Despite the concessions granted to them by the government, employers are increasing the pressure to win more. The growing discontent among the working class heralds great struggles.
The Reality of the Pandemic in Argentina
100 days after the start of the quarantine, unfortunately, the COVID-19 infection curve has risen dramatically. At the time of writing, there are 55,343 confirmed infections and 1,184 deaths. Although we are not in the catastrophic situation that our neighbors Brazil and Chile are experiencing, the weakened Argentine health system, with 54% of the intensive care beds already occupied, is at serious risk of being overwhelmed.
On 27 June, faced with imminent disaster, President Alberto Fernández, after weeks of relaxing the quarantine and despite his initial refusal to do so, had no choice but to announce a return to “stage 1” of strict quarantine for the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), which is where most of those infected are.
But, if we were doing so well, how did we get into this situation? If the world was praising the Argentine model of fighting the pandemic, what happened? There are several factors.
When it was evident that the virus had arrived in our country, a strict quarantine was quickly and correctly decreed, which served, at first, to maintain a low rate of contagion. In this way, the government compensated for many of its initial mistakes, such as when it underestimated the magnitude of the pandemic and failed to adequately control the entry of travelers from countries where infections were already alarming. However, the time gained was not used to significantly strengthen the health system, providing it with the necessary budget to purchase equipment and hire more health personnel, nor was the private health system nationalized, as the Minister of Health had announced would be the case. Nor was it used to improve community response facilities, in order to act effectively and systematically to block outbreaks and rapidly detect positive cases. This required massive testing. Since the beginning of the outbreak, 318,721 tests have been carried out, equivalent to 7,023 per million inhabitants. This is far below the required number.
Despite all the combative rhetoric, not all of the country’s resources were put into the fight against the virus. There was no industrial reconversion for the production of tests, masks, beds, ventilators, sanitizing gel and other essential inputs. To make matters worse, there is only one factory producing ventilators in the whole country.
There were also no economic and social measures taken so that workers, both employed and unemployed, retired or self-employed and even small traders could receive an income equal to the cost of the basic food basket (43,000 pesos), to guarantee that we could stay at home without economic worries. The government’s ‘Emergency Family Income (IFE)’ of barely 10,000 pesos, destined for self-employed workers (self-employed), during 3 months of the pandemic, is not enough at all.
On the other hand, the government allowed large non-essential sectors to continue operating, such as mega-mining, agro-exporters, and oil companies, which were also guaranteed a price per barrel of oil well above the world market price by the state. According to a report by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, 154 of the 200 largest companies have been fully operational since the beginning of the health emergency.
In this way, companies like Coca Cola, Techint, Cargill, Bagley, Unilever, Bridgestone, and McDonalds, among others, never stopped working. In the province of Buenos Aires, more than 1,000 industries continued to operate. In the rest of the country, 75% of companies, including shops, are operating. And as if that weren’t enough, all of them are also being subsidized with the payment of up to 50% of their employees’ salaries through the government’s ‘Assistance to Work and Production (ATP), which is a non-refundable subsidy paid by public funds.
As we can see, despite the fact that the president in his speeches has criticised big business, even calling them “miserable”, in practice they have only received benefits. Nor were they forced to repatriate the dollars which they have evacuated from the country. It is estimated that there are around USD 320 billion being held by Argentine businessmen abroad (in the last five years, US$ 86 billion were repatriated). There has been no tax placed on their fortunes, as the government announced it would do.
During the election campaign, Alberto Fernandez strongly criticized former President Macri and the IMF, questioning the legitimacy of the foreign debt and saying that Argentina was not in a position to pay. However, since he took office, more than 4 billion dollars have been paid (570 million were paid in the middle of a health emergency!).
