Unemployed demonstrate in Argentina

Unemployed demonstrate in Argentina

On June 20, a mobilization of residents forced border troops to
abandon their crackdown on workers protesting unemployment in the town
of Mosconi, near the border that separates Argentina from Bolivia and
Paraguay. The troops carried out a pre-dawn raid and arrested 18
pickets. Within hours, however, the initial 30 demonstrators were
joined by some 600 more in the square, chanting “assasins and
subversives” at the troops. The 150 soldiers were ordered to
retreat, with nervous officials claiming that they had spotted snipers
among the protesters.

The same day over 200 workers and students, including airline workers,
unemployed oil workers and teachers, marched on the provincial
legislature in Mendoza, Argentina’s fourth largest city, in
solidarity with the protesters in Mosconi and to demand an end to army
repression.

On June 17, border police killed two workers and injured dozens more
while expelling unemployed protesters in Mosconi and Tartagal, another
town in Salta province. Using tactics developed during the period of
the dictatorship, and claiming that outside agitators had infiltrated
the unemployed protesters, the troops occupied Mosconi and conducted
house-to-house searches, arresting a dozen protesters.

The region has become one of the most depressed in Argentina since the
national oil company YPF was privatized. The privatization resulted in
massive layoffs. Peronist Governor Juan Carlos Romero blamed
protesters for the lack of jobs, saying the lack of labor peace was
scaring away investors.

Buenos Aires protest against state violence

More than 10,000 workers and youth rallied June 21 in the Plaza de
Mayo in Buenos Aires, across from the Rose House presidential offices,
to protest the violent repression of unemployed protesters in Salta
province. The main columns of marchers came from the working class
districts of Matanza and Liniers, southwest of the federal district.

The size of the demonstration, which blocked traffic in the capital,
took authorities by surprise. Neither the official union federation
nor the so-called dissident General Workers Confederation mobilized
their members to go. Instead the march was organized by the smaller
Argentine Workers Central (CTA) and left-wing organizations.

The Matanza contingent, led by CTA President Victor de Gennaro,
consisted of unemployed pickets who had been manning barricades
against police. In the course of their march through the industrial
zones of Liniers and Once, railroad workers, airline workers and other
groups joined them.

Officials in the De la Rua government have expressed concern that the
“Salta effect” will spread to other regions in the
country, particularly the industrial zones of Greater Buenos Aires and
to the southern oil-producing province of Neuquen.

Reposted from the World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/lab-j26.shtml
---------------------reposted by:

an Francisco (US) Committee in Support of the Salta Workers (SFCSSW)
email: SaltaSolidarity [at] yahoo.com
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/supportthesaltaworkers