Argentina

The populist path to authoritarian rule

A Presidential candidate who went around brandishing a chainsaw, claims he got hints on strategy from his cloned mastiff hounds, and relishes in the nickname El Loco? The warning signs were not enough to deter the majority of voters in Argentina from electing anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei their president. Milei’s policies comprise a far-right fantasy wish list for the country. Abolish its currency and central bank. Give the rich massive tax cuts at the expense of social security programmes. Legalise the sale of human organs. Criminalise abortion. Remove controls on gun ownership. Cut ties...

Prospects with “Argentina’s Trump”

The election of Javier Milei in Argentina should alarm the left and labour movement across the world. Standing in the populist mould of other strongman leaders, he capitalised on claims to reject the “political caste” and fed on disillusion with the Peronist machine which has dominated Argentina’s politics since 1946 including the ostensibly-leftish variants of 2007-15 and 2019-23. An avowedly “libertarian”, by which he means freedom for big business and capital, Milei won 56% of the second-round presidential vote, despite the Peronist Sergio Massa, a minister in the outgoing government, doing...

Women's Fightback: Don't trust the "ethics committees"

Rogério Caboclo, the Brazilian Football Confederation president, has been suspended after accusations of “sexual and moral harassment”. The suspension comes just days after the announcement that Brazil will host the Copa America, Brazil was chosen at the last minute after Colombia was forced to withdraw because of anti-government protests and co-host Argentina was ruled out due to coronavirus infection rates. The worker alleges Caboclo called her into his office and asked her to remove her mask and offered her alcohol. The employee messaged two CBF directors who came and “rescued” her. However...

Es Ley! Argentina legalises abortion

Pro-choice activists celebrated on the streets at the close of 2020, as Argentina joined a handful of Latin American states to legalise abortion, a landmark decision in a country where the Catholic Church has long held sway. On social media, the once popular hashtag #SeráLey (#ItWillBeLaw) was replaced with #EsLey (#ItIsLaw). Before this, the only Latin American regions allowing voluntary abortion in the first trimester were Uruguay, Cuba, and two Mexican states. Elsewhere, such as in Chile and Brazil, abortion is available in very limited circumstances, including rape, incest, foetal...

Socialist politics to combat new virus surge

We want furlough and the ban on evictions extended, and rent "holidays" added. We want full isolation pay for all. The Tories' £500 one-off self-isolation dole for workers on benefits is a concession, but inadequate Social care should be taken into the public sector, and its staff put on regular public sector pay and conditions. Test-and-trace should be taken out of the hands of Serco and the other profiteers, and made a coordinated public health effort. NHS logistics, at present also a mess of profiteering subcontractors, should be put into public ownership, and industry requisitioned to...

Peronism: not a model for socialists

In an interview featured in Tim Alberta’s new book American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump , President Donald Trump compared Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Eva Perón. Specifically, Trump remarked that Ocasio-Cortez has “talent”, but “doesn’t know anything”. This alludes to how Eva Perón went from popular radio and film actress to powerful symbol for the political movement spearheaded by her husband, Juan Perón. The latter was President of Argentina from June 1946 to September 1955, and again from October 1973 until his death in July...

US courts strangle Argentina

On 29 June, Argentina went into technical default on its foreign debt. 30 days “grace” expires on 29 July. Either the Argentine government fixes a deal before then, or the default goes into full force. This drama is the outcome of 13 years’ legal wranglings since Argentina defaulted on its debt in 2001. Then, as usually happens in such cases, the Argentine government negotiated a deal with the bondholders to pay them off at a reduced rate. In the Argentine case, though, some “vulture funds” which had bought Argentine bonds cheap in the run-up to the deal refused to play. They went to court to...

The Falklands/ Malvinas war of 1982. and working-class politics

Click here to download as ePub Click here to download as Kindle e-book Click here to download as pdf Introduction to dossier on the Falklands/ Malvinas, from Workers' Liberty 2/3 . The WSL and the Falklands crisis , by Sean Matgamna, May 1982. The texts and the method , by Sean Matgamna (from Workers' Socialist Review, 1982). Class politics and bloc politics : resolution for the Workers' Socialist League, 1982 (expanded 1984). Some reflections on the left and the Falklands war , by Sean Matgamna, May 2007. The SWP and the Falklands war More from Workers' Socialist Review Supplement to WSR 2 on...

The left and the Falklands crisis

This article was written for internal discussion in the Workers' Socialist League in May 1982. It came between a meeting of the (smaller) WSL Executive Committee on Sunday 9 May 1982, which voted by a majority to change the previous WSL policy of opposing the war on both British and Argentine sides, to siding with Argentina; and a meeting of the (larger) WSL National Committee on Sunday 16 May 1982, which voted by a majority to keep the previous policy. "To face reality squarely; not to seek the line of least resistance; to call things by their right names; to speak the truth to the masses, no...

The texts and the method

From Workers’ Socialist Review no.2, 1982; reprinted in Workers' Liberty 2/3 Time and again the same quotations from Trotsky have been used to justify a pro-Argentine stance in the Falklands/Malvinas war But the main thing the quotations prove is the pro-Argentine comrades’ lack of grip on the points in dispute. Everyone in the WSL majority would agree that if the comparison with China and the other colonies and semi-colonies of the 1930s referred to by Trotsky is legitimate, then we would not invoke the character of the Argentine regime as a reason for not siding with Argentina. We could...

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