Socialist Action /January 2002
Argentina Erupts!
By DAVID TURPIN
 Angry
job-seekers burn tires outside the mayor's office in Lomas de Zamora, a
town near Buenos Aires.
On Dec. 19 and 20, a spontaneous mass explosion drove Argentine President
Fernando de la Rua and his economics minister, Domingo Carvallo, from office.
The president had to be evacuated in a helicopter.
Demanding bread and work, tens of thousands of demonstrators converged
on the Plaza de Mayo in the center of Buenos Aires. In disregard for the
truce with the government arranged by the trade-union bureaucracy, they
confronted police repression. After several hours of pitched battles with
riot police, demonstrators forced the de la Rua government to throw in the
towel.
As this article goes to press the ruling-class parties are scrambling
desperately to put together a government that can withstand the pressure
from below and force through the budget and wage cuts required to meet payments
on the foreign debt.
The country's fifth president in two weeks, Eduardo Duhalde, a former
senator and governor of the Peronist party, took office on Jan. 2. He is
supposed to serve out the remainder of de la Rua's term, which ends on Dec.
10, 2003.
Duhalde promised immediately that he would give a kick-start to Argentina's
economy, now in its fourth year of recession.
He announced a devaluation of the peso, abandoning its one-to-one match
with the U.S. dollar established by the former Peronist government several
years ago. Parity with the dollar had made Argentine goods non-competitive
on the world market and had boosted prices on food and other domestically
produced consumer items.
Duhalde also reaffirmed the pledge by interim president Adolfo Rodriguez
Saa that the government would refuse to pay its huge foreign debt.
The backdrop to the recent uprising is the near collapse of the Argentine
economy under the crushing weight of the debt. The draconian measures required
to satisfy foreign bondholders have led to unemployment rates of 20 percent
and plunged millions into dire poverty.
A mighty mass upsurge is overflowing the containing walls of bourgeois
rule in Argentina. It cannot be foreseen how far it will go. But already
the tempo and development of the events that culminated in the December
rebellion offer activists inspiring lessons about the power of mass movements.
The school of class struggle
Argentine workers have had far less time than workers in this country
to experience the frustrations of big business "democracy"-the
choice between capitalist party candidates. However, the Argentines have
learned very quickly in the school of hard knocks, the brutal economic crisis
driven by draining foreign debt payments.
In fact, in 1989, only six years after the collapse of the military dictatorship
imposed in 1976 and maintained by the murder of 40,000 people, President
Alfonsin was brought down by an explosion of anger by the masses, who would
not wait six months for his term to expire.
This momentary victory of the working people, however, was reversed by
secret negotiations between the traditional parties.
The deal allowed President-elect Carlos Menem, a representative of the
Peronist party, a bourgeois party that gets most of its votes from the workers,
like the Democratic Party in this country, to take power before his inauguration
date.
The sustained offensive that has left Argentina's ruling class reeling,
dumping ministers and whole cabinets willy-nilly, shows that Menem inadvertently
taught workers and the poor another vital lesson-don't ever give the enemy
a chance to recover.
Even though Menem took power only a few short months after the insurrection
that brought down Alfonsin, the new government moved quickly to regain the
ground that the ruling class had lost. Argentina's workers suffered defeat
after defeat, as major strikes were broken and key state industries were
privatized.
Menem's economic policies, implemented by minister Cavallo, who would
reappear in a tragic repeat of history in de la Rua's cabinet, sowed the
seeds of the present crisis. While Cavallo's measures brought inflation
under control, they did so through cuts in real wages and layoffs.
Massive layoffs led to double-digit unemployment rates. At the same time,
Cavallo's tying of the peso to the U.S. dollar and his "liberalization"
of foreign trade rules led to a balance-of-trade deficit that made the economy
entirely dependent upon foreign investment.
These policies, commonly dubbed "neoliberal," amounted to an
offensive aimed at lowering the workers' standard of living and raising
the capitalists' profits, while selling off lucrative state enterprises
at give-away prices. Menem's offensive, however, did not take the fight
out of the working class.
In 1994, the city of Santiago del Estero exploded in rage, initiating
an upsurge of the workers and the poor that undermined the Menem government.
