The expansion of Covid 19 and its new strains has been wreaking havoc on our
continent. Thousands of deaths per day, especially from the popular classes.Either in those countries like Brazil where a genocide takes place due to the
inaction of the State and the Bolsonaro government, or those more liberal, there
are no effective measures in health care, but much less in terms of social needs.
Hunger, unemployment, precariousness, have increased with this unfolding
economic-health crisis. Everything seems to indicate that the situation will get
worse and that we will once again be the ones from below who will pay for the
broken dishes of the party from above.
However, beyond the fear of contagion and the restriction measures that have
been imposed country by country, the people have been on the streets. Since the
beginning of the pandemic, there have been mobilizations in Colombia against
hunger and for mutual aid among those below with the phenomenon of "red rags."
New mobilizations also took place in Ecuador and Chile, in the latter country
despite the constituent process that has diverted the struggle from the streets
to the polls and with parliamentary perspectives. Of course, Piñera's response
was once again the brutal repression and arrest of numerous protesters, showing
off being one of the countries with the largest number of political prisoners on
the continent.
Political instability has become a characteristic of this stage in Latin
America, together with a massive presence of people in the streets, with
outbursts and powerful demonstrations, which are far from being specific. There
is an open stage on the continent.
In El Salvador, the people won the streets and burned down the Ministry of
Finance due to the strong budget cuts and adjustment policy of the Nayib Bukele
government. In Costa Rica and Guatemala the peoples are mobilizing more recently
for meaningful social demands and rights.
Also in Peru and Bolivia there were people in the streets and on the roads
facing coups. The popular mobilization in Bolivia generated the departure of
Jeannine Añez; no matter how much it has been carried out through elections, it
was the people on the street that overflowed and opened the possibility of the
departure of the fascists from the government. And it is clear that no matter how
many trials there are, the problem of power in Bolivia has not been resolved: the
white, fascist and reactionary ruling classes are still crouched there waiting to
strike and a growing political polarization is evident at the social level.
In Peru, the mobilization was combative in tone against a new coup of the
parliamentary or "soft" type. There were three presidents in this period who did
not finish their mandate. This situation leads to what we are experiencing today
as a strong popular mobilization against the return intentions of Fujimori, which
resulted in the promotion of Pedro Castillo to the government, but which in the
background can transcend and surpass any electoral initiative.
In Brazil, popular mobilization has waned throughout this period, but something
has been done, the people are not asleep. The truth is that there is a strong
political instability, where the military is gaining ground day by day and it is
not known exactly what will happen. There are even rumors of a "state of siege"
or of a direct coup.
Argentina and Uruguay
In Argentina, the context, on the one hand, shows the lack of judgment and the
hesitancy of the Alberto Fernández government. This is evident in the tens of
thousands of infected per day, record deaths, a centralization of the health
agenda, and the imposition of curfews and restrictions, shifting the
responsibility for the health crisis to youth and social gatherings. All this at
the same time that public transport, factories and other workplaces are crowded
with people, exposing a prioritization of business interests over the health of
workers. On the other hand, we see a reactionary electoral opposition and
anti-rights, which curiously speaks of "freedoms", struggling in fact for the
protection of business interests.
Political instability has become a characteristic of this stage in Latin
America, together with a massive presence of people in the streets, with
outbursts and powerful demonstrations, which are far from being specific. There
is an open stage on the continent.
In the case of Uruguay, the majority leadership of the popular movement played
to contain the mobilization during the pandemic. It was not celebrated on May 1,
except for the historic Cerro - Teja Column, and measures of struggle were not
called for the most part. The strategy was focused on collecting signatures to
plebiscite the Urgent Consideration Law. The necessary minimum number of
signatures was reached, exceeding their number, and this generated a lift in the
popular mood. As a result of this, and the start of wage discussions and the
employer offensive, major conflicts developed in fishing (strike that ended
victorious), conflicts in various work centers (in the case of the meat
processing sector) and various mobilizations of state and private workers .
Although vaccination against Covid has reached a significant percentage of the
population, mortality has already decreased, the economic and repressive
adjustment that has been applied is being tough. Fuel prices are readjusted
monthly and the objective is to privatize the sector and the state refinery.
