[L-I] The verge of a picketeers mov. throughout Latin America

        "..... there is a great crisis of power, the central point in debate is
who is to govern? Whether to keep things as they are or change them
fundamentally. We have shown that we don?t need the bosses to run the
factories. Dual power is to be found again and again in the factories
occupied by their workers and in the picketeers actions. There is only one
class which should govern, the working class. We are on the verge of a
picketeers movement arising throughout Latin America. We are in the
presence of an international revolutionary process, what is required is the
necessary political organization in order to take power, no to business as
usual and the regular electoral process, organize from the bottom up to
take power, organize the necessary political tools."



So God wants, be it not a wishful thinking...     Of course our Argentinian
comrades are the best fitted to comment upon the text that follows ahead.
In two points it is unhappily broken.   



Since 1950 at least, Brazil has increasingly shown a propensity to be hit
by the Argentinian political contagion.   There is even an old joke about
the contagion, that calls it  "the Orloff effect".   It is based on a TV
advertisement of a certain vodka (Orloff) in which the same guy in the
present says to himself in the future:  "I'm today what you'll be
tomorrow."   Of course, if he drinks today any vodka other than Orloff he
will wake up in a very bad shape.



The endless actions of MST (the Landless Workers Movement) in Brazil, both
in the fields and in the cities, which go far from the specific interests
of peasants and little farmers, are analogous to the Argentinian
picketeers' ones, at the exception of national assemblies.  Two nationwide
public reasearch pools in 2000 and 2002 that were sponsored by CNI  -- the
powerful association of industry bosses --  have consistently shown a
growing and deep refusal of Brazilians to capitalism.    When Fidel Castro
comes to Brazil he gathers multitudes everywhere and, as in Cuba, he talks
collectively with the people during his long speeches.   Furthermore, some
years ago another public reasearch pool showed that Fidel would have good
chances to be elected President of Brazil if he could run to the office.
Only the Pope is so popular as Fidel, but the common people often ignore
the reactionary role of John Paul II, that has been fought as a silent
velvet war within the structures of the Roman Catholic Church, including
progressive lay activists.   These hints must suffice.



Workers-runned factories are known in Brazil since 1982, though they are
not widespread at all.   They operate in a capitalist frame since there is
no way out, of course.   The initiative is not revolutionary in itself
(but in Argentina now it seems to be)  and it has occasionally been taken
only in the case of important concerns that went broken, with financial
support from local governments to the organized workers, including
rescheduling of tax debts.   The concept of the Brazilian Law on the so
called  "social function of the enterprise"  may works  
against capitalism, as some well known jurists say.



Cheers, Roberto


########################################################

To: Argentina_Solidarity <argentina_solidarity@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Vicente Balvanera <v_balvanera@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 
Subject: [Arg_Solid] Vicente Balvanera reporting from Buenos Aires (5),
June 24, 2002



[Vicente Balvanera reporting from Buenos Aires (5), June 24, 2002] The
National Assembly of Workers is a major step forward in working class
consciousness and organization

With the bourgeois press trying to give the impression that "the worst of
the crisis has passed", and yet again trying to fool the savings account
holders into thinking they will be receiving their money soon (they are not
fooled, and continue their daily protests, merging increasingly with those
of the workers, picketeers and popular assemblies), what Duhalde has been
doing in the last few days is carrying out a series of hurried meetings
with the forces of repression to check whether the situation has any chance
of not "going out of control".

Because everything points to the question of power. Take last night?s free
tropical music concert in the downtown Luna Park stadium, for example
(Monday, June 25). Mainstream people flocked from the working class suburbs
to attend the concert (you had to bring a bag of rice or some kind of
non-perishable food to get in), commemorating the anniversary of the death
by automobile accident of tropical music superstar Rodrigo. Long lines
formed hours before the concert. And the thousands of people who thought
that they would be able to get some relief from the everyday torture of
making it through another day in present Argentine conditions of hunger and
misery, were brutally attacked by police armed with clubs. They couldn?t
believe it. One young man, interviewed by the TV, said "There?s something
fundamentally wrong when the police just go and attack people, including
women and children, trying to get into a concert the authorities must have
known would attract crowds." The bourgeoisie is incapable of putting on a
free concert.

What?s fundamentally wrong is that "the authorities" are shitting in their
pants. With the crisis spreading to Brazil (risk index galloping, Brazil
second to only Argentina, higher than 3rd ranked Nigeria), Uruguay
(structural adjustment plans, strikes planned, US dollar exchange rate
climbing high into the sky, price increase of 20% in the last few days),
Paraguay (new uprising), Peru (partially successful uprising against
privatization) and now Chile (dollar exchange rate also skyrocketing), and
it looks like Mexico too (despite Vicente Fox?s hurried denials) the reason
for the joint US and Latin American military exercises in Salta a year ago
against sham "NGO and anti-globalization" organized protestors becomes
increasingly clear, especially in the context of Plan Colombia and the
attempt at a coup in Venezuela.

