ARGENTINE UNIONS LEAD GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST MILEI’S NEOLIBERAL
BLITZ  
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Brett Wilkins
January 24, 2024
Common Dreams
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_ "In 40 years of democracy, there has never been such a frontal
attack on the labor sector," said one union leader. _

A demonstrator wears a U.S. flag motif noose during a march to
Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. , (AP
Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

 

Many thousands of Argentine workers walked off their jobs and took to
the streets Wednesday in a general strike led by the nation's largest
labor unions against far-right President Javier Milei's all-out
assault on worker rights, vital social programs, and the right to
protest.

The opposition-aligned Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), an
umbrella labor group boasting about 7 million members, led the general
strike against Milei, a 53-year-old self-described
"anarcho-capitalist" who took office last month following
his decisive victory
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presidential runoff.

Marching under the slogan, "Our Homeland Is Not For Sale," the CGT-led
demonstrators filled streets in the capital Buenos Aires and smaller
cities around the South American country of nearly 46 million
inhabitants.

"We called a march on [January] 24 to defend labor rights, severance
pay, collective bargaining agreements, social security, and the right
to protest, all of which have been attacked by the DNU," CGT explained
on social media, referring to Milei's December 20 Decree of Necessity
and Urgency
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CGT leader Pablo Moyano said
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in Buenos Aires that "every time a [neoliberal] model wins, the first
thing they target is the workers."

Martín Lucero, head of the private teachers' union in Rosario,
Argentina's third-largest city, told
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Capital_ that "in 40 years of democracy there has never been such a
frontal attack on the labor sector" as there has been under Milei.

Estela De Carlotto, who leads the activist group Abuelas de Plaza de
Mayo—founded by grandmothers searching for children kidnapped under
Argentina's U.S.-backed 1976-83 military dictatorship, which
Milei has praised
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Aires Times_ that the demonstration "is a way of giving support to
this resolution from the people to form a protest and a call of
attention for this whole situation we are living with this strange
government."

Milei—who said
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gets political advice from his dogs—has unleashed what critics
have called
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textbook case of shock therapy" on the Argentine people and the
country's moribund economy, devaluing the peso by 50%, slashing social
spending, reducing government subsidies, and opening the nation to
foreign capitalist exploitation.

According to
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Cruz Ferre, a postdoctoral fellow at the Program in Latin American
Studies at New Jersey's Princeton University:

The economic plan was followed by an all-encompassing presidential
decree issued on December 20, affecting issues as diverse as labor
law, healthcare, foreign trade, private property, and mining. The
general thrust of it is very clear: an attack on workers' rights, the
liberalization of the economy, the strengthening of big business
through market deregulation and numerous incentives, and the erosion
of protections for tenants, the environment, and small businesses.

Although courts have suspended
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of Milei's decree in response to legal challenges, Cruz Ferre
explained, "attention has now shifted to a mirror bill presented to
Congress, which includes all issues contained in the decree, plus a
request of extraordinary powers to the executive for a period of four
years."

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week,
Milei hailed
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corporate executives and wealthy global elites gathered there as
"heroes" and "creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity
we've ever seen."

From November to December, prices in Argentina increased by more than
one quarter, compared with just under 13% the previous month. Annual
inflation now stands at 211%, with Argentina rivaling Lebanon for the
dubious global top spot.

"In this government of Milei, all the food halls of all the social
organizations, of the churches, have not received food [from the
government]," one Buenos Aires protester said
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Wednesday's march.

"There is no food; they told us that there is no money," the
demonstrator added, even as the government adopts "measures in favor
of the wealthy sector."

The CGT on Wednesday published
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statement "in defense of the civil, social, and labor rights of our
nation."

"Today we see how the government seeks to break the social contract
through policies and reforms that only seek to subjugate the rights
and achievements of the Argentine people," the statement asserted. "We
reaffirm our conviction about the importance of social dialogue as the
only tool to grow with equity, and that allows us to develop a
'sustainable strategy to achieve development, production, and decent
work, with social justice.'"

Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich dismissed
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strike as the work of "mafia unionists, poverty managers, complicit
judges, and corrupt politicians, all defending their privileges,
resisting the change that society decided democratically and that the
president leads with determination."

From Brazil to Belgium, unions throughout the Americas and Europe
staged solidarity rallies with Argentine workers.

"The [Argentine] government adopted a perverse combination of radical
political authoritarianism with dictatorial tendencies and
ultraliberal policies that mostly undermine workers," Unified Workers'
Central, Brazil's largest trade union, said in a statement.

Myriam Bregman, a Socialist Workers' Party member of the Chamber of
Deputies, the lower house of Argentina's National Congress, said
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a Wednesday interview with_ Left Voice _that "international
solidarity is key to defeating Milei's attacks on the working class in
Argentina."

"Milei, as he made clear at the annual meeting of the World Economic
Forum, is a friend to the superrich, whom he treats as heroes," she
added. "It is in the interests of the international working class that
we prevent the government from moving forward with its anti-worker
policies."

Cruz Ferre wrote that "the current [Argentine] government has declared
war on workers, women, human rights activists, the environment, and
more. The goal is clear: to make tabula rasa of all past gains and
concessions to the working class, and reset the conditions for profits
through the unrestrained exploitation of labor."

"A determined, organized, and massive resistance will be necessary to
preserve the rights that are today under attack," he added. "The
outcome of these battles will have implications for many years to
come."

_Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Argentina
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* general strike
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* Neoliberalism
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* Javier Milei
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