A critique of the Argentinean MST, the leading section of LIS/ISL

 

By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 14 August 2025, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

The Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores (Workers' Socialist Movement, MST) is one of the sizeable Trotskyist organisations in Argentina. It is also the leading section of the International Socialist League (LIS/ISL) which currently attempts to regroup Trotskyist forces.

 

While the LIS/ISL takes a correct position on some important issues of the global class struggle (like characterising Russia and China as imperialist, defending Palestine and Ukraine), it has failed to side with the Syrian Revolution [1] or to defend Iran against the Zionist-American aggression. [2] The Pakistani section of LIS even considers Iran to be a “sub-imperialist” power! [3] All this reflects serious deviations from the Marxist approach to the democratic revolution as well as the anti-imperialist program.

 

These mistakes go hand-in-hand with an opportunist policy of popular-frontism, i.e. the collaboration with bourgeois forces. This becomes evident if one looks at the history of the Argentinean MST, a party which emerged from the collapse of the MAS in the early 1990s. The MAS resp. its international organisation LIT-CI were founded by the late Nahuel Moreno, albeit the latter would turn in his grave hearing about the MST/LIS’ abandonment of the democratic and anti-imperialist program in Syria and Iran. [4]

 

 

 

Capitalists and police

 

 

 

Throughout its history, the MST has repeatedly supported or collaborated with openly bourgeois forces. In 2008 it shamefully supported a three-week “strike” which was organised by agricultural capitalists against the government because the latter had imposed export taxes upon the extraordinary profits being made by big corporations from the country’s agricultural exports. It is impermissible for a Marxist organization which defends the interests of the working class to side with a protest organized by a sector of capitalists against higher taxes on profits. [5]

 

Likewise, the MST proudly announced in 2014 that Adriana Rearte, the general secretary of Seppa – the police and prison guards trade union in Cordoba – has joined its party! [6] One could hardly imagine a more glaring contrast to Trotsky’s views! The founder of the Fourth International had always insisted that police are servants of the ruling class and not “workers in uniform” – as reformists claim. Their central role is to control and oppress the working class – like low-level managers in a business. Neither low-level management nor the police create or distribute, directly or indirectly, value in any form. Nor do they provide any social necessary labour. They are paid parasites and thugs of capitalism. They are part of the middle layers and not of the working class. It doesn’t matter if the origins of an individual policeman or policewoman are in the working class. Not the past but the present and the foreseeable future are decisive for the class character of a professional group.

 

“The fact that the police was originally recruited in large numbers from among Social Democratic workers is absolutely meaningless. Consciousness is determined by environment even in this instance. The worker who becomes a policeman in the service of the capitalist state, is a bourgeois cop, not a worker. Of late years these policemen have had to do much more fighting with revolutionary workers than with Nazi students. Such training does not fail to leave its effects. And above all: every policeman knows that though governments may change, the police remain.“ [7]

 

In the case of the MST/LIS we do not talk merely about a theoretical mistake but rather the embrace of a trade union leader of police thugs and prison guards! Marxists build a workers party – not a joint party of workers as well as those who beat and imprison them!

 

 

 

Electoral collaboration with “left”-bourgeois dissidents of Peronism

 

 

 

In its political and electoral work, the MST repeatedly built alliances with forces coming from the Peronist party. This party had been found by General Peron at the end of World War II and has been one of the main bourgeois parties in modern Argentinean history. It has ruled the country in 1946-55, 1973-76 and for most of the time since 1989. Throughout its history it had substantial support about sectors of the masses.

 

As a bourgeois-populist party, the Peronists always had various currents in its ranks and sometimes they stand against each other at elections. However, irrespective of being “right-wing”, “centre” or “left-wing”, all these currents of the Peronist party are essentially bourgeois forces. This, however, did not stop the MST to build various alliances with such dissident Peronists, to support them at elections and to stand candidates on their lists.

