Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:29:31.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Argentina 1976–1982: Labour Leadership and Military Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

Argentina's labour leaders make up one of the most powerful social groups in the nation's society. Their power is based on the unions' economic resources as well as on their capacity to mobilise rank-and-file workers. However, the group has developed a tendency towards bureaucratisation. On the one hand they are representative of their fellow-workers which is why they are continuously re-elected. At the same time, they have acquired technical and bureaucratic skills which ease their handling of the trade union structure. ‘As long as permanence at the head of the union becomes prolonged, the labour leader draws further away from the cultural and economic criteria of the workers who form the rank-and-file.’1 This tendency towards self-perpetuation in office maintains the acquired social status. In addition, the separation from the rank-and-file increases in order to have a relative autonomy and play the role of intermediary between the worker and the employer. In this sense, the corporativism and verticalism inherent in the Peronist doctrine, as a form of selecting leaders, increases the tendency towards bureaucratisation in the trade union leaders, marking a breach with the historical tendency of the Argentine labour movement previous to 1946–7.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Fernández, Arturo, Las prácticas sociales del sindicalismo: 1976–1982 (Buenos Aires: CEAL, 1985), p. 22.Google Scholar

2 Portantiero, Juan Carlos, ‘Clases dominantes y crisis política en la Argentina actual’, in Braun, Oscar (ed.), El capitalismo argentino en crisis (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, Editores, 1973). P. 102.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., p. 103.

5 Ibid., p. 101.

6 Ramos, Mónica Peralta, Acumulación del capital y crisis política en Argentina (1930–1974) (México: Siglo XXI, 1978), pp. 122–9Google Scholar, states that in 1963, 4% of all Argentine enterprises produced 52 7% of all industrial production value. In addition, she considers that 69% of Argentine industry was highly concentrated, and that 24.6% of all industries were overtly controlled by foreign corporations.

There is an ample literature on the economic sectors which supported the dictatorship as well as on their objectives and their effects on the economy. I relied on Schvarzer, Jorge, Martínez de Hoz: La lógica política de la política económica (Buenos Aires: CISEA, 1983)Google Scholar; Azpiazu, D., Basualdo, E. M. and Khavisse, M., El nuevo poder económico en la Argentina de los años 80 (Buenos Aires: Legasa, 1986)Google Scholar; and Schvarzer, Jorge, Expansión económica del estado subsidiario 1976–1981 (Buenos Aires: CISEA, 1981).Google Scholar In terms of Martinez de Hoz as representative of the monopoly bourgeoisie, see Lupo, Rogelio Garcia, Mercenarios y monopolios en la Argentina de Onganía a Lanusse, 1966–1971 (Buenos Aires: Achaval Solo, 1971)Google Scholar; and Toledo, Mariano, ‘Argentina: Nine Months of Military Government’, Monthly Review, vol. 28 (04 1977), pp. 1320.Google Scholar

7 Presidencia de la Nación Argentina, Documento de trabajo sobre las bases polítical de la reorganizatión national (mimeo, 08 1978)Google Scholar. See also Junta Militar. República Argentina, Documentos básicos y bases políticas de las Fuerzas Armadas para el Proceso de Reorganización National (Buenos Aires: Imprenta del Congreso de la Nación, 1980).Google Scholar

8 Presidencia de la Nación, Documento de trabajo, p. 14.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 15.

10 Portantiero, , ‘Clases dominantes’, p. 104.Google Scholar

11 See James, Daniel, ‘Rationalizatión y respuesta de la clase obrera: contexto y limitaciones de la actividad gremial en la Argentina’, Desarrollo Económico, vol. 21, no. 83 (1012, 1981), pp. 321–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 One source estimates that 53 7% of all disappearances in Argentina during 1976–83 belonged to the labour movement. Statistics of the Southern Cone Human Rights Defense Committee (CLAMOR), San Pablo, Brazil. Other estimates are higher. On December 1977, Senator Edward Kennedy read into the Record of the US Senate statistics on repression in Argentina. He calculated that 31 3 % of the Argentine prison population at the time were there for activity as union leaders or activists. See Denuncia, Año 4, no. 30 (New York: 02 1978), p. 5.Google Scholar

13 Fernández, , Prácticas sociales, p. 101.Google Scholar

14 Ibid., p. 73.

15 González, Santiago Senén, Diez años de sindicalismo argentino (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1984), p. 61.Google Scholar

16 Abós, Alvaro, Las organizaciones sindicales y el poder militar (1976–1983) (Buenos Aires: CEAL, 1984), p. 8.Google Scholar

