Resolution of the National Workers' Assembly

This National Workers Assembly considers that:

1. The Duhalde government is an enemy of the working class and the people, responsible for the devaluation that destroyed our wages, for the confiscation of the small savings, for the "pesification" that reduced at our expense the debts of the native exploiters, and for the commitment to pay the foreign debt. It is a government that conceals with lies about "national sovereignty" its policy of plunder at the service of the great monopolies, while simultaneously executing the dictates of the IMF. We put at the consideration of all the workers our plan of struggle, whose ultimate aim is to provide a way out of the crisis for the people. That way passes though the expulsion of Duhalde and the class of plunderers that put him in the government.

2. The "agreement" sponsored by the Catholic Church and the United Nations is a political maneuver directed at co-opting, manipulating and dividing the workers organizations in order to preserve the regime. Consequently we call to repudiate the "agreement" and to denounce the support of this policy by the unions and political forces (PJ, UCR, Frepaso, ARI, Social Pole, Frenapo).

3. The "crisis councils" or "consultative councils" through which the government tries to canalize the social plans are organizations aimed at turning the social aid into a source of capitalist business and manipulating or debilitating the genuine organizations of the unemployed people. We denounce the use of the employment plans in order put cheap manual labor at the service of the bankrupt companies for 50 dollars. We call to boycott these "committees" of "emergency" or "crisis" and to demand, supported by the mobilization, the totality of our reclamations and their control by the unemployed organizations.

4. The Popular Assemblies (including the Inter-Neighborhood Assembly of Parque Centenario in Buenos Aires) and the Picketers and Workers Assemblies are organizing a huge number of struggles. They must take into their hands the solution of the most urgent problems of the masses: work, health, education, housing. We must build and strengthen the Popular Assemblies all over the country in order to provide a workers’ alternative to the current situation. The strategy of the picketers and the combative unions grouped in this National Assembly is to incorporate into the present picketers’ struggle the industrial labor movement and the great privatized public services. It is impossible to defeat the present government and the prevailing regime without the support of the workers at the main centers of production and the essential services like light, gas, telephone and transportation.

5. The CCC, FTV CTA must break all negotiations with the government behind the back of the picketers movement and join the struggle to guarantee its triumph. The policy of harboring illusions in governments at the service of the native and foreign exploiters has failed. We oppose to that policy the picketers’ program, which not only demands plans of work under the control of the unemployed organizations but also the rejection of the devaluation, the nonpayment of the foreign debt, the nationalization of the banking system, and that the minimum wage and unemployment compensations should cover the minimal expenses of an average family. We ask to begin right now a discussion over the program with these organizations, in the framework of the struggle and the plan of struggle.

6. In the light of the situation we raise the following program:

• Freedom to Raul Castells, Emilio Alí, Peralta and the rest of the imprisoned comrades.
• Removal of all charges against the fighters.
• Judgment and punishment of the intellectual and material authors of the murders committed on December 19 and 20.
• Judgment and punishment of the murderers of the comrades of the provinces of Salta (Justiniano, Gómez, Verón, Districts and Santillán) and Corrientes.
• Nonpayment of the external debt.
• Nationalization of the banking system and of the main enterprises.
• Statization of the pension funds.
• Prohibition of dismissals and suspensions.
• Statization and operation under workers control of all the companies that close or fire employees, and, under the same conditions, reopening of all those that were closed.
• Immediate devolution of the small savings.
• Struggle for a genuine and permanent work, through the distribution of the working hours without affecting the minimum wage.
• Wages and unemployment compensations must cover the minimal expenses of an average family and be adjusted for inflation.
• Out with Duhalde and the IMF. For a workers' government.

7. This Assembly represents a continuation of all the movements of struggle and organization that turned the picketers movement into a decisive factor in the national political situation. A continuation of the Santiaguenazo and the Cutralcazo, of the uprisings of Mosconi and Tartagal and of the massive blockings of roads in La Matanza. These struggles place to us before the possibility of solving in favor of the workers the crisis of power affecting the exploitation system in our country.

8. We must act, because the tenacious action of the people has still not culminated in a victory, but in the usurpation of an illegitimate government which is a puppet of the plunderers. For that reason we propose the following plan of struggle:

• From February 18: reinforcing the blocking of roads indefinitely.
• February 20
: blocking of roads, national mobilization and cacerolazo (demo with pots and pans), together with the Popular Assemblies and the Inter-Neighborhood Assembly, in Plaza de Mayo and all the seats of government in the provinces, two months after the popular rebellion and the murder of the comrades.
• February 25
: Blocking of the access to the oil companies and the privatized enterprises.
• March 2
: National mobilization for the freedom of Al*, Castells, Peralta and all the incarcerated workers, for the freedom of B*rtola and Quinteros and other political prisoners, and for the removal of all charges against the fighters. Judgment and punishment of those responsible for December 19 and 20.
• Monday 4 to Friday 8 of March
: National demonstration of workers coordinated with the Popular Assemblies to Plaza de Mayo from the interior of the country. Coordination with the boycott of the launching of the new educational year.
• Active support for the occupations of Zan*n, Bruckman, the blocking of roads in course, the unemployed mobilization in the City of Buenos Aires, the struggle of the railway workers of the Sarmiento line, the workers of Quebecor and similar struggles.

The Spanish original is here: Resolución de la Asamblea Nacional de Trabajadores