On May 24 MST and PO held a joint press conference where they called for a big plenary of the left to be held on June 17 with the militancy of the FITU and activists, leaders and organizations aligned with the left to discuss and decide on the policy, the program and the project that the left needs for the next period.
The pre-candidates agreed upon by both forces to propose in that event were also launched: Gabriel Solano and Vilma Ripoll for president and vice-president, Alejandro Bodart for governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Nestor Pitrola for deputy and Romina del Pla for senator and in the City of Buenos Aires. Cele Fierro for legislator, Jesi Gentile for deputy and Vanina Biasi for head of government of the City of Buenos Aires as well.
Here is the complete video of the press conference (in Spanish):
An extract of Alejandro Bodart’s statement at the press conference:
The political agreement reached is at the service of strengthening the FIT-U as an electoral option. But above all as a tool of struggle to confront the increasingly underway brutal attacks against the workers.
We need not only more votes for the situation that’s coming, but tens of thousands of militants. We need to call activism to be an active part of the Front. This is why having called a Plenary to discuss among all is of such importance. That is why this agreement with PO is solid and we call on the rest of the comrades of the FIT-Uto come to the Plenary to discuss and resolve everything using the working class method. We have to change the merely electoral logic, we have to advance in a Front that has a program of class independence and also has a democratic functioning. One that acts in the class struggle to confront in the streets the situation to come. We need to put the interest of the workers ahead because this country is accelerating to confrontations such as those in 2001. We need our united front to be that hope for change.
Unfortunately, the comrades of the PTS are trying to hegemonize it, to impose their pre-candidates without any kind of debate and to restrict the Front only to the electoral level. We, on the contrary, want every other force of the Front to be in the Plenary that we will hold on June 17, to bring their proposals and their pre-candidates to discuss those proposals with all the militancy of the FIT-U and those who sympathize with our program. We want to end up deciding and voting the best candidates and the policy for the campaign. That is what will strengthen the Left Front, a truly representative debate with real participation
Austerity applied by the parties that govern and have governed at national level, is also strongly felt in the province of Buenos Aires. The Frente de Todos and Juntos por el Cambio have been voting together for years on policies that pulverize salaries and cut budgets in Health and Education. Their policies answer to the IMF program. That is why voting for the “lesser evil” is useless. The only useful and self-defense vote is for the left.