This May Day, in the Ferro soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, thousands of workers, students, and retirees attended a mass rally and discussion to organize the fight against far-right president Javier Milei and the struggle of the working class to cancel the crushing IMF debt, against the passivity of union leaders and capitalist politicians, and against a capitalist system that has given rise to astronomical rates of poverty and worsening living conditions, as well the international Far Right that threatens the rights of the working class and oppressed. Banners covered the stadium walls with slogans like “For combative unions and student organizations without bureaucrats!” and “Defeat Milei, the IMF, and all their accomplices!”
The rally was organized by the Partido de Trabajadores Socialistas (Party of Socialist Workers, or PTS) — part of the international Trotskyist Fraction and Left Voice’s sister organization — and a network known as Movimiento de Agrupaciones Clasistas (MAC), a coalition of left and student groups and retirees. This rally is an important example of how to organize the fight against the Right from below, with the strength of the working class, students, and the feminist movement; this means organizing to bring the entire class into the struggle without any faith in capitalist politicians and the union leaders who support them.
Milei has been called “Latin America’s Trump,” infamous for his bombastic “break everything” approach. His last year and a half in office has brought brutal austerity against the working class as well as vicious attacks against the feminist movement, queer people, retirees, and immigrants. Since Milei took office in 2023, the struggle against his policies and the Far Right he champions has expressed itself in massive protests, university and workplace occupations, neighborhood committees, and a mass strike that shut down most major industry in Argentina just a few weeks ago.
This May Day, socialists called on students, workers, and retirees to come together to organize the resistance from below — to build connections across workplaces, universities, and all those who are committed to fighting against Milei’s agenda, not capitulating to it. Thousands of people took up that call from across Argentina and across workplaces, schools, and communities. Delegations of subway workers, electrical workers, teachers, healthcare workers, metal workers, mechanics, service workers, airport workers, dock workers, oil workers, agriculture workers, postal workers, transport and delivery workers, and other sectors were all in attendance to show the power of the working class united in struggle.
The rally began by recognizing the struggle of retirees who have been fighting against pension reforms that would further gut their living conditions and rights; they have taken to the streets every Wednesday in Argentina’s capital, facing brutal repression by thousands of police deployed by the government to repress dissent against Milei’s agenda. The retirees in attendance were given a standing ovation from the crowd for their role in leading the way in the fight against the Far Right. The introductory remarks also acknowledged the struggle of healthcare workers who have been organizing both against cuts to the workforce and healthcare system, as well as filling the front lines of the protests against Milei to provide medical care to protesters repressed by the police. The speeches highlighted the role of journalists in the protests who have been targeted by police repression for their work in reporting on the resistance against Milei from below while the mainstream media lies about the protests to cover the government and its repression.
Joining the meeting was a sector of workers from factories that are under worker control after kicking out the bosses. Raúl Godoy, a leading member of the PTS who works at Zanon — a factory that has been run by workers for over 20 years — gave a powerful speech to the rally about real working class power in the face of capitalist crisis: “We have the enormous task of contributing to the construction of a great force from below to strengthen the resistance and raise a militant and revolutionary class alternative to the government, the IMF, and their accomplices.”
Calu and Guille, key figures in the movement of retired workers, took the stage to a standing ovation. The crowd chanted against the passivity of Argentina’s largest union federation, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT): “Let them come and see, let them come and see, retirees teach the CGT how to fight.” They spoke on behalf of the retirees who take to the streets every week to show that theirs is not an isolated fight but one for the entire class:
What distinguishes us from the rest is that we fight for the coordination of our class, of the militant or fighting sectors of the workers’ movement. We do not understand it as something circumstantial or momentary. We want something that lasts, that is organized, that extends to other sectors and places, that defines a program of action and that coordinates common actions. We do not just want “Wednesdays of retirees,” but Wednesdays of Resistance. And for that we have to unite those who struggle in a Coordinating Committee or other body.
Julieta, a high school student from the Student Center of the San Isidro High School of Arts also gave a speech, representing a sector of high school and university students that have organized occupations against Milei. She said, “In our high school we fought to set up student centers that are in solidarity and unite with workers and retirees.”
Next, Luca Bonfante — a student leader of the PTS and candidate for legislator for the Left and Workers Front (FIT-U) — took the stage to speak. “I want to say that all the youth who are here demonstrate that it is a lie to say that we are complacent. We are fighters. Internationally, the youth is at the forefront of our struggles.”
Following the speeches, the rally broke out into ten different assemblies across different sectors: groups for transportation and public services workers, industry/factory workers, teachers, high school students, the feminist movement, climate issues, factories and industry, and others.
Some of the resolutions from the assemblies included a demand that the CGT call for a strike on the ten-year anniversary of the massive feminist “Ni Una Menos” movement against femicide and for reproductive rights. The breakout group of industrial workers proposed a resolution that “Argentinian workers must defend the rights of migrant workers against all the attacks of this government.”
Across the different assemblies, the attendees at the rally resolved to write a programmatic manifesto by MAC to address the pressing issues facing the working class and how to carry their struggles forward around a common perspective.
At the closing, Nicolás del Caño and Myriam Bregman — members of the PTS and representatives of the FIT-U in the national Congress — took the stage. Del Caño pointed out that
This meeting must be the starting point for building strong groups in every workplace and every place of study. We in Congress have the strength of each and every one of you. We need to wrest the unions from the hands of the union bureaucracy, to reach out to those workers who are not organized in unions. The strength of bank, transportation, and service workers must be used to unite the entire working class. This fight is very important. The goal is to build a great party of the working class.
When Myriam began her combative speech, the stadium vibrated with the chant of “the rest of the deputies belong to the capitalists, but our deputies are workers and socialists.” She spoke about how the aim of socialists like her in Congress is to amplify the struggles of the workers and defy the attacks of the capitalist class. Indeed, these members of Congress are part of each and every struggle, on the front lines, facing the police and getting tear gassed. “You don’t know how proud we are to share every fight with the pensioners, with the students, with the workers,” Bregman said.
This rally — where workers across sectors, students, and retirees were able to discuss their respective issues, but also to stand united in the face of the Far Right — shows the way forward and is an important example for us in the United States. As over a million people have taken to the streets to demonstrate their discontent with Trump, this example led by revolutionary socialists offers lessons for the way forward. While in the United States our struggles are all too often seen as separate, this meeting organized and discussed the connections between these struggles. While Bernie Sanders and AOC attempt to use the strength of the masses to shift the Democratic Party to the Left, this May Day rally sent a clear message about the power of the independent organization of the working class and students.
As one attendee commented:
Comrades came together to exchange numbers, to make joint interventions. It seems to me that while the government is advancing with a brutal austerity program, the fact that thousands of us met at Ferro shows that there is another way to respond, a collective way, from the working class and the youth. It was a day full of deep discussions and proposals. I believe that we will return to our workplaces, universities and neighborhoods with the conviction to continue building our own alternative, without bureaucrats or sell-out leaders.