Peronist unions march against "speculators and price makers"

The Peronist unions, grouped in the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT), exhibited their convening power in Buenos Aires with a large demonstration against "speculators and price makers."

The slogan was worthy of a tightrope walker who had to protest against the economic crisis without appearing to oppose the Government of Alberto Fernández.

They did not march to the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, but to Congress.

But it was a day full of double talk, with coded messages to the rivals in the internal one that today devastates the Casa Rosada.

The CGT is in the hands of a triumvirate that traces the division between the president, Fernández;

his vice, Cristina Kirchner;

and the new “super minister” of Economy, Sergio Massa.

To solve the mess, the unions chose as enemies "the businessmen who highlight" the products every day.

And they promised the president that, if he "puts what needs to be put, the workers are going to bank him."

The texts belong to Pablo Moyano, a truck unionist who answers to Cristina Kirchner.

His affiliates gathered a few blocks from the Obelisk, on 9 de Julio Avenue.

Moyano grabbed a microphone, stood on a makeshift stage and spoke to the crowd.

“They want to give an institutional blow to the Government, that is why we carried out this march.

They attack the government every day, and the leaders.

It will not be the first march if this continues, there will be hundreds of marches to denounce these guys,” he said, clarifying who he meant by “these guys.”

"The price makers, the businessmen, the AEA [Argentine Business Association], the media, Mercado Libre, the banks that want to carry out an institutional coup against the government," he listed.

More information

The protest in Buenos Aires for the economic crisis, in images

Later, at a press conference attended by Héctor Daer and Carlos Acuña, the triumvirate warned that support has a price.

The leaders of the CGT said that they expected the government to "take note" of the magnitude of the call and meet their demands.

They oppose a salary increase for a fixed sum that compensates for the soaring inflation of up to 71% year-on-year, as Minister Massa offers, and they demand the universalization of the social assistance that the poorest families receive today for each child.

The rejection of the fixed sum supposes maintaining the free salary discussions that the unions carry out with the companies, without state intervention.

The CGT had announced the march this Wednesday a month in advance.

It used the time to unify criteria and neutralize the multiplicity of political tendencies that run through it.

The internal ones are a reflection of the fights that today divide the ruling Peronism, with a president and a vice president who do not speak to each other and an Economy Minister who has come as a savior.

The labor movement, the backbone of Peronism, is also under attack by increasingly powerful external enemies.

The succession of economic crises has reduced the number of salaried workers year after year, emptying unions such as the metal workers of affiliates.

Power passes today through the social movements or picketers, and other unions that never belonged to the CGT but are still very numerous, such as the one that brings together state workers.

The unruly unions and the picketers were even encouraged to challenge the CGT with a parallel march, which did end in front of the Casa Rosada.

Fernández was not at the government headquarters at the time.

He preferred to travel to the north of the country, where he remembered the independence hero José de San Martín on a new anniversary of his death.

He gave a long speech there without any mention of the demonstrations in Buenos Aires and celebrated that, according to his reading, Argentina is "recovering, growing and advancing."

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