During the last month, the rebellion of Jujuy has been at the center of the country’s political life.
The dignity of the people of Jujuy and the union between state workers and native peoples, who have been confronting the powers of the State with the support of miners and youth, has sparked sympathy and solidarity across the country.
By PSTU – Argentina
Organizing the movement from below, and without waiting for the union or political leadership to lead the way, the people of Jujuy unified their demands for wages, for the defense of natural resources against the plundering of the multinationals, against repression, and for democratic rights, and the freedom of those imprisoned by the governor Gerardo Morales. They are an example of what a movement can achieve with strikes, mass mobilizations, and the legitimate use of violence to defend itself, flying in the face of the false democracy that only serves the powerful.
The provincial government has already made some concessions, and there have been small triumphs. But the fight continues. The people of Jujuy are staying firm in their demand for the repeal of the Constitutional Reform (10 municipalities of Jujuy have already rejected it) and for the resignation of Morales.
The international routes have been blocked. The struggle can be won.
Deepening the struggle and solidarity
Recently subway workers went on strike in order to win a shorter work week, and bus drivers went on strike for a wage increase, while the UOM Rio Grande (the metallurgical union) went out on an indefinite strike in the midst of wage struggles of various unions.
Solidarity with Jujuy and all these fights could have been unified into a general strike as the beginning of a plan for struggle. But we cannot expect the union leadership that supports the bosses’ governments in office to do so. The elections will not change anything. Whoever wins will continue with the country’s current domination by the IMF and the rich and powerful.
It is necessary to create continuity among the solidarity measures that have been taken up with new mobilizations in Buenos Aires and other cities.
Demands are won by going on strike, by taking the streets, and by confronting State power and that of the bosses with the strength and power of workers’ and popular unity.
And the elections?
We will vote in the primaries and in October. We have to do it in order to win political independence for the working class. We have to do it against all of the candidates who support the IMF, including Massa, Bullrich, Larreta, and Milei.
That is why we are on the electoral lists of the FIT-U, taking advantage of the campaign to support the struggles and show a program and a policy that confronts all of them and the deceitful proposals like those of Grabois. We are for a Socialist Argentina without the IMF or capitalists.
We also think it’s key to explain that when the elections are over there will be new attacks against working people. We need to learn the lessons of the struggle in Jujuy, we must build a revolutionary organization that will allow us to take on the deep struggle needed to fight back against the IMF and austerity, to punish the bosses’ repression, and to expropriate those who have taken everything from us.
For a new Independence
It is July, the anniversary of the revolutionary war that our patriots fought to free us from the Spanish empire. Nothing is achieved except collectively and with great effort.
Today we are practically colonized by the imperialist multinationals, the IMF, and the politicians who are servants of big capital.
It is necessary to fight for a new independence. But there are no Belgranos, San Martins, or Juana Azurduys among the parties and traditional leadership. The heroes are in Humahuaca, Purmamarca, and in every corner of the country. They are the workers, the teachers, the members of native communities, the young women who work and study tirelessly, and the young men who go out every day to work while overcoming the fatigue and oppression of the capitalist system.
Two hundred years ago there were those who knew how to give their lives for others. Those of us who are willing to do so now must unite. The PSTU, the party of Sebastián Romero and Daniel Ruiz, persecuted and imprisoned for fighting, offers to join this fight. We want to do it together with you.
Published in http://www.pstu.com.ar 11/07/2023
