{"article":{"id":19257,"heading":"Thuggery by Partido Obrero of Argentina","author":"DO","created":"2002-09-22 20:52:17","modified":"2013-11-10 23:45:34","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 06:45:34","article":"

Comrades I have corrected this press release to separate the footnotes

properly.

Dave CWGNZ

Buenos Aires, Thursday 12 of September of 2002

Official statement on the detention of one of Democracia

Obrera’s (Workers Democracy’s) national leaders that was

given to the police by leaders of the Workers Party, after their thugs treated him to a beating with sticks during a demonstration.

To all the working-class and anti-imperialist fighters,

To all the left parties and groupings,

To the whole international Trotskyist movement

We communicate that the Assembly of workers of the factory

Brukman Confecciones (factory which is taken and in

production in its workers' hands, against their employer’s

attack, from the beginnings of the Revolución Argentina) have

just pronounced by hand raised and unanimously for the

rejection of the physical attack, the denunciation and the

handing over to the police on the part of the leadership of the

Partido Obrero and of the Polo Obrero (the Movement of

Unemployed Workers led by the PO), of our comrade Juan

Muzzio, national leader of DO (Workers Democracy) and

member of the Coordinator Board organized around Brukman,

in which popular assemblies also participate.

Comrade Muzzio is a very well-known working-class fighter with a

long history in the Argentinean working-class movement, and

he was accompanying the comrade workers of Brukman

during a march summoned in their support by the Coordinator

Board of Fighting Factories.

Moreover the comrade workers of Brukman are summoning to a Press

Conference in the headquarters of the factory, for the 17 hours today (5

p.m., time of Buenos Aires) to make know their rejection and to already

begin a campaign for the unconditional freedom, without any

prosecution, of our comrade.

Many popular assemblies have called for our comrade’s freedom, and

in rejection of the method of hitting fighters of other currents for having

different opinions and of handing over fighters to the police.

For our part, we have called on all the Popular Assemblies and

comisiones internas (directly elected factory committees) of the fighting

factories to go to Brukman to pronounce on this action of the leaders of

the Polo Obrero and the Partido Obrero, which gravely infringes

working-class principles and the relationships among working class

fighters and among revolutionaries.

Also we are receiving international demands for our comrade’s

liberation –together with the rejection of the wretched action of the PO

and the Polo Obrero, from numerous militants and labor and left

organizations from all over the world. Among them, the Grupo Obrero

Trotskista of Chile (that integrates with us the COTP-CI), of Lucha

Marxista of Peru, etc. (the entire list of the adhesions and repudiations

will be published in our press).

The leadership of the PO, through the words of Mr. Pitrola –as could be

seen and listened to by everybody in all media of our country, by

television, radio and Internet, even on the written press-, has said that

Juan “Pico” Muzzio is an “armed police spy” and “an unknown

element.”

The truth is that Pitrola and the leadership of the PO thus demonstrate

that they are simple informers. Because Juan is a widely known and

noted labor fighter that has been shop steward in Bahía Blanca's

Petrochemical Pole(1) between 1984-87 (2) ; shop steward in SADE (a

big construction company) in La Plata (3) in 1987-88. He was the

outstanding leader of the rebellion of Sevel (4) in 1994 that was the first

to rise up against the menemismo and Macri’ holding abusive

exploiters. For this reason during that fight he and his family were

pursued (judicially and with threats and aggressions, by thugs and by

the police) by Macri and the bureaucracy of Curto’s UOM (5).

As national leader of Democracia Obrera he headed the support to the

picketers of the North of Salta (6) and today he takes a part in the

Coordinator Board in Support of Brukman. He has participated in

numerous congresses and fighters' Assemblies in the last times, among

them of the congress of Unemployed Workers summoned in February

16 and 17 by the Bloquepiquetero.

For that reason there is no way the Partido Obrero and those Messrs.

Pitrola and Altamira can allege that Juan was a “police spy”, a

“provocateur” and “an unknown troublemaker”.

From Workers' Democracy we have insisted many times over about two

years when the PO comes trying to create the conditions to annihilate

the Trotskyists, that we are opposed implacably to their capitulations

and their bureaucratic methods. Now, with this step that breaks all the

class limits, it has already made clear the total bankruptcy of this

organization and their thorough submission to the bourgeois State.

