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Argentina General Strike Demands End to Milei's 'Chainsaw' Austerity Policies
"The Milei government has picked a fight with workers and pensioners, and now they will feel the full force of organized labor," said one union leader.
Apr 10, 2025
Increasingly fed up with economic policies under which poverty and inflation have soared while vital social services, wages, and the peso have taken huge hits, disaffected Argentinians took to the streets of cities across the South American nation Wednesday for the third general strike of right-wing President Javier Milei's tumultuous 16-month presidency.
Led by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT)—an umbrella group of Argentinian unions—the "paro general," or general stoppage, drew workers, the unemployed, pensioners, educators, students, and others affected by Milei's severe austerity measures and his administration's plans for more deep cuts. Demonstrations continued throughout Thursday.
"In the face of intolerable social inequality and a government that ignores calls for better wages and a dignified standard of living for all, the workers are going on strike," CGT explained ahead of the action.
Airlines canceled hundreds of flights as air traffic controllers and other airport workers joined the strike; many schools, banks, and other offices shut down; and ports, some public transport, and other services ground to a halt.
"The only thing the administration has brought is a wave of layoffs across state agencies, higher poverty rates, and international debts, which are the biggest scam in Argentina's history," the Association of Airline Pilots (APA) said.
Rodolfo Aguiar, secretary general of the Association of State Workers (ATE), said Wednesday that "after this strike, they have to turn off the chainsaw; there's no room for more cuts," a reference to both Milei's ubiquitous campaign prop and his gutting of public programs upon which millions of Argentinians rely.
"Right now, the crisis Argentina is facing is worsening," Aguiar added, warning about government talks with the International Monetary Fund. "The rise in the dollar will quickly translate into food prices, and the new deal with the IMF is nothing more than more debt and more austerity measures."
Milei's government is nearing agreement on a $20 million IMF bailout, a deeply unpopular proposition in a country left reeling by the U.S.-dominated institution's missteps and intentional policies that benefit foreign investors while causing acute suffering for millions of everyday Argentinians. Argentina already owes $44 billion to the IMF.
"We already have experience as Argentinians that no agreement has been beneficial for the people," retiree and striker Rezo Mossetti told Agence France-Press in Buenos Aires Thursday, lamenting that his country keeps getting into "worse and worse" debt.
CGT decided to launch the general strike during a March 20 meeting that followed a pensioner-led March 12 protest outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires. After fringe elements including rowdy soccer fans known as "barrabravas" joined the protests and committed acts of violence and vandalism, police responded by attacking demonstrators with "less-lethal" weapons including water cannons and tear gas. A gas canister struck freelance photojournalist Pablo Grillo in the head, causing a severe brain injury that required urgent surgery.
This, after Argentinian Security Minister Patricia Bullrich invoked controversial measure empowering more aggressive use of force against protesters and rescinding a ban on police use of tear gas canisters. The Security Ministry also filed a criminal complaint dubiously accusing organizers of the March 12 protest of sedition.
Milei and his supporters have portrayed the general strike as a treasonous assault on the fragile Argentinian economy and those taking part in the day of action as lazy and jobless.
When Clarín, the country's largest newspaper, cited a study by the Argentine University of Enterprise claiming that the general strike would cost the national economy around $185 million per day, University of Buenos Aires professor Sergio Wischñevsky retorted: "Very revealing. It means that's the magnitude of the wealth workers produce every day. It's the best argument to stop ignoring workers."
As he has done with past protests against his rule, Milei has also framed the general strike as "an attack against the republic" and repeated his threat that police would "crack down" on demonstrators.
Orwellian use of state infrastructure by Milei's "anarcho-capitalist" gvmnt. in Argentina. As the 36 hr. general strike begins, signs & loudspeakers at train stations across Buenos Aires read: "Attack against the republic! The syndicalist caste punishes millions of Argentines who want to work."
[image or embed]
— Batallon Bakunin ( @batallonbakunin.bsky.social) April 10, 2025 at 4:11 AM
General strikers largely shrugged off the threats of police violence and state repression.
"The right to strike is a worker right and I think there has to be more strikes because the situation with this government is unsustainable," Hugo Velazuez, a 62-year-old worker striking in Buenos Aires, toldReuters.
While the Argentinian mainstream media's coverage of the general strike was largely muted, images posted by independent progressive media showed parts of central Buenos Aires appearing practically empty.
Workers around the world showed solidarity with striking Argentinians.
"The Milei government has picked a fight with workers and pensioners, and now they will feel the full force of organized labor," said Paddy Crumlin, president of the London-based International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), which boasts nearly 20 million members in 677 unions in 149 nations. "The international trade union movement stands ready to fight back with our Argentine comrades. We will not rest until these attacks on workers' rights are defeated."
ITF noted that various sectors of Argentina's transportation sector "are under direct threat of privatization," including the national commercial airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas, the National Highway Board, and the Argentinian Merchant Marine.
Milei—a self-described anarcho-capitalist who was elected in November 2023 on a wave of populist revulsion at the status quo—campaigned on a platform of repairing the moribund economy, tackling inflation, reducing poverty, and dismantling the state. He made wild promises including dollarizing Argentina's economy and abolishing the central bank.
However, the realities of leading South America's second-largest economy have forced Milei's administration to abandon or significantly curtail key agenda items, leading to accusations of neoliberalism and betrayal from the right and hypocrisy and rank incompetence from the left. According to most polling, Milei's approval rating has fallen from net positive to negative in just a few months.
