Social Genocide Page #5

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and now owes the World Bank

700 million dollars

borrowed to pay for the layoffs,

and another 700 million

in interest...

Just to suppress 80000 jobs!

Billions in subsidies

Privatizations were supposed

to end the payment of subsidies

that supposedly led

to the public deficit.

The irony today, is that

most of the privatized companies,

are subsidized.

Just for

the national highway system,

the subsidy was

And as the 980 million

for acquiring them weren't paid,

they stole a total

of 2 billion dollars!

They never paid the fee

You have to pay a fee

to use public property

belonging to a country.

They never paid it.

- Who didn't pay?

- No one.

Not for the roads,

the postal system, the airports...

Impunity

Legal protection always favored

the conglomerates.

No one negotiated for the consumers.

Why such impunity?

Politics.

Big business

and political scheming.

The big conglomerates

Privatizations were planned in

the interest in the big conglomerates.

They were the ones who financed

all the election campaigns,

all the governments,

all the coups d'tat,

all the major public-works

undertakings.

No other sector

benefited from such privileges:

Protected markets,

astronomical subsidies,

fiscal advantages,

rate-overcharging,

exoneration of penalties

for non-performance of work,

extensions of concessions,

and conversion into pesos

of debts in dollars.

They failed to honor

their contracts with the State,

swindled it

and then sued it for damages.

Among these were:

Macri's Socma and Sideco,

Bulgheroni's Bridas,

Fortabat's Loma Negra,

Prez Companc's Pecom,

Rocca's Techint,

Benito Roggio, Pescarmona,

and others.

Unemployment

is spreading like a plague,

contaminating the whole society.

The lines of dole seekers

get longer everywhere.

Unemployment has gone from 11%

to more than 20%,

not counting the temps.

What's the situation

of the workers?

They've lost their salaries,

their social benefits,

their unemployment insurance,

their accident

and sickness coverage.

More than half of them

are moonlighting,

a social situation

that only prevails in the most

under-developed countries.

People don't dare resist,

they fear layoffs,

and that the next day

there may be no solution at all.

So they agree to salary cuts,

deteriorating work conditions,

working in unsanitary surroundings.

Losing your job

means ending in a void,

joining an army of beggars,

the army of the excluded.

It leads to depression,

to anxiety...

In the Latin-American country

where social rights

were once most advanced,

thousands of destitute people

flock to the church

of San Cayetano,

patron saint of work,

asking for help.

THE LIQUIDATION OF OIL

Argentina is a unique case

in the world and in Latin America.

No other country gave up

its gas and oil

without losing a war.

The country was truly betrayed

by the ruling class.

Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela

never privatized their oil.

Why was the sale of YPF

such an atrocity?

Because of the role that YPF played

in the country,

and in the world oil-market.

You have to remember

that when Mosconi

created YPF, the first

State enterprise in the world,

oil was considered

to be very strategic,

and the sale of fuel

to be of national interest.

If the international price rose,

YPF kept the price low,

according to its costs

and not the market price.

YPF was created in 1923

on orders of General Mosconi.

In 1907, oil had been discovered

in Patagonia.

In spite of its detractors,

the oil company was developed

without the need for foreign funds,

and became a model

for Latin America.

It expanded so rapidly

that it earned as much for the country

as the province of Buenos Aires.

Its reserves were estimated

to be worth 200 billion dollars.

To privatize it, they had

to commit many irregularities.

Actually, if the law was applied,

most private concessions

would be invalid.

Argentina could soon rebuild

its national oil company,

if it had true political motivation.

The strategic reserves,

where the greatest sums

were invested,

were awarded for 25 years,

for a price equivalent

to 9 months of production.

They were so poorly sold

that Menem

had to deal with it personally.

$19 for shares

that were worth $38...

is a gigantic swindle.

They even hired

the McKinley company

to underestimate the reserves.

A year later, the reserves reappeared

in the accounts at their real value.

So they sold, say,

a reserve for 100,

when it was worth 140.

A cartel of four multinationals

applied the highest rates

on earth to us

and paid the lowest royalties.

Who checks up?

They pump as much they want?

They make a declaration

under oath.

Meaning?

By a declaration under oath,

informing the Argentineans

how much they pumped.

The reserves, the facilities,

were sold for a pittance.

They didn't have to do anything.

The site was there,

with the staff and the facilities,

and everything

needed to transport the oil.

A high quality infrastructure

that belonged to YPF.

They didn't have to do anything,

because a concern like YPF

had completely planned

its future 20 years ahead.

Now they were exploiting it,

benefiting

from their State acquisitions,

in terms of oil

and gas infrastructures.

That's the reality of Argentina.

You can't understand

industrial development in Argentina

and Patagonia,

without knowing about YPF.

It had developed pipelines,

steel plants, roads and factories,

and given birth to dozens of towns,

geared to the social needs

of their inhabitants.

In particular:

Comodoro Rivadavia, Caleta Olivia,

Cutral-C and Plaza Huincul,

which was the first oil-town

in the province of Neuqun.

All these empty,

walled up buildings,

lying neglected,

were Camp 1,

the administration block,

the heart of YPF.

When it was privatized,

people had to leave

to look for another livelihood.

They abandoned their homes,

in search of new horizons.

Were you adequately paid?

The wages? No problem...

Here, no one was ever needy.

What happened was a crime,

a murder.

No one ever imagined

this could happen.

Privatizations were done

almost without inventories.

YPF left behind lots of things

that disappeared.

Large motors, for instance...

Vehicles, new equipment,

drilling bits, tools, clothing...

No track was kept of many items

that were never found.

You can dismantle a hangar

without anyone asking questions.

This is what's left of PEXSE,

a company created

by the oil-workers union SUPE

to make the workers believe

they could be entrepreneurs.

The company went bankrupt,

owing us money.

The SUPE executives

were in on the fraud.

They knew very well

that YPF would be dismantled.

People accepted

$40 or $50000 dollars

and agreed to get fired.

They were paid to take

a training course in pastry-making,

data processing, anything,

for a year.

They accepted privatization

and layoffs without a struggle

because they had money

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