Argentina: 24M, a massive march and important act of the EMVyJ in Plaza de Mayo

On a new anniversary of the military coup of 1976, there was a massive mobilization. Thousands marched from Congress against the genocide, for truth and justice, against the austerity plan of Macri, the IMF and the governors, among other important slogans. There were also important actions across the country, which we will reflect in a future article assessing this day.

In Buenos Aires, the column of the EMVyJ, conformed by human rights organizations, left parties (like the MST, PTS, PO, IS, MAS, PCR and other popular and social organizations) was in the spotlight and entered the Plaza de Mayo to make hold own act with thousands of people.

In the column, independent of every government and bourgeois parties, the MST made an important contribution with several thousands organized comrades, with Alejandro Bodart and Vilma Ripoll at the head of the EMVyJ and Cele Fierro on the stage representing our party in the reading of the document.

Our contribution wasn’t only in the mobilization, but in every debate previous to the march, where, together with the FIT and other socialist and working-class organizations, we gave a political battle to guarantee not only an independent column but also a correct and profound document that was read in Plaza de Mayo. We reproduce the document below.

March 24th: document of the Memory, Truth and Justice Meeting read in Plaza de Mayo

43 years since the coup, we are in this square raising the flags of a generation that sacrificed its life to conquest an Argentina without exploitation or oppression. Committed with these ideals, against those who deny this coup from the Casa Rosada, we say: 30.000 detained and disappeared comrades, present!

We come here to repudiate the annihilation of thousands of comrades. To repudiate the state terrorism, which began its rehearsals before the coup, with the Independence Operation in Tucuman, the Triple A and other fascist groups. To repudiate the kidnapping and torture of minors, the death flights, the torture of pregnant women, the stealing and appropriation of babies. To repudiate the economic model the dictatorship imposed: of delivery, exploitation and liquidation of workers´ conquests, of a brutal external debt, of violation of every right and democratic liberty. We denounce imperialism, the bankers and the oligarchy that planned the coup. We denounce the companies and union leaders that turned over delegate bodies to the military, like in Ford, Mercedes Benz, and the Ledesma sugar refineries. The Church that leaders blessed them. The judicial power that protected them. The politicians that endorsed them. The big media that were accomplices and cleaned their reputations.

The dictatorship installed over 600 concentration camps and executed a systematic plan to annihilate thousands of working-class leaders and activists that adopted diverse forms of struggle. The result of the genocide was over 30.000 detained and disappeared comrades and thousands of people imprisoned and exiled. The dictatorship tried to annihilate the vast movement that fought for radical changes. It attempted to destroy any way of social protest: delegate bodies, student centers, political, neighborhood, professional, cultural organizations.

We are here for the 30.000. For the lives they took away, the families they destroyed and the dreams they tried to steal. For every activist of every organization. For every scream in the ESMA, theOlimpo, the Vesubio, the Atlético, La Perla, the Bank, the Pozos de Banfield, Quilmes, Arana, in the schools of Famaillá, Neuquén, Bahía Blanca,

in every bloody site of detention, torture and extermination. For Azucena Villaflor, Mary Ponce and Esther Balestrino, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo that were kidnapped and murdered. For Chicha Mariani and those who still wait. For the intellectuals that never gave up. For the French nuns, the Palotine priests, Monsignor Angelelli and other disappeared clergy. For the unbreakable will of the comrades that imposed solidarity over terror in the clandestine camps. For those that denounced their tormentors when they got out of prison. For every activist that joined the resistance against the dictatorship started by the Mothers in this same square, which included six general strikes. This is how the memory that we vindicate was born. And from here we say: they were 30.000, it was a genocide!

In these years of struggle we achieved the annulment of Alfonsin´s punto final and due obedience laws, Menem´s pardons, the reopening of the causes against the genocides and taking them to trial and punishment. We condemned hundreds of them. Thousands of testimonies tell this story. We build memory in every workplace, place of study, in every neighborhood. This great human rights movement, of over three generations fighting side by side, received several blows. The disappearance of Julio Lopez in 2006 and the cover-up of the Buenos Aires Police by the government and the State. The fragmented trials imposed by the Judicial Power, denying to judge every genocide for the crimes against humanity. And the denial of the justice to condone the culprits for what they did: genocide.

But we’re still here, without putting down our flags. That is why the Memory, Truth and Justice Meeting has denounced the government of the Kirchners, that appointed Berni and Milani. That set up the Project X of espionage. That lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 16 years. That raised the police murder numbers to one every 28 hours, including the forced disappearance followed by death of Luciano Arruga. That used the Gendarmería to repressed social struggles. That approved the so-called “Antiterrorist Law”.

