[EE.UU.] EL FSP APOYA EL LLAMADO DE LA TPR Y EL FIT A VOTAR EN BLANCO EN EL PRÓXIMO BALLOTAGE PRESIDENCIAL DE ARGENTINA

The Freedom Socialist Party supports the call by Argentine leftists to leave ballots blank in the upcoming run-off election for the country’s next president

On Sunday, November 22, 2015, voters will go to the polls to decide who will become the next president of Argentina. It is a run-off race between Daniel Scioli, the out-going vice president in President Cristina Kirchner’s administration and rightwinger Mauricio Macri, the outgoing mayor of Buenos Aires and son of a wealthy construction magnate.

The differences between these candidates are similar to those between the Democrats and the Republicans in the U.S. in that one is more rightwing than the other but neither of them have anything to offer the poor and working class and both serve the interests of the ruling class.

Macri advocates free capitalist development as the solution to Argentina’s woes, including an anticipated negative growth rate for the economy next year. Scioli says he will uphold Kirchnerism, a left-sounding populism that promises much and delivers little to the working class.

Neither of these candidates represents the interests of the vast majority of Argentines who lived through the 2001-2002 economic crises, one of the worst ever in our hemisphere. The working class has yet to recover from this debacle and neither of the capitalist parties in this race offer any hope of solving the current crisis.

For these reasons, the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) supports the call to voters by Tendencia Piquetera Revolucionaria (TPR), the Frente Izquierda de los Trabajadores (FIT) and other socialists in Argentina to leave their ballots blank as a form of protest and because it is much better than voting against one’s own interests. When there is no anti-capitalist candidate to support in U.S. elections, the Freedom Socialist Party urges voters in our country to do the same.

Next year, the U.S election will undoubtedly come down to Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and one of the rightwing, anti-immigrant neoliberals for the Republicans. There will probably be one or two socialist candidates for president who will be able to get on a few state ballots, but in states without a socialist or anti-capitalist candidate, we will recommend that voters leave their ballots blank, just as TPR is doing now. It is better to take this path than to vote for what you don’t want and to get it!