Argentina - January 11th, 2017
With the agreement for ruling between the governors of PJ, Kirchnerism, Renovation Front of Massa and all the bosses’ parties, and the social pact with the union bureaucracy, Macri's government, on behalf of the imperialist transnational companies and IMF, launched a brutal attack on the workers and the people...
After a year of liquidating the worker's wages, now they come to liquidate the collective agreements to impose labor outsourcing, just as they had done with the oil contract-agreement in Vaca Muerta...
Down with the social pact of the government,
the bosses and the union bureaucracy!
Stop stealing the wages and liquidating the workers' conquest! Uphold the collective agreements!
No layoffs!
A single national collective bargain!
Minimum wages equal to the family basket with moving clause according to inflation for the whole labor movement! Down with the price rising! Down with the income tax on wages! Decent work for all! Sliding scale of working hours! Expropriation without payment and under workers control of every factory that closes suspends or dismisses!
OUT WITH THE TRADE UNION BUREAUCRACY!
For a Meeting of the militant workers' organizations with rank and file delegates to regroup the forces of the workers and expel the bureaucracy from our organizations in struggle and to be able to fight against the attack of the capitalists
The fight is on the streets! The attack of Macri, we will stop it by fighting like the Mexican workers and peasants against the murderer Peña Nieto...
After a year that Mauricio Macri assumed the presidency office, the living conditions for the working class and the exploited have got worse and worse. Macri, along with his Cabinet of CEOs, met 100 percent the commands of IMF and Obama: to guarantee super-profits for the imperialist transnational companies and the crisis to be paid by the workers. He did so by paying to the hedge funds and a new indebtedness of 50 million dollars, the removal of taxes to the agrarian oligarchy and the imperialist miners, and keeping the subsidies to the oil companies just to mention few examples.
The recession and fall of production in almost every branch of the industry got worse by the blows of the capitalist world economy that have plunged Brazil (main source of Argentine industrial exports). This is placed over the back of the workers and the exploited. It did so with a brutal stealing of the workers' salary with devaluation, the collective bargains with few increases that don’t even reach inflation, with greater over-exploitation of the labor force with increases in production rates, inflation, high prices on the services, with thousands of layoffs, closure of factories, suspensions, with the income tax on wages, VAT and so on.
We are facing a real war against the workers and the people commanded by the government that does not give a break to the exploited ones. 2017 began with a new attack on the pocket to the workers and with a new wave of factory closures like Georgalos, Cerámica San Lorenzo, Herzo and two Alpargatas factories. The government has already announced increases in fuels (which made the food prices to rise), new increases in electricity and water, tolls, prepaid health care system and the list goes on. These measures will continue to plunge millions of workers into catastrophe, while living with a salary of AR$8,000 per month, as it happens to 50% of the Argentinean working class when the family basket exceeds the AR$25,000. As if that were not enough, the government even forbids street vendors to be able to earn the bread for their family as it happened in the neighborhood of Once with fierce repression. Stop looting the pocket of working families! The situation is unbearable! Let Macri, Cristina, Massa and the union bureaucrats to live with AR$8000 a month!
Following the Kirchnerist path to sell out the nation to imperialism, Macri's Argentina is misery, unemployment, job insecurity and super-exploitation for workers and the people, and super-profits for the transnational corporations that deepen the plunder of the country's wealth. With the removal of the retentions, the agrarian oligarchy and the agro-industrial apparatus has taken huge profits; bankers and parasites living on financial income have made huge deals; imperialist miners and oil companies continued to plunder the nation's resources; and the industrial bourgeoisie, by stealing wages, by blackmailing with layoffs and labor outsourcing have also filled all their pockets. This is the way the infamous regime of 1853-1994 constitution works: Millions and millions of dollars for those on the top, and misery and crisis for those below. Here is the Argentina of "change".
Beyond any discussion among the different factions of the bourgeoisie, they all agree that the working class should pay for the broken dishes of the crisis. This was reflected in the pact of governability guaranteed by all the bosses' parties from the governorates and the parliament where the "opposition" of the PJ, the Kirchnerism and the Renovador Front voted him all the laws and measures with which the Macri government Imposed its plans of attack to the masses, as the payment to the hedge funds, the budget, etc.
The truce of the union bureaucracy of CGT and CTA was the key piece for the government to launch its plans... This is a true social pact between the government, the bosses, and the union bureaucracy against the workers and the people.