As we point out above, the quarantine worked to combat the virus as long as it was fully in place, but it was made more and more flexible to benefit business and the right-wing sectors that are demanding a return to “normality”, even at the cost of the health and lives of millions of workers. Nor did the discourse of “we’re winning” that was transmitted from the government help. Obviously, with greater circulation, contagion rose again and several provinces, in view of the increase in positive cases, already had to move backwards in the lifting of the lockdown, such as Chaco, Entre Ríos, Chubut, Jujuy and Mendoza.
Now that the water has reached our chests, the president had no choice but to announce the return to strict quarantine in the AMBA. He did so almost 24 hours later than planned, accompanied by the governor of Buenos Aires and the head of government in the capital, in a recorded speech. He asked that we all make a final effort. True to his double discourse — saying that he prioritises life while in practice helping big business at the expense of the workers — he also announced that he is removing (IFE) payments for workers in the provinces but maintains the non-refundable subsidies (ATP) to businesses all over the country.
He announced the closure of small businesses, (approximately 70,000 small businesses in the city and 300,000 in the Province of Buenos Aires) with no other proposal than an option for credit at an 18% interest rate. But under the umbrella of “essential industry”, the big companies will continue to operate. What is so “essential” about the automobile, tire or petrochemical factories? During the quarantine, alcohol consumption has tripled. What is essential about alcoholic beverage factories? Or a candy factory like FelFort, denounced for not complying with health protocols? The banks will also continue to operate.
In case it was not clear to anyone who Alberto Fernandez serves as President, he himself clarified it when he said that approximately 3% of GDP went in subsidies to business during the quarantine. It is evident that the president did not choose the health of the population over the economy, contrary to his speeches at the beginning of the quarantine.
There is still time to prevent the spread of infection and to save the lives of thousands of people, provided that there is a radical change policy, turning away from saving big business and putting the health of the population as the real priority. There is an urgent need to return to phase 1 of strict quarantine in earnest, but only on the basis of guaranteeing the social and health rights (including mental health) of the entire population.
The public health system needs to be strengthened, by nationalising the private health system and running healthcare under the management of professionals, workers and patients. Provide sufficient quality and quantity of PPE to all health personnel. In the less affected provinces, epidemiological control must also be guaranteed to prevent the virus from circulating and to prevent the reopening of tourism and flights as is being demanded by the big business. Otherwise, we run the risk that the pandemic will spread throughout the country.
For the quarantine to be successful, it is necessary to guarantee an income that covers the cost of a basic food basket to all workers, employed or unemployed, retirees, self-employed workers and small struggling business owners. Dismissals and suspensions of contracts must be meaningfully prohibited, and companies that do not comply must be expropriated under workers’ control. Eliminate VAT on basic foodstuffs. Reverse wage cuts. Suspend the collection of rents and impose a tax moratorium on all small traders and small family businesses.
The funds to do this must come from the big business fat cats by imposing a heavy tax on wealth and forcing them to repatriate the dollars that they have stashed abroad. It is necessary to unilaterally cut off debt negotiations with the vultures and not pay another dollar of foreign debt. The government’s debt is with the people, not with the vultures. Together with other Latin American countries that want to do so, we must form a united front of debtor countries to stop paying. The banking system and foreign trade should also be nationalized in order to use the money made from financial speculation to prevent the crisis from punishing the workers and the people. The money does exist to alleviate the health and social crises.
Don’t let the workers pay for the crisis!
With the excuse of the pandemic, bosses are insisting that the workers pay for the crisis. They do so with the complicity of the leaders of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT — the biggest trade union federation). As soon as the quarantine began, with the approval of the government, the CGT signed an agreement with the Argentinean Industrial Union (UIA, the grouping of large employers) accepting a 25% wage reduction for workers in quarantine. This was a great betrayal. Moreover, they then ratified it, making it even worse by extending the salary reductions for 60 days and including “essential” sectors. On the other hand, the decree prohibiting layoffs and suspensions announced by the president is a dead letter. For example, the steel multinational, Techint, recently fired 1,500 workers without suffering any penalty.
