Anarchism in Argentina
The Argentine anarchist movement was the strongest such movement in
Early years
The first Argentine anarchist groups appeared in the 1870s. A section of the
During this time the Argentine anarchist movement was split over the question of organization. There was a, mostly
FORA founding and radicalization
In 1901, Argentina's first
During this period the anarchist movement experienced rapid growth. 50 to 70% of the males in the working class were disenfranchised, because they were not native Argentines. Hence the legal political framework was not an option for them and anarchism gained appeal.
Major clashes with police
In 1909, police fired on a
Although martial law was lifted in January 1910, this year also saw the next major clash between the government and the anarchists. 1910 was the hundredth anniversary of the May Revolution of 1810, which led to Argentine independence. Anarchist agitation was on the rise, a new anarchist daily newspaper, La Batalla, was founded in March,[15] and the FORA planned protests against the Residence Law, but was somewhat hesitant as it scented a lack of militancy among workers. The moderate syndicalist Argentine Regional Workers' Confederation (CORA), the successor of the General Workers' Union, however, pushed for confrontation and the anarchists were forced to follow suit. They threatened to call for a general strike on May 25, the day of the anniversary festivities. Therefore, the government once again declared martial law on May 13. Police arrested the editors of La Protesta and La Batalla and FORA leaders. Meanwhile, right-wing militant youths attacked union offices and workers' clubs while the police ignored or even encouraged them. Because of this, the general strike was moved to May 18, but it was suppressed by the police and the right-wing militants.[2][16] 1910 also saw the sentencing of Simón Radowitzky. As a minor, he could not be sentenced to death, so he was condemned to life in Ushuaia. He would be pardoned and released from prison in 1930.[16][15]
Argentine anarchist historian
FORA split
The events of 1909 and 1910 left the Argentine anarchists fatigued. The movement's growth stalled as a result of state repression and the country's economic problems.[2] The Law of Social Defense, passed as a reaction to the Falcón assassination, allowed the government to deny any foreigner who committed crimes punishable under Argentine law entry into the country, prohibited the entry of anarchists, banned groups disseminating anarchist propaganda, and granted local authorities the power to prohibit any public meetings which subversive ideas could be expressed at.[18]
Meanwhile, the moderate syndicalist CORA grew in size as a result of its pragmatic approach, which included participating in negotiations with employers in place of direct action as advocated by the anarchists. Striving for labor unity, the CORA set up a fusion committee with some non-affiliated unions to push for a merger with the FORA. The majority of the FORA agreed, calling for the CORA to abolish itself and enter the FORA. At the April 1915 FORA congress, its ninth, a resolution which reversed its commitment to anarchist communism was passed, paving the way for the CORA unions to join. Only a minority in the FORA rejected this move. After the congress, this minority started a breakaway federation under the name FORA V, referring to the fifth congress, which the resolution for anarcho-communism was passed at. While the FORA IX had somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000 members, the anarchist FORA V had 10,000 at the most, though both figures are considered unreliable. The FORA V was strongest in the interior of the country, where most of the workers were native Argentines.[2][19]
With the start of World War I in 1914, the conditions for the anarchist movement became even more unfavorable. The falling of wages and a net migration back to Europe created poor premises for any kind of labor activism and the anarchist FORA V struggled to adapt to this. After a railworkers' strike broke out in October 1917, the anarchists called for a futile general strike and received little support from the FORA IX. A meat-packers' strike in Berisso and Avellaneda led by the anarchists was defeated in 1918.[20]
Semana Trágica and 1920s
In December 1918, a strike broke out at the Vasena metalworks in the Buenos Aires suburbs of Nueva Pompeya. The union leading the strike was a splinter from FORA IX and called itself anarchist, though its links to FORA V were tenuous. On January 7, 1919, a shootout between strikers and police, troops, and firemen killed five. The police and troops then attacked the 200,000 workers at the funeral procession on killing at least thirty-nine and injuring many more. After the events of January 7, the FORA V immediately called for a general strike, but the work stoppage that followed was more of a result of the workers' outrage over the killings than of the anarchists' call. The general strike took place on January 11 to 12, but then subsided. Once again, the police, the military, and right-wing groups reacted with pogroms in working-class neighborhoods. Right-wing militants created the Argentine Patriotic League. The Jewish inhabitants of the workers' quarters especially became the victims of the attacks. In all, somewhere between 100 and 700 people died and around 4,000 were injured. The Semana Trágica further perpetuated the decline of Argentine anarchism. From around 1920 on, the anarchists' influence in the trade unions was rather minor.[21][2]
