49 Congreso Internacional del Americanistas (ICA) |
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Quito Ecuador7-11 julio 1997 |
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Congresos en cdrom 2.2 - version en línea
Paul Henderson
HIST 18 :
IDEAS, CULTURA E HISTORIA EN LA CREACION INTELECTUAL LATINOAMERICANA, S. XIX -XX
Abstract
Whilst there exists an abundance of literature on the history of anarchist and anarchist-inspired movements in individual South American countries, little attempt has been made to analyse the reasons for their rise and fall in the region as a whole. This paper seeks to identify the economic, social and political factors which generated widespread support for anarchist and syndicalist currents within the labour movements of South America and then goes on to show how the changed circumstances of the 1920's led to their eclipse.
Essentially it is argued that Bakuninite ideas found a receptive audience amongst intellectuals and certain groups of workers at a time when the emergence of more overtly capitalist relations of production in South America was beginning to transform the existing order. From the turn of the century, as capitalism became more fully entrenched in the region, recognisably modern class conflict became an inescapable fact of life. In response to these developments many workers, excluded from political life, were drawn to the collectivism of anarcho-syndicalism in order to express their class interests. Repression at the end of the First World War certainly played a part in diminishing the appeal of anarcho-syndicalism but the coming to power of reformist-inclined sections of the oligarchies, in part a response to labour militancy, undercut the support for anarcho-syndicalism's rejection of politics and appeared to provide workers with at least the possibility of improving their conditions through direct political involvement. The emergence of Marxism and populism further weakened the appeal of direct industrial action and the general strike weapon. Nevertheless, the influence of anarcho-syndicalism was not entirely extinguished as many of its adherents found their way into Communist and Socialist Parties in the 1920's and 1930's.
Anarchism and Syndicalism in South America, 1880-1930
Paul Henderson
University of Wolverhampton
In August 1916, Antero Aspíllaga, the owner of the Cayaltí sugar estate on Peru's northern coast, was becoming increasingly alarmed by the wave of strikes in the area. Fearing that the unrest would spread to Cayaltí itself, he lamented the fact that "...today's working class is not as before, as is shown by the strikes and claims , which daily grow more serious and frequent." Cartas Reservadas , Cayaltí Archive, Archivo Agrario, Lima. Four years later in Chile, the South Pacific Mail, reviewing the effects of the First World War, noted that The South Pacific Mail , Valparaíso, 1 July 1920.
There can be no doubt that the World War has profoundly modified conditions in Chile as in every other country of the world. Attempt to conceal it as we may, class distinctions based on wealth and poverty have become accentuated...Industrial unrest has permeated the country and labor has become, for the first time in Chile, conscious of its organized power.
Labor unrest and anxiety on the part of elite groups were by no means confined to Peru and Chile. All over South America, overt class conflict erupted during the war and immediate post-war years. The foundations of oligarchic rule were rocked as never before and whilst the region's elites, though forced to modify the forms of their rule, were to emerge relatively unscathed in the 1920's, it was clear that their political power could no longer be exercised without regard to the interests and demands of the working class. Arturo Alessandri: A Biography , 2 vols., Ann Arbor, 1977, p. 18.
Prominent in the wartime labor unrest, as they had been before the war, were anarcho-syndicalists. Indeed, the strong influence of anarchist-inspired doctrines and organisations had become a major characteristic of the region's labour movements. Where they did not dominate, they represented at least a significant current. The elites chose to portray anarchism and its offshoots as the work of subversive foreign agitators, an unwelcome import from Europe. The Economist maintained that striking Argentinian railway workers were influenced not only by "Spanish and Italian revolutionary socialism" but also by "German agitators and German money". The Economist , London, 13, 20 October, 1917. Laws of Residence were passed in Argentina in 1902, in Brazil in 1907 and, after six years delay, in 1918 in Chile to facilitate the deportation of undesirable foreigners. Whilst it is true that immigrants did play a significant role in labor organisation and agitation, anarcho-syndicalism should not be seen as merely part of the cultural baggage of European immigrants. As James Morris has noted, "The conditions for worker revolt or adaptation to the industrial order are made at home, and if foreign models are successfully transplanted, it is because they fit these conditions in a greater or less degree and not because they have created them." Elites, Intellectuals and Consensus. A Study of the Social Question and the Industrial Relations System in Chile , Ithaca, 1966, p. 113. First anarchism, then anarcho-syndicalism (or revolutionary syndicalism as it is often called) and in some cases a more practical, purely syndicalist variant of the latter appeared to offer to many workers in South America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a seemingly viable solution to the problems they faced. Class consciousness, as E. P. Thompson has argued, is the way in which workers deal in cultural terms with their experience as proletarians. The Making of the English Working Class, Penguin, Harmondsworth, London , 1968, pp. 9-10. During this period, when the pace of the region's capitalist transformation accelerated markedly, workers were confronted with a rapidly changing way of life and work. In coming to terms with these changes, some of them found a logical expression for their emerging class consciousness in anarchist-inspired doctrine. Many more, with perhaps little regard for the theory, turned to anarcho-syndicalist practice. Journal of Latin American Studies , 16, 1 (1984), Ruth Thompson argues forcefully against the assumption that the union rank and file shared the views of the leaders. Most workers, she maintains, were interested in improving their wages and conditions rather than overthrowing the state. This was recognised by union leaders themselves who, despite their rhetoric, negotiated with employers and the state on behalf of their members. In the 1920's, however, the appeal of anarcho-syndicalism declined and new modes of expressing and advancing class interests appeared more viable.
