With a powerful mobilization, which took over the surroundings of Congress and was replicated in the main capitals of the country, the leaders of the CGT led the act of the first general strike against Javier Milei and the battery of reforms that he promotes through the DNU and the called Base Law.
The measure of force, however,
had uneven compliance because transportation was only affected at 7 p.m.,
very few businesses closed and it only impacted some manufacturing and service branches.
However, the general strike served the CGT to
regain prominence within the framework of the disorderly regrouping of Peronism.
The main speakers of the meeting were Héctor Daer and Pablo Moyano - with a brief statement by the Brazilian Rafael Freire, of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers of the Americas - and Governor Axel Kicillof, Máximo Kirchner, the former candidate for vice president Agustín Rossi and numerous mayors of the GBA.
UxP legislators, leaders and Mothers of Plaza de Mayo came to the stage.
Although the measure of force began at noon, before 10 o'clock the first groups of protesters began to station themselves around Parliament.
The columns of unions such as
Camioneros, Uocra and UPCN
stood out and, in the latter case, challenged the official threat to discount the strike day.
The left also had a prominent place in the march.
Video
The mobilization of the unions against the reforms promoted by the government took over the streets of downtown Buenos Aires.
Complaints from area merchants.
The stage was finally set up in the dry plaza bordering Entre Ríos Avenue, although after 1 p.m. that artery became impassable and forced some buses to turn back in the south direction.
The
anti-picketing protocol also had uneven compliance.
The deployment of Federal Police agents could not prevent blockades of streets such as Mitre, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Rodríguez Peña and Rivadavia itself.
The protesters were prevented from entering the City through the Pueyrredón Bridge, but the federal forces stationed at the scene ended up blocking vehicular traffic.
In the area around Congress, however, only minor incidents were reported.
The speeches in the Plaza finally came forward and began at 2 p.m. after the singing of the national anthem.
In his speech, Daer sent a message to the legislators who supported the majority opinion of the Omnibus law.
"No deputy can be distracted by what we are discussing.
They deregulate the economy with the DNU, but essentially they are going with four concepts to destroy the individual and collective rights of workers, unions and they want to take away the possibility of union action in the moment in which we have great inequality in our society," he emphasized.
Pablo and Hugo Moyano, among the union members who went up to the box.
Photo Marcelo Carroll
However,
the speech of the trucker leader was more disruptive,
who, after strongly questioning the Government, snapped at the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo: "The workers are going to carry it on litters,
but to throw it into the Riachuelo
. "
Later, the former head of the Central Bank echoed those statements and advocated that "Justice take action on the matter."
Finally, lawyer Jorge Monastersky
filed a complaint against Moyano for "threats."
During the day, different chants against the Government were repeated and the slogan of the march was even sung:
"The Homeland is not for sale"
, alluding to the supposed objectives of the reforms proposed by the Executive.
Moyano even attacked the privatizations of public companies and pointed out that they would seek to favor "the friends" of the President.
By 3pm everything was over
: the first to leave the stage were the UxP deputies - Cecilia Moreau accompanied her father Leopoldo, visibly affected by the midday heat - and then the union leaders followed them.
The
deconcentration
of militancy occurred
calmly and quickly.
At dusk, only dozens of protesters remained on the sidewalks bordering the legislative palace.
Protesters at the CGT event against the reforms and adjustment.
After the event, the CGT released a statement titled
"In Defense of the civil, social and labor rights of our Nation
. "
The thing is that the Cegetista leadership
took the representation
of the social movements, of the retirees, of the SME businessmen but also of the science and cultural workers who, according to it warns, could see their rights violated if the reforms proposed by the officialdom.
"Without a single valid reason they intend to impose 'All or Nothing', a DNU that the Labor Justice has stopped and an Omnibus Law that cannot be debated against the clock due to the countless number of matters it covers.
Societies are transformed with dialogue and consensus
", says the text.
He thus refers to one of the main criticisms of an ruling party that, in his opinion, does not have valid interlocutors to tie agreements.
The fact is that within the leadership of the workers' union there are "dialogue" leaders, such as Daer himself, José Luis Lingieri or Andrés Rodríguez.
Video
The head of the truck drivers union spoke on the stage set up in the Plaza del Congreso during the CGT strike.
The Minister of the Interior,
Guillermo Francos
, was one of the first officials who tried to negotiate with the union leaders.
However, the libertarian hawks, observed in the labor union, ended up disavowing him.
In the afternoon, the Government went out to cross the protest and try to
minimize its scope:
according to what they detected in a survey carried out in 45 Buenos Aires cities,
there was "almost zero closure of businesses until 1 p.m. and very low between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m."
when they recorded normal activity "with a drop (in sales) starting at noon due to the closure of some banks, municipalities and official departments."
The organizers, meanwhile, came out to
celebrate the scope of the protest
and estimated that "more than 1.5 million workers and citizens mobilized throughout the country" against the Government.