Social Genocide Page #3

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is not the only one who betrayed.

Many of the political

and union leaders

dumped overboard

a whole life of resistance.

Many of them

accepted arrangements

and opted for indemnifications.

Others climbed

onto the bandwagon

of privatizations.

Senator Cafiero,

you are a historic leader

of the Peronist party.

How do you explain

Menem's treason?

It happens frequently

in the political life

of every nation.

There's a small French book,

"In Praise of Treason",

where they prove

that treason

is part and parcel of politics.

To succeed, you have to lie.

If you say what you think,

no one will vote for you.

That's what happened

in Argentina,

but much more intensely,

let's face it,

when Menem was in power.

He even admitted

he hid his goals to get elected.

Of course, in my opinion,

it's politically unethical,

but that's the reality.

Then, some international

parameters changed...

And the model gradually

exhausted itself.

How do you explain

the existence

of a real "mafiocracy"?

Economic power,

banks and the political class...

On that, Pino,

I won't pass judgment...

how can I put it...

in an absolute way.

My long experience

has taught me

that things are relative.

It's not all black or white,

things aren't corrupt or pure.

Argentinean society as a whole

can't call itself pure

and assign corruption

to the ruling classes.

The ruling classes

come from that society.

On one hand,

we politicians have been a failure,

and I'll assume

my part of responsibility.

But on the other hand...

many of the ruling circles

let us down,

and to reach a verdict on everyone,

I'd say we're all in Dante's hell.

Undoubtedly,

treason is very effective.

Treason

has phenomenal political power,

precisely because it's treason.

It's insidious,

it sneaks up behind you,

without warning,

where you least expect it.

Otherwise it wouldn't be treason.

In this sense,

the neo-Peronist party

was the most brilliant

representative

of Cafiero's point of view.

If you ask Argentinean society

to choose

between San Martn

- our national hero - and Spiderman,

it'll vote for San Martn.

But between

Spiderman and Superman,

how can you fault society

for the consequences of that choice?

So we have...

a society with a weakened role,

a party that betrays its historic ideas

and surrenders to the enemy,

a working-class movement

eroded by de-industrialization,

infested with traitors...

Law courts

that pay lip-service to all that,

Opposition parties

without much room to maneuver...

and the result of it all is...

THE REPUBLIC DETERIORATES

Menem's neo-liberal model

is inseparable from the deterioration

of the republic and corruption.

His political plan

needs a biased Supreme Court

and federal law courts

under his control,

and for special powers

to be delegated by Parliament.

In one month,

he got his Law of Laws passed,

the Reform of the State,

that opened up for him

the door to privatizations.

Today the Senate is debating

a fundamental law for the country.

For the first time,

we are going to attack head on

the structural weaknesses

of the State as a whole,

notably of its public corporations.

We must be grateful

to the President of the Republic,

because this law is the beginning

of the Productivist Revolution.

Democracy was ridiculed

by Parliament

during the Menem era.

He gave Ministries

extraordinary powers,

absolute powers,

total public power.

He gave Ministries the power

to privatize State enterprises,

without inventories, balance sheets,

without verifying beforehand

if these enterprises

generated profits or losses.

Meaning that this vote

was the starting point

of the plunder of State property.

Who voted for it?

The neo-Peronists,

the Radicals, very obligingly...

I remember very well

the Radical Jaroslavsky

ordering many of his congressmen

to withdraw from the House

so that the neo-Peronists

could pass these laws.

Rarely does everything enable

a minority to come to power

without throwing a bomb,

or firing a shot.

Yet that's

what the conservative Alsogaray got

for the Reform of the State.

This reform gave Menem,

absolute, dictatorial powers,

that even the dictator Videla

never had.

- Alsogaray said it openly.

- What did he say?

He told the neo-Peronists

that they were taking part

in an extraordinary moment,

that they'd have total power.

But now,

this ostensibly democratic power

was going to be held

by those who once censored,

executed and slaughtered.

That's what Alsogaray brought about.

How far would they go?

What were they capable of?

Of a lot more.

And they kept it up.

There were denunciations

over the privatization

of the national oil company YPF.

A congressman denounced

the remittance to senators

of a bribe of 8 million dollars,

then denied it hours later.

Of 130 congressmen present,

114 voted "Yes",

10 voted "No",

with 1 abstention.

We should be delighted

that the House

was able to perform its duties.

For Argentina,

this is a day of jubilation.

From now on,

the oil belongs to the provinces,

YPF will be quoted

on the stockmarket

and benefit

from private investment.

Thanks to this, old-age pensioners,

will benefit

from billions of dollars...

These fine words

hid one of the most odious acts

that Parliament committed.

With the help of bribed congressmen,

it voted the privatization

of YPF and Gas del Estado,

the two biggest

Argentinean companies.

The country lost enterprises

that financed its infrastructures,

and of course

old-age pensioners and workers

got swindled.

The opposition couldn't prevent it,

though dissident Peronists

formed

the "Group of Eight".

Reforming the State

doesn't mean privatizing it.

In an emergent country,

you don't begin with layoffs.

Other opponents

of the oil company plunder

were threatened or attacked.

In May 1991,

for having filed charges

against Menem

for dismantling the YPF,

I got 6 bullets in my legs.

The privatization of YPF

is madness.

It's an outrageous theft.

Of course there was corruption!

It's a fact.

It goes hand in hand

with privatization.

Just look at the heritage

of those who voted for it.

I mean the leaders.

Look at them...

There's no evidence...

Nobody saw suitcases

full of dollars.

Yet it was never denied.

There were so many lobbies,

so much money to be made,

again and again,

so many deals made on the quiet...

while the media praised

the advantages of privatization.

Like the TV journalist Neustadt.

He had high ratings.

Not only the politicians,

we reporters and the media,

also played a role.

How long must we put up

with this idiocy?

TV and radio

in the hands of idiots,

for a nation of idiots?

How long?

The Congress

of this mafioso decade,

that voted such disgraceful laws

against the Nation,

needed the police to protect it.

The people were so outraged

that each week

brought its share of protests.

Pensioners, teachers,

civil servants,

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