Today we denounce that the government of Macri, Cambiemos and his minister Patricia “Bolsonaro” Bullrich is a qualitative change in the austerity, submission, impunity and repression. It denies the genocide, slows down the trials and tries to reward the genocides with the 2×1 benefit, but we defeated it on the streets. This government promotes the benefit of domiciliary prison to almost 100 genocides, including Tigre Acosta. It gave back privileges to the Armed Forces and denies their crimes. It uses the security forces for internal repression, including the murders of Santiago Maldonado and Rafael Nahuel. It constructs new “internal enemies”. It has political prisoners. With its “Chocobar Doctrine”, it authorizes the police to shoot people in the back, raising police murders to one every 21 hours and tries to lower even more the age of criminal responsibility. It uses electric prods and toxic gas. It murdered Rodolfo Orellana and Marcos Soria. It represses and prosecutes social protests. In addition to this, the Stornelli-Ramos Padilla scandal brought into the spotlight the obscure plot between the government, justice, secret services and foreign embassies to spy, designate ally judges and mount political operations. That is why we say: not a single free genocide! No more impunity! Freedom for our comrade Daniel Ruiz, unfairly imprisoned for confronting the pension reform of December 18, 2017, a day of struggle that marked a real milestone. Freedom for Milagro Sala, Luis D’Elía, Facundo Jones Huala and other political prisoners!

Macri´s policies brutally deepen low salaries and pensions, labor flexibilization, lay-offs and suspensions, the high rise of public services rates, the cutback on social plans, the looting of the corporations and the external and eternal debt with its consequence of hunger and misery.

The previous government did not break with the IMF and was a “serial payer” of a fraudulent and illegitimate debt. Meanwhile, Macri agreed to a total submission and now we have the Fund installed in the offices of the Central Bank, monitoring the austerity plan. For that, we say: The IMF must go! Annulment of the agreement! No to the payment of the external debt!

But Macri does not do this on his own. Since Cambiemos does not have a majority in Congress, it could only approve the 2020 austerity budget with votes from sectors of the PJ, Massism and others. And that plan is not only applied with Vidal, Larreta and Cornejo, but also with the help of the accomplice governors, who also repress. There is Urtubey in Salta, who repressed our indigenous brothers and sisters. There is Alicia Kirchner in Santa Cruz, applying the austerity plan. There is Manzur in Tucuman, who, like Morales in Jujuy, violates the rights of raped and pregnant children. And there are other governors, pro-government or on the opposition, who do the same to the people. That is why this March 24th we say: no to the austerity plan and repression of Macri, the IMF and the complicit governors!

But the working class, the women, the youth and the people are far from being defeated. Despitethe brake and betrayal of the union bureaucracy, we fight everywhere against the austerity plan. Environmentalists resist the over-exploitation and the contamination. Fumigated people resist the agricultural toxins. Immigrants resist the xenophobic measures. The unemployed, the pensioners, and native people defend their rights, and the Mapuches have won an absolute judgement. The workers of the Rio Santiago Shipyard stopped the privatization and the lay-offs. The same happened in Telam, in Fate, Pilkington, Coca Cola, Sport Tech, Pedidos Ya, Canale, SIAM, AGR and other companies resisting lay-offs and false crisis procedures.

Let us follow the example of the independent teachers in Salta, who, with their struggle, got a 40% raise! Let us follow the example of the women and the LGBT movement, of that unstoppable green wave seen on March 8th here and across the country! That feminist wave that, with the youth leading it, floods the streets to demand legal abortion, stop femicides, gain financing against gender-based violence, integral sex education, the respect of the ILE protocol, children not mothers, no to sex exploitation, the separation of Church and State and other rights!

On the subject of the crisis in Venezuela, there are different positions in the EMVyJ on Maduro: from support to the frontal opposition to his government. But we all defend the right of our Venezuelan brothers and sisters to decide their fate and are united by the same scream: Yankees out of Venezuela and Latin America! We salute the people of Brazil, who resist the fascist Bolsonaro. The yellow vests in France, the heroic Kurdish people and the Turkish sectors that resist the dictator Erdogan. The new Arab spring of Algeria, Tunisia and Sudan. The heroic Palestinians, who once again resist the military attacks of Israel.

On the subject of the crisis in Venezuela, there are different positions in the EMVyJ on Maduro: from support to the frontal opposition to his government. But we all defend the right of our Venezuelan brothers and sisters to decide their fate and are united by the same scream: Yankees out of Venezuela and Latin America! We salute the people of Brazil, who resist the fascist Bolsonaro. The yellow vests in France, the heroic Kurdish people and the Turkish sectors that resist the dictator Erdogan. The new Arab spring of Algeria, Tunisia and Sudan. The heroic Palestinians, who once again resist the military attacks of Israel.

Today we flooded this square, our square, and marched in Argentina and even in other countries. We don’t forget, we don’t forgive, we do not reconcile. They were 30.000. It was a genocide. No more impunity. No to the austerity plan and repression of Macri, the IMF and the complicit governors. And because they always bring light to our minds and fire to our hearts, we scream again: 30.000 disappeared and detained comrades present! Today and forever!

Buenos Aires, 24/3/19