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December 19 and 20 are important days in Argentine history which have gained new significance in the time of Milei’s chainsaw economics. In 2001, the serious, generalized crisis in the South American republic provoked the mobilization of tens of thousands of people all over the country who, fed up with the neoliberal programs imposed on an increasingly impoverished country, unanimously demanded “they all should go”, that is, the resignation of the entire political system that had led society to the brink of the abyss.
Everything was unleashed on December 2, 2001, when the government imposed restrictions on the withdrawal of money from banks, which caused desperation and anguish among the poorest and the middle class, who saw their cash “kidnapped” to safeguard the economic interests of the richest. On December 13, the workers’ centers mobilized and declared a general strike. Before the astonished eyes of the world, Argentines who had nothing to eat because they could not withdraw their money from the banks, looted supermarkets in several cities of Argentina.
As if it were a pressure cooker bursting with heat, on December 19, the pain and desperation turned into a collective struggle of enormous proportions. Fernando de la Rúa, the then president of the nation, established a state of emergency, which caused even more unrest. Thousands flooded the streets of the country, to which the government, and several armed civilians in favor of the Executive, responded to with harsh repression. 39 were killed, among them seven teenagers and seven women. The biggest massacre took place on December 20 in the Plaza de Mayo, in downtown Buenos Aires, where five people were killed.
The instability was so significant that the then-president, Fernando de la Rúa, resigned from office on December 20 and fled in a helicopter, hoping that the protests would subside. However, neoliberal policies had caused so much uncertainty that the people were not satisfied with a resignation on paper. After De la Rúa’s resignation, five officials took control of the Executive without managing to stabilize an angry and fed-up society.
The demonstrations lasted several months, demonstrating an admirable capacity for resistance. The famous “popular assemblies” were organized, which were meetings of citizens and neighbors who discussed the next steps to continue the social struggle and improve a political system that, in the eyes of the nation, was no longer democratic or participatory.
For this reason, December 19 and 20 also represent hopeful days in Argentine history. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated the strength of those who had refused to continue to endure economic, political, and social measures that went against their interests. The protests of 2001 and 2002 inspired several political and social movements to build citizen alternatives to the advance of neoliberalism and the IMF’s predatory policies. But they also gave rise to a generalized suspicion of the political system itself, which is still present in many Argentines today, which is why anti-system discourses (whether from the right or the left) have a great popular impact.
Many have seen in the collective memory and in the historical struggle of 2001 an inspiration and a source of lessons. ALBA Movimientos has published the following message: “The Argentinazo was the people in its maximum expression of power. Piqueteros, workers, students, neighborhood organizations, and popular assemblies demonstrated that, when the working class and popular sectors rise, no government at the service of capital can sustain itself.”
“Today, in the face of Javier Milei’s government, which embodies the most savage policies of neoliberalism, the historic challenge is even greater: to raise the popular mobilization and firmly confront the devastating scenario that is sweeping Argentina. There is no room for lukewarmness or half-measures. Milei and his allies seek to wipe out sovereignty, hand over the country’s strategic resources, and destroy the conquests of the working people. It is time to call on the rank and file, to consolidate the unions, movements, and organizations, and to ignite the collective conscience. In the face of the desperation sown by imperialism, the people must respond with revolutionary hope, with a project for a sovereign and truly popular country.”
