The week that passed was marked various MST comrades taking office in the rotating seats of the FIT Unidad. In Buenos Aires City, renewing the left bloc, Cele Fierro assumed her seat as deputy; in Córdoba, Luciana Echevarría renewed hers, in Nequén, Priscila Otton also renewed her councilor seat and in Chubut Oma Rocha rotates into office. Our seats are at the service of the struggles in times of adjustment and the construction of a left-wing alternative that seeks to govern.
By Nicolás Zuttión
Cele Fierro is now legislator of Buenos Aires
Last Wednesday, December 6, four days before the presidential inauguration of Javier Milei, Celeste Fierro took office as a legislator in the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires. On the opposite ideological side of the traditional parties and the liberfachos, she gave her commitment to fight for: “the 30,000 disappeared. For public Education and Health. For the children of our country and the world and, especially, the Palestinians who today, together with their people, suffer a genocide. For all the struggles, against exploitation, the oppression of women, LGBT+ people, ecocide and capitalism. For a government of the workers and socialism.”
A war cry, a call to action that synthesized the great militant campaign carried out by all the comrades of the MST in the FIT-Unity, who gained this achievement to continue the political struggle. The political seat is a conquest of the membership that continues a non-negotiable political strategy, the struggle for a different society, without oppression.
Nothing better than continuing that struggle with Cele as legislator. A political leader of the left, who has campaigned in various parts of our country. She has an accumulation of experience where all the political phenomena that matter to the masses are born: the street. Leader of Juntas y a la Izquierda, she participated firsthand in one of the last milestones that marked this country in terms of struggle: the green tide and fourth-wave feminism.
But Cele’s repertoire continues. She is a fighter who has been and continues to fight in the trenches against the extractive model that prevails in our country and in the city. Convictions that will multiply at the service of just causes.
This seat, which will practice revolutionary parliamentarism, will be at the service of those who were an active part of the campaign: the workers, young people and women that Cele accompanied. The realities of the CeSACs, schools, faculties, of all workers who are residents of this city, now have a megaphone in Cele’s seat. A speaker within a legislature that will surely do everything to deepen the Macri–Milei pact that seeks to curtail rights and impose its adjustment.
There is now a voice that, in that chamber, in that cave of bandits, who will stand for those who have the least, like she did on the 6th. Demanding a social rental law, jobs with rights, the declaration of a health emergency, the professional recognition of nurses. Among several of the battles that we mention here and many others that will take place next year.
Cele Fierro is now legislator, there is a new seat of the left, of the socialists who are not content with this step as the ultimate goal of our militancy. It is an important step, among others, an achievement to function as an open space for the voices those in power seek to silence.
Since the 6th, there is no valid paralysis against the right. There is a new legislator of the MST in the Left Front who is at the disposition of the struggles and has the courage to face the new stage that is opening. Where the workers are the first target of the adjustment that Jorge Macri will try to pass to comply with the establishment of which he is part.
As in the campaign, with Cele at the helm, it is time to act together, organize, and continue this collective challenge. There is no room for moderation or well-intentioned desires for the sycophants of shock policies. It’s time for you to join, let’s make this seat a place of resistance. As Fierro said, let’s commit to the every-day struggle for a workers’ government and socialism.
Córdoba: Luciana renewed her seat
With the support of more than 60 thousand Cordobans in the provincial elections, our comrade Luciana Echevarría took office for a new mandate in the Córdoba Legislature. With a powerful inauguration speech and the support of various working class sectors of Córdoba, a new period of this parliamentary open seat begins and continues at the service of the struggles and needs of those below.
A seat open to the struggles
In these four years, from our seat, we built hundreds of projects together with the protagonists of various struggles throughout the province. We actively participate in each of the struggles and permanently denounce the government as well as the bosses’ opposition.
The support for the work we do during this mandate that is ending was reflected in the large number of greetings and congratulations that health workers, teachers, EPEC, environmental activists and committed scientists, art and culture activists, relatives of victims of Oscar González’s road crime, human rights organizations, activists for Medicinal Cannabis, leaders of the Palestinian cause, among many others who were key to strengthening the work we carry out from our seat, sent us these days.
Renewing our seat in the current national and provincial political situation is undoubtedly a great challenge and a great responsibility.
Pyrrhic victory
The new composition of the Unicameral legislature reflects the changes that have swept through the province in recent times, which led to a very close provincial election, in which the PJ almost lost control of the province after 25 years of hegemony. Schiarettism lost 18 seats and with them the absolute majority it held and in now tied with Together for Change with 33 seats each. The remaining four seats are occupied by Encuentro Vecinal, the Front of All, LLA and the FITU with Luciana.
When many thought that, now, the Legislature would cease to be a notary of the government, in the first session, a new pact between the majority blocks to distribute the legislative positions of authority was publicly presented.
The maneuver consisted of the fragmentation of the Together for Change bloc into five different blocks (The Civic Front, UCR, PRO and the unipersonal blocks of Maqueda and Rossi), thus allowing the ruling party to retain the main authorities of the Chamber.
Regime party or ambulance party?
To avoid what seemed like an announced end of the cycle, the Córdoba PJ adopted the line of dividing its power and weakening the Together for Change formation, buying politicians from it throughout the province.
Llaryora tries to make a virtue of a weakness by showing his alliance of 15 parties as a sign of strength, when it is an expression of weakness and erosion after 25 years in government. With a vice governor of the UCR and a vice mayor of the PRO, they intend to revive the “Cordoban party”, which expressed the solid governability pact of the provincial two-party system. But they cannot hide that this time it is a farce.
