Argentina mass protests against austerity.
Massive mobilization at Congress and throughout the country against Decree 70/2023 and in defense of public education despite repression.
The Left Daily 16 October 2026
The government managed to shield Decree 70/2023 by preventing the session from reaching a quorum of Peronist deputies and other opposition blocs. But outside Congress, tens of thousands of people demonstrated. There was repression and strong resistance that lasted for nearly two hours. Thirty-one people were arrested. In addition, significant mobilizations took place in Rosario, Mendoza, Neuquén, San Miguel de Tucumán, Córdoba, and other parts of the country. Among the organizers of the demonstrations were the organizations that called for the March of Anger. See here for details of the national day of action.
This Thursday saw a massive day of protest against the national government's austerity policies. The focal point was the National Congress, where a special session was convened to discuss Decree 70/23 —the cornerstone of the Milei administration's austerity measures—as well as the state of emergency for people with disabilities and the debt crisis affecting millions. In addition, there was a call to march for compliance with the University Funding Law , which the Milei government has been illegally violating for a year.
Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the National Congress. The demonstration stretched from the fence in front of the Congress building to near 9 de Julio Avenue. Within that crowd, a militant sector of thousands of comrades stood out, resisting and confronting the repression unleashed by the government around 4 p.m.
But there were also significant demonstrations in various parts of the country . In Rosario, around 20,000 people marched; in Mendoza, more than 15,000; in Mar del Plata, nearly 5,000; in Neuquén, more than 7,000; in Fiske Menuco, more than 4,000; and in Córdoba, more than 15,000.
Thursday's mobilization marked a continuation of previous major protests, demonstrating a growing opposition to the government, which is becoming increasingly combative in practice. This was evident, for example, on August 6th . The same occurred on September 19th , during the March of Anger, convened by a broad coalition of hundreds of organizations.
This continuity opens a path for further progress . It enables grassroots coordination and organization, allowing us to advance toward imposing an active national strike on the bureaucratic leadership of the CGT and CTA, a strike that will lead to a general strike . This method requires the working class and the people as a whole to deploy their full strength. This can be achieved through the paralysis of economic activity, damaging the power of big business and the government; through mass mobilization, occupying the streets and highways throughout the country. This force, if organized and expanded, can effectively defeat the plan of Milei, big business, and all their accomplices .
This Thursday in theChamber of Deputies,a large part of the opposition sought to hold aspecial session to address several points: the repeal of Decree 70/2023 (already rejected by the Senate in 2024) and the consideration of bills ondisability ,university funding , andhousehold debt . As explained inanother article , the session was scheduled for 2 p.m., but ultimatelynecessary quorum of 129 deputieswas not reached. Peronist governors and those from the former Juntos por el Cambio coalition had their supporters absent. In the hours leading up to the session, the government maneuvered to prevent it from taking place.
Decree 70/2023 must be repealed . Signed in December 2023, it modified economic, labor, and social regulations, directly impacting the living conditions of the entire working class, tenants, Indigenous peoples, and the general population. It repealed theRental Law (more benefits for landlords); deregulatedprivate healthcare (large, uncontrolled price increases); liberalizedfinancing conditions andinterest rates (massive indebtedness and a business for loan sharks); and repealed theRural Land Law (advancing foreign ownership of the land).
We must stop the foreign takeover of land .Milei wants to facilitate the mass purchase of land by foreigners without the limits imposed by previous legislation. At stake iscontrol of theterritory ,border areas ,productive lands , andcommon natural resources . Recent interventions by theSupreme Court have made it clear that the government is seeking to lay the groundwork for surrendering sovereignty.
Against US intervention . The backdrop is the interference ofDonald Trump 's government in the region. His support forMilei deepens US economic intervention in the country and various actions by Washington in Latin America. Seeing how youth and workers are rising up in Europe and elsewhere, this mobilization is also to denounce theimperialist advance .
For an active national strike and a general strike . Thursday's combative mobilization must be a springboard for more forceful measures. The leadership of theCGT andCTA must be compelled to call for anactive national strike as a step towardsa general strike .Coordination among unions, social organizations, student groups, environmentalists, Indigenous communities, the left, and other sectors is vital toforce the government and its accomplices to back down.
Massive mobilization in Mendoza
In Mendoza, the mobilization was massive. Thousands of people marched from the National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo), and at the gates of San Martín Park, they were joined by labor unions and socio-environmental organizations, culminating in Independence Square. Hundreds of students, organized in the Interfaculty Assembly, marched alongside social, political, and environmental organizations in a bloc independent of the University authorities.
https://www.laizquierdadiario.com/En-vivo-segui-la-jornada-de-lucha-contra-el-DNU-70-23-la-extranjerizacion-de-la-tierra-y-la?
Back
|
|
|
Thanks for visting the G20 From Below Website. If you want something published here or other enquiries mailto:Brics-from-below@protonmail.com
Please Visit the BRICs from below website. The BRICs from below website was established in 2016 to news and analysis on worker and community protests in the BRICS countries and against the activities of BRICS based multinationals especially in Africa. The G20From Below website was set up in to 2025 to extened this work to the G20 countries.
Introducing BRICS from above, BRICS from the middle and BRICS from below
BRICS FROM ABOVE
Heads of state, Business Forum, elite allies
*BRICS as anti-imperialist (ANC & Pretoria rhetoric – “Talk Left, Walk Right”, e.g. national-liberation tradition, foreign ministry on global geopolitics, finance minister on IMF reform, sports minister on FIFA)
*BRICS as sub-imperialist (Pretoria relegitimising world capitalism, lubricating neoliberalism in - and exploiting - Africa, intensifying class war against SA’s poor/workers/women/nature on behalf of global/local capital, ensuring maximum greenhouse gas emissions alongside BASIC/US no matter local/continental/global consequences, and playing “deputy sheriff” role to imperialism)
*BRICS as inter-imperialist (Pretoria's potential support for a new internet delinked from US, promotion of Putin v Obama in September 2013 at G20, and mainly backing Russia in Crimea/Ukraine conflict - as well as earlier episodes where SA lined up with China in UN e.g. in relation to Burma)
BRICS FROM THE MIDDLE
Academic Forum, trade unions, NGOs
BRICS advocates (most of Academic Forum, Johannesburg & Pretoria “think tanks” and others who suffer persistent “failure of analytical nerve”)
*wait-and-see (most NGOs and trade unions - as well as “Third Worldist” intellectuals - who wish for BRICS to become “anti-impi” at UN, Bretton Woods Institutions, Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement, etc)
*critics (those associated with brics-from-below network who consider BRICS to be “sub-impis” and sometimes also “inter-impis”)
BRICS FROM BELOW
Grassroots activists whose visions run local to global
*localist (stuck within local or sectoral silos, including myriad “popcorn protests” - even some against BRICS corporations or projects - that are insurgent, unstrategic, momentary, at constant risk of becoming xenophobic, and prone to populist demagoguery)
*nationally-bound (most activists who are vaguely aware of - and hostile to - BRICS yet so overwhelmed by local, national and sectoral battles, they fail to link across borders - even BRICS hinterlands)
*solidaristic-internationalist (“global justice movement” allies aspiring for joint campaigning against common BRICS enemies such as Vale, China Development Bank, DBSA, Transnet/mega-shipping, fossil fuel corporations and other polluters, coming BRICS Development Bank)
JEALOUS PRO-WEST CAPITALISTS
Most white organic intellectuals of capital connected to Old Money, multinational-corporate branch plants, Business Day, northern-centric big biz, Democratic Alliance and their ilk.
|
