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Deep Dive Podcast: The revolutionary left in Argentina debates strategy against creeping fascism
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Deep Dive Podcast: The revolutionary left in Argentina debates strategy against creeping fascism

Straight from the sources, we review the PST, MST and the corriente Marabunta
Jun 04, 2025
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A victory for the fascistoid government in Argentina would mean more than austerity. It would close a whole cycle of progressive struggle and destroy progressive forces. That means stopping the Milei offensive is the precondition for any progress in Argentina.

The March 24, 2025, protest marked the annual remembrance of the end of the dictatorship. It was a critical moment this year to bring together a historic unity unrivaled in the previous 20 years. Longstanding divisions were overcome. However, the cautious Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS) and the more unitarian Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores (MST), both significant groups within the Frente de Izquierda – Unidad (FIT-Unidad), took very different policies.

In this podcast, we review a range of sources from the diverse Argentine left and discuss how the left failed to find a common platform, and how to build the necessary broader unity, while not getting pulled into forces that don’t share your goals.

For more context see our post on Monday 8th June.

Postscript

A listener asks (a) how Marabunta is different from the MST on this question and (b) what is the analogy attempted by comparing the debates at the 13th and 18th FI world congresses.

On Marbunta. Marabunta can speak for itself: we are not its plenipotentiary. A potential difference with the MST may lie in their tactical approaches and their relationship to broader political fronts.

  • The MST often advances specific proposals (e.g., calling for a general strike, pushing for the FIT-U to do this or that) that are not being raised universally.

  • Marabunta may be more inclined towards broader, more unified fronts of the left around existing initiatives that have already arisen organically in the social movements and workers' organisations.


On the 13th and 18th World Congresses. The debate at the 13th World Congress seems similar to the debate on the Argentine left (and, perhaps, also the Brazilian left) today.

  • One side is seen as adapting to the mass movements to develop wider mobilisations and deeper united front work.

  • The other side prioritises its political independence and the construction of revolutionary parties.

The challenge for the FI was to develop a shared understanding of how to balance those goals: to understand that they can each be excessive if conducted at the exclusion of the other. This was a difficult learning through the experience of the broad left parties and a lengthy debate, which led to parting ways with the DS current in the PT.

Right now, the differences between the Trotskyist organizations that support the FIT-U seem deep, but they are not currently deep enough to threaten the front’s unity. What the corriente Marabunta seems to have outlined, I think, is that building social movements and united fronts is the first order of business (but not the only task) because that not only [a] responds to the threat of creeping fascism, but it also [b] allows the building of a revolutionary pole to proceed in a way that reduces the risk of sectarianism.

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