by Dan Morgan

Cry for Argentina! Javier Milei was elected President with 56% of the votes in the run-off. He wants to drastically shrink the state and demolish all the hard-won social gains made in the last 150 years. He is an ’anarcho-capitalist’, a libertarian. His catchphrase is ”Viva la libertad, mierda!” (Long live freedom, shit!). That over-used word, freedom. His freedom is freedom for capitalists to exploit with no protection for workers; freedom for supermarkets from price controls; freedom to sell your organs and use whatever drugs; but the end of free education and healthcare. Privatisation of the remaining public enterprises is also planned.

MILEI'S POLICIES  

Milei’s first act was to abolish 13 ministries, as promised. His cabinet consists of 11 ministers. All other former ministries are now ’secretariats’.  Maybe there’s not too much in a name change, but now 15,000 civil servants have been sacked – all those without permanent contracts. Many more redundancies will come as he develops his aim of demolishing the state, as shown by him brandishing a chainsaw in his campaign. First body to go was the state press service.

His shock therapy began with a "Necessary and Urgent Decree” (DNU). This Decree at a stroke made important changes: an end to food price controls and rent controls, and the first steps to privatisations and changing labour laws. Supermarket prices shot up at once, as controls ended. So annual inflation reached 288% in March, up from 211% in December. An omnibus bill was presented to Congress, with 533 sections. It faces a lot of opposition there, so it was whittled down from 533 to 394 sections but it still faces stiff opposition. Argentina is also a federation, provincial governors are important as well, and they will negotiate to block some of the proposed measures or approve them in return for aid to their provinces.

There has already been a one-day general strike, and occupations of ministries by civil servants.  Massive demonstrations take place, we will see if they become strong enough to force Milei out.

The president also directs foreign policy of course, so Milei scrapped entry into the BRICS bloc.  This will not help the country’s economy. Before election he ranted about not trading with communist China but in reality that would about destroy the economy, it will not happen. The CIA Director has visited, and also the head of the US military Southern Command. Argentina will have US bases, an ominous move. Milei is a firm supporter of Zelensky and Natanyahu. Now (late April) the government has started provocations against Chile and Bolivia about supposed cells of Hizbollah! Any pretext that serves to raise nationalist feelings and spoil moves towards South American integration.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?  

After independence from Spain in 1815, Argentina became a British neocoloy, before the word was coined. It produced huge amounts of beef and wheat for Britain and Europe before the 'Common Market’, now the EU, imposed tariffs. But there was also growth in industry, in part to process agricultural products. Many beef cattle have now been replaced by soya beans, exported to feed European pigs and chickens.   

Argentina was always different from other Latin American countries; the most developed, best educated, along with its neighbour Uruguay. (1)  Argentina had a large organised working class and strong trade unions.

Since the 80s, neoliberal policies have meant privatisations and the closure of a lot of industry. Industrial production grew, given the usual capitalist recessions and recoveries, until about 1975. It stopped under the brutal dictatorship of 1976-83. The 1976 coup was preceded by a period of instability. Two major petty-bourgeois guerrilla groups (mainly urban) were active, with kidnappings and armed assaults on property. So the coup at first had fairly wide support. The brutal supression of the guerrillas, with an estimated 30,000 disappeared, changed that. The military also suppressed workers’ rights and embarked on the recovery of the Falkland Islands – the Malvinas – with tragic results. Industry declined. The dictatorship ended in 1983 and, unlike Chile and other countries, the military leaders were later brought to justice and served time in prison.

Industry declined sharply under President Menem – 1989-1999. Unemployment, precarious work and poverty followed. Economic crisis caused massive popular protests in 2001. There was repression and several deaths. A series of presidents led finally to the emergence of Nestor Kirchner, an unknown Peronist. He stabilised the economy and turned out to be anti-imperialist, anti-neoliberal, and was very popular. As President from 2003 to 2007 he worked with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and others to develop UNASUR, an organisation for the integration of South America. His early death from cancer in 2010 was a heavy blow (as was Chavez’s in 2013).

PERONISM  

Juan Domingo Perón was a colonel, a government minister in World War 2 and then elected President in 1946. He admired Mussollini and helped Nazis escape to Argentina after the war, along with their gold. But he was a reformist and at first he improved workers’ rights and nationalised industry. Even although he moved to the right, he was overthrown in a military coup in 1954. But he was still idolised by most of the working class and his legacy bedevils Argentinian politics, and the organised working class especially.

The Peronist party is really a movement with many factions, ranging from most of the left to centrists and rightwingers. After Nestor Kirchner, an unexpected left wing Peronist, his wife Cristina Fernandez was President. She was neither as left wing or competent and was also charged with corruption – a ’normal’ feature of Argentinian politics. A worsening economic situation meant she was followed by the disastrous rule of the corrupt businessman Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).  His abysmal period in office ended with a huge, unprecedented debt to the IMF and he was the first incumbent in history to be defeated for re-election.

The president before Milei was Alberto Fernandez. He was a Peronist but a centrist who increased the debt to the IMF (instead of taking credit that China offered). The dismal failure of his government to control inflation and grow the economy led to the election of Milei. In 2023 inflation was 211% and poverty rose to 42% of the population. On top of the incompetence of Fernandez, Milei faced an unattractive opponent in the election in Sergio Massa. He was in Kirchner’s cabinet but left to support the right-wing opposition. He promised he would stop inflation but had been the economics minister for a year, when inflation was out of control! So, a centrist Peronist, he was unimpressive and even shifty looking in the presidential TV debates. He is part of what Milei calls ’the political caste’, traditionally corrupt politicans.

So in short this was the usual story of a centrist, although supposedly progressive, government not solving the problems of capitalism, and being followed by a right-wing one. In this case, an extreme, virtually deranged president.

CAN MILEI BE STOPPED?  

A major problem in Argentina is the traditional capture of the organised working class by Peronism, without a clear ideology or even political line. The trade unions are strong but led by corrupt Peronists. The communist party exists but its influence is not strong. The Trotskyist left is visible on the streets and their candidate got 2.7% in the first round of the election. Of course, they will not help in creating a broad left alliance. Peronism is already very divided. The Peronist left is not clearly visible enough at the momeent, although a decent Peronist left-winger, Juan Grabois, stood in the primary last year and got 21% versus 79% for Massa.

Can Milei be stopped? His demagogic attacks on ’the political caste’ now look hypocritical as several of his ministers were in Macri’s cabinet. But they will support his drive for deregulation, privatisation and shrinking of the state. Destruction of labour rights, and all social rights are key to his programme.

The economy was already in crisis but was not disastrously so. The first effects of the shock therapy are further driving down living standards, and that will continue. Only massive opposition can stop this, and the pressing need is for organisation of this mass resistance.

(1) A brief look at the country:  It is huge. On maps it looks smaller than it should because of the gross distortions of the Mercator projection, and because it is next to Brazil which is the fourth largest country in the world, bigger than the USA. Argentina is the eighth. It stretches from the Andes mountain range in the west to the Atlantic in the east, and sweltering tropics in the north to freezing Tierra del Fuego in the south. It is flat, with enormous areas of agricultural land. As in most poorer and unequal countries, the capital Buenos Aires has a large proportion of the population.

President of Argentina, Javier Milei (left) visits Israel February 2024 photo by Haim Zach