Few August 7ths (Saint Cayetano’s day) have found the country’s social situation in such a critical state. On top of a deterioration that has been dragging on and worsening for more than 10 years, the adjustment of Milei and Caputo is plunging millions of people into poverty and worsening working conditions at an accelerated pace. The Observatory of the Argentine Social Debt (ODSA) of the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) calculated that in the first quarter of the year in Argentina poverty reached 54.9% of the population and indigence 20.3%. At the same time, in the first six months of Javier Milei’s government the number of independent and dependent workers contributing to the Social Security regimes fell by 612,139, according to data from the Undersecretary of Social Security (due to layoffs and the move to informality).
Neither the Church nor the social and political organisations that follow it, such as the CGT and the CTA, do much more than denounce the suffering of the great majority. Until now, they have chosen to be guarantors of social peace. The UCA affirms in its latest report that the “corrective adjustment policies” implemented by the new government were “brutal” but “inevitable” and this Wednesday in Plaza de Mayo Pablo Moyano presented the day as “continuity of the plan of struggle” but did not give explanations about the paralysis of the CGT, much less announce how this plan would continue.
The economic policies of Libertad Avanza are a direct and indirect attack on workers, retirees and their families through budget cuts and lower production (recession). The consumption data published by Indec reflected that in May, purchases in wholesale self-service stores fell by 13.3% compared to the same month in 2023 and sales in supermarkets showed a year-on-year drop of 9.7%. At the same time, large companies multiplied their profits, such as La Serenísima (Mastellone hnos.) which earned more than $56 billion in the first half of the year. To remain passive in this context is to be complicit in the Government’s adjustment since a forceful plan of struggle is necessary to reverse the priorities and make the large corporations pay the cost of the crisis.
Milei and Caputo’s hopes are pinned on getting dollars into the country by increasing the external debt and the entry of investments through the RIGI, which grants extraordinary benefits that would allow the plundering of natural common goods. The combination of fear of a recession in the United States, the financial clouds in important Asian countries (with their global impact) and the reduction of growth in China; make it less likely that international organizations or large companies will give credit or invest in Argentina. With this panorama, it is most likely that the Government will choose to double the adjustment, aggravating its consequences.
Figures published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) clearly show the cuts made by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo. In July, total state spending fell 27.9% year-on-year in real terms, with pensions, public works, subsidies and social programs among the most affected.
Regarding retirement benefits, when comparing the average purchasing power of seven months in 2024 with the same period in 2023, OPC recorded a real year-on-year drop of 29.2%. Social programs, including those that replaced Potenciar Trabajo, the food card and the Progreso scholarships, have accumulated a reduction of 40.3% in the same period. Energy and transportation subsidies were reduced by a similar level, 36.9%.
The increase in poverty and hunger is a consequence of the Government’s systematic attack on the most vulnerable sectors of the working class. It is impossible to achieve a real recovery of the income of the great majority without affecting the profits of concentrated capital. In the 12,000 main companies in the country (which never lose and even earn much more with inflation and adjustment) it is possible to reduce the working day to six hours, without reducing wages, and to distribute the “freed” hours among the unemployed population, raising wages until they cover the family basket. In this way, a million new quality jobs could be created. A first emergency measure to recover part of the “bread and work”, but to achieve it, the organization of workers is key to breaking the social peace.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
