By Adolfo Santos, leader of Socialist Left/FIT Unity
With the Auditorium of the Faculty of Social Sciences full, Socialist Left/ Left Front-Unity (IS/FITU), held on Saturday 1st June, a great tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Pacheco Massacre. On 29 May 1974, the Triple-A (a fascist gang created under the last government of Juan Doming Peron) brutally murdered Oscar ‘Hijitus’ Mesa, 26 years old, metalworker Astarsa Shipyard union rep, Antonio ‘Tony’ Moses, 24, metalworker of Wobron, and Mario ‘Tano’ Zidda, 22, a young textile worker and student of the Technical School N°1 of Pacheco. The meeting was very well received because although the events in Pacheco had a great impact on our party, they were a hard blow for all the left-wing parties and democratic forces.
The auditorium of the Faculty of Social Sciences – UBA was filled.
It was a moving event where former comrades and militants met again. Each one has its own experiences, but all from the same perspective, the struggle for the emancipation of the working class and a socialist Argentina. The emotion of the reunion was present. The old comrades joined the new generations, continuers of the current founded by the Trotskyist leader Nahuel Moreno in the 1940s.
Different generations of Morenoist militants gathered at the event.
In addition to this large militant presence, there were also greetings from the economists Claudio Katz and Eduardo Lucita, the sociologist Eduardo Grüner, the well-known historian Felipe Pigna, the historian Hernan Camarero, and the national deputy and leader of the PTS/FIT Unity, Myriam Bregman. The historian Ricardo De Titto, author, among other works, of the three volumes on the History of the PST, was present. Also present were the historian Martín Mangiantini and the historic leader of the Morenoite current and Socialist Left, Mercedes Petit. There were written and recorded messages from organisations and representatives of Human Rights and the struggle in defence of the Palestinian people. At the beginning of the event, a well-deserved homage was paid to Nora Cortiñas, the recently deceased fighter of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo-Founding Line.
Monica Schlotthauer and Mercedes de Mendieta
He was presented by comrades Monica Schlotthauer, railway leader, and Mercedes de Mendieta, teacher, both elected national deputies and leaders of Socialist Left. Miguel Sorans opened the homage. He is a leader of the Socialist Left and the International Workers’ Unity Fourth International (IWU-FI), who had been a speaker for the Advanced Socialist Youth (JSA) in the farewell tribute to the comrades in front of the central office of the PST. Sorans linked the events in Pacheco with the great workers’ and popular uprising known as the Cordobazo in 1969. In 1974, the government, headed by Juan Peron, wanted to liquidate the uprising at any cost to impose a “Social Pact” at the service of the bosses. The events had enormous repercussions. Only General Peron did not speak out. He again denounced that those responsible for the assassinations, at the hands of the Three A’s, were Peron, Lopez Rega and the trade union bureaucracy of Lorenzo Miguel. And he ended by vindicating the policy of Nahuel Moreno, leader of the PST, in his call for the broadest unity of action to mobilise and to form unitary armed pickets to confront the Tres A and the gangs of fascism, which he said: ‘We don’t discuss, we fight them in the streets until we defeat them’.
Miguel Sorans
Then came the moment of Jorge Avila, historic workers’ leader of the PST, who had also been a speaker at the farewell ceremony for the three comrades murdered while leading an occupation and a strike at Propulsora Siderurgica de Ensenada in those days in 1974. Jorge recalled the sad episode of Pacheco but took the opportunity to talk to us about the importance of the party in that historic struggle he was involved in. The PST taught him to consult everything with the rank and file and to decide in assemblies every step to be taken. This had allowed him to win the respect of the comrades in the steelworks.
Jorge Avila
In her turn, Laura Marrone, a Socialist Left leader, despite being very young at the time, brought us salient reflections on the self-sacrificing militancy of the PST. She said that on this 50th anniversary, we also remember four other comrades murdered in 1974. Inocencio ‘Indio’ Fernandez, metallurgical leader of Cormasa, fell under the bullets of an Itaka when he was leaving his house on his way to the factory on 7 May. And in November, the fascist gangs once again went on the rampage against our militancy, Juan Carlos Nievas, a Nestlé worker, Ruben Bouzas, a young high school student from Ramos Mejia and Cesar Robles, national leader of the PST and international leader of the Morenoist current, who at that time was leading the Córdoba regional. It was more blood with which the working class paid for its daring to fight against capitalism and the Tres A gangs of the Peronist government.
Laura Marrone
The event was closed by Juan Carlos Giordano, a leader of the Socialist Left and national deputy-elect. Giordano referred to the events of 1974 and compared them with current events, where the working class, the youth and the popular sectors are suffering a brutal attack on their living conditions. And although fascist gangs are not yet active today, he said, the broadest unity of action is necessary to confront this nefarious far-right government of Milei. Given this, he recalled the recent mobilisations and strikes we have been staging and called for a united struggle to defeat the ‘chainsaw’ plan of the far-right government.
Juan Carlos Giordano
In the middle of the speeches were read more endorsements sent by leaders and various parties of the IWU-FI, such as Internationalist Fight (LI) from Spain, Workers ‘Socialist Current (CST) from Brazil, Workers ‘Socialist Movement (MST) from the Dominican Republic, Movement towards Socialism (MAS) from Mexico, Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL) from Venezuela, Workers ‘Democracy Party (IDP) from Turkey, MAS from Portugal, Workers ‘Revolutionary Alternative (ARPT) from Bolivia, Workers’ Party-Unios from Peru, Socialist Proposal from Panama, the MST from Chile, and the Marxist Revolutionary League Movement (M-LMR) from Italy, which recently joined the IWU-FI.
Militants of the PST period sang the Internationale at the end of the event.
The greetings were received with great enthusiasm by those present, who sang with full voice during the whole act-homage against the fascism of yesterday and today, for a socialist Argentina and a socialist world and strongly defended the figure of our teacher and founder Nahuel Moreno. As in 1974, the Pacheco Massacre summoned us again and we were there, now with a new oath, that the fall of the comrades was not in vain and that we would ‘fight, fight, with rage until we triumph’ defeating the far-right plan of the Milei government.
