Jonathan Frühling
On 9 May, the second one-day general strike since that on January 24 took place in Argentina. Although that would be remarkable in a German context, even such mobilisations and levels of class struggle do not go far enough to have a real effect on the policies of the ruling class.
Background
Even bigger and more far-reaching actions are necessary in Argentina right now since Congress passed the „Ley Base“ (Base Law) a few days ago. Only the Peronists and the Trotskyist electoral alliance FIT-U voted against it. The conservative and right-wing parties, on the other hand, were unanimous. After the failed “omnibus law”, this vote represented the first major victory in Congress for the right-wing and ultra-liberal President Javier Milei. Among other things, the law includes an erosion of labour rights, privatisation of state-owned companies and massive pension cuts. Although it still has to pass the Senate before it becomes law, only all-out action on the streets and in the workplaces can now stop this!
The situation at universities is also getting worse, after spending was frozen at the 2023 level. With inflation forecast at 150% for 2024, such a sharp reduction in the budget will make it practically impossible for the universities to operate normally until the end of the year. Students therefore took to the streets in their hundreds of thousands at the end of April in defence of public education. There is no doubt that a more profound movement is currently taking shape there.
The situation of the population has deteriorated massively in recent months: mass redundancies of state employees, the cancellation of subsidies and an explosion in inflation are creating rampant poverty. This has risen from 40 % to almost 60 % of the population. This impoverishment has led to a sharp decline in industry, which produces almost exclusively for the home market. Although support for Milei has already fallen sharply, many still believe his lies that things must get worse before they can get better. Even so, the people’s patience is running out.
The general strike and the tactics of the CGT
Thus, the Peronist union federation, the seven million strong Confederación General del Trabajo, (CGT) decided to hold a 24-hour general strike on 9 May, the day on which the „Ley Base“ was to be negotiated in the Senate. However, the strike was announced less than 3 weeks in advance, which limited the scale of the mobilisation. Indeed, that was the intention of the CGT leadership. It basically avoids escalating the struggles and only organises isolated strikes here and there in the most militant sectors (e.g. among teachers or nurses).
The long interval between general strikes and the lack of a perspective for the struggle clearly reveals the tactics of the CGT: instead of building up a continuous movement that could pose a threat to the government, isolated one day general strikes are held whenever the bureaucratic leadership feels that the pressure from the rank and file is becoming too great. The aim is primarily to let off steam. At best, this is intended to put pressure on the negotiations in the Senate or Congress. The CGT leadership itself is afraid of the power of the working class, which is undoubtedly capable of toppling governments, as it proved in the early 2000s. But the MPs will not be swayed from their course by a few days of such strike action.
It is therefore not surprising that the turnout this time was scarcely any greater than in January, even though the government has already lost some support in the polls. What is particularly disgraceful, however, is that, although the CGT called for a strike in the capital, it did not even organise a demonstration in front of the Senate. In the political and economic centre of the country, the strike simply meant staying home. The companies might have been at a standstill for a day, but the working class was unable to show its enormous strength and feel for itself its potential power.
This weakened the impact of the strike and, as intended, prevented political discussions among the strikers. However, the broad participation in strikes on public buses, trains and the state-owned airline showed that the organised sections of workers do have the strength to paralyse the country. That, however, will require an all-out, indefinite mass strike, a real general strike, to exert enough pressure to break Milei’s shock therapy and bring down the entire government.
And the left?
Fortunately, Argentina has a considerable radical left, which is even represented in parliament and is therefore familiar to most people in the country. They have consistently opposed the government in parliament and are also active in the struggling sectors, such as the students, the striking workers, and the neighbourhood committees in Buenos Aires. Discussions about a joint mobilisation are currently taking place between the left-wing groups in their electoral alliance, the Workers’ Left Front (FIT-U).
However, so far – six months after Milei’s election victory! – the groups which compose this have not been able to agree on the character of such an event. The ideas range from a joint rally at which representatives of the various groups hold speeches in front of a large audience, to a congress of delegates from all fighting sectors. The aim of such a congress would be to discuss effective policies and tactics and decide on a joint resolution and, above all, further actions.
In principle, all left-wing organisations are calling for a plan of struggle against the government, i.e. to develop a programme of action on the fundamental immediate issues. The PTS (the Argentinian section of the Trotskyist Fraction-Fourth International –(FT) has already presented a 10-point plan as its contribution to the discussion. The MST (Argentinian section of the ISL) is calling for an open congress of the FIT-U in order to go beyond the stage of an electoral front. Both argue that the struggle against Milei must culminate in the struggle for a workers‘ government.
It is imperative that all FIT-U groups concretise their policies and agree on a congress where a common plan of struggle is actually discussed and decided upon. There is no doubt that a permanent coordination of all left groups and militant sectors of workers and students is necessary. Only in this way can all people to the left of Peronism present themselves as a recognisable alternative and challenge the treacherous course of the CGT leaders. One idea would be to open the FIT-U to other organisations and individuals and turn it into a revolutionary rallying point for the working class and all the oppressed, with the aim of transforming it from an electoral alliance into a revolutionary workers‘ party.
The trades unions must be won to going beyond symbolic one-day strikes and calling for, and organising, an indefinite general strike They must demand a political break with the Peronist party and an end to subordination to its parliamentary manoeuvres. In the unions, this requires grassroots assemblies and an organised class-struggle opposition that forces the leadership to struggle – or seizes the initiative itself.
However, the call for a united front for the general strike should not only be aimed at the trades unions and the radical left, but also at unemployed organisations, social movements, the women’s and LGBTIAQ movements, indigenous communities, and student organisations.
The level of trade union organisation has declined significantly in recent decades and many wage earners are unemployed or underemployed so, in order to lead the struggle as effectively as possible, mass assemblies are needed in workplaces and neighbourhoods to elect strike and action committees and to centralise these as fighting bodies at local, regional and national levels.
General strike and the question of power
An indefinite general strike can halt the government’s attacks. At the same time, however, it would pose the question of power in society as a whole – the question of whether a bourgeois government should continue to exercise power or a workers‘ government based on the fighting organs of the general strike should arm the workers, smash the repressive apparatus, and call for soldiers‘ councils in the army to turn against the officer corps. Such a workers‘ government would not only have to repeal all of Milei’s legislative proposals, but also implement an emergency programme against inflation, poverty and to reorganise the economy in the interests of the masses. Such a programme would in turn require the expropriation without compensation of the large corporations and the financial sector, under workers‘ control, in order to ensure a living minimum income for all, automatically indexed against inflation and as a first step to reorganising the economy according to the needs of the working class and the poor.
Such a programme of socialist revolution also needs a political force, a revolutionary workers‘ party. The FIT-U faces the challenge of becoming such a party in the here and now, otherwise a victory for extreme counter-revolution threatens. That means that the FIT-U must cease to be a mere electoral front of several centrist organisations. Rather, it must become a party based on a revolutionary programme of action, drawing in and organising all trade unionists, the unemployed piqueteros and all other social movement activists who want to fight for such a programme.