By Stella Calloni on January 2, 2024
Argentina Preident Milei
The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) has called for a general strike and a march next January 24 to go before Congress in rejection of the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) announced on January 20 by the ultra-right-wing President Javier Milei and which contains more than 300 measures that affect the workers and the people in general, to which yesterday he added the sending to Congress of a package of more than 600 laws covering all areas and which annuls the parliament for two years among other very serious provisions, which would assure him absolute power.
The leaders met today in their historic union headquarters to define details that will be adjusted next January 10, with the participation of the regional unions from all over the country.
Héctor Daer, head of the CGT, warned that the so-called “omnibus law”, the package of measures that the Congress is analyzing in an extraordinary Assembly, is “exponentially more dangerous” than the DNU, although in both of them some measures overlap, but that in general they seriously affect “collective rights” and among others the “universal and solidary health system”.
He argued that it cannot be rejected because if they do not mobilize the President will govern with the sum of public power, recalling that they already went against the “compensations” and establishing that from this moment on the monopolistic companies that are the great beneficiaries will be able to charge “whatever they want in tariffs”.
The decision was unanimously supported, which means that from January 24 they can take all the actions they deem “necessary”, whether it is another strike or mobilizations.
With the announced strike and mobilization, the struggle for the rights and others of the workers begins, which are also accompanied by all the trade union centers of the country. Daer criticized that the omnibus law benefits private property, attacks retirees and enables the sale of shares of the main 41 state companies, which the hegemonic powers have tried to buy for coins among other serious measures and “it is evident that Milei’s decision is not innocent”.
Just today the Chambers of Transportation met with government officials and committed themselves to normalize the collective services, which had decided to operate with a semi strike with fewer units affecting all workers and will be able to increase fares, at will.
With the promise of the National Government to increase the fares for short and medium distance routes, the chambers integrated by the owners of the passenger transport companies assured this Thursday that in the next hours the employers’ semi-strike will cease and the bus services in Buenos Aires will start to normalize “gradually”.
Now they are waiting for the measures to be adopted by the Government on the issue of subsidies and the update of the fares, to then analyze the steps to be taken.
But the announcements will be the increases of those fares that the population and especially the workers cannot afford.
The second point of the CGT’s plan of struggle, the first one was the denunciation before yesterday’s march, will be the requests for a meeting with all the blocks of deputies and senators to discuss their support to their positions before the DNU and the Omnibus Law. The leaders of the union central met, as a matter of urgency, last Friday with the Peronist block of Deputies of Unión por la Patria, while on Tuesday they met with the block of the Senate.
The third point of the plan of struggle calls for a meeting with the other labor centers to articulate joint measures. In addition, the confederation resolved in a last point “to empower the National Board of Directors to dictate the measures it considers pertinent in the opportunity required by the current state of affairs”.
Meanwhile, the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof rejected the mega DNU and the omnibus law and reminded that “it is always easier to sign a decree and send a super law than to work and generate jobs and industry”.
In allusion to the President, Milei reminded that “those who say they are efficient are very lazy” because even “the decrees are written by others”, referring to the benefited companies that elaborated the more than 600 laws to be repealed and replaced. This has already been denounced with the names of all these companies, each one favored by the Omnibus Law.
Kicillof also stated that “the State must be present” and that “the antinomy between the private sector and the public sector is a lie” since it is with both at the same time. He criticized the national government’s policy of trade openness stating that allowing an unrestricted entry of imports means that “everybody is on the canvas” and that “nobody can buy” the products coming from abroad, even though they may be cheaper. “It is not true that, for those who do not want to see it, they do not see climate change or geopolitical conflicts at a global level,” said Kicillof.
There is one issue that has not been much talked about yet: the Omnibus Law contains a drastic adjustment to the cultural sector. The reform package includes the closure of the National Theater Institute (INT) and the National Fund for the Arts (FNA); and the defunding of INCAA cinematography, the National Institute of Music (Inamu) and the National Commission of Popular Libraries (Conabip).
“It also contains the repeal of the National Theater Law (24.800), which dates back to 1997 and determines that the theatrical activity, “due to its contribution to the strengthening of culture”, must have “promotion and support from the National State”.
If the repeal were to be carried out, the National Theater Institute (INT) would be eliminated. In this way, the independent circuit, so prolific in our country, would be left adrift”, states an analysis of these organizations.
This Thursday, the Argentine Association of Independent Theater (ARTEI) considered that the intention of the Executive to repeal the law is “an affront to culture and to the work of the entire theater community that for decades developed around this State policy that went through the most diverse governments”. The “historical struggle of theater workers who fought” for this conquest, even heroically during the past dictatorship (1976-1983), was highlighted.
There is also an attempt to repeal Decree Law 1224 (of 1958), which created the National Fund for the Arts (FNA), which depends on Culture, and which promotes and develops the production of artists from all over the country by financing their training and the creation of works.
The major attack is against the INCAA, which affects the cinema, one of the greatest achievements of the country in recent years, and which will no longer be financed, among other serious attacks that also affect the theater. The ENERC (Escuela Nacional de Experimentación y Realización Cinematográfica) will disappear as a legal structure.
It also leaves the Union of Independent Musicians (Inamu), a non-state public entity, in a “program” of the Ministry of Culture, in a vacuum. The book world is not spared: It proposes the repeal of Law No. 25,542, for the Defense of Book Activity. According to the Argentine Chamber of Books, this would put at risk the existence of small and medium bookstores, as well as the access to reading closes all benefits to popular libraries.
“The Omnibus law puts at stake all aspects of the cultural life of the country. These will be days of alarm”, states an account of Pagina 12.
Source: CAPAC, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English