Haiti and Paraguay
The struggle of the Haitian people against the various dictatorships and
imperialist intervention is long-standing. Struggle strong, which mobilizes
millions of people in the streets, has seen another important growth this year,
after Juvenal Möise, who had dissolved parliament, illegally extended his
presidential term and indefinitely postponed elections and in fact became a
dictator. The dictator was assassinated by an obscure operation, by a group of
mostly Colombian mercenaries, former active military, linked to paramilitary
forces and Uribe, hired by a Venezuelan company in Miami and financed by Haitian
businessmen, with clear articulation from the north imperial. The Haitian people
continue to resist,
For their part, the Paraguayan people managed to take to the streets and star
in a rejection of Mario Abdo's mismanagement, expressed in the worsening of the
social crisis, in the saturation of intensive care beds and in shocking numbers
of deaths from Covid. This adds to the structural situation in Paraguay, with a
corrupt administration that governs hand in hand with the narco-power of Horacio
Cartes. All this has unleashed the indignation and popular fury, observed in the
fires of several places of the Colorado Party (ANR) and the Palace of Justice.
Even the peasant movement has arrived in Asunción occupying squares and public
spaces, and indigenous groups took to the roads to express their anger. Everyone
shouting "Out Marito."
In response, the Government attacked with repression and imprisonment of
militants from the popular camp, who managed to be freed as a result of popular
pressure.
Chile and Colombia: riots and popular presence
In the Chilean region, the effects of the social upheaval and the pandemic
continue to deepen a social, economic and political crisis marked by the
deepening of the permanent state of exception. For several weeks the electoral
agenda (elections for constituents, mayors and presidential primaries) has taken
the juncture. The low participation marked by the generalized discredit towards
the political parties that have administered state power in recent decades, the
retreat of the right and social democracy and a supposed "left-wing" in society
(high vote of the Communist Party, the Frente Broad and the nascent List of the
town), mark this process.
This process of "left-wing" does not exist as it is proposed at the institutional
level, rather the electorate represents with this vote a will for changes, by
confirming that these will not come through the path of the right and the
center-left. The vote, therefore, is directed at the forces of the left as a
manifestation of those possible transformations.
Although we understand that the electoral issue is a necessary element to
analyze, our concerns and paths also go down another path. We have seen how this
entire Restitution Process and the Pandemic have hindered the development of
social protest, and as punishment has made our class cornered between poverty,
debt and artificial respirators, generating an uncomfortable silence.
For us, the Social Revolt that started in October 2019 is not something linear,
but rather a contradictory process, of advance and retreat, of offensive and
withdrawal. For this reason, in these moments when social protest is weak and
institutional action is being strengthened, it is essential to recover the
presence in the streets, but not in an aesthetic or symbolic sense, but from the
strengthening of popular and social organizations. territorial, which should
increase the levels of dialogue and coordination, in order to build programmatic
and tactical agreements, agitated from mobilization and direct action. The
popular movement of the Chilean region requires a plan of struggle of the
revolutionary, anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian sectors, where the
liberation of political prisoners,
The unsustainable situation of political prisoners is worrying: punishments and
transfers, added to the confinement itself, have various colleagues in a critical
situation. Many have been imprisoned for more than a year, without trial and
without evidence, the real intentions of the State being clear in terms of
punishing the struggle and the organization. That is why we call for
international solidarity to achieve their freedom.
In the case of Colombia, we will analyze aspects such as public health, the
economic situation, the political moment, human rights and the armed conflict, as
well as the national strike on April 28 and the development of other social
struggles.
In terms of public health, the country is one of the worst-managed the
coronavirus pandemic and the socio-health crisis worldwide. Exceeding the 125,890
confirmed deaths and the 4'940,000 cases by Covid-19 for September 20, Colombia
is the tenth state with the most deaths and registered cases in the world, as
well as the fourth with the most fatalities in Latin America.
The government health policy, after a slow start and dotted with reports of
corruption, increased the rate of vaccination under a public-private partnership
model, reaching 32% of the population and the number of 16.1 million people fully
vaccinated. , although important shortcomings persist in the tracking and
prevention of cases, economic and regional inequalities and a great problem of
supplying second doses of vaccines.
Regarding the economic situation, the country experienced an uneven recovery of
its productive activity with a growth of 9.4% in the first seven months of the
year, after the deep crisis of 2020, with a faster reactivation in trade and
services , which exceeded the percentages of activity prior to the pandemic, and
slower in other sectors such as employment, since unemployment is around 14.3% in
July and 3.4 million people without work, which is notably worse in the case of
women who they reach 18.8% and the young population reaches 23.3%. Since the
month of May, a rapid and uncontrolled reopening of many economic activities
occurred at the height of the peak of the third wave of the pandemic, which
generated images of transport, offices and crowded places of leisure.
A key part of government policy went through the adjustment policy condensed in
the Tax Reform, with which it was expected to collect up to 35 trillion pesos and
overcome the worsening of the fiscal deficit and the increase in foreign debt.