Therefore we denounce

* That (as he has appeared showing the face and with his own voice,

in the oral, written, televised and on-line media of Argentina) Mr. Pitrola

has announced that he informs the police that our comrade Juan

Muzzio as “police spy” “provocateur”, and “unknown element.”

* That the same police head whose troops had detained our comrade,

affirmed and afterwards ratified in answer to specific questions of the

same media, that they acted following the accusation of Mr. Pitrola

(leader of the Polo Obrero and of the Partido Obrero).

* That previously to handing him down to the police with visible

woundings and bleeding in the head, the “security” guard (security

against those that think different!) of the Polo Obrero and of the Partido

Obrero beat savagely our comrade with their sticks, pulling him up by

force and by means of blows of the same sticks, of Brukman workers'

hands and of a group of comrades belonging to popular assemblies

and commissions of unemployed, members of the Coordinator Board in

support to Brukman, amid whom comrade Muzzio was walking. That

these events were also denounced by those comrades loudly before

the microphones and cameras of the media covering the march.

* That comrade Muzzio went through some sutures in several parts of

his head and is at present with skull and face traumatisms and under

strong medication, to heal the lesions he suffered. Until the moment of

the emission of this official statement, he is still detained in the facilities

of the Superintendencia de Investigaciones (Chief Searchings Office)

of the Policía Federal Argentina (Federal Police) and under federal

prosecution.

From Democracia Obrera we call to all working class and popular

organizations to reject this police informing on the part of leadership of

the Partido Obrero and of the Polo Obrero, and we reaffirm the

principle that political differences among labor organizations ought not

be settled by breaking heads, and much less by the handing over of

fighters to the police.

To stop this attack to the working class fighters, we summon them to

put in place an international tribunal of Honor in the Argentina, in order

to condemn on behalf of the workers in fight, one of the worst and more

dangerous crimes with which [the treacherous leaderships] want to

defeat us: forming a true fifth column to defeat from inside the working

class movement and the revolutionary struggle, acting as informers and

agents of the bourgeois State in the ranks of the proletariat.

National Leadership of LOI-CI\/ Democracia Obrera

(International Workers League-Fourth

International\/Workers Democracy)



Notes

(1) Important port and industrial pole in the south of Buenos Aires

province which has a militant class-struggle tradition from the 19th

Century. Now it has one of the highest percentages of unemployment in

the country, more than 30% by official figures.

(2)The dates mentioned here and in the subsequent cases refer to

exceptional –and well known by the left fighters-- periods of class

struggle in each factory or enterprise.

(3) Capital city of Buenos Aires Province, also a port and important

industrial pole and shipyards location near the Federal Capital, Buenos

Aires City. One of the places where the fascist military’s repression was

particularly enraged in the 70’s and early 80’s.

(4) Carmaker, a franchise of Renault and Fiat employing thousands of

worker with the Japan-styled “self-motivated group-production” ultra- exploitative method, in the satellite town of San Martin, Great Buenos

Aires. Its owner is Francisco Macri, one of the stars of Menem’s

administrations (1989\/1995; 1995\/1999).

(5) UOM = Union Obrera Metalúrgica (National Metallurgical Workers

Union), one of the most powerful –and bureaucratized—unions,

dominated by the Peronistas. Curto is one of its most hated leaders,

“partner” to Lorenzo Miguel (the legendary and “maffiosi” head of the

UOM), and head of San Martín Union “Seccional “ (Local). L. Miguel

and “his men” are said to be the backbone or at least close associates

of the “Triple A”, the fascist death-squads responsible, with the fascist

military, of the more than 30,000 “desaparecidos” and thousands of

deaths under the last Peron-Peron administration and afterwards,

under the last military dictatorship.

(6) In the days of 2001 when they were attacked with guns, tanks and

tear gasses by the gendarmerie. He was personally there to support the

comrades, when the picketers asked for help, and had had some four

dead and dozens of wounded. Meanwhile Mr. Altamira was

campaigning for the October elections, never mentioning the struggle, a

true “intifada” that pre-anounced the uprising of December.

