Reportage • Valen Iricibar • February 1, 2024 • Leer en castellano

In Argentina, January is usually a quiet summer month, but this year began with a bang. The General Confederation of Labor (CGT, in its Spanish acronym) called a general strike, the first in four years. Never before had an incoming government faced a strike so quickly. President Javier Milei’s mega-decree and so-called “Omnibus Law,” which is shaking the foundations of the state he seeks to deregulate,  prompted a strong response that took the form of the total deployment of Argentina’s resistance movements.

"I’ve been to four, five… or six cacerolazos [neighborhood protests where marchers bang pots and pans] since Milei took office," said Fernanda Leileur, a resident of the Palermo neighborhood, who came out to join the spontaneous protest and spoke with Ojalá on the corner of Coronel Díaz and Santa Fe Avenue in Buenos Aires. When she attends a protest, she brings the same kitchen pot that she used in the cacerolazos that took place during the 2001 social and economic crisis. She kept the pot as a souvenir, she says, and would have preferred not to have taken it out again.

“We did the first cacerolazo on this corner on December 19. Then I went when the CGT did the first one at the courts and again when Polo Obrero called one, and I also took part in the strike on December 24," she told Ojalá. "We started nine days [after Milei’s inauguration] and haven’t stopped since."

Chronicle of a protest foretold

Argentina’s new government took office on December 10, 2023. 

On December 12, the new Minister of Economy released a video announcing a series of harsh economic austerity policies.

On December 16, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich gave a press conference outlining a draconian protocol that criminalizes protest and bars the blocking of streets, roads or bridges for any reason.  

On December 20, the government put out a video announcing a Necessity and Urgency Decree (DNU, in Spanish) that repeals and modifies an unprecedented number of laws. The changes included in Decree 70/2023 took effect on December 29. DNUs remain in effect until the Legislature rules on their validity.

On December 27, the so-called "Omnibus Law" was delivered to the legislature. It includes more than 600 articles and would grant special powers to Milei, which he could extend at his discretion. 

Each of these actions spurred protests, which took place through different channels (the legislature, the courts, and the streets) and with increased frequency following the tabling of DNU. Congress was summoned to extraordinary sessions and entered a Gordian knot of negotiations, while some courts shortened their holidays to address the flood of injunctions against the DNU. 

Familiar figures from Argentina’s protest movements sprung into action, from self-convened residents who mobilize without links to political parties or organizations, to the big unions like the CGT, with its convening power and historical weight. The January 24 strike brought 600,000 people into the streets of Buenos Aires, according to the union, which said 1.5 million protested around the country.

"The DNU and the Omnibus Law hit every sector. They impact all areas of public policy and every economic activity in Argentina. This is true in all provinces and in all social sectors: health, education, production, mining, taxation, absolutely everything," said Lara Goyburu, a member of the Network of Political Scientists and a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and the Torcuato Di Tella University. "They would have been naive to think that nobody would say anything. It could be a strategy of 'let's try for everything and see what sticks.' It’s risky."

"All sectors turned to traditional forms of mobilization and political pressure because they are all affected," said Goyburu in an interview with Ojalá. 

The shadow of 2001

"I believe that we’re living in the wake of the 2001 cataclysm and the consequences of the absence of a generation of leadership linked to the last military dictatorship," said Goyburu. In her view, protests without leaders to channel popular demands are a "time bomb."

As soon as the DNU was announced, cacerolazos started all over the country, as did comparisons with the crisis of 2001, when the noise of banging pots and pans became an emblematic form of popular revolt. 

The return of national cacerolazos underscores the similarities between 2024 and 2001. On the one hand is economic crisis, political disillusionment, the demand that “que se vayan todos” [that all politicians resign] and the activation of neighborhood assemblies. On the other, police repression and a government that is actively anti-protest.

"All the government is doing is cracking down and making threats, making it clear it’s on a path to confrontation, not dialogue" said Eduardo Belliboni, a member of the Piquetero Union and the head of the Polo Obrero, a workers’ organization. 

Picketing is a familiar form of resistance in Argentina. Protesters make their demands more visible by shutting down high-traffic thoroughfares with blockades. This form of resistance emerged during the massive layoffs that occurred in the 1990s. 

Unlike the cacerolazos, which can be characterized as middle-class protests, and large union strikes, pickets are a form of popular protest that center demands against social injustice and inequality. Because they interrupt automobile traffic, they are often the target of harsh anti-protest discourse. These differences were reflected in how the government applied the new protocol that Bullrich announced just before December 20, a key date in Argentine history. 

