#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ARGENTINA #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) Federación Anarquista de Rosario:[#Argentina]: Popular struggle to face what is coming FAR Position - March 2022 (ca, de, it, pt)[machine translation]

 National situation ---- Beyond the pantomime of the internal (La Cámpora) or

external (Cambiemos) opposition to the Government of Alberto Fernández, the
political class is only debating the forms and words that will adorn the
agreement with the Fund. The content is not under discussion: the sacrifice of
the people "must go to honor the debt contracted by the national State". ---- In
our last analysis we had already anticipated that the agreement with the IMF
"could not have guidelines on economic policy for the coming years." Well, we are
already beginning to see the results of these imposed measures. In the midst of a
significant increase in poverty and the cost of living, Alberto has already
announced a cap on the number of social plans -1,200,000. Even Minister Zabaleta
threatened to "purify" the registers of those who are not making a "consideration."

Another expression of the IMF's interference in Argentina has to do with the
removal of subsidies to services, which will have a direct impact on exponential
increases in rates. We are already experiencing this with the Government's
authorization for gas companies to increase by up to 20% already this March. In
the background, companies are bidding for increases of up to 80% in the run-up to
the autumn-winter period, something similar to what is about to happen with
electricity.

All this takes place while the US reaffirmed the payment conditions of that debt
with a higher rate, which represents hefty interest as a "punishment" to the
country for the size of the debt contracted. At the same time, the reserves of
the Central Bank are depleted every day to contain exchange speculation,
suggesting the image of a government more concerned with pleasing the
establishment than with giving a hand to the popular sectors.

In another order, the recent news that wages beat year-on-year inflation (53.4%
against 50.9%), announced by the Government as "own success", was not such,
neither one thing nor the other. On the one hand, it is necessary to reveal that
it was only a few unions that managed to beat inflation and not the bulk of
workers in the formal sector. On the other hand, the underemployed and the
unregistered - the bulk of the workers in the entire country - barely achieved
increases of up to 40% in the last year. But let's go back to that handful of
guilds that managed to beat the level of inflation. Here we see that only wine
workers, teachers and the judiciary from Buenos Aires, Neuquén state workers,
railway workers and banks (7 unions) were the only ones who experienced 50.9%
year-on-year inflation, while the rest of the unions throughout the country had
increases below that number. Finally, those sectors that shook the parity to
exceed it or at least approach inflationary levels, did so without the permission
of the Government, which at the end of 2020 conditioned the parity forecasting a
year-on-year inflation of 29% by 2021. On the contrary, these unions somehow
planted a flag due to pressure from the organized bases, and mobilized in some cases.

Already in January we had drawn attention to the great drought and the increase
in forest fires in numerous provinces of the country, at that time Río Negro as
the most affected. At the same time we noticed an inoperative and lethargic
national State, expression of a centralist political-administrative system,
fundamentally concerned about what happens in CABA and the Greater Buenos Aires.
Since mid-January, the provinces of Misiones and, above all, Corrientes have been
the scene of large-scale fires. Over the days and weeks, as the fire became
uncontrollable, a calamity scenario could be seen in large rural areas, affecting
homes, crops and the habitat of numerous animal and plant species. But the
national government only reacted on February 19, after the Buenos Aires media
reflected such a catastrophe, sending some brigade members, fire trucks and
tanker planes among other aid. By then, local volunteers and from various
provinces had already come to show solidarity. This painful situation once again
highlighted not only the apathy of the State, the political class and the private
sector, but on the contrary, the importance of popular organization when it comes
to defending natural resources and facing an environmental catastrophe.

Impact of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict in Argentina

We cannot delve into the causes that gave rise to this war in Russia and Ukraine,
perhaps with an inter-imperialist projection between Russia, NATO and the US -
surprising at least for this part of the world - but we can point out some of its
causes and hypotheses of conflict, as well as we are interested in seeing its
impact at the local and regional level.

Regarding the first, we can say that the war promoted by Russia has both
geopolitical and economic roots. Russia, historically a country with an
imperialist projection, somehow tries to generate an impact in the region by
disciplining the surrounding territories, even with expansive intentions. This is
also related to the fact that many peoples of the former USSR that remained on
the other side of the borders (Ukraine, Moldova, etc.) still claim the right to
self-determination and the interest of belonging to Russia again.

 From the opposite path, both the European Union and NATO have not stopped
advancing with trade agreements, bases and military exercises, from the borders
of Eastern Europe to the gates of Russia. An example of this has to do with the
fact that NATO did not stop sending weapons and troops to train the Ukrainian
military. With regard to the United States, a country that has suffered an
internal social and political breakdown since the last elections, and is facing
an economic recession, it again appeals to patriotism and a possible external war
to raise the arms industry and generate a sense of unity in after the weak
political project of the Biden government. On the economic front, the US knows
that if the deal fails over the Russian gas pipeline that supplies gas to Germany
and other parts of Europe,

But the impact of this conflict on our region - if it continues over time - will
have direct consequences, at least in the economic sphere. The first data
released by the bombing of Kiev, in addition to the falls in the world's stock
markets, have to do with the increase in the price of oil. Certainly, in the
short term increases in the price of gas and other energy resources are expected.
On the other hand, there was already an impact on the price of commodities, where
soybeans and other primary products began to rise, which will benefit the
agricultural and agro-exporting sectors, but will further sink the purchasing
power of the popular sectors due to the direct increase in food prices. In this
framework, tariff hikes in services and a continuity in inflation are expected,

Popular struggle to face what is coming

 From this panorama, two hypotheses arise to be taken into account by our
militancy and the popular field. In the short term, what is urgent must be aimed
at preparing a scenario of unanimous rejection of the consequences of the
agreement between the national State and the IMF. His attempt to get approval in
Congress must contrast with an immense mobilization of unions and social
organizations in the streets that puts this agreement between those at the top in
check, perhaps using the recent experience of resistance during the days of
December 2017, when Macri and the Congress imposed the anti-popular pension
reform in the midst of a thick climate that made their governability tremble. We
must bear in mind that in an international scenario of armed conflict such as the
one described above, the political class, the business community and the
financial power will try to cushion the blow, making those below pay for the
losses. On the other hand, in the medium term, the dynamics of popular
mobilization must "mark the field" for the political sector that tries to succeed
Alberto and Cristina -certainly the current radical-liberal opposition-. The
demonstrations of struggle, unity and organization that we promote today to stop
the adjustment of the Government-IMF pact and the local consequences of the war
crisis, are necessary steps to limit the deepening of the adjustment that will
come tomorrow.

Anarchist Federation of Rosario

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=374644304663810&id=100063547308480

http://federacionanarquistaderosario.blogspot.com/2022/03/lucha-popular-para-enfrentar-lo-que-se.html
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