Whilst historians have provided many studies of this important phase in the development of South American labour movements, there have been few attempts to provide a framework for understanding the rise and fall of anarcho-syndicalism in the region as a whole. Organized Labor in Latin America. Historical Case Studies of Urban Workers in Dependent Societies , Harper and Row, London, New York, San Francisco, (1977) and C. Bergquist, Labor in Latin America. Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia , Stanford U. P., Stanford, 1986. On Argentina, see J. Adelman (ed.), Essays in Argentine Labour History 1870-1930 , Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1992; on Peru, P. Blanchard, The Origins of the Peruvian Labor Movement, 1883-1919 , Pittsburgh U. P.,Pittsburgh, 1982; on Chile, P. DeShazo, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902-1927 , Wisconsin U. P., Madison , 1983; on Brazil, J. F. W. Dulles, Anarchists and Communists in Brazil, 1900-1935 , Texas U. P., Austin, 1973. Of course, the growth and precise nature of working-class movements varied from country to country as a reflection of the different ways in which their economic, social and political structures were articulated. This itself owed much in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to the differing characteristics of each country's export sectors, through which Latin America was integrated into the world economy. However, as Hobart Spalding has observed, "The impact of external events and domestic-foreign interactions determined that broad trends emerged at roughly the same time throughout Latin America." op. cit., pp. 50-1. Anarcho-syndicalism was one of those trends and this chapter therefore aims to offer an overview of its origins, the reasons for its appeal and the causes of its decline. Revolutionary Syndicalism: An International Perspective , Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1990. This chapter is limited to a discussion of developments in Chile, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. The influence of anarchist-inspired theory and practice was, of course, felt throughout Latin America; in addition to its extremely substantial collection of periodicals from these four countries, the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam has significant holdings of publications from Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.
Essentially, the evolution of anarcho-syndicalism can be divided into three periods. The first, from roughly 1880 to 1900, witnessed the emergence and spread of anarchist doctrine in its pure or individualist form. Most anarchists would probably have agreed with the Peruvian Manuel Gonzales Prada that "...we could accurately define the Anarchists' ideal as unlimited freedom and the highest possible well-being of the individual with the abolition of the State...The Anarchist rejects laws, religions, nationalities and recognizes one power only: that of the individual." Anarchy , IWW, Tucson, 1972: p. 1 Influenced largely by the ideas of Mikhail Bakunin, intellectuals and some groups of workers, notably printers and bakers, espoused anarchism and began to spread the word in a variety of publications. The circulation of these was undoubtedly small and their life-span was often short but they nevertheless offered an alternative both to the mutual aid societies which sought to work within the existing system and also to the dominant values of the South American elites. La Voz de la Mujer , for example, proclaimed on its masthead that "Aparece cuando puede y por subscripción voluntario." The IISH has nine copies, published in 1896-7. This was a period when a working class of sorts was only just beginning to form and come to terms with the new disciplines of the region's brand of capitalist development. In some countries, notably Argentina, this process was more advanced than in others. This should not be taken to mean, however, that anarchism represented merely the pre-history of labour movements. As will be seen, the influence of anarchism continued to be felt long after its heyday had passed.
