Anarchists Lead Argentine Labor Movement

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Anarchists Lead Argentine Labor Movement

Argentina 1900-1910

Synopsis

During the first decade of the 1900s, the tone of the labor movement in Argentina turned dramatically from cooperation to defiance as anarchists took over the leadership roles in union organizations. The militant antigovernment policy of anarchism, in turn, forced the government to change dramatically its attitude toward unions from one of general ambivalence to one of repression. As the waves of general strikes built up during this period, the government employed various repressive measures, such as riot controls and even deportation of militants, to control the defiant nature of the labor movement. By 1910, however, organized labor had clearly gathered strength in Argentina. Because of its revolutionary nature, however, it remained outside of the established political and capitalist structure of the country. The labor movement would remain an outsider until the government and the capitalists needed it to fulfill their continuing industrial aspirations.

Timeline

1899: Aspirin introduced.
1900: Commonwealth of Australia is established.
1900: Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams.
1901: U.S. President William McKinley is assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt becomes president.
1904: Russo-Japanese War, which lasts into 1905 and results in a resounding Japanese victory, begins. In Russia, the war is followed by the Revolution of 1905, which marks the beginning of the end of czarist rule; meanwhile, Japan is poised to become the first major non-Western power of modern times.
1907: U.S. markets experience a financial panic.
1911: Turkish-Italian War sees the first use of aircraft as an offensive weapon. Italian victory results in the annexation of Libya.
1913: Two incidents illustrate the increasingly controversial nature of the arts in the new century. Visitors to the 17 February Armory Show in New York City are scandalized by such works as Marcel Duchamp's cubist Nude Descending a Staircase, which elicits vehement criticism, and theatergoers at the 29 May debut of Igor Stravinksy's ballet Le Sacré du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) are so horrified by the new work that a riot ensues.
1914: On 28 June in the town of Sarajevo, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinates Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and wife Sophie. In the weeks that follow, Austria declares war on Serbia, and Germany on Russia and France, while Great Britain responds by declaring war on Germany. By the beginning of August, the lines are drawn, with the Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan) against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey).

Event and Its Context

Anarchism in Argentina Prior to 1900

As early as the 1880s, the anarchists in the labor movement in Argentina were unable to compete effectively with the socialists for leadership of the working class because they were divided into two factions. One faction supported the philosophy of Mikhail Bakunin, who emphasized the need for individual action. The other faction supported the philosophy of Pyotr Kropotkin, who supported the collectivist attitude that effective action must be undertaken by groups. The only thing upon which the two factions agreed was rejection of the more traditional methods of the socialists, the leading labor group at that time in Argentina. The socialists wanted to assimilate the worker into the society of Argentina, but the anarchists wanted to destroy the existing society and build a new one in its place.

During the 1890s the collectivist faction won control of the Argentine anarchists. The writings of Antonio Pellicer Paraire provided the anarchists with a basis for collective organization. In 1900 Paraire published a series of articles titled La Organización Obrera (The Workers' Organization), in which he emphasized the ineffectiveness of individual action in the overall daily struggle and the long-range revolutionary goals of the anarchist movement. He proposed that every local trade group or factory unit organize soliedad de resistencia (a resistance society). The local societies, he proposed, would further unite to form craft federations, which would fight to improve economic and social conditions, and local federations, which would handle all organizational matters.

FORA and UGT

In 1901 the anarchists joined together (temporarily, as would be the trend in the future) with the socialists in establishing the Federación Obrera Argentina (Argentina Workers' Federation, FOA). At its second congress in 1902, the socialist affiliates walked out over differences with the anarchists. The anarchists changed the FOA's name to the Federación Obrera de la República Argentina (Workers' Federation of the Argentine Republic, FORA). For the next 10 years, the anarchists became the strongest voice for the labor movement, and the socialists regrouped and formed a minority organization called the Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT (General Union of Workers) and later reorganized as the Workers' Confederation of the Argentina Region (Confederación Obrera de la Región Argentina, CORA).

Under the leadership of the anarchists, the labor movement moved toward creating a radically new society rather than assimilating workers into society, as the socialists had tried to do earlier. The leaders of the anarchist movement felt that violence was justified in the effort to return society to a state that was free of the corruption that they felt controlled the country. The most effective method promoted and used by the anarchists to overthrow the government and to win benefits for the workers was the revolutionary general strike.

Using the inspiration of the Barcelona, Spain, general strike of 1902, the Argentine anarchists began a wave of local and general strikes. The general strikes of 1902 illustrated the difference in the new labor movement (anarchist versus socialist) when the workers of Argentina led a national, unified labor struggle and angrily expressed their growing social and political concerns about the country. The strikes, which were initiated by the workers in the central fruit markets at the ports of Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Bahía Blanca, later led to a general strike against the Ley de Residencia (Law of Residence), starting on 23 November 1902. The Law of Residence allowed the government to deport anyone whose activities compromised national security or disturbed the public peace. The city of Buenos Aires was besieged with infantry and cavalry, as factories turned into armed camps. In 1904 workers conducted a general strike in the city of Rosario, which eventually was given the name the "Barcelona of Latin America." That year workers on the sugar plantations of Tucumán also engaged in a general strike. The general strike in 1905, in which factory stoppages joined the massive confrontations of the general strikes, is considered to be the high point of the anarchist influence on the labor movement.

