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Angry Argentines March in Streets
> by BILL CORMIER
> Associated Press Writer
> BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Some 8,000 workers from Argentina's
largest
> labor confederation marched Tuesday to protest against deregulation of the
> social security system, a key part of the government's austerity package.
> Police did not intervene as the peaceful, banner-waving columns of union
> workers massed outside the Government House, one day after the
announcement
> of a $39-billion loan package by international lenders to aid this
stagnant
> economy, the second-largest in South America.
> But while Argentina has won breathing space on international markets
thanks
> to the bailout loans, the pressure showed no sign of easing in the streets
> Tuesday. Though unions no longer enjoy wide support in Argentina, economic
> problems have brought near-daily protests, including blockades of key
> highway corridors by jobless workers behind burning tire barricades.
> ''If they don't listen to us, the government is giving a deaf ear to our
> demands,'' sai Rodolfo Daer, leader of the General Workers Confederation
> that has blamed government austerity measures for deepening poverty and
> hardship.
> Speaking on the broad Plaza de Mayo where the throng gathered, Daer warned
> the unions could step up their protests after a year marked by three
general
> strikes, one of which left Argentina paralyzed for a day last month.
> ''We are going to return to the Plaza de Mayo,'' he vowed. ''They will
> either listen to our demands or we will kick them out!'' He did not talk
> further about the threat to the 1-year-old government of President
Fernando
> De la Rua.
> Bottle rockets crackled overhead and union workers waved blue-and-white
> Argentine flags, along with signs demanding the government roll back the
> deregulation of the social security system.
> Argentina's social security system has been widely criticized, however, as
> wasteful and riddled with corruption.
> Earlier, De la Rua revamped Argentina's notoriously rigid labor laws,
> negotiated a 5-year spending freeze, cut public workers' salaries and
> enacted tax increases to turn around a languishing economy.
> In exchange for the austerity measures, De la Rua won a
larger-than-expected
> loan package from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders.
> ''Argentina is not condemned to economic stagnation,'' De la Rua said
after
> he announced the $39.7 billion loan package on Monday, adding it ''will
> eliminate financial and political uncertainty and restore consumer,
business
> and investor confidence.''
> Argentina's economy shrank 3.1 percent last year and is expected to grow
by
> a mere 0.2 percent this year, while debt has soared. And unemployment has
> risen to 15 percent earlier this year, angering many in the street.
> Analysts strongly welcomed the loan, saying its size will grant Argentina
a
> strong financial shield against any possible default on its $120 billion
> debt.
> ''What's most significant here is the magnitude of the shield. It's very
big
> news in that it will allow Argentina refuge from the pressures of
> international markets,'' said Gustavo Canonero of Deutschebank Argentina.
> Luis Salazar joined one drum-banging protest outside the Labor Minister on
> Tuesday that snarled traffic. He lifted a sign reading ''Christmastime,
> Hunger.'' He said he had been give a public works job last month but was
> never paid his wage, equivalent to $160 a month.
> ''When I went to get my pay they said come back in January,'' he said.
> He said his family is going hungry while the government arranges billions
of
> dollars in IMF bailout funds -- what he called a shield for the government
> that leaves workers unprotected and hungry.
> ''I don't know about this so-called shield package. But the government is
> looking for handouts while they are hurting us with their economic plan.
We
> are the victims in all this.''
> ----------
>
> Interesting that this story did not make the evening news. The IMF
bailing
> out yet another country.
>
> The worst is indeed, yet to come.
>
>
>
>
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