Rolando Munck - Cycles Of Class Struggle And The Making Of The Working Class In A 1890-1920

J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 19, 19-39

Printed in Great Britain

I9

Cycles of class struggle and the making of the working class in Argentina, 1890-I920 by RONALDO

MUNCK

There is currently a renewed interest in the relationship between economic fluctations and strike movements which refers back to an article by Eric Hobsbawm' and an even earlier polemical piece by Leon Trotsky.2 This article offers a contribution to the growing literature, focusing, unlike most other studies, on a Third World country. It also reflects the increasing influence of social history in Latin American research on the making of the working class. The historical account which follows is framed by a number of hypotheses derived from the above-mentioned literature: (i) 'The making of the working class is a fact of political and cultural, as much as economic, history' (E. P. Thompson).3 (2) 'Long-term depression factors ... helped to accumulate inflammable material rather than to set it alight' (E. Hobsbawm).4 (3) 'The impetus to the strike wave was the upturn in the economic conjuncture with a simultaneous rise in the cost of living' (L. Trotsky).5 (4) 'Workers' militancy depends on two conflicting factors: achievements and frustration' (E. Screpanti).6

Eric Hobsbawm, 'Economic Fluctuations and some Social Movement', LabouringMen (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984). 2 Leon Trotsky, 'The "Third Period" of the Comintern's Errors', Writings of Leon Trotsky (New York, Pathfinder Press, I930). 3 E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (London, Penguin, I970), p. 213.

4 Eric Hobsbawm, op. cit., p. I41. 5 Leon Trotsky, op. cit., p. 45. 6 Ernesto Screpanti, 'Long Economic Cycles and Recurring Proletarian Insurgencies', Review, vol. VII, no. 2 (winter, I984), pp. 509-48.

Ronaldo Munck

20

(5) 'With each upturn of a long wave come not only new machines and rising prices, but the recreation of the working class and much of the social environment' (J. Cronin).7 These, in brief, are the main ideas which the following account is designed to illuminate through a case study of Argentina between

I890 and i920.

I. Theformativeperiod From the 850osonwards capital strengthened its economic and political domination over the territory of Argentina, which had gained its independence from Spain in 181 0. A long period of civil wars concluded with the battle of Caseros in 852 and the adoption of a national constitution the following year. This political-military process coincided with the gradual incorporation of the fertile pampa region into the international circuit of capital accumulation. Argentina was primarily an agricultural country: the I853 municipal census for Buenos Aires indicated the presence

of 700 workshops

and Ioo 'factories'

employing

some 2,000

workers. During the i88os there was a significant increase in the level of industrialisation: Buenos Aires could now boast a dozen meat-packing plants employing nearly 8,000 people and 7 flour mills with 500 workers. Yet there were on average only ten workers per industrial establishment, which testifies to the semi-artisanal level of production at this period. A further characteristic of early industry was the predominant role of immigrant enterprise and labour: the i887 census found that 92% of industrial workshops and factories were owned by foreigners, and that 84 % of the workers were immigrants. Between I 887 and I895 the number of industrial establishments rose from 6, 28 to 8,439 and the number of wage earners doubled. The I88os had brought to power an organised section of the ruling classes which was to launch a coherent capitalist growth project and lead to Argentina's 'golden era' between i890 and 1930.

If capital produces the labour-power it requires, then the working class is not simply a passive element in the machine of capital accumulation. In 857, the Buenos Aires printworkers formed the first recorded mutual aid society, the SociedadTipograficaBonaerense.By I876 the printworkers had formed the first genuine trade union, followed by the bakers, carpenters and other trades. In 1887 the railworkers' union La Fraternidad became the first national organisation. Strike statistics for this period are 7

James Cronin, 'Stages, Cycles and Insurgencies:The Economics of Unrest', in T. K. Hopkins and I. Wallerstein(eds.), The PoliticalEconomyof the WorldSystem,vol. III (California, Sage, I980), p. I2.

Class Struggle in Argentina, I890-I920

2

unreliable but Julio Godio has estimated that some 48 strikes took place during the i88os, of which an equal number were won and lost by the workers.8 Most of these strikes occurred in the capital city, Buenos Aires, and they were mainly concerned with wage demands. The i88os saw the beginning of a fundamental shift from artisan labour to manufacturing. Unlike the worker-artisans in the metal or textile workshops, the workers in the meat-packing plants were mainly native born. The working class of Argentina was thus taking shape in the melting pot of the class struggle, a permanent feature from I890. On the one hand, were the descendants of the gauchosand the internal migration following the collapse of the provincial rebellions in the i88os; on the other, the overseas migrants, many of whom, such as those who fled the collapse of the Paris Commune of 1871, brought with them the political traditions of socialism and anarchism. At first the overseas immigrants saw real prospects of upward social mobility, but these hopes were to be dashed in the I89os. II. Economicdepressionand labourquiescence,1893-1902 The year i890 was an important turning point in the economic and political history of Argentina. For Di Tella and Zymelman 'the crisis of I 890 is one of the most important in Argentine economic history, by virtue of its magnitude and because of the political, social and economic repercussions which accompanied it'.9 The Baring crisis in London and the subsequent financial and trade dislocations proved a real boost to industrialisatic in Argentina. After the 1890 crash there was a generally recessive phase, punctuated only by the upturn of I896. During this cycle, the level of investment dropped significantly and immigration fell off, being overtaken even by emigration for a while (see Graph 3). There was a labour surplus and the economy showed little capacity for absorbing further labour. From this date on the labour movement in Argentina was to express its opposition to 'artificially fomented' emigration from Europe, which it saw as an uncontrollable factor liable to increase the size of the reserve army of labour and thus depress wages and make strikes more difficult to maintain. The high immigration rates in I 896, for example, can be seen as a contributing factor to the large proportion of working-class defeats in strike movements that year. Indeed, such is the importance of immigration during these years 8

obrerolatinoamericano: r. Anarquistas Julio Godio, Historiadel movimiento y Socialistas I80o-IIr8

(Mexico; Editorial Nueva Imagen, i980), p. I65.

