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Argentine Unions Lead General Strike Against Milei's Neoliberal Blitz
"In 40 years of democracy, there has never been such a frontal attack on the labor sector," said one union leader.
Jan 24, 2024
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 in November's 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.
CGT leader Pablo Moyano said Wednesday 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, toldLa 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—toldBuenos 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 he gets political advice from his dogs—has unleashed what critics have called "a 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 Juan 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 parts 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 the 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 during 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 a 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 the 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 in 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."
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Unions Lead Protests Against Milei's Anti-Worker Decree in Argentina
"The Argentine people chose Milei as president of the nation, not as emperor," asserted one Buenos Aires demonstrator.
Dec 27, 2023
Tens of thousands of Argentinians took to the streets of the capital Buenos Aires on Wednesday to protest recently inaugurated President Javier Milei's decree ushering in sweeping austerity and deregulation and to defy the new far-right administration's crackdown on demonstrations.
Led by labor union activists, the protesters railed against Decree of Necessity and Urgency 70/2023, announced last week by Milei, who is an economist. While the president's supporters argue the plan is needed to buoy the country's moribund economy, critics say the directive eviscerates workers' rights while dangerously accelerating economic deregulation.
Some of the protesters—who chanted slogans including "the country is not for sale"—were attacked and bloodied by police.
"We want a president who respects the division of powers, who understands that workers have the need to defend themselves individually and within the framework of justice when there is unconstitutionality," protester Gerardo Martínez, general secretary of Argentina's construction workers' union, toldThe Associated Press.
Martin Lucero, a 45-year-old teacher who also took part in the protest, toldAgence France-Presse: "The decree is destructive of all labor rights. The Argentine people chose Milei as president of the nation, not as emperor."
Milei—an admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump who says that climate change is a "socialist lie" and seeks policy advice from his cloned dogs—pledged to take a "chainsaw" to social programs. He appears to be delivering on his promise.
As the AP reported:
Since taking office on December 10 following a landslide election victory, Milei has devalued the country's currency by 50%, cut transport and energy subsidies, said his government won't renew contracts for more than 5,000 recently hired state employees, and proposed repealing or modifying about 300 laws.
He says he wants to transform Argentina's economy and reduce the size of its state to address rising poverty and annual inflation expected to reach 200% by the end of the year.
Furthermore, the new government has announced that police would crack down on anyone who organizes or participates in protests that block roads.
Right-wing Argentine lawmaker José Luis Espert shocked human rights defenders earlier this month after declaring that protesters who violated the new policy had the choice of "prison or bullet."
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Argentinians Defy Milei's Crackdown With Mass Protests Against Austerity
"This country's problem is not protests," said one demonstrator. "The country's problem is that Milei took away 50% of our purchasing power overnight with a devaluation."
Dec 21, 2023
Days after Argentinian President Javier Milei's security minister announced that law enforcement would crack down on anyone who organizes or participates in protests that block roads, thousands of residents risked arrest and cuts to their social benefit payments by taking to the streets Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, rallying against Milei's latest package of austerity measures.
Buenos Aires residents responded to Milei's announcement of new anti-worker economic decrees on Wednesday by banging pots and pans on their balconies before congregating on streets across the capital and marching to the National Congress.
Protesters chanted, "Milei! You're garbage! You are the dictatorship!" and carried signs reading, "We say no to the increase in electricity, gas, and transport tickets"—a reference to measures the right-wing president unveiled earlier this month when he announced the devaluation of the peso by 50% and cuts to public spending and energy and transportation subsidies.
The measure announced Wednesday will further intensify Milei's austerity approach in a country where about 40% of residents live in poverty.
Milei's decree will pave the way for state-owned companies to be privatized, mining to be deregulated, firms to strip workers of rights including maternity leave, and foreign companies to invest in rental housing and land.
Critics including former presidential candidate Myriam Bregman of the progressive Workers' Left Front accused Milei of violating the Argentinian Constitution by bypassing Congress to introduce the new measures.
"There are so many illegalities here I don't know where to start," Bregman toldThe Guardian, saying the president had released a "battle plan against working people."
Hector Daer, secretary of the General Confederation of Labor, told Telesur English that Milei's announcement "subverts the democratic republican order and disrupts the division of powers."
"His unconstitutionality is evident," Daer said. "We will not tolerate an attack on social security and labor and social rights."
Protesters also took to the streets before Milei's announcement Wednesday, honoring the victims of the violent repression of former President Fernando de la Rúa's administration, which cracked down on mass protests on December 20, 2001. Nearly 40 people were killed in the clashes more than two decades ago and almost 500 were injured.
The protests on Wednesday were met with a show of force by police in riot gear, but El Paísreported that the mobilization proved too large for security forces to quell it.
Picketing—blocking streets and highways—is "one of Argentina's most common forms of protest," according to the newspaper, and too many demonstrators turned out to limit the protest to only sidewalks. El País reported that people rallied in city streets without blocking "main traffic arteries" and that only two arrests were made.
Protesters said Milei's administration is more concerned with pressuring people out of protesting than responding to the concerns of citizens who fear losing their pensions and jobs as a result of the austerity measures.
"This country's problem is not protests," Betina Sanchís, a retiree, told El País. "The country's problem is that Milei took away 50% of our purchasing power overnight with a devaluation."
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