The second period, from about the turn of the century to 1920, saw the emergence of a more recognisably modern working class and with this the emphasis shifted away from the utopian goals of anarchism and the propagandist activities of small circles of adherents to a more syndicalist outlook which found a much wider audience. Though the long-term aims of anarchism were still proudly proclaimed in the growing number of anarcho-syndicalist publications, less attention was devoted to the nature of the future society than to the question of how to wage the struggle against the oppressive nature of the present, rapidly changing society. As labour was increasingly organised in larger workplaces and as workers themselves began to demonstrate an awareness of their collective interests, some anarchists began to see trade unions as the vehicle for the revolutionary struggle against capitalism.It should be emphasised that this shift in no way represented some sort of logical, pre-determined stage in a teleological process. Workers, as Jeremy Adelman has pointed out, made their own decisions and their own history but, it must be added, using Marx's oft-quoted phrase, not under circumstances of their own choosing. op. cit. , and 'State and Labour in Argentina: The Portworkers of Buenos Aires, 1910-21', Journal of Latin American Studies , 25, 1, 1993. Many of the unions formed were of a local nature and often short-lived, frequently lasting only as long as the duration of a strike. Employers generally had the upper hand as both the labor market and state policy rendered union organisation difficult. The nature of unionisation varied from country to country. Argentine workers, for example, were much more organised than their counterparts in Peru, where unions were weaker and where it would perhaps be more accurate to speak of a syndicalist impulse within the working class. This can be seen as a consequence of the slower emergence of a proletariat in Peru, itself a reflection of the more limited capitalist transformation underway there
Nevertheless, evident throughout the region was a commitment on the part of growing numbers of workers to the essential characteristics of anarcho-syndicalism. Van der Linden and Thorpe have defined these as: (1) Attitudes of class warfare and professed revolutionary objectives culminating in the overthrow of the state; (2) These objectives to be achieved through the collective, direct action of workers best exemplified by the general strike; and (3) Workers organising at the point of production with trade unions being the vehicle of struggle. op. cit., pp. 1-2. Linking these was a rejection of politics which was seen as a diversion from the real struggle of workers. It is rather ironic that the anarcho-syndicalists could throw back at his followers Marx's own dictum that the emancipation of the workers is the act of the workers themselves.
The third period, the 1920's, saw a rapid decline in the influence of anarcho-syndicalism. An element common to all movements was state repression but the fate of anarcho-syndicalism varied from country to country. The worst repression was experienced in Brazil. Nevertheless, according to Wolfe, textile workers in São Paulo, mostly women, managed to maintain a syndicalist organisation at plant level. Hispanic American Historical Review , 71, 4, 1991; Working Women, Working Men: São Paulo and the Rise of Brazil's Industrial Working Class, 1900-1955 , Duke U. P., Durham, 1993. In Argentina there was a move to a more moderate form of trade unionism which was not unfavourably treated by the Yrigoyen regime. Though the Industrial Workers of the World ('Wobblies') retained some influence amongst Chile's port workers until the late 1920's, workers increasingly turned to politics and the Communist Party and later the Socialist Party (in which many syndicalists were prominent) gave the Chilean working class a potent and durable voice. Workers in Peru also turned to politics but there Haya de la Torre's APRA and populism found a larger audience among the growing urban masses than Mariátegui's Marxism.
After this brief overview of developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the rest of this chapter offers a more detailed consideration of the factors that drew South American workers to anarcho-syndicalism. It will then look at the reasons for the decline of this distinctive current within the region's labour movements.
Anarchism
It was during the last quarter of the nineteenth century that Bakuninist ideas began to exercise some influence in South America. Although some variants of European utopian socialism had followers there from the 1840's, it was precisely when the region was becoming increasingly integrated into the world economy through trade, investment and finance that anarchism began to have an impact. In the same way that the elites looked to Europe for ideas and culture generally, so too did small, dissident minorities - intellectuals and workers - finding, though, a set of European values which the elites were not so keen to bring to South America.
Immigration played a major part in the transmission of anarchist ideas. As emphasised earlier, although anarchism was not solely another European import, Italians and Spaniards were prominent in spreading the word. For example, the Italian Errico Malatesta who was exiled in Argentina from 1885-89 engaged in propaganda work and, perhaps representing the more pragmatic wing of anarchism, was involved in drawing up the statutes of a union of bakery workers and several other unions in Buenos Aires. The Cambridge History of Latin America , Vol. 4, Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1986, pp. 345-6. Europeans, followers of Fourier and others, also attempted to set up utopian communities in South America though it is unlikely that they did much to win support for the anarchist cause. Prominent amongst these was Giovanni Rossi who left Italy for Brazil in 1890 and founded the experimental colony 'Cecilia' which lasted for four years.Conversely, some South American intellectuals, notably the Peruvian Manuel Gonzales Prada, travelled to Europe where they encountered anarchist ideas and returned to carry out propaganda and agitation.
