Argentina: Release all the protestors arrested over opposition to the ‘Ley Bases’ of Milei
On the 12th June 2024 there were mass protests against the new ‘Ley Bases’ (Restructure law) in Argentina, while the upper house went ahead and approved it. The law now goes to the lower house for further ratification.
33 protestors were arrested on false charges of ‘sedition’. Most have been released except 5.
What is at stake with the Restructure Law?
When Milei was elected he promised to privatise all public entities. This ‘Ley bases’ aims to give total power to Milei for 1 year to restructure the administrative, economic, financial and energy divisions of the state. All international/multinational (imperialist) companies in the mining, energy, tourism, steel and oil and gas sectors will be exempt from paying taxes. A number of direct workers gains will be cut: Pregnant women will be forced to work until just 10 days before childbirth; probation will be extended to 6 months and up to 1 year for smaller companies, thereby enabling bosses to fire workers more easily. When workers are retrenched the companies will not pay severance pay but the pay workers receive will actually come from their own money. They also want to make it more difficult for workers to qualify for state pension.
Overall, due to the stagnation of the world capitalist economy, the law wants to place the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of the working class. This is what the imperialist think they can get away with. But the shift away from the traditional parties of the masses only signifies an increased disgust in the system, not an increased support for the right wing. The right wing appears to grow because support for the ‘left’ parliamentary parties has declined.
The same attacks on the working class in Argentina is what is also coming to the rest of the world working class. We need to support the struggle of the working class in Argentina as part of our common struggle against the world capitalist system.
This is the same regime that also supports the genocide against the Palestinians. The support of Milei for Israel and to launch these attacks are no accident. It is part of the same policy of the capitalists to keep the masses of the world in permanent slavery. It is one and the same struggle: against the genocide by US imperialism and against their world policy of attacks on the working class.
The attacks on the right to organise and right to protest is what the imperialist want to do on a global scale. They must be stopped. They want to reinstate the dictatorships of the past. They must be stopped.
The way forward
We call for the immediate release of the remaining protestors and the reinstatement of all workers victimised for participating in the protests.
Let us write letters of protest to all the Argentinian embassies and consulates around the globe and organise protests there.
The period of kings and dictators are over. Down with king Milei. No to privatisation. Nationalise all the banks and transnationals and place them under workers control. No tax exemption to any company. Argentina is not for sale. Scrap the Ley Bases.
The task for the working class is to strengthen our organisation and to build a new workers party, a party of struggle that is local and immediately links up with initiatives around the world to build a revolutionary workers international. We cannot allow that only the imperialists and capitalist rogues are organised but we as the working class are disorganised. Unity of the working class in struggle. Forward to a revolutionary working class party; Rebuild the Fourth International. Forward to Socialism.
Issued by Workers International Vanguard League. 7. 7. 2024
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