Pfeil
• Support the Argentine uprising against poverty and debt • Cancel the debt to the IMF and banker...
Why Argentina is important

Argentina was the 'pin-up' of the IMF and the World Bank in the 1990s. Its Peronist government
did everything the IMF and Washington asked of it. In the early 1990s it stabilised the currency
and reduced inflation by pegging the peso to the mighty dollar. It embarked on a massive
privatisation plan, selling off its state owned banks, airlines and utilities to the international
multinationals. European and US banks and multinationals took the lead in buying up gas,
electricity, telephones, and mining concerns. Industries were sold cheap, government officials
were paid massive bribes and given plum jobs in the private sector, even Enron tried to grab its

share of the gas industry.

In the second half of the 1990s the chickens came home to roost. The dollar was rising making
Argentine exports uncompetitive as it dragged up the peso. The economy went into recession and
as tax revenue fell the Argentine government, now run by the Radicals, had to borrow from the
banks and IMF to stay afloat. The IMF 'solution' was the usual one turn round the economy by
cutting social expenditure to the bone schools, hospitals, social welfare and public services were
all targeted for cuts. By the end of the 1990s Argentina owed more than $140 billion dollars to the

IMF and the banks.

By last year the workers had had enough. A series of general strikes against the government and
its policies rocked Argentina. Four years of recession had forced 40% of Argentineans below the
poverty line. Official unemployment reached 18% and the unemployed organised in militant
organisations called piqueteros. The lower middle classes were also hit shop owners and small
businesses went bankrupt on a massive scale. Finally in December last year came the explosion.
Pensions and salaries faced a 13% cut at the behest of the IMF and bank accounts were frozen.
The mass of the people workers, unemployed and the middle classes united on the streets
chanting at the politicians "away with them all". Braving the attacks of the police at least 27
protesters were killed, they surrounded the Presidential palace and the President de la Rua
resigned fleeing in a helicopter! Three or four temporary presidents later, the Peronists under
Eduardo Duhalde are back in power having temporarily defaulted on the debts. Now they are back
in negotiations with the IMF. But they face a militant alliance of workers and the middle classes
determined not to pay the price for the IMF policies and their own government corruption. Popular
Assemblies have sprung up locally as organising centres for the opposition and have held national
meetings to co-ordinate the struggle. The piqueteros continue militant actions and road blockades

alongside workers struggling against redundancies.

Some workers are occupying their plants rather than see them close down. Argentina has
demonstrated to Latin America and the world that the policies of privatisation and the free market
so beloved by the IMF, Blair and Bush only bring misery and unemployment to the mass of

people although they bring fat profits to banks like HSBC and Citibank and to the multinationals.

The Argentina Solidarity Campaign was set up to aid the Argentinian workers in their struggle
against repression and debt. We intend to publicise the causes of this crisis and campaign in the
British workers movement for solidarity against the continuing repression meted out to those
opposing IMF policies. Help us in the campaign by getting your union or student group to affiliate.


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