By: Elio Delgado Legon
Havana Times
A peaceful protest by workers in Argentina was violently repressed with rubber bullets, which cause injuries like the ones seen on this woman’s back.
HAVANA TIMES — Every time we forget history, history makes us pay dearly for this. We should recall how, in Nicaragua, a dirty war was waged on the Sandinista revolution, forcing the people to vote for the neoliberal right, as the way to end a war that was destroying the country.
A total of 17 years of neoliberal governments were needed to make the people understand that the sole way forward was the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which had become a left-wing political party. It was a bitter lesson that ought not be forgotten.
In Argentina, it would seem an important part of the people have forgotten the disaster they were subjected to under allegedly democratic governments following the military dictatorship.
Only after the arrival of Nestor Kirchner and later Cristina Fernandez were Argentineans able to breathe, relieved, and to begin to emerge from the night of neoliberalism.
But the right does not rest and, with the support of the mass media and a lot of money, they managed to confuse part of the electorate, promising a change for the better.
That part of the electorate has forgotten history. It forgot that these right-wing politicians are the same ones who supported the country’s military dictatorships and subsequent neoliberal governments. They are unconditional allies of imperialism, with “carnal relations” with the government of the United States, as Carlos Menem proclaimed and which led the country into bankruptcy.
Having forgotten recent history led them to elect Mauricio Macri as president. No sooner had he taken office than he presented his neoliberal credentials and, instead of taking measures to create new jobs, began to put thousands of State employees out on the street, a measure that, according to his collaborators, could lead to as many as 60,000 layoffs. When workers staged a peaceful protest to demand respect for their rights, they were violently repressed by the police, in the style of the military dictatorships.
Perhaps Argentineans need to live under the boot of neoliberalism a few more years to remember history and again vote for left-wing candidates, the ones who are on the side of working people, always.
Another evident case of forgetfulness is that of Venezuelans, who have been suffering the consequences of an economic war waged by the right and have just voted, in their majority, for the very parliamentary representatives who have caused product shortages and carried out the acts of contraband that have brought suffering to the people.
Once the new, chiefly right-wing legislative assembly was sworn in, chairman Henry Ramos Allup, who has a dark past of service to neoliberalism and coup d’etats, revealed his credentials by ordering the removal of Simon Bolivar’s and Hugo Chavez’ portraits from Parliament. With derisive gestures, shown by Telesur TV, he personally oversaw this unpatriotic act.
The new parliament, led by a neoliberal majority, threatens to repeal laws passed by Chavez’ government that benefit the people.
photo: A peaceful protest by workers in Argentina was violently repressed with rubber bullets, which cause injuries like the ones seen on this woman’s back.
The Venezuelan people will have the opportunity to assess who are protecting their interests and who the real enemies are.
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