BY FEDERICO FUENTES
Protests against the government in Argentina continue to grow. Calls for new elections and the resignation of the government are being increasingly linked to the demand for a "workers' government".
On February 15, 20,000 people marched to the Plaza de Mayo for the fourth consecutive weekly cacerolazo (pot banging protest). The protest was initiated by the popular assemblies, which have sprouted throughout Argentina
The next day, around 7000 piqueteros (unemployed picketers), young people, workers, leftists and delegations from the popular assemblies met at the Plaza de Mayo for the first day of the National Assembly of Employed and Unemployed Workers. Delegations came from provinces throughout the country.
Workers from the Brukman textile factory in Buenos Aires and the Zanon Ceramics workers from Neuquen marched with a banner proclaiming: "Zanon and Brukman: under workers' control". This was met with a roar from the crowd.
Around 2000 delegates, each representing at least 20 people, met at the Avellaneda Colonial Theatre in the greater Buenos Aires city of Avellaneda.
The two-day assembly adopted a resolution which stated that "[President Eduardo Duhalde's] government is an enemy of the working class and the people" and "there is no other solution to the problem [but] the expulsion of Duhalde and the class of plunderers who put it in the government".
The resolution also stated:"We must take into our own hands the solving of the most pressing problems of the masses — jobs, health, education, housing — which means spreading and promoting [popular assemblies, piquetero organisations and workers' assemblies] up and down the country as an alternative which belongs to the workers."
The assembly adopted an 11-point program, the final point being: "Down with Duhalde and the IMF. For a workers' government".
A second assembly has been called for April 2.
On February 17, 2000 people met in Parque Centenario for the sixth weekly meeting of the Interbarrial [interdistrict] Coordinating Assembly of Popular Assemblies. The assembly called for an all-out mobilisation on February 20, in line with a call by the National Assembly of Employed and Unemployed Workers.
The gathering voted to call "for a National Popular Assembly of popular assemblies, the interbarrial assemblies and assemblies in the provinces for March 16-17." It also called for a "government of the popular assemblies, the interbarrial assemblies, workers and piqueteros".
The resolutions passed at the two assemblies represent the growing consciousness among the Argentinian masses of the need for a new type of government.
The initial growth of the assemblies was based primarily on opposition to the corralito — the government-imposed freeze on bank account withdrawals — but they now have adopted a program of demands which challenge every aspect of capitalist rule in Argentina.
These demands include the repudiation of Argentina's foreign debt, the nationalisation of the banks, the re-nationalisation of privatised utilities, popular election of supreme court judges, state control of pension funds and a government of the poor.
On February 20 — the two-month anniversary of the popular revolt — thousands took to the streets again. Unemployed workers blocked roads across the country, while thousands marched on congress.
From Green Left Weekly, February 27, 2002.
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