A key element of this renewed militancy was the discrediting of the trade-union
leadership, which backed Menem's administration. The treachery of the bureaucrats
did not go unnoticed by the rank and file, and the "Santiaguenazo,"
as it was called, marked the beginning of the end for the Peronist party's
traditional hold over the organized sections of the working class.
Sensing the historic loss of prestige of its principal party, Argentina's
bourgeoisie prepared a "left" alternative to channel the rising
discontent: the Frepaso, which together with the Radical Civic Union (UCR),
would replace the Peronists as an alternative in the 1999 elections.
The merry-go-round of elections did not save Cavallo, who was brought
down by a series of general strikes in 1996. The bureaucrats of the two
union federations, the CGT and the CTA, however, saved Menem.
Together with the Alliance, a coalition between the UCR and the Frepaso
parties, the trade-union bureaucracy succeeded in controlling and defusing
the upsurge. The bureaucrats led the workers to the election booth, where
they voted in de la Rua's Alliance government, hoping it would bring them
relief from the crisis.
Brazil's currency devaluation in 1999, however, forced the government
to tighten the screws even more, as the debt began to devour the country.
Workers forge new alliances
The New York Times, the voice of the more mealy-mouthed U.S. imperialist
ideologues, has characterized de la Rua as "indecisive." Yet
any serious analysis of the new government's immediate resumption of Menem's
attack on workers would indicate that de la Rua knew exactly what he was
doing. What he could not foresee was how quickly the workers and the unemployed
would respond.
The de la Rua government's first crisis came almost immediately after
the approval, thanks to the shameless bribery of practically the entire
congress, of a series of anti-labor reforms to workplace legislation. The
reactionary reforms set off a demonstration 30,000 strong to the capital's
Plaza de Mayo.
Shortly thereafter, on May 5, 2000, the government was shaken by the
first of several general strikes. Unemployed workers played a vanguard role
in the fightback, leading mass insurrections in several regions.
The new role played by the unemployed is one of the most striking characteristics
of the upsurge that has shaken bourgeois rule in Argentina. Organized in
committees of picketers, called "piqueteros," the unemployed have
cut vital arteries for the transportation of goods, led popular insurrections-in
the face of brutal repression-and, most importantly, deprived the bourgeoisie
of one its traditional weapons against workers: scab strike breakers.
In effect, the developing alliance between Argentina's militant rank
and file labor movement and unemployed workers has been a powerful antidote
to the traditional demoralizing effect of prolonged recessions on the working
class.
Moreover, the piquetero movement, which enjoys greater freedom from the
labor bureaucracy, allowed Argentina's working class to outflank the bureaucrats
at key moments. De la Rua's second crisis came about precisely because the
piquetero movement was able to break the truce imposed by the bureaucracy
following the first general strike.
The initiative of the unemployed set off another wave of the working-class
counterattack, forcing the bureaucracy to convoke a 36-hour general strike
on Nov. 23, 2000.
This strike, which paralyzed every branch of industry, was much more
active than the previous two general strikes because the piqueteros took
control of roads and some municipalities during the action. Rather than
stay home, the striking workers took to the streets too.
Imperialism cuts the rope
The combined pressure of the masses from below and imperialism from above
precipitated de la Rua's third crisis. Early in March 2001, Economy Minister
Jose Luis Machinea resigned after Washington made it clear there would be
no more IMF credits until de la Rua found a finance minister who could discipline
the workers.
On March 16, the new economy minister, Ricardo Lopez Murphy, arrogantly
announced new austerity measures, threatening the masses with the specter
of economic catastrophe if payments on the foreign debt were not met.
Yet this threat of chaos in the capitalist economy, which is very real,
did not have the desired impact on the masses. Only hours after Lopez won
accolades from a crowd of investors gathered in Argentina's stock market,
students took their desks out into the streets, where they held classes,
while the teachers union announced a strike.
The spontaneous mobilization forced the bureaucracy to make plans for
another general strike on March 21 and yet another on April 5. Even before
the strikes, however, Lopez resigned on March 18, beaten only 48 hours after
having accepted his portfolio.