9 Guido Di Tella and Manuel Zymelman,Los cicloseconomicos argentinos (Buenos Aires, Paid6s, I973), p.

32.

22

RonaldoMunck

that it must be considered as a substantial variable in our analysis of economic cycles and labour insurgency. Between i887 and I895 the number of industrial establishments rose from 6,128 to 8,439 and the number of wage-earners doubled. As mechanisation progressed, so too did the concentration of workers in bigger plants. This changing rhythm of capital accumulation led to an important shift in the configuration of the working class. Trades such as the carpenters', bakers' and bricklayers', remained the main pole of attraction for the incipient labour movement, though they were no longer the leading sector in economic terms. The highly concentrated groups of workers servicing the agro-export economy, such as the railway-workers and the dockers, were now playing a strategic role in the trade union world, leading the first nationwide strikes. It was in 1896 that the rail workers led the first industry-wide strike which went beyond local limits. A third, as yet minor, sector was represented by the workers in the large meat-packing plants (frigorificos),who were subject to the real as opposed to the formal subordination of labour. It was during the course of this cycle that the labour movement went beyond the early appeals to 'justice' and articulated the first working-class programmes. Class solidarity, as exemplified in the first sympathy strikes, was a clear sign that the language of class was beginning to gain ground in the labour movement. In I897, for the first time there was also a significant movement built around the question of unemployment. As Jose Ratzer notes,' the proletarian protests are no longer relatively spontaneous and isolated outbreaks. The resistance movement was raised to a higher plane, it was generalized ... New unions were formed and others were transformed ... The class as a whole was beginning to act'. ? In I 890 May Day had already been celebrated in Argentina in an internationalist rally addressed in several languages, in keeping with the diverse national origins of the proletariat. In 1892, the first socialist organisation in Latin America was formed when a group of German immigrants formed the Vorwirts club. One of its leaders, German Ave Lallemant, had launched the influential journal El Obrero(The Worker) in I890, which carried out a pioneering analysis of the problems facing Argentina's fledgling labour movement. The dominant tendency in the labour movement was, however, represented by the anarchists of various persuasions. The Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta visited Argentina between I885 and 1889 and encouraged anarchist involvement in the trade unions. After his departure the individualists or 'anti-organisers' gained the upper hand, and this in 10 Jose Ratzer,Los marxistasargentinos del90 (C6rdoba,Pasadoy Presente, 1969), p. 62.

Class Strugglein Argentina, 1890-1920

23

part accounts for the decline of labour agitation until 895. After that year, the anarchists, and in particular the newspaper La Protesta Humana (Human Protest) launched in 1897, turned their attention again towards the unions and came to the forefront of labour organisation. Capital had created a labour force and the anarchists and socialists were creating a labour movement. The labour movement was not born overnight, however. Indeed, the industrialisation of the I 88os did not bear fruit in terms of a response from labour until the i89os. This is because, as Hobsbawm writes, 'the habits of industrial solidarity must be learned, like that of working a regular week. So must the common sense of demanding concessions when conditions are favourable, not when hunger suggests. There is a natural time-lag, before new workers become an "effective" labour movement'."1 This learning period advanced considerably in the first cycle under consideration here: I896-I 902. The factories and the workshops were not the only arena of struggle during this period. In fact, as one popular labour history argues, it was the overcrowded tenement buildings known as conventilloswhich were 'the bitter site of a new cultural synthesis' between the gringo and criollo workers.l2 These overcrowded, insanitary and expensive living quarters brought the immigrant's aspirations into sharp conflict with reality. Arguably it was not the capitalist factory which unified the diverse proletarian strata-immigrants, craftworkers, established local workers, internal rural migrants and others into a class, but the conventillo.A number of rent strikes solidified the strong community element in Argentina's working-class consciousness, and allowed the large number of home-workers (mainly women textile outworkers) to engage in struggle with the factory-based proletariat. In terms of our correlation of economic indicators with the labour struggles during this cycle several conclusions can be drawn. From the data in the appendix we can observe that, although economic conditions for capital were generally poor, wages increased steadily, albeit with ups and downs (Table I and Graph I). The data we have available on strikes are as yet incomplete, but we may note a significant increase in I896, precisely the year of an upturn in the economic situation. After a lull of nearly three years, when unemployment reached 40,000 in Buenos Aires alone, strikes picked up again in I 900 and I 901, signalling a great upsurge

in labour militancy in the years to come. In November i902 the first general strike took place in Argentina, preceded by a series of partial 11 Hobsbawm, 'Economic Fluctuations...', p. I44. 12 Guillermo Gutierrez, La clase trabajadoraracional(Buenos Aires, Crisis, 1978), p. 35.

