“They become heroes or traitors of the country” | They call for a march to Congress with a message to senators for the Bases Act

Next Wednesday at 11 am the senators will finally take their seats to debate the Bases Law and the Fiscal Package, the bill that President Javier Mieli insists on but fails to approve. These are two criteria that put into play the continuity of the historical rights of Argentine workers, as well as the permanence of the role of a State that promotes a balance between the forces of production, unions and capital (national and foreign). The outcome of that session is not defined. This is why an important sector of the CGT, together with the two CTAs, human rights organizations and the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP), have announced a mobilization in the Senate to demonstrate in favor of the rejection of these projects, with the approval of half of the Deputies. “Either they become heroes of the motherland or traitors to the motherland,” warned Pablo Moyano, assistant secretary of the CGT triumvirate and truck drivers, during a press conference held at the Smata Assembly Hall, joined by Taty Almeida, from the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora, who called for unity, mass participation and “to show that they have not defeated us.”

The mechanics’ room was filled with both CGT union leaders and social and human rights leaders. These are the same people who have been meeting for weeks not only among themselves, but also with senators, to convince them of the need to reject these projects. The goal of the demonstration is to demonstrate on a large scale, as has been the case since the beginning of the Libertarian administration.

“We are going to concentrate in the Congress Plaza to tell those senators who are still doubting their votes to think that they have a historical responsibility. Either they become heroes of the motherland or traitors to the motherland,” said Moyano, who preferred not to use the historic CGT building located at the corner of Azopardo and Independencia avenues.

The organizers intend to gather in front of Congress from 9 a.m. “This is a call to all workers, retirees and all sectors of society that will be affected by this law,” the truck driver said.

On Friday of last week Moyano called a plenary session of the CGT regionals for Monday, June 3. Not everyone attended, the truck driver knew that the call was made on time. Those who were there agreed to carry out a mobilization on the day the session was held. In those days it was still not known when the call that Vice President Victoria Villarruel was to make would take place.

“It is a necessity and an obligation to reject this law that destroys industries,” Moyano said at the Smarta forum on Wednesday, where he also said these projects are “going to destroy the domestic economy because once again the workers will have to pay (taxes) on the profits”, the triumvirate warned.

The conference took place on the occasion of the Journalists’ Day. Moyano took the opportunity to “validate the fight of the Telam comrades who were stopped by the whims of ‘Terminator’,” he said in reference to Miley, who defined himself this way during an interview. In that sense, Moyano described Miley as “the laughing stock of the world” who “pretends to be a politician outside the country, but here inside he has lost all respect.”

The owner of the house next to the truck driver was Ricardo Pignanelli, the head of the mechanics union. “If this law is approved, we will face serious difficulties in the world of work and there will also be serious difficulties for the Argentine people. We believe that the interests of our country will be affected,” the mechanic said.

When Taty Almeida spoke, she called for unity, mass participation and “to show that they have not defeated us”, but she also asked for loud applause to pay tribute to “the essential Lita Boitano”, a representative of the relatives of the detained and disappeared for political reasons who died last Thursday. The whole room would have applauded wildly in memory of Lita, who, had she participated, would have given her everlasting smile and her V-shaped fingers.

Banker Sergio Palazzo commented that “the president wants to flog us and force us to pay extortion” and called on “the people to show him in the streets that he is not like that.”

Among those who took the stage was Gabriel Katopodis, the minister of infrastructure and public services in Buenos Aires. The official warned that “this scheme has already been applied in Argentina every time they dismantled the State, sold off companies and destroyed the national productive apparatus.” Furthermore, Katopodis pointed out that the Base Law and the fiscal package claimed are not by Miley, but by “international groups to whom they intend to give extraordinary profits by taking away development opportunities from the industry.” Finally, he said that “the only thing that is going to stop Miley from being banned are the people in the street” and called for a demonstration “with light blue and white flags” next Wednesday to stop the law.

Hugo Yasky is a deputy of the Unión por la Patria and head of the Workers’ CTA. He was one of the few union leaders who did not go to the ILO’s annual meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland. Situated among the main leaders, Yasky took the microphone at the SMATA meeting to warn about the role of governors in the vote: “Nobody can act in a distracted manner,” he said, and announced that the day of the rally would be of university students “because nobody survives alone, they come under the weight of the collapse of education, universities, public health,” he explained. Wednesday will be the second day of a strike called by university unions over a failure to agree on pay equality.

absence

Just as presence is telling, absences at a conference like yesterday’s are also very telling. For example, the victorious Hector Der and Carlos Acuña were not there. The first is to attend the ILO Assembly with other leaders of the CGT Board of Directors. Members of the leadership of both CTAs are also there. However, there were no CGT representatives close to Der, who did not make it to the press conference. For example, Andrés Rodríguez from the UPCN was in Entre Ríos yesterday.

It happens that this sector, known as “fat” and “independents”, is not convinced of the convenience of next Wednesday’s rally. They were active participants and organizers of two national strikes, the March of March 8 and March 24, and also enthusiastically joined the April 23 movement called to defend the public university. Now, however, they believe it is necessary to deepen the path of dialogue and negotiation with the new Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos.

In any case, they agreed with Moyano not to make statements against it and let the truck drivers, who are more inclined to direct the measures of action, call regional meetings and organize mobilizations with the most concerned unions. That will be it for now. There are still a few days left for some “fat” and “independent” unions to join. For now, they use the excuse to justify that they will not be present at the rally in front of Congress on Wednesday the 12th because the ILO meeting ends two days later. It seems a bit much.