The Worker’s Left Front (PO, PTS and IS) has just won a seat in the legislative elections in Neuquén province with more than 10, 400 votes – close to 4% , the highest turnout at regional level. The Left Front’s first elected deputy Alejandro López, a ceramist worker and unionist, will be replaced by other members of the electoral alliance within a year. Furthermore, López will earn the same wage he earned as a worker and will donate the rest to labor and popular struggles.
López was part of the struggle that led workers to occupy factories ten years ago. This recent electoral gain for the Left Front is an unprecedented event in Argentina that shows how unity can strengthen the left.
There are many lessons to be drawn for the revolutionary left. We in Socialist Core do not want to create false illusions by encouraging people to vote for either broad party formations–such as the NPA in France– or third parties such as the Greens in the US whose goal is to reform the system and leave it at that. Neither do we want to support so-called “progressive” governments like those in Venezuela and Bolivia – countries whose sovereignty we defend against any imperialist attack. However, these “progressiveâ€Â governments exploit workers by siding with the employers and criminalizing social protests. What we need, in fact, is our own political alternative that is socialist, working class and internationalist in character. In the end, we want to build an instrument of the working class that is politically independent from bourgeois politicians in every sense of the word.
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