Ronaldo Munck

24

Table I. Economicconditions,wages,strikes, strikers, 189o0-190 Year 1890 I891

1892 1893 1894 I895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900

Economic conditions

Wages

Strikes

Downturn

120

4

Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor

I67

2

I90

209 174 158 145

7 3 9 I9 26

162

0

1901

Upturn Downturn Poor Poor Poor Poor

237 288 203 223

1902

Poor

223

o00

1903

Upturn Prosperous

220

o00

252

I0oo

Prosperous Prosperous Downturn Upturn Prosperous Prosperous

250

1904 1905

1906 1907 1908

1909 1910 1911 1912 I913

I9I4 1915 I9I6 I9I7 I918 1919 1920 1921 1922 I923

1924 1925 1926 I927 1928

Strikers

0

0

100

o00

240

138 298

70,743 169,017 II,56I 4,762 i8,8o6

Prosperous Prosperous

240

102

27,992

285

99

Downturn Poor Poor Poor Poor

New series 68 6i 57 49 42 57 59 73 84 86 85 89 90 95 ioI

95 64 65 80

Upturn Prosperous Prosperous Prosperous Prosperous Prosperous Prosperous Downturn Upturn Prosperous Prosperous

233

I70

227

231 iI8

231 223

I38

196 367 206

86 II6 93 77 89 67 58 135

8,992 23,698 14,I37

I2,077 24,321 136,062 I33,042

308,967 I34,0I5 I39,75 4I,737 19,190

277,078 39,142

15,880 38,236 28,170

I929

Prosperous

Ioo

113

28,27I

1930

Downturn

91

I25

29,33I

Sources:Economics conditions - Gilbert Merkx, 'Recessions and Rebellions in Argentina, 1870-1930', Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 53, no. 2 (I973), p. 288. Wages to I9I2 - Roberto Cort6s Conde, Elprogreso argentino,1880--914 (Buenos Aires, Editorial, Sudamericana, I979), p. 227. From 191 4 - David Tamarin, The Argentine Labour Movement in an Age of Transition, 1930-1945 (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Washington, I977), p. 51. Strikes/strikers to 1906: Godio, El MovimientoObreroy la cuestibn..., passim. From I907: Jose Panettieri, Los Trabajadores(Buenos Aires, Editorial Jorge Alvarez, 1967), p. 201.

Class Strugglein Argentina, I890-1920

25

350-

280 -

I

140-

I

1\ I l/ 9-

l

1898 Graph i. Wages (

/

'/

/

I

1906 ) and strikes (--),

1922

1914 890-1930.

1930

Sources as for Table i.

strikes and a general climate of heightened class struggle. The trade unions were consolidated by the formation of the first confederation in I901: the FederacibnObreraArgentina (Argentine Workers' Federation) (see Graph 2). However, trade union membership was no more than Io,ooo at this stage. Immigration during this period tailed off after a peak in the late I88os, although it is worth recalling that between i880 and 1900 1.5 million workers landed in Argentina, of whom nearly i million remained

in the country. The process of proletarianisation described by Marx was taking place at one remove, as it were, as peasants and artisans from Europe crossed the ocean to 'Fare 1'America'. As many readers' letters to the newspaper El Obrerotestify, the immigrants' dreams rapidly faded as they gradually came under the sway of capitalism and began forging a new national working class. Significantly, the immigrants were integrated into society first as workers and only much later as citizens. III. Economic upturn and labour explosion, 1902-1908 The

I902-8

cycle is characterised

by a strong

process

of agrarian

development which accelerated the overall process of capital accumulation. There was a strong boost to foreign and internal investment - fixed capital investment increased by 38 % during this cycle. Predictably, immigration

26

RonaldoMunck

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

1

1900 1901 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 Graph 2. Trade-union membership, 1900-26. from De Shazo (I973: I3).

1890

1900

Source adapted

1910

Graph 3. Migration patterns in Argentina, Source: Bourd6 (1974: i6o).

19: I880-I930.

Class Strugglein Argentina, 1890-1920

27

also began to increase steadily as small farmers and artisans in Europe, not to mention the landless and unemployed, were attracted to Argentina by tales of fabulous wealth. During this period one person in every two in Buenos Aires was foreign-born, and of every ten foreigners there would be five Italians, three Spaniards, one person from north-western Europe and one from the Balkans or eastern Europe.13 Compared with the earlier wave of immigration in the i88os this one moved predominantly into industry rather than agriculture, thus effectively 'remaking' the working class. These largely prosperous years for capital were also when labour's first 'explosion' began. As Hobsbawm writes, 'all social movements expand in jerks; the history of all contains periods of abnormality, often fantastically rapid and easy mobilisations of hitherto untouched masses'.14 Political propagandists and labour organisers continued their work during this period, moving into new areas to agitate, educate and organise. This economic cycle begins with the general strike of 1902, which marked a big step forward for labour and led to a shift in the strategy of the employers and the state. Hitherto, governments had been relatively noninterventionist with regard to worker-employee relations, restricting themselves to sharp 'punctual' bouts of repression. From now on labour struggles would meet a systematic state repression on the one hand, while on the other, the various governments strove, unsystematically at first, to introduce labour legislation. Sunday was established as a day of rest, the work of women and minors was regulated and in 1907 the Departamento