However, the government found it necessary to withdraw its project as a result of
the historic national strike, which also led to the resignation of Finance
Minister Alberto Carrasquilla. However, three months later, the Uribista
administration advanced a small tax reform, which partially increases the tax on
companies, with which it hopes to collect 15 billion pesos.
In political matters, in the third year of the government of Iván Duque del
Centro Democrático, the ultraconservative administration maintains historically
low levels of support and popularity, with 75% disapproval. However, the
government coalition led by the Democratic Center and made up of neoconservative
forces such as the Conservative Party and the U Party, the fundamentalist
Christians of MIRA and Colombia Justa-Libres and the chameleons of the
Independent Social Alliance, maintains thanks to its alliances with other forces,
its majority in the legislature and the regional power, as well as the support of
an important part of the mainstream press and its strong alliance with the bosses
gathered in the National Trade Union Council, aligned with Duque in his
neoliberal agenda and repression of protest.
After the national strike, the government showed internal cracks with the
toughest sectors of Uribe, for which it imposed a shift that deepened its
right-wing direction, with a security agenda with policies such as the military
intervention in Bogotá and Barranquilla to face the supposed crisis of urban
insecurity and an option of impunity for official crimes.
Regarding the human rights situation, the murder of social leaders, especially
rural, environmental and ethnic, continues and there have already been 116
homicides so far this year against these activists in 2021 according to Indepaz.
On the other hand, key projects of the Peace Agreement signed between the State
and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016, continue to be
blocked, especially in terms of restitution of land for victims, who in 5 years
have executed 3% of what was agreed.
In addition, in the field of armed conflict, the intensity of the phenomena of
forced displacement of peasant and black populations in regions such as Antioquia
and the Pacific increases, due to the increase in armed confrontation between
paramilitary groups and the insurgency of the National Liberation Army ( ELN) and
the armed dissidents of the FARC with up to 45,000 displaced persons in the first
half of the year, according to the Ombudsman's Office. There was also a
humanitarian crisis on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, due to the clashes in the
regions of Arauca and Apure between the FARC dissidents sector led by Gentil
Duarte and the Venezuelan Guard, with much impact on the communities of the region. .
On the other hand, in a historical event for the social struggles of the country,
the national strike on April 28 took place, which began a days of national
protest with massive mobilizations and blockades in up to 800 populations, which
lasted at least during May, June and July, with an axis in Cali and the south
west of the country. According to Indepaz, the protests that resulted in at least
80 fatalities due to state and state repression until the month of July,
constitute an important historical milestone, assuming a partial overcoming of
the major protest days of November-December 2019, with a magnitude similar to
those of the civic national of September 14, 1977.
In terms of other social struggles, the mobilization of state teachers against
the return to classroom without biosafety conditions is developed, which lead to
the seizure of the facilities of the District Education Secretariat (SED) of
Bogotá, in the face of inaction against the increase in cases of contagion.
Roadblocks were also presented in June by the Cerrejón coal workers who were
fired after last year's long and victorious strike, as well as a hunger strike by
fired Nutresa workers in Cúcuta against outsourcing and public employees of the
mayor of Sabanalarga for its specifications. In addition, there are mobilizations
of urban recycling workers for payment of resources owed by the State in Bogotá,
Brazil
In Brazil, the recent protests in opposition to the genocidal government of
Jair Bolsonaro open a new scenario not seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
We went from a moment of absence of street mobilizations to another of some
popular resistance in the streets to the death policies of Bolsonarism. Because
as many social activists have said, when the government is more lethal than the
virus, it is time to go out on the streets. So far, there have been three
national mobilizations, with a certain unity of the left, reaching more than two
hundred cities in the country.
The country exceeds 500 thousand deaths from Covid-19 in a context of worsening
working conditions, the cost of living is increasingly expensive and the
population's immunization rate to the virus remains very low. The emergency aid
diminished and what was already a negligible value that did not reach the minimum
to survive, now it is even worse. The number of unemployed reaches 14.7 million
people, while the value of the food basket and kitchen gas grows in several capitals.
At the top, on the one hand, sectors of the opposition to Bolsonaro are trying
to use the Covid CPI to destabilize the government and weaken it even towards the
presidential elections of 2022. This is also the policy of the reformist left and
the union bureaucracies and popular movements aligned with the "betterist"
project, which still has the Workers' Party and Lula as its maximum expression.
