The current Argentine government proclaims that its is not a mere administrative management of the State, but a battle for a “cultural change”” that seeks to destroy every vestige of what it calls “progressive ideology”. Thus, the Argentine government assumes itself to be reactionary and conservative, while progress is identified with change, advancement, novelty, the future; while the reactionary and conservative is linked to the established, the perished, the past, the freezing of the hierarchical order. The above is surprising because for many this reactionary government represents a novel change, but that confusion is not the subject of this article. Suffice it to point out that part of this confusion comes from the actions and loss of credibility of previous governments that are called progressive.
In any case, in its procedures, the cultural battle that the current government would be fighting is not very different from its predecessors, as part of divide Argentine society into two antagonistic poles. Historical experience teaches that, regardless of their proclaimed ideology, these practices are more destructive than creativeso your Temporary triumphs quickly crumble and have no future beyond the depressing social debris they leave behind.
In its warfare practices, the current Argentine government recognizes four key battle fronts: the “liberation” of markets regulated by the State (especially labor), the defenestration of “gender ideology”, the denial of the environmental crisis and the dismemberment of (certain) State activities. Betting on the destruction of these fronts, the “refoundation” of the organizational principles of Argentine society is proposed.
Thus, the reactionary neoliberal capitalism that the government and its acolytes seek to establish does not only encompass the economic system, but the entire system. social system. Its objective is to subordinate all human activities to a single purpose: to generate economic surplus, profits and capital accumulation in private hands. To do this, it seeks to exploit and expropriate to the maximum both economic market values and those generated in fields presented as “non-economic”; for example, the domestic, the environment and the State.
Javier Miley.
To this end, the government began its administration with a strong devaluation, an increase in rates for widely used public services and cutting spending in sensitive social areas for the income of the most vulnerable families (retirements, social assistance, health, education, science , etc.). Thus, it further accelerated the already very high inflation inherited from the previous government, causing a brutal drop in the population’s income. Additionally, despite proclaiming “freedom of contract” and to guarantee the fall in real wages, seeks to put a ceiling on joint negotiations. The deep economic recession caused by these and other measures generates a scenario of “fear of unemployment” that is very effective in preventing labor and social claims.
Additionally, it seeks to convince that human work is divided between “productive” (commercial) and unproductive (reproductive, community, artistic work, etc.). With this it attempts to ignore the value of jobs that are not directly controlled by the ownership of capital. In this aspect, an emblem is his attack on the so-called “gender ideology”, which exposes the unequal nature of patriarchal society and the free exploitation of domestic care work for people in their formative work phase (childhood and adolescence) and in their passive work phase. How can the work that is essential for commercial work to exist and to regulate the exit towards labor passivity be unproductive and not paid? In practice, what is sought is to reject any claim for remuneration for reproductive and care work, or any public care system. Of course, for the free benefit of the capital that appropriates the fruits of that work.
In the same sense, the government attacks reproductive health policies, including legal abortion, seeking to promote a higher birth rate in the poorest groups to further weaken them and expand the supply and job insecurity. This deepens the hereditary reproduction of poverty and the concentration of wealth, which is combined with a “meritocratic” discourse that hides the unequal distribution of life opportunities at people’s birth.
Argentina: more than an economic stabilization program, the government is advancing with a social destabilization program
The government also denies environmental degradation and the climate crisis, attacking environmental movements. Despite the multiple scientific evidence of this crisis, and its centrality on the international agenda, the government – like others previously – denies the problem to favor the private exploitation of natural resources and the profits of concentrated groups. In practice, it deepens the energy matrix based on non-renewable fossil fuels, promotes exports of hydrocarbons and minerals, seeks to repeal the glacier law, etc. Thus, it cedes to concentrated capital natural resources that belong to past, present and future generations: water, air, land, forests, minerals, etc. This shows how little the government cares about the future of Argentine society, as it favors present corporate benefits to the detriment of the health, life and well-being of people in the present and in the near future.
At the same time, in its battle against Argentine society, the Argentine government seeks to destroy certain activities of the State, wanting to convince that they should disappear to be replaced by private markets. Among other official gossip, it is advertised that “freedom” would supposedly be exercised in the market and “coercion” in the State. This is, again, a vulgar simplification and a blatant error.
First, in the commercial sphere there are powerful mechanisms of coercion, starting with the labor market where people are forced to accept any employment conditions in order to have a survival income. Furthermore, monopolies and oligopolies impose prices and qualities of basic goods and services for life on the population, without any exit options. This happens while the same economic groups demand the use of State coercion, asking for subsidies, guarantees for their private property, repression of social protests, construction of infrastructure, etc.
This government also makes coercive use of so-called “financial repression,” through which official monetary policy extracts resources from the saving public by decreeing that negative real interest rates be paid. Thus, it compulsively reduces the purchasing power of the public, liquidates debts and enables cheap financing (scarce for now) to private groups. The same coercive power is applied to enable private businesses by destroying (already deficient) public services in sensitive areas such as health, education and social security. For this reason, state science and technology is attacked, so that corporations can appropriate human resources with knowledge accumulated over several generations and transform it into profits from patents, royalties, etc.
Javier Miley.
In practice, the only state coercion that the ruling coalition does not want is the constitutional power that the State has to collect taxes, especially those directly on the wealth and income of opulent groups; Nor does it want the regulatory power of practices that reduce profits and market control. The result is the brutal drop in tax collection and the exuberant increases not only in food products, but in health insurance companies, in education, etc. In short, the cultural battle (or better, against the social culture) of the current Argentine government is based on errors and opprobrium of previous governments to justify, as a false antithesis, coercive practices that guarantee profits and concentration of economic power.
It is impossible for these practices to achieve stability, integration and well-being of Argentine society. In complex modern societies, to achieve these objectives, capital gains must be contrasted with other key values: distributive justice, care of the environment and people, intra- and intergenerational solidarity, respect for democratic norms, collective self-determination, artistic and scientific creation, etc. Destroying these values for the benefit of capital gains leads to a systemic and social crisis. Much more so if the current government continues with corrupt practices, co-optation of other public powers, incorporation of inept officials with a history of dishonest living, etc. In this, there does not seem to be much cultural change.
It must be understood that all social orders are necessary and must be adequately articulated to guarantee the general well-being of the population and economic and social stability. The crisis in one of them alters the whole. For example, the deepening of the climate crisis causes irreversible damage not only to the human habitat but to the economic system itself, generating productive shocks, altering the price system, etc. Denying these and other multiple widely studied relationships only shows the inability to understand and manage issues of general interest.
Javier Milei and “the cultural battle”
In short, the sacrifices that the current Argentine government imposes on society are irrational and reactionary. There is no better present or future along this path, but rather more uncertainty and deepening economic, social, environmental damage, etc.; obviously, also growing conflicts of all kinds. What better future can there be in a society that deepens labor exploitation, a patriarchal society, the private expropriation of natural resources, the destruction of structures that provide essential public services?
After so many years of decline, we should stop promoting divisions and warlike climates to move forward with actions that promote integration and social cohesion. This requires a more egalitarian society, with a labor reform that reverses the precariousness of the market, that recognizes the need for all jobs (commercial and non-commercial) and that guarantees income for the entire population. Also with investments that cause a change in the energy matrix and defend society from environmental collapse. Furthermore, with a universal care system that, together with income support policies and universal access to basic public goods and services, guarantees basic and unconditional levels of well-being for the population.
This is the way to create conditions for greater social integration and real freedom of people. On the current path, coercive market freedom is obtained at the cost of dynamiting social progress and increasing the oppression, anguish and hopelessness of the population.