Tens of thousands took to the streets in more than 70 cities across Argentina in Saturday’s March of Anger (Marcha de la Bronca). The demonstrations were a long-awaited breath of fresh air in the face of right-wing austerity and repression, as well as “opposition” from political and union leaderships that call for passivity, even in the face of the government’s weakening.

Marcha de la Bronca: decenas de miles en la jornada de lucha en todo el país. Hay movilizaciones en más de 70 ciudades en toda la Argentina. Cientos de organizaciones convocan a una fuerte pelea nacional en el camino de la huelga general para derrotar a Milei, su plan y sus… pic.twitter.com/hLQBV5wZwM

— La Izquierda Diario (@izquierdadiario) September 19, 2026

Saturday’s protests are not the first time in recent months that thousands have shown a will to fight, defying the passivity of these union bureaucracies. On August 6, thousands protested against the “Inviolability of Private Property” bill that sought to attract foreign investment by streamlining evictions and making it harder to to take public ownership over private lands.

Revolutionary socialist congresswoman Myriam Bregman, member of the Party of Socialist Workers (PTS), floated the idea of organizing the “March of Rage.” Across the entire country, over 350 organizations of workers, students, and leaders from cultural, human rights, and political spheres planned grassroots rallies. The event gained so much traction that every media outlet in Argentina had to cover it. The committees for a party of the new working class also played a key role, spreading the word far and wide, and ultimately forming the largest contingents in the March of Anger.

The Roots of the Anger

Saturday’s march reflected crises that had been building for years. A telling scene in Berazategui, in the Buenos Aires suburbs, had gone viral. More than 1,500 people stood in a line several blocks long to land a job at a local steakhouse, for wages of approximately 800,000 pesos (US$530).

The scene was symbolic of an Argentina whose economic and social crisis is deepening, confirmed by recent economic figures. The country’s economy contracted by 0.6 percent in the second quarter of 2026 while unemployment rose to 7.9 percent. Even more significantly, job insecurity is on the rise: the informal sector accounted for 45 percent of employment over the past year.

There is anger because wages aren’t enough. Because jobs are being lost. Because companies are closing. Because pensions, disability benefits, healthcare, and education funding are being cut. Because more and more ordinary people are going into debt just to put food on the table or buy medicine. Because of the systematic attacks on women, oppressed people, and diversity.

In the face of growing discontent and Saturday’s massive mobilizations, an increasingly weakened and unpopular Milei has reaffirmed that he is staying the course. He did so in front of his own supporters, when he gathered them at the Casa Rosada to confirm his path before ministers, deputies, and senators from La Libertad Avanza, the president’s right-wing coalition.

But Milei also did so outwardly by submitting his 2027 Budget, with its fantastical economic projections and the austerity that will be required to sustain them. In the meantime, he’s trying to shift the political agenda by attempting to appropriate the Malvinas issue for his own purposes. Yet widespread public discontent limits his ability to use the issue opportunistically, while his rhetoric cannot conceal the reality of his alignment with and subservience to Donald Trump

Union and Opposition Passivity

However, in his calculations, Milei is counting on one key factor: social unrest is immense, but the bureaucracies of the country’s two largest trade union federations, the CGT and the CTA, are helping him through their absolute passivity. Just as they did by letting the reactionary labor reform law pass, by accepting the various austerity measures, or by betraying every struggle.

But it’s not just the union bureaucracy — it’s also a large part of the opposition leadership, which not only displays absolute moderation and lets everything slide but now explicitly says there is no choice but to put up with it.

This very Saturday, Axel Kicillof, the center-left Peronist governor of the province of Buenos Aires, was explicit at his campaign kickoff event: “We have to hang in there, because we’re getting closer to ending this nightmare.” In addition to these calls for passivity, he’s bringing fascists into his electoral coalition, such as Santiago Cúneo, who this week insulted Bregman and Nicolás del Caño.

Another center-left coalition — like Frente de Todos, which governed Argentina from 2019 to 2023 — is on the horizon, if figures like Kicillof manage to strike a deal with the rest of Peronism, such as the wing led by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and former Economy Minister Sergio Massa. Peronism has also just voted unanimously to appoint judges who will ensure Milei’s impunity, and greenlight the Lago Escondido project, which keeps public lands in the hands of private foreign investors. We’ve seen this story before.

Organize the Anger

But on Saturday, tens of thousands broke with these union bureaucracies and passive opposition leaderships. There is anger and a desire to fight; that’s why Bregman’s proposal for the “March of Anger” resonated so strongly, and why hundreds of organizations and public figures joined the cause.

Throughout this journey, the Committees for a New Working-Class Party, alongside Bregman, have played a fundamental role. They have been organizing for months and now number around 200 across the country, bringing together thousands of people who meet, debate, and offer a vision for building a new historical perspective after years of failures by capitalist governments of various political stripes.

Los diputados @myriambregman, @NicolasdelCano y @chipicastillo en Plaza de Mayo al cierre de la Marcha de la Bronca pic.twitter.com/wvhtcWRqD2

— La Izquierda Diario (@izquierdadiario) September 19, 2026

On Saturday, the committees, together with the PTS, formed the largest contingents in the March of Anger, both in the City of Buenos Aires and throughout the country. Something new is emerging. The fact that Bregman has been the political leader with the best public image in the country for so many months reflects her consistency and coherence: she confronted Milei from the very beginning, refused to give him a single vote in the National Congress, took to the streets, and gave voice to the women’s movement’s struggle against such a misogynistic government. With her as their standard-bearer, thousands upon thousands are organizing.

Those who packed Plaza de Mayo and those who took to the streets across the country demonstrated that social unrest and the will to fight are very much alive. It was a grassroots mobilization of unprecedented strength that completely laid bare the betrayal of the union bureaucracies and showed that it is possible to break through passivity.

That enormous force now faces new challenges: not to let this remain an isolated march, but to ensure that, from now on, every struggle is supported by thousands so it can succeed; to establish coordinating committees in every region among workers, students, human rights organizations, social organizations, and neighborhood groups; to build the strength not only to support every struggle and reclaim the organizations from the bureaucracies, but also to pave the way for a general strike to defeat Milei, his plan, and his accomplices.

Translated and adapted by Otto Fors.

Originally published in Spanish on September 19 in La Izquierda Diario.

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