Argentina: Inept Opposition in the Face of Anti-Worker Offensive

Gabriel Solano, in his film "14 Tons"—reminiscent of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons"—laments that since the recent legislative elections, won by the long-haired politician—thanks to a divided and stagnant opposition—he has intensified his offensive against workers.

If one examines the government's most significant actions, they are all attacks on the labor movement. One particularly example is Decree 340, which effectively abolishes the right to strike. Invoking a series of entirely fabricated reasons, it stipulates that in almost all economic activities in Argentina, any work stoppage must involve between 50% and 75% of the workforce (when it's clear that a strike has failed if only 50% of the workforce is present).

The scope of activities covered by this decree is so broad that one of its articles states it applies to any activity that affects tax revenue. Since virtually all activities pay taxes, this means that any activity in Argentina where workers are employed cannot exercise the constitutional right to strike, because otherwise, it will be declared illegal under this decree. This represents a very strong offensive launched by this government.

WITH THE IMF

After the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the government has not prevented reserves from beginning to decline again. This seems imperceptible because one day $50 million falls, another day $100 million, but the truth is, the government can't buy them, and because of that, it's in question whether it will comply with the established IMF agreement, which is to buy the four-plus billion dollars needed to pay the June debt maturities. And the impression is that this won't happen, that the government will apologize to the organization and will have to pay the June maturities using the money they provided.

The government can't buy these reserves, and it doesn't want to either. Why doesn't it want to? And why can't it? Because if it bought them, the dollar would rise in value, and that would hit prices, causing inflation. So it decided not to buy, not to intervene to buy dollars in the foreign exchange market, at the cost of a systematic loss. And since it doesn't have dollars, it launched this initiative that Minister Caputo announced the other day to take dollars out of "under the mattress" and remonetize the economy, something that analysts generally believe won't succeed.

When the government says to take the dollars out from under the mattress. Who are they saying this to? Well, only to those who have dollars. There's a very significant portion of the population that doesn't have savings they could take out from under the mattress; they simply can't make ends meet. Even some workers who might have a small amount of savings have it for that purpose, knowing that tomorrow they might face a health emergency, a family emergency, or whatever, and they have a small amount saved to cope with an exceptional situation. They're not going to take their only savings out of the mattress to buy a fridge—saving them from an adverse situation that no one can rule out in their daily lives.

Caputo is referring to a sector of the more affluent middle class and the capitalist class, who aren't doing this. There have been many tax amnesties. The largest was Macri's—$100 billion, then Milei's—$20 billion—with the prospect of success uncertain.

If the government wants to remonetize the economy, it's doing the opposite, because by stepping on the workers' wages the economy becomes demonetized; they have no money because a portion is taken from the worker. The same thing happens to pensioners when their pensions, which are a significant part of their income, are frozen. In other words, it goes in the opposite direction, with greater social inequality. Those who have money will have less because they don't have a salary. Or, because they don't have pensions, and he tries to get a segment of the wealthier sectors of society to use their dollars for certain expenses, for example, consumer goods like a fridge, motorcycle, or car.

COMPLICITY, BETRAYAL

In the current national strike taking place in Argentina, one can see how workers confront Peronist and leftist deputies because they have joined Milei's latest attack against the working class.

Where does this Trump-worshipping libertarian get his strength? First, from the complicity of the opposition. This is a key point. The opposition is complicit. This was demonstrated by the struggle in Catamarca against the Peronist governor aligned with the Justicialist Party: teachers took to the streets against this governor because he is implementing Milei's policies in Catamarca.

This right-wing discourse in favor of labor reform, attacking state, healthcare, and education workers, is undoubtedly what unites the opposition with the ruling party.

For the labor movement—and this is why the ball is in their turf—it's important to start from the conclusion that we don't have a government that’s inherently strong due to its political structure or economic solvency, but rather that its strength comes primarily from the complicity of the opposition and the leadership of the labor movement.

The other day, an interview with the head of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), CAER, triggered a lot of buzz on social media. He had gone to the Casa Rosada (the presidential palace) to meet with the chief of staff the day after that disastrous decree prohibiting the right to strike was announced. The media asked him, "Did you talk about that decree?" and he said, "No, I didn't approach that subject."

The head of the CGT goes to La Casa Rosada, meets with the Chief of Staff, and doesn't condemn the anti-strike decree. He says, "We're going to take this to court," nothing more. And when asked if they're going to strike, he says, "No, the climate isn't right." Now, if you ask a worker in Tierra del Fuego, they'd say the climate is right. If you ask a teacher in the province of Buenos Aires, they'd say the same. If you ask a teacher in Catamarca, they'd say the climate is right. The CGT doesn't have the climate, and now it has been forced by other labor federations into a national strike against Milei's anti-worker policies.

So, if the workers take to the streets to fight this government, it can be defeated. It's not strong in and of itself. Its relative strength stems from the complicity of the capitalist opposition and bureaucratic leaderships, like that of the Argentine Workers' Union.

The serious issue is that defeating the pro-imperialist regime requires a major workers' movement, and workers cannot trust the Argentine Workers' Union (UTA), where Roberto Fernández's leadership and the UTA bureaucracy are also colluding with employers and the government, betraying the mandate of the assemblies.

The fundamental problem is organizing and taking to the streets to fight, because that’s the way out for the country. Milei's policies are leading to catastrophe. The opposition is complicit, and the union bureaucracy is a burden on the workers' movement.