On the morning of December 20 last year, leftist groups including the Piquetero Union commemorated victims of repression during the 2001 protests. The day was tense, and several different security forces were deployed against protesters. Officers from the City Police, the Federal Police and the Gendarmerie surrounded the Plaza de Mayo and there were instances of provocation. 

That evening, Milei announced the DNU. Minutes later, the sound of clanging pots and pans was heard throughout the country and protesters poured into the Plaza del Congreso in central Buenos Aires. A few police officers appeared, but were quickly chased off and did not return until the spontaneous protest had dispersed.

"The government has made a distinction. It restrained itself when a cacerolazo protest took place shortly after [the] December 20 [march] that blocked all of Entre Rios Avenue, but when it comes to the piqueteros, in a clear manifestation of racism and classism, they sent in security forces, they sent in the infantry, they sprayed gas," said Belliboni in an interview with Ojalá. "We’re facing a government that is set against the working class."

"Argentina has had military governments since the 1930s that have tried to impose their programs by force on the people, who have kept fighting back, even during periods of dictatorship," says Belliboni. "There’s no way that Milei's government is going to put an end to all of this resistance."

In an attempt to apply the anti-picket protocol, the Ministry of Security tried to charge the 14 organizations that convened the annual December 20 march AR$60 million [almost 74,000 dollars] for the security operation against them. No payment was made, according to Belliboni, nor was there a follow-up. "After they made a show of sending us the invoice, they did nothing more.” 

Regardless of scenes of repression and the aggressive presence of officers at protests, Bullrich's anti-protest protocol has been challenged in the streets, and its uneven application has proven impractical. In most demonstrations, security forces are the ones that block the streets. National and international voices have criticized the protocol in strong terms. This week, special rapporteurs of the United Nations called on the government to review it because it is incompatible with international treaties signed by Argentina. 

Argentina rising

"The election just happened, so right now people aren’t thinking about who to vote for, they want to come together," said folk musician and activist Ari Lorenzo. "I don't think this is the right time for a leader to come and say 'I’ve got this,' because no one will follow them. People distrust politicians… and that’s also why Milei won."

Lorenzo belongs to Folklore for Everyone (Folclore por Todes) and the Secretariat of Culture of the Argentine LGBT Federation, which in turn are part of United for Culture (Unidxs por la Cultura). He explains that United for Culture was born under Milei's government, in which all of the cultural sectors (including people active in film, theater, literature, art, and music) came together for the first time to protect themselves against the DNU and the Omnibus Law. 

"There are a lot of spaces convening, and not all of them have the strength to call a general strike like the CGT did, but there are people in the street who are active all the time, and I think that this will become more and more common," Lorenzo told Ojalá. "There’s a hope that our voices will make a difference. Although this seems to happen over and over in our history, this is something new younger generations that haven’t been listened to, and that could be the key for many young people to approach [activist] spaces.”

Neighborhood assemblies, also reminiscent of 2001, are one of these spaces. There has been a resurgence of non-hierarchical neighborhood meetings in recent weeks. Days after the CGT general strike, the third "assembly of assemblies" was held, which was a meeting of 33 popular assemblies in Parque Centenario where representatives of each group communicated what was voted in their respective neighborhoods. The invitation was sent by WhatsApp, through neighborhood networks. Everyone was welcome.

"The massive mobilization that took place on January 24, in which we participated actively, shows that the people are not going to submit or allow themselves to be intimidated," said Elda Cedro during the assembly, as she read letter addressed to deputies and senators. Cedro has been part of her neighborhood assembly in Beccar since 2001. "And [the people] will not stop protesting until we see the possibility of a dignified life, as guaranteed by the State and established by our Constitution, and true national sovereignty." 

General agreements were made in the meeting. Fierce opposition to giving extraordinary powers to Milei, demands for a plan of struggle from the unions; a unanimous call for protests in front of Congress when the Omnibus Law and the DNU are discussed, the commitment to continue the assemblies on Wednesday nights, and vehement reproach of congresspeople who negotiate with and support Milei's political coalition, La Libertad Avanza.

"We’re eager to see them stand up as our true representatives. Our homeland is not for sale and neither are the rights of the people!" proclaims Cedra, her voice breaking. The people around her responded with hugs and applause under the rosewoods, and some chanted the rallying cry of anti-Milei protests: “Our homeland is not for sale!”