Nacional de Trabajo(National Labour Department) was established. This body was charged with enforcing of the new labour legislation and the arbitration of industrial disputes, but at first its only effective function was to collect statistics on strikes (greatly improving our data for the post- 907 period). The other aspect of the state's new policy was represented by the Law of Residence, approved in 1902, which provided for the deportation of 'foreign agitators', a measure which led to the expulsion of hundreds of anarchist workers, including many who were born locally. Henceforth repression against labour organisations became systematic and widespread, with police and army attacks on strikers and demonstrators leaving a heavy toll of dead and injured. In fact, many of the general strikes in the first decade of the twentieth century were in response to this wave of repression. As a historian of Argentine anarchism, Iaacov Oveed, recounts, 'the 13

14

et immigration et AmeriqueLatine:Buenos Aires(xix etxx siecles) Guy Bourde, Urbanisation (Paris, Aubier, 1974), p. 213. Eric Hobsbawm, PrimitiveRebels(Manchester University Press, 1959), p. 105.

28

Ronaldo Munck

Argentine working class was in action without respite during 1902, and its radical-combative spirit was strengthened by a series of big strikes and through the use of methods new to the workers' struggle'.15 There were major strikes in the ports of Buenos Aires, Rosario and Bahia Blanca, and a general strike against the Law of Residence, which was thwarted only by the government's declaration of a state of siege (a frequent device in the decade to come). The early revolutionary socialists were displaced by the reformist social democrats after the Socialist Party was formed in I 896. In 1902 the socialists condemned the call for a general strike as 'an absurd and crazy act' by the 'propagandists of violence'. It was the anarchists who for the moment held the upper hand in the labour movement. In 1904 they led a general strike in Rosario, which was then dubbed the 'Barcelona of Latin America'. The high point of anarchist influence was undoubtedly the 1905 general strike in Buenos Aires. Another, as yet subordinate, trend was emerging in the labour movement, however, and would eventually eclipse these massive showdowns between labour and the state. The printers who had formed the first union in I876 and led the first strike in 1878, were now, in I906, pioneering the first collective agreement with the employers and setting up the first comisionesparitarias (parity commissios) to regulate the wage-bargaining process. However, the tide had not yet fully turned towards order and regularity in industrial relations. During I903 and 1904, around one half of all strikes occurred outside Buenos Aires, whereas the trend was reversed towards I907-09, when strikes in the capital accounted for nearly three-quarters of the total. Spalding concludes that 'this trend probably reflects a second wave of organizational activity that began in the capital and then spread to other areas'.16 This confirms a general tendency for 'explosions' of the labour movement to extend organisation to hitherto disorganised social layers and geographical areas. Another general shift took place around I907, when there were more factory stoppages than 'political' strikes as repression intensified, and also as a reflection of changed attitudes. The statistics on strikes mask the fact that, in I907, two-thirds of all strikes were lost by the workers, whereas by I910 this proportion was reversed as the working class strove successfully to defend its organizations and living standards. The defeats of the working class in the big confrontations 15

Iaacov Oveed, El anarquismoy el movimientoobreroen Argentina (Mexico, Siglo XXI,

16

Hobart Spalding, OrganigedLabor in Latin America (New York, Harper and Row, I977), p. 25.

I978), p. 246.

Class Strugglein Argentina,1890-1920

29

of the general strikes did not preclude a steady advance on the factory floor. It was precisely during this period that the syndicalists split away from the Socialist movement, articulating first a revolutionary syndicalism along Sorelian lines, but developing into an apolitical trade unionism in years to come. Ultimately, the rise of syndicalism within the labour movement was due to the unresolved conflict between anarchist idealism and socialist reformism. Turning to the general trends of this economic cycle, we note that the economic conditions for capital were decidedly prosperous and wages remained stable. There was a steady rhythm of strikes between 1902 and 1906

with a remarkable upsurge

in 1907,

a year of notable economic

downturn. Clearly workers were resisting the tendency of employers to cut wages and felt sufficiently confident after several years of good conditions to do so. This hypothesis is supported by the data on trade-union membership (Graph 2), which show a steady increase in the membership of the anarchist confederation F.O.R.A. (FederacibnObrera Regional Argentina: Argentine Regional Workers' Federation), which reached a peak of 3o,ooo members in i906.

The more stable and reformist

socialist-led confederation, the U.G.T. (Union General de Trabajadores: General Workers Union) also advanced steadily, if less dramatically, during this phase to attain a membership of around 0o,ooo workers. Finally, overseas immigration went through a tremendous boom (Graph 3), with the first decade of the zoth century showing a net number of immigrants (centres minus exits) of over i million. Not surprisingly, phases of economic expansion coincide with periods of massive influxes of immigrants (1880-9, 1903-13 and 1919-29), whereas cyclical crises and (I890-96, 1901, 1913) prolonged recessions (1890-1902, 1929-39 and

the First World War) led to a reduction or even interruption of the flow of immigrants.17 IV. Economicupturnand labourmilitancy,

o908-Ir14

During the 1908-14 cycle, agriculture completed its expansive phase as the

bulk of the land was brought under the sway of capital. Foreign investment continued to flow into Argentina, and before 1913 conditions were generally prosperous. The approaching world war led to a brusque deterioration of economic conditions as foreign investment froze and foreign trade began to dry up. Until then industrialisation had followed the relatively easy path of servicing the agricultural economy, -frigorificos and flour mills, for example. Yet by I 914 the structure of the working class 17

Bourde, op. cit., p.

