Argentina has seen a 36 hour wave of action across the country with mass demonstrations on Wednesday and a general strike on Thursday. More than 50,000 people came out in Buenos Aires alone.

　　This action follows on from protests last month that saw scenes of police repression throughout the capital, and the demonstrations on 24 March commemorating the victims of the dictatorship that ruled until 1983. 

　　The movement started as demonstrations of pensioners demanding a rise in pensions and the reinstatement of free medication. These protests have grown in size since the beginning of the year, swelled by the support of workers and football fans from the Boca Junior and River Plate football clubs.

　　After the demonstrations were brutally repressed by security minister Patricia Bullrich last month, the movement has grown even further. It has come to encompass demands against president Javier Milei’s entire regime. 

　　The general strike was called last month by the three major trade union federations, grouped under the umbrella of the CGT. In a joint statement the trade unions said, “In the face of intolerable social inequality and a government that ignores calls for better wages and a dignified standard of living for all, the workers are going on strike.”

　　They are protesting president Milei’s austerity drive that leaves thousands struggling to make ends meet. They are demanding higher wages, the end of repression, rights of minority groups and for increased freedom for trade unions.

　　The recent protests have left the government weak, with calls for both Bullrich and Milei to resign. Unions hope that the general strike will further weaken them.

　　There were two general strikes held in the first six months of Milei’s presidency last year. But the Workers’ Party (PO) has said that yesterday was the “most important” and “strongest” blow to Milei’s regime yet.

　　Many out on the streets on Wednesday’s demonstrations stated that it was “about time” for the unions to take a stronger stance. The government is attempting to turn people against the striking workers, saying that the unions are “attacking millions of Argentines who want to work”.

　　But the tens of thousands out this week in the capital, as well as thousands more in cities across the country, have shown that the power is with the workers. 

　　Trains, ports and airports have all ground to a halt, with workers in schools, banks and much of the public sector striking. Hospitals are running on a minimum service.

　　But the strike is being broken by the UTA transport union. Its leadership is close to Milei and has been relied on to break strikes before. 

　　The PO has criticised the trade union bureaucracy for this strike-breaking. It said they failed to push for struggle in all workplaces and across a wider group of unions, such as the UTA. 

　　It sees the 24 hour general strike as a strategy from the unions to isolate struggle to one day, instead of allowing “the launch of a massive working class intervention that would fully exploit the government’s free fall” and achieve change.

　　The 36 hours of action came as the IMF lending body is set to grant a massive loan to Milei’s government, against the wishes of the workers. The pensioners accuse Milei of syphoning off their pensions to pay existing debt to the IMF.

　　Milei is part of the global turn towards the far right. He is not just driving austerity in Argentina, he has launched what he calls a “war on diversity”. And he brands “diversity” and “wokeness” as obstacles to “national progress”.

　　But these strikes and demonstrations are proof that those enraged by Milei’s economic and social policies—escalated by Bullrich’s extreme repression—will not stay silent.

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Wei Xiaoxue

　　From:https://socialistworker.co.uk/international/general-strike-against-the-far-right-rocks-argentina/（2025-4-11）