Workers and Campesinos Join to Protest Rights in Buenos Aires

Workers and campesinos were out in Buenos Aires Wednesday to defend workers' rights to organize and to demand congress pass the Emergency Food law.

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The march was led by the Milagro Sala Front, the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy who are demanding that the government supports those who recycle and sell paper products independently. They say the government is trying to disband their cooperatives and eliminate their roles within the labor market.

The groups were joined by the National Campesino Front urging congress to pass the Emergency Food bill stuck in the legislator since August.

Eduardo Montes of the Milagro Sala Front said President Mauricio Macri’s administration and congress are creating “precarious” working conditions for small-scale entrepreneurs and workers.

Just last week, under the banner, “Without Land, Roof and Work, Reforms are Against the People," social organizations across Argentina marched to urge congress to pass the Emergency Food Law and the Popular Economy Law.

Between January and June of 2017, poverty increased from 20.4 to 28.6 percent in Argentina, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics. In some Buenos Aires neighborhoods, the poverty percentage rose 13.4 percent, a 4 percent increase over the same time in 2016.

A recently released study by the Institute of Social, Economic and Citizens Institute found that malnutrition in Argentina has increased from 43 to 48 percent in kids aged 2 to 19.

In a country with the third largest economy in Latin America, over 11 million Argentine residents live in poverty. Activist leader, Daniel Menendez told reporters at the rally that these statistics are “sad and outrageous.”