But, in fact, without the role played by the union bureaucracy of CGT and CTA, this plan of the government and the boss parties would not have been possible. It was the union bureaucracy who guaranteed to the enslaver bosses and the government the theft of more than 50% of workers' wages by signing collective bargains from 22 to 30%, way behind the devaluation and inflation of the country. The trade union bureaucracy negotiated the dismissals with the bosses and the government in the "Dialogues for Production and Labor Negotiation". It was the union bureaucracy that prevented a unified plan of struggle for the working class and left currents isolated and betrayed all the struggles that led the workers who questioned the government plans as the struggle of the workers of Tierra del Fuego, Cresta Roja, the workers Sugar mills of Ledesma and El Tabacal, and so on.
That is to say, the union bureaucracy was a fundamental factor so that Macri's plans could be imposed. In exchange, the union bureaucracy received the sum of 30 billion pesos by the government for the health insurance. A true social pact has been reconstituted with the endorsement and participation of the Church and Pope Bergoglio, who has also included the piquetera bureaucracy of JP Evita, Libres del Sur and CCC, who in exchange for alms have signed social peace with government, selling out the fight for decent work for the unemployed workers. Thus, the division of the workers between the employed and unemployed got deeper.
We can say that, based on a pact of governance with the bosses’ parties and a social pact with the union bureaucracy, Macri's government has so far managed to regulate the crisis and the attack on the workers and the exploited. Well aware of the balance of forces and testing every step in order not to overpass, in each attack imposed on the living conditions of the workers and their conquests the government's strategy was to threaten a "tsunami" so the "storm" passes. However, the working class fought back each attack of the government and the capitalists. Despite and against the truce of the union bureaucracies, the state workers took to the streets of the whole country against the layoffs, as well as the teachers, the oil workers of the rebel Patagonia, thousands of workers resisted the closures of factories and took to the streets in defense of their wages and conquests.
All the time, the government has been calculating this balance of forces and it received the help of the union bureaucracy that betrayed each of these struggles to be imposed. When it needed, it resorted to repression, persecution and imprisonment of workers who placed into question the truce and the social pact such as the comrades of Ledesma, Tabacal, bus workers of UTA, workers of Tierra del Fuego, the unemployed workers and so on. In this recipe there was also no "change" in regards with Kirchnerism, whose government repressed the workers tirelessly and locking them in the jails of this infamous regime and with the help of the Videlaist-Peronist-Radicalist justice it left more than 7,000 workers and popular fighters with charges and sentenced to life in prison like the oil workers of Las Heras who continue to suffer on their shoulders such conviction. Repression gets deepened day by day as it is currently seen in the ferocious and brutal repression, including bullets, to the Mapuche origin peasants in Chubut. Enough with repression to the Mapuche people! Let the Mapuche disappeared during the repression to appear with life and free all arrested comrades! Free all the political prisoners and Milagro Sala! Acquittal to the oil workers of Las Heras and the workers of Tierra del Fuego! Drop the charges to more than 7,000 persecuted workers and popular fighters!
The fate for the workers is not encouraging at all. As it is seen with the business signed in Vaca Muerta recently, the so-promised investments would come with more relaxation of labour gains, as the imperialist transnational companies demanded. The pact signed by the government, the imperialist oil companies and the bureaucracy of Pereyra oil union liquidates the conquest from the collective agreement to reduce production costs in exchange for investments. This is the beginning of an offensive to end the collective bargain agreements in all industry branches. That is why this pact was announced with great enthusiasm in the President House (Casa Rosada) and clapped by the enslaving bosses, the transnational companies and even celebrated on Wall Street. The signing of this agreement opens the door to the government to generalize the offensive on the rest of the collective agreements as they announced for textiles, the electronics sector of Tierra del Fuego, footwear and toys. This plan of labor outsourcing was the plan of Macri as soon as he became president, as we saw with the attack on Cresta Roja workers and the anti-worker laws launched with Kirchner governor, Bertone.
The new Internal Revenue minister Dujovne brings under the arm a new labor reform that they have already begun to design with the Labor Minister Triaca to impose more relaxation on the laws that defend the workers and finish outsourcing and to make the whole Argentinean labor movement work in sweat shops. This reform has, among some points, the increase of retirement age and free labor for the transnational corporations by imposing compulsory work on high school students generalizing the internship regime. The state workers (civil servants) will have the same fate or worse. The policy of "cheap state" that Dujovne wants to apply to reduce the state shortfall will mean further layoffs as we saw in the Education Ministry with 3000 workers in the streets. The same fate is precipitated for education workers throughout the country with the "Operation Learning 2016" plan that disguises a labor reform to enslave teachers, not to mention the budget cut in education.
