Argentina is going through a turbulent social period. Two months after Javier Milei came to power, the situation appears to be escalating. The devaluation of the currency, inflation, unemployment, poverty and other ills that plague the country and continue to exist as the previous governments still do not have a quick solution.
As is almost always the case when a country is hit by a crisis, the part of the population that is most affected is the part of the population that has the least. Furthermore, considering that one of the bases of the speech used by the Argentine president since his election campaign was to reduce public spending, one must remember that this can have immediate consequences for the people who find themselves in social organizations . E.g. soup kitchens or social plans. , restrictions that allow them to survive everyday life.
Julieta Goldsman, a social leader from Buenos Aires who is part of the organization People's Movement of Dignity and studied education at UBA, spoke to La República to give his perspective on how this new government would impact social organizations in Argentina.
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—What actions did Javier Milei take that damaged his two months in office?
– There are three things Milei has done since joining the government. The first was a package of economic measures that hit us hardest in daily life because the currency was devalued by 120%. (…) As a result of this devaluation, our salary was halved. Apart from tariffs on energy, gas and transport, they are cutting subsidies in all these areas; So now we have a 200% increase in light, 150% in gas and 250% in transport. Within this entire package of measures, they have frozen some social programs, especially those related to community kitchens and socio-community tasks. They have frozen this very low income, which is less than $80 a month.
The package of economic measures was one; Then the DNU, an emergency decree that repealed 300 laws in Argentina, some of which we can talk about, but the most important have to do with labor rights and Argentine sovereignty because it affects the Argentine glaciers and affects the water. It hinders the ability of foreigners to buy land, large areas of land in Argentina and areas where there are resources, and the omnibus law reinforces all of this. The Worst Thing About the Omnibus Law.
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—What is the Omnibus Law?
“Although it has many serious aspects, (the most serious) is the transfer of powers to the president. Well, we live in a republic and we have a separation of powers. The president wants to arrogate to himself the power to make laws without involving Congress, that is, he decides which laws are passed and which are not, logically because he is very weak and does not have many opportunities in Congress to approve his measures . So the omnibus law contains a whole labor chapter that deprives those who have labor rights, in particular what has to do with the right to strike, compensation, the obligation of employers to compensate their workers when they dismiss them and the extension of the right to strike the probationary period. We have a three month trial period; So the employer can try you out for three months and not hire you, so that's eight months. So for eight months you don't know whether you will have a job or not, there are no working conditions, there is no vacation, you have no bonus, there is no retirement, social work and especially what concerns us the most are the economic ones Measures and the measures taken by the Ministry of Human Capital, which imposes a large part of the policy on us since we are closely linked to the International Monetary Fund Macri signed a new agreement on the fund for 45 billion dollars. Our policy is tied to the demands of the International Monetary Fund. The Fund is calling for a very large tax cut, and that cut is in the areas where those of us who have the least are: community kitchens, for example.
—How will popular soup kitchens in Argentina be affected?
—Social programs begin in Argentina. Perhaps there were some before, but they became more severe in 2001, after the worst economic crisis in Argentina. (…) So there was a lot of unemployment, people had nothing to eat and they went out to cut off the routes, they went out to demonstrate and complain. This is how the first social programs came into being with the food bags, which became more and more important from 2001 onwards. Today there are 1,500,000 Argentines who have social programs. In any case, the share of GDP allocated to these programs is quite small: it amounts to 0.5%. Many more people receive the food. The calculations are inaccurate because there is a directory of dining rooms. ReNaCom is the national community kitchen registry, with 35,000 community kitchens registered. I believe there could be twice as many of those who have never registered, of those who are self-governing, of those who are self-governing. There are more than 100,000 community chefs who are not registered. In addition to the 35,000 soup kitchens, there are more than 100,000 community cooks who are not listed on any official government register.
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—Why does a certain part of Argentina view social plans with a negative eye?
“There is a very big lack of knowledge about how these spaces work and at the same time there is a whole media campaign to stigmatize and discredit those who carry out these socio-communal tasks.” With everything that is happening in the media, it is logical that many people think (badly) because of a lack of knowledge. If you've never been to a community kitchen and haven't seen how it works and how many people benefit from it, you see it from a distance and don't fully understand the dynamics. That on the one hand and on the other. It seems to me that there is an error in the numbers. Social assistance for some social programs uses 0.5% of GDP, but for private sector subsidies it is 2.5%, which is five times more than government subsidies for the private sector. It is five times more that is allocated to the private sector than to Argentinians who cannot meet their basic needs such as food! In a way, I understand the anger of many because we are all hurting, and I believe that help must reach everyone equally. It seems to me that there is also a bit of a question: “Why do they get this help and not me?”, but it seems to me that the biggest mistake is state policy. Personally, I believe the solution to this is to create real jobs so that people don't need a social program and don't have to go to a community kitchen. (…) I believe that we also need to show the other side of what social programs are for and what they are used for by many who are beneficiaries in some way and in this way give something back: by doing good for society do what is very complicated in many ways.
—What is the current poverty rate in Argentina?
– About a week ago a note came out in which the Monetary Fund said that the government had admitted that we were already over 50%. Today, the minimum wage is 156,000 pesos, which is about $100. Now the Wage Council must meet and increase the vital and mobile minimum wage, but also the minimum wage only applies to those who work white; So there are 40-45% of informal workers in Argentina who have no parity, they have no opportunity to discuss or fight for an increase (increase) in line with “inflation”.
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—Why is part of the population against the protests on the streets?
“I'm not a constitutional lawyer, but several rights are forming a coalition: people's right to a decent job, to be able to feed themselves and to be able to complain collides with the right of others to freedom of movement. Yes, that's right. Now the state is responsible for ensuring these rights; So I think there is also a strategy that makes us fight among ourselves “because you are blocking the road”, “because you are against me blocking the road”. In reality, the state is the problem and the one , who has to solve all these problems. So the fight is not between those who cut and those who don't, but with those who are responsible for the fact that there are people in the country who cannot eat, even though we are a country that has every possibility has to feed its population because we produce food for millions and millions of people. We could feed Argentina ten times over with everything we produce, and yet there is 50% poverty and work is becoming more and more precarious.