THE VICTORY OF ‘FRENTE DE TODOS’ AND THE DEFEAT OF THE RIGHT: Peronism returns to power through the ‘Fernandez-Fernandez’ formulae.
This electoral victory is a great blow for the Macri movement and its neoliberal policy. For this policy has sent the country spinning and plunged the population into a grave economic and social crisis.
Poverty is now affecting more than 5 million persons. The industrial structure of the country has been destroyed. Enterprises meant to provide services are setting up everywhere, but purchasing power has fallen by more than 20%. The jobs have become more and more precarious. The public debt has reached 334 billion dollars and the devaluation of the peso 500%. Such is the desolate scenery that the right and the oligarchy leave behind them, in one of the richest countries of Latin America.
Those who resisted all these blows were the workers movement and a great number of popular sectors. Strike after strike, mobilisation after mobilisation. It is them who have won this victory and the return of Peronism. The working class intervened massively, pulling the majority of the population behind it. There might have been some cases of fraud, but the electoral result is entirely in keeping with the real situation – a situation of dual power. The dual power that one could see everywhere and in each of the countless struggles.
The Congress of the Trade Union Centre, the CTA, decided to fight alongside the CGT. This shows how badly needed the centralisation of the proletariat was, and the role that the trade unions must still play in this new stage opening up in Argentina.
To develop the country and face down such a deep capitalist crisis, one must present an economic plan with Agrarian Reform at its core, along with the nationalisation of the key sectors of the economy. Production must be planned to answer the needs of the population in fields like health and housing. And education must be free for everyone.
There must be decent wages, and the recuperation by the workers of all the enterprises that have been closed and abandoned by the Macri government. Together with the student movement and the social organisations, the trade unions must be involved in the application of all these plans.
The right is going attack with all its forces any measure of social transformation; it is going to increase its onslaught on Venezuela, Bolivia, Latin America. It is going to throw itself against any process that – in one way or the other – starts tackling the interests of the multinationals and the US government’s plans.
It is notable that, bereft of social support, the right is overwhelmed by the wave of protests. The bourgeoisie finds itself with its back against the wall. The time for liberal measures is past, for these disintegrate the economy. Progressive governments must overcome the property relations. In the countries where they are, they must put the economies in States’ hands.
Alberto Fernandez promises ‘to put money in the people’s pockets’. He says this with the intention to stimulate demand and prime the engine of the economy. But for this to be done nowadays, the banking system must be State-owned, and the State must be in charge of expenditure. As for the offer, it must also come from the State, in the vast sectors of health, education, housing, energy, transport – and credit above all.
Les Posadistes, November 2019
