The social leader, Juan Grabois, presses for the Frente de Todos at the national, provincial and municipal levels “to break power pacts, to give the people a piece of land.”
The referent of the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP) supports the government of Alberto Fernández, but says he is not part of it. His role is defined as that of “demanding, annoying, pulling the ear” of the Executive and “other powers.” In addition, he points out that for a long time his fight agenda consists of access to decent housing for the most vulnerable sectors under the slogan “Roof, Land and Work.”
Grabois insists that there will be numerous land seizures if the State does not provide tools for access to housing, and exemplifies: “If there are eight in a two-by-two house, no more people enter, or two go to the streets or they will take a piece of land ”. “There is no other option, it happens the same even if it seems to me that it is not ethical,” he said in dialogue with Rolando Graña for A24.
“Is it so tremendous to expropriate and pay the owner?”Grabois wondered and mentioned the cases of Castelli and Tranque Lauquen. Faced with the proposal of the inaction of the Ministry of Territorial Development and Habitat, which cost María Eugenia Bielsa her job, Grabois replied: “Didn’t you hear me kick because the Ministry didn’t do anything?” And he added that officials who respond to him abandoned that portfolio “and went to Social Development because they could not work.”
There are officials who respond to the MTE leader in different areas of the State, however he remains on the sidelines: “I chose not to be a deputy or an official to come freely to raise and criticize whoever is.” In that sense, he questioned that “today we do not have a country project” and that to resolve the current situation “we must touch interests.”
“We did not choose to live in a country where we have to organize soup kitchens and cardboard cooperatives,” he summarized about the social leaders, blaming the inheritance of the old politics. However, he added that “It is not my generation’s turn to rule.”
“Ours is a critical accompaniment, there were changes and things that are better than with Macri, but it is not what we aspire to, I was happy with Vicentin but when he went back you got bad”, he analyzed and considered that the Frente de Todos “is a coalition with contradictions.”
For Grabois, although the country’s problems “are not resolved overnight,” he warned that “the state is stupid.” “The mayors do not have technical teams to carry out executive works projects, the State is totally degraded in its technical capacities.” And he regretted that “time will never reach because the accumulated 4,500 popular neighborhoods is 12% of the Argentine population.” In that sense, he remarked: “You have to break power pacts to give the people a piece of land.”
“Here you have to make a change of a revolutionary nature, not reformist, and understand that if there is not a mixed system between the State, the private sector, the popular economy, in a planned way and putting priorities where they have to be put, this collapses”, he expanded.
The CTEP leader also questioned “some who want to live like in Sweden, but do not pay the taxes that are paid in Sweden”: “Wealth was taxed and it was a tremendous scandal.”
“The fundamental transformation implies a constitutional reform”, he raised and set as a priority “to remove the Federal Capital from the City of Buenos Aires” and move it to the north of the country. “With the power factors, it is not negotiated by taking it at five o’clock, the dialogue tables are useless”, defined.
Despite the critical context in which Argentina finds itself, he affirmed that he prefers “a million times to Alberto than to Macri”, but warned that his closeness with the Government will be conditioned if the current administration faces “a policy of adjustment and concentration of wealth ”. The limit: “The negotiation with the IMF will be a turning point for us.”
In another fragment of the interview, he praised the role of social organizations: “We take care of what no one does, we are the last barrier before drug trafficking.” “Those who are concerned about insecurity should make us a monument”, considered and explained that otherwise the situation would be like in the favelas of Brazil. “We do what we can, I don’t want our organization to distribute merchandise, it’s bullshit, it’s a tremendous setback,” he continued and recalled that “with the Kirchners dining rooms were closed and work cooperatives were opened.”
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