Sawt Falasteen - Scientists, doctors, disabled join Argentine pensioners' march

Shouting slogans such as: "Cruelty cannot be faced alone," and "get the chainsaw off our rights," they came face to face with a heavy security deployment outside Congress in the capital, Buenos Aires.

For months, retirees and supporters have mounted a weekly march on Wednesdays to demand better pensions and other benefits.

In March, one such demonstration was joined by football fans, and over 100 people were arrested after clashes left dozens injured.

Pensioners have suffered the most under Milei's austerity measures, which plunged Argentina into a deep recession for most of 2024 but led to a dramatic slowdown in price increases.

A minimum state pension is about $300 a month, barely above the poverty line.

Self-declared "anarcho-capitalist" Milei had campaigned for the presidency with a live chainsaw as a symbol of the deep spending cuts he planned to make.

Once in office, he fired tens of thousands of public sector workers, halved the number of government ministries and vetoed inflation-aligned pension increases.

Last year, Argentina recorded its first budget surplus in a decade, but the collateral damage has been a loss of purchasing power, jobs, and consumer spending.

"It is the retirees who are bearing a third of the chainsaw cuts," Luci Cavallero, a woman's rights activist, told AFP at Wednesday's march.

"The most terrible thing of all is how we are repressed without any shame. It is very sad at my age," added Cristina Rivada, a 74-year-old retiree who attends the protests every Wednesday.

Parallel to the march, Argentine lawmakers were debating proposals submitted by the opposition to increase pensions and issue emergency funds for the disabled.

The government rejects the measures due to their cost.

Outside the chamber, Evangelina Caro, 49, held up a sign reading: "I am a person, not an expense, with rights, not privileges."

Caro, whose 14-year-old son is autistic, said the government was "increasingly violating the rights of people with disabilities. We have no choice but to take to the streets; it's not something we like, but there's no other option."

Doctors, too, joined the march to call for better wages, while scientists and researchers protested staffing and funding cuts.

F.AbuShamala--SF-PST