COUNTRY REPORT

COMMUNIST PARTY OF ARGENTINA.

We are living in a moment when the heroic resistence of the Iraqui people has bogged down the yanqui imperialism and along with the struggle of the Palestine people against the fascist Sharon have made of the Middle East a revolutionary storm center where the most important battle against the imperialism is waged.

South America has turned into one of the most active revolutionary storm centers and anti-imperialist struggle in the world.

The heroic struggle of the Bolivian people has became a main concern for the imperialists and the ruling clases in South America due to the path it outlines for the future in Bolivia and in the entire area.

The Argentinazo on december 19 and 20, 2001, and further struggles, the political situation in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay indicates the advance of the anti-imperialist struggle in our peoples.

Late struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean outlined the strategic unity of the broad peasant masses, most of them natives, with the proletariat of the big urban centers. This is an essential unity for the triumph of the revolutionary process.

In this frame we analyze the Argentinazo: it was a gigantic effort of struggle waged by hundred of thousands women, men and youth. For the first time in the national history people gained the streets and overthrew a government who surrendered our wealth to the imperialism and avoid the enforcement of the state of siege declared by the government of De la Rúa and forced the default of the external debt. Hundreds of thousands people from Jujuy to Tierra del Fuego played a leading role during the popular uprising that ended in Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires City. Our party, the RCP, has been struggling since 1996 for this Argentinazo. Firstly, for overthrowing Menem´s government and afterwards De la Rúa´s government and to put and end to the policies of hunger and surrendering of the national wealth that took millions of Argentines to the extreme poverty.

Factory workers converged in this fight with unemployed and retirees along with broad masses of self-employed, small and median rural and urban producers and median bank savers who had been expropriated.

The Argentinazo made the objective revolutionary situation that had been incubating since a while before to rise. We define an objective revolutionary situation as Lenin did: ”1) The impossibility for the ruling class of keeping their ruling in immutable way, a crisis in the ”heights”, a political crisis of the ruling classes opens a crack thru which discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst into. In order revolution can break out is not enough that ”those down below do not want” to live like before, it is necessary that ”those on the top can not live” as they did up to the present time.

2) A worsening, higher than the usual one, of the miseries and extreme poverty of the oppressed classes.

3) An important intensification, due above mentioned causes, of mass activity that in ”peaceful” times leave upper classes to plunder them quietly but that in troubled times are pushed, either by the crisis situations as the ”heights” themselves to an historically independent action.” (Lenin, The bankruptcy of the IInd International, May/June 1915.)

To have an objective revolutionary situation does not mean that revolution is going to succeed. Because, in order to have a direct revolutionary situation is needed a social force capable to take it to the triumph and a party that can lead that social force.

The political crisis produced the fracture of the ruling bloc in two camps: One that defended ”convertibility” ($1=U$1) and the other that operated for devaluation.

Taking advantage of this fracture discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst in.

The Argentinazo unveiled the existence of a hegemony crisis of the ruling classes that was expressed in daily facts. For instance: contempt for the laws of the system. Practice of direct democracy. Spreading of masses self-defense. Workers who started broken factories to produce.

Also, an ideological break of the so called ”unquestionable truths” of the neo-liberal economic model that have brought confusion to the masses for years, took place: the ”goodness” of free market, and the ”benefits” of privatizations, the ”advantages” of being USA partners.

The Argentinazo opened a new situation. We could not advance more in the first place, because the working class movement was split and led mainly by forces that in the decisive journeys demobilized their organizations. This experience gives rise again, as main task for the stage opened with the Argentinazo, to the need of regaining for the class-consciousness the delegate corps and domestic committees of the big factories of proletarian concentration.

In second place, there was no coordinator center. The majority of the leaderships of the main left popular forces rejected the way of the Argentinazo and their main concern was to participate in the elections while the majority of the people had decided ”a punishing vote”, this is to say, blank vote, nullifying the vote or not to vote.

In the third place, although the Armed Forces were neutralized and did not participate in repression, their patriotic sections did not joint the people.

In forth place, the urgent need for growth of the working class movement´s class-conscious and militant forces, specially the growth of the RCP.In this period the class conciouss trend in the working class movement and our Party have grown and became the first leftist force but ths is not enough yet concerning the revolutionary objectives.

With this situation, after the changes of five presidents in ten days (these evebts expressed that Argentina is a dependent country disputed by several imperialist powers) Duhalde assumed the presidency. He represented from the economic point of view, sections of a bourgeosie intermediary (compradora) of big monopolies, banks and landlords. A group of monopolies historically belonging to or associated with the Russian imperialism who has strong bonds of interests, interlaces and unity with some European groups and relations of struggle and unity with Spanish enterprises and European privatized enterprises.