They also seek the "impeachment" of the president, and although there are
innumerable requests, the departure of the president is the least likely
scenario. The military are the faithful of Bolsonaro's balance and although there
are rumors of an internal dispute in the armed forces, the number of soldiers
occupying various areas and sectors of the state machine only grows and the
project of military power, base of the slave and colonial social formation of the
country, gains strength and even greater presence in the political life of the
State. All this without the need for a military coup.
In addition to this, Bolsonaro is increasingly aligned with the center in the
National Congress, and together with the old political oligarchies, he advances
in his projects that directly attack the rights of indigenous and quilombolas
peoples and their ancestral territories and the rights of the whole. of the
oppressed classes of the country.
In addition to the national mobilizations against the genocidal State and its
government of the day, the indigenous peoples and quilombolas have constantly
mobilized, as well as the application workers have made their experience of
confronting the terrible working conditions and the public servants, whether they
are municipalities or states have resisted the removal of rights. But it is still
necessary for the feeling of indignation to reach the most precarious sectors and
the black people and the periphery, which is the majority of the country.
Perspectives
We said in previous statements and analysis of the situation together with
other sister organizations from other continents that these times are of struggle
on a global level, and this is especially true in Latin America. It is a cycle of
struggles that is on the rise and is opening right now. It was already being
developed at the end of 2019 and was stopped by the Covid, but in one way or
another it has been retaken.
Although the social and health crisis has generated, above all, a scene of brutal
adjustment, layoffs and greater control over the population, the neglect and
eagerness of the political class and the capitalists were exposed in an obscene
way. Popular rejection is not decimated, but is generating new organized
responses, from different sectors, throughout the continent, knowing that only
the people will fight for their own interests. Against the speeches of
resignation or accommodation to the institutions of the system, these people rise
up that say: enough!
The effects of the application of the neoliberal model have generated these
situations of misery, despair and rebellion in more than four decades. This model
needs to be deepened for its development, with or without a pandemic, and it is
foreseen that greater social contingents will swell the belts of poverty and
misery, the repression will deepen and the entire legal legal apparatus that
protects it, will benefit the agro-export model and the interests of big capital.
All the actors and institutions that ask for a loosening and a certain state
interventionism seem to have no echo in the political class or in those who carry
out the policies of the system in the region. But as we said, it is an open
stage, of instability and there may be some changes of governments that enable
some loosening of those below, as progressivism did at the beginning of the
2000s, but it did not touch or change anything fundamental about the system. The
classical reforms were conspicuous by their absence, practically. And at this
stage there will be few changes that can be made via governments, since the
political margin for them is smaller than 20 years ago.
The right has played its cards very well, that same right that many considered
dead is there, massacring towns, repressing and condemning hunger. Allied as
always to the United States, which is now putting pressure on Cuba by increasing
the economic blockade on the island and by deploying a campaign of media
disinformation on a Spanish-American scale. The meeting of the XIV Atlantic Forum
held on July 9 in Madrid with representatives of the Latin American and Spanish
right is no coincidence; event sponsored by Fundación Libertad and Red Atlas.
Just days before the start of this anti-Cuba campaign.
However, this cannot hide the discomfort and legitimate protests of an important
sector of the Cuban population before the government and the consequences of the
planned opening to capitalism that has been developing, as well as the repression
deployed by the Cuban State.
Therefore, in this stage where the model of adjustment and dispossession deepens
and the North American empire increases its action on the continent; and on the
other hand, the people flood the streets and roads, we Latin American specific
anarchists understand that it is the people who must conquer their rights by dint
of their struggle and leadership. That is why we speak of the construction of
Popular Power, that is, of spaces and organizational experiences of direct
democracy, self-managed, and that prefigure the society we long for. That is why
we propose the creation of a Front of Oppressed Classes, which groups and
reunites programmatically and in the struggle the various organized popular
sectors (the working and peasant class, the unemployed, students and inhabitants
of popular neighborhoods, indigenous and black peoples. ,
Our Latin America has a long history of struggles and revolutions, of popular
rebellions, and there they are, fertilizing this cycle of struggles that is still
open and the last word has not been said.
LONG LIVE THE MOBILIZATION OF THE LATIN AMERICAN PEOPLES!
DEEPEN THE FIGHT!
FOR SOCIALISM AND FREEDOM
UP THOSE AND THOSE WHO FIGHT!
Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU)
Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB)
Anarchist Federation of Rosario (FAR)
Santiago Anarchist Federation (FAS)
Libertarian Group Vía Libre (Colombia )
http://federacionanarquistaderosario.blogspot.com/2021/09/analisis-de-coyuntura-america-latina-hoy.html
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten