Argentina: Massive act of the FITU for the 1st of May
This International Workers' Day, the Unity Left Front held a massive act in the historic Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. The main referents of the front spoke and different referents of the workers' struggles and the independent piquetero movement took the stage.. We share the speeches of Alejandro Bodart and Cele Fierro, who closed the act.
Speech by Alejandro Bodart
I bring you the greetings of the International Socialist League, companions, companions, of which my party, el MST, it's part. A fraternal greeting to all the militancy of the Left Front. And to the comrades who have come to this important event today.
We are living in very complex moments for humanity. Capitalism is going through perhaps its worst crisis since we know it as the dominant system. To save corporate profits, to take care of the privileges of the bosses, they are applying savage adjustment plans.
But they are preparing to apply much more brutal plans. They are aware that these plans will not pass without repression, that is why the regimes are becoming more and more authoritarian.
All the democratic liberties that we won with struggle are in danger in the next period. They are encouraging hate speech to stigmatize those who fight, to the picketers, to migrants, to the native peoples, to women, to dissent.
The germ of fascism is re-emerging in almost all countries. They stop at nothing. They are destroying nature and they are going to continue on that path to guarantee their profits.
And as if this were not enough, the drums of war have sounded again. The dispute between the different imperialists presents us with a horizon where we may possibly witness a third world war with unimaginable consequences due to the nuclear power of the powers that are disputing hegemony.. The only ones who can stop barbarism are the workers and the revolutionary left, companions.
We are witnessing tremendous struggles. The working class will not let them go without a fight. We are seeing it in France, In England. In our continent rebellions occur every few months from country to country. Fighting in Asia against regimes of exploitation and oppression. Palestinian compañeros and compañeros fight against the genocidal State of Israel. Fighting in the Sahara, The fight is being made in the Ukraine for a right as elementary as that of self-determination and that no power, neither international nor regional, decide their destinations. Fight against hunger in Africa.
But the struggles of the workers and the peoples have a problem. Workers fight with their arms tied, without class and democratic leaderships in their organizations, without a strong revolutionary left that can defeat capitalism. And that's why it's so hard for us to get resounding victories.
We revolutionary socialists have a great responsibility for how we are going to face the next period. And we have to reflect among ourselves, because there are many things to improve.
The Left Front is a very important conquest, but we have to discuss that it has limitations. It is only an electoral front and what is coming in this country are very important struggles, companions. We cannot answer only with votes. We have to organize ourselves to intervene in the struggles with force.
The Front has to overcome itself and we have to discuss how we organize thousands and thousands to face the attacks that we are going to have to face in the next period. And we cannot face them only with more deputies, that it is very good to have more deputies and we want more and more, but a Front is needed that exceeds the electoral.
And internationally, companions, we need to take steps to build a mass alternative. Small chapels are not enough at this time. We need to discuss how we go about, from different traditions, advance in unity in the regroupment of the revolutionaries, in going towards a new tradition surpassing all ours.
We, humbly, from the LIS, we are trying to work with people other than ourselves. Is not easy. It is always easier to work with someone who thinks 100% how you. But, Regrettably, that which is easier does not solve the leadership problem of the international working class. That is why we have to make efforts to see if we can, in the next period, advance to a great regrouping that responds to the most pressing need of our class.
We can play a very important role. In Nicaragua, The unitary commission that we put together between different currents that we are here today was qualitative in achieving the freedom of many of the political prisoners.
Mira's, companions, we have differences on many issues, we have differences in ukraine, on what to do in the face of Ukraine, but it cannot be the excuse for us not to make efforts to see if we mobilize against NATO, against the expansionism of Russian imperialism, against the new chinese imperialism, who wants to dominate the world to do the same as the Yankees.
We need to discuss how we move forward, and that is why we bring you some proposals. in milan, the left, the Italian extreme left, is calling an international meeting so that we all discuss the new open situation. We are going to participate.
In Africa, We are calling from the LIS for a pan-African congress and many organizations from different countries have already signed up to meet and discuss how we face colonialism, The explotion, hunger, not only in africa, but how we take steps to regroup internationally.
We have to discuss whether the Argentine left is going to take up the challenge, if we don't call from here, among all the forces of the FITU, open to more forces of the revolutionary socialist left, to a big international conference, not only latin american, but global, so that the revolutionary Marxists of the world can meet and discuss how we are going to face the stage that is coming our way. We promise to work hard with that perspective.
Companions, companions, the working class is one and without borders. Let us make every effort in this historical period to rise to the occasion and not each remain in the quarrels of the past or in the small apparatus fights. Let's respond to the needs of our class. Let's put that ahead.