6I.

RonaldoMunck

30

had changed somewhat since the I895 census was taken. The number of manual workers had increased from 78,000 to 195,ooo over this period,

but their proportion of the working population remained consistent at around 3 %. The number of artisans and small merchants also increased in number but their proportion of the working population decreased from 40% to 35 % representing a decline of the petty commodity mode of production. Conversely the number of employees increased from 30,000 to

102,000

but also their proportion in the working population from

I

%

to 18 %. Trade union organisation was to spread in this period from the manual workers into this category of white-collar employees, who were the product of the development of capitalism, particularly in the capital city of Buenos Aires. The labour struggles continued space during this cycle. A government survey of 1908 reported 23,438 due-paying members in Buenos Aires out of 214,370

workers

in the various

branches

of industry.

However,

although unionisation levels were low, strikes usually brought into action much larger numbers. For example, the general strike of I907 mobilised workers of whom only io,ooo were paid-up union members. This pattern of activity continued with the general strike of 1909, called after 93,000

police repression of the annual May Day commemoration. The strike achieved the freedom of the imprisoned workers and ensured the reopening of the union offices. In 1910 a general strike called to disrupt the region's independence centenary celebrations was controlled by a state of siege which left Buenos Aires looking like an armed camp and the jails full of workers. The labour movement was now forced onto the defensive, although strikes continued in various sectors of industry throughout the period. Taking a broad view of the strikes which occurred between 1907 and 1913, we find that, of I,ooo strikes, 600 were lost by the workers, 300

were won and o00 were considered a 'draw'. Labour had continued the impetus of its earlier struggles, but a fundamental change had occurred in the course of this economic cycle. Before 910o the labour movement was able to organise and press forward its demands in conditions of relative disorganisation within the ruling classes. Spalding exaggerates somewhat, but correctly grasps the essential point: 'the agrarian elements did not react harshly to organization by industrial workers so long as it did not threaten them directly. A relatively strong urban movement thus could form without constant harassment from the state'.18 Through its employers' association, the Union Industrial Argentina (Argentine Industrial Union), the incipient 18

Spalding, op. cit., p.

32.

Class Struggle in Argentina,

I890o-I92

3

industrial bourgeoisie began to play a far more aggressive role and obtained the systematic aid of the state in repressing and co-opting the working class. This last element is also important because around this period there was a fundamental reform of the oligarchic state, drawing the middle class and the top layers of the working class into the political arena. In 1912 an electoral reform law was approved by Congress which enfranchised the native male workers but not women or foreign-born workers. This law was designed to incorporate the growing middle layers represented by the Radical Party, and allow the Socialist Party to become the voice of the 'respectable' working class, which could thus be weaned away from anarchism. This strategy of 'preventive co-optation' bore fruit with the victory of the Radicals in the I 9 I 6 elections, although the Socialist Party never became a mass working class party in spite of its electoral gains (48,000 votes in 1913).

There were also causes internal to the labour movement which help explain the apparent decline of militancy after 9 0. The big general strikes of

1902,

1905 and I909 found their natural limits in

19I0

- workers are

not 'naturally' inclined towards these dramatic displays of'revolutionary gymnastics', each of which left a heavy toll of militants jailed, deported or simply dismissed from work. Above all, it was the very success of the economic struggles which blunted the political consciousness of the working class. The anarchists, or anarcho-syndicalists as they had now become, were also at least partly responsible for this. Anarchism had effectively corresponded to the real conditions and aspirations of a heterogeneous mass of independent workers only just emerging into industrial capitalism. Their political perspective also accorded with the reality of a bourgeois state impervious to workers' demands, but with the possibility of gaining real victories through 'direct action' owing to a certain degree of employer disorganisation. Now the bourgeois state had come of age, and it intelligently blended repression with co-option. In the new conditions the anarchists were being replaced in the leadership of the labour movement by the syndicalists who, as Rock describes, 'stressed continuously the value of tactics, and the virtues of co-ordination, timing and planning [which] quickly overshadowed the lip service the movement paid to the goals of class revolution'.19 The anarchists had contributed greatly to the 'political education' of the working class, but were unable to adapt to the new situation and provide a rounded political alternative for labour. 19 David Rock, Politics in Argentina, I89o-190o:

University Press, I975), p. 85.

The rise andfall of Radicalism (Cambridge

32

Ronaldo Munck

Taking an overall view of this cycle we find that it was generally prosperous until 9 3 when a recession set in. Wages showed a steady and significant upward trend with a steady rhythm of strikes involving significant layers of the working class. Trade-union membership remained stable, with a significant degree of unity being achieved in 1914 when the ObreraRegionalArgentina syndicalist confederation C.O.R.A. Confederacion Workers' (Argentine Regional Confederation) merged with the anarchist F.O.R.A. Immigration reached its highest peak ever in 1912, declining dramatically when the World War started shortly afterwards. From 1907 onwards there was a marked labour surplus in Argentina but immigrants continued to pour into the country. Significantly, this did not curtail the high degree of self-activity which labour maintained during the period. This phase confirms the hypothesis advanced by Hobsbawm that labour 'explosions' tend to occur in the cyclical upswing and less at the bottom of slumps.20 There was also a sharp increase in the cost of living during this period, as Spalding notes: 'from I906 or I907 there was a marked

rise in prices and rent, accelerating up to I914, helped by the crisis of 91 1-1912

and the economic

insecurity caused by the First World War.

