Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde used this as another feather in his cap to claim the economy has "bottomed out," that the country is finally on the mend a year after a dizzying financial collapse. Last year the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) sank to levels on a par with the United States during the 1930s Great Depression. Duhalde now projects a 4.2 percent GDP growth rate for this year.

Yet children are dying daily of malnutrition in a country not too long ago described as "the Europe" of South America by big-business commentators. Some 59 percent of Argentines, or 22 million people, now live below the official poverty line-- defined as a monthly income of less than 750 pesos, or $242, for a family of four-- compared to 39 percent in December 2001. Twenty-eight percent live in "extreme poverty," double from a year ago. Official joblessness is 18 percent. In some industrial districts in Greater Buenos Aires up to 80 percent of adults are unemployed or work only marginal jobs.

The IMF loan resumption followed a World Bank announcement two days earlier that it will lend Buenos Aires $2.2 billion over the next six months. With these steps, Washington and other imperialist powers that control these financial institutions hope to restart the siphoning of wealth produced by Argentine working people into the coffers of their banks. This flow came to an abrupt halt a little more than a year ago when Argentina declared its default on the foreign debt and stopped making any payments.

Stating that it simply could not keep up with interest payments, in December 2001, the government of Fernando de la Rúa defaulted on part of Argentina’s $100 billion foreign debt. De la Rúa, a Radical Party politician who won the 1999 elections from the Peronists in an alliance with another bourgeois party, Frepaso, had obediently carried out the demands of the imperialist bondholders and native capitalists to squeeze more and more from Argentine workers and farmers. His administration had slashed social programs by 30 percent, and the pensions and wages of state workers. He had also raised taxes and imposed a partial freeze on bank withdrawals.

The struggles of unemployed workers, known as piqueteros, and other workers and farmers in earlier years catapulted into a social explosion in response to these brutal measures. Working people in city and countryside carried out general strikes, blocked roads, and marched on the streets forcing De la Rúa out of office.

The government of Eduardo Duhalde, appointed by the Argentine Congress in January 2002, ended the 10-year-old policy of pegging the peso to the dollar. This precipitated a 70 percent devaluation of the currency, devastating the buying power of workers’ wages and the savings of retirees, shopkeepers, and others. The GDP shrank by 12 percent last year. The understated official unemployment rate soared to nearly 25 percent. Official statistics indicate that working people face the double burden of record high unemployment and a 75 percent increase in the cost of the basic basket of food for a family.  
 
‘Stunted, emaciated children’
After ignoring the developing crisis in the countryside for years, the international big-business press has suddenly taken note of a sharp rise in child hunger and malnutrition. According to an article in the March 2 New York Times, Tucumán in northern Argentina, this "garden of the republic," as this city is often referred to, is now known for its "stunted, emaciated children." Two-thirds of the 1.3 million inhabitants of Tucumán province live in conditions defined by the government as "extreme poverty."

The Duhalde government, however, is painting a picture of a country on the way out of the hole. His December decision to partially lift the yearlong freeze on bank withdrawals, known as the corralito (little fence), was aimed at winning the confidence of capitalist investors and middle-class layers with savings accounts--to convince them that Argentina is on a stronger financial footing.

The loosening of restrictions on bank withdrawals was followed by the January 16 decision of the IMF to roll over more than $6 billion in loans owed by Buenos Aires, allowing the government to dodge another default for a few more months. Argentine economy minister Roberto Lavagna had announced there was no chance for any payments without a new deal with IMF.

Complicating the government’s plans, the Argentine Supreme Court ruled in early March against the administration’s handling of the 2002 currency devaluation that came with the end of the peso’s peg to the dollar. In January 2002 Duhalde decreed that all dollar accounts would be converted to pesos, which had lost about 70 percent of their value. This move, along with the freezing of bank withdrawals, had sparked the cacelorazos, pot-banging demonstrations largely by middle-class layers, that were a feature of the social explosion a year ago. The banks became fortresses, some guarded around-the-clock by police or armed security guards.

On March 5, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the provincial government of San Luis, and ordered the national government to restore the province’s $247 million deposit at its dollar value. Neither the government or the IMF commented on the ruling, which could pave the way for similar cases by others seeking to recover an estimated $20 billion.

The Economist and other big-business media point to administration measures to "halt to the economy’s freefall" as "incipient signs of recovery." Argentine secretary of finance Guillermo Nielson boasted March 9 that the IMF is "very pleased with the steps we have taken" to mend fences with the banks.