The images of the trains in AMBA crowded with workers are a raw expression of the fact that workers are left with no other option but to either stay home and lose their jobs and die of hunger, or go to work and be exposed to the virus. But the fear of contagion and the hope that, with Alberto Fernandez in power rather than Macri, we will get out of the crisis, are slowly beginning to dissipate and there are important expressions of struggle.
The sector most affected by the pandemic is undoubtedly the health sector, with workers selflessly fighting on the front line. But at the same time, this total commitment contrasts with the lack of investment and protective equipment for the sector. The percentage of infections in this sector is enormous, reaching 16%. In the whole country, 3,652 health workers were infected and in two months the number of deaths increased fivefold to 19. Nurses were the most affected, as was shown in Durand and Rivadavia hospitals in Buenos Aires. In this essential sector, excessive workloads are common. In order to have a more or less decent salary, these workers must have two or three jobs. At the beginning of the quarantine, Alberto Fernández announced a bonus of 30,000 pesos for health workers, but then he lowered it to 15,000 pesos and to be paid in 3 installments.
In many places, the employers deny licenses to stay at home for people at risk and force them to go to work when they are sick, and those who complain are fired, as happened in the El Talar Medical Center. This reached the extreme point, in the province of Cordoba, of initiating a legal case against two doctors who, as asymptomatic carriers, infected elderly people in a geriatric hospital. The injustice of this situation unleashed mobilizations of health workers in several provinces. Faced with this situation, health workers, mainly in the province of Buenos Aires, have been holding protests and denouncing the state’s negligence since day one of the pandemic.
It is urgent to provide quality PPE and in sufficient quantities. There must be an immediate salary increase for all health personnel. No one should earn less than the cost of a basic family’s living budget. No dismissals or persecutions. Immediate reincorporation of all those dismissed in the various health centres throughout the country.
In addition to the protests in the health sector, other sectors of workers are also mobilizing, fundamentally in the Buenos Aires urban area where the largest working class in the country is concentrated. Also in provinces such as Chubut and Córdoba, state workers have carried out important mobilizations. The first to kick off were the workers of the Frigorífico Penta whose owner was a candidate on the Peronist (the “centre-Left” political tradition represented by Fernandez) electoral lists. Due to the non-payment of salaries, they organised a protest at the door of the factory and were repressed by the police of the province of Buenos Aires, whose governor is the Peronist Kicillof. They were followed by workers from various sectors such as Textil Iberoamericana, BedTime Mattresses, Alfajores La Nirva, Miners from the province of Neuquén, workers who depend on delivery and food apps, and Call Centers in the province of Tucumán.
A great example was given by the tire factory workers who, after 15 days of struggle at the door of the FATE factory, managed to defeat the 25% reduction in their salary, in addition to new sanitary protection measures. They demonstrated in this way that with organization and struggle it is possible to win and maintain victories.
On the other hand, the CTA union federation (Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina), led by another Peronist sector and which organizes the majority of state workers, beyond some declarations or token measures, is doing nothing to promote these struggles. For the state sector, the national government announced that the payment of the Annual Complementary Salary bonus (aguinaldo), which is paid twice a year, will be paid in installments, giving free rein to the governors, mayors, and private employers to do the same.
The first sector to suffer from cuts has been the pensioners. They were deprived of “pension mobility” increases, through which pensions increase alongside the salaries of active workers. The government replaced this mobility with pension increases via a presidential decree. In this way, retirees saw a cut of approximately 6000 pesos in their income. In response, thousands mobilized online to demand their rights.
For a National Plan of Struggle
We need a national plan of struggle to stop workers paying for the crisis. This should start with supporting and coordinating all the struggles which are taking place. We must defeat the pact between the CGT, bosses and government. Stop exposing workers to the virus in non-essential jobs. Pay all bonuses on time and in full. For an 82% “mobile” increase in pensions.
