“The role of the Argentine labour movement in becoming the leading opposition against the ravages of Milei’s neoliberal economic and social policies offers both the progressive and labour movement in Britain the opportunity to examine vital lessons in mass mobilisation.”
By Logan Williams
On January 24, 2024, the world saw more than 1.5 million people take part in a general strike in Argentina against the “liberal-libertarian” new president, Javier Milei, and his aggressive anti-union “reforms.” Soon after Milei and his new political party of La Libertad Avanza took office, Milei froze public workers’ wages, social assistance programs, and pensions, imposed a 118% devaluation of the Argentine peso, and increased tariffs for energy, public transport, and public services.
Alongside these attacks on the basic living conditions of the Argentine Working Class, Milei pursued a far-reaching labour reform that if successfully passed would have promoted the restriction or even elimination of labour rights through a restriction on the right to organise, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.
Following the historic general strike in January, the Argentine labour movement has not fractured in the face of Milei’s repressive measures found within his “Public Order Protocol” passed in December 2023. These measures work to authorize the Argentine police and security forces to intervene in response to any attempt to partially or totally block any national roads, transportation with physical measures and, states that those who participate in protest actions and road blockades that are recipients of social programs will not continue to receive that support.
Instead of fracturing the Argentine labour and progressive movements seem to be gaining in strength across their struggle against Milei’s neoliberalism. On the 6th February 2024, Milei’s ultra-liberal package of laws dubbed the ‘Omnibus Law” was sent back to square one of the parliamentary process. This defeat occurred because forces within Milei’s own party withdrew vast sections of the bill as they lacked the strength within the Parliament to force the measures through.
Despite this massive defeat, Milei’s supporters in Congress have managed to navigate a weaker form of the “omnibus law” with the law encompassing the privatization of several public companies (11 instead of 60 initially), including national airlines and railways and public radio and television. The law also includes the bedrocks of modern neo-liberal policies such as an advantageous tax reform for foreign investors and framework of labour reform, alongside expanded powers for the presidency in administrative, economic, financial and energy matters for the duration of a year.
Alongside these Parliamentary struggles, we have seen the individual unions which made up the core of the January 2024 General strike engage in a wave of individual struggles across multiple sectors of the economy. These sector-based struggles began in February when the Federation of Associations of Argentine Health Workers (FATSA) undertook a 24 hour strike around the central demand of salary improvements in the face of Milei’s inflationary neoliberal economic policies. When discussing their action, FATSA Secretary Hector Daer argued that Milei’s neoliberal government “continues to aim at deregulating the labour market to favour the interests of employers”. He would go on to argue that “our members are not willing to tolerate companies seeking to solve their crisis by reducing salaries”.
These striking health workers were soon joined by thousands of schoolteachers and university professors organised within both the Confederation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic (CTERA) and the National Federation of University Teachers (CONADU). These teacher strikes were fought around the issue of the re-establishment of negotiations to set minimum salaries nationally, the restitution of the National Teacher Incentive Fund (FONID) to aid in solving their recruitment crisis, and the defence of the purchasing power of retirees’ pensions in the face of the increasing rate of inflation across Argentina.
Alongside these huge numbers of striking public sector workers in February and April, we would also see a dramatic strike centred around the members of the State Workers’ Association (ATE). These state workers sought to occupy a variety of government buildings to protest the Ministry of the Economy’s support for mass layoffs as the government attempts to lessen the impact of Milei’s inflationary policies. However, these striking workers faced strict repression from the Argentine security forces who attempted to kettle the striking workers before they were able to occupy any government building which led the head of the ATE, Rodolfo Aguiar, to declare “As much as they try to frighten, instil fear and repress, the state will not stop fighting. It is you who are violent, who rule against the constitution, with your back to Congress and harming all the people”.
These sectoral battles waged across the Argentine public sector have culminated on Thursday the 9th of May with a second nation-wide national strike wave called by the CGT union in defence of democracy, labour rights, and the living wage for all Argentinians. This strike wave clearly had a massive impact across Argentina not only with empty streets in towns and cities across Argentina but through the Port of Rosario; which sees 80% of the country’s agricultural exports travel through it each year, effectively shut down at the height of its busiest season. Rightly this strike has been celebrated with leading trade unionists across Argentina describing it as a “display of the dignity of the Argentine people”, with another stating that it sent “a strong message” to Milei’s government as well as the International Monetary Fund “that intends to govern” the people of Argentina.
The role of the Argentine labour movement in becoming the leading opposition against the ravages of Milei’s neoliberal economic and social policies offers both the progressive and labour movement in Britain the opportunity to examine vital lessons in mass mobilisation of members and the power of our movement to achieve social change.
As such, it is vital that we continue to stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Argentinian workers who are leading the fightback against Milei by raising awareness of their struggle and ensuring our unions are ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our sister unions in struggle.
- Logan Williams in an organiser for the Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America, Arise – A Festival of Left Ideas and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. Logan is also an organiser for the National Education Union (NEU). You can follow Logan on Twitter/X.
- You can follow the Argentina Solidarity Campaign on Facebook and Twitter/X.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
