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Repression of Piquetero Movement (English report and translation)
Por redqueen -
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 4:25 PM
Here are some audios in spanish, with english translation in text.
audio: wav file (5.6 mebibytes)
This is not the first time that thousands of piqueteros demonstrated against what they call the criminalization of the unemployed movement, but is one of the biggest since President Kirchner took office last May. Luis of Piquetero group Movimiento Teresa Rodriquez explains why more than 30 piquetero groups protested both the economic policies and the repression of the current administration.
" When Kirchner came to power 6 months ago, he has promised that he would create social policies to address the problem of economic exclusion, but the only thing that we have seen is more repression. We think that the past presidents Menem and De la Rua sold out the country with foreign investments and gave away our sovereignty. This government now says that they were going to take back our economic soverigntly, and we are here today to say that this is not so. "
spokesperson at 10.28 press conference
Por redqueen -
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 4:25 PM
audio: MP3 at 481.1 kibibytesaudio: MP3 at 481.1 kibibytes
Although some say that the repression of workers movements has subsided since the center left president Kirchner took office, the relationship between the unemployed movements and the administration took a turn last week. The Argentine Labor ministry filed suit against 5 piquetero groups for blocking the entrance of the federal labor building on October 22. The 200 piqueteros were demanding infrastuctural support of community kitchens and the creation of 3000 unemployment plans. At a press conference last week about the suit, one spokesperson for the piquetero groups emphasized that the problem of repression and poverty is intertwined with the goverments payment of the enormous IMF debt.
"What we are experiencing is a direct consequence of the governments agreement with the IMF. On September 10th, the government signed an agreement with the IMF in which it said that by the end of the year it will finish paying 12 million pesos of the external debt. And no more money will be given to the labor programs, to retirement plans, or for the subsidies to the unemployed workers. So what is the government going to do? Its going to continue denouncing the protests, and everyone who goes out into the streets struggling to keep their 150 peso subsidy."
Maria del Carmen Derdu
Por redqueen -
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 4:25 PM
audio: MP3 at 626.3 kibibytesaudio: MP3 at 626.3 kibibytes
The Piquetero movement has been met with police repression since even before the economic collapse of 2001. 2 protestors were killed during an occupation of a bridge in July 2002, the worker occupied Brukman factory employing mostly middle age women, was forceably evicted with tear gas by 2,000 policeman in April 2003. And just last month 2 members of a piquetero group in the northern province of Jujuy were killed during street demonstrations. Attorney Maria de Carmen Derdu documents police repression in Argentina and says that the Kirchner has yet to implement his promises to stop repression of the workers movements.
Maria Del Carmen:
"Since last December, 1,300 people have been killed by various sectors of the security forces, on a federal and provincial level, etc. Since 1995, a different kind of repression has been happening in an indiscriminate way, directly against the organized social movements. So the social movements started to manifest against this direct repression that was being carried out with clubs and rubber bullets - in these kinds of demonstrations, we have lost 50 lives. "
Polo Obrero
Por redqueen -
Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003 at 4:25 PM
audio: MP3 at 372.4 kibibytesaudio: MP3 at 372.4 kibibytes
The unemployed in Argentina say that they will keep demonstrating until economic conditions improve. 44% of the Argentine population remains unemployed or underemployed, and two million receive unemployment subsidies. Income has not been adjusted to correlate to inflation, making food and other basic needs 3 times as expensive as before December 2001. A Piquetera from Polo Obrero says the real violence is their economic reality.
Polo Obrero:
"We want them to know that we are not violent. The governments that come and go are implementing violence on us. Violence is not to have work, Violence is not having medicine, not having anything to eat. Thats what the biggest violence infringed upon us is. Receiving a club in the head is not the biggest violent act. The biggest violence is moral violence."
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