LABOUR-ARGENTINA: Massive Rally Concludes March against Poverty

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 22 2001 (IPS) - The Argentine capital received massive caravans of workers, the unemployed, rights activists, small farmers and business owners Friday as they ended a 10-day mobilisation to demand the creation of a national unemployment insurance system.

The demonstrators, convened by the Congress of Argentine Workers (CTA), an association of labour unions, left Buenos Aires Sep 11 heading in seven different directions throughout the country. In all, they stopped in 82 cities and covered more than 25,000 km before returning to the starting point.

The objective of the nationwide tour was to promote a non- binding referendum on unemployment insurance, which is up for the vote on December 10.

At the head of each caravan were leaders of associations of small manufacturers, retailers, farmers and ranchers, human rights organisations, university students and representatives of the unemployed, the latter of which are famed here for setting up roadblocks on major roads throughout Argentina to back their demands for subsidies as unemployment continues to climb.

“You have to leave the city of Buenos Aires to really see how the people of the interior are living,” Tati Almeyda told IPS. The activist represented the Association of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, an organisation women created to demand the truth about their children who disappeared during Argentina’s most recent military dictatorship (1976-1983), as she led a caravan that headed to the southern provinces.

This Friday, the seven caravans converged for a march on the Plaza de Mayo, outside the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.

There were no incidents of violence involving the mobilisation, but the protest leaders did express their concern about the terrorist attacks committed against the United States on the same day they set out on their national campaign. One effect of the US tragedies was that it sharply reduced coverage of the caravans in the local media.

The CTA, which unites trade unions of state, judicial, education, medical and aeronautics employees, among others, last year proposed the creation of a 380-dollar monthly subsidy for every unemployed head of household, plus 60 dollars for each minor child.

According to the promoters of the initiative, which includes detailed proposals for its financing, this approach to redistributing wealth would reactivate the Argentine economy, which is suffered a recession that has drawn on for more than three years. Poverty is becoming more widespread, unemployment surpasses 16.4 percent and consumption and investment have plummeted.

Of the Argentine population of more than 37 million people, 14 million live in poverty, the highest proportion in the last decade, nearly reaching the critical levels recorded in the late 1980s, the most recent period of hyperinflation.

The project for establishing an unemployment insurance system calls for a budget of less than 12 billion dollars, Claudio Lozano, CTA economist, told IPS. These funds, he said, could be obtained without having to turn to the multilateral credit organisations like the World Bank or International Monetary Fund.

If Argentina were to reinstate the social security contributions that were paid, until five years ago, by the major supermarket chains, the banks and the companies owning the privatised public services, it would mean 1.5 billion dollars for the unemployment programme.

The contributions were eliminated as an incentive for creating more jobs.

The CTA also proposes eliminating tax exemptions on profits for companies and individuals, which would mean another 5.0 billion dollars, according to Lozano’s calculations.

Furthermore, the initiative would redirect the funds that are currently earmarked for social assistance. Once the unemployment insurance programme is launched, it would spur greater consumption, which in turn would feed tax revenues, explains the economist.

The CTA decided to carry out a nationwide demonstration in order to spread the word about the unemployment insurance initiative, and to organise the referendum on the issue, for a vote in December.

The Argentine constitution of 1994 lays the ground rules for holding this sort of referendum, or “popular consultation.”

Though Congress is not obligated to treat the results of the vote as law, the CTA considers that approval of the initiative at the ballot box would serve as a formidable tool for pressuring the lawmakers into taking action on the issue.

As leaders from the various sectors represented in the caravan movement spoke before the crowds filling the Plaza de Mayo on Friday, an Argentine flag bearing the slogan “No More Poor Homes in Argentina” served as the stage’s backdrop.