From 1920 to 1922, there was a
The movement's decline continued nevertheless. It was intensified by both strife within the movement and government persecution.[2]
Infamous Decade and Perón government
On September 6, 1931,
The Spanish Civil War, which broke out in 1936, was an important topic for the Argentine anarchists. Various anarchists left to fight in the war and the FACA's official newspaper Acción Libertaria published special editions dedicated to it.[24]
In 1946, President
More recent developments
The FACA became the Argentine Libertarian Federation (FLA) in 1955, but like its predecessor organization was never able to gain a mass following. In 1985, the FLA replaced its newspaper Acción Libertaria with a new political journal called El Libertario.[27][28]
The
In 2010, the Anarchist-Communist Federation of Argentina (FACA) was established by 3 groups: the Columna Libertaria Joaquin Penina from Rosario, the Columna Libertaria Errico Malatesta from the city of Buenos Aires, and the Columna Libertaria Buenaventura Durruti from the west of the Greater Buenos Aires.[31] Its main fronts of public social struggles were the unionized and the unemployed worker movements. Its ideology was revolutionary socialist and specifism. Although it shares the name with an anarchist organization from the 1930s, it's not considered as a continuation of it. Its public appearances emphasize the comeback of a "committed social anarchism."[32]
Timeline
- 1870s: The first anarchist groups are founded in Argentina.
- 1879-1887: The anarchist newspaper El Descamisado is published from Buenos Aires.
- 1879: The International Socialist Circle is founded.
- 1887: The bakers union Sociedad Cosmopolita de Resistencia y Colocación de Obreros Panaderos is founded by anarchist Ettore Mattei. It is the first bakers union in Argentina
- 1889: Virginia Bolten leads the first women's strike in Argentina.
- 1896-1899: The anarcha-feminist newspaper La Voz de la Mujer is active. It is the first feminist newspaper in Argentina.
- 1901: The anarcho-syndicalist trade union Argentine Regional Workers' Federation is founded.
- 1902: The Argentine government passes the "Law of Residence" which allows the deportation of immigrants involved in anarchist activism.
- 1904-1905: The anarchist magazine Martín Fierro is active.
- 1907: Tenants' strike in Buenos Aires in which anarchists are active. 15-year old anarchist Miguel Pepe is shot by police.
- 1909: The anarchist Simón Radowitzky assassinates the Buenos Aires Chief of Police Ramón Lorenzo Falcón as revenge for his persecution of protesting workers during "Red Week".
- 1919: The Tragic Week occurs, in which anarchists and communists attempting an uprising in Buenos Aires are massacred. At least 141 people are killed, with higher estimates claiming 700.
- 1920-1922: Patagonia Rebelde, an uprising of rural workers in which anarchists were active. At least 300 are killed in government repression, although estimates go as high as 1500.
- 1921: The La Forestral massacre against anarchist workers in FORA.
- 1921: The anarcho-syndicalist Facón Grande is executed alongside . The anarcho-syndicalist Antonio Soto and 12 others flee to Chile by horseback.
- 1923: The anarchist Kurt Gustav Wilckens assassinates the military leader Héctor Benigno Varela as revenge for the repression of workers during Patagonia Rebelde. Wilckens is assassinated by an Argentine fascist in prison as revenge.
- 1926-1928: Several bombings are carried out by the Bank of Boston.
- 1928: The anarcho-syndicalist Luisa Lallana is murdered by a strikebreaker during a dockworkers strike. Her murder triggers a general strike in Rosario in protest.
- 1931: Severino Di Giovanni is captured by the government after a gunfight and executed.
- 1935: The Argentine Libertarian Federation is founded.
- 1936: The anarchist Miguel Arcángel Roscigna disappears after being released from prison.
- 1974-1983: The Argentine government carries out the Dirty War, in which at least 22,000 dissidents are killed, including several anarchists.
- 1974-1978: The anarchist urban guerilla group Resistencia Libertaria is active against the dictatorship in Argentina. At least 8 members of the group are victims are kidnapped and go missing.
- 1974: The movie Rebellion in Patagonia is released, being considered one of the greatest Argentine films ever made. It is based on a book by anarchist Osvaldo Bayer.
- 1998: The Argentine anarchist Soledad Rosas who was living in Italy commits suicide in prison after being falsely charged with eco-terrorism by Italian police.
- 2001: December 2001 riots in Argentina, while not led by anarchists, have been praised by anarchists.
