By: Agrupación Nacional Clasista Antiburocrática (ANCLA)

Let’s take the strike on the hands of the workers and demand continuity

Workers’s life is unbearable. In addition to layoffs in State and private sectors, wages and pensions devaluation, the high cost of basic needs and the recession, successive blows have been struck workers and the middle sectors, with the increase in tariffs, fuel prices and the liquidation of social programs. In addition to destroying thousands of jobs and making work more precarious, the government has announced new layoffs in the state and is pursuing the criminalization of protests and repression of pensioners and other sectors that are fighting his government back.

Milei’s far right government intends to deepen auterity, the authoritarian aspect of his regime and advance in the implementation of reactionary reforms to wipe out the historic conquests of the working people, with the support of the conservative opposition, PJ which votes in favour of those laws and the union bureaucracy, which has enabled the austerity without calling for centralized measures, leaving the responsibility of confronting it in the hands of workers and militant sectors who have been resisting with strikes, mobilizations, protests that political leaders have refused to articulate. Anger is growing and there are conflicts over salaries and dismissals in state departments, in companies like FATE, in health services like Garrahan Hospital, justice workers in Córdoba and teachers in Chubut, Misiones, Tierra del Fuego, among other struggles.

This accumulation was also seen on February 1, when Milei’s reactionary speech replied to on the streets. Wednesday after Wednesday, the pensioners were at the forefront and channeled part of the struggles and began to put an end to Bullrich’s repression. The massive March 24 with the United became a powerful response not only to the negationist policy, but also to austerity and surrender that is intended to be incorporated into a new mortgage agreement with the IMF.

In the face of this high social tension, CGT has called a strike for Thursday the 10th and announced that it will mobilize on the 9th for Congress “in support of pensioners”. Although a national strike is more than necessary in the face of such an attack, and from the MST-ANCLA and our union groups we will work from the bottom up to help guarantee it, we are very critical and have no confidence in this CGT leadership, which is launching a passive, Sunday-like late strike, without any continuity.

This strike comes too late, after thousands of layoffs, after wages have been crushed and recession has been consolidated. It’s been almost a year since the last national strike, also triggered by anger and mobilizations against an Omnibus Bill, which could have been definitively defeated if a real plan of struggle had been launched, since there was a great willingness on the part of the workers to fight. This leadership, glued to their union halls for years, spent their time negotiating with the bosses to reschedule production and suspensions in order to save company profits and negotiating a labor reform with Milei’s government. The leadership of both CTAs, which also had to join the measure, bears similar responsibility for inaction or for very partial or testimonial measures when Milei and his henchmen closed departments and devalued wages. Most of the unions are asking to join, showing that anger is widespread. UTA has already confirmed that it will not participate in the measure, hiding behind compulsory conciliation, a new betrayal of the workers’ struggle.

It’s a passive strike, with the aim of decompressing, without continuity and in the service of positioning itself in the face of pressure from below. But we also see that this CGT is more concerned with the cannibalistic internal affairs of the PJ and the needs of the employers’ sectors linked to the internal market, which are demanding their slice of the pie in the face of predatory mileage that favors the most concentrated sectors linked to big multinational capital. And with a diffuse program, which only details the social security fund, which does not belong to the state or the bosses, nor is it a privilege of these leaders, but rather workers’ money.

That is why we warn that this leadership will not work for the strike that is needed, let alone for the general strike to defeat Milei and his plan. We are the militant activists, unions, shop stewards and delegates, along with the anti-bureaucratic and left groups, who have to step forward and call on the workers and fighters to take the strike into their own hands, taking upon challenges so that the strike is vigorous:

Let the grassroots decide. Demand, call and organize assemblies, open plenaries and/or meetings of activists in all workplaces and unions to discuss, vote and organize the strike. Get the grassroots involved, participate in debates and decisions. Demand a strike in all unions.

Discuss what is demanded. In these assemblies and plenary meetings, the strike program must be discussed and decided. The strike must not just be a big show of anger against the government. We must discuss and vote on the list of demands for each site and struggle: for wages, pensions and social assistance to be increased; for all those dismissed to be reinstated and for dismissals and suspensions to be banned by law; for working conditions and progressive agreements to be defended. Raise them on the day and demand that the union leaderships and the trade union centers incorporate them. Along with this, we must demand that the Bullrich protocol be revoked, that the right to protest be respected and that the agreement with the IMF not be finalized, that the usury organization be broken up and that the money be allocated to wages, pensions, health, education and social plans. And that the crisis is not paid for by workers, neighborhoods, pensioners and women. The rich and corporations must pay for it with heavy taxes, among other points.

For an active national strike. Propose that the strike be really active. The CGT calls the strike in the newspapers, but doesn’t lift a finger to organize it and, on the 10th, there are no demonstrations, protests or actions to strengthen it and prepare for its continuation. Throughout the country, depending on the conditions in each place, we must call for unity of action to carry out actions.

Mobilize on the 9th with pensioners, combative trade unionism and the left. The CGT is calling for a mobilization in support of pensioners on Wednesday the 9th. It’s not the first time they’ve made a minimal effort when it comes to taking to the streets. There’s no point in washing our hands behind the heroic pensioners and their organizations who fight and confront repression every Wednesday. On the 9th, we must mobilize with the pensioners at the forefront, forming an independent column with combative trade unionism and other sectors in struggle, to guarantee a mass mobilization, to raise popular and workers’ demands, to demand Bullrich’s and Milei’s departure.

Demand continuity with a Plan of Struggle. This action cannot remain isolated. As happened after the general strikes in January and May 2024, which were paid for with more layoffs, misery and loss of earnings. We reject the idea that the measures are to decompress and that the unions will then go back to taking a nap. The strike must be the start of a plan of struggle until the government and its plan are defeated. Continuity is necessary, so that the government doesn’t get its act together after the blow it has received, and for this, progressive measures are needed in order to prepare for the necessary general strike.

These leaders no longer exist. For new leadership. We don’t have a shred of confidence in these leaders. While we prepare for this strike, we have to keep discussing what is increasingly a demand from below: these leaders no longer exist. It is no longer acceptable for them to leave workers alone, to take action only once a year and only when things are this bad. We have to sweep away this old leadership and fight for a new leadership and a new democratic and combative trade union model. No more verticalism and no more sell-out leaders who spend years and years in office, negotiating and becoming millionaires, and forget the demands of the grassroots. We need to build a new central where the grassroots decide, where combative unionism is at the forefront, where the activism that emerges in the struggles and puts the body to the body is the protagonist.

The MST and ANCLA, in all workplaces, boarders and unions where we have a presence and leadership roles, are going to take this comprehensive policy so that the measure becomes a heavy blow against Milei and in the provinces against the governors of all kinds who are carrying out the same austeruty. And we ask that we take the strike into our own hands. There is enough willingness to fight among the workers. Let’s prepare a strike for the 10th. Let’s get to work.