----- Original Message ----- From: Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2000 8:36 PM Subject: [CrashList] Brief on Argentina A fever of road blocks has gained Argentina. Road blocks are the only measure of economic struggle with effective interest in a country where IMF- and US-fueled industrial devastation has left very little productive activity. Blocking the transportation lines, effected by unemployed, equates, somehow, with industrial strikes by active workers. One of the last road blocks took place last week near Tartagal, core town of an area in the province of Salta laid waste and in desperation by privatization of our former National Oilfields (YPF), privatization (and reduction in size) of the steel industry, crisis in the sugar cane sector, widespread mechanization of labor in foreign-owned estates producing for the foreign markets (under official subsidies, which have in turn been cut off due to financial restrictions generated by foreign debt payments), and agricultural recession in non-exporting crops. This road block, which repeats similar ones produced less than a year ago, has derived in a terrible consequence: one man dead due to repression. The murder gave way to a wave of popular rage that burnt most of the central district of Tartagal to the ground, and to negotiations between the national government and the protestors who, in their fury, had taken hostages of six (later on four) military policemen of the Gendarmer�a (Army units originally devised to survey the frontiers, now turned into stormtroopers against the Argentinian people). At the same time, the IMF graciously conceded Argentina a u$s 10 billion loan to help the financial elite overcome the results of 25 years of plunder and destruction. In fact, this loan (the conditions for which have implied new restrictions in popular consumption, reactionary measures as regards the retirement systems, a further restriction in spending by the provinces, and so on) is just a means to gap the next two or three months. The forecast is that most probably by March Argentina will be devaluating or taking similar measures, after the speculators have taken all "their" money out of the country. The announcements by the government were made at a meeting of financial executives, thus giving the clearest signal to the society. Class war is beginning here, or so it seems. The CGT of Moyano, the CTA and the CCC (three groups of rebel unionists, where the CTA had split due to petty organizative and political considerations) have joined in their rejection of this new murder. Immediately upon the news were known of what had happened in Tartagal, the head of the Public Transit union (and one of the main heads of the MTA that gives its sense to the CGT of Moyano) called for an immediate strike which froze public transportation in downtown Buenos Aires at rush hour of Friday evening. And a meeting of the Central Confederal Committee of the CGT has been called for tomorrow Monday with a simultaneous call to the Regional CGTs. A national strike will be the most obvious result of this meeting, and I dare say that this strike will freeze the whole country. In struggle, N�stor Miguel Gorojovsky [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
