revolutionary days in argentina
In Argentina, a series of strikes, mass demonstrations and organised seizures
of food and goods have brought down two governments in three weeks and
thrown the political elite and its US backers into panic. The Argentinean
working class and middle classes are refusing to suffer any more for a
four-year recession was caused not by them but by Rogernomics-style free
market 'reforms' imposed by the United States-backed International Monetary
Fund (IMF).
The mainstream media and the 'experts' of the political establishment
find the Argentinean revolt hard to stomach. For a decade they have been
crowing about the 'death of socialism' and the 'triumph of capitalism'.
Now, they are faced with a revolt against capitalism in one of the countries
they saw as a 'pin up star' for extreme capitalist 'reform'. Like the
anti-globalisation protests in Seattle and Genoa, the Argentinean revolt
screams that 'the Emperor has no clothes', that capitalism today is not
triumphant but degenerate. Is it any wonder, then, that the mainstream
media and the 'experts' are trying to explain the Argentinean drama away
as an 'episode of mob violence' or ' a cry for US help'?
a recipe for misery
What is the background to the crisis of capitalism in Argentina? The early
1990's in Argentina saw state industries, utilities and banks privatised
and sold off to the highest bidders. In 1991 the peso was pegged 1:1 to
the $US, and increasingly borrowings like mortgages and loans were denominated
in dollars.
For a while these policies seemed to work. Foreign investment poured in
as the multinationals grabbed Argentina's assets at knock down prices.
But as the dollar rose in the second half of the 1990s the cracks started
appearing. The peso dragged up by the dollar made Argentinean exports
increasingly uncompetitive, and as industrial exports collapsed so did
Argentina's manufacturing base. Argentina had increasingly to go cap in
hand to the IMF, which had proposed the peso peg in the first place. Loans
of $22bn were arranged to prop up the faltering peso and the government
but the price was the normal "structural adjustment programme".
The money would only be released in return for slashing the government
budget, which meant attacking education, health, the minimum wage and
in the end public service wages and pensions.
By last November it was clear that the Argentinean economy was a basket
case, and draconian restrictions on bank withdrawals were introduced,
allowing only $1000 a month to be withdrawn. Of course, the big financiers
and corrupt politicians had already spirited away their millions abroad.
As official unemployment figures hit 18.3% the unions called a massively
supported one-day general strike on December 13th. It was to spark off
a series of struggles, which would end with the 'revolutionary days' that
ousted President De la Rua and his successor Saa from office
|
CONTENTS
from argentina to aotearoa
anti-capitalist uprising
in argentina: an analogy
organising against capitalism
in the 21st century
conference report
anarchy in the r.k
bac to smog
the 24 milion dollar minute
war is terrorism
aotearoa news round up
|
|
from afghanistan to argentina
 For
months now, newspapers and TV screens have been covered with images of
the war in Afghanistan. Exploding missiles, maimed children and burning
villages have imprinted the reality of war on many Western minds, as the
world's richest and most powerful country has turned on weak, poverty-stricken
Afghanistan. At the same time, a mostly 'quiet' war has been waged with
increasing intensity in faraway Argentina.
Now, of course, the 'quiet' war has exploded into world attention, and
images from Argentina jostle for front page space with images from Afghanistan.
Whether the weapons are bombs and missiles or redundancy notices and spending
cuts, the enemy is the same: the working class and poor of a weak, poverty-stricken
nation. The common aggressor in the two wars is imperialism, or the export
of oppression by powerful governments serving the interest of profit.
The US and its allies are using NATO and the UN to intervene in Afghanistan
to protect their economic interests in the Middle East and to drive an
oil pipeline through the country, and the IMF to intervene in Argentina
to increase the profitability of the many businesses they own there. The
anti-war struggle and the struggle in Argentina take aim at the same enemy.
|
popular assemblies
 Argentina
stands between revolution and fascism. A revolution in Argentina would
mean the working class there setting up its own independent political,
social and economic institutions in place the old, rotten state and capitalist-controlled
economy.
Signs of a new, democratic society are already appearing, in the form
of local 'Popular Assemblies' which are meeting in many Argentinean cities
to organise resistance against the state forces and to encourage cooperation
and the sharing of resources in communities which have been fragmented
by years of ruthless economic policies. The Popular Assemblies are a sign
of the emergence of 'dual power' in Argentina. Dual power is created when
the working class, which in Argentina comprises around 80% of the population,
creates its own structures of power to challenge those of the capitalist
state. The PA's make decisions by majority vote in mass, all-up meetings.
[Some groups think PA's are workers' councils in their early stages].
Other hints of a new society can be found in the unions of unemployed
and radical workers opposed to the political establishment. Both the Popular
Assemblies and the revolutionary unions will need to arm themselves for
self-defence against the state forces which have killed dozens of protesters
in recent weeks.
the threat of facism
In Argentina, a series of strikes, mass demonstrations and organised
seizures of food and goods have brought down two governments in three
weeks and thrown the political elite and its US backers into panic. The
Argentinean working class and middle classes are refusing to suffer any
more for a four-year recession was caused not by them but by Rogernomics-style
free market 'reforms' imposed by the United States-backed International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
The mainstream media and the 'experts' of the political establishment
find the Argentinean revolt hard to stomach. For a decade they have been
crowing about the 'death of socialism' and the 'triumph of capitalism'.
Now, they are faced with a revolt against capitalism in one of the countries
they saw as a 'pin up star' for extreme capitalist 'reform'. Like the
anti-globalisation protests in Seattle and Genoa, the Argentinean revolt
screams that 'the Emperor has no clothes', that capitalism today is not
triumphant but degenerate. Is it any wonder, then, that the mainstream
media and the 'experts' are trying to explain the Argentinean drama away
as an 'episode of mob violence' or ' a cry for US help'?
from argentina to aotearoa
We are all Argentineans. The IMF-backed policies in Argentina closely
resemble the notorious 'Rogernomics' policies inflicted on Aotearoa by
the Lange Labour government and the succeeding Bolger regime and consolidated
by today's fake left Clark-Anderton government. In both Argentina and
Aotearoa, these free business-knows-best policies caused mass redundancies,
greatly impaired social services with spending cuts, and drove down the
average wage. In both Argentina and Aotearoa, a small minority of the
population benefited massively from the impoverishment of the rest. The
struggle in Argentina is our struggle.
A leaflet from the Anti Imperialist Coalition (Auckland)
e mail anti_imperialist@hotmail.com
For a collection of news items about and messages from the Argentinean
struggle, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Argentina_Solidarity/
|
