Photo: La Izquierda Diairo

We don’t want to be a symbolic left, Nicolás del Caño from the Left and Workers’ Front (FIT)

The primaries are taking place this weekend in Argentina. Last Thursday, August 6, Nicolás del Caño, national congressman and running presidential candidate in today’s primary elections, gave a speech to close his electoral campaign.

More about the Left and Workers’ Front (FIT) and what will be debated in the primary elections

He was accompanied by hundreds of workers, all part of the Left and the Workers’ Front (FIT), with list 1A: “Renew and strengthen the Left and the Workers’ Front.” Myriam Bregman, a human rights lawyer and activist, is running with Del Caño as vice presidential candidate. Jorge Altamira of the Workers Party (Partido Obrero), also a presidential candidate for the FIT, will be competing against Del Caño for presidential slate.

During his speech, Del Caño stated, “The FIT is a huge conquest for workers, women and youth; it allowed the emergence of a class-independent, political alternative in our country. However, we are still not satisfied with its consolidation. We do not want to be a symbolic left. We want to renew and strengthen the FIT; the Left must have an important role in national politics. This will be the only way to confront the ‘adjustment plans’ that the candidates such as Scioli, Massa, and Macri have already prepared for the workers and the poor…Our list is full of workers, women and youth who are in the main struggles throughout the country: Lear workers, who fought the multinational company against layoffs; MadyGraf graphics factory, ex-Donnelley, taken by workers after the company shut down; Kraft and Pepsico workers from the food industry, and Buenos Aires subway workers.”