17 See the accusation by Raimundo Ongaro in Secretaría de Relaciones Sindicales de la Federatión Gráfica Bonaerense, Situatión sindical en la República Argentina (mimeo, 1978).Google Scholar

18 Abós, , Organizacioncs sindicales, p. 10Google Scholar; and Senén, , Diez años, p. 69.Google Scholar

19 Abós, , Organizacions sindicales, pp. 124–5.Google Scholar

20 Senén, , Diez años, p. 70.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., p. 70.

22 See Clarín, 2–5 March 1977.

23 Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 37Google Scholar; and Denuncia, Año 4, nos. 36, 37, 38 (New York, 09, 10, 11 1978).Google Scholar

24 Denuncia, Año 3, no. 28 (New York, 12 1977)Google Scholar; Clarín (17 October to 3 November 1977); La Prensa (27 October to 23 November 1977); La Opinión (31 October to 9 November 1977); La Nación (11 November 1977); Excelsior (16 October to 15 November 1977); Associated Press and Agence France Presse; Liga por los Derechos del Hombre (Argentina), Carta (November 1977). Also Perrone, Jorge, La patria reciente (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Puer, 1983), p. 129.Google Scholar

25 Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 53.Google Scholar

26 See, for instance, the speech by UCR leader Ricardo Balbín, reported in La Razón (7 November 1977). In this speech, Balbín stated that the UCR had given the regime enough time to show results. In his estimate, it had lost consensus and now people wanted a return to democracy. Also, Francisco Manrique, of the right-wing Federal Party, stated to Clarín (10 December 1977) that there was a strong basis for concern for the present and the future due to ‘a latent labour unrest’.

27 The economist Alfredo Allende stated to Clarín (18 February 1978): ‘Nobody – native or foreign – will invest in a nation with a… potentially explosive social situation’.

28 Latin America Political Report. London, weekly (7 01 1978).Google Scholar The analysis in Denuncia, Año 4, no. 29 (01 1978), p. 6Google Scholar, places more emphasis on the internal contradictions within the military.

29 See Presidencia de la Nación Argentina, Documento de trabajo, p. 31.Google Scholar

30 See Clarín, La Opinión and El Cronista Comercial (7 November to 10 December 1977).

31 López, P., ‘El difícil camino de la unidad sindical’, Denuncia, Año 4, no. 37 (10 1978)Google Scholar; and Abós, , Organizacions sindicales, pp. 37–8.Google Scholar

32 Senén, , Diez años, p. 86.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., p. 96; and Denuncia, Año 4, no. 40 (15 01 to 15 02 1979).Google Scholar

34 Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 123.Google Scholar

35 García, Roberto, Patria sindical versus patria socialista (Buenos Aires: Depalma, 1980), pp. 58–9.Google Scholar

36 La Nación, 16 May 1978.

37 López, P., ‘Se formaliza la división sindical’, Denuncia, Año 4, no. 38 (11 1978).Google Scholar

38 Ibid.; Fernández, , Práctical sociales, pp. 7780Google Scholar; and Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, pp. 3940.Google Scholar

39 Fernández, , Prácticas sociales, pp. 68–9.Google Scholar

40 Latin America Political Report (2 06 1978), p. 165.Google Scholar

41 Agencia de Noticias Clandestinas (ANCLA), 15 March 1977; Latin America Political Report (2; 06 and 6 08 1976), pp. 198 and 242.Google Scholar

42 Denuncia, Año 7, no. 61 (0809 1981).Google Scholar

43 Senén, , Diez años, pp. 97 and 157.Google Scholar

44 There is a disparity of criteria as to the economic results of the dictatorship. Some analysts believe its effects were destructive of the means of production, while others emphasise the process of concentration and foreign penetration. I prefer the analysis by Teubal and Abalo which suggests that both phenomena went on. That is, while the non-monopoly sectors of the bourgeoisie were driven into bankruptcy, the monopoly sectors increased the concentration of the remainder of the economy. Teubal, Miguel, ‘Argentina: The Crisis of Ultramonetarism’, Monthly Review, vol. 34 (02 1983), pp. 1827Google Scholar; and Abalo, Carlos, ‘Notas sobre la economía argentina’, Cuadernos del Sur (0709 1985).Google Scholar

45 Denuncia, Año 6, no. 53 (07 1980)Google Scholar; and Denuncia, Año 7, no. 61 (0809 1981)Google Scholar, quoting Clarín.