The answer is to the left, today more than ever
What is clear is that the left’s seat will be the only one that will take the voice of the workers to the Legislature and oppose the adjustment. On the opposite side of the street there will be 10 blocks that support the chainsaw plan against the people. And that is why the role of our seat is more important than ever.
Our comrade’s inauguration speech was clear and strong: “For the 30 thousand dissappeared comrades. For the Palestinian people who are suffering a genocide. For a socialist world. Yes, I swear“. With this commitment and the certainty that the voice of the left is fundamental, we take on this new challenge.
Viki Caldera
Chubut: We inaugurated the FIT-U seat in opposition to Torres’ chainsaw
On Saturday afternoon, 12/9, Governor Nacho Torres of Together for Change took office, after 20 years of Peronist governments. Hours earlier, at his request, the act of swearing in at the chamber of deputies became a session to discuss two topics: Law of Ministries and Reform of the internal regulations of the Legislature. Once the legislative body was formed, Torres turned on his chainsaw, among other things, cutting the ministries of Health and Environment, now secretariats, and guaranteeing himself an automatic majority in all commissions. A disastrous pact begins between JxC and the PJ. The FIT-U debuted by opposing them inside the Legislature and with an important event outside.
A picture of what is to come
Among the first legislators, Santiago Vasconcelos (PO) was sworn in for the FIT-U seat, accompanied in the chamber by our comrade Omayra Rocha (MST) who will follow him in the rotation of the seat. A new political stage begins in Chubut and in the Legislature, now with a JxC majority and with a FIT-U seat for the first time.
The ruling party and the PJ had prepared to approve their projects without discussing them. But it did not play out that way, only because of the presence of our seat that imposed the debate. Peronism scandalously defended the adjustment contained in the Ministries Law under the excuse that it was necessary so that Torres could make his ministers swear in and govern, and to “not create obstacles for ourselves.” We are going to a Legislature of JxC-PJ pacts against the working people. The left will have the challenge of consistently confronting each offensive by the government and its partners.
We make a commitment to fight
Outside, MST and PO wait with for our legislators to come out, chanting drumming and waving flags. They were also accompanied by comrades of Poder Popular, LID, Jubilados en Lucha, comrades criminalized for fighting in defense of water, among others, who greeted the rally. Then our provincial leader Emilse Saavedra and Gabriel Solano closed the event.
Oma Rocha pointed out: “It is an honor to be here and to be the first socialist and feminist woman who is going to fight inside this den of criminals. With the strength of the struggles of women and youth, of the socio-environmental struggles that I know very well from the mountain range, where I come from, we have inaugurated this seat”. She pointed against the Legislature and said: “what just happened is no surprise. Thanks to our seat, a debate was opened in which the complicity with which they ended up voting for the Ministries Law was exposed.”
Oma thanked the party membership and those who supported the FIT-U and sent a big hug to her comrades of the Fernando Garralda fair in Trevelin, who are resisting in defense of their jobs against the onslaught of the PJ-UCR. And she added that “20 years of Peronism’s disaster guaranteed Torres’ victory, and with its pacts, they bring more adjustment. That is why we assume the commitment that this seat will be at the service of all struggles. Against what is coming, we need to fight in unity in the streets against the adjustment. And also strengthen and improve the Left Front to become an alternative,” she concluded.
John Aquino
Neuquén: Priscila Ottón renewed her seat confronting the tariff hike
On December 10, the swearing-in and inauguration ceremony of the councilors elected in the municipal elections of April 16 took place. While at the provincial level a new ruling party led by “Rolo” Figueroa (Comunidad) – former national deputy of the MPN – begins it tenure, in the city of Neuquén, the traditional NPN will continue to govern, with Mariano Gaido as re-elected mayor and a majority in the City Council with six seats.
Our comrade Priscila Ottón Araneda resumed her duties on the seat in the first FITU rotation, and made an emotional vow: “For the 30 thousand; for the children of our country and the world, like the Palestinians who are suffering a genocide; for the struggles against exploitation, oppression, ecocide and capitalism; and for a workers’ government and socialism”, renewing our commitment to place the seat at the service of the working class and its struggles.
In the afternoon, while re-elected Mayor Mariano Gaido developed his speech, successfully balancing a reality parallel to what most of the residents of the city suffer, our comrade Priscila Ottón Araneda, raised a sign against the CALF (Electric cooperative) rate hike that will mean a tremendous robbery to the already punished pockets of the people of Neuquén.
In front of a venue full of officials and political caste, between balance sheets and announcements that guarantee collection for the already bulging municipal coffers, Gaido greeted and thanked Jorge Omar Sobisch, the politician responsible for the execution of Carlos Fuentealba, making it clear that the MPN’s right-wing policies still have their origins intact.
Meanwhile, in the Legislature…
In a Legislature with a parity of seats between Comunidad (12) and MPN (12), in his first speech as governor, Figueroa configured a plan for cuts and adjustments in the province, in line with several of the proposals made by Javier Milei. Among them, the review of designations and social plans and the lack of mention of the budget increases that are essential for the maintenance of our public health and education systems stand out. Regarding the education, his emphasis was placed on guaranteeing 180 days of classes.
The FITU seats
Among the first FIT Unity deputies sworn in, Andrés Blanco (PTS) and Gabriela Suppicich (PO), a seat that our comrade Zahi Martin will rotate into for the MST. She is a young activist from our region, a primary school teaching student, with whom we will take office for the first time in the Neuquén Legislature.
It remains to be seen, as at the national level, until when the workers will allow a margin of governability. Faced with this panorama, from the left and the FITU, we have the enormous challenge of building an alternative and being in the vanguard of organization at the service of the triumph of the struggles of our class.
Monica Uribe