Polo Obrero

Polo Obrero is an Argentine social and picketer (piquetero) organization affiliated with the Partido Obrero (Workers' Party). It was founded in 2000 following a resolution at the party's XI Congress, promoted by Jorge Altamira, with the aim of organizing both employed and unemployed workers. The organization emerged in the context of the late 1990s economic crisis and the rise of piquetero movements, particularly after the 1999 police killing of two picketers on the bridge between Resistencia and Corrientes. It adopted methods of class struggle, including road blockades, and quickly became one of the largest picketer groups in Argentina. Polo Obrero engages in a wide range of social and political activities, including organizing protests, running community kitchens (comedores populares), and providing support to unemployed workers. It is known for its combative stance and its opposition to government policies it considers neoliberal. The organization has a significant presence in Buenos Aires and other provinces, and it frequently participates in national protests and marches. In 2019, an internal crisis within the Partido Obrero led to a split in Polo Obrero, with a faction known as "Polo Obrero Tendencia" forming. The split was accompanied by tensions and occasional violence between the two groups. In recent years, Polo Obrero has faced legal controversies, including accusations of extortion of social plan beneficiaries. In 2024, the government of Javier Milei denounced the organization, leading to raids on the homes of its leaders and the party's headquarters. The organization continues to operate and mobilize, maintaining its presence in Argentine social and political life.

Polo Obrero's origins trace back to 1999, when the X Congress of the Partido Obrero, held from July 8 to 11, approved a resolution to form a classist pole. The resolution characterized the ten years of Carlos Menem's government as the greatest loss of workers' conquests in history and argued that resistance to this regression came not from the "union bureaucracy" but from grassroots organizations: "The terminal exhaustion of Menemism has put all union leaderships in check. This exhaustion is leading to an accentuation of the rebellion of the masses and the appearance of combative grassroots organizations. The picketers and the stokers, for some time, the self-convened more recently, are naturally seen as a threat by the union bureaucracy." Its constitution was voted at the XI Congress of the Partido Obrero in May 2000, based on a motion by Jorge Altamira. That Congress took place under the impact of the popular uprising of General Mosconi. The founding Congress was held in unity with combative sectors of the labor movement such as the CGT San Lorenzo of the time and sealed from the first day the unity of employed and unemployed. It adopted the methods of classism in the movement, incorporating the revolutionary imprint of road blockades that gradually the entire labor movement adopted in its struggles. The then minister Storani of the De la Rúa government characterized the founding congress of Polo Obrero as a subversive act against democracy. A year earlier, while the Alianza was taking office, police troops had killed two picketers on the bridge linking Resistencia and Corrientes, which encouraged the continuation of the picketer struggle and popularized the group. In 2019, a political crisis within the Partido Obrero led to a split in all organizations linked to the party, including its picketer wing. The founding document of the opposition group, titled "Why a public fraction in the Partido Obrero," characterized that under the official leadership of the Central Committee the organization had lost the function with which it was conceived: to provide the unemployed sector of the working class with political formation and class consciousness to transform its "most conscious elements into Fourth Internationalist militants" against the possibility of their integration into official or clerical organizations. The document also pointed out contradictions between positions of both organizations, as there appears "on one side, a Polo Obrero that must confront the destruction of youth through drugs and drug trafficking and, on the other side, sectors (within the PO) that vindicate drug consumption as a manifestation of freedom." The document was signed by several leaders of Polo Obrero, including Eva Gutiérrez, leader of the Polo Obrero of Hurlingham, who became a leader of the so-called Polo Obrero Tendencia, made up of all militants separated from the organization due to their divergences. In the following months, the relationship between the two groups became tense, reaching episodes of physical violence. The sector grouped in the Tendencia denounced that it was attacked by the other at an assembly of picketer organizations held at the Obelisk of Buenos Aires on April 5, 2021; according to the complainants, the reason for the attack was an attempt to prevent them from disseminating a statement prepared for the occasion, and they accuse Eduardo Belliboni, leader of the official sector of the organization, of having given the order. In 2022, following the appearance of initial complaints, Partido Obrero leader Gabriel Solano explained that "The comrades (militants) make a contribution (of 1% or 2% of the subsidy they receive) to sustain the organization and thus the movement organizes as it can," Belliboni defended Solano saying "It is a contribution to conscience, voluntary, of 2% of their income, as is the historic union dues that allowed sustaining the old anarchist organizations, whose autonomy was given precisely by their self-management and self-financing." As immediate consequences, then Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner emphasized the need to take social plans away from picketers, with the State being the one to control them directly. On May 13, 2024, raids were carried out on picketers in a case for extortion of social plan beneficiaries, the proceedings point to leaders of Polo Obrero and other groups. According to the instruction of the case, which was in charge of prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita, "there were sufficient elements of conviction to summon 28 people and carry out 27 raids." In 2024, the government of Javier Milei denounced Polo Obrero, among other organizations, of extortion of social plan beneficiaries. Within the framework of that denunciation, the Justice ordered raids on the private homes of its main leaders and militants, in addition to the central headquarters of the Partido Obrero.

• X Congress of the Partido Obrero approves resolution to form a classist pole.

• Polo Obrero is founded at the XI Congress of the Partido Obrero.

• Internal crisis in the Partido Obrero leads to the split of Polo Obrero and the formation of Polo Obrero Tendencia.

• Alleged attack on Polo Obrero Tendencia at an assembly in Buenos Aires.

• Controversy over financing emerges, with accusations of mandatory contributions from social plan beneficiaries.

• Raids on Polo Obrero leaders in a case for extortion of social plan beneficiaries.

• Government of Javier Milei denounces Polo Obrero for extortion; justice orders raids.

A combative, class-struggle-oriented social and picketer organization affiliated with the Partido Obrero, focused on organizing unemployed and employed workers in Argentina.

1. 1Polo Obrero official websitepoloobrero.org.ar
2. 2Polo Obrero - Wikipedia (Spanish)es.wikipedia.org
3. 3Polo Obrero - Wikidatawikidata.org