Press Release
For the police, wage increase and impunity, for the workers, nothing
10/12/2013
(Buenos Aires, 12-9-2013) Christian Castillo, for the Workers’ and Left Front (FIT) provincial deputy for Buenos Aires province, and national leader for the PTS, pointed out that “the police protests have opened a political crisis which is trying to be solved by giving all the demands that the forces of repression are claiming for.
Different governors are granting concessions towards the claims of a wage increase and impunity for the police of different areas, many of them under a strong public questioning for their role in the drug trafficking business and the “happy trigger”. This situation is prompting a kind of “Police Party”, which constitues a new reactionary political actor in the national politics.
Most of the Police officers from the provinces are gaining a salary which equals or is higher than a family’s basic needs and services (living wage), while this right is being denied to the majority of the working class.”
Nicolás del Caño, national deputy for the PTS-FIT stated: “The Police is not part of the working class, they are members of a repressive body that defends the capitalists’ private property and mantains this system based on exploitation and inequality.
Moreover, they control the drug trafficking, the human trafficking, and they are responsible for the “happy trigger” aganinst the youth from the popular neighbourhoods. Thus, our party does not support the police protests and, on the contrary, we demand the unions for a action plan in order to fight against the current economic crisis.
By giving concessions to the police, whose members organized part of the lootings that occurred in Cordoba and other provinces too (besides the social crisis that has developed later), different governments look forward to please the repressive forces in order to have them ready to crack down the workers’ protests. These protests will develop against the economic adjustment that the national goverment is implementing by the inflation, which was of a 40% in the last month on the alimentary products.
While they are giving wage increases for the police, which reach the 200% of the basic salary, the retired people, the public employees and those who receive a social plan from federal government, were denied a bonus on their wages for the holidays (in Argentina is common to get a Holiday Bonus). In Buenos Aires province, governor Scioli –who makes discounts on the teachers’ salaries when they go on strike, has promised a high increase for police wages, and at the same time he ensures impunity for them”.
Castillo also stated, "the State and the bosses’ politicians concede the demands for the police, and at the same time they want to confront middle class and the workers against those who are in the poorest conditions, using the stigmatization of the people that live in the popular neighbourhoods. We need to confront this politic. The Unions’ Bureacracy was also part of this reactionary politic.
On the contrary, the workers need to fight for their own vindications, first of all imposing a living wage equal to the cost of living and a compensation for the falling of their salaries caused by the inflation. The workers also have to fight for a Public Works Plan and housing for the popular sectors, for providing a house and a job for the unemployed and to finish with unregistered employment. The working class must unite with the low-income and popular sectors and fight for their claims too.”
Christian Castillo – leader of PTS-FIT – MP for Buenos Aires province.
Nicolás del Caño – national deputy for the PTS-FIT
PTS IN THE WORKERS’ AND LEFT FRONT (FIT)
