It is 35 years of the attempt of recovering the Malvinas [Falkland Islands], frustrated due to the betrayal of the military dictatorship, which had encouraged the war aiming to ease the masses’ pressure on the regime. An event that made clear who are the ones that truly fight for sovereignty and national independence: workers and the people.
By Nepo and Alicia Sagra.
After the economic crisis of 1979 and the tightening of the resistance to the dictatorship, the Military Junta, headed by Galtieri, bet on a military action to recover the Malvinas, Georgias and Sandwich from British domain, and so save themselves of the growing popular outrage.
According to Galtieri himself, he was convinced that his action would have the support of the U.S. imperialism, of whom he was a “spoiled child”. In such case, it would be an action of one or two days that would give him prestige among the Argentine people (that historically claimed sovereignty on those islands) and would leave him in a better position for a diplomatic debate at the U.N.
But that did not happen. The U.S. knew an action like that was a bad example to be followed by other countries dominated by imperialism, so it did not hesitate in giving full support to its imperialist partner.
The result, unexpected by Galtieri, was the biggest anti-imperialist mobilization even known in Latin America. In Peru, there were giant lines at the Argentine Embassy of people offering as volunteers to fight. In Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia, there were demonstrations against England. Cuba offered support through aviation, and the same thing was voted on the Peruvian Congress. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the working class and people surpassed the hate to the dictatorship and featured daily demonstrations calling to defeat England to recover the Malvinas.
The IWL-FI carried a major campaign to defeat British imperialism and, in Argentina, our party, the PST [Socialist Workers’ Party], participated actively of those demonstrations, calling for an Argentinian victory and denouncing the dictatorship for its poor war handling. The militaries did not accept any of the offered support, did not take any action against British capitals in the country, and surrendered to England after the Pope’s visit.
This caused a violent popular reaction which led to the fall of the genocide dictatorship and the prison, for the first time in History, of the three Military Juntas that ruled the country for seven years. But the victory of England carried consequences: today, there is an atomic base in Malvinas which strategically controls the entire Latin American continent.
Bosses Serving Imperialist Capitals
The cowardice of the military was nothing but the reflection of the eternal submission of the ruling classes in Argentina, which the dictatorship was part of: the classes that live from handing over the country to imperialism. Like this, we cannot expect much more from the bosses’ politicians than the ritual of sovereignty cries in international bodies. Useless cries if we bear in mind that the U.K. has the power of veto in all of them. Under Macri, in his urge to prove his full submission, those claims are less serious than ever. It is a government that does not even respect the formality of including the Islands on official maps, so we cannot expect him to fight for them.
Working People Do Not Give Up
Victim of exploitation and pillaging of the country by foreign capitals, working people fight their own ‘Malvinas War” daily, against the emptying by imperialism, just like the heroes of 1982 fought: sacrificing young soldiers, admiring the courage of the pilots, and being abandoned by all the “Galtieris” leading the Unions.
These sold leaderships, as agents of the bosses and imperialism and as dictators and the militaries were, they are the ones truly responsible for each defeat we face and for each right we lose; and we need to sweep them off our organizations and joint our daily struggles through the fight for our country’s sovereignty and independence, and so defeat the government’s plans.
From the PSTU, we want to build a workers’, socialist alternative to those leaderships, to give the working people the political and union leadership they need: a leadership able to face the struggle in course, for national and social liberation. We invite those willing to kick imperialism out of the Islands to fight together for a Second and definitive independence, of our country and the continent as a whole.
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Translation: Sofia Ballack.