This rise annulled the improvements achieved by the working class in the preceding years'.21 This conforms exactly to the conditions outlined by Trotsky to account for upsurges in strike activity. V. Economic transformation and labour recomposition, 1914-I917 The 1914-17 cycle is, of course, a depressive one: investment

slumps,

immigration collapses and strikes decline dramatically. This is an extremely important transition phase, marking, as Di Tella and Zymelman write, 'the change from an agrarian economy on horizontal expansion, towards an economy which can only expand by changing its structure, sectoral distribution and productivity'.22 This restructuring led to more than the simple collapse of small semi-artisanal firms cut off by the war from their source of raw material and fuel. Indeed, it marked a global shift in class relations and a substantial recomposition of the working class. The de-facto protectionism resulting from the disruption of trade during the war gave an important boost to small and medium-sized national industry, particularly in the textile sector, where the import substitution process accelerated. This process of industrial expansion and concentration was 20

Hobsbawm, 'Economic Fluctuations...',

21 Hobart 22

p. 132.

(Buenos Aires, EditorialGalerna,1970), argentina Spalding,La clasetrabajadora

p. 42. Di Tella and Zymelman, op. cit., p. 134.

Class Strugglein Argentina, I890-I920

33

reflected in the fact that more industrial establishments were set up between 9 o and I9 9 than in the whole period 85o0-I909. Alongside the small workshops there was now a significant number of large industrial plants: there were several textile firms employing

between

5oo and 1,5oo

workers and over ioo metallurgical plants in Buenos Aires alone employing an average of I 5o workers each, as well as the big sugar mills (ingenios) of the north west which employed an average of ,000o workers each. There was effectively a 'new' working class in the making. During the war, strike activity declined significantly as compared with the pre-war period. The economic recession led to an increase in the rate of unemployment

from 14 % in 19I4 to

20

% in 19I7. The cost of living

rose steadily and wages declined by one third over the same period. By 19 7, however, as the economic situation began to improve, strike actions increased again. The strikes of that year differed significantly from those in the explosion of 1907, in that whereas then the most affected sector was small-scale industry, in I917 three-quarters of the strikers were involved in transport activities. Of particular importance were the strikes organised by the powerful maritime union the FederacibnObreraMaritima (Maritime Workers' Federation) in

9 6 and I917. Under the Radical Party govern-

ment of Hipolito Yrigoyen, which came to power in 1916, these key workers were able to negotiate a favourable settlement. On the other hand, when the refuse collectors of Buenos Aires came out on strike in 1917 the government did not hesitate to use repression against a sector which was neither economically nor politically strategic. There were other significant strikes in the course of 1917, including a general strike on the railways and by the frigorifico workers who were to be a leading sector in the trade-union movement after 1930. Significantly, around one-third of all strikes during this cycle were carried out in defence of trade-union rights to organise. The tendency towards a system of arbitration and conciliation in industrial relations intensified during this phase. In 19I6 the conciliation mechanisms of the National Labour Department were actually put into practice, and this agency also began to oversee the implementation of labour legislation through its labour inspectors. Presidential arbitration settled a number of disputes, although in some cases this was simply designed to curry favour with key sectors of workers who might defect to the Socialist Party in elections. Nevertheless, in spite of its inconsistencies and hesitations, the state was beginning to recognise the limitations of its earlier stances that 'the labour question is a matter for the police'. Through its policy of negotiations and compromise the government had 2

LAS 19

34

RonaldoMunck

effectively accorded de-facto recognition to the trade-union organisations. This naturally encouraged the numerical expansion of the trade unions, after the briefly united labour confederation split in 9I 5 (Graph 3). The syndicalist F.O.R.A. IX grew from 20,000 members in I915 to nearly in 1920. The anarchist-led F.O.R.A. V, on the other hand, suffered 70,000

a sharp decline in numbers as this tendency lost its hegemony within the broader labour movement, although its membership picked up significantly after the dramatic events of 9 9, examined in the following section. The syndicalist heyday lasted approximately

from 1916 to

1920,

during

which period they helped consolidate a stable system of industrial relations amongst key sections of the working class such as the maritime and rail workers. Significantly, they paid less attention to the meat packers in the frigorificosand the metallurgical workers, two areas where Peron was to gather widespread support in the 1940s. The Radical government fostered good relations with the syndicalist labour confederation F.O.R.A. IX as a means to establish a 'moderate' counterweight to the anarchists, and using the 'anti-party' tendencies of this current to block socialist penetration of the trade unions. During this period the service-sector workers linked to the dynamic agro-export economy were the effective vanguard of the trade-union movement, with industrial workers playing an as yet subordinate role. One political current which began actively to promote the industrial unions was the 'internationalist' or Bolshevik faction within the Socialist Party, which eventually established itself as an independent party in I9I8. These forerunners of the Communist Party rejected the electoralism of the Socialist Party and declared that trade-union work was equivalent to political activity as a means of struggle. The ideas of the Russian Revolution in 19I7 also had a significant impact on the anarchists, with a clearly defined anarcho-Bolshevik current playing an important role in the next economic cycle. The overall trends of the 1914-1 7 cycle should now be clear. Economic conditions were poor until I 97 when investment began to pick up again

and employment patterns stabilised. Though unemployment was high it was declining, and the abrupt cutting of the flow of immigration meant that the reserve army of labour did not grow further. This set the scene for a renewed bout of labour militancy after 1917 as workers strove to make up wages to their pre-war level. During this phase the transition from the petty commodity production stage of capitalism to that of manufacture was completed, and the systematic extension of the division of labour was accomplished. This of course had serious implications for labour. As Ian Roxborough points out:

