The protest was one of many in the country by workers and farmers who are demanding government action over the devastating impact of the deepening capitalist economic and social crisis.

The country has been mired in a recession for almost the past four years, unemployment is at a record 25 percent, the peso has lost 75 percent of its value against the dollar since the beginning of the year, and 50 percent of the population is now living in poverty. Most of any new infusion of funds from the IMF would be earmarked for payments on the interest past due on the country’s $141 billion foreign debt.

The June 26 attack by Argentine police was against a demonstration of unemployed workers who were blocking a bridge connecting Buenos Aires with the southern industrial suburb of Avellenada. The workers were pressing their demand for jobs. Two young workers were killed by the cops. In the ensuing battle, 90 others workers were injured and 170 arrested. A series of photos published in El Clarin, one of Argentina’s major newspapers, showed the cops shooting the two youths--Darío Santillán, 21, and Maximiliano Costegui, 25--close up in cold blood and then dumping one of the bodies behind a newspaper stand.

The following day some 15,000 people, responding to a call from the Argentine Worker’s Congress (CTA), marched through Buenos Aires from Congress to Plaza de Mayo to protest police brutality and call for the resignation of Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde. The march was supported by some Peronist members of Congress, signaling the increasing internal divisions within Duhalde’s own political party over how to handle the growing working-class resistance and economic crisis.

As some 2,000 federal riot police squads were deployed in the city center, the protesters made clear that they would not be intimidated in their fight for justice and jobs. "Down with hunger and repression," read one of a number of handmade signs on display at the protest. "We want real jobs, not charity and we don’t want any more death," stated Rodrigo, an unemployed construction worker, participating in the action.

Duhalde, for his part, tried to salvage his political credibility by publicly accusing the police of committing an atrocity in killing the two unarmed demonstrators. His police chief, Ricardo Degastaldi, resigned in wake of the incident.

Duhalde came to power in January after massive protests by working people brought down the Argentine government, with 27 people killed in battles with the authorities. He became the fifth president of the country in less than two weeks.

After a several-month grace period, the first strike against Duhalde’s economic policies occurred in late May, and protests against the deteriorating economic situation confronting workers, farmers, and middle class layers have been on the rise since then. Groups of jobless workers have made clear their intention to conduct other such actions in the coming weeks.

Argentina’s economy is in a free fall. It has contracted by 16.4 percent in the first quarter compared to the same time frame in 2001. With the peso’s declining value, the price of basic household consumer goods has gone up 70 percent over the past half year. According to Equis, a private consulting group, 17,500 people a day are falling into the ranks of those classified by the government as poor.

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna made a trip to the United States at the end of June to try to convince the IMF to reinstate an $18 billion loan that had been suspended in December after the country defaulted on most of its $141 billion public debt. Upon returning, he announced that he had secured a promise from the IMF to postpone the deadline for receiving a $900 million payment from Argentina that falls due in mid-July. The move would mean that Argentina does not have to officially default on the loans.

Horst Khler, managing director of the IMF, expressed his "irritation" and "disappointment" with Argentina over the negotiations, while officials from Buenos Aires said the imperialist agency kept shifting the goal posts over concessions it sought to extract as a condition for receiving new loans.

The IMF has now added a demand for the country to establish a "monetary anchor" to keep Buenos Aires from printing money as a means of bailing out banks that are on the ropes. There are also talks, the Financial Times reported, over establishing an "independent panel of ‘wise men’--former senior economic officials from around the world that could advise on thorny topics such as restructuring Argentina’s shattered banking system." BR> 
 
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