Argentina drew the attention of the big-business news because of concerns by international finance capital that the government there might default on its foreign debt. An International Monetary Fund team was rushed to Buenos Aires to give its stamp of approval to brutal austerity measures the de la Rúa government is implementing to win additional loans in order to pay on the already massive $123 billion debt. These measures include dismantling state-run pensions and health-care funds, an end to union collective bargaining rights, and slashing social funding in the impoverished provinces.

Conditions are even more critical in Peru--a nation where half the workforce is jobless or underemployed, and the majority of the population has been pushed below the official poverty line. Democratic rights were curtailed, while wages and living standards were driven down under the regime's economic "shock" measures. International investors were delighted with Fujimori as long as his regime could allow them to reap a bonanza in profits while maintaining relative political stability.

But in Peru and Argentina, as in other semicolonial countries, the normal functioning of the capitalist system--aggravated by government policies benefiting the rich--has also become the main source of subversion of the existing order. These intolerable conditions have generated increased resistance by workers and farmers throughout Latin America.

In Peru, Fujimori served to keep a lid on resistance by posing demagogically as a savior who appeared to rise above the corruption of the hated traditional parties while bring order with an iron hand. He was popular--and effective for the capitalist rulers--as long as he seemed to produce results.

But, as working people began to recover from a long retreat and regain their confidence, they increasingly spoke out against the assault on their rights and living standards. Fujimori suddenly lost his "charm," and abruptly exhausted his usefulness to the ruling classes.

Likewise, in Argentina, millions of working people shut down industry and services for 36 hours. In a relatively new development, unionists have increasingly joined forces with unemployed workers, who have been protesting for years through roadblocks and social explosions throughout the provinces.

These struggles are one more sign that the retreat of working people in Latin America and worldwide has bottomed out, with renewed combativity and confidence by workers and farmers to fight and link up with each other.

In the front ranks of this worldwide resistance to the capitalist rulers and imperialist system stand the working people of Cuba and their communist leadership. By making a socialist revolution and establishing their own class government, Cuban workers and farmers wield the most powerful weapon possible to defend their interests and join in the fight to change the world. They point the road forward for working people and the oppressed everywhere.
 
 
Related articles:
Workers in Argentina stage general strike
Farming community in Neuquén erupts
Peru rulers oust Fujimori, seek stable regime  
 
 
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