Argentina: Plenary of the left in Congress
I came to decide and build a new direction for the FIT-U
BySergio Garcia
The common call of our MST and the PO to a Plenary in Plaza Congreso for the 17 of June, where we are going to debate and resolve, above all, pre-candidacies, politics, program and preparation of the left for the country to come, It is not only the main political and collective initiative that comes from within the FIT-U and the left, rather, it lays the foundations of a Left Front project that surpasses the one that exists today.
This is so because we value and defend the Left Front and at the same time we do so critically due to the electoral nature of our front, something that we have always marked as a deficit and a limit that must be exceeded, an issue that is also viewed critically by PO colleagues and the same by a large number of referents, activists, friends and voters of our front, who expect a much better FIT-U.
Faced with this reality, what is new and positive is that the MST and the PO, the two parties of the FIT-U with the largest national extension and militant organization, important social insertion and with representative referents on the left, we have decided to jointly wage a fundamental political battle, project for the Left Front. that's what we're talking about, to deepen this whole debate and also define how best to confront the capitalist parties, we are convening this great plenary.
A method in defense of the Left Front
The political fight to which we refer implies that we are not facing a debate or fight of candidacies. Whoever tries to reduce the current debate to just that loses sight of the essence of the debate and the perspectives. Because the pre-candidacy agreement of the MST and PO and the call for a great Plenary in Plaza Congreso is based on a substantive debate, of policy and method, to better prepare the left for the coming country. Where some of the forces of the opposition right or candidates of the government itself win, we will be in the presence of more adjustment agreed with the Fund and worse attacks on democratic and social rights. For this perspective of strong social tensions and struggles, on the left we have to prepare and improve.
For that reason, when we convene different popular organizations, social referents, workers, of the socio-environmental and gender struggle, from the field of culture and human rights and to intellectual friends of our front so that they come to debate and decide everything, we are opening a course of political opening that strengthens the Left Front. Removing from the place of being only companions or voters to valuable and valuable partners and organizations. we want, with the direct intervention of all our own militancy and many invited sectors, give more strength to the subsequent application of everything that is resolved democratically.
Whereby, By making this call and opening an important channel of participation for thousands, We are not only questioning an electoral model that delays the intervention that the anti-capitalist and socialist left needs to make in the class struggle, but we are also acting in defense of the Unity Left Front, which is at a crossroads: or the ideas and parties that want a course of struggle that is at the same time convening and democratic are strengthened within the front, or the most electoral and lukewarm ideas will put the front itself at risk in the future with more hegemonism and closure.
A plenary session of struggle and democracy that resolves everything
So things, we redouble our call to the Plaza Congreso Plenary, where thousands of worker militants will participate, popular and youth throughout Greater Buenos Aires and CABA, most outstanding delegations from all over the country. There we will start with an opening act and then we will move on to a massive commission operation where we will address essential issues such as the political situation, labor movement, youth, piquetero movement, Health, education, socio-environmental struggles, woman and diversities, democratic rights and culture, among other important commissions that will debate in depth how the left should intervene in the elections and in the period that will open after.
And just as we are inviting a large number of friends and supporters in front of them to join, We also did it from the beginning with the other parties of the FIT-U: el PTS e IS. These parties know they are invited to come, to organize in common, to propose everything they want, to debate and decide among all. If the recent PTS Electoral Conference decided to reject the invitation and refuse to be part of a massive assembly and plenary, It is because it reaffirms its one-party formula and the deepening of a path that has been weakening the FIT-U. On our part we insist on the invitation and we will do so until the last day, to their parties, to all its militancy and to the thousands of sympathizers of our front.
Fallacies and fears of the PTS
To the extent that our Plenary is gaining strength and previous assemblies follow one another, meetings and all kinds of initiatives that are preannouncing a massive event, The decision of the PTS to reject this democratic method to avoid being divided in the PASO leads it to disseminate arguments that are unrelated to reality. Among other things, in La Izquierda Diario, when reporting that his Conference once again reaffirmed the Bregman-Del Caño formula, he clarifies that it does so «within the framework of the unilateral decision by the Partido Obrero accompanied by the MST to make its own list to participate in the PASO ». The nonsense of the comment has no limits.
First, because it was the PTS who in the first part of the 2022 announced his Bregman-Vilca formula, that is to say a one-party proposal, and reaffirmed the same orientation only changing Vilca for Del Caño at the beginning of this 2023. In other words, the only "unilateral" and divisive decisions have been each of its announcements for more than a year, where ever, one way or another, they refused any common and democratic debate and proposed that only their party head all the lists. Something that is confirmed in the agreement that they are now announcing with the Socialist Left, where the PTS has not only the complete formula, but it heads the two positions of national deputies of Buenos Aires and CABA and also the list of legislators. That is to say, the PTS and its own formula head all the expected charges, while IS claims to be part of a common list, that has little in common, being located in a role of minor companion of the objectives of the PTS.
To guarantee that hegemonic electoral assembly, which he obviously wanted to do from the beginning, is that the PTS refuses to this day to be part of a massive and democratic debate that could question it, that is why it did not promote, not even, a debate at the National Table of the FIT-U. Ultimately, he is afraid of a massive debate and of solving among thousands. And to avoid a collective and democratic debate, went to the extreme of denying thousands of unemployed workers in struggle, the right to decide within our front. Thus he ended up consummating his electoral path and in parallel making an irreplaceable role in front of the worker and piquetero vanguard, with positions alien to our class and hostile towards those who have less and fight for genuine work.
The inconsistencies of the Socialist Left
On the other hand, IS's actions are a complete inconsistency. He boasts of having proposed a unitary formula, that there was nothing unitary about it, because they were only two names presented without any type of political proposal or comprehensive agreement for the entire front, and after that empty proposal, finally goes to the feet of the hegemonic plan of the PTS and its closed and one-party formula.
How did he end up making that political capitulation?, now try to cover it up with fallacies that border on the grotesque. Days ago, in an article that unfairly attacks the Plenary that we convened and to which he does not want to go, also says: «From the Socialist Left we fight all forms of attempts at hegemonism, self-proclamation and breach of agreements». Phrase that leaves them faced with themselves, since they have decided to campaign in the PASO for a hegemonic formula, self-proclaimed and not part of any prior agreement. That is the sad role of the smallest organization of the FIT-U. Hence, we invited those who honestly wanted unity in the PASO, to come to Plaza Congreso on 17 June to discuss, propose, decide collectively and give support to the only unitary formula that the left will have in the PASO; which we make up the MST and PO with Solano and Ripoll.
Copemos Plaza Congress
There are days of intense activity ahead of the Plenary and enthusiasm has been growing from below. As we said at the beginning of this note, It is not just an Open Plenary of the Left and it is not just about pre-candidacies. It is the beginning of a path, of a course that is encouraged to question the electoral and politically lukewarm model that some want for the FIT-U, and fight on our part for a united Left Front, more politically solid and more open to the vanguard and sympathizers of the front. The Plenary lays the foundations for a path of anti-capitalist and socialist struggle, for a Left Front project that does not act only every two years when there are elections, but that they play to act with force and in common permanently, in every political and social struggle. A project that calls for leading roles and massive decisions on all important issues towards the strategic task of being a power option for a workers' government. Under these ideas and criteria, We encourage our militancy to spread this call with all their strength and prepare their participation from each place. And to friendly organizations, to social referents and to the activism that supports the FIT-U, We invite you to come with your proposals and ideas.. In Plaza Congreso there is a place of struggle and political organization to strengthen the left and resolve everything en masse and by voting. We are waiting for you in Congress on 17, where the left will open its doors and begin to forge a better path.