46 Abalo, Carlos, ‘Notas’, p. 71.Google Scholar

47 Jorge Schvarzer, Expansión económica.

48 Clarín (5 March 1981).

49 Denuncia, Año 4, no. 41 (15 02 to 15 03 1979), pp. 34.Google Scholar

50 ‘El Economista’, Año clave (Buenos Aires: 12 1980).Google Scholar The calculation was based on the official unemployment rate plus an estimate for discouraged workers as well as for young people unable to make their first entry into the labour market.

51 For instance, the Textile Workers Union (AOT) lost 60,000 members during this period. Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 73.Google Scholar

52 Denuncia, Año 4, no. 40 (15 01 to 15 02 1979).Google Scholar

53 Quoted in Senén, , Diez años, p. 90.Google Scholar

54 Senén, , Diez años, p. 115.Google Scholar

55 Clarín, 28 March 1979.

56 See Clarín (28 April 1979).

57 Quoted in Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 49.Google Scholar

58 See Clarín, 23–28 April 1979.

59 López, P., ‘Situatión agitada’, Denuncia, Año 4, no. 46 (11 1979)Google Scholar; Fernández, , Práctical sociales, p. 80Google Scholar; and Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 60.Google Scholar

60 Fernández, , Práclicas sociales, p. 78.Google Scholar

61 Denuncia, Año 4, no. 46 (11 1979)Google Scholar; and Bloque Sindical del MPM, Crómea de la resistencia sindical argentina (10 1979).Google Scholar

62 See Clarín (16 November 1979). For an analysis see De Pablo, Alberto, ‘La nueva ley antisindical’, Rearme, no. 5 (Mexico, 03 1980).Google Scholar

63 See Clarín for January 1980, and Bloque Sindical del MPM, Crómea de la resistencia (02 1980).Google Scholar

64 See Clarín, January 1981.

65 Denuncia, Año 4, no. 48 (02 1980).Google Scholar

66 Clarín, 9 April 1980.

67 Denuncia, Año 5, no. 51 (05 1980)Google Scholar; and Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, pp. 60–1.Google Scholar

67 Clarín, 25 March 1981; Rouco, José Iglesias, ‘¿Hacia una nueva CGT?’, La Prensa, 8 01 1981.Google Scholar

69 López, P., ‘Los de abajo se mueven’, Denuncia, Año 6, no. 52 (06 1980).Google Scholar

70 De Pablo, Alberto, ‘Reestructuración capitalista y lucha obrera’, Rearme no. 6 (Mexico, 0809 1980).Google Scholar Businessmen were sceptical of the new laws and their possible results. Said Tagle, Manual: ‘I do not believe that the new law will put an end to union power…The government should have reformed the laws immediately after March 1976. It did not do so. It was a political mistake.’ Quoted in Clarín (20 11 1979).Google Scholar

71 Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 62.Google Scholar

72 Senén, , Diez años, p. 135.Google Scholar

73 Denuncia, Año 7, no. 64 (12 1981).Google Scholar

74 Iglesias Rouco, ‘¿Hacia un nueva CGT?’.

75 Fernández, , Prácticas societies, p. 100Google Scholar; and Denuncia, Año 6, no. 57 (12 1980).Google Scholar

76 Senén, , Diez años, p. 159.Google Scholar

77 Ibid., p. 165; and Abós, , Organizaciones sindicales, p. 87.Google Scholar

78 Senén, , Diez años, p. 166.Google Scholar

79 Héctor Sandler (1973–6 Congressional Deputy for UDELPA) during a press conference given in the C.A.S. (Argentine Solidarity Committee), Mexico D.F., Mexico, July 1982. Note the declarations by different political parties. Some examples just before the Malvinas War were: the Argentine Communist Party declared, in mid-1981, that they desired ‘a return to the Constitution, but that does not mean that the military must return to the barracks’ (Denuncia, Año 6, no. 60, 0607 1981)Google Scholar; Deolindo Bittel, at the time first Vice President of the Justicialist Party, said that ‘I hope that this Process triumphs in spite of the fact that some Peronists do not like it’ (in a radio interview); Miguel Unamuno, a former Peronist Minister stated that ‘it would be lamentable if this Process were to end with the defeat of the Armed Forces’ (Denuncia, Año 6, no. 60, 0607 1981).Google Scholar Examples after the Malvinas War were: Raúl Alfonsín ‘[we must say] to the military that we have not gathered to defeat them’, while he called for a popular mobilisation but ‘without any spirit of revenge’; the Christian Democrat Francisco Cerro declared that ‘we must strengthen the military government to strengthen the civilian government which will succeed it in 1984’ (Denuncia, Año 8, no. 69, 09 1982).Google Scholar