We are going through a period of meetings and exchanges between the parties that are part of the FIT, the MST, AyL and other working-class and socialist forces, about the possibility of reaching a political agreement towards the upcomming elections, that can also strengthen the common intervention in the struggles. Our thoughts on these challenges.
We are coming out of an exciting 8M where hundreds of thousands of women protagonized an international and national day of action that shook the pillars of the capitalist system and the regime. There, in the heart of the organizing meetings and in Plaza de Mayo itself, the organizations of the anti-capitalist, working-class and socialist left acted in coordination, battling against the bureaucratic visions that are complicit with those who support unity with the anti-rights sectors. The unity to give this political battle allowed us to advance and achieve important political objectives of the left.
We are now running up to 24M, where again in the heart of the EMVyJ, the parties of the socialist working-class left fought together against the sectors who, in their support of the PJ and Kirchnerism, unsuccessfully tried to water down the respopnsibility of the governors that apply the austerity plan in the call to the march. Once again, the left won a political battle; we’re going to march for the 30.000, for truth and justice, against the austerity plan of Macri, the IMF and the governors, maintaining the political independence of the EMVyJ against those responsible for the impoverishment and repressive policies.
Also, this week, while the union bureaucracy was deepening its complicity with the austerity plan and doesn’t move a finger, the Plenary of Combative Syndicalism answered with an important rallyin front of the Ministry of Labour in support of the struggles in Fate, Coca-Cola and other sectors. With the rest of the classicist left, we erected a common tribune and prepared to promote and coordinate new actions in upcoming weeks. The promotion of these processes and the unity of combative syndicalism also contribute to the development of a new classicist and anti-bureaucratic leadership in the unions.
The importance of the agreements and differences
These three examples positively show the potential of the unity of the classicist and socialist left. It isa unity that strengthens the struggle of the working class, women and the youth, while it weakens the boss-friendly, bureaucratic and reformist currents. Every common step we took in these battles put the old apparatuses on the defensive. We achieved unity in very important moments. Thisdoesn’t mean that we don´t have differences and debates between us in some aspects, but it shows that, in the reality of intervention, we prioritize a common policy, while the differences are discussed whenever it is necessary.
In the political terrain, we must achieve a similar mechanism. We have a long list of common programmatic proposals, that start from confronting the parties of the regime, from the far right sectors to the possibilists and reformists. Against this, we raise a socialist and working-class solution, with a program of rupture with the capitalist structure and real transformations, with class independence, of anti-capitalist and anti-clergy feminism and with the strategic perspective of a government of the working class.
It is a solid political base for reaching the agreements we need on the electoral terrain, and to maintain and deepen them in the country that will come after the elections, in which the crisis will have take a new leap; we will go into a period of new social convulsions and a great responsibility and opportunity for the left if we want to take a step forward towards social and political influence. All this potential must be put above other debates, from the past or the present, in which there might be differences (that surely exist), as has always been the case in the left, about which we can debate and exchange in a new common context. Today, the necessary change is prioritizing the need and political opportunity of achieving a new unity.
For new unitary steps
The MST wants the unity of the whole anti-capitalist, socialist and working-class left. We understand that in the scenario of the brutal austerity plan of Macri and the IMF, with the complicity of the PJ in all its variants and the union bureaucracy, and against the attempts of the regime to polarize the elections and reduce the political space of the left, we must strengthen a unitary alternative that answers in an offensive position to give the political fight. We propose this agreement for the national elections and others that are unified in August, and also for the early elections in the provinces where there’s still time; like Tucuman, Mendoza and Jujuy.
The FIT has, in this debate and possibility, a great responsibility, to decide to radically take this path and not shut itself in. There are positive declarations in this sense ,while there are still some doubts and controversies that we hope can be positively overcome. In the following days we may advance in a new round of meetings and exchanges to think of the different ways we can reach an important agreement, with a solid programmatic base and project, taking into account the electoral and political reality of each force across the country, with the unitary political will, which always helps find clear solutions in every aspect.
Along with this, while we’re still on the streets in support of the ongoing struggles, there’s an emblematic date that is approaching and must turn into a positive point of inflexion: May 1. We must organize great mobilizations and unitary acts in Plaza de Mayo and all the squares of the country, uniting classicist syndicalism and the socialist and working-class left.
Sergio García