The regime responded by launching a campaign of repression against the far left, represented essentially by two Trotskyist organizations, the Movement toward Socialism (MAS) and the Workers' Party (PO). A number of activists and leaders of these parties were arrested. CECILIA GARMENDIA
ELEVISION pictures showing the anger of the Argentine people, driven to looting in order to find food, put their country back in the center of the international stage for some time. For nearly 10 days, violent riots shook the main Argentine industrial cities. The shantytown dwellers sacked the supermarkets and stores. After the illstarred attack on the La Tablada barracks in January, these hunger riots exposed the and desperation gripping the Argentine masses.?
The victory of the Peronist candidate, Carlos Saul Menem (a leading figure in the Peronist right wing) was a result of the failure of the economic management of the ruling Radical Party. But it did not open up any perspective for the workers. The Peronist program went no further than demagogic promises such as a "productive revolution" and "big wage packets" (salariazos).
before the May 14 vote, Menem, along with Alfonsín, had signed a recognition of the debt to the World
Bank. The international money-lenders wanted guarantees, and the Peronists are intent on maintaining good relations with them! Reforms can hardly be expected from the new government. Its only hope is to muzzle the workers' movement, which is organized by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) led by a Peronist bureaucracy. Outbursts of anger, such as the one in recent weeks, have revealed the limitations of such transmission belts.
In fact, in the present economic situation, the Peronists can hardly hope to play the role they did in the 1950s and channel or manipulate the movement. Moreover, they are paying the price for the compromises they made during the military government. Argentina's crisis and indebtedness make it impossible for the Peronists to carry out the sort of reforms Perón did in the post-war years.
### Shopkeepers changing prices twice a day
In terms of the economy, Alfonsín continued to follow the ultra-free-enterprise model established by the military in 1976, yielding the real economic power to the transnational trusts. The latter speculated on the international market rather than developing production, and this produced a terrible flight of capital, bankruptcy for many national enterprises without access to foreign credits, hyper-inflation (30% to 40% a month and a devaluation of the national currency by more than 12,000%
According to the Argentine institute of statistics and censuses, 2.5 million people unemployed or under-employed, while 7.5 million working people live below the poverty line. Over the last three months, the dollar has gone up by 600% against the local currency, necessities have become scarce, and shopkeepers are changing their prices as much as twice a day in order to protect themselves against inflation. Often people pick up a product in a big store and find out when they go to pay for it that the price has already gone
In order to maintain their buying power, many workers invest their wages in buying dollars, changing their australes [the 1. Peronism, or as it calls itself, the "Social Justice Movement," is a bourgeois populist movement founded by Juan Domingo Perón (1895-1974); it held power in Argentina from 1946 to 1955. A second Peronist government, installed in 1973, was overthrown by a coup d'état in 1976. 2. On January 23, a group of a few dozen civilians attacked La Tablada barracks in the Buenos Aires region. This action was suppressed by the army with a bloodbath.
Argentine currency] for $5 and $10 at a time so that they can eat. Or else they invest their australes for 24 hours or for a week, getting interest that goes as high as 150% a month.
The left made an important breakthrough in the recent elections with the score achieved by the United Left (IU) coalition, made up mainly of the Commuthe MAS (Movement nist Party and toward Socialism, founded by Nahuel PERONISTAS DE Moreno around the Socialist Workers' DETENIDOS ESAPARELIDES. Party, PST). For the first time, it got people elected, all of whom were members of REPRECINI the MAS.
National unity against the
"germs of subversion"
The repression set in motion by the Alfonsin government, which declared a state of siege, sealed the reconciliation between this regime and various factions of the military. The seizure of La Tablada barracks had already offered the pretext for forming a National Security Council, whose program called in the clearest possible terms for a "struggle against subversion," in a line of continuity with the generals' "dirty war."
The military closed ranks, and its quarrels with the government became muted. This grand show of "national unity" against the "germs of subversion" unfortunately was met only with silence by the left (with the exception of the PO and human rights organizations). Such factors, aggravated by hunger, explain how these riots could develop without an underlying political perspective.
In the present phase, there is scarcely any solution for the political and economic crisis rocking Argentina. The powers that be do not intend to hand out any more presents. Despite the zealousness of the government in applying the austerity plans, mobilizations such as the one that has just occurred continue to put Argentina in the category of "risk countries" (the foreign investors are quite aware of this, as well as the local ones, who keep on sending their currency holdings out of the country).
