The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have a long history of plunging Global South nations into unsustainable cycles of debt. For Argentina, this process has been ongoing for decades, and is now reaching a breaking point. Since 2015, the Argentine peso has lost 80% of its value against the US dollar, leading to a cost of living crisis affecting a wide swath of society. The economic shock of the pandemic and the latest $44 billion IMF loan package delivered in 2022 have only made matters worse. In the second half of 2020, more than 40% of Argentinians were in poverty. The Real News reports from Buenos Aires as labor unions and other workers’ organizations fight for better wages, working conditions, and an end to austerity.

Producer: Martin Varese, Leonardo Erhardt
Videographer: Fernanda Perez
Copy editor: Alexander Morris
Editor: Leonardo Erhardt

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32 thoughts on “‘A new form of colonization’: Argentinian workers confront the IMF”
  1. SUBHANALLAH 🕋🙏🙏🕋🕋🇪🇭🇸🇾🇸🇾🧡💙💛💛💜🙏🙏🕋🕋

  2. I am writing to ask, why is it that the very system of money, its conceptual assumptions and its structural implementation, seldom comes into question? I am reading papers from many and do not find that kind of questioning, yet all the while the desire is to see an end to all this war making and economic misery.

    The entire history of the imperialist state control of the thing called money, and the prior iterations of that, which Graeber takes all the way back to ancient times, shows that the issuance and then taxation of the issuance is a structure to direct and control the populace to be doing for the feudal lord what the populace would not otherwise choose – make war, build empire, and whatever else is on the imperial agenda.

    The neo-feudal iteration of this ancient structure, that is that same old protection racket, is no more legitimate than the old ones regardless of the language around monetization and commoditization of the social order as called out by the likes of Forstater. All one has to do is look at the militarization of this country (USA) to see that the very structures described by both Graeber and Forstater are producing the exact outcomes that the model was intended to produce – control of the populace to direct its material and labor forces for the building of empire.

    So, while I like reading that many are challenging the behaviors and policies of The State, I am wondering why this claim over the power to create or 'issue' money itself has not come under greater scrutiny. Instead we see all the challenges to how this power is used but have not directly challenged the legitimacy of that particular claim of power.

    The MMT crowd says that the present way of doing the thing called money is the way that it is based on this claim of authority to dictate what shall be the currency. But there is nothing "modern" about this model, and given its long history of being done in this fashion to obtain these intended results it is asinine at best to think that any different results will come from its use. The very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

    The morph of this model into the private control over the creation of the monetary unit (by way of legal tender status for private bank debt issuance) as property created from nothing and then loaned into deceptive service at interest and in the interest of the unit creators leaves those creators with virtually the entire labor and material asset base of the nation pledged as collateral. Basically just wearing new clothes for the emperor, these people then have the power to buy the governing system they want and to buy the propaganda media to make this whole MMT presentation of this ancient system, that at the end of the day is nothing new or modern, appear to be worth repeating once again. It is not.

    The thing is, money creation, from nothing and yet turned into a thing of 'value' – Poof! – is NOT a power that anyone actually has, not anyone, not any government, not any bank.

    The war making will not stop till we come to know what is wrong with our own beliefs about money and the insanity that we are accepting.

    Graeber and the history of coins and money and their connection to militarism.

    Listen from 42:06 to 47:10

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZIINXhGDcs&t=2534s

    The thing that many are not 'getting' is that we have been wrong about money for a very long time. It seems like they have a very hard time believing that it is possible we can go from the time of the Bible to today and still not have a very good idea about what money is and does.

    It took the world a long time to get over the notion that the earth could not be the center of the solar system, because it sure looks like it without knowing what actually causes the appearance of the sun 'moving across the sky.'

    We are in a similar place in not knowing that the appearances of how money is operating are not what we think. But until we correct our thinking, by first truly understanding how abstract representation of value works, we will not be able to deduce that no entity can create something of 'value' from nothing. If we realize that the representation of something cannot be that something, and surely cannot precede that something, then we should be able to realize that no one can 'pre-create' units of acCount ahead of and apart from that which they will be used to represent.

    When we come to that level of understanding about money then everything else also changes; and we will not so easily be pushed around by illiterate 'leaders' claiming to be able to create something from nothing that we are all too savvy to go along with.

