“The worst violence is hunger”: with strong criticism of Milei, picketers and the CGT marched through San Cayetano

A crowd set out from the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Liniers to celebrate the day of the patron saint of bread, health and work. Participating were La Cámpora, the CGT, the two CTAs, human rights organizations and other social movements.

By Eduardo Menegazzi and Federico Etienot

Aug 07, 2024 12:56 pm EST

Christian Taylor

Picketers and trade union organizations mobilized this Wednesday, August 7. The call was based on honoring San Cayetano, patron saint of bread and work, although the leaders who organized the mobilization added a strong political claim against the government of Javier Milei, whom they accuse of worsening the conditions of wage earners.

The mobilization began in the Liniers neighborhood in the City of Buenos Aires, where a mass was held in honor of the patron saint. There, Monsignor Jorge García Cuerva delivered a message in which he focused on the need to not “pass by so many wounded people on the side of the road of life, so many concrete faces, victims of exclusion.”

The day continued with a march that ended in Plaza de Mayo. There, members of unemployed organizations, the two representatives of the Argentine Workers’ Central (CTA) and members of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), gave body to the columns.

On a stage in front of Casa Rosada, all the speakers agreed: “8 million people are suffering from hunger.”

The event concluded and they asked to disperse “without any provocation”

Every year on his day, San Cayetano, patron saint of work and bread, attracts thousands of faithful Catholics in search of employment. (AFP)

After the mobilization and speeches by union leaders and picketers in Plaza de Mayo, in front of Casa Rosada, the day ended. The slogan was to make the need of “8 million people suffering from hunger” in the country heard.

At the end, the leaders on stage also asked the marching militants to demobilize peacefully. “The only thing we ask for is work and food,” said the leaders of the event.

“All we ask for is work and food,” the leaders agreed in Plaza de Mayo

Workers take part in a march from the sanctuary of the Church of San Cayetano to the Plaza de Mayo (AFP)

The union leaders gave a series of speeches on the stage set up in front of the Casa Rosada. They announced that they will prepare a document with “ten or fifteen points of agreement” to “defeat the right that has entrenched itself in the Government House at the polls with unity.”

Daniel Catalano, general secretary of the Association of State Workers in the City of Buenos Aires (ATE Capital), thanked the CGT for having called the meeting and responded to the criticisms of President Milei. “He has not left a single place untouched, enough of governing by decree,” the leader complained.

The event in Plaza de Mayo began just after 2 p.m.

The speakers were Taty Almeida (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo), Hugo “Cachorro” Godoy, Daniel Catalano (ATE Capital), Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Alejandro Gramajo (from UTEP).

Taty Almeida participated in the march for San Cayetano this Wednesday, August 7 (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA / AFP)

The historical human rights leader repeated the slogan by stating: “Hunger is a crime.” “They are forcing thousands into poverty. These are not numbers, it is the story of each family that cannot put bread on the table, there is a dehumanized government,” she said.

Carlos Bianco: “There is little dialogue with the national government and also few responses”

Carlos Bianco

The Minister of Government of Buenos Aires, Carlos Bianco, referred to the meeting he will hold this afternoon with the Chief of Cabinet of the Nation, Guillermo Francos, during the march for San Cayetano Day.

“There is little dialogue, and beyond that there are few answers. That is why this afternoon I have a meeting with the Chief of Staff of the Minister of the Nation, where we will review the entire agenda, we will demand the resources that belong to the province, that he continue with the public works in the province and then we will wait for the response,” said the Buenos Aires leader in dialogue with Infobae.

He explained: “We are very concerned about the removal of the public transport subsidy, because it is added to a series of reductions in the resources that correspond to the province, which have to do with the integrated ticket, which are more than ten billion pesos. What I know was executed and that we have projects that will be more than 30 billion pesos, from now until the end of the year, is what the province will lose due to this decision.”

Pablo Moyano: “We will not attend the Government’s meetings”

Pablo Moyano

The leader of the Camioneros (Truck Drivers’ Union), Pablo Moyo, during the march to Plaza de Mayo against the national government, referred to the lack of dialogue between the sector and the Executive and revealed the CGT’s next moves.

