The 797,000 signatures against 135 articles of the Urgent Consideration Law (LUC) changed the face of the opposition bloc, which by then was unable to make a dent in the government. Despite doubts about the strategy and a goal that came to seem unattainable, the PIT-CNT, the Broad Front, the Federation of Housing Cooperatives for Mutual Aid (Fucvam) and other organizations celebrated as a goal on July 8, 2021 delivery of signatures to the Electoral Court.
Nine months later, the repeal sought was unsuccessful and at the end of April the campaign command of the Commission for Yes had its last meeting, where resolved that it was important to “rescue the date of July 8” in order to generate some mass activity. From the block they pose it as a day that “collects the platforms of the organizations” and commemorates the “democratic feat” of last year.
That bet goes hand in hand with the manifest intention of the different organizations to retake the Intersocial, a coordination launched in mid-2020 to demand more measures to alleviate the socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic. The approaches are still cold, although the person in charge of Propaganda of the PIT-CNT, Fernando Gambera, maintained that this space should “give way” to the People’s Congress projected by the trade union center for this period.
The issue was also raised in these terms in the Political Table of the Broad Front weeks ago.
“There is a decision of ours and of other organizations to make contacts again, with the necessary care so as not to appear that we come with the issue already formalized,” he told The Observer the leader of the Banking Association of Uruguay (AEBU). Gambera added that they seek to “bring together groups” of young people and feminisms, along similar lines to that expressed by the Broad Front in its draft political plan for 2024.
Amira Fagúndez, from the Federation of University Students (FEUU), pointed out that the mobilization on July 8 should be the “next landmark” of the social bloc, which these days is headed for the March of Silence on May 20. Enrique Cal, president of Fucvam, pointed out for his part that “part of Fucvam’s strategy consists of reassembling Intersocial as it was before the referendum.”
The PIT-CNT is also analyzing these days the realization of a general strike in July “for employment and salary recovery.” The unionist Gambera pointed out that June 27 also remembers the 1973 general strike, which will be 50 years old in 2023.
One of the great demands of the opposition bloc –despite the defeat at the polls in the referendum– was the joining of forces between different popular sectors to carry out the campaign.