What?s fundamentally wrong from the point of view of US and European
imperialism and the bourgeoisie, is that one of the many facets of the
program and plan of struggle voted by more than 1000 delegates from over 15
provinces this last week-end in the National Workers? Assembly, including
picketeers, shop committees, anti-bureaucratic unions and union activists,
delegates from factories and cooperatives occupied by the workers, like
Brukman and the Junin Clinic of Cordoba, included, for example, a call for
a national day of roadblocks and struggle against the IMF and the war
against the working class... to be coordinated, as much as possible, all
over Latin America!!!

With the collapse of the bosses parties (Menem hooted at even in his home
province La Rioja yesterday, where police refused to allow olive producers
to raise protest signs, and Alfonsín now threatening to resign his seat in
the midst of a crisis of the Radical Party), the Second National Assembly
of Employed and Unemployed Workers, covered even in the bourgeois press and
TV, emerges with a set of voted political resolutions, program and plan of
struggle which clearly projects a whole new level of organization and
coordination on the part of the working class and its response to the plans
of the US Treasury, the IMF, the bankers and their local stooges, which the
government knows it will have to try to implement with force of arms. The
national day of struggle is all set for this Wednesday, June 26, fully
ratified by the National Assembly (under the slogan "All of them must go,
none of them should be left"), including the cutting of access to major
cities by bridges and highways, and the reinforcement of currently occupied
factories, municipalities, school boards and other local institutions, and
will be carried out jointly with the Anibal Verón and Barrios de Pie
(militant picketeers organization still fighting within the CTA), as well
as by members of the popular assemblies and students. The government,
through Cabinet Chief Alfredo Atanasof, announced yesterday that they will
use "all of the mechanisms in order to keep law and order" and that they
"will not permit" roadblocks and pickets.

This will be a decisive test. Even the bourgeois radio continually
announces "the count-down to the great picketazo (picketeer strike action).
At a press conference yesterday, also covered by bourgeois press like La
Nación and Clarín, the convening organizations stated that the protest is
aimed at a government which "only knows how to aim threats at the working
class" and which is "negotiating the lives of the Argentines" with the IMF,
the following of whose dictates has been the sole concern of the Duhalde
government throughout its six months existence. "We hold the government
responsible for the threats of possible repression against the roadblocks,
we hold it responsible and we say that nothing will stop this people and
movement of unemployed, because the there is no going back on the road
taken the 19th-20th." The declaration added that "no challenge is
impossible for the workers while the power of mobilization exists as well
as the desire to survive", and that the protest forms part of "a new
institutionality" which the working class has begun to construct beginning
with the rebellion of last December 19th-20th. In this sense, workers are
called upon to collaborate as if this were a general strike, and students
and professionals, and the Argentine people in general, are called upon to
lend their active support.

The protest, apart from defending education and public health, issuing a
demand that the workers occupying the Zanon factory and producing under
their own control not be forcibly evicted, supporting the more than 1200
establishments now occupied by workers, and demanding the release of Raul
Castells and all fighters, and the dropping of charges against all who
struggle, will demand increases in the Work Plans (both in the number now
distributed and in the monthly wage, now at a miserable 150 Argentine
pesos), their effective payment (half are not even paid), that their
administration be taken out of the hands of the Peronist politicos and
placed into the hands of the picketeers themselves, through their own
organizations, and that the government, apart from providing some immediate
solution to alleviate the suffering of hunger among the people, must all
leave.

Alluding to the CGT?s, the CCC and CTA-FTV, a call is also issued to "all
working class and picketeer organizations to join in a common plan of
struggle, to end all forms of truce with this government, because this
government, and the IMF, and the privatizers give no truce to the workers."

This is what is meant by the transitional character of even the most
elementary of demands, leading, in the current context of capitalist
crisis, to the immediate and inevitable raising of the question of power.

This is just the first step of the plan of struggle voted in the National
Assembly. The second will be a multitudinous march and rally in Plaza de
Mayo on July 9th, day of national independence, followed by a tent city to
be erected in the Plaza on July 15th, to continue until "all demands are met."

The National Assembly itself sessioned over a two day period, and was an
awesome experience. It sessioned in the Gatica Stadium in Avellaneda, ceded
by the Municipal Workers there who are on an indefinite general strike for
back pay. (The Assembly opened with a huge applause for these compañeros).
A huge number of organizations attended, with over 1,000 delegates from
more than 15 provinces, including delegates from 36 popular assemblies and
from the savings account holders? movement (ahoristas). Convened as the
Second National Assembly of Employed and Unemployed Workers (the first was
in February, see relevant postings from the time) by the Bloque Piquetero
Nacional and by the MIJP (Castells), the presiding table was occupied by
several members of the organization CUBA, representatives of the Frente de
Trabajadores Combativos (MAS), representatives of the MIJP, representatives
of the MTL (CP), MTR (Movimiento Teresa Rodriguez), the Polo Obrero and
other representatives of the Bloque Piquetero, reflecting these
organizations branches all over the country, and including delegates from
combative, anti-bureaucratic trade unions, as well as a representative from
the Brukman factory.

