The announcement by Alberto Fernández and Guzmán of a new agreement with the IMF reopened huge debates inside and outside the government coalition. But without a doubt it is within the Front of All where the shocks and tensions were most strongly felt. What do the internal criticisms mean? How far do they reach? What course will they take? What does the Left Front Unity and the MST propose in the face of this debate? We offer opinions and proposals on these intensely current issues.
By Sergio García
I cannot lead the defense something I do not agree with, said Máximo Kirchner, among other things, alluding to his resignation as president of the Front of All congressional bloc, the decision that opened a new crisis in the government. Like him, various sectors of the Front of All criticized the agreement, especially members of organizations that are not directly of the PJ (the Peronist Justice Party) but its allies in the government coalition.
On the other hand, the central structure of the old Peronist party, with its governors, provincial caudillos and CGT leaders, provided a solid support to the agreement with the Fund. Like the leaders of the Evita Movement and the CTA led by Hugo Yasky, they supported the agreement with the argument that there was no alternative, that the problem of the debt is already here and must be resolved. In all these sectors and in its new block leader in deputies, Germán Martínez, President Alberto Fernández and Chamber of Deputies President Massa find the support for the agreement to finally be voted on in Congress. To this end, they also have the support of the large corporations and the entire business and financial community, who demand an agreement, reason for which, opposition coalition Together for Change, in one way or another, will have to give its support.
However, beyond the disastrous policy of the entire political right and the economic powers, and the government´s evident policy of submission and austerity, the debate is taking place with those who, in one way or another, have spoken out with criticism of the agreement. What will they do after they having made their disagreement public?
From words to deeds?
So far we could say that they have not done much more than express their critical opinion. Beginning with Máximo Kirchner, who left the bloc’s presidency, but not to prepare an opposition to the agreement or to take another step. Quite simply, in his own words, he clarified, “I will remain within the bloc to facilitate the task of the president and his team.”
Germán Martínez, the bloc’s new president, reflects something similar. After meetings all the sectors of the Front of All, he assured in an interview with Página 12: “Neither the unity of the bloc in the Chamber of Deputies nor the composition of the Front of All coalition are at risk. It was clear with Máximo’s attitudes that, beyond what he said or the decision he made, they imply, in the future, continuing to maintain the unity of the bloc and the coalition.”
The explanation of the limits of the criticism by the Kirchnerist sector of the government is given by the fact that its political project, though obviously diverging in some aspects from “Albertism,” in no way expresses a model of rupture with the Fund or with the capitalist system that dominates the planet. Let us remember that the same letter in which Máximo announced his resignation said, “I do not aspire to a magical solution, only a rational solution. For some, pointing out and proposing to correct the errors and abuses of the IMF that never harm the Fund and its bureaucracy, is irresponsible.” He does not question making an agreement nor does he question the scam of paying the illegal debt. He only wanted a different type of agreement, one that corrects “errors and abuses.”
These political reasons, which express real differences in the Front of All, but at the same time prioritize its preservation and refuse to actually confront the Fund, explain the null participation of those critical sectors in stronger and more concrete actions against the agreement and the austerity plan in progress. They have not passed from words to deeds, because they do not intend to cross that threshold. Until now, the defense of their spaces in the government and the certainty that a rupture will cause them to lose political power, limits them to criticizing from within. That millions of workers and young people have to suffer the consequences of this agreement with the IMF remains at the bottom of their priorities.
silences that speak loudly
The political leader of Kirchnerism and original builder of the Front of All, Cristina Kirchner, remains silent to date. Not even during the week in which she assumed the head of the government due to Fernández’s trip to Russia and China, did she say a word. Her silence is not accidental but a conscious political decision. She knows that her voice can create a lot of noise and deepen the crisis. By not speaking out she avoids further weakening the president she appointed, and at the same time she also does not give visible support to the agreement with the Fund, shielding herself from the coming disaster.
