BY NAOMI CRAINE
The ruling Peronist party of Argentine president Carlos Menem was dealt a setback in October 26 elections for half of the seats in the House of Deputies. The Peronists - who for decades had held the allegiance of the working class - lost their majority in the lower house of the legislature, with the Alliance electoral coalition winning more than 45 percent of the vote. The Alliance is a bloc between the Radical Party, which is the traditional liberal party, and the bourgeois Frepaso party, which is supported by reformist left-wing forces.

The Alliance campaign attacked the government for corruption and the 16 percent joblessness that sparked widespread strikes and urban rebellions by unemployed workers earlier this year. But the opposition parties support Menem's austerity policies, including the sell- off of state-owned industries and continuing to peg the Argentine peso to the U.S. dollar, which has devastated workers' living standards.  
 
 
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