    So, the question about having a truly logical and workable system of money begins with having a willingness to abandon what the present system, with all its ill effects, is based on. It really comes down to a simple understanding and awareness. Money cannot be an item of value and then be expected to perform the function of measure for/of the value of other things.

    https://www.moneytransparency.com/core-misrepresentation

    I think we are in a situation a lot like Copernicus when, despite all the larger appearances, he could determine by math, logic and reason that the earth could not possibly be the center of the solar system. Imagine the implications to the rest of planetary science if we still were acting under the mistaken assumption of a geocentric universe! We are in a similar place of coming to know that it is our own mistaken interpretation of appearances that just needs to be informed by what the actual dynamics are so that we can move forward in truth. So the real work is not really in controlling or pushing back against authoritarianism but in genuine literacy about abstract representational systems.

    When you can get your head around this analysis I am sure you start to see the work you do get easier and a light for making peace start to shine.

  3. As all debt is notional, just digits on a computer screen, how about we switch it off! Russia has excused $23 bn of debt to poor African countries, and why not? They were never going to get it anyway, Most of the worlds debt is ‘owned’ by very few people, probably $60 trillion by now, debt is very valuable, and gives enormous power to those who own it, but this debt only means something if it is honoured, and held against nations for control. If by some misfortune, some 300 people/families were accidentally eliminated, we could restart the computer at zero!

  4. The only economic stability and growth of the IMF is for themselves and hence American billionaires…

    … NOT AMERICANS … but American BILLIONAIRES!

  5. The USA is exactly the same way ! Middleclass being destroyed. The Entire government and banking and real estate industries are ALL involved in The Racketeering Scheme and Law Enforcement and Military Protect it ! , IMF , ABA and Federal Reserve Banksters ! Major Class Warfare but most are too stupid to see it ! , They think politics is the answer when bloodshed is ! , You cannot stop Tyrant's and Nazi types with politics !

  6. Argentina was colonized by the Spanish and Italians; imagine if functioning societies had gotten to Latin America instead of countries like Portland Spain, with their low literacy and Inquisitions…

  7. Note: loaning countries money and creating debt is a scam since money or really the global reserve currency – the US Dollar – has no value and is printed out of thin air. The only thing giving the US$ value is the big ass US/NATO military and greedy local oligarchies willing to betray their populations along with a financial system honed in the past century. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

  8. Everything I do at the moment is for the Cause, no matter how insignificant or small actions are they, to make the world more humane and above all free from the governance of those under the control of this personality disorder, the one responsible for human misery for hundreds of years.
    Above all, learn not to let yourself be taken in by them, for they are present everywhere and at every level.
    Unlike our ancestors, we finally have the technology to identify them with a simple pet scan.
    All managers should go under the scanner.

  9. I thought China was helping Argentina get the IMF loan paid off? We saw in news China paid IMF in yuan which was accepted. Where is Cristina? What is new gov't doing? More clarity, please.

  10. 1)Takes stupid debt with draconic rules
    2)Wastes all the money and missmanages the economy, monetary policy, etc. (Excessive government spending creating inflation, fixed prices to control inflation creating lack of goods, etc.)
    3) BLAMES THE BANK
    Right. Genius level!

  11. Argentina 🇦🇷 went into ruin as the president Macrí and Argentina Jewish Centre AMIA vote for FMI, now they have to pay this credit in next 30 years 😢😢😢

  12. Macri has not been a government for many years. Argentina is like this because popular governments like Cristina Kirchner and Alberto Fernandez just print money as if that could solve their problems. It's impossible for this to work. In 2016, 200 pesos would buy a pizza and a juice… today nothing, not even a candy… How can Argentina be taken seriously… I'm from Brazil. Visit Argentina 6 times. Real life is different only if you can earn something with work. Country where there is one public employee for every private employee. Many Argentine provinces have more public employees than the private sector. The Argentine economy is and will always be closed to any investor due to bureaucracy, corruption and a state model similar to Venezuela and Cuba. I will get it right? When you see someone complain about the government from 2015 to 2019 as if it had done everything. Serious sign of lack of truth.

  13. It's not IMF it's the Argentian people. Who voted a communist and socialist party that have lead there country into such a destruction of there economy. A government who is totally corrupt and have contempt for there own people. The large blame is there government who dont no anything about economy and how ti run a great economy. Stop blaming the IMF when the blame should be made by the Argentian people and there corrupt government. 👌👌👌👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👍