-----------------------------

STATEMENT OF WOKERS' DEMOCRACY (DEMOCRACIA OBRERA)

Comrades I have corrected this press release to separate the footnotes

properly.

Dave

CWGNZ

------

Buenos Aires, Thursday 12 of September of 2002

Official statement on the detention of one of Democracia

Obrera’s (Workers Democracy’s) national leaders that was

given to the police by leaders of the Workers Party, after their thugs treated him to a beating with sticks during a demonstration.

To all the working-class and anti-imperialist fighters,

To all the left parties and groupings,

To the whole international Trotskyist movement

We communicate that the Assembly of workers of the factory

Brukman Confecciones (factory which is taken and in

production in its workers' hands, against their employer’s

attack, from the beginnings of the Revolución Argentina) have

just pronounced by hand raised and unanimously for the

rejection of the physical attack, the denunciation and the

handing over to the police on the part of the leadership of the

Partido Obrero and of the Polo Obrero (the Movement of

Unemployed Workers led by the PO), of our comrade Juan

Muzzio, national leader of DO (Workers Democracy) and

member of the Coordinator Board organized around Brukman,

in which popular assemblies also participate.

Comrade Muzzio is a very well-known working-class fighter with a

long history in the Argentinean working-class movement, and

he was accompanying the comrade workers of Brukman

during a march summoned in their support by the Coordinator

Board of Fighting Factories.

Moreover the comrade workers of Brukman are summoning to a Press

Conference in the headquarters of the factory, for the 17 hours today (5

p.m., time of Buenos Aires) to make know their rejection and to already

begin a campaign for the unconditional freedom, without any

prosecution, of our comrade.

Many popular assemblies have called for our comrade’s freedom, and

in rejection of the method of hitting fighters of other currents for having

different opinions and of handing over fighters to the police.

For our part, we have called on all the Popular Assemblies and

comisiones internas (directly elected factory committees) of the fighting

factories to go to Brukman to pronounce on this action of the leaders of

the Polo Obrero and the Partido Obrero, which gravely infringes

working-class principles and the relationships among working class

fighters and among revolutionaries.

Also we are receiving international demands for our comrade’s

liberation –together with the rejection of the wretched action of the PO

and the Polo Obrero, from numerous militants and labor and left

organizations from all over the world. Among them, the Grupo Obrero

Trotskista of Chile (that integrates with us the COTP-CI), of Lucha

Marxista of Peru, etc. (the entire list of the adhesions and repudiations

will be published in our press).

The leadership of the PO, through the words of Mr. Pitrola –as could be

seen and listened to by everybody in all media of our country, by

television, radio and Internet, even on the written press-, has said that

Juan “Pico” Muzzio is an “armed police spy” and “an unknown

element.”

The truth is that Pitrola and the leadership of the PO thus demonstrate

that they are simple informers. Because Juan is a widely known and

noted labor fighter that has been shop steward in Bahía Blanca's

Petrochemical Pole(1) between 1984-87 (2) ; shop steward in SADE (a

big construction company) in La Plata (3) in 1987-88. He was the

outstanding leader of the rebellion of Sevel (4) in 1994 that was the first

to rise up against the menemismo and Macri’ holding abusive

exploiters. For this reason during that fight he and his family were

pursued (judicially and with threats and aggressions, by thugs and by

the police) by Macri and the bureaucracy of Curto’s UOM (5).

As national leader of Democracia Obrera he headed the support to the

picketers of the North of Salta (6) and today he takes a part in the

Coordinator Board in Support of Brukman. He has participated in

numerous congresses and fighters' Assemblies in the last times, among

them of the congress of Unemployed Workers summoned in February

16 and 17 by the Bloquepiquetero.

For that reason there is no way the Partido Obrero and those Messrs.

Pitrola and Altamira can allege that Juan was a “police spy”, a

“provocateur” and “an unknown troublemaker”.

From Workers' Democracy we have insisted many times over about two

years when the PO comes trying to create the conditions to annihilate

the Trotskyists, that we are opposed implacably to their capitulations

and their bureaucratic methods. Now, with this step that breaks all the

class limits, it has already made clear the total bankruptcy of this

organization and their thorough submission to the bourgeois State.