For this plan to be effective, we need a new combative and democratic leadership. Many times, the Argentine working class has shown that when it gets angry, it goes out to fight with or without the bureaucratic union leaders. In the face of the betrayal of the CGT and the total passivity of the CTA, a unique opportunity presents itself for the Left. The coordination developed by some parties within the Left Front (FIT), called the ‘Plenary of Combative Trade Unionists’, must take an offensive approach, and present itself as a fighting leadership for the whole of the working class. This will be well appreciated by all the new activists that emerge in every struggle. But scepticism, conservatism and sectarian interests of party and union apparatuses must be set aside. The conditions are in place, the pandemic did not stop the anger and the expectations which exist in the Alberto Fernandez government will come to an end. Moreover, the rebellion is growing all over the world and sooner rather than later, also in Argentina the working class will take to the streets.
With Hunger There is no Quarantine
The sector most punished by the economic crisis, and now by the pandemic, are the unemployed who mostly live in the slums in all the cities of the country, mainly in Buenos Aires. In this sector, contagion is spreading more and more every day. Overcrowding in “houses” where 4 or 6 people live in one room, the lack of drinking water, and basic infrastructure works such as sewers, electricity and paved streets make basic hygiene measures and an effective quarantine impossible. Asking people living in these conditions to stay in their homes is a total lack of human sensitivity.
Moreover, the paralysis of the economy affects them severely, because they cannot do the temporary odd jobs they usually do for a living (the “changas”). The state does not help them either, since there was no increase in the social assistance payments they receive (approximately $8500 pesos, about 70 dollars per month). Nor can they access the IFE (emergency social assistance of $10,000).
In this way, they see their already miserable income reduced and poverty increased further. More and more people are coming to the neighborhood canteens to pick up a plate of food.
Fearing the social explosion of a sector with a great tradition of struggle, the state’s response was the complete militarization of the slum “villages” where the contagion broke out, as in the case of Villa Azul or Villa 11–14.
There have been some mobilizations by unemployed organizations, fundamentally organized by the Left, and they achieved some victories, such as the sending of food that was not being sent by the government and a one-time bonus of $3000. However, there have still not been mass struggles in this sector motivated by the fear of contagion and the role of organizations in the sector which are part of the government.
But hunger always erodes patience. A genuine job creation plan is needed. We need to urgently increase the social programmes and pay all the cost of a basic family budget. Immediate distribution of food and cleaning and hygiene supplies. For the urbanization of the “villages” and a basic infrastructure plan. Enough with the militarization of the poor neighborhoods.
Human Rights, in Quarantine.
With the excuse of enforcing the strict quarantine, the government advanced in an authoritarian direction. It even ordered the cyber-patrolling of social networks. It left it to the police and gendarmerie to control compliance with the quarantine, giving free rein for police abuse. The Argentine police force is characterized by its trigger-happy nature, and its links to drug trafficking and organized crime. There are too many reports of torture and murder during the quarantine. For example, in the province of San Luis where 3 “suicides” of people arrested for violating the quarantine were recorded. There was also the rape and torture of members of the Qom community, an indigenous people in the province of Corrientes. Or the murder by gendarmes of a young man in a neighbourhood in Buenos Aires.
The most prominent case was the forced disappearance, followed by the death of, rural worker Luis Espinoza by the police in the province of Tucumán. And once again a few days ago, the Tucumán police murdered Walter Nadal, suffocating him with a knee in the back of his head similar to how the Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd.
These are only some of the more serious cases and they happened in provinces governed by both Peronism and by Macri’s right wing. And still, Buenos Aires Security Minister, Berni, published photos of himself armed with a rifle and gives interviews praising the “iron fist” of the law.
The government also intends to give legitimacy to the genocidal Argentinian army by sending soldiers to distribute food in the popular neighborhoods. This is what the president said when, before the quarantine, he called for “turning the page” on the Army’s history of genocide, pointing to the need for reconciliation of the people with the Armed Forces in order to rehabilitate the repressive apparatus of the state, which is necessary in the case of social rebellion.
