Communique from the Pagainas Piqueteras del Norte de Salta (Argentina)

[Michael Pugliese <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lev Trotsky" <saltasolidarity@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <sf_adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 9:48 AM
Subject: Communique from Salta -- 6-20-01


Communique from the Pagainas Piqueteras del Norte de
Salta (Argentina)


Comrades,

Just time for this one update today. Yesterday, at
dawn, the Gendarmes attacked the barricades at the
entrance to the town of Mosconi (North Salta,
Argentina) and arrested 50 piqueteros. They then
conducted a house to house search, where they randomly
and savagely beat the occupants, smashing several
wooden shacks to smithereens, in a real re-edition of
the Israeli zionist-fascist house-by-house attacks
against the heroic working class and people of
Palestine, dragging off family members as "piquetero
ringleaders". This state terrorismo did its work: many
of the 20,000 inhabitants became absolutely terrified,
revealing the objective: to beat the working class and
people of Mosconi into a mental state such that the
last thing they ever want to do again would be to
resist, fight, set up roadblocks.
But they were not able to find or arrest any of the
real leaders, hidden away in safe houses. A few hours
later, the piqueteros began to gather in small groups
in the town central square. Hebe de Bonafini had
arrived, and had spoken on the television and local
radio, calling for the release of all political
prisoners and Gendarmes out of Mosconi. This great
fighter, of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who had
stood up to the military dictatorship of Videla, was
in Mosconi!!! This changed everything. Marcelo
Miranda, of Paginas Piqueteras del Norte de Salta, who
had travelled into Mosconi with the delegation of the
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, spoke openly also, and the
fascist virtual state of siege was broken. The workers
and people of Mosconi began to gather in the square.
They began to shout at the Gendarmes patrolling there.
(local Argentine television) They shouted "Assassins
out of Mosconi, out of Salta", "Free the political
prisoners", "General strike, everyone come to Mosconi
to break the blockade".
The father of the youth Barrios, shot dead by the
Gendarmes just the other day, headed up the pressure
against the Gendarmes. The people began surrounding
them, shouting "murderers", "killers", "out of Salta".
Soon 500 and more were in the Plaza, saying they were
not going to leave until the Gendarmes left Mosconi
and Salta and until the political prisoners left. The
leaders of the piqueteros came out of hiding, and
spoke at the impromptu rally. They realized that the
safest place in the town was in that town square,
liberated by the heroic struggle of the workers and
people. Standing ovations for Hebe de Bonafini,
Marcelo Miranda, Walter M., P., P., and P. and other
piquetero leaders. Then the crowd actually chased the
Gendarmes out of town.
They are there still, the Gendarmes taking refuge on
highway 34, which they were sent to clear in the first
place. The workers and people in the square, shouting
their demands. They say all working class
organizations and human rights organizations should
send representatives to the tent: but whoever comes,
has to stay: no-one can come there and then go and
"negotiate" with the Governor in the Province Capital
of Salta. Conspicuous absences: trade union
bureaucrats, and Jorge Altamira of the Partido Obrero,
who is publicly saying he has nothing to do with the
events unfolding in Mosconi. Militants of the PO were
told by their cadre leaders that the tactic being
followed was to "save" Altamira from getting arrested:
nothing must interfere with the upcoming October
elections!!! The people of Mosconi say he is welcome
to come to Mosconi and stay in the tent. But not if he
is going to go and confab with the Province Governor.
Where are you, Jorge Altamira, Legislator of the City
of Buenos Aires, who refuses to put his immunity and
funds behind the struggle of the working class and
people of Mosconi!
Today there will be a multitudinous rally in Buenos
Aires. We will be posting flyers, etc. The rally is
called by the CTA and the "regime left" like the PO,
PTS, MST, and the objective is to call for
negotiations, to "bring peace to Mosconi", in accord
with the objectives of that wing of the bourgeoisie
who is sure the only way to end this revolutionary
resistance is by offering "carrots" in exchange for
all the arms being returned, and in exchange for
promises never to block highways again.
It remains to be seen whether the working class of
Buenos Aires can throw off the trade union bureaucracy
and "regime left" leadership, and transform this rally
into a movement of revolutionary support for the
resistence of the working class and people of Mosconi
and North Salta, support for the militant strikers of
Aerolineas, support for the resistance of the entire
Argentine working class against the economic plan of
hunger and misery and death, which the bankers, the
bosses and the IMF are willing to push through by
means of bloody repression: Two years ago, the labor
reform bill was voted, liquidating after a two year
period all collective bargaining agreements. Two years
later, imperialism is presenting the bill to the
Argentine working class, through its lackey
government. If North Salta is crushed, then the
Aerolineas strike will be crushed. If the Aerolineas
strike is crushed, then the collective bargaining
agreements will be crushed one by one, factory by
factory.
The world capitalist crisis has entered the US and
Europe itself, instead of affected just semi-colonies
and colonies. The Argentine working class today may
declare war on imperialism and begin to coordinate all
the struggles in a single Congress of Workers and
Unemployed, where they can plan and vote a general
strike indefinitely until this government of hunger,
death and misery and its economic plan of the IMF and
the bosses and the banks is brought down, replaced by
a workers and peoples government, who can call for an
emergency economic plan as a working class solution
for the crisis, for the punishment of the genocidal
repressors of yesterday and today, for the canceling
of the foreign debt, for the nationalization of big
business, banks, foreign commerce under workers
control.
This is the task: and if there existed an
international pole of principled trotskyism of just,
say, 20 comrades, who reject being "regime left": how
different things would be for the organization of
support for the heroic workers and people of Mosconi,
who are paying the price of blood and iron for the
traitorous leadership which negotiated a few months
ago at Campo Duran, bringing down the dual power which
had lasted months, which had been the vanguard of the
Argentine working class: now this revolutionary
challenge is national in scope, the blockade against
Mosconi must be broken by heroic acts like that of
Hebe de Bonafini and Marcelo Miranda.
Act, comrades, act. Then we will struggle to put in
place a new Kienthal and Zimmerwald, to sweep out the
garbage and regenerate and refound the IV
International, the world party of socialist
revolution.
 Vicente Balvanera for Pagainas Piqueteras del Norte
de Salta paginaspiqueteras@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.geocities.com/democraciaobrera
San Francisco (US) Committee in Support of the Salta
Workers (SFCSSW) email: SaltaSolidarity@xxxxxxxxx



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