Struggles against layoffs and privatization of state-run industries and services undertaken by the previous government of Carlos Menem, and since 1999 by de la Rúa's administration, show no sign of abating. The current administration's imposition of state salary and pension cuts of up to 13 percent, under the "zero deficit" plan drawn up in August by Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo, was greeted by a national strike and a multitude of protests. Actions since then, especially in the devastated provinces, have often involved whole communities hit by wage cuts, closures, and layoffs.

On October 12, "a day after candidates closed their campaigns, protests over the worsening economy flared," reported the Associated Press. Youths "led some 200 unemployed workers and their families in a demonstration Friday outside Argentina's labor ministry in Buenos Aires. Disenchantment over high unemployment has made such protests nearly daily occurrences," continued the wire service.

A week earlier, state employees, including teachers, doctors, and road repair workers, organized actions in Jujuy, Formosa, and Chaco to demand the payment of back wages. In the northern province of Jujuy, workers, both employed and unemployed, led by the Class War Current union formation, marched to the government house and court buildings. There they were blocked by infantrymen and police on horseback.

Teachers organized in the Argentine Confederation of Educators held a national strike October 4 to protest delays in the distribution of incentive pay. In Tucumán, teachers reported that they have been paid in vouchers and food baskets.

Failure to receive wages prompted teachers in Jujuy to stage a nine-day strike. The government announced that it would commence payment on October 6.

At the beginning of October small tobacco growers in Santa Rosa blocked a national highway, demanding payment of government funds owed to them. Hospital workers in Entre Ríos were among the other working people who took action in the first week of October.  
 
'Workers turn angrily on us'
These popular mobilizations increase pressure on provincial governments, which depend upon the federal administration for their budgets. Buenos Aires governor Carlos Ruckauf, a member of the opposition Peronist party, stated on September 14 that "as far as the government is concerned, my only worry is that it abide by its duty to pay provinces their share of tax revenue.

"Each time it does not send us the funds," continued Ruckauf, "we [the provinces] face problems since we are not able to make on-time payments to our suppliers, workers, pensioners, and teachers, who turn angrily against us."  
 
Deepening economic recession
The economy's continuing slide and the government's continuing efforts to impose new cutbacks have fueled the protests. The recession is growing deeper, exacerbated by a slowdown in growth in the United States, Japan, and Europe--the sources of much of Argentina's investment, and the destinations for many of its agricultural and industrial exports. Argentina is one of Latin America's more developed and industrialized countries, but it remains a semicolony, dominated by the imperialist powers--above all by the United States.

Official unemployment now stands at more than 16 percent. In some regions it is much higher. Industrial production plummeted almost 6 percent in August, compared with the same month in 2000. Construction activity fell by more than 11 percent in the corresponding month. September tax revenues came in at 14 percent below last year's take.

The crisis has spread beyond the workers and poor farmers whom it has affected first and most deeply. "Money is so hard to find that nearly half a million people buy food and clothes in barter clubs," reported the September 20 New York Times. A company manager told the reporter, "Forget vacations, or a new car. Forget remodeling the house. Forget middle class life as we knew it."

The big-business press in this country echoes the continuing concern of imperialist investors and governments that the government will default on the interest payments owed on its massive $130 billion foreign debt. The $8 billion disbursed in August by the IMF in response to the zero deficit plan has not allayed their fears.

Faced with this widespread turmoil on the one hand, and the insistent demands of the imperialists on the other, the fault lines in de la Rúa's administration deepened conspicuously in the run-up to the October 12 vote. Candidates from one capitalist coalition partner, FREPASO, attacked his austerity policies and largely withdrew their support, according to the Wall Street Journal. Politicians from de la Rúa's own Radical Civic Union (UCR) criticized him for sticking with Cavallo.

In the October 14 elections for all Senate places and half the seats in the House of Deputies, the ruling coalition lost heavily to the Peronist opposition, who had been defeated by de la Rúa in the presidential race two years ago. Under the leadership of former Buenos Aires mayor Eduardo Duhalde, the Peronists retained their majority in the Senate and eclipsed the governing coalition as the leading party in the 257-member House of Deputies, gaining 14 seats while the ruling coalition lost 11.

In a sign of the polarization stoked by the extensive social and economic crisis, 100 owner-drivers in Jujuy blocked access to La Quiaca on October 3 in opposition to an eight-day protest by teachers and unemployed workers at the border crossing to Bolivia.  
 
 
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