Therefore we denounce

* That (as he has appeared showing the face and with his own voice,

in the oral, written, televised and on-line media of Argentina) Mr. Pitrola

has announced that he informs the police that our comrade Juan

Muzzio as “police spy” “provocateur”, and “unknown element.”

* That the same police head whose troops had detained our comrade,

affirmed and afterwards ratified in answer to specific questions of the

same media, that they acted following the accusation of Mr. Pitrola

(leader of the Polo Obrero and of the Partido Obrero).

* That previously to handing him down to the police with visible

woundings and bleeding in the head, the “security” guard (security

against those that think different!) of the Polo Obrero and of the Partido

Obrero beat savagely our comrade with their sticks, pulling him up by

force and by means of blows of the same sticks, of Brukman workers'

hands and of a group of comrades belonging to popular assemblies

and commissions of unemployed, members of the Coordinator Board in

support to Brukman, amid whom comrade Muzzio was walking. That

these events were also denounced by those comrades loudly before

the microphones and cameras of the media covering the march.

* That comrade Muzzio went through some sutures in several parts of

his head and is at present with skull and face traumatisms and under

strong medication, to heal the lesions he suffered. Until the moment of

the emission of this official statement, he is still detained in the facilities

of the Superintendencia de Investigaciones (Chief Searchings Office)

of the Policía Federal Argentina (Federal Police) and under federal

prosecution.

From Democracia Obrera we call to all working class and popular

organizations to reject this police informing on the part of leadership of

the Partido Obrero and of the Polo Obrero, and we reaffirm the

principle that political differences among labor organizations ought not

be settled by breaking heads, and much less by the handing over of

fighters to the police.

To stop this attack to the working class fighters, we summon them to

put in place an international tribunal of Honor in the Argentina, in order

to condemn on behalf of the workers in fight, one of the worst and more

dangerous crimes with which [the treacherous leaderships] want to

defeat us: forming a true fifth column to defeat from inside the working

class movement and the revolutionary struggle, acting as informers and

agents of the bourgeois State in the ranks of the proletariat.

National Leadership of LOI-CI\/ Democracia Obrera

(International Workers League-Fourth

International\/Workers Democracy)

Notes

(1) Important port and industrial pole in the south of Buenos Aires

province which has a militant class-struggle tradition from the 19th

Century. Now it has one of the highest percentages of unemployment in

the country, more than 30% by official figures.

(2)The dates mentioned here and in the subsequent cases refer to

exceptional –and well known by the left fighters-- periods of class

struggle in each factory or enterprise.

(3) Capital city of Buenos Aires Province, also a port and important

industrial pole and shipyards location near the Federal Capital, Buenos

Aires City. One of the places where the fascist military’s repression was

particularly enraged in the 70’s and early 80’s.

(4) Carmaker, a franchise of Renault and Fiat employing thousands of

worker with the Japan-styled “self-motivated group-production” ultra- exploitative method, in the satellite town of San Martin, Great Buenos

Aires. Its owner is Francisco Macri, one of the stars of Menem’s

administrations (1989\/1995; 1995\/1999).

(5) UOM = Union Obrera Metalúrgica (National Metallurgical Workers

Union), one of the most powerful –and bureaucratized—unions,

dominated by the Peronistas. Curto is one of its most hated leaders,

“partner” to Lorenzo Miguel (the legendary and “maffiosi” head of the

UOM), and head of San Martín Union “Seccional “ (Local). L. Miguel

and “his men” are said to be the backbone or at least close associates

of the “Triple A”, the fascist death-squads responsible, with the fascist

military, of the more than 30,000 “desaparecidos” and thousands of

deaths under the last Peron-Peron administration and afterwards,

under the last military dictatorship.

(6) In the days of 2001 when they were attacked with guns, tanks and

tear gasses by the gendarmerie. He was personally there to support the

comrades, when the picketers asked for help, and had had some four

dead and dozens of wounded. Meanwhile Mr. Altamira was

campaigning for the October elections, never mentioning the struggle, a

true “intifada” that pre-anounced the uprising of December.<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Official statement on the detention of one of Democracia \r\nObrera\u2019s (Workers Democracy\u2019s) national leaders that was \r\ngiven to the police by leaders of the Workers Party, after their thugs treated him to a beating with sticks during a demonstration. ","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/09\/19257.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}