Macri, go to sleep. When the numbers blew up on every screen, we understood his decision of speaking before knowing any official numbers. The magnitude of the defeat was greater than in the polls. The expansive wave dragged Vidal, Cornejo (Mendoza) and Morales (Jujuy). In Buenos Aires, they lost every municipality they had won in 2015. With the exception of Cordoba and City of Buenos Aires, where Larreta is not completely safe yet, the government lost in the entire country. There was a tremendous punishment vote, over 68% voted against the Macrist government and its austerity plan.
The impact hits further. On 11A, a neoliberal country was completely damaged. Its strategic project of capitalist normalisation turned to dust in a little over three years. The blow reaches the entire continental right, focused on Trump and Bolsonaro, who did not win due to a turn of the masses to the right, but by capitalising on the failure of previous falsely progressive or center left governments. Macri is a direct agent of imperialism, who attempted to reinstate “carnal relationships”, delivering the country through more debt, free trade agreements, transfer of resources to the private sector, privatising what was public and advancing towards reactionary reforms (labour and pension) to increase the rate of exploitation and repressive policies. Despite the support of the establishment, he failed completely.
The defeat did not begin on the 11th. The struggle of the working class, the youth and the lgbt and feminist movement impeded Macri from continuing with his austerity plan. The struggles against the tax raises in 2016, the defeat of the 2×1, the mobilizations and some strikes called by the union bureaucracy, due to pressure from below, and particularly the days of December 2017, put the government against the ropes and forced it to stop the labour reform. If the government was not defeated before and survived until now, it is because of the complicity of the PJ that voted for its laws, the role of the CGT and the other bureaucratic leaderships that isolated the struggles and allowed lay-offs and low wages to continue. Thanks to them, Macri did not have to hop on a helicopter and survived until the elections.
Frente de Todos: a contradictory victory. The group of the PJ, Massa, the conservative governors and the FPV, with the Fernandez leading, capitalised more punishment votes than convinced ones. With the argument of unity against Macri, it collaborated with governability. Alberto showed his moderate profile, behaving perfectly with “the markets” and the IMF. Despite some differences in style and rhythm with Macrism, his project also includes an austerity plan and anti-rights reforms. In this sense, the expectations of their voters will clash with a Peronist government that has nothing to do with the original Kirchnerism. Nestor and CFK had an economic tailwind that Alberto will not have: his agenda includes the payment of the debt; moderation, relationship with IMF and the Mercosur-European Union agreement. More struggles will come with a workers, feminist and youth movement that does not want to continue living like we do now and is willing to fight for more.
A beating, dollar raise and then… The “transition” seems more than complex and has an open end. The beating of the votes was followed by the dollar raise that liquefied almost 30% of wages and pensions. The dollar almost reached $60 and we reached second place in the world ranking of country risk. The government flees forward. The economists of the system beg to “calm the markets.” Carrió asked for a lowering of the income tax and help for small businesses, but nothing for the working people. Alberto, who had already talked about devaluating, allows Macri to do the dirty work and relieve his future administration. He said he would like Lavagna as Minister of Economy, that there will be no double compensation for lay-offs and that he will be “the first defender of Macri finishing his term on December 10th”. Daer said that it is not time for strikes and the CTA-T held a press conference to announce uncertain actions. Once again, they stop demands and help Macri continue in the Casa Rosada.
There is another way out. The crisis has an open ending, October is too far away, December is even farther. Macri is delegitimized and must go now. That is why we propose advancing the elections, but to a Constituent Assembly so the people can decide what measures to take. And an emergency program of the working people. The FIT-Unidad is now the fourth national force. From there we demand a national strike with mobilization, and we are proposing to the forces that are part of this front an plan of action to pose a solution to the crisis from the left, an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist solution.
Editorial of Alternativa Socialista N° 742