Moreover, neither the Radicals nor the Peronists are able to assuage the discontent. Menem's taking office may offer a few months respite to the possessing classes in the country, since many workers still harbor scraps of hope. But the continuation of austerity will only provoke a new outburst of anger from the working people. *
FAMILIARES
AD
ZAMORA
«The government is a corpse waiting to be buried"
THE RECENT mass riots were used by the Argentine government as a pretext for repressing the far left, and in particular one of its main organizations, the Movement
Toward Socialism (MAS, linked to the International
Workers' League).
The following interview is with Silvia Diaz, who was elected to the Buenos Aires provincial legislature on the
MAS slate on May 14.
W
HAT IS the significance of Menem's victory and the return to office of the Social Justice [Peronist] Movement?
Menem and the Social Justice Movement are getting ready to install the new government a few months earlier than the time set by the constitution in order to fill the existing power vacuum and offer a solution to the present revolutionary crisis.
The power vacuum and the crisis were
SOCIALISM DEN
.. D caused by the great upsurge of working-class and popular struggles that threaten to lead to a Caracazo (a massive explosion such as happened in the Venezuelan capital). Hyper-inflation of 13% a day created very acute social conflicts and the collapse of the Alfonsin government, the system and the state.
Menem finds himself the object of hostility and contempt only three weeks after the elections that put him in power with 46% of the vote, and he has now adopted a line of severe repression of this popular protest. • How did the mass rebellions unfold?
Rosario is Argentina's second biggest industrial city and a very important river port. For five years, this province has been governed by the Social Justice Movement. Menem got his best score in the May 5 elections there and also the broadest rejection of his social peace plan on May 29. For three days, the people of Rosario went into the streets in the suburbs and the city, stormed the big stores and carried out anti-capitalist expropriations.
At the beginning, the population of the working-class neighborhoods seized food from the supermarkets. Then, the middle classes followed after them to take advantage of the situation to grab all sorts of goods (including cars). Finally, marginal groups went into action, pillaging even the small stores. Out of a population of around a million people, between 20% and 30% of the inhabitants of the city participated in the riots.
This massive mobilization then spread to Greater Buenos Aires and other places in the country, involving broad layers of the society. The police did not intervene, and in fact some of their men took part in the expropriations. Since several sections of the army were unavailable for repressing the movement, the government was concentrated on the borders of the coe 13 forced to bring in troops that had been July 10, 1989 • #167 International Viewpoint
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ARGENTINA MAS
ARGENTINA try. This forced the masses to retreat into their neighborhoods. The Argentine Caracazo was a victory all along the line. The rebels expropriated merchandise with a value of tens of millions of dollars, and the government had to grant a wage increase of 100%, as well as undertake a free distribution of food throughout the country.
There were a number of causes for this uprising. Already before the elections, more than a million workers threw down the gauntlet to the Social Justice Movement trade-unionists and staged very militant local strikes. In this context, the Rosario rebellion was the workers' response to the capitalist curse of hyperinflation. This revealed the crisis and the weakness of the regime's institutions, as well as Menem's impotence. • Did the political and trade-union organizations play a role in the
The Rosario revolt was not led by any trade-union or political force; it was entirely spontaneous. Nonetheless, these events did not take the MAS by surprise. Since 1982, we have said that there was a revolutionary caused by the growing economic crisis and the mass struggle. During the five years of his government, Alfonsín was unable to resolve this situation, which sooner or later had to lead to a revolutionary explosion.
In February 1989, we wrote in a document on the situation in Argentina: "We are heading for elections in the context of a capitalist crisis and social pauperization." We decided to participate in the elections by forming the United Left Coalition (IU) with the Communist Party. And we took part in the struggles that developed subsequently on the basis of our socialist program. In April, we said that "the rise of struggles may provoke a revolutionary crisis before or after the
Moreover, we added, "The rise of the and people's movement has brought on a crisis of the government and opened up the possibility of its falling. It would be desirable for this to be brought about by mass struggles, but it is probable that Menem will be obliged to take on governmental responsibility in an unpredictable situation. Another possibility is that there could be a power vacuum, or even a situation in which Menem could not represent an alternative to the
These positions were the basis for the MAS's intervention. In our electoral campaign, we called on the masses to organize their struggles independently, placing no confidence either in Alfonsín or Menem, to expropriate the imperialists and the big capitalists and form a workers' and people's government. 14 On May 2, the United Left held a rally of This campaign got a broad response. International Viewpoint #167 • July 10, 1989
50,000 people. It was a national event. And, because of the very large number of workers who came, it was a historical occasion for the left. The election result confirmed this growth. In the big cities and working-class concentrations in the country, the United Left got 6% of the
Among its successful candidates were the leader of the MAS, Luis Zamora, who has been described by the press as "Argentina's first Trotskyist deputy"; Luis Cuejo, who owed his election to the was elected in the working-class Nación noted a statement by the general secretary of the Labor Confederation calling on bosses to make concessions to the strikers in order to "ward off a further growth of the influence of MAS members in the Factory Committees." In the union elections, the slates backed by MAS got between 20% and 30% of the votes, despite the fraud the bureaucracy engaged in. It was after this statement, in the wake of the elections, that MAS called for a general strike for higher wages and for confiscating the food held by capitalist businesses. We also demanded the ouster of the government and the calling of a constituent assembly so that the people could decide democratically on forming a government of their
The MAS's contacts with the workers involved in struggles and some of those who participated in the May 29 riots in Rosario served as a pretext for the Social Justice Movement governor of the province to accuse the MAS of organizing the revolt. On the evening of May 29 itself, in his announcement of a state of siege the minister of the interior explicitly accused Zamora and the MAS of being the instigators of the uprising. • What is the explanation for the repression, the state of siege and the other measures adopted by the government?