Class Struggle in Argentina, I890-I920

35

as the leading sector shifts over time from one industry to another, there will be a breakin the institutionalpatternof class relations ... The older pattern [of class conflict] will almost certainlybe substantiallymodified in the process, and labour organizationswill be restructured.23 As capital restructured, so did the labour movement - once the artisan typesetter was the vanguard, then the bakers and dockers, the rail workers, and finally the frigorificoworkers and those in textiles were poised to take over the leadership of the movement.

In the 1940s it would be the turn

of the metallurgical workers as the transition to 'big industry' was consolidated. VI. Economic upturn and labour recovery, 1917-I922 The cycle which followed the world war - 1917-1922

- was decidedly

prosperous as the country's primary goods were exported to war-torn Europe. Investment now picked up again, and so did immigration. Industry progressed steadily after initial fears that the renewal of competition would destroy the sectors built up under the de-facto protectionism of the war period. Labour went through another 'explosion', seemingly confirming a hypothesis mentioned by Hobsbawm that 'the great "leaps" occur after exceptionally severe slumps, which impress workers with the value of organization'.24 This was, indeed, a period in which previously unorganised layers were brought into action, especially after 1919. Furthermore, it confirms the view that a rising cost of living is a key element in labour upsurges: i86 in 1919.

it rose from

o00

in 1914, to I35 in 1917 to

Throughout this phase the level of labour activity remained at an exceptionally high level. By I9I9 unemployment had declined to 8% although real wages had dropped by about 30 % since 1965, as the post-war inflation reduced the earning capacity of the working class. The scene was set for some of the most dramatic confrontations between labour and the state since the labour movement's formation. The anarchists appeared to be in terminal decline as their failure to impose a call for a general strike in 1918 testified. The now openly reformist syndicalists appeared to hold the upper hand in the labour movement particularly given their 'understanding' with the Radical Government. No one therefore expected an explosion of class conflict when the workers of a large metallurgical plant on the outskirts of Buenos Aires walked out in December 1918, 23

Ian Roxborough, 'The Analysis of Labour Movements in Latin America: Typologies and Theories', Bulletin of Latin American Research,vol. I., no. i ( 98 ), p. 91. 24 Hobsbawm, 'Economic Fluctuations...' p. 128. 2-2

36

RonaldoMunck

shortly after having formed a union. Clashes between strikers and the police led to several deaths and a general strike was called by the anarchist F.O.R.A. V, a call later backed by the larger syndicalist confederation, the F.O.R.A. IX. In the week that followed, a semi-insurrectionary general strike paralysed the city of Buenos Aires, and the state, aided by armed elements of the middle class, unleashed terror on the workers' quarters, leaving 700 dead and 4,000 injured in its wake. The syndicalist F.O.R.A. IX decided to lift the general strike, to which the socialists and communists agreed, with only the reduced anarchist current remaining on the streets. The army's intervention had allowed the government to negotiate with the syndicalists who had established themselves as the interlocutorvalidoof the working class. Of course, at another level the events of 9 9 represented the eruption of a deep social crisis, the failure to integrate the immigrant and the continued political marginality of the working class. One effect of 1919 was to draw into the trade union movement wide layers of hitherto unorganised workers, and to re-establish anarchism as a credible force in the wider labour movement. In his assessment of the SemanaTragica(Tragic Week), Rock concludes: 'in broad terms the general strike of 1919 was more a series of inarticulated riots than a genuine working class rebellion'.25 Certainly, the strike was ephemeral, limited geographically and in terms of its support; nor did it receive any realistic revolutionary leadership. However, it was not simply a 'chaotic outburst of mass emotion' as Rock suggests.26 A historical conjuncture has greater social meaning than its discrete 'ordinary' elements. The long-run view can sometimes obscure the symbolic significance of key episodes in working-class history. The SemanaTragicawas one such key conjuncture for the labour movement: it marked the last gasp of the revolutionary anarchist tendency and, in the mode of its resolution, a harbinger of a new, more stable, period of industrial relations. In 1921 the rural equivalent of the SemanaTragicaleft a tragic toll when the rural labourers on the estanciasof the southern province of Patagonia launched a strike for improvements in their conditions. Over I,500 workers were killed by the army in a one-sided campaign, although in 1923 symbolic retribution was exacted by an anarchist immigrant who threw a bomb at the colonel responsible for the massacre. However, this was not the highpoint of I909, but the beginning of a new era, in which the relations between labour, capital and the state were to be placed on a more stable basis. 25 Rock, op. cit., p. I68.

