By PSTU-Argentina
Luis Caputo, the brand new Minister of Economy, has announced the first policies of the new capitalist government under the command of Javier Milei. These measures represent, plain and simple, a brutal readjustment of the living conditions of the workers: a devaluation of almost 120%, the removal of subsidies accompanied by increases in energy and transport tariffs, the freezing of public works (which will result in a cascade of layoffs). This sets the stage for the stagflation (economic stagnation with high inflation) that they have been predicting.
The so-called “readjustment” for the “political caste” was a different story. The only proposals for them are the downsizing of ministries and the dismissal of public employees that will go hand in hand with cuts in health, education, science, and technology spending. There is no question of lowering the salaries of ministers, judges, deputies, the high command of the armed forces.
They are not stopping there. Now they are looking to send a bill to Congress to attack pensions, or to slash them by a unilateral decree. And they also plan to go back on the repeal of the Income Tax, an ironic choice given that the Government that said it was going to put an end to taxes. Not even the increases announced in the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) or the food subsidy card help to reduce the damage of this adjustment package. They are telling the truth when they tell us that we will be worse off.
They are doing all this with the excuse of lowering the fiscal deficit. And why? To make nice in agreements with the IMF, the Paris Club, and the rest of the international capitalist vultures. A “difficult inheritance” for which Caputo himself has an enormous responsibility from when he was Mauricio Macri’s Minister.
They say that there is no money, and that these measures are necessary to avoid hyperinflation. But we, the workers, are the ones who have been losing purchasing power and the bosses are making more and more profits. The truth is that we have a country full of resources. Oil companies are making record profits in Vaca Muerta. And we hold a major part of the world’s largest lithium reserves. The problem is that the multinationals are taking all of it, and in Argentina they leave only scorched earth.
For a unified response to the plan of Milei, Macri and the IMF
The measure that Minister Caputo has just launched is a declaration of open war, and it requires a forceful response from the workers and the people. Today we are disorganized and dispersed, with some sectors fighting for higher wages, confronting layoffs, etc. Many of our coworkers voted for and have illusions in this government. Others did not, but feel defeated, and are angry with those who did vote for it. The union leaderships have so far shown no signs of movement.
If we want to guarantee food for our tables, we have to overcome this atomization. Those of us who are against the government’s starvation policies have to win over those who are confused, who will be hit by the new measures, and begin to prepare the struggle we need. We need to demand wage increases that allow us to purchase basic goods for our families, indexed according to inflation, and fight to make sure there is not a single worker laid off. We must go to the big supermarkets, to the meat packing plants to demand food. To demand that the leaders be the ones to take the lead in these demands, and if they don’t do it, we will prepare them ourselves, from below. With meetings and assemblies in the workplace, in the neighborhoods, in the universities, to organize this necessary response.
“He who makes them pays them” says the government, with Patricia Bullrich in the Ministry of Security. Thus they announce that there will be repression. So we have to prepare to defend ourselves, as we did on December 18, 2017 against Macri’s Pension Reform. For this act of resistance, Daniel Ruiz, Sebastián Romero, and César Arakaki are still facing prison sentences. Today the demand for acquittal becomes more necessary than ever.
For an Alternative Plan of the workers
How do we put an end to this crisis? The previous Peronist government did nothing to solve it and only worsened it, and now Milei’s government plans to make it even worse. Although the measures are different, of the “shock doctrine” variety, and the impacts are different, both administrations end up governing on behalf the banks, the businessmen, and the multinationals.
It is time for something truly different. It is time for us to impose an alternative plan of the workers and the people. We must cancel all payments of the fraudulent Public Debt, especially payments to the IMF and all the capitalist vultures. We must expropriate Argentina’s main companies and put them to work under workers’ control. We must throw out all of the private banks and their endless economic speculation, to have a single, nationalized, state-run bank. We must control foreign trade to decide what leaves the country and what does not, and thus put an end to dollar flight.
It is necessary to put an end to these cycles of differently-colored governments that take turns ruining the country. The working people need to build a tool to carry this task forward. The PSTU invites you to build it together with us. There will be no lack of opportunity: this December 20, 22 years after the Argentinazo that brought down Fernando de la Rúa, we will be in the streets marching for the above demand.
