BY HILDA CUZCO
The simmering social tensions in Argentina exploded in mid- April in Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost region of the country. Following the fatal shooting of a worker by the police, thousands of angry unionists took to the streets demanding justice. Labor protests against mass layoffs had erupted there last May.

Similar working-class demonstrations and strikes have broken out in the past month in a dozen Argentine provinces, where conditions working people face are particularly critical. Provincial governments have imposed severe austerity measures and unemployment is growing, having reached a record 12 percent nationally.

In Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, 200 workers had occupied the Continental Fuegina electronics plant for 10 days. They were demanding their back pay and protesting the announced shutdown of the plant. On April 11, cops evicted the workers with clubs and rubber bullets, wounding 15 and arresting 20.

On leaving work and finding out what had happened at the plant, workers from nearby factories began to pelt the police with rocks. About 100 workers, defying subzero temperatures, marched to the government building and threw rocks, demanding the resignation of the provincial minister of labor and justice, Fulvio Baschera.

The Union Front, General Confederation of Labor, and Metalworkers Union in the province called a 24-hour work stoppage and demonstrations for the following day to protest the repression.

Two thousand workers marched to the police station April 12 to demand the arrested workers be freed. The police answered with tear gas and rubber bullets. Víctor Choque, a 37-year- old construction worker, was fatally shot in the head. Sixty workers were wounded, some seriously.

The Metalworkers Union and the Union Front, which includes government employees, teachers, taxi drivers, and sanitation workers, called a work stoppage for April 13. Meanwhile, Governor José Estabillo announced the resignation of minister Baschera.

On Good Friday, 3,000 people held a silent protest march through the streets of Río Grande, . In Ushuaia, 10,000 people attended the wake for Víctor Choque. Workers from all the unions took turns holding the coffin. Afterward, 3,000 marched through the streets with Choque's coffin , passing in front of the governor's mansion.

Argentine president Carlos Menem, concerned about his reelection campaign, quickly declared that those responsible for the death of Choque would be "severely punished," adding that his administration "had nothing to do" with the repression in Ushuaia. The other two major capitalist presidential contenders, José Bordón of the dissident Peronist party FREPASO and Horacio Massaccesi of the Radical Civic Union, denounced Menem for the bloodshed. The elections, which Menem is expected to win, will be held May 14.

Elsewhere, the economic crisis has sparked labor protests in several northern provinces. In San Salvador de Jujuy, 8,000 state employees surrounded the state legislature April 11 demanding the reversal of a government decree that cut municipal workers' pay in the province. Parliament quickly revoked the law. Some 6,000 people demonstrated April 11 in front of the government house in Paraná, Entre Ríos province, demanding their wages for March. They also protested the halving of their pay and denounced Governor Mario Moine's austerity policies. The demonstration brought together public employees, retired workers, and students.

In Córdoba, a major city, unions belonging to the Movement of Social Action and Organization held a general strike April 18 demanding their back pay. Teachers, court employees, hospital workers, and doctors held a stoppage several days earlier. State workers have also held work stoppages in the provinces of El Chaco and La Rioja.  
 
 
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