By Sergio García
For an important sector of workers and young people who expected a different course from the government, the last few weeks have been rife with surprise and disappointment. They had not yet digested that the government did not expropriate Vicentin, when they received the announcement of the reduction of taxes on soybean and mining exports, plus new subsidies for oil companies. Right after receiving this shock and surprise, came the political decision to brutally repress families in Guernica. The scandalous images struck sensitive sectors of the population on the head.
While this unbearable repressive policy in favor of a privileged minority was still being debated and strongly questioned, the IMF mission arrived, with Guzmán’s announcements that anticipate more austerity and plunder: a new pension calculation that does not take inflation into account, which is why it constitutes a cut in pensions; the request to the Fund for an extended facilities program, which means long-term submission; and a request to Congress, that is, to the Juntos por el Cambio right-wing opposition, to vote together without divisions.
The country that is coming is marked by this course of austerity, IMF and repression. And that course has already been confronted and will surely be confronted even more so in the coming time, by different social struggles of workers, the unemployed, the youth, environmentalists and the feminist and LGBT movements.
Surely this already mobilized sector will be adding new layers of the population every month, including many and many voters of the Frente de Todos forced to go out on the streets for their social rights or in support of the rights of others affected by the adjustment. However, this process will grow in the field of struggles and can play a positive role. From the classist left we have to support each struggle, promote them, coordinate with those who are joining and play to develop the struggle from below against the union bureaucracy of all kinds and encourage the processes of self-convocation wherever their development arises or is planned.
We are heading toward a country of more austerity, more struggles and more social and political polarization, since the reactionary right of Juntos por el Cambio also acts strongly, taking advantage of all the opportunities that the government gives it with its policy of agreeing with the most concentrated sectors of the economy, the large extractive corporations and the union bureaucracy.
Debates and proposals in the FIT-U
The political need of the moment, in the face of a government that applies austerity and submits to the IMF, and in the face of a troglodyte right wing, is to raise a strong alternative and independent third political voice against all the forces of the capitalist regime. And that task can only be carried out by the FIT Unidad if it is willing to carry it out correctly and boldly.
In order to advance, mistaken visions that have been delaying this objective from within our front must be overcome.
We have repeatedly debated with the comrades of PO and IS about how wrong it is to separate the workers’ and popular struggles from the political struggle, and how mistaken their refusal to jointly promote large mobilizations and massive rallies with workers and popular sectors in struggle, militant unionism and the left organized in the FIT-U. This false division only contributes to limiting our front to an electoral actor and not placing it on the political offensive, permanently disputing in all areas with a common and joint strategy in the political and class struggle process as a whole.
It is in this sense that we have been proposing to advance in a profound change of the FIT-U as a necessary condition to avoid certain paralysis and to appear much stronger and more visible on the national political scene. The press conference that we promoted last week in support of Guernica and in rejection of Berni’s slanders, and the rally this Tuesday against the arrival of the IMF, are small steps in that direction. The anti-capitalist and socialist left is a real actor in this country, we can take advantage of this political and social relevance or squander it. It will be one thing or the other depending on which course is chosen. In the immediate term, it is imperative to generate in the coming weeks a great joint action of the struggle processes of the moment such as Guernica, Nursing, Latam, the socio-environmental struggle, for legal abortion and other ongoing processes, together with the FIT Unidad to carry out a great mobilization and joint political rally. That is key to raising our voice and for millions to hear and see another proposal.
For a great political movement
Going forward, we insist on the need to overcome the current format of the FIT Unidad, which does not match the political and social needs of the moment. It is necessary to overcome the limited framework of the electoral front, to advance much more towards a more fundamental political movement, where everything is debated and decided democratically and a common strategy is sought towards all processes of class struggle and towards all political debates. A great movement with space for sectors that are not part of our four parties to be able to join and feel actually involved. So that political figures, intellectuals, environmentalists, young people, feminists, social figures can join and feel that this is a place where they are protagonists, where they are listened to and can contribute. We must open the doors of the FIT Unidad so that it reaches thousands and thousands more strongly, so that we can develop as a true alternative of power, in the face of all the variants of the capitalist regime.
In the last stretch of 2020 and towards a 2021 of more crisis, upsurge, tensions, polarization and political struggle at all levels, it is necessary to face these debates and seek improvements that will strengthen the left and our front.