A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #370 - International - Argentina: Milei's Increasingly Dismantling of Labor (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The labor reform initiated by the Argentine president is being imposed 
from above. But resistance is forming from below. Here we share part of 
the text outlining the position of Argentine organized anarchism on the 
situation. ---- The so-called "modernization of labor" reform 
implemented by the Milei government is in no way a legal modernization 
of labor law. On the contrary, it is at the heart of a comprehensive 
project of exploitation and precarization of labor, comparable only to 
that imposed by the military dictatorship of the 1970s. It directly 
benefits employers by eliminating or limiting historical tools of 
struggle. The economic model imposed by the leaders benefits large 
agro-export companies and extractive multinationals that employ a tiny 
workforce compared to the massive layoffs in the declining manufacturing 
industries across the country (21,339 companies have closed since Milei 
came to power). Big capital is redirecting its investments toward the 
agricultural and energy sectors, financial speculation, or is simply 
leaving the country, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers destitute.

Normative Chaos
This reform enjoys broad consensus among a large part of the political 
class, the governors, and, of course, the National Congress, which has 
become a mere rubber stamp for the president. It is blatant that Milei's 
government is employing the same tactic as Macri a decade ago[1], 
advancing its anti-popular policies simultaneously on different 
frontslabor, the environment, criminal justice, and social issuesin 
order to prevent a firm response from grassroots organizations by 
exploiting the lack of overall coordination of the resistance.

Elected president in 2023, Javier Milei has been able to count on a 
majority in the Argentine parliament since October 2025.

Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore
This law thus only proposes normative chaos in employer-employee 
relations, where the power of entrepreneurs will prevail even more, 
eliminating guarantees for employees and promoting job insecurity as the 
norm for all workers.

Compliant union apparatuses
As always, the effects of these policies fall on the shoulders of the 
oppressed class. Wages stagnate or fall, and job insecurity is 
widespread: 38.2% of employees are in the informal sector, without 
access to fundamental rights and holding multiple jobs. It is estimated 
that, since Milei came to power, the transfer of income from the working 
class to concentrated capital amounts to approximately 48.8 billion 
pesos[2].

While the general strike of February 19th was a success, the paralysis 
of the struggles imposed by the compliant main union leaderships is more 
than evident. These leaderships are attempting to contain the conflicts 
in exchange for maintaining their control over union funds.

The results show that the large-scale actions carried out in recent 
weeks have not been enough to stop the advance of the labor law. This 
highlights the still decisive influence of union leaderships beholden to 
employers and the government[3], which act as veritable barriers to 
contain the conflict.

However, a combative force has emerged around the Frente Sindical Unido 
(United Union Front - FreSU), a union bloc that transcends the national 
union federations and maintains a healthy class independence from 
political parties and governments. But this growing space has not yet 
matured enough to surpass the momentum of other unions, which has been 
limited to sporadic strikes and timid mobilizations.

Adding to this difficulty is the fact that we are once again witnessing 
how a segment of the partisan left prioritizes the central role of its 
political apparatus according to a logic of enlightened vanguardism.

Going Beyond Legality
Faced with this situation, the task is clear and urgent: we cannot 
delegate our defense to mere legality, as some union leaderships are 
attempting to do. Legal recourse must be accompanied by direct action. 
The lessons of history show that state justice alone does not rule in 
favor of the oppressed, except in cases of social conflict.

In this bleak context, and as during the 2001 economic crisis, with its 
surge in mass layoffs and company closures, workplace occupations appear 
as a legitimate form of resistance. The occupations carried out by 
metalworkers in Tierra del Fuego[4], or by tire workers at the FATE 
company, as well as the courthouse occupations by clerks in Buenos 
Aires, express a tension with the boundaries of legalism; they attempt 
to impose a limit on the advance of employers, politicize conflicts, and 
demonstrate that direct action and grassroots organized force constitute 
the essential response of workers. Of course, these actions do not 
resolve the fundamental issue. However, they do allow the workers 
concerned to come together in collective resistance.

In this context, and for the resistance to continue to gain momentum, it 
is necessary to strengthen union coordination. In an era marked by union 
personalization and egos, the primary task of anarchist activists is to 
build bridges between unions, to bring together disparate sectors, and 
to broaden coordination, both from the top down and, above all, from the 
grassroots.

In addition to national mobilizations against labor reform and its 
implications, we must continue to promote the struggle for wages, 
working conditions, and stability in every sector and province.

However, at this time, we cannot neglect the specific struggles of each 
sector, as this is what allows us to build strength, engage our 
comrades, and challenge them on the need to grow as an organized social 
force in this context. In short, we must regain confidence in our own 
strength through immediate, sectoral victories. It is time to continue 
expanding our organized base and reaching out to every comrade, because 
no one will be superfluous in the times ahead.

Organización Anarquista de Córdoba (OAC), Organización Anarquista de 
Tucumán (OAT), Organización Resistencia Anarquista (ORA), Buenos Aires, 
Organización Anarquista de Santa Cruz (OASC), La Tordo Negro - 
organización anarquista entreriana, Organización Impulso Anarquista 
(Neuquén-Río Negro), Federación Anarquista from Rosario (FAR)

To validate

[1]Right-wing president of Argentina from 2015 to 2019.

[2]More than 29 billion euros.

[3]In particular the "Health-Commerce-Food" core and that of 
UOCRA-UPCN-Obras Sanitarias.

[4]Archipelago located in the extreme south of Argentina.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Argentine-Milei-tronconne-toujours-plus-le-travail
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