(wednesday 19 february)
This is what the piquetero movement sang to the disproportionate police line, featuring bullets, one never knows if they're only rubber, gas, water cannon, police vans that look like ambulances, new motorcycles, shields, helmets and hundreds of cops with furious dogs.
The song was intented to remind the police of last weeks events in Boilivia, where the police joined the popular protests and fought against the army
The police opperation created the very "transit chaos" the commercial media likes to talk about whenever a mobilization blocks a road. If it had not been for the unconstitutional suppresion of the right of free expression, the march would have glided past the Ministry of Social Development, the Bolivian Embassy, the Ministry of Labor and wound up in Plaza de Mayo by one o'clock in the afternoon. But no, the State continues dealing with the piquetero movement to reward some and isolate others.
More than nine hours of absurd delay. Watching themselves face an exspensive military operation, the people, unemployed, young and old, familes, resisted. The Governments budget is more and more devoted to social control, disciplining social protest. The excuse the piqueteros were given for the face-off was the same as ever. The refusal to lay down the sticks and hoods.
As the tension increased, leaders of some of the organizations met with government officials. Leaders of Polo Obrero, Movimieto Territorial de Liberación, Movimiento Independiente de Jubilados y Desocupados, Barrios de Pié, Movimiento Teresa Rodriguez, Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados "Resistir y Vencer", Frente de Trabajadores Combativos, Unión de Trabajadores en Lucha, el Frente Barrial 19 de diciembre, la Cordinadora de Trabajadores Descopados "Anibal Verón" y la Coordinadora de Unidad Barrial met with met the vice-minister of the Interior, Cristian Ritondo, the head of cabinet of the Ministry of Work, Jorge Rampoldi, and the coordinator of Social Development, Gonzalo Calvo.
MTD Anibal Verón, a particpant in the plan of struggle, retired from the march, disgusted by the negotiations, which they said went against existing agreements.
The demands in defense of the subsidies and against impunity for assassins are still only hopes.
When the leadership delegations returned, with promises from the government that the march would continue at least the 300 meters seperating them from the Ministry of Social Development, the police refused to stand down. At last, a fantastic spectacle occured, A police line, taking up the entire width of Avenue 9 de julio, walking backwards in tiny steps as the piquteros advanced.
Opposed to the dark forces of repression, the mobilization of the piqueteros defended the democratic rights that supposedly rule in Argentina.