milei’s plan. It is essential to unite the forces that oppose him in order to debate the best plan of struggle for this. The courage of the retirees must serve as an inspiration.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