26 Ibid.

ClassStrugglein Argentina,1890-1920

37

From I 890 to 1920 the labour movement of Argentina made remarkable

progress, with the formation and consolidation of the trade unions, the election of political representatives to the parliamentary system, and the gaining of significant social improvements for the working class. The anarchists had, however, failed to translate their pre- 91o combativity into a rounded political strategy for labour. On the other hand, the socialist current split into 'apolitical' syndicalists and the parliamentary-oriented mainstream, thus perpetuating a false divide between economic and political labour struggles. There was also a failure to mobilise the rural working population behind the industrial working class, and to articulate the anti-imperialist perspective called for in a dependent nation. Indeed, anarchists and socialists alike opposed protectionist measures for Argentina's industrial sector, on the basis of an abstract internationalism. This, indeed, was the factor which allowed Peron and nationalist historians to describe the pre-i93o labour movement as a minority 'foreign' implant. This entails denying the very real advances made by labour during this period and its not inconsiderable impact on national history. We fully agree with Godio's conclusion that during this period 'the successes in the trade union and parliamentary fields were so notable that they made the Argentine labour movement, in spite of its limitations, into the most developed and prestigious throughout Latin America'.27 An overview of the 1917-22 period must stress the consistently prosperous conditions for capital accumulation and the steady rise of wages, which doubled during this cycle (Table i). Strike activity is remarkable not so such in terms of the number of strikes but in the volume of strikers: over oo00,000 workers were on strike nearly every year of this cycle, with the figure for I9I9

topping

the 300,000 mark. The level of

overseas immigration remained low until 1920 when it began to pick up, but it was still well below the pre-war level (Graph 3). Trade union membership peaked during this cycle, with the syndicalist F.O.R.A. IX leading the way, but, paradoxically, it began to decline dramatically towards the end of this phase (Graph 2). Both the anarchist F.O.R.A. and the new revolutionary syndicalist confederation formed in 1922, the Union Sindical Argentina (Argentine Trades Union), lost members steadily in the following cycle. The explanation for this lies outside our period but, essentially, economic prosperity and a political radicalisation caused by the Russian Revolution tended to marginalise the trade unions. When the new movement was eventually unified in 1930 to form the CGT - Central Generalde Trabajadores(General Labour Confederation) 27

obrero,p. Julio Godio, Historiadelmovimiento

2I9.

RonaldoMunck

38

it organised far fewer workers than the anarchists and syndicalists did around 1920. The political hegemony of the anarchists (i902-9) and later the syndicalists (I9'6-zo) had been followed by a period of realignment,

confusion and demoralisation which paved the way for Peron 's 'capture' of the labour movement VII.

in I943-6.

Conclusion

Without wishing to fall into the trap of sociological formalism, we can say in conclusion that the working hypotheses we began with have been largely borne out. The formation of the working class in Argentina, was, indeed, the result of a broad and complex process of political and social history, and not the simple result of mechanisation. As to the cycles of class struggle, our findings bear out Hobsbawm's conclusion that depressive phases accumulate 'inflammable material' but do not set it alight. Thus the depression of the I89os accumulated grievances and injustices which burst out in the strike wave of the early i9oos; likewise the period of the First World War created the conditions for the postwar upsurge of labour militancy. Later, as Trotsky and other observers/participants in the class struggle have suggested, we found that strike waves broke out in the economic upturn, usually accompanied by a rise in the cost of living. This was the case in the 1906-7 strike wave, and likewise in the period following the World War. Taken overall, we find that Screpanti's hypothesis of two main variables - achievements and frustration - helps explain the pattern of labour insurgency in Argentina. Achievements, in terms of economic and social gains which may lead to a decrease in workers' militancy, but may also accumulate social tension as frustration results when economic growth slackens and capitalists unload the cost in terms of higher prices and lower wages. In short, strike patterns are more complex than those theories which relate them either to poverty or the economic upturn. It is important to bear in mind Trotsky's warning that while strike movements are closely bound up with the conjunctural cycle, 'this must not be considered mechanically'.28 This is precisely where Cronin's advice is relevant, when he reminds us that economic cycles do not simply produce economic growth, but restructure the working class and 'redraw the lines of class cleavage throughout society and the parameters of collective action'.29 The economic cycle associated with the World War led 28 Leon Trotsky. 'The "Third Period" of the Comintern's Errors', Writings of Leon 29

Trotsky, p. 46. Cronin, op. cit., p. 112.

Class Struggle in Argentina, 180-I192

39

to precisely such a transformation in Argentina. The restructuring of capital led to a global recomposition of the working class, which involved both objective and subjective elements (the political dimension, in short). Finally, we must recall that our analysis has been restricted to the business cycle and not the Kondratief type of long cycles. The whole phase of 1890 to 1930 could be seen as a long wave in Argentine

terms;

but there would be many problems in applying this approach to an open and agrarian economy such as Argentina's. Furthermore, even though some authors such as Mandel recognise that 'extraeconomic factors play key roles'30 in long waves, most works play down the element of political agency. We cannot, in short, understand the social and economic history of Argentina during the early zoth century without considering the active role of anarchist and socialist militants. Though strike patterns were affected by economic cycles, the working class did in a very real sense 'make' itself in the process of class struggle. 30

Ernest Mandel, Long Waves of Capitalist Development - The Marxist Interpretation (Cambridge University Press, I980), p. 20.