The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.24           June 23, 1997 
 
 
Protests By Youth, Workers Sweep Argentina  

BY MARTÍN KOPPEL AND JAVIER ACEVEDO
LA PLATA, Argentina - Before a packed audience of students at the University of La Plata, five young fogoneros from Neuquén province gave a graphic account of the working- class rebellion that has exploded there. The youth, dubbed the "bonfire starters," received a loud ovation at the June 3 meeting when one of them, Juan, declared, "The rulers call us lawbreakers because we barricaded the highways, but they are the criminals because their economic austerity plan has brought this country nothing but unemployment and poverty."

The Neuquén revolt, centered in the towns of Cutral-Có and Plaza Huincul, was set off in April by a month-long strike by teachers fighting a 20 percent wage cut proposed by the provincial government. Social unrest has been fueled by massive layoffs in this oil-producing area since the sale of the state-run oil company, YPF, to U.S. and Canadian capitalists five years ago.

In face of this social explosion, government officials canceled the cut in teachers' wages and promised aid for the economically devastated towns. "Although the strike in Neuquén is over and we've lifted the roadblocks, the fight has spread all over the country," said Juan, 28, an oil worker for six years before he was permanently laid off.

In May the example of the cutralcazo, as the rebellion in Cutral-Có became known, spread to other provinces, particularly Salta and Jujuy in the north, also devastated by unemployment - officially at 33 percent in that area. Working-class protests have also flared in provinces throughout the country - Mendoza, Tucumán, Santa Fe, San Juan, Entre Ríos, and Tierra del Fuego, among others. Nationally, the jobless rate stands at 17 percent.

The five fighters from Cutral-Có were invited to speak in La Plata by supporters of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization founded in 1977 by women whose sons and daughters had been "disappeared" by the military regime. Other sponsors of the meeting were a local university student group and the Coordinating Committee of High School Students.

The five identified themselves only by their first names and, as many of the Cutral-Có fogoneros have done, wore bandannas to cover their faces to avoid government victimization. Carlos, 28, read a statement from the protesters. "When this repressive government privatized YPF and gave away our main source of jobs to the Yankees and Canadians," he said, "more than 10,000 of us ended up unemployed out of 50,000 inhabitants" in the two towns.

Carlos explained they were fighting for justice for Teresa Rodríguez, a domestic worker killed by a police bullet on April 12, when cops attacked demonstrators in Cutral-Có. A number of other residents have been arrested and await trial.

In reaching an agreement to lift the roadblocks, government officials offered residents some temporary jobs and emergency subsidies of 150 pesos a month (1peso=1US$). These low-paying jobs, the protesters said, include "painting curbs, pulling weeds, unclogging sewers, sweeping streets, and in some cases cleaning the homes of government officials. We don't want that!" Real jobs, they said, is what they are demanding.

The fogoneros' statement ended with "Mariciweu, mariciweu, mariciweu!" - a Mapuche Indian warrior chant meaning "We shall win a thousandfold." After the meeting, Juan, 19, a high school student protester, explained that the social upsurge has awakened a new identification among local residents, some of whom are mestizos, of their Indian heritage and history of resistance.

Accumulated discontent
Laura, 24, another fogonera, explained that discontent had been building up over time. When leaders of the provincial teachers union, ATEN, "appealed for support from the population, the response from the unemployed and the people of Cutral-Có was uncontainable," she remarked. For a few weeks, "there were marches of up to 30,000 twice a week. We organized general assemblies where the people discussed and decided everything."

Several of the protesters commented that many people in their town express a deep distrust of all politicians, from the major capitalist parties to the smaller left-wing parties, which play a visible role in the trade union movement. This distrust extends to union officials, they added, because of their reluctance to wage a fight or address the needs of the unemployed.

José, one of the fogoneros, said, "We don't believe in politicians or union leaders; they don't represent us." Some of the others voiced similar views.

Changing attitudes among youth
A wide-ranging discussion period opened up, as students and others in the audience of 200 debated the meaning of the social explosions around the country and which way forward for those who wanted to fight. Some were eager to tell the visitors from Neuquén about the recent struggles they had been involved in, particularly the protests in La Plata against the May 20 cop assault on "illegal" street vendors and on the students who came to their defense.

Students described how the mounted police had charged onto the campus in violation of the university's autonomy. Startled students found cops running right up to the third floor, throwing tear gas grenades and shooting rubber bullets. This outraged many youth, who organized protest marches over the following days. They were joined by La Plata shipyard and hospital workers, who themselves are engaged in union fights.

Talking to Militant reporters, Alejandra Finocchi, 24, said, "There used to be a lot of individualism among young people. Now that's changing. A lot of students identify with the fogoneros in Neuquén and the piqueteros in Jujuy," referring to unemployed sugar mill workers who set up pickets and roadblocks in that northern province."

Meanwhile, the Jujuy workers won a political victory when the government, which had previously unleashed the cops against them, backed down and promised them more than 12,000 jobs, subsidies, and other economic aid in exchange for taking down the roadblocks on Highway 34.

Working people in the depressed sugar mill town of Ingeniero Ledesma celebrated their moral victory. But, added one piquetero, "If the government does not meet its promises, we are going to block the whole province." Hundreds of sugar workers and their spouses and children remain camped by the roadside, threatening to put up the barricades again if the promises are not met within two weeks.

The unfolding events have alarmed international bankers, who insist Argentina's president, Carlos Menem, continue to ensure payments on the country's foreign debt. The Argentine ruling class is equally worried about the political impact of the wave of working-class struggles and some of the government's concessions.

One big-business commentator, Miguel Angel Broda, warned in the June 2 issue of the Buenos Aires daily El Cronista, "The Menem administration must avoid giving the signal that roadblocks (and any other act that infringes on the rule of law) pay." One TV program raised the specter, horrifying to the ruling rich, that workers may get a bad idea: "if you block highways, we will offer you jobs."  
 
 
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