This group is opposed, within the bloc of the ruling classes, to the group of the yanky imperialism enterprises and banks and to the section of intermediary bourgeosie and landlords associated to the yanky imperialism (with exception of the yanky companes related with the domestic market). German monopolies as Siemens and English groups are also opposed to this group.

Duhalde´s government liquefied the debts of the big monopoly groups it defended and continued with the confiscation of deposits to the median and small bank savers.

With devaluation Duhalde made the biggest transference of funds in Argentine history in favor of the big economic groups, banks and exporters, landlords and has massively expropriated those who has fix incomes, in the first place wage earners, retirees and pensioners, whose incomes were reduced in one third.

He had to hold elections in advance due to the huge united demonstration repudiating the murders of two piqueters carried out by the repressive forces in a frustrated attempt to put an end to road blockades and with bank savers demonstrations.

These elections, which were negotiated with the American Embassy, had as main purpose to split the popular masses that had played a leading role in the Argentinazo and to look for an agreement in order to unify, even in a precarious way, the ruling classes.

They wanted to extinguish the live coals of the Argentinazo.

The elections on April, 2003, were tricking ones. There was a brutal mass media campaigns against the ”rage vote” and the leftist reformist forces supported it. Ruling classes managed to split the forces that were united in the Argentinazo. Government´s propaganda placed a part of the masses facing the choice of ”elections or civil war”. Nevertheless, there were two millions of ”rage votes” against the political and mass media apparatus.

Menem won the first turn and this fact easily led to a polarization from which a broad anti-menemist and anti –yanky coalition rose up and made that Menem finally quit the polls before the second turn because he knew he was walking towards a big defeat. This was the way that President Kirchner arrived to the government with only 17% of the votes. This is the main reason why it is the most fragile government in our history.

Fidel Castro´s, Chávez´s and Lula´s visits the day Kirchner assumed the presidency generated a great expectation, particularly in those masses who have foreseen the danger of a civil war very close during the year 2001 and on and that still dreams with the possibility of a pacific way in order to solve their problems.

Kirchner at the beggining of his governement also took some measures that arosesome expectations in the broad popular sectors. They were:

n He dismissed a great part of the high officers of the military staff and in the democratic ground he got the absolute nulity of the laws that allow impunity to those risponsable of the military dictatorship genocide..

n He did not send troops to Iraq and lately he abstained from condemning Cuba in the UN as USA wanted.

n He went against the Supreme Court of Justice of the nation and some other corrupted sectors.

n He granted a salarz increase to all active workers and to retirees, excluding civil servants.

But a change was produced in the political situation when the government made an agreement with the IMF.

He sealed a very bad agreement with the IMF that legitimated the fraudulent and unlawful external debt and accepted to pay 100% of it to the IMF and WB and offering to pay only 75% of their papers to private creditors.

He accepted to reach a budget superavit of the 3% of the GDP for the payment of the debt in 2004.

The core of Kirchner’s programm neither attack the large-state property nor dependency on imperialism and thus he can not solve the crisis on behalf the people.

What is predominating in his government is the continuity fo the policies applied by Duhalde’s government.

On these basis and on the above mentioned agreement rulling classes bloc have posed further condtions to Kirchner.

Firstly, yankys and other imperialist powers impossed him a payment of U$3.100 millions and to negotiate with private creditors. This meant to continue with budget’s cuts against working class and people.

Secondly, oil producers and privatized companies impossed an increase in the price of gas and electricity. Thirdly, they managed to mount on the claim for „more security measures“, specially in the middle strata of the society and enforced new repressive laws.

At the same time there is a surge of struggles for salary increases of the civil servants, telephone workers, banks employees, oil workers and automobile industry.

Subway workers in Buenos Aires fought for and obtained the 6 hours and Rio Santiago shipyard workers struggled among others. It has been succesfully fulfilled the struggle agenda approved by the CCC for the month of april with big rallies and marchs all over the country.

But the right-wing is re-groupping!

Political times are moving fast and the situation in Argntina is coming to a turn of the period opened by the Argentinazo.

The failure of government’s policy in solving main problems of Argentina is clossing mass expectations and is creating new political conditions for the working class and the people, who together with the patriotic, democratic and anti-imperialist forces will be able to

Impose its demands and advance thru its own road towards its own way out writting the definite pages of the draft outlined on december 2001.

In order to do it, it is necessary to strengthen class- conscious, militant trends and anti-imperialist and democratic trends and the RCP in order to regroup a front of the patriotic and popular forces capable of solving the limitations arose by the Argentinazo giving birth to the conditions needes for impossing a government of patriotic and popular unity hegemonized by the working class.