Argentina: No to Repression and Militarization under the Cover of COVID-19!
Nearly 6,200 people arrested since the government imposed a state of emergency
Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 27 March 2020, www.thecommunists.net
Argentina experiences a massive militarization since the Fernández government imposed a state of emergency on 20 March. Under the cover of the COVID-19 crisis, 6,191 people have been arrested, 938 vehicles were confiscated and more than 200,000 people had been sent home until today.
At the same time the government does not take any serious initiative to fight the pandemic and to organize free mass testing and to expand the health sector.
It is mostly the working class and the poor who suffer from the consequences of this brutal wave of repression.
These developments demonstrate the reactionary nature of the global policy of mass lock down. The RCIT has pointed out numerous times that the real purpose of this mass lock downs and the suppression of the right to demonstrate and to public assemble is to paralyze and atomize the popular masses. In time of crisis – as we are facing the worst slump of the world economy since 1929 and at the same a pandemic – the ruling class launches a pre-emptive strike to break the resistance of the workers and oppressed.
It is crucial that revolutionaries in Argentina and all over the world join force in order to combat the global counter-revolutionary offensive on an international scale:
* No to the mass lockdown of people! Defend the democratic right to assembly and to demonstrate!
* Down with mass surveillance and police state! No deployment of the military in civilian service!
* For systematic and complete health screening of all people who might have had contact with the virus. This screening must be free for all people but should be mandatory. The same is necessary for any potential treatment which should include quarantine if necessary.
* Put the whole health sector under the control of the workers and oppressed as well as health experts!
* Formation of workers and popular committees for the control and supply of basic necessities (food, cleaning, medicine)!
* Cancel all public and household debts!
* No sacking, no wage cuts, no attacks on labor rights!
* Nationalization under workers control of all enterprises which shut down production!
* * * * *
The RCIT has published numerous statements and articles on the COVID-19 crisis of which several have been translated into different languages. They are all collected at a special sub-page in our website: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/collection-of-articles-on-the-2019-corona-virus/
In particular we draw the attention of readers to these two documents:
COVID-19: A Cover for a Major Global Counterrevolutionary Offensive
We are at a turning point in the world situation as the ruling classes provoke a war-like atmosphere in order to legitimize the build-up of chauvinist state-bonapartist regimes
Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 21 March 2020
Act Now because History is Happening Now!
A call to all revolutionary organizations and activists to join forces against the global counter-revolutionary offensive under the cover of COVID-19
Open Letter of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 26 March 2020
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/open-letter-act-now-because-history-is-happening-now/