 

Let us give a few examples. In the 2005 legislative elections, the MST formed a joint front with some sectors from Peronism and some left-wing forces. This front presented Mario Cafiero as a candidate for senator for the province of Buenos Aires. [8] Cafiero was a long-time politician and parliamentary deputy of the Peronist party. [9]

 

In the same spirit the MST joined the “Movimiento Proyecto Sur” in 2010 – an alliance led by the long-time Peronist politician Pino Solanas. ^[10] Solanas was a deputy in parliament and senate for many years and, in 2019, he was appointed by the government as the country’s ambassador at UNESCO. [11] As a result of this opportunist manoeuvre, the MST leader Alejandro Bodart became a deputy of the Buenos Aires legislature in 2011. Their alliance came to an end in 2013 when Solanas entered in an alliance with Elisa Carrió – a renown bourgeois-liberal politician. [12]

 

In Cordoba – the second-largest city in Argentina – the MST joined the Frente Cívico (Civic Front) led by Luis Juez. ^[13] Juez is a centre-left politician who split from the Peronist party. However, he was an ally of the Peronist President Kirchner in the 2000s. The MST stayed in the Frente Cívico for years and only left it when Juez had found more relevant allies as he joined forces with Argentina’s traditional bourgeois-liberal party – the UCR. [14]

 

As we see, we do not talk about scattered mistakes in assessment but a systematic policy of the MST leadership to build political alliances and joint electoral projects with seasoned bourgeois politicians and parties.

 

After a series of such unsuccessful maneuvers with their bourgeois allies, the MST joined the Trotskyist electoral alliance FITu in 2019. However, this has not stopped its opportunist maneuvers towards openly bourgeois parties. At the last presidential election in October 2023, the MST indirectly advocated a vote for the Peronist candidate Massa in the second round of the election. By calling “Don’t Vote for Milei” – the only other candidate – they advocated electoral support for the Peronist candidate. [15]

 

 

 

An international line of popular front policy

 

 

 

The LIS/ISL’s support for popular front policy is not limited to Argentina. In line with such a policy, the Brazilian section of the ISL is part of the left-reformist party PSOL – a party which has a minister in the coalition government led by President Lula and the conservative Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. [16]

 

The Pakistani section of LIS/ISL – “The Struggle” – is a sizable organisation in the tradition of Ted Grant (the founder of the right-centrist “Militant” tradition to which the CWI, the IMT/RCI, the ISA and other splitters adhere). It was part of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – one of the main bourgeois parties of the countries – for four decades and only left it recently as the party has become totally discredited in the eyes of the masses.

 

“The Struggle” shamefully claimed that the PPP would be a working-class party with a revolutionary socialist program which was betrayed by the leadership. In reality, the PPP has always been a bourgeois-populist party dominated by the Bhutto clan, one of the wealthiest landowner family in Pakistan. It was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1967, who was advisor to military dictator Mohammad Ayub Khan before taking power in 1971. When in power, its policy always served the capitalist class, and its program was neither revolutionary nor socialist. It is a populist mixture of state-capitalism, Islamism, nationalism directed against India and ignorance (at best) of the national question. Working inside such a party for four decades is utmost treachery!

 

As we have shown somewhere else, it is only consequential that “The Struggle” pursues an opportunist policy on important issues of Pakistan’s politics. This is reflected in their lack of consistent support for the liberation struggle of oppressed ethical/national groups in Pakistan (e.g. Baluchistan) or in their pacifist advocacy of “peaceful struggle” in Kashmir. [17]

 

A particularly outrageous example of the unprincipled character of the ISL is its Ukrainian section led by Oleg Vernik. As we did show somewhere else, Vernik is an utterly corrupted figure whose “socialist” policy follows the money. He stole thousands of Dollars from Trotskyist organisations in the early 2000s. He advertised Gaddafi’s Green Book and went to North Korea to study the Stalinist-nationalist “Juche” ideology. He runs a “trade union” which is integrated in “social partnership” projects with the EU and the government. His “union” is also part of the populist-reformist “Progressive International” led by figures like Lula, Bernie Sanders, etc. As a result, he gets money both from the ISL as well as the “Progressive International”. In Ukraine itself, he adapts to bourgeois nationalism and even joined a radio show of a well-known fascist. [18]

 

In summary, we see that despite the different historical trajectories of the LIS/ISL sections, they share essential features of opportunism. Among these is their support for popular front policy. Authentic Marxists must draw a sharp line with such policy!