---------- From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Published Wednesday, August 1, 2001 in the Miami Herald Argentines protest, seek jobs By JANE BUSSEY [EMAIL PROTECTED] BUENOS AIRES -- Twenty-four hours after authorities launched a desperate effort to avoid defaulting on the nation's debt, thousands of out-of-work Argentines blocked highways across the country and marched in the capital to protest and demand jobs. On the outskirts of Buenos Aires, protesting students, pensioners and the unemployed blocked major thoroughfares connecting the surrounding suburbs with the capital. Near the Casa Rosada, the Argentine White House, protesters pounded drums and chanted, political fliers floated through the air like confetti and the crowd waved banners to underscore their demands for jobs, an end to austerity and the release of several jailed protest leaders. Several dozen lightly-armed police watched the crowds, keeping them from entering government buildings but otherwise taking no action. Buenos Aires looked like it was a holiday instead of the middle of the week because so many students and employees could not reach the city. But most offices, shops and restaurants remained open. Facing a financial crunch, an economic recession and political troubles, the protest could hardly have come at a worse time for the administration of President Fernando de la Rua. Government leaders ranging from Labor Minister Patricia Bullrich to Cabinet Chief Chrystian Colombo, a rising star in the country, had warned that the government would arrest protesters for breaking the law. But the hours of protests were marred by only a few isolated incidents when marchers occupied state-run banks in the province of Buenos Aires. ``This situation today was a tie,'' said Ricardo Rouvier, a political analyst who carries out public opinion polls. ``There were no winners or losers. The government was not forced to repress the protests, and the protesters were quite moderate in their activities.'' While Argentina has witnessed at least six general strikes in the first 19 months of de la Rua's administration, this protest was the first of its kind. It was not called by organized labor and instead was the first to be coordinated by a loose coalition of social groups, whose members call themselves ``piqueteros,'' which sounds like picketers in Spanish but also is used to include the unemployed. ``We are all piqueteros,'' said a banner across the Avenida del Mayo at a small street blockage organized by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers whose children were disappeared under the military dictatorship that ended in 1983. ``Today's protest was generated and carried out by unemployed people,'' said Gustavo Koenig, a 24-year-old sociology student at the University of Buenos Aires and a member of a social movement called Polo Social. ``The most important thing was we were able to coordinate this. There is a new actor in play, the people excluded from the system who don't exist as consumers and don't exist as producers.'' Official statistics show that unemployment is more than 16 percent, one of the highest rates in Latin America. Some 14 million out of 36 million Argentines are now classified as poor because of three years of recession. Three out of every 10 small businesses may have to close their doors if the economic situation does not improve. In a country used to bad news, financial players shrugged off the protests, and the benchmark Merval index barely moved higher during the trading, rising form 319.85 to 320.79. The country's risk, a measure of how risky it is to hold Argentine bonds compared with bonds from other emerging markets, rose from 1571 to 1606. Just four months ago, the country risk measure was as low as 700. Some opinion polls show that the majority of Argentines still hold out hope that the budget cutting measures approved by the Senate early Monday morning will restore investor confidence and avoid default on the country's $130 billion debt. Economists say such a move would also spark a devaluation of the Argentine peso -- which has been pegged one peso to $1 for a decade, and freezing bank accounts. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
