Organisations’ joint declaration calls for “robust resistance” to build “a popular, collective alternative” and oppose the government from below

~ Sonia Muñoz-Llort ~

A year after the election of Javier Milei, four of Argentina’s anarchist organisations have released an analysis of his government’s “turbo-capitalist” program to “profoundly change the social, economic and political relations” in the country. The joint statement from Santa Cruz Anarchist Organization (OASC), Rosario Anarchist Federation (FAR), Anarchist Organization of Tucumán (OAT) and Anarchist Organization of Córdoba (OAC) also highlighted the “repression and criminalisation of popular resistance” accompanying the extreme-right economic program.

To impose the labour reforms privatising different strategic areas of production and services, the government has been engaging a systematic plan to repress protests. “In alliance with the judiciary”, said the statement, “Milei’s government opened cases and arrested activists and union leaders, threatened workers who participated in strikes with dismissal, [and] organised media operations against workers in conflict”.

The groups describe the impacts of Milei’s policies as a social catastrophe, which has worsened due to the rise in the price of basic necessities. The official unemployed population has reached more than 1.7 million, and over half the population is beneath the poverty line. 44.000 state workers have been dismissed and essential services in the health, education and retirement sectors are being de-funded.

Another worrying concern is that parts of the social support system are increasingly being transferred to evangelical churches. This alliance between conservative and far-right sectors is destroying decades of efforts by the women’s and dissident movements. Not only are programs for the prevention and attention to sexist violence being dismantled, but a new anti-feminist crusade led by the government is promoting the public emergence of neo-fascist discourse.

While the parliamentary opposition places all its hopes on the next election, the anarchists are calling for “a robust resistance” that takes the new context into account. By building bridges between those union groups and social organisations willing to turn to direct action as a strategy, and intensifying the mobilisations and strikes that have been ongoing since Milei’s takeover, they aim “to build a popular, collective alternative, for a better life for those at the bottom”.