Visit to a popular assembly
Argentine jobless take control
By Alicia Jrapko
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The continuing economic crisis in Argentina has led to the
formation of large organizations of workers and unemployed, who
are beginning to contend for authority with the discredited
government of President Eduardo Duhalde.
Duhalde was defaulted into the presidency after a revolving
door of presidential pretenders went through the Casa
Rosada--the presidential palace or "Pink House"--in rapid
succession in December as thousands rebelled in the streets and
the economy plummeted.
Duhalde has no support and spends his time begging for more
loans from a skeptical International Monetary Fund, which is
doubtful he can bring about the austerity the imperialist
bankers are demanding. Responsibility for this crippling
disaster in Argentina lies with years of IMF policies and
corrupt politicians who enriched themselves as they sold off,
wholesale and in pieces, the country's basic industries to
transnational corporations. The peso, once artificially set at
one to the dollar, has now dropped to three to the dollar, with
the end nowhere in sight.
As the crisis deepened in December, the banks and wealthy
Argentineans sent $106 billion out of the country--three
quarters of the entire debt owed to the IMF. The middle class,
however, was stuck with having their bank accounts frozen and
deposits devalued by the new peso exchange rates.
But it was the workers who really were left to suffer from a
crisis they did not create.
Public schools closed across Argentina and hospitals
suffered severe shortages. Every day now 100 children die of
malnutrition--in a country that used to have food in abundance.
Unemployment is over 30 percent; in some areas, however, where
state-owned enterprises have shut down, it is actually 100
percent.
Last month alone over 6,000 businesses closed in Argentina.
At least 11 major factories were taken over after the owners
bolted and are being run by the workers. It is in this context
that the workers are forming structured mass organizations
independent of and in opposition to the government.
Assembly meets in jobless area
The neighborhood of Florencio Varela, located in a corridor
south of Buenos Aires where national industries once
flourished, is one of those communities where the entire
neighborhood is without work. On March 28 a meeting was held
there of 500 people. Standing in the rain outside a train
station, Juan Cruz, a young, charismatic leader, explained to
Workers World the nature of the Popular Assemblies and the
Piquetero movement.
Every week the local Popular Assembly meets to discuss
immediate problems and solutions. A community member has to
attend to be able to vote. Elected delegates who can be
recalled at any time participate in a higher governing body
called the Body of Delegates. They elect a Board of Directors
that answers directly to the assembly as a whole.
This evening they were coordinating all the paperwork of
each family present to push for unemployment subsidies of 160
pesos for each person, which the government had promised. It
was explained that the paperwork is so extensive and
disqualification so easy that they were presenting all the
paperwork together at the same time.
They also would be presenting a demand to the government for
work plans, or "Planes Trabajar." Juan Cruz explained this was
a revolutionary demand at a time like this because the plans
would not be controlled by the government but by the assemblies
themselves.
They also discussed coordinating an action with the other
Popular Assemblies in Southern Buenos Aires to simultaneously
block highway traffic in the region in order to draw attention
to their demands. Elected delegates make up a regional body for
larger coordinated actions called the Coordinadora of
Unemployed Workers Anibal Veron. This confederation is named
after an unemployed worker who was killed by the police during
the blockade of a highway during the big uprising last
December.
[According to information received since this reporter
returned to the United States, the action was successful. Some
3,000 people blocked four major highways with tree trunks and
burning tires.]
The basis of unity of the Coordinadora is its independence
from all political parties and elected government
officials.
"The commerce of this entire country travels over the
highway," Cruz explained. "As unemployed workers, we can't stop
production by withholding our labor, but we can stop the
delivery of products that go right by our communities." The
Coordinadora of Unemployed Workers Anibal Veron incorporates
assemblies in Almirante Brown, Lanus, La Plata, Florencio
Varela, Jose C. Paz, Quilmes and Esteban Echeverria.
There are literally hundreds of other struggle organizations
across Argentina, but only three large ones besides the
Coordinadora of Unemployed Workers Anibal Veron. They are (1)
the Combative Class Current (CCC) and the Central Union of
Argentinean Workers (CTA); (2) the Piquetero Bloc, formed
mainly of political parties such as the Workers Party,
Socialist Workers Movement, Communist Party and others; and (3)
Raul Castels and the Independent Movement of Retired and
Unemployed.
What is clear here is that the working class communities are
organizing to take the future into their own hands. As they
become increasingly stronger they are not just a threat to
Duhalde but are rivals for power with him and future agents of
imperialism over who is going to control the means of
production in Argentina. Juan Cruz said it best, "What choice
do we have but to struggle? Currently all that remains for the
U.S. to do is come and plant the flag."
Reprinted from the April 18, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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