Logically, the fight against Macri does not halt. The reasons abound. And it is obvious that ending this catastrophe is an immediate necessity. This morning, with a video on social media, CFK announced the formula for her political project: Alberto Fernández as president and her as vice president. Faced with this, we have an obligation: to warn about the certainty of a new frustration prepared by this proposal. Two parameters for this hypothesis: the history of Fernández (Alberto) and the program, with symptomatic ambiguity, outlined by CFK in recent interventions.
Indispensable memory
In politics, a long history can include tactical errors. However, when most of that history lies in the same trench, it is no longer an episodic setback, but an organic class position. This is the case of Alberto Fernández. Let’s review it:
* He worked for Menem.
* He was Cavallo’s candidate for the Buenos Aires Legislature.
* He resigned from that seat in the Legislature to take office in the executive, and left his space to Elena Cruz, a defender of ex dictator Videla (her swearing in was objected at the time only by the MST legislator).
* He was campaign manager for Randazzo and Massa, recently.
One more fact, which shows how, in traditional bourgeois politics, Marxism plays a role (Groucho´s Marxism, that is): in 2015, Fernandez casted a blank vote in the ballotage between Macri and Scioli, the same position for which forces like ours are branded as “traitors”, by the very space that today elevates Fernandez as its pre-candidate for president. In short, principles for one thing and for the other.
Gelbard, bureaucracy and IMF: Fernández-Fernández for what perspective?
Since the CLACSO Congress in 2018, through the presentation of her book at the Fair, the photo with the entire PJ at its party headquarters and now with the choosing of this candidate for president, CFK has been shaping a government program. Historical references are not casual, nor “lapses” in general. Gelbard, as a cadre of the bosses, first in 1951 and again with the return of Perón in 1974, always intervened to guarantee one policy: adjust profitability in favor of the bourgeoisie by freezing wages in agreement with the union bureaucracy. This was the case in the 1950s and during Perón’s last government. That is to say: a factor of transfer of resources from the working class to the capitalists.
This is why the tribute CFK pays to this historical figure in this conjuncture, in which the economic orientation is being discussed, defines a categorical intention: to broker a pact with the bosses and the union bureaucracy. Simultaneously, Kicillof and other less visible operators of the Kirchnerist universe relentlessly visit Wall Street, transmitting certainty in relation to the key of Argentine capitalism: the relationship with the IMF and the payment of the debt. Former minister Kicillof does not stop repeating that he does not consider questioning the debt; ergo, they will pay. Therefore, we have a combo: conciliation with the bosses and the bureaucracy, and guarantees for financial capital. Only it lacked one more movement to the right to complete the circle: the election of Alberto Fernandez as pre-candidate tries to operate as a resource to align the whole apparatus of the old PJ, governors, mayors and unpresentables of the most varied species, in the same block to govern and bring “order” to the heavy “inheritance” (sound familiar?) of “neo-liberal chaos”. In short: a right-wing program of austerity through the containment of the working class, justified with arguments based on Macri´s disaster, leading, in our opinion, to a new frustration. In these cases, formulating hypotheses is key to preparing an independent course.
The country, the world, the left: another path, starting now
This is not an invention of the MST. The latest studies of the IMF, the World Bank, and even the JP Morgan board, agree on one point: the world economy is in decline and heads toward a fall in 2020-2021. They point to the Trump-China tensions as a factor and Argentina itself is considered a “weak link”. The data points out that we are going into a world with falling prices of commodities, pressure on debts and retraction of international trade. That scenario, for a semi-colonial capitalist structure like our country, spells conditions for the reinforcement of the ongoing social and economic deterioration.
Therefore, the debate is about which social interests should be prioritized: the debt and profitability of bankers and capitalists, or the right to work, to public services such as public and universal health care and education. In short: the bosses or the majority who make a living with their effort (or try to). It is an antagonism of social and political strategy. The national situation requires an economic and social program to bailout the 99%. The apex of the platform that we raise is to question the debt, not pay it and redirect those resources to reactivating the economy of the people, not of the banks. And at the same time, to re-nationalize the privatized companies under social control for a sovereign administration of the integral financial system and foreign trade. This is our road map for the working class and the people. To prepare a government of them.
For that path, we insist on one more thing: we must unite the anti-capitalist and socialist left, and renew it in its horizon of dispute so it struggles to be massive. With Cele Fierro as a young pre-candidate for president, with Alejandro Bodart in CABA and Vilma Ripoll in Buenos Aires, and thousands of militants in factories, universities, schools and neighborhoods, we fight for building a powerful political tool, the MST, and contributing to a perspective: fighting for a fundamental solution for the majority, changing the rules of the economy and politics, and building a socialist Argentina. As categorical as it is necessary.
Mariano Rosa