Because human rights are not suspended in quarantine, it is necessary to punish the police involved in torture and murder. Neighborhood control with full powers over police forces is needed. The army must leave the neighborhoods, the neighborhood organizations are sufficient to take charge of the food distribution and assistance to the poorest people.
Gender Violence and Femicides, the Other Pandemic
Male violence against women was not stopped by the pandemic. A woman is killed every 24 hours because she is a woman.
One of the central points of the electoral campaign of President Alberto Fernandez was to advance in the recognition of women’s rights. His speeches, with inclusive language, and the creation of the Women’s Ministry were signs that he would move forward in this direction. But, once again, it was just doublespeak. As soon as he took office, he traveled to Rome to meet with Pope Francisco and when he returned he announced that he would present his own abortion bill, agreed with the Catholic Church, ignoring the bill drafted by the women’s movement organized in the National Campaign for Legal Abortion, which has been presented repeatedly in Congress for 15 years.
Then the pandemic led the government to not move forward with the approval of legal abortion because “it is not essential”. They didn’t even increase the budget for combating male violence — it remains the same as under the Macri administration, $11 per woman per year, a mockery.
Minister Gomez Alcorta’s only proposal was to establish a telephone number for victims to call. And she advised women suffering from gender-based violence to “go to a relative’s or a friend’s house”.
This is why, within the women’s movement, the expectations which existed in Fernandez as President are beginning to fade away. In the mobilization of 8 March, prior to the quarantine, the central slogan was “The debt is to us, to the IMF or the churches” against the plans of the government to pay the foreign debt.
Although for the moment, due to the pandemic and the passivity of the Peronist organizations, it is not expressed in the streets, the feminist green tide is still latent. This is because they have not solved any of the problems affecting women or the LGBT+ community, especially the trans women who cannot access any work.
It is necessary to create sufficient shelters for women victims of gender violence. In the meantime, all the empty hotels should be declared public assets to serve as refuges for these women, until they can return to their homes. Subsidies based on a basic family budget should be paid to all women victims of violence for their maintenance and that of their children. If Congress can meet to pass laws that benefit employers, it can also meet to pass legal abortion legislation. For the inclusion of trans women and the entire LGBT+ community in employment and state aid records.
A Win-Win Capitalism?
Coming out of a meeting with the country’s big businessmen, Alberto Fernandez declared that “we agreed that a capitalism that is no longer fair is not a good capitalism” and that “we want a capitalism where everyone wins”.
Is this possible? We believe that there is no such thing as good capitalism, “with a human face”. The pandemic that is claiming the lives of millions of people, most of them working class, is an expression of the true face of capitalism.
Millions around the world realize this, which is why rebellions are erupting, with youth on the front lines, mainly in the United States, the quintessential capitalist country. More and more of us are realizing that, with this system, we have no future and are taking to the streets to fight for our rights. Against the precarization and “uberization” of work, we demand recognition for all workers and salaries linked to the cost of living, with all the necessary guarantees of social security.
Against racism and all discrimination, we must put an end to capitalism which needs us to be divided according to our skin colour or nationality. But the working class is one throughout the world.
Through environmental depredation this system is leaving us without a planet. To have a future, we say no more environmental destruction. For a system of production that respects nature, based on social needs and not on corporate profit. For recognition of all the territory inhabited by the original communities.
We fight against the oppression of women and the LGBT+ community. Down with patriarchy, which will not fall if we do not also throw out the capitalist system that needs it to perpetuate the subjugation of working women.
In order to achieve these and other demands by fighting and mobilizing in the streets, it is fundamentally necessary to organize politically to end the successive governments of the bourgeoisie. We need to organise to build a different system based on real democracy, with solidarity, where production is planned for social needs and not for corporate profit, that is, a socialist system.
That is why we need to build a political organization that organizes the rebellion of the working class, women and youth, in Argentina and around the world. International Socialist Alternative is a revolutionary international organization that fights against the capitalist system worldwide and appeals to all those who want to change this world. Join us!