Two of the most successful strikes occurred in 1907 and 1909. In 1907 a general strike organized by the railway engineers' union known as La Fraternidad (The Brotherhood) engaged a national outpouring of support from about 93,000 workers. During the entire year of 1907, according to the annual bulletins of the Argentine National Labor Department, 169,107 strikers in Buenos Aires were involved in 231 strikes. The number of strikers during 1907 was enormous compared to 1908, when only 11,561 Buenos Aires strikers were involved in 118 strikes. Then in May 1909, government repression of the workers' marches caused about 12 deaths and more than 100 injuries. To protest the killing of workers by the police, between 200,000 and 300,000 laborers soon conducted a work stoppage in Buenos Aires that lasted for six days. The 1909 strike ended after the government conceded to many of the demands of the workers.

Governmental Response

For the most part the government of Argentina had little sympathy for any type of labor movement, whether it was socialist or anarchist. In a strong position of power, the country's leaders would not even consider that the working class could be on equal status with the ruling class. However, as the anarchists took over the labor movement, created the FORA, and introduced militancy into their actions, the government quickly abandoned its noninterventionist mood toward capital-labor conflicts and adopted forceful and repressive measures to control the labor movement. In response to the 1902 wave of strikes—the first general strikes in Argentine history—the police began to raid union headquarters, use labor spies, imprison workers, and suspend the publication of labor periodicals. When necessary the government declared a state of siege—a declaration of emergency—that permitted it to suspend the normal constitutional guarantees due to its citizens. Often the repression led to bloody conflict as the intervention by the police and the army created a toll of dead and injured protesters (along with soldiers). When all else failed, the government resorted to deporting the leaders of the militant movement under the new Law of Residence. During its 60-year history, this law allowed for the expulsion of hundreds (perhaps thousands) of anarchist militants and foreign-born workers, along with some of the more revolutionary Argentine workers.

The government tried to compromise with the labor movement in 1904 when it attempted to approve an eight-hour work-day, a regulation of night work, accident insurance, rest on Sunday, regulation of women's work, and the prohibition of child labor. However, both labor and business opposed the proposed law for their own one-sided reasons. In 1907 the government again tried to establish a relationship with the working classes by creating a National Labor Department. However, leaders of the labor movement refused to meet with what it perceived as a corrupt government. The National Labor Department enforced new labor legislation, collected statistics on workers' conditions, and arbitrated industrial disputes (when both sides agreed to such a resolution).

The final conflict between the militant labor movement and the equally forceful government happened seven days before the 25 May 1910 celebration of the Centennial of Argentine Independence. After the failure of communications between labor, business, and government, the government approached the leaders of the anarchist FORA with the hope of avoiding any conflict during the celebrations. The FORA leaders, on the one hand, felt they should call a strike at this time, but, on the other hand, felt that the people might see a strike as opposing the celebration. The socialist CORA decided to go ahead with a strike on 18 May 1910. The FORA then felt obligated to call a general strike on that same day so as to maintain its position of leadership.

The government moved swiftly to stop the organized labor demonstrations. On 13 May 1910 it began to arrest labor leaders, and the next day it declared a state of siege. Union buildings were destroyed and people employed at working-class newspapers were attacked. Thousands of workers were jailed and dozens were deported. Tensions remained high throughout the celebrations, but the government eventually canceled all demonstrations during those days. The situation finally reached a peak on 26 June 1910, when a bomb exploded at an empty theatre. An anarchist was accused of the crime, and within the next two days the government passed the Law of Social Defense (Ley de Defensa Social) specifically to destroy the anarchist movement. The law prohibited anarchists from entering the country, propagating their ideas, and holding public meetings. The government quickly removed the leaders of the anarchists from their leadership positions, which weakened the overall labor movement. Workers were left to fend for themselves, as the government promptly eliminated any type of organized labor.

Conclusion

The domination by the anarchists of the labor movement in Argentina ended in May 1910. For almost two years, the FORA existed as an underground organization. In 1914 the FORA merged with the CORA at a congress under the new FORA name: Federación Obrera Regional Argentina (Argentine Regional Workers' Federation, FORA). However, in a year the socialist element separated from the FORA, at its ninth congress, after refusing to support the organization's pledge to support anarchist communism. The socialists formed what was called the FORA of the Ninth Congress, and the anarchists formed what was called the FORA of the Fifth Congress (based on the "fifth" meeting that first made the pledge to anarchist communism).

Because the anarchists and the socialists could not unite in a common cause for the working class, the effectiveness of the labor movement remained fragmented. Furthermore, because of their militant nature, labor organizations largely remained outside the established institutional political and capitalist structure of Argentina. The labor movement would remain an outsider until the government and the capitalists needed it to fulfill their industrial aspirations. Such a need would eventually arise, but the labor movement still had years of struggle with which to contend as it grew in an industrializing Argentina.

Key Players

Bakunin, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (1814-1876): Bakunin was a Russian revolutionary of the nineteenth century, both in Russia and Europe. He was best known for his anarchistic philosophy. Bakunin was also a prolific theorist, a devoted atheist, and a radical agitator.

Kropotkin, Pyotr Alekseyevich (1842-1921): Kropotkin was one of Russia's best known anarchists and a prominent advocate of libertarian socialism. Because of his prominence as an anarchist, he was commonly known as the "Anarchist Prince."

Paraire, Antonio Pellicer (1851-1916): Paraire was a Spanish printer who immigrated to Argentina in 1891. In 1900 Paraire published a series of articles on labor organizations in which he put forward the basic principles for a labor federation.

See also: Organized Labor Established, Argentina.