The billions of dollars announced by the government from the famous legalization of money will bring nothing good for the great working majority of the nation, beyond the demagoguery of the historic reparation to retired people promised by the government (to whom, on the other side, medicines of PAMI are denied). These dollars will go to financial income, to loans, to keep the petty bourgeoisie in the "sweet money" consumption cycle, to issue more debt by deepening the country's economic dependence on imperialism and on the business for Macri’s partners of public works. Not to mention that the payment for the foreign debt this year will be 67 billion dollars.
The immediate future that the imperialist transnational companies have prepared for the Argentina and the American working class is to deepen their slavery, beginning by imposing the conditions of sweat shop on the American working class itself. This is the plan announced by Trump, which will impose on millions of unemployed workers and sunk in misery, left by Obama under the same conditions of production as the working class of their backyard. If this is the plan for the American working class, the expectations for the working class of the rest of the continent are a brutal attack on its conquests and on their living standards. As Macri did with Obama, he wants to fulfill the duties of his new master Trump. He is so responsible, he has already begun to fulfill them.
FIT refused to regroup the strength of the workers in struggle and their most militant sectors to defeat in the streets the union bureaucracy and the attack of Macri’s government
Macri’s government and the bosses’ parties have centralized all their ruling institutions to impose this attack on the workers. The parliament where the anti-worker laws are discussed and voted, the justice to persecute those who fight and their repressive forces to repress anyone who fights and questions their plans. Despite having fought hard against the attack of the bosses and the government, the working class could not centralize its forces, first of all due to the action of the union bureaucracy, but unfortunately also for the policy imposed by FIT to the militant sectors of the labor movement.
There were dozens of opportunities to regroup the sectors in struggle against the capitalist attack. Unfortunately, the forces of the militant workers' organizations that are led and influenced by FIT currents were not with this aim. At a time when the teachers and workers of Tierra del Fuego paralyzed the entire province and marked the path for the entire labor movement to stop the attack of the government and the bosses’ parties, FIT refused to regroup the forces of the workers against the division imposed by the bureaucracy of both CGT and CTA. Moreover, in the middle of the struggle of the workers of Tierra del Fuego, it dissolved the Meeting of Militant Workers' Organizations to be held in the stadium of Racing last March. In this way, they allowed the bureaucracy to impose on the workers the plans of the bosses and the high increase of prices. The workers fought against the plan of Macri and its cabinet of CEOs. Their leaderships were not at the high of the circumstances.
Despite the betrayal of the union bureaucracy and FIT's impotent policy for the working class's need to defeat the attack, thousands of workers that led the fight against the government have not given up and are ready to fight. FIT's meeting in Atlanta in November was a reflection of that, thousands of workers were looking for a way to fight. Atlanta once again showed that the forces and predisposition of the most militant sectors of the Argentinean labor movement to join their ranks and organize the fight against the rotten union bureaucracy and expel it from our organizations in struggle. Unfortunately, the leadership of the currents members of FIT gave this meeting an electoral character, losing a new opportunity to organize this fight and to place all the forces for it.
FIT does not fight to retake the revolutionary path of 2001 to defeat the attack of the capitalists. Their policy was that the working class and the exploited could conquer their demands with laws in the parliament of the exploiters. They took every struggle to the dead end with their law bills. They have abandoned the struggle for the socialist revolution. Following the path of Syriza and PODEMOS leaders to vote bills with the bosses' parties and reproduce false illusions for the workers that, in the exploiters congress, the exploited can conquer demands that improve their living standards, FIT has entered fully into a true democratic parliamentary pact that supports the bourgeois regime.
Macri's attack can only be fought as the Mexican workers did against the murderer Peña Nieto... The fight is on the streets!
For a Meeting of Militant Workers' Organizations with rank and file delegates to regroup the forces of the workers and expel the bureaucracy from our organizations of struggle!
The working class urgently needs to regroup its ranks. The liquidation of the conquest of the oil workers in the agreement signed by the bureaucrat Pereyra anticipates the offensive of the bosses, the government and the transnational companies for all the workers. The union bureaucracy commands together with the bosses and the government this attack against the workers' conquests. The struggle in defense of wages and collective bargains cannot be found with the union bureaucracy leading the unions. The struggle is to expel them from our unions, and we will do it with the methods of the working class! Down with the union bureaucracy that sells out the workers' conquests of our trade unions and fighting organizations!
We won't stop the attack of the capitalists of imposing their plans of labor outsourcing with bills in the parliament of the exploiters who command this attack. The workers' conquests and labor collective agreement were conquered on the streets with huge struggles and the methods of the working class: strikes, pickets and general strike. This is the way to defend them. As the oil (food oil) workers claimed in their statement on Thursday, January 12, they called to fight against the labour outsourcing plans to be tackled with the "action unity of the workers' movement, with the fundamental tool of the strike and a plan of struggle to support it". More than ever, we need the unity and coordination of the militant sectors of the labor movement and the militant organizations taken from the bureaucracy. We need a National Meeting of militant workers' organizations with rank and file delegates. The militant workers' organizations such as SUTNA, Food Oil Workers Federation, the Haedo Section of the Railway Union, the opposing SUTEBAS (teachers union of Buenos Aires province), the internal commissions recovered from the bureaucracy, those forces have the strength and authority due to their exemplary struggle against the bureaucracy to convene a meeting urgently. There is no time to waste.
