WORLD WORLDWIDE ARGENTINA News Journal Update - (en) Argentina, FORA, Organizacion Obrera #98: THE GOVERNMENTS OF JUJUY AND SALTA ARM UP TO DEEPEN THE ADJUSTMENT (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The recent legislative reforms that occurred in the provinces of Jujuy

and Salta show that the governments of those provinces are arming
themselves with legal resources to criminalize strikes and protests, in
the face of what will be an attempt to deepen the adjustment against
workers. . These reforms have been dictated within the framework of
important union conflicts of teachers and health workers, with great
popular support and broad mobilization in different parts of the
aforementioned provinces. ---- In the case of Jujuy, on June 20, a
reform of the constitution of that province was hastily approved and
with the agreement of the UCR and Peronism, which not only affects
native peoples and promotes extractivism of natural resources, but also
incorporates a new article referring to the "right to social peace and
peaceful democratic coexistence", which is aimed at preventing
roadblocks as a way of exercising the right to strike and social
protest. On June 8, Governor Morales had reformed the provincial
contravention code by decree, fining those who "...remain in public
spaces, disrupting order, hindering the free movement of vehicles and/or
pedestrians, causing fear in the population or illegally limiting and
any way the free exercise of the rights of citizens". It is an open
criminal type that aims to criminalize, through ambiguous and subjective
expressions, the exercise of the strike and protest, with the argument
of defending social peace and the rights of third parties. In other
words, defend the interests of the bosses and the powerful so that
nothing changes.

Jujuy's constitutional reform aroused immediate popular resistance to
it, which was harshly repressed by the police, leaving injuries and
arresting protesters. Popular resistance caused Governor Morales to
reverse the reforms that affect native peoples and the control of
natural resources, but not with the limitations on roadblocks whose
reform would be approved.

The situation in Salta is even more rude in regards to the
criminalization of the protest. On June 1, the legislature of that
province approved a law entitled "Citizen Coexistence and Conciliation
Law", which aims to: "...any gathering of people who, with a common
objective, with or without displacement in the space of use public, for
a determined time and without violence, claims or vindicates rights
before public authorities or private entities. It can be seen that said
law is aimed at peaceful protests and does not necessarily involve
roadblocks. The mere fact of meeting to claim or vindicate rights makes
the application of the new regulations operational.

In these cases, the new Salta law establishes that the demonstrators
must notify the nearest police station at least 24 hours in advance, the
realization of the demonstration, indicating the day, time and place
where it will take place and the data of managers or organizers. In the
event that prior notification is not complied with, the demonstrations
"will not be allowed", making possible "...eviction by the security forces".

Clearly, the new law treats the mere fact of meeting to claim a right as
a possible criminal act that warrants prior police notification. Let us
remember that these are peaceful demonstrations and that they do not
necessarily involve the blocking of any route. The law says nothing
about the possibility of attending and ensuring the effective enjoyment
of the right for which the claim is made. The only thing that interests
the new law is to limit the protest and provide the government with
resources to repress it.

It is not difficult to realize that these reforms produced in Jujuy and
Salta are a government anticipation of the strikes and protests that
will continue to take place in rejection of the adjustment policies and
the extractivism of natural resources, such as lithium so coveted by big
capital. They are a sign that the adjustment on workers and workers will
deepen in the coming years and that this will arouse their reaction. All
of this in the context of a brutal loss in the purchasing power of wages
and pensions, in the face of an ever-increasing cost of living for the
popular sectors.

These reforms are part of the long history of attempts by the state and
capital to prevent direct action by workers, attempts that always end in
failure in the long run because it is impossible to deprive workers of
their rights. main weapon in the fight against injustices. This reaction
from capital, which began in the northern provinces of our country, has
awakened popular mobilization that is slowly becoming aware of the need
to organize and take to the streets to defend their rights, after these
years of general demobilization caused by the Peronism, while IMF
policies continue to be applied and living and working conditions
deteriorate. The fight continues!!!!!

LEONARDO ELGORRIAGA

https://organizacion-obrera.fora.com.ar/2023/07/03/los-gobiernos-de-jujuy-y-salta-se-arman-para-profundizar-el-ajuste/
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