As the government tries to balance between the demands of the imperialist lending institutions to continue to cut social programs, it also fears a resurgence of the worker and farmer struggles that exploded onto the scene with the economic collapse of December 2001. Thus while its policies are guided by the imperialist debt bondage the country is firmly tied to, some of its measures are contradictory.

Buenos Aires has adopted a "Head of Household Plan" that promises $45 per month to a fraction of the families nationwide facing economic ruin. This monthly sum is less than half of what the government estimates reduces a family to abject poverty. In Argentina, there is no unemployment insurance for most workers.

On March 12, the Argentine Congress passed two tax bills called for by the IMF. It then approved the extension of a program that provided additional income to teachers who have protested against the impact of the depression conditions on their livelihoods. Days earlier, Economy Minister Lavagna had announced he would prevent any further spending in the period before the April 27 presidential elections, vowing there would be "no peso for anyone," according to the Dow Jones news.  
 
No clear favorite in April elections
With only weeks to go before the presidential elections, the outcome in a crowded race remains unclear. The Economist notes that "for the first time, Argentina will have a run-off ballot" as none of the candidates has gained large popular support. There are five candidates competing from the traditional parties of the Argentine bourgeoisie, the Peronists and the Radicals, in addition to others seeking to win a following against the discredited ruling parties.

Néstor Kirchner and Carlos Menem from the ruling Peronists, and Elisa Carrió, a deputy elected earlier from the opposition Radical party who has formed her own Affirmation for an Egalitarian Republic, are the front runners. None of them, however, exceed percentages in the mid teens in the polls. Carrió has gained some prominence as a crusader against the corruption of the ruling elite and a social critic. Luis Zamora, a former Trotskyist and member of parliament, has been among the candidates of the petty-bourgeois left that was earlier considered a serious contender in the race. Working people, however, have no voice that defends their class interests in these elections.  
 
Peronism and the workers movement
Peronism is a bourgeois current that has dominated politics in Argentina since World War II. The Argentine Communist Party, which was the dominant force in the workers movement prior to the second world war, handed the banner of national liberation to this bourgeois nationalist current, with the Stalinist betrayal of working-class struggles leading up to and during World War II. Peronism was able to divert the potential revolutionary struggles of the toilers into capitalist channels in the postwar period; it remains the main obstacle to the development of revolutionary working-class leadership up till now.

None of the radical currents that function in the workers movement of Argentina provide revolutionary leadership today. The Argentine CP is a shadow of its former self, badly discredited by its backing of the 1976–82 military junta and the crumbling of its mentors and paymasters in the Soviet Union more than a decade ago. It pursues a class-collaborationist course similar to that of other Stalinist parties around the world, entering into electoral blocs with other groups like the Trotskyist Movement for Socialism (MST). A number of other groups on the left have followed an ultraleft, sectarian course.

While this lack of proletarian leadership won’t change overnight, as the capitalist crisis grinds away and the ruling class tries to solve its problems at the expense of working people, defensive struggles continue and revolutionary-minded workers and young people try to find answers. Under these conditions, the Argentine bourgeoisie and its imperialist masters abroad do fear the resurgence of a social movement of the toilers. Such a movement could provide fertile ground for the development of revolutionary leadership over time that could become a long-term threat to capitalist rule.

Dow Jones news noted that Congress’s decision to extend the program for teachers was intended to "diffuse what seemed likely to be a wave of protests." Workers and farmers continue to try to combat the spiraling inflation, record unemployment, and cuts in social programs that have marked the economic collapse.

Transportation workers went on a 24-hour strike in Buenos Aires March 12 against Metrovías, shutting down all trains and buses. The 15,000 unionists are demanding a 41 percent pay raise to partially compensate for the 70 percent loss in value of the peso since the beginning of last year.

The transport workers followed this up with unannounced walkouts that caught the government and bosses off guard. While the company said the union was carrying out an "illegal" strike, union officials said the strikes were needed to force Metrovías to "comply with labor regulations."

Juan Manuel Palacios of the metro workers union (UTA) said the strike was also called to demand the bosses meet basic "norms of health and safety" on the job. He also demanded that the city government hand down a fine against the company for its failure to implement laws passed last year to address the substandard working conditions on the subways. A UTA spokesperson said if these demands are not met at the March 26 negotiating session, workers will "return to forceful methods" to win a wage increase and safety on the job.  
 
 
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