The week of May 1, Milei’s ministers were elected to deliver another accurate blow to the most affected sectors of the working class. It’s not by chance. Since they took office, they have been at odds with retirees, state workers, and joint workers; But if they have been cruel to one sector, it is the most precarious. They have not been sent food for months, they threaten to take away their plans if they mobilize, and they were strongly repressed on July 9. Now with the Base Law they eliminate the “social monotribute.”
In March the government established that the Empower Work program would be divided into two programs: Return to Work, under the orbit of the Ministry of Labor led by Julio Cordero (Techint). Social Support, which reports directly to the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello. There she also defined that her beneficiaries “will receive a fixed, non-remunerative monthly monetary allocation of SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND PESOS ($78,000.-), during the validity of the Program or until the beneficiaries voluntarily request their withdrawal or are discharged. ”. The validity is 24 months. They also added an absolutely unconstitutional clause. That those who “disturb public order” or “impede the normal operation of transportation” would lose their program.
This week they moved forward with that plan and took other criminal measures that target the pockets and jobs of millions. At this time, many of them are finding out in line at the cashier or on the phone.
1. Freezing: now enough for 4 days
Marianella Navarro, a representative of the Front of Organizations in Struggle, tells it. “The points are several. First, by disconnecting the Empower Work from the Salary Council, they freeze people’s income at 78 thousand pesos, for which no increase that they have agreed upon, like this paltry increase to 234 thousand pesos, impacts the employment programs. The objective is to liquefy the income of the most humble people, because today the 78 thousand pesos that a person earns… lasts them four days, if they are lucky, in the month if they do not rent.”
Today 78 thousand pesos are 8% of the total basic basket measured by Indec and exceeds 900 thousand pesos. If the minimum wage was destroyed, set at 234 thousand pesos and losing 40% of purchasing power since Milei took office, social programs are directly going to a total liquefaction. It is an unprecedented theft. Also in a context where the recession pushes an increase in unemployment and a drop in sales for “social” self-employed workers.
2. No “recognition” for the cooks
Navarro continues. “Another point is that many people charged extra. What are additional? An extra of 5,000 pesos for the cooks who worked during the pandemic. “We had achieved recognition that was a ‘misery’ but this government took it away.”
These women are the ones who marched in recent months with empty pots, denouncing the hunger of the kids, the retirees and even “white” workers who began to go to the canteens. For those women who cook day after day and did so in a pandemic, some to the point of death, not only are they not paid as workers under an agreement, but they get an additional amount that means two packages of rice.
3. Neither works nor wages
There is another clipping that shows the contempt of the libertarian ministers for social organizations. “There was another additional one, which were people who worked on construction sites or in productive projects, who earned 156,000 instead of 78,000. Today they also charged 78,000,” Marianella continues.
These are those who carry out works in the neighborhoods, or productive projects of all kinds as “connections.” Jobs that in many cases are being eliminated, as if they were not necessary. For example, those who do essential work for AySA and have been mobilizing against the government measures. Ditching, shoveling, sweeping, cooking, are invisible tasks for those who earn 4 million pesos and live in countries.
4. If you manage to survive, I will discharge you
There is one last attack. “There are still casualties, of people who did not travel abroad and yet their jobs were not lifted and also now the delegates in the different groups are reporting that there are people who were not paid either.”
The reasons for the casualties are also typical of rich people and fascists. If you travel abroad at the end of the year, because you are a migrant, you could lose it. If you manage more than one minimum wage with credit or virtual wallets, you will lose it. In other words, if a mother has to go into debt with the Orange Card or Mercado Pago loan sharks so that her children don’t starve, they not only rob you with the interest, but they also take you out of the program. The same if you have another changa that you charge through those channels. You have to be trash.
To the streets
Since the government began, social organizations have held several days of protest. Not only the left-wing and independent movements, which were also protesting against the adjustment of the Frente de Todos and its minister Tolosa Paz. The UTEP and sectors aligned with Peronism have also joined.
The CGT has turned its back on these claims and attacks. He has limited himself to judicializing the DNU and getting some increases for white-collar workers, who lost but less. This criminal division, first between unions that fight separately and then between the employed and the unemployed, is another favor to the right.
That is why the chant of “general strike” that is heard in the last picket marches is valid. This Tuesday, in the run-up to the May 9 strike, there will be a new, unitary day of cuts.
This was announced from the space that brings together the Piquetera Unit, UTEP, Piquetero Struggle Front, Coordinator for Social Change, MST-Teresa Vive, FOL and the CTA groups. They propose that it will be “a new day of national struggle with cuts throughout the country against the adjustment, the elimination of social programs and the closures of dining rooms carried out by Milei-Pettovello. “We continue on the streets for genuine work and all our demands.”
From the PTS and the Movement of Classist Groups we will be accompanying the actions, as always, raising the importance of the unity of the employed, precarious and unemployed, to fight for an increase in emergency, genuine work, against the repressive protocol and for all demands. Furthermore, we believe that it is important to take advantage of the day and each conflict to give strength to the demand for the CGT, the CTA and the unions to call a strike with mobilization when the Bases Law is discussed in the Senate.
Each of these days are important battles, we will be there. But you cannot trust the Peronist union leaders. That is why we also continue to insist on the need to set a date for a National Meeting that brings together these sectors in struggle, the neighborhood assemblies, retirees, students and the left, to discuss how to overthrow the entire Milei plan, the IMF and the governors.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
