[AUT] May Day And Argentine Labor Struggle

[<Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxx>]

I saw the following on the 'working-class-studies'  list and thought
you might be interested./  Jerry
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 An article on the Argentine labor movement and reflections on May Day.
During an interview with several subway delegates they reflected on the
relationship between the struggle for a six-hour workday and the fight of
 the Haymarket Martyrs of Chicago, the personal significance of May Day and
anarchist traditions in Argentina

 May 20, 2005

 May Day And Argentine Labor Struggle

By Marie Trigona

 The First of May was a symbol of the international proletariat's struggle
 for emancipation. Neither military parades nor the 'good little boy'
marches  of the reformist union federations can blind us to the
deep-seated  international solidarity of the struggle. Worker autonomy,
direct action -  with no chiefs, guides, Great Leaders or Grand Helmsmen,
but organized into  our own rank and file agencies - will turn the
revolutionary movement into a  tool for liberation. CLLA - Libertarian
Latin American Coordination

 Since the turn of the century Argentine labor movements have marked May
Day  as a remembrance of class struggle and resistance. Since the 1890's
in  Argentina anarchists held their acts in Plaza Lorea to commemorate the
Haymarket Martyrs of Chicago who were murdered for their anarchist ideas
and  fight for a eight hour day. This year, workers in struggle held their
May  Day act in this same plaza - separate from traditional Left.

 "Fighting for a reduced 6 hour work day is similar to the struggle for the
8  hour workday, in the effect of the campaigns. Today, the working class
 working doesn't have time for rest, leisure activities, or for their
lives.  The system has transformed us into working beasts. The average
working day  for Argentines is 10 hours. This has resulted in a unified
struggle among  active workers and unemployed, together fighting against
capitalism and  super-exploitation," Roberto Pianelli, subway delegate.

 Subway workers who have been organizing wildcat strikes for salary
increases  have spearheaded Argentina's movement for a six-hour workday.
In 2003,  subway workers (in all sectors from ticket office to train
drivers) won a  six-hour workday. Metrovias, the private corporation that
was contracted to  take over the once state-run subway lines in Buenos
Aires, has had to  respect the 6-hour workday, improve working conditions
and gender inequality  and increase salaries. Since this victory, subway
workers, other labor  conflicts, economists and unemployed workers
organizations have formed a  unitary movement for a 6-hour workday for all
workers, with increased  salaries. In addition, Metrovias employees
(organized outside of the  bureaucratic UTA officialist transport workers'
union) held weeklong wildcat  strikes in February this year and won a 44%
wage hike.

 During an interview with several subway delegates they reflected on the
 relationship between the struggle for a six-hour workday and the fight of
 the Haymarket Martyrs of Chicago, the personal significance of May Day and
anarchist traditions in Argentina. I caught a few delegates after their
 weekly delegate meeting at Hotel Bauen, a hotel recuperated by its
workers.  Each line has two delegates. There are commissions for press
work and  gender. There are over 3,000 workers at Metrovias, who work
three shifts,  making it almost impossible to hold general assemblies,
except during  strikes. In general, decisions are made during assemblies
organized by line  or shifts. The workers hold democratic decision making
inside the delegates  union as a fundamental principle.

 Walter Varela, delegate from the subway's D line idealized the struggle
for  an 8 hour workday. "The Martyrs of Chicago set an example of
struggle, where  they were demanding an 8 hour workday. What we want to do
is to create a  movement for a six hour work day. It would be useful for
Argentina because  it would create 4 million new jobs and better salaries
for all workers, but  our struggle doesn't compare to the struggle of the
martyrs of Chicago,"  said Varela.

 He added, "I couldn't tell you if there are workers more exploited than at
the beginning of the century. In that period, workdays were really long
just  as they are today. If we look at the parallels between the struggle
of the  anarchists and today, we see that the labor standards have become
more  flexible. Today, workers are standing up against the trade unions
and are  creating a syndicalist movement made up of struggling workers. I
see May Day  as a day to recover the historical fight of workers and to
continue with  that fight. The struggle of the workers in Chicago, which
ended with a  terrible murder of 8 workers that wanted to put in place an
idea is  celebrated on May Day but it, isn't a party. This is the
difference we want  to make."

Today unemployment stands at 19.5% and underemployment 15.7%, which means
 35.2% of workers (approximately 5.2 million) have serious job problems.
 Businesses take advantage of the desperation of the millions of
unemployed-  increasing work shifts, allowing work conditions to
deteriorate, hiring  undocumented labor (paying under the table), and
lowering salaries to a  humiliating subsistence. The average salary is 600
pesos (around 200  dollars) and the poverty line is 720 pesos. Inflation
is increasing rapidly,  it's expected that 2005 inflation will reach 20%.
Wages have been frozen  since the early 90's, not be readjusted according
to the peso devaluation in  2001, which has devalued salaries to a third
of their former value.