- 2009-2010: The anarchist urban guerilla group Revolutionary Cells are active in Buenos Aires, carrying out several bombings.
- 2011: The anarchist and singer Facundo Cabral is killed by gunfire in Guatemala in unclear circumstances.
See also
- Horizontalidad
- Socialism in Argentina
- December 2001 riots in Argentina
- FaSinPat
- Brukman factory
- Hotel Bauen
References
- ^ Simon 1946, p. 38
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Oved 1997
- ^ Moroziuk, Lidia (2007). "Inmigración e ideología anarquista. Protesta agitativa contrainstitucional y gráfica contestataria (1879 – 1940)" (PDF). VII Jornadas de Sociología, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.
- ^ Oved, Iaacov (1978). El anarquismo y el movimiento obrero en Argentina. p. 22.
- ^ a b Colombo 1971, pp. 215–216
- ^ Simon 1946, p. 39
- ^ Colombo 1971, p. 216
- ^ Thompson 1990, p. 168
- ^ Simon 1946, p. 42
- ^ Thompson 1990, pp. 168–169
- ^ Colombo 1971, pp. 217–18
- ^ Colombo 1971, p. 227
- Página/12 (in Spanish). Buenos Aires.
- ^ Colombo 1971, pp. 218–219
- ^ a b Colombo 1971, p. 219
- ^ a b Simon 1946, p. 44
- OCLC 925976471.
- ^ Simon 1946, pp. 44–45
- ^ Thompson 1990, pp. 173–174
- ^ Thompson 1990, p. 174
- ^ Thompson 1990, pp. 175–176
- ^ Colombo 1971, pp. 219–220
- ^ Colombo 1971, pp. 220–221
- ^ Colombo 1971, p. 221
- OCLC 925976471.
- ^ Colombo 1971, pp. 221–222
- ISBN 978-0804708456.
- ISBN 9781405198073.
- ^ / Jóvenes anarquistas revivirán el primer acto del 1º de Mayo Archived 2009-05-08 at the Wayback Machine, La Capital
- ^ / Rock, historia y experiencias durante un 1º de Mayo anarquista en la plaza López Archived 2012-03-07 at the Wayback Machine, La Capital
- ^ Valverde, Eduardo (30 April 2011). "Herederos de Joaquín Penina". La Capital (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 May 2011.
- ^ Stampella, Sebastián (May 2011). "Rosario Sin Dios ni Amo". Cruz del Sur (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 30 July 2011.
Bibliography
- Colombo, Eduardo (1971), "Anarchism in Argentina and Uruguay", in Apter, David E.; Joll, James (eds.), Anarchism Today, Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, pp. 211–244.
- Morse, Chuck (2009). "Anarchism, Argentina". In Ness, Immanuel (ed.). The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 1–5. ISBN 978-1-4051-9807-3.
- OCLC 25122634.
- Simon, S. Fanny (February 1946). "Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in South America". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 26 (1). Durham: Duke University Press: 38–59. JSTOR 2507692.
- Thompson, Ruth (1985). "The Limitations of Ideology in the Early Argentine Labour Movement: Anarchism in the Trade Unions, 1890—1920". Journal of Latin American Studies. 16 (1): 81–99. S2CID 154931932.
- Thompson, Ruth (1990), "Argentine Syndicalism: Reformism before Revolution", in van der Linden, Marcel; Thorpe, Wayne (eds.), Revolutionary Syndicalism: an International Perspective, Aldershot: Scolar Press, pp. 167–183, ISBN 0-85967-815-6
Further reading
- Stavisky, Sebastián (May 2023). "El vegetarianismo en la prensa anarquista rioplatense [Vegetarianism in the anarchist press of the Río de la Plata]". Revista de Historia Regional (in Spanish). 27 (2): 1–17. EBSCOhost 165033088.
- Suriano, Juan (2010). Paradoxes of Utopia: Anarchist Culture and Politics in Buenos Aires, 1890–1910. Translated by Morse, Chuck. Edinburgh; Oakland, CA: AK Press. OCLC 461279230.
- Woodcock, George (1986). "Various Traditions: Anarchism in Latin America, Northern Europe, Britain, and the United States". Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. OCLC 489971695.
External links
- History of Anarchism in Argentina from R.A. Forum
- The Anarchist City of America Santiago Juan-Navarro's article on Pierre Quiroule's work
- Website of the FLA (Argentine Libertarian Federation)
- FLA cited in the Anarchist Encyclopedia
- [1] scans of periodicals housed in the FLA's archive.