Argentina

Workers of the World: round-up

By Pablo Velasco Brazilian left calls for a new party Indonesian left starts election campaign Anti-union laws in Argentina Brazilian left calls for a new party Heloisa Helena, the senator expelled from Brazil's Workers Party (PT) in December last year, has issued a call for the formation of a new party of the "Socialist and Democratic Left". Helena, a founder member of the PT and one of its most prominent senators, was expelled from the party with three other MPs for voting against government cuts in public sector pensions. The appeal, put out with other trade unionists and well known left...

Peronist v. Peronist in election run-off

By Pablo Velasco The presidential elections in Argentina offered little for the working class after years of economic collapse and austerity. The first round on April 27 was won by Peronist ex-president Menem, whose neo-liberal "economic surgery without anaesthetic" was responsible for Argentina's collapse in 2001. He will now face another Peronist, Kirchner, in a run off on 18 May. The official candidate of the Radical Party, which has been the second-largest party for decades, got just 2.5% - suggesting it is on the brink of dissolution. The left vote was low, with the United Left getting...

Brukman assault

By Pablo Velasco On Friday 18 April, hundreds of police descended on the Brukman textile factory in Argentina to evict the workers who had been running it for over a year. The factory has been run under workers' control since its bosses abandoned it in December 2001, owing wages to the workers. More than 50 of its 150 workers carried on production and applied to the courts for legal ownership. A judge had ruled in favour of the workers several months ago. Brukman is one of more than 150 factories occupied and run by workers in the aftermath of the Argentine economic collapse. A previous...

Argentinian left boycotts elections

By Pablo Velasco Argentina goes to the polls on 27 April, but the choice on offer for workers is very limited. These are the first elections after the eighteen months of protests and widespread disgust with politicians, summed up by the slogan "que se vayan todos" (get them all out). Since the rebellion in December 2001 that threw out the Radical Party President Fernando de la Rua, Eduardo Duhalde of the Peronist Party has run Argentina. These two bourgeois parties have dominated Argentinian politics for almost a century and both are in disarray. The Radical candidate Leopoldo Moreau has...

Argentina: workers' occupation fights to survive

By the Argentine Solidarity Campaign Zanon, a ceramics factory in Neuquén, Argentina, has been occupied by its workers since 1 October 2001, when the management attempted to sack nearly half the workforce. Four months after the start of their occupation, the workers re-established production. They are now able to pay themselves wages of 800 pesos per month. Every worker gets the same amount, even the previously unemployed workers who have been recently taken on. They have won powerful support from the community - teachers, health sector workers, unemployed organisations and the Mapuche...

Zanon - a year of occupation

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003 By Paul Hampton Sixty people heard the inspiring story of the occupied Zanon factory in Argentina at a London meeting organised by the Argentine Solidarity Campaign in December. Natalio Navarrete from the Ceramic Workers' Union, Neuquèn, and Mariano Pedrero, the union's lawyer, spoke about the events that led workers to take over their ceramics factory in October 2001, and their struggle to re-open the plant under workers' control. The workers were about to be sacked but instead of throwing up their hands, they took direct action, taking over the factory...

Argentinian tube workers keep up fight

Underground workers in Buenos Aires have campaigned to have their working conditions designated as 'unhealthy' or 'insanitary', which would imply better conditions, such as six hour shifts, and more workers employed. The privatised company said in the press that this was just a demand by Trotskyists (in fact it has broad support both within the union). They said that if the work is designated as 'insanitary', all the women will have to be sacked, as the law forbids women to work in dangerous or unsanitary occupations. The workers successfully persuaded the Buenos Aires city legislature to pass...

Tube workers' victory

I was contacted last week by Tube workers in Buenos Aires who were fighting for a six hour day for safety reasons. I sent a message of support to their campaign. The great news is that THEY HAVE WON. A SIX HOUR DAY! Below is this message I have just received about this. Janine Dear Janine, This is to let you know how important your letter was in the victory of Buenos Aires tube workers. I thought your letter would be read out at a rally at the end of the demonstration on Thursday. (I had to leave at 2 p.m. so I missed the best bits). What actually happened was that after the short demo, which...

Argentina: workers, socialists and neighbourhood assemblies

Buenos Aires - March 2002 Snapshot of the present period based on eyewitness observations The Scene A great deal of the revolutionary tension contained in the confrontation of the Argentinean masses with the Argentinean state in Buenos Aires in December has subsided, but the present period is still characterised by a generalised instability and social unrest flowing from the material consequences of the official delinking of the Argentine peso from the US dollar. The devaluation of the currency has driven up the prices of goods, since imports still have to be paid at their full value - the...

100.000 demonstrate in Buenos Aires - Where now for the Movement?

The huge protest movement that has grown up in Argentina in the face of the financial and political crisis continues to provide great inspiration for socialists internationally. For more than five years, and in the face of massive unemployment, now pushing 30% nationally, there has developed an outstanding unemployed workers' movement - the piqueteros - who have asserted their right to work through massive road blockades. The piqueteros are organised locally with a general assembly in which all active members participate. Once a road artery is designated, the assembly organises support within...

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