As part of its confrontation with the Government, the CGT deployed its convening power in a mobilization for the May 1st which had its epicenter in the Canto al Trabajo monument, on Independencia Avenue and Paseo Colón. The Cegetista leadership released a document with strong claims to the Government, which was accused of implementing “a brutal adjustment.” This Wednesday’s march was part of their protest roadmap, which contemplates a second general strike against the management of Javier Miley within eight days.
9 de Julio Avenue was closed to traffic between Carlos Calvo and Independencia, in both directions. Independencia Avenue was the concentration point for unions, social movements and leftist groups, which decided to converge at different corners of that artery. In addition to the CGT, social organizations and unions linked to the CTA participated. The Ministry of National Security and its Buenos Aires counterpart did not activate the anti-picket protocol this time and the march took place normally. A large number of buses for the transportation of protesters were observed on 9 de Julio, on its Bernardo de Irigoyen side and on San Juan Avenue, among other streets.
Behind a flag with the slogan “The Homeland is not for sale”, the heads of the CGT Hector Daer, Pablo Moyano y Carlos Acunaalong with several other leaders of the labor union, advanced along Independencia Avenue in the direction of the Cegetista headquarters, at 800 Azopardo Street, to hold a press conference.
The predominant chant in that column of the workers’ center was “The Homeland is not for sale,” with the classic intonation of a soccer fan. Upon reaching Paseo Colón and crossing the left-wing unions, which had their own column, the triumvirs were greeted with the cry of “Strike, strike, strike, general strike.” The heads of the CGT received the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, at the Azopardo headquartersaccompanied by members of his cabinet such as Andres Larroque y Walter Correaand stewards like Fernando Espinoza (The Matanza) and July Wine (At payment).
“We ratify the strike of May 9. It was never in doubt,” said Daer, one of the referents, when opening the conference at the CGT. He also said that the labor union plans to meet with the national senators of the different blocks so that the sanction of the Base Law does not prosper. The leader of the ATSA union (healthcare workers) estimated that there were “more than 300,000” attendees at the demonstration.
“We want to clarify that we have not discussed or negotiated any project or opinion of what happened in the Chamber of Deputies,” Daer remarked at the beginning of the press conference, referring to the labor reform articles that achieved half a sanction in the Lower House. . On two occasions during the conference, he criticized the president of the radical bloc in Deputies, Rodrigo De Loredo. “We repudiate the words of the president of the UCR block, who said that democracy requires a debate on unions. There is also a debate about what happened in the ARA San Juan and he never opened his mouth,” encouraged the CGT triumvir when remembering the sinking of the submarine during his tenure as Minister of Defense of Oscar Aguadfather-in-law of the deputy.
“The strike on May 9 will show the discontent of millions of people. We have on our agenda to visit all the senators so that they do not vote for this disastrous law that is detrimental to the Argentine people. The 33 Peronist senators committed to voting against. “They know that they cannot vote to privatize companies, so that the income tax returns,” he said. Pablo Moyanoanother of the heads of the CGT.
When asked about the President’s statements about the supposed appreciation of salaries in the face of inflation, Moyano was ironic: “The salary of him, of his sister, of the senators, of Adorno[porelvocero[porelvoceroManuel Adorni]and from his brother they have beaten inflation; not so for the workers.”
On Independence, there were different sound columns from the CGT, which carried flags with the slogan of the march as decoration: “May 1st. Worker’s Day. The Homeland is not for sale. “CGT.” Over the loudspeakers a voice read several times the document of claims that the unions issued for the occasion.
At the door of the CGT, when the press conference was already ending and the deconcentration of the protesters began, a column from the airmen’s union that leads Juan Pablo Brey, which complained against a possible privatization of Aerolíneas Argentinas. “If they touch Aerolíneas, what a mess is going to happen,” they warned about Azopardo Street. The former chancellor was also seen in front of the Cegetista headquarters. Felipe Solá.
In Independencia and 9 de Julio, in addition to the CGT unions, militants from both sides of the CTA gathered. In that place, tables were set up to gather signatures against DNU 70/23 and to oppose the closure of the national news agency Télam.
Truckers had a wide deployment of militants from the collection and water and soft drink branches arranged on Independencia. Among them, the boxer and usual custodian of the Moyano family was mixed, Gonzalo “Patón” Basile. The Peronist leader Carlos Kunkel He walked through the area, but towards July 9, in the opposite direction to the bulk of the concentration. The mayor Ferdinand Gray (Esteban Echeverría) participated without showing himself with the communal leaders who escorted Kicillof.
Some of the unions present on Independence were the Argentine Federation of Commerce and Services Employees (FAECyS), Food, Foetra, APTA, the union of service station beach workers, the Fatun university students, the Setia textiles and AOT. In addition, the Smata, the APL, Dragado y Balizamiento, the pastry chefs, Uocra, Capitanes de Ultramar, the Sadop and UDA teachers, Luz y Fuerza, La Bancaria, the UEJN judiciaries, the bakers and the workers had their columns. of footwear. Among the guilds, there was a column of Buenos Aires Peronism, which included a micro decorated with Peronist iconography contributed by the guild of building managers, Victor Santa Mariaone of the heads of the PJ of Capital Federal.
Flags of the CGT culminated the largest column of the unions on the Defense corner, where different slogans were heard from the loudspeakers, such as one from the UTEP that denounced that the Government cut off food aid to the canteens and demanded to declare the emergency in that area.
Upon reaching Independencia and Paseo Colón, a fence closed the concentration. There was no stage ready for leaders. On that corner, parades of unions from all branches gathered and the columns of left-wing unionism also converged (with unions such as that of the tire workers or the Unión Ferroviaria group that leads Ruben “Pollo” Sobrero) who advanced along Paseo Colón towards Independencia. At that point, a column from the San Isidro Renovador Front was also shown, identified with Sebastian Galmarinidirector of Banco Provincia and brother-in-law of the former presidential candidate Sergio Massa.
The left, in Plaza de Mayo
The left-wing unions and parties, meanwhile, held their own event in Plaza de Mayo, after meeting for a moment with the CGT columns. They were guarded by members of the Federal Police and the National Gendarmerie. The security operation deployed did not allow them to deploy the main stage for the event in the square and they had to read the document for Labor Day from a van located in front of the Cabildo, with little range of their sound equipment, as the closing of a march. which culminated with the singing of the leftist anthem “La Internacional”.
“Down with the Bases Law against the workers, no to the labor reform and the salary tax. We demand from the CGT and the CTA an active strike and a plan of struggle until Milei’s plan is defeated. For the strike and mobilization on the day the Senate deals with it. For the active strike on May 9”, were the slogans of the document of the organizations grouped in the Left and Workers Front.
“While we were in an independent column at the CGT event to demand a plan of struggle to defeat this adjustment, the police ran the scene and we had to improvise, but finally an act was imposed accordingly, on Labor Day, where the workers wanted,” he told THE NATION Alejandro Crespo, general secretary of Sutna (tire workers union), who highlighted: “The Bases law and the labor reform are very harmful, particularly for unions. They want to destroy the organization of workers in their workplace, where leaders and workers’ organizations are born. “We are demanding from the CGT a general strike whenever the law is involved, to mobilize all the workers and the Argentine people, who are becoming aware of how serious this is.”