On December 10, 2023, Javier Milei, leader of the La Liberta Avanza Party,
was innaugurated as president of Argentina.
After a year marked by the electoral spectacle
and rising inflation at an annual rate of 140%,
today democracy finally celebrates
the triumph of one of the leaders of the Argentine neoliberal right.
Much has been said and emphasized
about the fascist nature of Milei and his party.
There are clearly elements of the far right in him,
like his vice president, Victoria Villarroel,
a direct relative of military officials involved in repression
against revolutionary movements in the 1970s.
Not to mention clear influences from p political leaders like Bolsonaro, Trump,
and a series of antifeminist ideological characteristics,
and championing for free markets, and private property.
But Milei's victory cannot be seen as an isolated political event
or merely as a rightward shift in Argentine society.
Rather, it is a process by the State and political parties,
both from progressive sectors and institutional left,
to institutionalize and drain social struggles.
After more than 20 years since the 2001 uprisings,
democratic repression was responsible for taming
rebellious movements that carried out various
destituent processes of the time,
such as the piquetes and neighborhood assemblies.
In this way, institutionalization took care of controlling
restraining popular organizations?within State boundaries
and repressing and isolating sectors
that sought to continue challenging the capitalist logic of the State.
In this sense,
Milei's presidency not only represents a blow to resistance movements,
but also the icing on the cake of decades of domestication,
concessions with the powerful, reformist proposals
that limited their criticism to progressive governments
to supposedly prevent the return of the right.
They focused their activism on electoral pursuits
and accused those who tried to challenge social order of being infiltrators.
Meanwhile, extractivism and real estate businesses destroy the entire territory.
Police killings are daily occurrences
and evictions have been commonplace for many years.
Fascism fed primarily on silence and false criticisms.
Today, there's much talk of resistance.
On our part,
we're more interested to see resistances transforming into radical criticism
of capital, the State, and all their institutions.
Otherwise,
the revolt will be recuperated and used by a new government in the future.
We know the task is not easy.
And it's complicated context where we face a context of social cutbacks,
increased repression
and an advance of openly reactionary ideas.
But we also trust our tools.
And we know that sometimes all it takes is a spark
to ignite the fire in rebellious hearts.
It doesn't matter who's in charge,
anarchists will remain here, being part of that spark.