Long live May Day!! Long live the working class, what is one without borders! Long live the program of the socialist revolution!, companions and companions!
Cele Fierro speech
Good afternoon, from here goes a hug to all the militancy of the 4 matches, to the compañeras and compañeros with whom we are in every fight, who are also today in this great act of the international day of the working class.
Here we are, those of us who organize ourselves in each workplace to confront the bosses, bureaucracy and government, We also take into our hands the construction of a political alternative. An alternative on this side of the wick, independent of all capitalist governments. And we already have a base. The main forces of the left achieved unity with a very solid program, anti-capitalist and socialist.
We are the only political force that plans to overcome this decadent capitalism, neocolonial, looting, of submission, that explodes, contaminates and frustrates all hope of a future with rights, with freedom and happiness.
The economy on the edge of the precipice, improvisation, counter-coup measures, of emergency of the government or rather co-government of the FdT with the IMF, is showing the complete exhaustion of this country in the hands of the bosses, in the hands of banks, of seed pools. And the shock therapy programs they prepare, Miley o Bullrich guy, with dollarization and wages of 20 Dollars, open a scenario of social explosion because this extraordinary town, this working class with historical memory will not be allowed.
The exit is on the left, with background measurements, hard on the capitalists: we have to break with the IMF, give general salary increase, pensions and social assistance. End precariousness. We make the decisions. Nationalize the bank, have control of foreign trade, to decide what is produced and according to what needs. only the left, with the workers, we can carry out this program.
The political crisis, economic and social is enormous. And whoever wins, govern who governs, the situation of our people is going to be worse. They're going to turn up the heat on this pressure cooker, that can explode.
That is why it is essential that we put our batteries, our role is central. We have to transform ourselves into a great political movement. On a front to go to the fights, on a permanent political front, that not only participate in the elections, but also discuss how to intervene in the class struggle. The fight for more seats, It is important, but it can't be the only one.
We can't settle for that. We must advance in the debate on how to act in common in the face of relevant political facts of reality, we have to overcome the merely electoral character of our front and discuss how we prepare for what is coming. Because if they already fit us, imagine after the elections, it's going to be brutal: EVERYONE wants to make our working conditions more flexible, they come for retirement, they come to privatize the little that remains, to burst the social plans, to plunder our common goods and destroy our territories. And there will be resistance, there will be fights.
We need a political front that is equal to this situation and that is prepared to face it!! the crisis will deepen, we cannot rule out a new 2001, and it has to find us United, to give a common political response. In this point, it is essential that FITU overcomes these limitations, that is an active actor in the permanent reality, we cannot continue to give advantage!
further, we have to be a convening force, find mechanisms to add to the independent left, social, activists, many present today. We cannot shut ourselves in and believe that we have already solved the problem of the revolutionary leadership.. We have to summon from our program, move away from sectarian positions. We can become that real alternative in our country, let's not give away the opportunity.
Why do we have to be clear?, if we don't take steps in that direction, to occupy the space, others will, and the false progressivism, for more nice speech, it does not break with the limits of capitalism and is responsible not only for the adjustment but also for opening the door to the right.
And now facing this year marked by the elections and the crisis, Efforts have to be put in to have a unique list, where all forces have representation, visibility. The ideal would be not to finish in a few STEP, the ideal would be to apply a worker method, a great assembly: summon all our militancy, to the activism that votes for FITU, to colleagues from human rights organizations, activists who in every factory resist the bureaucracy, to those who organize to face poverty in the social movements and piqueteros, to women and dissidents that confront anti-rights, to that youth that leads the socio-environmental struggles, with whom we share each fight side by side, and among all decide: What are the best candidates?, the best places, how we integrate everyone, so that everyone feels part, and thus have a unified campaign to respond to everything that our people are suffering. No need to be afraid of real democracy.
If unfortunately it is not achieved, are the STEP, there is no need to dramatize or make a novel out of this. And as we always said, our applications, those of the MST, They are at the service of making our front bigger and stronger., Let's stop wasting opportunities in all fields.
Today, We can come out of this act stronger, building from the collective, to multiply the influence of FITU, prepare ourselves with everything for the challenges of the next stage, where the left can be the protagonist, depending on what we do.
We reject any lukewarm option, possible, skeptical; we are working class optimists, optimistic of our worker proposal, socialist, revolutionary, to rule this country, to make root changes, to turn everything, to make way for that socialism with democracy for those below for which we fight as a strategy. We no longer have anything to lose, we have instead, a world to win.
Long live the working class! Long live the FIT Unit! Let's continue in the fight for a workers' government and socialism.
