José Rigane, Secretary General of the Union of Luz y Fuerza de Mar del Plata and of the Federation of Energy Workers (FeTERA), has passed away this morning, Tuesday, February 25th.
With great sorrow and deep pain, his comrades at Luz y Fuerza of Mar del Plata (Luz y Fuerza MdP) and FeTERA gave the news earlier today.
“To define right now and in a nutshell is very complex. He was always in the front line of the struggle. And that is what matters, because he never changed his ideology to approach power and despite political changes, he continued fighting, with coherence and solidarity, for a better society.
We have now to say goodbye to a comrade, a friend and a tireless fighter at all times. A great one of the union movement with national conscience, goes away today,” read the Luz y Fuerza MdP communiqué.
José Rigane, who as a young man, had actively participated as a unionist in the electricity sector of the city of Mar del Plata, became later part of a generation of union leaders who in the late 80s and early 90s proposed a new union model that struggles and is organized for the rights of workers and with a deep perspective of union democracy and freedom of association, says FeTERA in a statement regarding Rigane’s passing away.
He was a fighter for energy sovereignty and against the looting of our natural resources multinationals carry out in our country. He was a fighter who always remained in the front line against the neoliberal privatizations of the 90s.
Rigane was a fundamental part of the foundation of the Central de los Trabajadores Argentinos – CTA in 1992. He was also key in the creation of the FeTERA and an irreplaceable comrade and leader of the Union of Luz y Fuerza of Mar del Plata, from where he starred in countless struggles such as the historic fight of Carpa Solidaria in Mar del Plata, which marked 25 years yesterday (February 24, 2020). In addition, he promoted the Social Tariff in the province of Buenos Aires when nobody talked about it. He was Deputy Secretary of the Autonomous CTA, from where he also fought for labor rights and for the unity in diversity of the union movement.
He firmly and permanently promoted the idea that energy is not a commodity, but a human right. He struggled to change the model of privatization and foreignization of energy that dominates Argentina and fought hard for an energy model of national sovereignty, which serves the strategic interests of the workers and the people.
He sincerely believed in the unity of the labor movement, overcoming differences and all kinds of pettiness. He believed faithfully in the struggle of workers for social change and for a decent life of the people as a whole, as did the comrades of the Cordobazo in 1969.
He also participated in the struggle at the international level taking part in the Encuentro Sindical Nuestra América (ESNA) and in expressing his solidarity – with deep internationalist feeling – with the struggles of the peoples. In short, the fight against any injustice, anywhere in the world.
We say farewell to an irreplaceable comrade.
¡¡¡HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE, JOSÉ RIGANE!!!
EVER ONWARD TO VICTORY!!!
