The internal struggles of Peronism, between Kirchnerists and non Kirchnerists, has been the focus of media debates, but the disputes over the candidates empties the debate about which political project we need to confront the government.
When we talk about a political project we do not refer only to the electoral platform. What’s essential when evaluating a real alternative is with which measures and proposals it confronts Macri and his austerity plan and what project will arise after the elections.
Federal Alternative
After individual campaign launchings and group photos, during the weekend in Mar del Plata, Federal Alternative was launched, gathering the PJ that refuses unity with the PJ of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, though there are diferences in how they try to explain their position. Pichetto and Massa, along with governors like Urtubey (Salta), Schiaretti (Córdoba), Arcioni (Chubut), Bordet (Entre Ríos), Zamora (Santiago del Estero) and Passalacqua (Misiones) define themselves as the alternative to the Cambiemos government. They intend to open the space to sectors like Stolbizer and the Socialist Party of Lifschitz, and they want Lavagna.
This amalgam lies when it poses as an alternative, because in their seats in the Parliament and in the provinces they govern, they’ve supported the government´s measures against working people, guaranteeing Macri´s governability. Who voted the pension reform that harms retirees every day? Who voted for the 2019 budget designed by the IMF? Who signed the fiscal pact that translated into cuts in the provinces? They’re the same sectors that today want to make the people believe that they’re a different thing. In the end: Federal Alternative is an alternative to Macrism only in the name.
The Kirchnerist call for the unity, what will they do with the IMF?
The spokespeople of Citizen Unity, because their leader hasn’t shown up in weeks, insisted on calling for unity with everyone inside. It was Gioja, head of the PJ, who proposed that the primaries be open to every Peronist pre-candidate.
As we said before, there are some who refuse to take part of this amalgam. But if it doesn’t succeed, we do not see any other alternative to the austerity plan of Cambiemos in the Kirchnerist sector. On one hand, its union leaders are doing nothing, when they should be calling a national strike with a plan of struggle to stop the government, but their strategy is waiting until October and defining there, condoning thousands to continue suffering the policies of PRO. And on the other hand, it was Cristina and her proposal for Buenos Aires province, the former minister of Economy Kicillof, who clarified that they would not break the agreement with the Fund. With this, they try to gain the trust of the corporations and international organisms, since not breaking with the IMF means maintaining an austerity policy. Calling for a front with those that apply Macri’s plan in the provinces and have guaranteed the stability of a government that doesn’t have parliamentary majority; these are the same old recipes that benefit the bourgeoisie, submission to imperialism and, with some luck, a few crumbs for the working people.
With the anti-Macri front, the austerity continues
The “everyone against Macri” slogan hides with which sectors and under which programmatic points this unity is proposed. Although in our position we oppose the policies of the current administration (austerity, impoverishment, lack of job security, condoning those who worked all their lives to poor pensions), we cannot forget that those who pose as an alternative, not only have already governed and by not solving the country´s structural problems, opened the doors to Macrism, but also pose no proposals of rupture with the establishment, which are the measures we need to end the crisis.
The “everyone against the austerity plan” slogan can materialize on the streets, unifying struggles, demanding that the unions call a national strike and a real plan of struggle. But if the anti-Macri project is in the context of this system, proposing the union of the bourgeoisie and the working people, between those who fight for the legalization of abortion or the separation of the State and the Church, with those who’d prefer to see us dead, oblige children give birth or continue protecting paedophile priests, then we say no to that project.
The alternative is anticapitalist
The political project we need must propose to turn everything upside down. Inside this system there are no solutions for working people, while they continue to guarantee capitalist profits, while we do not break the bond with imperialist dependence, every measure will be a reform, changing something in order to change nothing. The problems are structural and the measures must be structural, and none of the variants of the traditional parties are willing to take them.
We have to break the deal with the IMF, stop paying the usurious debt and the 600 billion of pesos that are destined to pay interests this year, which represent five health budgets or four education budgets, and assign them to these areas. An alternative program must include the nationalization of public services, under strict control of workers and consumers. A progressive program must have as proposals the demands of the feminist movement, the legalization of abortion, the real implementation of the Integral Sex Education and the necessary budget for the anti-violence law. Expelling the polluting companies and transforming the productive model. Stopping the austerity plan, the submission, the oppression and exploitation cannot be done inside this patriarchal and capitalist system.
As socialists, we propose destroying the structure of this system of domination and exploitation and raising a political project for the 99%, for the working people, and on that path building the bases for an equal and free society, without oppression or exploitation, a socialist society.
The MST is touring the country with these proposals and raising the issue of the need for the conformation of a third unified space of the anticapitalist left. Join us and let’s take these proposals everywhere, making the political tool that fights for this grow.
Cele Fierro, Precandidata presidencial del MST