But her silence has another side, which is implicit complicity with the current agreement. Because, knowing that she could well use her strong political clout to call for confronting the agreement and make it fall into crisis, she does not do this. Her silence, even in the midst of a strong crisis and big differences with the president, preserves the government and enables Fernández to work for the agreement to succeed and be voted in Congress, even with a few more votes against. This reveals, at least until today, of a position that, though critical, thinks more about containing her base, than about seeking a change in the course of economic policy, starting by stopping the agreement. CFK knows very well that she cannot afford to lose more of her social base to the left, least of all in a country where there is a strong alternative like the Left Front Unity, which has juste led a massive unitary mobilization to Plaza de Mayo against the IMF, for a second time.
Knowing that the crisis is strong and that for now it will not escalate, President Fernández himself announced days ago that he spoke on the phone from China with CFK and that, after the talk, his political conclusion was: “I do not doubt that our political force will support the agreement with the Fund in its majority.” The tensions, the criticisms, the internal confrontation between various sectors of the government coalition will continue. However, there is no rupture on the way, but rather a reconsidering of electoral strategies towards 2023. It is no coincidence that these days the need for a great primary of the Front of All in 2023 resonates again among various of its leaders. Of course, social reality will intercede, ongoing social struggles and other issues that may further weaken the government and change its outlook. Meanwhile, today no one is stepping out of the big tent. The blood did not reach the river.
The coherence of the FIT Unity and the limits of possibilism
It is useful to take into account that all these tensions and crises in the political superstructure of the government coalition are a reflection of the criticism and discontent that exists below, among its voters and the social base that put them in power. This is not insignificant; supposedly this government came to change all the evils left by Macri, but it ended up validating the biggest economic scam perpetrated against the country and accepting quarterly reviews by the IMF.
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Hence, the Left Front Unity and the MST aims to broadly call on thousands of workers and youth, the thousands who have voted for the Front of All expecting something else and now oppose the agreement with the Fund, to join us with their strength and opinions in a great campaign against the agreement with the IMF. We have just held a massive national mobilization with epicenter in Plaza de Mayo, which confirms that there is sufficient social strength to defeat the agreement. In addition, we need to expand the levels of mobilization and demand that the leaders who say they oppose the agreement be consistent: If you don’t want the agreement with the Fund, call for mobilizing to stop it and break with the government.
Words are insufficient. This applies to Kirchnerism and also to organizations such as Lozano’s Popular Unity, Patria Grande (Great Motherland), the Moist PCR and others that are part of the Front of All, who have already backed two years of austerity, becoming co-responsible for that disaster. How long will they continue in a coalition that applies austerity and agrees with the Fund, thus assuming their share of complicity? If they oppose the agreement, their deputies should not only vote against the agreement, but also break with the government and take to the streets these weeks and the day Congress votes. Failure to do so means ratifying a course of assimilation to the power of the day and its demands, even they seek cover with critical words and a voting against it, from time to time.
Their past and current positions, for which, not even in the face of an austerity and submission based agreement with the Fund do they decide to break with the government, are the consequence of their possibilistic politics and theories, which disbelieve in the possibility making deep and structural changes against the current capitalist model, and therefore limit them to being minor partners in a government coalition that, supposedly, came to confront an even worse right wing that we had all fought against. But it so happens that an important part of the program of the political and economic right is being carried out by the Front of All government: the agreement with the IMF, the legalization of a million-dollar scam, the continuity of large-scale agribusiness, the benefits for financial institutions to transfer fortunes to their parent companies, the promotion of polluting mega-mining, fracking and now offshore oil exploration in the Argentine Sea, the wage delays and increase in poverty, among other things.
The reality of this beginning of 2022 is bringing to light the fallacious idea that a coalition led by the PJ can be changed from within. It also throws overboard the argument that there is an insufficient relation of forces to confront powers like the IMF. After the agreement that has been reached and is still under debate, the balance of power will be even worse. If, instead, it had been confronted, we would be changing the dynamic and improving the relation of forces, which is not static, but dynamic, if we put millions on the street with a clear objective. The activists of these spaces that remain within the Front of All and its electoral base, can draw conclusions from this and be encouraged to follow another course that is truly positive and independent of the economic powers of the day.
