Leaders of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and the two Argentine Workers’ Central Unions (CTAs), together with leaders of Human Rights organizations, announced in a press conference that they will call for a “historic demonstration” on March 24, with the slogan “30,000 reasons to defend our homeland. Never again to planned poverty”. The date marks the 48th anniversary of the 1976 military coup d’état, known officially as Argentina’s National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice; the number in the slogan refers to the 30,000 people killed or disappeared during the civic-military dictatorship that lasted until 1983.
Leaders of the three workers’ central unions said that the presence of Estela de Carlotto -President of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo-, Taty Almeida -member of Madres de Plaza de Mayo-Founding Line-, and Peace Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel was “historic and moving”.
“In the name of the Board of Human Rights Organizations and Madres-Founding Line, this March 24 has to be very special, in the memory of our 30,000 detained and disappeared. Now, more than ever, we must remember them and face the government’s deniers”, said Almeida to the audience.
“It will be a historic march, with the three workers’ central unions, all together to prove that a united people cannot be defeated”.
Taty Almeida
Also, Taty Almeida said that the organizations that are part of the Board of Human Rights will meet at noon at Avenida de Mayo with Piedras, where “our flag will be there, like every year”.
“It will be a historic march, with the three workers’ central unions, all together to prove that a united people cannot be defeated”, Almeida underlined.
Along the same lines, Estela de Carlotto said that “being together and feeling welcome in this home of the workers’ struggle is a boost of life.
“We need to hold hands, even if we don’t agree in everything. The Argentine people is good, but it’s asleep, walking in absolute resignation. We all have the right to eat, to have a home, to not feel cold at night, to feel love for one another. That’s why, this March 24, we are going to shout ‘Long live our homeland!’, ‘Long live our heroes!’, and we are going to shout “Never again!”, stated Carlotto.
Pérez Esquivel said, regarding the March 24 demonstration, “it is more than a march; it is laying the foundation for the country’s resistance, in defense of food sovereignty and against hunger, because it is impossible and immoral that children and senior citizens starve in such a rich country as this one”.
“We don’t agree in everything, but we do have common objectives, such as Human Rights and democracy as indivisible values”, the Nobel Prize winner said.
Héctor Daer, CGT’s General Secretary, said that “this date brings us together because it’s the same call-up we did during the dictatorship, to recover our democracy”.
“And now, this call-up is about Argentine Airlines, Télam news agency, Banco Nación and everything public that they want to destroy”.
“It doesn’t matter what political party or sector they belong to, we can’t feel intimidated, we have to puff up because there’s so much at stake”, Daer said.
The union leader emphasized the “commitment with Memory, Truth and Justice”, and called to “refresh” what the social consequences of this economic program are, since it was first “implemented by the dictatorship”.
That’s why Daer called “every trade union, every delegate and everybody to come to the march, to remember the 30,000 disappeared and shout ‘Our country is not for sale!”.
In turn, CTA’s General Secretary Hugo Yasky said that “the DNA in this government’s economic policies is the same as the one in the policies of Martínez de Hoz”, referring to the dictatorship’s Minister of Economy.
“That’s why they attack the workers’ unions and they say we are the enemies of society, because they want to dumb things down. Every time we have a government that represents the interests of those in power, of huge corporations, we the workers have been persecuted and they’ve tried to criminalize social protest. They do it to intimidate us”, he added.
On stage, there was also CGT’s Deputy Secretary Andrés Rodríguez; H.I.J.O.S, member Charly Pisoni; Suteba’s General Secretary Roberto Baradel; Juventud de La Fraternidad leader Sebastián Maturano; CGT’s Board Member Rodolfo Daer; CGT’s Press Secretary Jorge Sola; CGT,’s Secretary of Legal Affairs Helena Ferreira; CGT’s Human Rights Deputy Secretary Maia Volcovinsky, and Fatpren’s General Secretary Carla Gaudensi.