“Continuity is the plan of struggle, which will be deepened if the national government continues to live its reality. We see how this con man Adorni sells every morning an Argentina that is not, and Sturzenegger sells a country and does not see the reality and the suffering that all Argentines are going through,” said the union leader in conversation with Infobae.

He also said: “We hope that this mass protest ends in peace. In the next few days there will be a meeting with the general secretaries of the CGT and the regional secretaries, and then the next steps will be defined.”

“We reject any call from the Government, because we know that it is just for the photo. They want to deepen a labor reform that will bring more unemployment and more precariousness,” said Moyano.

And he concluded: “I have never had any dialogue with the Government, I don’t know them. I know that some of my colleagues have had it and the CGT board of directors decided not to go to yesterday’s meeting and we will surely not attend the next one either.”

The CGT column waiting to approach Plaza de Mayo

The CGT columns heading to Plaza de Mayo

ACDE recalled that “San Cayetano is a saint for everyone” and asked “to take this celebration as our own”

On Wednesday, the Christian Association of Business Leaders (ACDE) issued a statement in which it adopted this celebration as its own, highlighting the figure of Saint Cayetano as the patron saint of Christian businessmen.

“The Church in Argentina celebrates the memory of Saint Cayetano. The Archbishop of Buenos Aires reminds us that ‘Saint Cayetano is a saint for everyone, not for a political party or a social sector, but rather a saint for the Argentine people who have great faith in him and pray to him for peace, bread and work,'” reads the ACDE statement.

And he adds: “We want, therefore, to take on this feast as our own and also to consider that Saint Cajetan is the saint of Christian entrepreneurs who have, as Pope Francis recalled, ‘the noble vocation aimed at producing wealth, improving the world for all’, orienting themselves ‘to the development of other people and the overcoming of poverty, especially through the creation of sources of work’.”

“Christian business owners wish to remind us that, in times of economic difficulties, dismissal should not be the first solution to be taken, but rather, the one that is taken when there is no possibility of avoiding it and in compliance with the requirements of justice, equity and charity,” the sector clarifies in the statement.

And they conclude: “In the same way, the decision to invest and create jobs is an unavoidable part of our service to the Common Good and must be supported by public policies that, following the principle of subsidiarity, favor the development of private economic activity, promote the development of all Argentines without exclusions and eradicate from our land and from our history, the scourge of poverty.”

Alejandro Gramajo: “This Government has decided to declare war on the entire Argentine people”

Alejandro Gramajo

The general secretary of the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP), Alejandro Gramajo, spoke out about the call for mobilization to Plaza de Mayo, in protest against the national government.

“This August 7th finds us with a lot of unity among the different political, social and productive sectors,” said the leader on Perfil radio.

In this regard, he added: “This Government has decided to declare war, in economic and social terms, on the entire Argentine people. And we are going to win this battle with the force of truth and peace.”

He reiterated that “all of our colleagues understand that this is a time of great unity, great solidarity, great commitment among all sectors. The destiny of our country is at stake here.”

Pablo Moyano will lead the Truckers’ column

Pablo Moyano will lead the Truckers’ column (EFE/ Enrique Garcia Medina)

The general secretary of CGT and deputy of the Truck Drivers, Pablo Moyano, will lead the column together with the workers of the Truck Drivers. The column will gather, starting at 12:30 pm, at Diagonal Sur and Perú in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, to participate in the march for “Peace, Bread, Land, Shelter and Work”.

Manuel Adorni: “We regret that a religious date like this is headed by political figures”

Manuel Adorni, presidential spokesman

Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni referred on Wednesday to the march called for Saint Cayetano Day against the national government and President Javier Milei.

“We regret that on a religious date like this, where people come in good faith and with the desire to get ahead or to give thanks, it is headed by political figures,” said the spokesman at his usual press conference at the Casa Rosada.

He added: “Many of these figures are responsible for the economic disaster that this government inherited on December 10, and that all Argentines, in one way or another, are and have suffered for so long.”