Everybody to the National March
For Bread and Work
Down With All the Politicians
[This article is from the March 7, 2002, issue of Prensa
Obrera, publication of the Argentine Partido Obrero (PO—Workers Party). We
have edited slightly the version that appears in the “Texts in English”
section of the Partido Obrero web site.
[Some of the references in this article are obscure, but the variety, complexity, and great range of the social struggles in Argentina today become clear nonetheless.]
The political ferment is growing all over the interior
of the country in preparation for the National March.
Growing struggles, sometimes victorious, have been
developing in Cordoba, Mar del Plata, and Chaco, and they want to turn this
state of mobilization into a national battle. For other struggles, such as the
ones in Salta or Neuquen, the march represents the political reinforcement they
need. For the incarcerated comrades of Bahia Blanca, brutally repressed a few
days ago in the distillery EG3, with some wounded and 53 militants imprisoned,
the march represents the possibility of carrying the struggle a step further, as
they already did by blocking access to Dock Sud a week after their eviction.
The localities of greater Buenos Aires, such as
Mercedes, Campana, or Zarate, and even the federal capital itself, are in the
midst of a great mobilization.
Almirante Brown, Quilmes, Berazategui, Avellaneda,
Lanus, Moreno are mobilizing their municipalities, and Matanza is massively
mobilizing…[together] with all the organizations of the Bloque Piquetero, in
order to break the political encirclement of Ballestrini and his corrupt Crisis
Council.
The National March is an integral part of the whole
process by which the Popular Assemblies are fighting and preparing all over the
country for their National Assembly on March 17, two days after the culmination
of this march on Plaza de Mayo square.
Great working-class centers like Siderca, San Lorenzo,
Villa Constitución, Astilleros, Rio Santiago, and Ford will be shaken by the
acts, and dozens of towns and neighborhoods will be able to join the
picketers’ marches in the roads, streets, and squares, all over the country,
with the slogan: “For bread and work, Down with them all.” The call to throw
out Duhalde and the IMF is accompanied by basic demands, central for the people
and the working class, such as:
Annulment of the rise in prices. For a minimum wage
adjusted to the rise in the price of the basic products of mass consumption.
For the creation of genuine workplaces. Reopening of
all factories under workers’ control. Prohibition of firings. Distribution of
the hours of work.
Unemployment compensations equal to the minimum wage
for all those out of work. Control by genuine unemployed organizations of the
employment plans.
Nationalization of the oil companies, the privatized
enterprises, and the pension funds (AFJP), under workers’ control.
Devolution of the small savings below 100,000 dollars.
Nationalization of the banking system.
Freedom for Emilio Ali, Raúl Castells and all the
political prisoners. Removal of all charges against the fighters.
The march will begin in the North on March 11, in the
historical picketers’ [stronghold, the] department of San Martín. It will go
through Salta Capital, carrying out public acts [rallies?] and mobilizations.
There it will be joined by a second contingent. They will move to Plaza
Independencia square, in Tucumán, where a march and public [action] will take
place, and a third contingent from the North will join them. At the same time a
group will leave the Northern province of Jujuy, if they are able to find the
material means to do it.
On the same day another Northern column leaves Cruz del
Eje to go to the capital of Córdoba, where a march and public action will be
organized in the center of the city. The central slogans will be: Down with
Mayor Kammerath and Governor De la Sota! Support the struggle of the municipal
and mechanical workers! For the reopening all the automobile factories as state
enterprises under workers’ control! That column will march to Rosario via
Coronel Galvez. On the way it will be joined by a picketers’ contingent from
the province of Catamarca.
On Monday, March 11, a truck [convoy?] will leave the
city of Charata, in Chaco province, which will take part in a great picketers’
action in the capital city. There it will be joined by contingents that will
travel to Corrientes and Parana, in the province of Entre Rios. There will be
marches and public actions with the participation of teachers, public employees,
and other workers in struggle. From there they will leave for Santa Fe, where
there will be mobilizations, and new contingents will join them to go to Rosario
and Buenos Aires.
The last Northern column will leave on March 12, with
an action in the industrial belt of San Lorenzo, led by the local CGT (unions’
federation). The column will stop in Rosario, with a march and public action.
Similar activities will be carried out in Villa Constitución, Zarate, and
Pacheco, the great industrial centers. They will meet with the other columns at
Plaza Italia square. There they will be joined by the demonstrators from all of
the Northern localities of greater Buenos Aires, from Pilar and Escobar to San Martín
and Vicente Lopez.
The Southern column will leave March 11 from Rio
Gallegos and Caleta Olivia, and perhaps also from Comodoro Rivadavia. The same
day a contingent will leave Neuquén and Rio Negro, with the clay workers of
Neuquen, the unemployed, and other workers. They will reach Bahia Blanca, where
public [rallies] and marches will take place, especially in the central square.
The next day this column will leave for La Plata, where it will join those who
march from Mar del Plata. On March 11 they will go to Chascomus, Dolores, and La
Plata, where an action will take place at the dockyard and a march will be
organized in protest of the governor’s “adjustment” measures against the
teachers.
All the Southern columns will meet in Varela junction.
Public actions [rallies] and marches will take place in Lomas, Varela, Lanus,
and Avellaneda, reaching Puente Pueyrredon.
The Western column leaves March 12, with a great
[rally] in the center of Mercedes. A column with its mobilizations will pass
through the localities of Lujan and General Rodriguez, with a public rally at La
Serenesima dairy products company, protesting against the rise in milk prices
and demanding the opening of the books to show the correctness of the demands of
the small farmers and agricultural workers. There will also be public rallies in
Moreno, Merlo, Moron, and Haedo. The columns will reach General Paz and
Rivadavia, where they will join all the other Western contingents, particularly
those of the strong picketers’ district of La Matanza, which will send
teachers, graphic workers, and metallurgical workers. A column is being
organized from Mendoza, which would leave March 11 and reach Junin, Pehuajo, and
Suipacha.
But these contingents are not the only expression of
the great national character of the march. All sorts of means of transportation
will be employed, including entire trains, in order to gather comrades from all
over the country. Only the scarcity of financial means will limit the presence
of thousands upon thousands of men, women, and youth from the interior of the
country. Our political objective is to concentrate them all in the capital in
order to bring down this regime of misery and hunger.
The great march in the Capital will produce a political
commotion and put to shame the decadent demos organized by the hated
anti-popular government in Plaza de Mayo square (the so-called Plaza del Sí, or
“Yes Square,” demonstrations). It will be an opportunity to bring popular
support to all sorts of struggles. All the sectors in struggle will take part in
it, including bank employees, those who lost their small savings, teachers, and
state workers. It will be, in sum, an instrument to defeat the IMF government.
In order to strike at the political regime, we plan to meet in front of the
Congress, and march all together toward Plaza de Mayo, the historic center of
political struggles in Argentina, where a dozen orators from the different
organizations will address a huge political rally.
Nestor Pitrola