During the supermarket expropriations, 14 people were killed, almost all of them bullets fired by Through the state of siege, the government has tried to set up a more effective repressive system, directed in the first place against the left organizations. Up until now, there have been about 300
The biggest wave of repression hit the Workers' Party (PO).
The pro-government papers, as well as the radio and television are continuing to fulminate against the MAS, 30 of whose members have been arrested (20 were later released). The inability the government has shown to carry through a mass repression can be explained only in the light of the present power vacuum, which is a typical manifestation of a revolution-
After the proclamation of the state of siege, the students mobilized in the capital to demand the revocation of this measure and the ending of censorship. They were not repressed, and they ended their demonstration by occupying a university.
The government is nothing more than a corpse waiting to be buried, surrounded by the worst crisis the country has ever experienced. In May, inflation reached 78.5%, and it is expected to be worse for June. In the last three months, there have been three ministers of the economy. In the last 20 days, the banks have been closed ten days by official decree, and in the other ten they have restricted withdrawals. The interest rate has been set at 1,200% per year. The food store chains have also been hit, both by the expropriations and the recession and closures of enterprises, which often continue to pay those dependent on them to avert still graver consequences.
The government is totally impotent. Nobody is paying taxes. administration is, in fact, on a continuing undeclared strike. And in several offices, they have decided not to pay the top functionaries so employees can get their wages. Forms of self-management are also beginning to take shape in the hospitals in order to find the resources that are lacking to take care of the patients.
If the government has not yet fallen, that is because of the support it has had from Menem and the trade-union bureaucracy, which is blocking the organization of a general strike. • What would be the reaction of the
While the police were searching the party's central headquarters, a delegation from its national leadership went to the government to denounce these provocations. They were also arrested as they were getting ready to hold a press conference. Those involved were Jorge Altamira, presidential candidate; Juan Carlos Capurro, the party's lawyer and a candidate in the legisla-
The six prisoners were isolated and placed at the disposition of the judge in the premises of the political police. Later, Juan Carlos Capurro was released.
On Monday, June 5, after a meeting with police chiefs and members of the political police, as well as government functionaries, the judge decided to order preventative detention of the five other persons accused
Not even an appearance of "independence of the judiciary" was maintained.
The government and the judges decided to stage a provocation against the
PO, and through it against all the people's organizations, in an attempt to put the "blame" for the demonstrations on them, although it was really the government's starvation plans that were responsible.
The PO is a legal organization. It carries on all its activities publicly. It participated in the 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989 elections. The provocation staged against it is a very grave violation of democratic rights, of the freedoms of association and expression. If this maneuver succeeds, the mere fact of belonging to a left party, of distributing or reading its press will become a
This provocation is part of the repression launched by the government against the popular mobilizations last week, against thousands of men, women and children who went into the street in search of food. The government decreed a state of siege, which was subsequently ratified in Congress, thanks to the votes of the Peronists, Radicals and right-wing parties. It unleashed a repression that cost the lives of 17 people, and it arrested several thousands.
We demand the immediate lifting of the state of siege, the immediate as an end to the repression again neite rolas i adore 7 release of all the political and trade-union activists detained, as well army in the event of a coup d'état?
The armed forces were dealt a historic defeat by the rise of the mass movement, which forced them out of power in the context of a revolutionary criSIS. The defeat in the Malvinas war had already weakened the army, but its crisis was essentially the result of working-class and popular struggles, which made the mass murder carried out under the dictatorship (the "missing persons") an insoluof this crisis in the army - is far from over. Second, no section of society is prepared to support a coup d'état. Finally, the Latin American and the world sitpoint to the impossibility of a military solution.
Confronting the crisis and the rise of mass movements, the bourgeoisie and the imperialists are offering a democratic and not a military response. Of