[P2P-F] Fwd: Massive Mobilization In Argentina - Special Edition

Sat Apr 30 06:13:22 CEST 2016

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Dawn News <news.thedawn at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Apr 30, 2016 at 5:51 AM
Subject: Massive Mobilization In Argentina - Special Edition
To:

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Editing: Resumen Latinoamericano and Secretariat of the Continental
Coalition of ALBA's Social Movement <http://www.thedawn-news.org/>

April 29, 2016 <http://www.thedawn-news.org>

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Argentina: Massive Protest Against Macri’s Government
<http://www.thedawn-news.org/2016/04/29/argentina-massive-protest-against-macris-government/>

[image: 660d8db8-0e5d-44cf-8ca2-a2e6306318aa.jpg]

In commemoration of the International Worker’s Day, all five Worker’s
Centrals converged outside the Ministry of Labour in Buenos Aires City
after marching from different points of the city. More than 150,000 workers
and laid off workers protested against Macri’s economic policies which have
resulted in layoffs and an increasing inflation in basic goods. Social and
political movements also joined the protests. Both left-wing and
Kirchnerist organizations were present to support the claims and reject,
once again, the political and economic project that Macrismo intends to
deepen.

Protesters also marched in favor of the "Anti-layoffs Law" that has already
obtained preliminary approval in the Senate and to reject Macri’s sayings:
he affirmed that if the law passes, he would veto it.  The Anti-Layoffs Law
project seeks to put a limit on layoffs in both the public and private
sector and it would be retroactive from March 1, 2016, which would apply to
all workers that are fired from that date on. Any worker dismissed without
proper cause during that period, would be entitled to double the amount of
a regular severance, meaning that employers wouldn't be so inclined to lay
workers off.

The increasing job instability, plus the significant raise in basic service
rates, are putting a dent on Macri’s good image and on the support of
sectors that had backed him in the election. The government has not been
able to revert this tendency, as Macri and his cabinet had intended with
the few social measures they announced:an insufficient increase in Child
Allowance and the VAT refund, for items under 300 pesos (21 dollars).

The State Worker’s Association (ATE) also participated in the mobilization.
This sector has been severely hit by the policy of reduction of the state
that Macri’s government has taken up: 70,000 state workers have been
dismissed, including workers who are part of the most important healthcare
programs, such as programs for the prevention of Dengue and Zika and
delivery of medicines. ATE has already held a National Strike earlier this
year and organized several marches to both the Modernization Ministry and
the Labour Ministry.

University teachers also joined the protest. Currently, they are carrying
out a national strike due to the impossibility of achieving a decent wage
increase: in the negotiations, the government offered a 15% raise by the
end of this year. This was not enough for the unions, given that the
expected inflation for 2016 exceeds 40%. University teachers started the
strike on Monday, after another unsuccessful meeting with the authorities.
As if that wasn’t enough, the authorities of the public university approved
next year's budget with an increase of 0% (zero percent), which, added to
the huge increase in basic services, left many faculties struggling to pay
for their electricity bills, let alone to pay their teachers and workers.
It looks like the education is not a priority for this government.

In a joint statement called “Unity for Social Justice”, the five workers’
organizations expressed their demands, which were divided into six items.

The first item rings the alarm on the “job loss” and calls to support the
voting of the law of “labour emergency”, which was already pass by the
Senate and will be discussed in the Deputy Chamber next week.

The second item criticizes President Mauricio Macri’s “failure to meet
campaign promises” on “the tax on work” (which is how they call the income
tax that weighs upon those that aren’t exactly rich) and highlights that
“salary is not profit”. The third item calls for “the universalization of
family allowances” and the fourth claims for the full enforcement of a
pension that is adjustable to inflation and for an integral solution for
the pension system”, which is currently in crisis.

The fifth point demands the government to comply “the respect of full right
to strike with no Security Protocol”, as the one created by the ministry
headed by Patricia Bullrich, which allows the police to take action in
social protests.

The last point of the document ask for “no meddling of any external
organism in Unions' lives”. The text is a “warning to political forces so
that they acknowledge these problems”, and also, “to the government, that
should be announcing concrete measures to find a way out of the crisis”,
and stressed the “unity between Unions, due to the seriousness of the
situation”.

Dear comrades of popular movements, unions, political parties, civil
society organizations, pastoral organizations and militants of our peoples’
causes:

During the III International Conference "Dilemmas of the Humanity", which
gathered hundreds of militants from all continents, we perceived the need
of a fluid exchange of information about the struggles carried out in our
respective countries.

Mainly because systematized and politically emancipatory information does
not always reach militants as it should, despite the high amount of news
that surface on the internet. We also perceived the lack of a
communicational bond among the continents. And one of the biggest obstacles
for that is language.

Therefore, we decided to make a joint effort in order to publish a
newsletter in English language that covers news about the struggles of the
people.

In order to do this, we have joined forces with Resumen Latinoamericano(digital
medium and newspaper headquartered in Buenos Aires), the Secretariat  of
the Coalition of ALBA’s Social Movements (which edit their own popular
movements newsletter, that covers the Americas) and comrades from the US.

Nonetheless, we do not wish for it to be a newsletter of the Americas only;
it is supposed to benefit all continents.

In order to achieve this objective, each movement, organization and/or
militant must make an effort to update us with content – news, photos,
struggles carried out in their countries–, so that our coverage becomes as
representative as possible. The more people collaborate, the more
representative of all continents our newsletter will be. We ask you to send
content to: news.thedawn at gmail.com

The newsletter will be sent regularly, and as more people take part in this
process, we hope it becomes better and widens its coverage.

If you have any suggestions on which organizations and/or people would
benefit from receiving this newsletter, we invite you to send their e-mail
to: secretaria at albamovimientos.org.br. This will allow us to add them to
our mailing lists.

Also, if you have any suggestions on how we can improve our newsletter,
feel free to do so through the same e-mail. Your suggestions will be indeed
welcome.

Finally, we encourage you to resend the content or freely distribute it in
any way you wish.

Fraternal regards,

Secretariat of ALBA’s Social Movements

E-mail: secretaria at albamovimientos.org.br  Telephone: 55 11 2131 0870

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