By: Guillermo Pacagnini

Yesterday, Thursday 19, the anger against Milei and the rejection of the slave labor reform that is being cooked up in Congress were felt throughout the country. The brutality of wanting to sweep away sick leave, the barbarities that Sturzenegger, Bullrich and Adorni launched with impunity, were a revulsive that not only forced them to withdraw the article, but also helped millions of workers to begin to see the reality, exposing the reactionary essence of this law. This anger was expressed in the strike despite a real obstacle course to prevent or dampen the measure.

Despite the tremendous propaganda machine of the government and its enveloped media, demonizing the strike and justifying the reform, the strike was strongly felt throughout the country.

Despite the chorus of support from legislators and “opposition” political leaders, more or less friendly, radicals, Peronists or from provincial parties and governors who also complained about the strike in the face of the “modernizing” advance. They went out to sow confusion or fear among the workers and popular sectors, but they failed.

And also the workers’ will to stop was imposed in spite of the bosses’ pressure and the threats of discounts, especially to state employees.

The strike was strong despite the fact that it also had to overcome other obstacles related to the very nature of the CGT’s call. They intended a Sunday measure, passive, without actions, in order to decompress the boiler. And they called it belatedly, only when the situation escalated in the face of the government’s provocation to liquidate sick leave. They wanted a limited measure to continue negotiating cosmetic changes to a law that is clearly against labor and social rights, but the result was a strong strike that cannot tarnish any lying balance sheet and that shows that the anger from below has grown.

The strike was strong. It was total in land, rail, air and port transportation. A strike in public services. With high adhesion in the industry, in spite of the persecution and the minimization made by the business chambers. And, although unequal, it reached even the commerce in the great centers of the country.

Because there is anger about wages and the recession, which was stronger than the discredit of the union bureaucracy. Because it is already beginning to be perceived from below that, if the reform is passed, we will go back decades in acquired conquests and we will be worse off.

And the union, social and leftist sectors that mobilized to Plaza Congreso and staged protests and also more than 130 actions and mobilizations in all the provinces of the country, put our demands on the streets, showing the need for an active strike and the need to continue this fight with a plan of struggle.

Mobilization in Congress

The call of the Cabildo Abierto was very strong, leaving from Av. de Mayo and 9 de Julio. From there also left a large column of the Frente Sindical de Unidad (FreSU), with Aceiteros, UOM, ATE and the presence of unions from both CTAs. They mobilized, but again, as last week, they decided not to enter the Plaza.

At the head of the Cabildo column, which entered Plaza Congreso with great strength, the unity in the diversity of this combative space was expressed, with the APyT of Garrahan at the front, the FeSProSa, Federation of Professionals of CABA, the opposition sections of CICOP, the ALE with the voice of Nursing, AGHIM, Internal Board of ATE INCAA, Autoconvocados de la Salud de La Matanza, Municipales de Moreno, and various class union groups among which was our national current ANCLA, Alternativa Salud, Bordó de Sanidad, Teresa Vive, Vientos del Pueblo, teachers, student centers and the MST in the FIT Unidad, among other sectors.

In Plaza Congreso, an act was held where all the voices of this space and other sectors were expressed, such as the comrades of the Frente Multicolor of Pirelli who brought the claim of the tire workers, as well as the communiqué of the comrades of the Gray List/Frente Multicolor of Fate who are occupying the facilities in defense of the source of work. Also the metalworkers of Villa Constitución, transmitting the energy they deployed to guarantee the strike and raising the banners of the Villazo. Retirees, social workers, state workers, the Posadas Hospital which is fighting for the reinstatement of the dismissed workers and a wide range of representatives of the health sector.

Norma Lezana closed with a call to redouble support to the fight for the annulment of the summary proceedings and inviting to the Garrahan embrace to be held on February 26.

The PO, with the support of IS, once again played a sectarian and divisive role and failed when they tried to hegemonize the call to the Plaza and ended up carrying out a lackluster rally on the margin of the contingent of workers that mobilized. When the greatest unity in action is needed to defeat the reform, to defend Garrahan and the workers of FATE and to fight for continuity with a plan of struggle.

After the march, a repressive operation was unleashed on a group of activists who remained in the square, with people being hunted down and imprisoned. We demand the immediate release of all those detained.

That the 36-hour work stoppage be scheduled and be active.

No matter how hard they try, it cannot be disguised that this strike was a strong signal to a government that comes with the initiative and has put all its resources and its network of complicities for the approval of this disastrous law and the rest of the reactionary package, and must take note that it is not going to be a procedure without political cost. It had to backtrack on several points that, although they do not alter the character of a bill that must be rejected and we will see how the text that returns to the Senate will look like.

This fight is ongoing and must be waged on all terrains. But the defining, decisive one is that of the struggle. This Thursday it was seen that the rejection is growing and it is necessary to stoke the fire and add fuel so that the struggle develops and progress is made in defeating the reform and Milei’s entire plan.

The CGT should also take note that there is willingness and disposition to fight and that it has little margin for new maneuvers. The FreSU has proposed a 36-hour strike “for when it is dealt with in the Senate”. It is necessary to set a date for this strike. Demand that all the central organizations call it now. That it be prepared with assemblies and plenary meetings in all the unions and work sectors. That it be active with programmed strikes and forceful mobilizations throughout the country. And followed by a plan of struggle with staggered strikes and increasing actions to confront and defeat this slave reform. From ANCLA, the MST in the FIT Unity, our groups, from the APyT of Garrahan and the Cabildo Abierto, we will work in that perspective from now on.