ORGANISATIONS’ JOINT DECLARATION CALLS FOR “ROBUST RESISTANCE” TO BUILD “A
POPULAR, COLLECTIVE ALTERNATIVE” AND OPPOSE THE GOVERNMENT FROM BELOW
~ Sonia Muñoz-Llort ~
A year after the election of Javier Milei, four of Argentina’s anarchist
organisations have released an analysis of his government’s “turbo-capitalist”
program to “profoundly change the social, economic and political relations” in
the country. The joint statement from Santa Cruz Anarchist Organization (OASC),
Rosario Anarchist Federation (FAR), Anarchist Organization of Tucumán (OAT) and
Anarchist Organization of Córdoba (OAC) also highlighted the “repression and
criminalisation of popular resistance” accompanying the extreme-right economic
program.
To impose the labour reforms privatising different strategic areas of production
and services, the government has been engaging a systematic plan to repress
protests. “In alliance with the judiciary”, said the statement, “Milei’s
government opened cases and arrested activists and union leaders, threatened
workers who participated in strikes with dismissal, [and] organised media
operations against workers in conflict”.
The groups describe the impacts of Milei’s policies as a social catastrophe,
which has worsened due to the rise in the price of basic necessities. The
official unemployed population has reached more than 1.7 million, and over half
the population is beneath the poverty line. 44.000 state workers have been
dismissed and essential services in the health, education and retirement sectors
are being de-funded.
Another worrying concern is that parts of the social support system are
increasingly being transferred to evangelical churches. This alliance between
conservative and far-right sectors is destroying decades of efforts by the
women’s and dissident movements. Not only are programs for the prevention and
attention to sexist violence being dismantled, but a new anti-feminist crusade
led by the government is promoting the public emergence of neo-fascist
discourse.
While the parliamentary opposition places all its hopes on the next election,
the anarchists are calling for “a robust resistance” that takes the new context
into account. By building bridges between those union groups and social
organisations willing to turn to direct action as a strategy, and intensifying
the mobilisations and strikes that have been ongoing since Milei’s takeover,
they aim “to build a popular, collective alternative, for a better life for
those at the bottom”.
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