 This has made the situation for workers unbearable, and many sectors have
 held a number of actions (strikes, occupying business building and
 recuperating bankrupts businesses). May Day, 2005 arrived in the midst of
 hospital workers, airline workers and teachers labor conflicts. Many other
anarchist slogans were reminiscent during this year's May Day, freedom
for  all political prisoners and defense of worker controlled enterprises.

 Pianelli drew a direct connection, "There are fundamental nexus. In this
 past century, there haven't been relationships as strong as with the turn
of  the 20th century in respect to working conditions as there is today.
The  first nexus is the level of super-exploitation that workers are
suffering.  Today, workers work incredibly long shifts, with miserable
wages and an army  of reinforcement."

 Jorge Mendez is a young worker. After the subway was privatized, Metrovias
cutback personnel and hired mostly young workers. This year was the first
time Mendez spoke on a platform, he said that this May Day was a moving
experience. Not only because he spoke but because workers could organize
an  important act and mark their own path without being blocked by the
traditional left. What workers are proving they can set their own dynamic
of  struggle without Marxist/Trotskyist parties with electoral platforms.
He  mentioned that syndicalist anarchist methods of democratic organizing
workers funds and direct action methods such as the strike, sabotage and
collectivization were an inspiration.

 "Capitalism has evolved to always fix itself and to continue exploiting
the  workers. We are organizing so that our fight is similar to the
struggles of  the workers who died for a 8 hour workday. We want to
recover May Day as a  day of struggle. Today, when there is so much
unemployment we are convinced  that our struggle in the subways that a
reduced 6 hour work day can be a  solution for the millions of unemployed
in Argentina," said Mendez.

 In 1909 the anarchists organized a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires,
in  Plaza Lorea. Police attacked the rally and killed eight people. Chief
of  police Colonel Falcon ordered the brutal repression. Simon Radowitzky,
a  nineteen-year-old immigrant from Russia and anarchist made history when
he  killed Colonel Falcon. He was present at the May Day demonstration and
watched the death of his fellow comrades. A week after the repression
Radowitzky decided to act in solidarity and threw a packaged bomb into the
Falcon's carriage. Radowitzky spent 21-years of his life in prison.

 In April, subway workers staged a strike in solidarity with airline
workers  who are against the government's decision to sell the state-run
airline  LAFSA to LAN Chile. Police attacked a workers assembly at Jorge
Newberry  metropolitan airport, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at
workers on  April 19. 20 demonstrators were injured. Subway staff
immediately announced  they would stage surprise strikes in solidarity
with LAFSA employees.

 Subway workers have pledged their willpower to use striking as a direct
 action against state repression of labor conflicts. In recent months, with
a  crackdown on worker controlled ceramics factory Zanon, subway workers
have  promised that if the factory is evicted there will be a price to pay
in  Buenos Aires subway lines. During the May Day act this year many
workers  from different labor conflicts spoke of mutual solidarity and
support as  fundamental objectives of struggle.

 Pianelli reflected on the importance of this year's act. "This May Day was
really important because in this year a ton of struggles and conflicts
emerged. We staged a huge act, led by workers organizations, without the
participation of the traditional leftist political parties as part of a
vanguard of workers in struggle. This is why we did an act in plaza
Lorea."

 He added, "The working class has inherited may the slogans from anarchists
at the beginning of the century such as struggle for political prisoners
and  organizing working class trade unions. For me it's important to
recuperate  the ethic, actions and democratic organization from the
anarchists. The  anarchists' actions at the beginning of the century to
raise a working class  subjectivity and to take in their own hands their
destiny have been lost in  the past decades of Argentine history. For many
sectors of the left whoever  (activists/workers) acts differently from
their electoral objectives, they  try defame the dissident (a practice
from Stalinism). Workers need to  recover the best traditions from
anarchism-self determination, respect for  dissidence and creating a new
working class subjectivity."

 Since the mid-1990's with swelling unemployment the road blockade became
the  central tactic of the piquetero movement. Without access to the
factory and  the ability to strike, sabotage machinery and occupy
factories, unemployed  workers sought out a new practice for struggle-the
road blockade, which is a  method to prevent merchandise from arriving to
the market. In the past few  years, active workers gained ground in terms
of accessing the work place to  pressure owners and bosses for better
wages and working conditions. The  dynamic of workers' struggle has
changed and strengthened in search of new  victories.

 Mendez summed up this new dynamic. "Today I think that its us, the
employed  workers who have to fight for all of the compa?ñeros, who were
excluded from  the system, can be reinserted into the labor market with
better conditions  and salaries. We think that we have the possibility to
unite all of the  struggles."

 Marie Trigona forms part of Grupo Alav?ío, direct action and video
 collective. Grupo Alav?ío produced a documentary about the struggle for a
 6-hour workday.