The spontaneous response to Lopez's threats marked a watershed in the
developing class consciousness of the Argentine masses. The fact that the
working class and its allies did not cower before the very real danger of
economic chaos, a threat which came directly from Lopez's masters in Washington,
shows that while Argentina's workers have yet to develop the mass-based
organizations required for a revolutionary seizure of power, they appear
already to have intuitively accepted many of the risks involved.
De la Rua falls
The heady days of March, and Lopez's sudden resignation, left the working
class somewhat off balance, like a boxer who swings too wildly against his
opponent on the ropes, and needs to regain his balance before he can deal
the knock-out blow. The bourgeoisie rapidly seized upon this hiatus in the
class struggle to appoint Cavallo, Menem's minister, to pull the irons out
of the fire.
Cavallo was granted extraordinary legislative powers, with the parliamentary
support of both the Peronists and the Frepaso, yet he moved cautiously,
imposing austerity measures in a piecemeal fashion so as not to give the
workers an easy target. The labor bureaucracy gave the new minister a helping
hand by ordering yet another truce, leaving many strikes and actions isolated.
The financial crisis, however, notched up another tick on the onset of
the world recession in the fall of 2001, finally forcing Cavallo to announce
what he called the "Zero Deficit Plan."
Although the reaction to Cavallo's plan was not as rapid as the working-class
counterattack that brought down Lopez, the upsurge that began this November
and continued through the year-end festivities embraced almost every sector
of society. It culminated in spontaneous marches and the sacking of supermarkets
in the capital.
De la Rua declared a "state of siege" on Dec. 19. But the police
repression only infuriated the masses more. Indeed, one sharp observer noted
that it was the government that was under siege. The ferocity of the insurrection
forced the bureaucracy to convoke a general strike, not to be lifted until
de la Rua resigned. This was the final nail in the government's coffin,
and in the evening of Dec. 20, Cavallo resigned, followed a few hours later
by de la Rua.
The new president, Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, immediately suspended the country's
debt payments. Upon approving the measure, congressional representatives
chanted, "Argentina, Argentina," in an attempt to mask their past
betrayal of the Argentine people. The masses, however, were in no mood for
more games.
On Dec. 29, demonstrators sacked the Congress, pulling the building's
furniture out into the streets, where they made mockery of the pretense
that passes as democracy in the not-so-hallowed legislature. Rodriguez resigned
shortly thereafter.
Shuffling ministers and officials-while leaving in place an economic
program favoring the monopolies, big banks, and foreign investors-will not
offer the Argentine working people the real democracy that they are thirsting
for.
Only an assembly representing workers, students, small shopkeepers, the
unemployed, and all sectors of the great majority who must labor to live
can approve the economic program required to pull the country out of disaster,
and appoint-subject to immediate recall-a government to carry out this program.
For a government of the workers!
Even before the dust settles, it is clear that the December events in
Argentina constitute a setback for imperialist intervention in Latin America,
for they will complicate both the military expression of this intervention,
Plan Colombia, and its economic expression, the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The battles waged and won in Argentina will serve as an impetus to other
mass movements in the Americas, and the southern tip of Latin America in
particular.
Outside of Latin America, the suspension of payments on Argentina's debt
objectively constitutes a blow against capitalist globalization. It will
surely provide more momentum for the worldwide movement of activists demanding
an end to IMF austerity measures and the economic exploitation of the Third
World.
What is more, the successes scored by the Argentine masses come as a
counterpoint to the U.S. military victory in Afghanistan and offer the
world's oppressed an example of the power of mass movements, as opposed
to the failure of guerrilla strategies and terrorism.
In effect, Argentina's workers have shredded the credibility of bourgeois
democracy, leaving the regime built to replace the military dictatorship
in tatters. The debt crisis has put before them the challenge of taking
political power and establishing a government of the workers. It is clear
that another bourgeois government will only impose a new austerity package,
since the neoliberal offensive is the inevitable result of a capitalist
system in crisis.
The only alternative is a government of the workers, which would immediately
be forced to call on other debtor nations to declare a moratorium on debt
payments. Forming a bloc of debtor nations would aid Argentina in challenging
the world economic order that condemns the overwhelming majority of humanity
to misery. Challenging this order is a hard road to hoe, but there is no
third way.
Socialist Action /January 2002 |