2023-09-06 12:00:03
Although much is said about the energy transition, about the need to change the matrix of energy consumption due to the environmental situation and so on, the truth is that oil production continues to be a record in our country and in Latin America.
By PSTU – Argentina
According to the International Energy Agency, world oil production will increase by 5.8 million barrels per day by 2028 and close to a quarter of this additional supply will be from Latin America. With more than 627 thousand barrels per day, in January 2023 the highest volume of oil production since 2008 was reached in Argentina and it is estimated that production will grow by 18%.
That is to say, while they prepare possible variants for when the resource runs out, they are squeezing what is left of the oil, both conventionally and unconventionally, through fracking.
Added to this is the expansion (there are already several platforms in the Austral Basin) of offshore exploitation off Mar del Plata in Buenos Aires, which, like the rest of the deposits, will be at the service of multinational profits.
end the looting
Argentina is a sample of what the capitalist system is: having many natural resources in this system at the service of corporate profit is a tempting invitation for multinationals that seek to plunder us. In a country rich in black gold (oil) and white gold (lithium) there is more and more poverty. The explanation is very concrete, governments deliver the resources of the people for the benefit of a few. The solution is also concrete: the workers have to recover what is ours.
Grabois, candidate for president for Unión por la Patria (UP), speaks of YPF as a model of sovereignty, when in truth, the famous renationalization of YPF in 2012 with Cristina in government was a purchase from Repsol, which had been disinvesting. The supposed state 51% became the spearhead for the entry of multinationals in Vaca Muerta, Neuquén, a scandalous delivery.
From the PSTU we propose the ePropriation without payment and nationalization of multinational companies and national private capital in the energy sector and immediate trial of all oil and mining companies for the environmental damage caused and the aannulment of agreements, laws, decrees and renegotiations signed to date. To make way for the nationalization and nationalization of the soil and the subsoil and of the industry as a whole, with measures that allow the resources to be at the service of the people, with fuel at cost and that everything received from its international sale goes to health, education and job creation. For that, it is not enough for it to be state-owned and run by the same corrupt people as always. It must be under the control of your workerss and the populations living in the territories.
Workers’ control of natural resources, production and company accounting for responsible management is the only guarantee of prioritizing the needs of the working people. As part of this, the generation of the use of alternative energies (solar, wind, hydraulic) for the creation of jobs and reduction of pollution and that 20% of the annual profits be allocated for research, development and application of renewable energies, alternative and sustainable. Generation of cheap utility rates for workers and small businesses.
The first step of a long walk
For the rights of workers in the sector: toannulment of the Income Tax on the wages of workers and application of the 6-hour working day without salary reduction to create new jobs for the unemployed. For equal work equal pay, by a single agreement. Starting from salaries with an automatic increase according to inflation and not tied to joint negotiations between the Government, companies and leaders who do not consult their bases.
The recovery of our natural resources will not happen through the same governments that delivered them and continue to deliver them. We will not achieve it by just placing a vote in a ballot box every two years. Like everything we have achieved in our history (holidays, time off, overtime pay, social work, retirement contributions, etc.) we will only achieve it by fighting together, workers, students, employed and unemployed workers. It will take a revolution to do it. Just as it took a revolution to stop being a Spanish colony, now it is necessary to achieve our Second and Definitive Independence as a people. It is up to us to start another revolution, one that blows up the multinationals and the IMF, that takes control of the factories and their production and that all our resources are used to live better, responsibly. Thus we will end hunger, we will take care of the soil, water and air, and we will stop dying to enrich patterns.
#Argentina #oil