Class Challenge in Argentina: FUERA MILEI!

  by Juan Garcia

On November 9, the PO is organizing a rally with the slogan “Out with Milei” (FUERA MILEI) at Parque Lezama. This marks a significant moment in Argentinian political campaign against Milei government, developed through workplace and campus actions, rallies, and discussions across the country.

The campaign and rally reflect a significant conclusion drawn from the ten months of Milei's government: a government that vetoes a minimal increase for impoverished retirees and sends them to be repressed by the Federal Police, that pushes universities to the brink by crushing teacher salaries, and that aims to close hospitals, eliminate labor rights, or shut down community dining halls, is incompatible with the needs and demands of the working population and inflicts intolerable—and in many respects, irreparable—damage on the Argentine people.

This understanding is beginning to gain traction among workers, reflected in a growing popular rejection of the government. However, it has yet to find an open channel for expression due to the overtly collaborative role of the business-aligned opposition and the union bureaucracy. The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) has been making deals with Milei, and despite hundreds of thousands of layoffs, threats of privatization, and moves to enforce labor reforms, it has shelved any prospect of struggle in exchange for maintaining its monopoly on unions and privileges.

The complicity of the union bureaucracy cannot be understood without the involvement of Peronism; one sector openly votes with Milei (Jaldo and Jalil), while Kirchnerism states that the veto “is a constitutional right of the president” and urges people to “not complain.” Fundamentally, as defenders of capitalist interests, Peronism shares the orientation of labor reform, debt repayment to return to international markets, and a rollback of workers' gains; this is why all these points appear in letters by Cristina Kirchner.

Organize to Reject Milei

In response to these trends, the Workers’ Party takes on the challenge of openly stating that if the government is incompatible with the most basic needs of the working population, it has to go. Whether Milei should stay until 2027 has become a topic of political debate. Guillermo Moreno has proposed an institutional path to remove Milei (impeachment) in contrast to the people’s right to rise up against their aggressors, which he calls a “Trotskyist insurrection.” But in truth, Congress has been giving Milei all the necessary support so far, from passing the Basic Law to ratifying vetoes. The opposition is complicit because of its deep ties with banks, mining companies, or oil companies benefiting from Milei’s policies. Only the deputies of the Left Front raise the workers' agenda in Parliament.

Therefore, it is essential that the “Out with Milei” (Fuera Milei) slogan gains popularity, providing a channel for opposition to the government and driving a popular mobilization against its entire anti-worker agenda. This is why the PO propose it to the entire vanguard that is resisting and confronting the government: we must create the conditions for the working class to intervene and put an end to the war Milei has declared on us.

This is especially true for the thousands of university students and teachers who have been defending the universities and occupying national universities, as the fight over the university budget continues. The damage to national universities from continuing this policy is enormous and implies an irreversible setback. The student mobilization is intertwined in numerous ways with the labor movement and neighborhoods. A top priority is to encourage the convergence of this student movement with the labor and picketing movements, following the tradition of the Cordobazo and large popular uprisings that saw youth participation.

It is also crucial to advance the campaign in neighborhoods, where outrage is growing over increasing poverty and hunger, lack of food, deteriorating living conditions, and the government’s persecution of organizations that resist, aiming to free neighborhoods for the control of local operatives. Here, the campaign aligns with the struggle of picketing organizations to reorganize neighborhoods and mobilize them to challenge the austerity measures and criminalization promoted by the national government, particularly against the Polo Obrero.

We will also carry out an extensive campaign in factories, aligning with the need to promote struggle and organization in workplaces against labor reform that erodes essential rights like the right to strike in many unions, severance pay, and even the validity of collective bargaining agreements for a significant portion of workers. This campaign will face layoffs and fight to defend wages, as the Sutna has done by securing a collective bargaining agreement that protects workers from inflation, and as teachers are doing by fighting in the provinces and pressuring governors who apply austerity measures.

And to support the struggle of Garrahan hospital workers, residents, and those organizing to keep hospitals open that suffer from layoffs, poverty-level wages, and cuts in services.

Time to “Make Noise” at Parque Lezama

Getting Milei out, defeating him, is a task that only the workers can carry out, provided they organize around their demands and their own methods. That’s why our “Out with Milei” campaign serves to prepare workers to mobilize with a general strike.

This is why students, teachers, factory workers, healthcare workers, neighborhood organizers alongside the Polo Obrero, the Classist Union Coordinating Committee, the Youth Union for Socialism, the Workers' Plenary, and the Retired Workers’ Plenary will all play a leading role in this event.

With the campaign, the Partido Obrero is also offering a perspective of struggle for the entire Left Front, an alternative to electoralism. Parliamentary action and the credibility of our representatives in denouncing abuses are not enough to prevent Milei from further indebting the present and future of millions of workers. This credibility should serve to promote the class struggle and provide an alternative perspective to Kirchnerism, which seeks a larger parliamentary majority in 2025, particularly as that appropriation of popular discontent is being achieved with a capitalist agenda. This is the approach Vanina Biasi, PO deputy, brings to Congress.

We call on everyone to fulfill the tasks that will give our “Out with Milei” campaign a strong push on November 9 at Parque Lezama. This is why it’s crucial that we organize a large movement in the streets, at factory gates, workplaces, universities, and schools, and in neighborhoods. Let’s hold meetings everywhere to foster a broad discussion, inviting people to the rally, bringing in new advocates and activists, and organizing the resources that will allow everyone who wants to attend to do so.

This is the task we take on. It’s now: Out with Milei. November 9 at Parque Lezama.

https://prensaobrera.com/politicas/fuera-milei-el-9-11-acto-del-partido-obrero-en-parque-lezama