General strike against President Javier Milei’s reforms in Argentina

The trade union movement in Argentina went on a 24-hour general strike on Thursday, in protest against President Javier Milei’s announced reforms.

Public transport stopped, and shops and banks closed their doors. There was also a complete standstill at factories and port facilities.

President Javier Milei, who took over in December, has announced dramatic measures to get the country’s economy back on its feet. Inflation is galloping and in the last year has been around 290 per cent.

The peso, the local currency, has much of its value, and the country’s central bank announced earlier this week that it would print a new, larger 10,000 peso note. At today’s exchange rate against the dollar, it is worth around NOK 120.

By comparison, seven years ago such a note would have been worth over NOK 6,000.

The trade union movement believes Milei’s announced economic cure will hit the country’s workers and those who have already had it the hardest.

– The government only serves the richest. They give up natural resources and try to deprive the workers of their rights, claims the general secretary of the trade union CTA, Hugo Yasky.