[The following two articles were published in the December 12, 1974, issue of Avanzada Socialista, the weekly newspaper of the Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores, an Argentine sympathizing organization of the Fourth International. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
An Encouraging Victory Over 'State of Siege' Law
The Santa Rosa strike, which we describe in another article [see below), has done a great service in dealing the first blow to the antilabor Ley de Seguridad del Estado [state security law, in particular to Article 5 of this law, which restricts the right to strike. As is well known, this article provides for the imprisonment of workers who engage in strikes declared "illegal" by the Ministry of Labor.
In Santa Rosa the government took the first step in this direction, declaring "illegal" a strike called in support of demands for observance of the Ley de Contrato de Trabajo [work contract law). The mobilization by the compañeros in Santa Rosa prevented, after twenty-six days, heavy prison sentences from being applied in this "illegal" strike that hit other compañeros, such as those at La Hidró- fila.
When the Ley de Seguridad was passed - with the votes of the Peronists and the concurrence of the UCR [Unión Civica Radical- Radical Civic Union, the bourgeois liberal party], which expressed opposition but helped the Peronists get the necessary quorum - our party pointed out that this measure was a weapon for repressing the 18
workers movement and for restrieting democratic rights. We stressed that although it was presented under the pretext of dealing with the guerrillas and the terrorists, its real objectives were quite different.
The simple fact that they were carrying out a "miniwar" with the guerrillas, marked every day by a list of persons killed and imprisoned, indicated to us that the new law was aimed in another direction. In Article 1, by means of vague wording, it established a category of crimes of opinion. In Article 6 it set penalties for speculators. And in Article 5, whose wording and objective were quite precise, it restricted the right to strike, granting the minister of labor the right to declare strikes illegal.
Now that this law has been in effect two and a half months, we can point to the confirmation of our warnings. It has not been used to prosecute one guerrilla, and still less any rightist terrorist. But the government has made much use of two of its articles, Article 1 and 5. Article 6, the one against speculators, has been hardly invoked. Far from being penalized, the capitalists have gotten the "bonus" of price decontrol.
Article 1, which makes holding certain opinions crimes, has been used several times, especially against papers that do not follow the government line. In the general witch-hunt, some papers representing currents within the capitalist class have come under attack, perhaps for the "crime" of opposing the government. At this writing, a newspaper report, which we have been unable to confirm, indicates that in San Nicolás a member of our party named Levatto has been arrested under this article for the "crime" of being a socialist.