51 years after the Historic general strike of 1973 which faced the coup d’état and the Uruguayan dictatorship, the eastern labor union, The PIT-CNT called for a strike this Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., in which it mobilized its bases in the traditional square in the 1973 General Strike Square, Located on 8 de Octubre and José Belloni avenues in Montevideo, the gathering was truly massive, even more so considering the state of political tension among Uruguayan citizens. before the internal elections of the parties next, facing the presidential elections in October.
«Defend your rights, fight for a dignified life“, was the slogan of the labor union chaired by Marcelo El Turco Abdala, who immediately after the event, spoke with Tiempo about the march and other current issues in the eastern region. “The event was very good, there was a great response to the due tribute to the feat of the general strike of ’73, with occupation of workplaces, which lasted for 15 days and although it could not prevent the dictatorship, it did create the conditions for her to be born mortally wounded. Furthermore, he promoted the course of a struggle with other methods, where, based on clandestinity and resistance, the conditions were effectively generated to later defeat the dictatorship. In this case, the mobilization was a tribute to that strike, but current issues were also raised, such as the fishing workers conflict, which today is one of the important issues in labor relations; the criticism to the advancement of the model of inequality that is expressed in an aberrant way, in the growth of poverty and in particular child poverty.
-In some way is it a continuity of the mobilization of the 1st of Major and the proposals from then?
-Insisting on these approaches. It is the platform of the union movement, from the point of view of promoting quality work, diversifying the productive matrix, promoting the deep integration of Latin America; using state purchases as a tool of industrial policy; promoting a quality life for our people; defending public companies…
The labor union repudiated a couple of weeks ago an illegal investigation that Abdala suffered, from the highly questioned former head of presidential security, Alejandro Astesianodue to an accident that the union member suffered in 2022. At the same time as the repression suffered by fishing workers in their recent struggle. These issues were also brought to the forefront of this mobilization. And, of course, the plebiscite promoted by the PI-CNT. “Of course, also the plebiscite that the union movement and other social movements are calling for to make Social Security a human right.”
-What is the status of the plebiscite at the moment?
-The Electoral Court is counting the signatures we presented. We delivered over 430,000 signatures and 271,000 or so are needed. Everything indicates that there will be a plebiscite. Around 20,000 signatures needed to be counted, so we estimate that these days the Court will establish the call that would be simultaneous with the national election, in October.
-The right, the ruling party, is obviously against it. But “how do the Frente Amplio candidates get along with the plebiscite?
-He FA has left its militants and forces free of action. Some candidates have specifically signed, such as Andrés Lima and Carolina Cose. Orsi has not signed. Everything indicates that the Front will give freedom of action. Unless I make a different decision after Sunday’s internal sessions. We are actually going to dialogue with the entire population.
-What are the postulates?
-We are convinced of the three precautionary measures proposed by the union movement: recreate the conditions so that people can retire at age 60; that the minimum retirement or pension per person have an amount equivalent to the national minimum wage and eradicate the financial profit of the AFAP (R.N.: semi-private retirement systems). We are convinced that it is an issue that the majority of our people can address. We will carry out a campaign to convince people, in addition to voting, to consider it convenient to vote yes to the initiative of the union movement.
-The PIT-CNT was historically close to the Front. How do you analyze Sunday’s elections?
-There are meetings and disagreements. I would say that the working class has a type of action, commitment and political-social intervention in the reality of our country. Naturally he intervenes by pushing a path that points to a new mode of accumulation different from the capitalist and dependent mode of accumulation. The need to reduce poverty and settlements is established; to generate the conditions for the redistribution of wealth; raises the need to diversify the productive matrix and the centrality of industrial policy. Instead of the proliferation of Free Trade Agreements propose a thesis of promoting the deep integration of Latin America. But in that context it is very likely that after the 30th, the internal party elections, and given that we develop a very important activity which is the Congress of the People, we can dialogue with all the candidates, not just with the one from the Broad Front. And to put forward the programme and the programmatic ideas that the organised working class has, and at the same time receive the responses to the different public policies that the candidates commit to developing.
-You talked about the People’s Congress.
-It is an activity of broad participation, of all social movements. Some programmatic agreements are developed on, for example, What country do the people want, socially organized? From there arise these ideas of the need to move away from the dependent accumulation mode towards an economy that is not the participation that transnational financial capital assigns us in the global division of labor. But with more industrialization, with more distribution of wealth, with quality work and with a perspective of deep integration of Latin America. In other words, a very different vision.
-The country of the People’s Congress is the one that the workers’ confederation wants.
-Exactly. And in a year of electoral campaign It is a favorable moment to exchange ideas from a programmatic point of view and then inform workers about the similarities and distances between the different approaches.. The union movement is independent, it is autonomous from the different political organizations, but it is not indifferent to national affairs, on the contrary.