Particularly galling to many left-of-center Argentinians is Milei's cozying up to far-right figures around the world, especially U.S. President Donald Trump.
Andrew Kennis, a Rutgers University media studies professor specializing in Latin America, noted similarities between the protests in Argentina and anti-Trump demonstrations in the United States.
"It's no coincidence that 5.2 million people were in the streets in all 50 states just this past Saturday and that the U.S. is now catching up with the mass resistance that's long been going on in Argentina," Kennis told Common Dreams Thursday.
Kennis—who this week published a deep dive on Milei's "destructive chainsaw theory" in Common Dreams—added that in the cases of both Milei and Trump, "there was no real honeymoon period, as there almost always is" for most new presidencies.
"In both countries, people were in the streets pretty damned fast and furiously," he added.
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Dems Demand Johnson Urge All House Members to Immediately Disclose Stock Trades Made During Trump Tariff Chaos
"The American people deserve to know if any representatives took advantage of their positions for personal gain," lawmakers said.
Apr 10, 2025
In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to abruptly pause most of the sweeping tariffs he announced last week—a move that raised suspicions of possible insider trading and market manipulation—a group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are urging Republican Speaker Mike Johnson to ensure any stock trades recently made by members of the chamber are immediately disclosed.
"We write to urge that you join us in requesting every member of the House of Representatives immediately file and release their Periodic Trading Reports (PTR) for any transactions conducted between April 2, 2025, and April 9, 2025," according to a letter the group sent Johnson, who represents Louisiana, on Thursday.
By law, lawmakers must file a form that is made public, known as a PTR, within 45 days of making a stock trade valued at over $1,000. The group of lawmakers is asking Johnson to join them in requesting that lawmakers immediately release their PTRs, rather than waiting for the end of the 45-day deadline.
"The public has the right to know whether anyone in the Congress profited from the considerable market instability and economic chaos caused by President Trump and his administration over the past week," according to the letter, which was penned by Reps. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and David Min (D-Calif.).
Trump on April 2 unveiled broad tariffs that rattled markets and heightened fears of a recession. Then, on Wednesday morning he wrote on social media: "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT." Hours later, he sent markets soaring when he declared a 90-day pause on tariffs for many countries—though a number of levies, including on China, remain in place. The bump resulted in the largest one-day percentage gain for the S&P 500 since the financial crisis of 2008.
"Over the past week, House Republicans met with President Trump at the White House, attended the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner (mere hours before pausing the tariffs), and were in regular communication with the president ahead of the vote on the budget reconciliation resolution," according to the letter. "The American people deserve to know if any representatives took advantage of their positions for personal gain."
"We reiterate our request for immediate consideration of legislation to ban members of Congress from trading stocks," the letter concludes.
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Plainclothes DHS Agents Lied to LA School Officials to Question Elementary Students
The Homeland Security officials falsely told the school principals they had permission from the children's guardians to speak to them.
Apr 10, 2025
The superintendent of Los Angeles public schools, Alberto M. Carvalho, confirmed Thursday that plainclothes federal immigration agents lied to school officials this week in order to gain access to two elementary schools to question several children—which the schools refuses to grant.
Carvalho told reporters that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents told the principals of Lillian Street Elementary School and Russell Elementary School that they had permission from the four children's caretakers to question them—a claim that "was confirmed to be a falsehood,"CBS News reported.
The Biden administration barred immigration agents from trying to conduct enforcement operations in "sensitive" areas like schools and places of worship, but President Donald Trump reversed that policy after taking office, with former acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman saying, "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest."
The five children DHS sought to question on Monday ranged from first to sixth graders.
"My very first question starts there, what interest should a Homeland Security agent have in a first grader?" Carvalho told CBS News. "No federal agency has the authority, short of a judicial warrant, that means the equivalent of a criminal subpoena to enter our schools."
Kate Cagle of Spectrum News 1 SoCal reported that the agents wore plain clothes and that children came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and are in the care of legal guardians.
"My very first question starts there, what interest should a Homeland Security agent have in a first grader?"
Schools are not required to allow immigration agents onto their campuses without being presented with a warrant. In February, Denver's public school district sued the Trump administration over its policy allowing DHS to attempt raids in schools, saying it had led to decreased attendance as families fear potential enforcement actions in their children's classrooms.
"I am proud of these principals, I am proud of our workforce, I am proud of the clerical staff in the front office, for they did exactly what we trained them to do," said Carvalho. "We declared back in August and September and October that at Los Angeles Unified [School District] we have protocols in place and training in place to prepare our workforce in... protection of our students."
The Los Angeles schools were targeted days after a school principal in the small town of Sackets Harbor, New York, joined the community in demanding the safe return of three children and their mother after they were arrested and detained in a Texas facility by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
"As the principal of these students, I need to speak plainly," wrote Jaime Cook in a letter that went viral. "Our three students who were taken by ICE were doing everything right... They are not criminals. They have no ties to any criminal activity. They are loved by their classmates... We are in shock—and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students' release."
A rally over the weekend drew more than 1,000 people in the town of just 1,351—part of New York's most reliably Republican congressional district, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and the part-time home of Tom Homan, Trump's border czar.
The children were released along with their mother on Monday after the weekend rally, and were back in school on Wednesday.
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