Last year the meeting of the G20 took place in Germany, in an imperialist country. This was answered with protests of hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. These days the G20 summit is being held in Argentina, a country which is being oppressed by the imperialists! The “G20” in Argentina is a pure provocation against the people. The most powerful imperialists meet to make arrangements, deals and discuss tactics on how to oppress and exploit the people all over the world! It’s justified that hundreds of thousands of people went to demonstrate against the G20 in Buenos Aires!
The Argentinian state barricaded 12 square kilometers of the city, erecting fences and holding 22.000-25.000 police, coast guard and frontier guard units ready for action. This show of force didn't come cheap, it cost the Argentinian people 200 million USD! This was mostly spent on fences, handcuffs, weapons and ammunition. All of this while undergoing a deep economic crisis, which has turned living in Argentina into a daily struggle! The people are furious and rightly so. The Argentinian state has blocked all operations from hospitals in the area, shut down the metro and trains and they even issued out a one time holiday on Friday. They shamelessly asked the residents of the area to go on vacations outside of the city and forcibly removed homeless people from the city center. First, they plunge the country into an economic crisis, second, they arrive against everyone's will, third, they spend millions of dollars on bellic material meant for repression, fourth, they render the city useless and deny people of earning their daily wage, and to top it all off, they send the populace on forced vacations, which the Argentinians have to pay themselves! But of course, why not? Under the current conditions every Argentinian is able to afford just that. Forget the bread, forget the rent. Holidays and a visit of expensive guests is all they need.
All the measures taken were in order to prevent another Hamburg. Since not so long ago the repressive state apparatus couldn't fend off football fans before a game, the state is having self-esteem issues and is trying to compensate for their lack of stability. The closing of the metro and the barricades erected on important streets and parts of the city has indeed proven a thorn in the eyes of protesters living in the outskirts of the city. Many of these people didn't have any other means of getting to the protests other than with the metro or by train. These measures had a double function of "providing safety" and blocking off protesters. The thousands of people that did arrive are proof that the Argentinian people and the international protesters are not fended off that easily. They found many ways to get as many people to protest, for example organizing buses for the people living far away. While the barricades did prevent protesters from entering into the inner security circles (there were 6 of them), the people protested around them and made themselves clear "You want war, we won't give you peace!".
The rain that started pouring did not make the march flaunt a bit, the people marched on full with determination. Hundreds of people even took to Montevideo Avenue and made their rage visible by spraying and attacking with paint bombs embassies and other well-known buildings.
Up to this point 14 arrests are known to have taken place during the protests, among them two minors and an elderly. The charges vary from puzzling to ridiculous. In one instance protesters were arrested for "carrying 25 walkie talkies" and in another for "derailing the police's route with glass pellets, screws and pieces of lemon".
The paroles shouted during the march were "No to G20", "Down with the Macri-IMF pact", "Out with Trump and other imperialist leaders", "Bolsonaro out", "For him I won't pay the external debt", "No to the adjustment, the delivery and the repression", "Out with them all!", "We don't want iron hands, we don't want repression, we want for our children work and education", "Unity of the workers" and many paroles against the police.
The IMF deals took a great importance in the protest and rightly so. They are worsening the living and the economic situation, while indebted the country and thus furthering Argentina's dependency with the imperialist countries. It was clearly visible that the protest was not just aimed at one or two imperialists (as it's often the case with US-American and Russian imperialism), but against all of them. Anti-imperialist war sentiments were voiced, as also loud protests against oppression and exploitation by imperialist countries. But also the women played a big role. The women's block carried the fight against the patriarchy into the march. The raging campaign to legalize abortion, which has caused an uproar in the last couple of months was represented in this block.
The protests have shown a broad unity front between many different organizations, which worked together to protest in these dire conditions, facing many difficulties, but succeeding at them. The G20 summit was a real slap on the face to the Argentinian people. It has further shown the state's true colors and its venomous stance towards the workers and oppressed peoples. In doing so the oppressive Argentinian state just hit another nail into its own coffin. The masses are boiling with rage, they are uniting and most importantly they are organizing themselves.
Under the leadership of the most advanced parts of the proletariat, under a red leadership, these protests, this movement, the Argentinian people can strike blows to the treacherous, blood sucking, poisonous Argentinian state. The conditions are there, the time is ripe, the Argentinian masses need to bring forth a red leadership and with this they will strive towards a red path, where no fence and no security rings will stop them from smashing their oppressors!
Down with the G20! Down with imperialism!
Long live the international solidarity!