The Assembly spent the whole first day broken down into three commissions:
Political resolutions, Program and Plan of Struggle. Each commission was to
consider the proposals from the various participating sources, debate them
(by breaking down into sub-commissions where necessary), and by the end of
the day come up with a voted document (minority positions were allowed and
were actually presented at the plenary session on some points), to be
submitted for debate and voting by the plenary session. Each commission was
to be presided by 6 coordinators from the various participating organizations.

I participated as observer at the Program Commission session. It was
really, without exaggeration, a great exercise of workers democracy.
Everyone who wished to could participate, whoever wanted to speak was able
to speak. There were three written proposals, one from the Polo Obrero, one
from the Brukman factory, and a specialized extension of the point on
public education, presented by the teachers union (they are on strike in
the Province of Buenos Aires in defense of their contracts, and are
occupying several local school boards). The program was quite complete,
along the lines of the February program, but brought up to date (it will be
published in final form some time this week, and I will translate it to
English).

A couple of debates are worthy of mention. The Morenoist MAS, through their
delegates in the FTC (Frente de Trabajadores Combativos ? Front of
Combative Workers), was of the opinion that there has been a general reflux
in the struggle (opinion not shared by the majority), that the question of
power was not central to the moment because there were absolutely no organs
of dual power, and that the great need was to reach out to the millions of
workers not now in the National Assembly, to create a massive revolutionary
class struggle, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist movement or party. The
MIJP called for a government of popular unity, and the MTL called for a
"central coordinating body to include all sectors in struggle). The sect
calling itself Democracia Obrera intervened several times, saying they
didn?t care what program was adopted at all, the question was how the
incipient bureaucracy of the movement of the unemployed could be held to
accountability; he also charged that there had been a reflux because the
"left of the regime" had divided the picketeers movement. A totally
unfounded, disproved, minority position. Pepe Barraza of Salta (PO)
brilliantly posed the position that was eventually adopted by the majority:
That there is a great crisis of power, the central point in debate is who
is to govern? Whether to keep things as they are or change them
fundamentally. We have shown that we don?t need the bosses to run the
factories. Dual power is to be found again and again in the factories
occupied by their workers and in the picketeers actions. There is only one
class which should govern, the working class. We are on the verge of a
picketeers movement arising throughout Latin America. We are in the
presence of an international revolutionary process, what is required is the
necessary political organization in order to take power, no to business as
usual and the regular electoral process, organize from the bottom up to
take power, organize the necessary political tools. There is no revolution
possible wi

It is significant that Pepe Barraza, and others, argued against the
proposal of the MTL for a "central coordinating body including all the
sectors in struggle", exposing it for what it was, a disguised form of the
popular front. He explained that in opposition to what several had said,
program was of the utmost importance, since it joined all of us together in
a common working class struggle, and made it possible for us to not allow
those sectors who are in direct opposition to our program, like the small
businesses and other national bourgeois sectors, to divert us from our
objectives. He explained that workers cannot have confidence in those very
sectors who struggle to defeat their program and objectives, whose class
interests cannot but betray the cause of the working class.

What was fascinating, both in this commission debate, and in the general
plenary session the following day, is that the bolshevik-leninist positions
by far won the majority position, the Stalinist and Castroist class
collaboration policies (like the MTL proposal for a "central coordinating
body of unity with all the sectors of the popular camp") were roundly
defeated at every turn, all without breaking the united front, or weakening
its resolve in the slightest to march separately and strike together as one
solid fist.

The very advanced and revolutionary workers program which was finally
adopted by the commission, and with some changes, by the plenary session
will be dealt with as soon as it is published in full, together with the
equally advanced political resolutions and program of action.

The plenary session of the next day, which after 3pm was opened to the
general public, was also a model of workers? democracy. It was wonderful to
be able to presence, it was an important, historic event. By far the
general feeling, reflected in the voting, was that this was by no means a
National Assembly, either of the Polo Obrero alone, or the Bloque Piquetero
alone, but rather a class struggle united front National Assembly, capable
of leading in this stage of the class struggle.


#########################################


To: Argentina_Solidarity@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: "sf_adam.rm" <sf_adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 
Subject: [Arg_Solid] Urgent updates from Argentina Solidarity (Britain)

Dear everyone,

Here is news from Argentina. In an ideal world, these would be on our 
website, but at the moment both our website-inputters [is there a 
better word?] are on holiday abroad.:


1. Two piqueteros killed; brutal police 
repression.................... 


1. Two piqueteros (unemployed workers) were killed by police bullets 
yesterday. There were also dozens of casualties, many of them 
serious, and 188 arrests. The text of a leaflet put out by the 
Partido de Trabajadores por el Socialismo, in Spanish, is at the end 
of this email [I was unable to keep the formatting when trying to 
transfer the Attachment onto my hard disk; sorry]





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