Strikes hit Argentine junta

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It now over three years since the Argentine armed forces overthrew the corrupt regime of Isabel Peron and launched upon an cious repression of the working class.

On March 29, the third anniversary of the coup, President Jorge Videla was sufficiently confident of his position to dismiss plans for allowing civilian political activity and to confirm that new measures would be introduced to curtail yet further the powers and rights of trade unions.

Union law

The 'new mode' of trade union activity, laid down in a document known as the *Law of Professional Association' , has for several months been the subject of heated negotiations between the military and two trade union groups, the Comision Nacional de Trabajo (CNT) and the Grupo de 25' which comprises broad spectrum of Peronist leaders.

No doubt Videla was unhappy that the negotiations were necessary, let alone that they had become so extended.

Cronies

But this had little to do with the conciliatory nature of his cronies.

It is the growing resistance of the Argentine workers to the crippling rise in the cost of living caused by the austerity measures of Economy Minister Martinez de Hoz that has been the cause of delay and the object of increasing concern on the part of the regime.

It was the intention of the military to impose upon a defeated and demoralised working class the most stringent legal sanctions and obtain compliance with the austerity plan.

This had already proved less easy than they imagined but it was put right out of court on Friday April 28 when the '25' called a one day general strike in protest both at the plan and the restrictions on union activity.

The CNT, which had already entered into a working alliance with the '25' refused to obey the strike call but appreciable numbers of its members joined the stoppage and a 30% turnout was reportedan impressive achievement in view of the extraordinarily difficult conditions under which the workers live.

"Official'

The CNT is now being labelled as an official' organisation and is losing members to the '25' who, despite many arrests, have ensured that the economic policies of the regime will continue to be challenged and accelerated the growth of resistance that has been evident for some time now.

Massive difficulties remain but the events of recent weeks show that the Argentine working class can no longer be seen as in retreat. Videla bleak, for while the general workers'. federation-the COBand the powerful miners' union -the FSTMB-have placed the struggle against the rises in the cost of living at the forefront of the campaign, not even the most bureaucratically riddled and politically degenerate organisations are succeeding holding back demands from the rank and file which outstrip any possible concessions envisaged by the UDP.

Left nationalist

Allied to the MNRi in the UDP is the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left), a leftnationalist' party originating from the radical wing of the Christian Democrats, staffed mostly by petty bourgeois elements, strong on blustering anti-imperialism but in practice aiming at little more than some timid tinkering with the management of the economy.

The third major member of this unholy alliance is the pro-Moscow CP which has an even lower standing amongst the masses than most other Stalinist parties in Latin America since its failure to provide a revolutionary leadership has been shown up by strong Trotskyist traditions, particularly in the mines.

The inclusion of the Stalinists in Siles' front is likely to do him more damage than good as it antagonises the army and does little to broaden the appeal of the 'reforms' with which the UDP hopes to transfix the electorate.