No sector of the working class can be saved from the catastrophe that the government and the transnational companies have prepared for our immediate future. We need this Worker Meeting to discuss a program that unifies our demands and prepare the conditions to prevail and defeat in the streets the attack of Macri and imperialism. The union bureaucracy wants us down to our knees. The workers must stand up and fight against Macri as the Mexican workers and peasants have done against Peña Nieto.
Workers are not interested in the bankruptcy of any boss; the ones on the top –in general- have made huge fortunes based on our work and misery. That is why the workers should not accept the blackmail of the government and transnational corporations on layoffs, suspensions and closure of our sources of work... National Single Collective Bargain and minimum wage equal to the family basket! We keep the collective agreements! Decent work and covered by law for all and hire again all dismissed ones! Nationalization without payment and under workers control of every factory that closes, suspends or dismisses! Down with the increase of prices! Let’s take as ours the war cry of the oil workers of PEMEX in Mexico: Out with Chevron, PAE and all the imperialist oil companies of the country! Nationalization again without payment and place under workers' control YPF! Expropriation without payment and under workers' control of the transnational companies that control gas and energy and let’s set up a single state factory so that no energy or gas is missing for any working family!
With Trump, US imperialism comes for its entire backyard... From Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, one single class, one single fight... Out gringos! Let's expropriate 1% of capitalist parasites!
Workers and exploited of the country must be ready for huge class struggles against the attack of the government and the transnational companies if they want to defend their conquest and make the crisis be paid by those who made it: the capitalist parasites. The fate of the Argentinean working class is played today in the struggles of Mexican workers and poor peasants who fight in the streets against the plans of Trump and the “oil-peak” of Peña Nieto government and the imperialist oil companies. There, the great ally of the Latin American working class fights because there are 30 million Mexican workers within the imperialist USA, the Chicanos. The Argentinian working class and the working class of the entire continent has its fate in the unity of the struggle against the plans of imperialism for the whole continent. FIT gave its back to this fight as they did in the International Meeting of CNTE in October 2016.
If Trump's and US imperialism plans are imposed in Mexico, they will impose it throughout Latin America to Tierra del Fuego. It is necessary to stop Trump in Mexico and in USA. It is on the agenda to set up a Fighting Continental Plan for the whole working class and the American poor peasants to kick imperialism out of the whole continent in defense of looted Latin America by the transnational companies. "Out gringos!" should be the war cry from Tierra del Fuego to Rio Bravo.
While imperialism applies its plans beyond the borders, the trade union bureaucracies and the class collaborationist leadership of the workers' movement divide the struggle country by country. A single fight from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego: Equal pay for equal work throughout the continent! 15 dollars an hour of minimum wage for all workers, as the American workers demand in their struggle! Let's expropriate the 1% of imperialist parasites! Let the 2001 revolution return in Argentina, the Bolivian revolution of 2003-2005 and the Caracazo in Venezuela! Macri and all the Bolivarian and the FTA governments deserve that! Out with the Castro who gave in Cuba to imperialism!
For a revolutionary and internationalist leadership of the Argentine working class and the whole continent! Open the road to the Fourth International!
Today more than ever, facing the attack of Trump and US imperialism on the American working class and the whole continent, the working class needs to unify urgently its ranks to prepare an anti-imperialist struggle against transnational companies and their puppet governments. The working class needs a revolutionary and internationalist leadership and nt a the policy of reformist leadership that divide the struggle from country to country, a leadership that fight to coordinate their struggle decisively. The Trotskyists of FLTI take as ours the struggle of the Leninist Bolsheviks of the Fourth International in 1930s: "(...) The proletariat of Latin America couldn't, can't and will not be able to fight effectively for its class interests if not with the proletariat of the imperialist countries. So for the Leninist Bolsheviks there is no more important task than to establish a connection and later the unification of the different parts of the proletarian organization of the continent, creating an organism so well constructed than any revolutionary vibration that happened in Patagonia to immediately will have an effect on the revolutionary proletarian organizations of USA, as transmitted by a perfect nervous system. As long as such thing is not done, the task of the Leninist Bolsheviks in the American Continent won't be fulfilled."
Democracia Obrera Editorial Board