From our side, like we did in December, the Left Front Unity has once again been a major protagonist in the confrontation with the IMF and the agreement, coordinating a large unitary platform with a significant number of organizations, to organize a new national mobilization against the agreement with the IMF, while being the only political front that is truly independent of the IMF, the corporations and the bosses, and maintaining a program that we defend in the political struggle and in the streets. The packed Plaza de Mayo this February 8 reaffirms that this is the way. We invite you to strengthen and expand this course, with all those who have the actual decision to confront the Fund, the austerity plan and the government that carries it out.
Strengthen the Left Front Unity
The ongoing political and social crisis, the sharp debates around the IMF and the prospect of austerity and of a country convulsed with greater social reactions, revamp the need to build a great anti-capitalist and socialist political force.
The Left Front Unity, which the MST forms part of, is the most genuine expression of that necessity, for expressing a strong and visible unity of the left in our country, with a solid political program to change the entire economic, political and social order, a program that we defend in every political struggle against all variants of the capitalist regime in our country.
The capitulation of the Argentine government in the face of the IMF, the discontent produced from below as a consequence of this, and the intention of Together for Change and the libertarians to seize the moment, more than ever place the political necessity of strengthening our Left Front, making it more visible and more protagonist. It is the only political tool that millions of workers and youth who want to fight for their present and their future have today.
Being promoters of a great unitary coordination in the fight against the Fund is part of the front’s much-needed political and social promotion, to continue strengthening our front around just and much-needed struggles. We are the main political tool of the left in the country and we must always fully assume that responsibility. That means preparing new steps and events in the ongoing struggle after the great mobilizations of 11D and 8F, and inviting thousands of workers and youth dissatisfied with the government to join.
At the same time, in our front, we have to make an effort to open channels of participation and action, for sectors of our voters, for independent personalities, for organizations of the social left with whom we fight together against the IMF and in various labor, environmental, neighborhood and gender struggles. Our front has to be at the forefront of helping thousands to organize with us, including those who are not members of the parties that make up the FITU. We have to ensure that there are areas for independent activists who want to build together with us.
That has to be our political will, the permanent intention to move forward, to strengthen the FIT Unity, to enlarge it and make it much better than it is, overcoming weaknesses and political and organizational problems that obviously exist. We must always think how to pose proposals to reach millions, to dispute the political power of the country, to try to be much more than an electoral front, to incorporate thousands and thousands into a great common political movement.
Already in the 2021 elections, the beginning of a process of rupture with Peronism was expressed in the heart of Greater Buenos Aires. The agreement with the IMF does nothing more than broaden that process, opening up new possibilities. In fact, the Kirchnerist leaders’ criticism of the agreement is very much about prevention, about trying to prevent new groups from coming to the left and to the FITU in particular. They want to avoid what we must achieve: building a pole of the left much stronger than it already is.
Hence the importance of what we are doing now in unity of action with many organizations, which in the future will also make it possible to evaluate those who want to be part of a common project, those who are willing to join a pole to the left with an anti-capitalist and socialist program that confronts all the variants of the right, center, and the center-left and possibilist progressives. There will surely be sectors and comrades willing to do so and it will be a challenge for our front to adopt a policy that can contain them. Unfortunately, we also find very sectarian attitudes in this platform of coordination, such as the New MAS, which is organized more toward permanently attacking the unity of the left and taking the FITU as the center of its criticism, with a sectarianism that weakens the necessary unity. Above all, it weakens its own party, which occupies a marginal place in the country’s political and social life. Putting the left in a much larger place also means rejecting those sectarian practices and childish disputes, which are alien to the working class, and prioritizing political unity and programmatic agreements, while carrying out debates on logical nuances and differences in a respectful context.
As for ourselves, we are contributing to strengthening the Left Front Unity as much as possible, and we call on thousands of workers, the youth, the popular sectors of the neighborhoods, to join and be part of our front and our political actions and struggles. Furthermore, we invite you to come to the FITU with the MST, to also grow a party that fights not only for this unity of the left, but does so with proposals to make it bigger, more solid and further promote it politically, in the fundamental struggle for a workers’ government and for socialism. In this exciting and strategic struggle, we invite you to join us.