- WORKERS OCCUPY PLANTS IN ARGENTINA
Having managed to clamp down a counterrevolutionary lid on Brazil, U.S, imperialism must now consider what to do about another Latin-American cauldron that appears ready to boil over, This time it is Argentina. The Illia government, which won a rigged election July 7, 1963, is in deep trouble,
The new rise in the class struggle began May 18 when the Confederacién General de Trabajadores [CGT] opened the second phase of its “plan of struggle." This was the occupation of the plants, each action being undertaken by surprise.
By June 5 a total of 3,850 industrial establishments and pub-
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lic services had been occupied. The number of workers involved had reached the impressive total of 1,900,000.
When Illia came to power, the CGT levelled the following demands:
(1) An increase in pensions and retirement pay.
(2) Abolishment of the decrees and repressive laws dimiting the free exercise of trade-union rights,
(3) Effective action against the rise in the cost’ of living which has deeply affected the workers! buying power. a
(4) Establishment of a minimum scale and a sliding scale of wages,
The government made some concessions on the first point but stalled on the others, It referred the demand about the repressive laws to congress and it set up a parliamentary commission to study the question of granting a sliding scale of wages, During March and April, the CGT suspended application of the second phase of the "plan of action" because of these government gestures.
| Finally on May 18, the CGT announced that it could wait no. longer, TS TT
In face of the power and scope of the workers! action, the Illia government has felt forced to proceed: quite cautiously, As yet it has not mobilized massive armed force as in previous comparable situations,
However, it has now threatened the leaders of the OGT with application of a law that could carry sentences of up to six years in prison, The Attorney General has begun action accusing the CGT heads of "illicit association" because of their “desire to change the social order and to undermine the essential individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution,"
The “individual rights" referred to are the property rights brought into question by occupation of the plants.
The CGT. responded to the threat by issuing a declaration that in case of any arrests there will be "a general occupation of all. establishments for an indefinite time," .
The latest events in Argentina show once again the profundity of the economic and social crisis in which the country is caught up. With the downfall of Juan D. Peron in 1955, U.S. imperialism counted on the establishment of a more pliable regime, However, this signi-~ fied "austerity" for the masses and particularly an effort to crush the political opposition centered around the unions in the form of
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"Peronism," This has not succeedéd. The occupation of the plants may foreshadow a resurgence not so much of "Peronism" as a new militancy owing much more to Fidel Castro than to the figure who retired to Spain, abandoning the movement that mistakenly took him as its symbol,