The arrival of Sergio Massa to the Super-Ministry of Economy did nothing more than worsening the conservative turn of the government. Orthodox recipes were announced to beat once again the salaries and income of the popular sectors. Also relations with the USA are being strengthened, as seen in the meeting of the new leader of the government with Ambassador Mark Stanley. A whole combo that catalyzes the economic and social crisis. We need to impose an way out in favor of the social majorities and for that we need to strengthen the FIT-Unity and the MST as tools of the workers.
By Nicolás Zuttión
After approving the agreement with the IMF, Argentina did not stop deepening its crisis day after day. Catastrophic forecasts coming from the headquarters of the government about a supposed debacle if the country did not sign the agreement with the Fund appeared all at the together, but with the same organization watching over our economy. Since Martin Guzman’s resignation everything worsened. The critical state of the reserves, bank runs that come one after the other, rampant inflation that threatens to surpass 80% this year is combined with a political crisis up high.
In order to suture this deep wound, the Frente de Todos decided to spend its “last bullet”, placing Sergio Massa in the center of the scene with a role that almost places him as the new presidential figure, displacing Alberto Fernández. What many indicate as the government’s “last chance” comes with the consolidation of a shift to the right on the part of the government, whose only objective is to please “the markets”. A shift to the right defended by the main shareholders of the coalition, including Cristina Fernández de Kirchner herself.
Thus the arrival of Massa, with an orthodox and austerity project under his arm as indicated by his announced measures, which among other things reveal more austerity and increase of public services fees, completely fails to comply with what was promised by the Frente de Todos in 2019. The electoral promises of that time remain scattered only in the memory, since the Macrista inheritance not only did not go away, but is worsening. The fact that more than 40% of the population lives below the poverty line reaffirms this.
Faced with this state of affairs, the streets are beginning to heat up. The social and picket organizations are standing up to fight against their stigmatization and against the precariousness of life. Workers’ sectors such as the SUTNA and teachers are also beginning to join in. The national strike that was wrested from CTERA reflects that the anger from below is beginning to press to begin to say enough to a political order that defends corporate profits for the 1% in the midst of a very deep crisis. And yes, it is necessary to advance against this model to build one that is designed in favor of the majorities and with anti-capitalist and socialist bases.
The way out is from the left
The right-wing opposition of Juntos por el Cambio and the sector of Milei and Espert never get tired of wanting to impose a government plan that subjugates and attacks those who live from their work. At the same time, it is a truism the refusal to conquer something different from the Frente de Todos or, rather, from Peronism. It is the facts that show that there is no possibility of changing from within what is already beyond repair and shifts to the right.
In the same sense, the bureaucratic leadership of the trade union confederations functions as a fragmenting factor of the current unrest, being also a barrier to confront the government’s austerity measures. The action called for August 17 is an example of the above, far from demanding wage negotiations so that wages may beat inflation, they come out in support of the Frente de Todos.
While this is happening with the traditional forces of the political regime, only the left is the one that remains in the streets confronting the ongoing austerity measures applied by the government to please the IMF. Today the left, with the FIT-Unity at the head, is the only political force that puts forward a program of rupture, anti-capitalist and socialist, which puts an end to the external submission and develops the ongoing social struggles.
It is in this way that the workers, youth and other oppressed sectors will find the way to stop and defeat this capitalism managed by the governments that have succeeded each other. The left is the political force to disrupt the economic plans that exacerbate hunger, inequality and dependence. It is time to make them all go away, it is time for another political project, one of class. An orientation where those who decide everything are the great majorities. It is in this framework that we also push for the departure of all those who brought us to this disaster, and against an anti-democratic regime where only two or three people decide everything, we promote the struggle to convene a free and sovereign Constituent Assembly where the people decide democratically on all major national issues.
Strengthening the MST in the FIT-Unity
The anti-capitalist and socialist left with the FIT-Unity is the one that starts from having the opportunity to stand for the struggle for the proposed and possible solution. That starts with severing ties with the IMF, not paying the debt swindle, nationalizing the banks and foreign trade, ending the privatizations, and getting out of the extractivist model that plunders and pollutes.
Against the politics of surrender, the acceptance of dependence on the Fund and the inexorable austerity, from the MST in the FIT-Unity we understand that there is another way, one that opens the path to socialist and revolutionary changes. That is why the need and urgency to confront the austerity and defend essential social and labor rights we understand that they have to go hand in hand with the strengthening of this political tool of unity of the left.
That is why, from the MST and as part of the FIT-Unity, we have the responsibility to propose changes to improve our own front, so that on the basis of our program we go out to invite thousands of workers and young people disappointed with the Peronist government, and social and intellectual referents who want to strengthen a left alternative, to join and be part of this political construction. From the unity achieved we have to strengthen the postulation and reach millions of workers and young people. It is an obligation for us to go beyond the mere plane of electoral agreements, to advance much further, to turn the FIT-U into a force of greater political intervention in all fields, where agreements are prioritized, debates persist within, and any halo of sectarianism that delays and reduces our opportunities is abandoned.
Promoting these proposals and initiatives, in the midst of the existing political crisis, is the way to be able to strengthen ourselves so that once and for all we, the workers, can have a bigger and more solid tool to dispute power. Hence the need to strengthen the MST within the FIT-U so that these ideas and political battles advance and gain more ground.