While the Peronist union bureaucracy has been compelled to call for a national strike and mass demonstrations, it is merely seeking to channel opposition behind a defense of its own interests.
On Tuesday, Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo announced the first set of economic shock measures, which are supposed to set a new bar for attacks against living standards of workers everywhere.
The most important question raised by the Argentine elections is why mass outrage over conditions imposed by capitalism led to the election of the profit system’s most extreme right-wing defenders.
The vote was a massive repudiation of Peronism and its candidate, Economy Minister Massa, who was the face of social austerity and devaluations of the peso at the behest of the IMF and the corporate-financial oligarchy.
Both candidates would lead far-right administrations committed to further cutting real wages, social spending, and corporate taxes, subordination to US imperialism and increasingly open forms of dictatorial rule.