  14. Real News? What a joke – sloppiest "journalism" I seen in a long time. I'm a N AM expat living here since 2010 – used to work with Alternative Press Syndicate in NY – YIPPIE Anarchist and therefore with an objectivity above petty left/right BS – this so called news just regurgitates Kirchnerista propaganda with the usual same old lame lefist cliches. The guy interviewed was Ultra-K sticking to the govt story. There was no balance fof view. This whole its all Macri's and bowing to the IMF IS really a weapon of mass distraction to keep eyes of the corruption. How about some facts. Like for example the common K cry about ""…aaaah but Macri ! Took that loan robbed ir put us in debt blah blah when if one takes a little time to check -like a real journalist should, one would find a 2019 report at Ministry of Economy detailing how 80% ofthat loan paid CFK debts to foreign holders another 17% to pay CFK public debt holders in pesos and after administrative costs – what was left was deposited in the Treasury leaving Alberto with us$ 1,900 millions. They always leave that part out.
    The primary cause of Argentina's economic troubles is corruption and the current crisis actually began in latter part of 2011 during Cristina K 2nd term approximately a year after the death of Nestor K and the economy started going downhill and ever since. The real reason Macri won the election was with the expectation he would turn the economy around. And no CFK didn't leave the country debt free but actually worse than when she swore in :
    CFK left in 2015:
    External Debt: 22.9% GDP
    Internal Debt: 45.6% GDP
    Gross Public Debt grew: US$ 75 billion
    (52.6% GDP)
    “Consolidated” Public Debt (Treasury and BCRA) grew: US$ 72 billion during the last government
    Inflation: 25.9%
    Poverty: 38%(2013)
    Deficit 4 consecutive years (2011-15)
    Primary deficit ñm2015:
    $108,172.2 million pesos.
    Public deficit: 6.8% >,of the GDP
    Central Bank Reserves:
    39.8% drop in 8 years (2011-2019) from $45,511 2.0 4 million to $27,383 million
    As can be seen CFK did Not leave debt free as she claims.

    Gross debt during the Macri administration increased by US$66.150 million, an annual average of US$16.500 million. So his gross debt was more but significantly reduced govt spending and public debt – a topic she never wanted to talk about was the public debt as thats how she tried to cover what the corruption kept
    CFK avg annual public debt ; us$ 17, 200 million
    Macri avg annual public debt: us$12,000 million and left with a primary deficit of 0.4% and she with primary deficit of 4.2%
    She also depleted central bank reserves 40% – to finance these debts printing more money seems the easy but inflation gets kick started and last trimester 2011 down the slippery we went.
    CFK couldn't generate money like Nestor to cover the theft – just kept takin and creating debt – her 2nd term inflation went from 16% to 25% , poverty up from 20% to 38% in 2015 .
    Dec.2022 she was found guilty of corruption snd defrauding the State via Public works projects with Lazaro Baez . It was estimated that the amount the Kirchners took in 12 years is US$1,000 MILLION. THIS doesnt include the money laundered via the hotels – case pending – as well as the bribery case- the notebooks case also pending. And then theres the uS$5oo million that Nestor as Governor of province of Santa Cruz during the 2001 crisis took and deposited in New York and later into a swiss account.
    " Noticias: ¿Usted sacó parte del tesoro provincial fuera del país?
    -Kirchner: Sí, yo tengo la plata afuera, en Nueva York. "
    Intervie[[[ 29 Jun2002 La Revista Noticias
    When it was announced the money would be repatriated to Santa Cruz – how much did they get back?
    US$ 9,000 – Thats right only 9K….
    The Ks made themselves out to be left wing Populists, peronista when it suited them with socialist airs but not really socialist in fact no real solid ideological footing besides greed – as is known Populism left and right is just a scam for power – smoke and mirrors promising salvation of the pueblo- throwing crumbs to the masses as gestures of solidarity- all just show – they have their own agenda – and becomes authoritarian the more it feels it might lose its grip – Kirchnerismo crested a govt as band of thieves way beyond what might be considered normal /acceptable corruption in any govt – and rarely do Presidents become multimillionaires and when they do its obvious the great fortune has great crime behind it. The enormous amount of money stolen from the public – meaning less money was getting to where it was needed – was eventually gone take its toll and without a vibrant productive economy printing money only gets you so far…Alberto' and Cristina have set incredible new heights for debt and inflation all from homegrown causes – there havent been any serious IMF measures taken causing any particular hardship – other than the expected devaluation of the peso at the govt blocked official rate once the lift the block then it will match the black market blue dollar. The current conditions are consequential to this long slide down for 12 years. Macri had hoped for large investment in the country and have the economyup and running to pay its bills but investors held off due to the social unrest caused by K militants. The majority of folks seen in the marches in the video are recruited and/or told to attend and offered a modest payment the bus ride and choripan sandwich and soda – and most dont even what the march is about . The violent ones are infiltrated agents with that purpose and when its a real bonafide march no recruited protesters – when the violent types show up the peaceful just give up and leave. A handful of rowdies provoking the cops to act breaks up a march more effectively than dozens and dozens of cops could. And one would have to ask – with the recent IMF loans to Alberto – who knows what they were used for – no notable improvements or effects were noted at ground level – just begs the question how much of these recent loans did she keep for herself???

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