Massive European immigration into South America, especially Argentina and Brazil, clearly provided people who could spread the word. By 1914 nearly half of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires were immigrants and though in percentage terms immigration was less significant in Brazil, immigrants constituted 51% of the industrial labor force and 58% of those employed in transport in the state of São Paulo by 1920. South America and the First World War. The Impact of the War on Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile , Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1988, p. 239; S. L. Maram, Anarchists, Immigrants, and the Brazilian Labor Movement , Unpub. Ph. D. Thesis, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1972, pp. 7-8. Of course, not all immigrants were committed anarchists. Probably the overwhelming majority went with the basic idea of making a better life for themselves and their families. Nevertheless they must have provided a degree of receptivity to anarchist ideas once settled. Evidence for this can be found in the working class press. Of the 144 Brazilian titles listed at the IISH in Amsterdam, thirty three were in Italian. The Italian language paper L' Avvenire was one of the major Argentine anarchist publications. Articles in Russian were also published from time to time. The extensive nature of the anarchist press attests to a degree of adherence to anarchist doctrine on the part of at least a small minority of workers. Without this the movement would have been at best irrelevant, the preserve of a few intellectuals, at worst it would have disappeared.
For a time, therefore, it appears that anarchism did tie in with the consciousness of some groups of workers in South America. Peter Blanchard, drawing on the work of Victor Alba, has argued in the Peruvian case that it appealed to "...artisans who valued self-teaching and individual enterprise, and therefore saw in the rise of industry a threat to their way of life and to the proletariat who were the product of this industrialization and found their working and living conditions unbearable". op. cit., p. 49. Whilst one should neither exaggerate the extent of industrialization nor assume that artisans were being entirely squeezed out by industry, both groups were to be found in the region in the late nineteenth century. On the whole, though, anarchism attracted support from workers in small scale establishments. Thus the anarchist press in the period regularly featured reports on the influence of anarchist ideas among bakers, cobblers, tailors, cigarette makers, printers, workers in repair shops and hotel and restaurant staff. Historia del Movimiento Obrero Argentino, Migrantes Asalariados y Lucha de Clases, 1880-1910 , Editorial Tiempo Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, 1973, pp. 78-80, 128-9.
Much of anarchism's appeal must have been cultural rather than strictly ideological. The espousal of anarchism can be seen as a reaction to the capitalist transformation which was gaining pace throughout the region. It was also a reaction against that transformation on the part of workers who were struggling to comprehend their role within it. The society they lived in was harsh and often cruel. Many of them wanted none of it and anarchism offered a beguiling vision of an alternative. As Eric Hobsbawm, discussing the millenarian character of anarchism in southern Spain, has observed, "...the conscientious anarchist did not wish to destroy the evil world...but rejected it here and now". Primitive Rebels , Manchester U. P., Manchester, 1959, p. 83. It should be noted, however, that Hobsbawm's millenarian interpretation of Spanish anarchism has prompted a revisionist critique which emphasises the more immediate and practical aims of the movement. See, for example, T. Kaplan, Anarchists of Andalusia: 1868-1903 , Princeton U. P., Princeton, 1977. Anarchism promised a new moral order and its publications regularly urged readers not to wait for the revolution but to develop a new anarchist morality immediately. El Surco , was still warning of the dangers of alcohol: "El alcohol es una de las causas de las armas poderosas, para atrofiar el cerebro del obrero, y por lo tanto obstrucciona el camino de su liberación". It urged its readers, when thirsty and in need of company, to drink a glass of water and read a book. El Surco , Iquique, 15 November 1924.
As part of this new morality the anarchist press called for a more enlightened attitude towards women on the part of men and also urged women to throw off their shackles and unite with men in the struggle for liberation. La Organización Obrera , Buenos Aires, 24, 1903. The Argentinian paper La Voz de la Mujer , written by women for women, can be described as anarcho-feminist in outlook. Latin American Perspectives , 13, 1, 1986. Apparently with some opposition from male anarchists, the paper called for free love and the dissolution of the family which, given the dominant moral and religious values of the time and the fact that the family, though oppressive for some, did provide a certain degree of security for many working class women, meant that the paper was unlikely to attract widespread support. 'El Amor Libre: Por qué lo queremos?' signed by Carmen Lareva in the first issue of the paper, 8 January 1896. In fact, the problems of working class women are conspicuous by their absence from the pages of La Voz de la Mujer . Nevertheless, anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists continued to discuss the position of women, particularly the question of women's work and their attitudes to this were often ambivalent and indeed paternalistic. Many saw women's work as a threat to their health and morals as well as to male employment. Journal of Women's History , 1, 2 1989, p. 95.
The millenarian vision of anarchism appealed also to immigrants and in particular to their rootlessness and the frustration of their hopes as the conditions they encountered proved to be far from those they expected. The working and living conditions of immigrant workers in the major cities of Argentina and Brazil were dismal and thus, as Gordon, discussing the appeal of anarchism to immigrants in Brazil, has argued, "...it was the experience of working in Brazil which brought them to that philosophy". Anarchism in Brazil: Theory and Practice, 1890-1920 , Unpub. Ph. D. Thesis, Tulane University, 1978, pp. 18-19. On conditions see Hall and Spalding, op. cit. , pp. 332-7. But anarchism was not confined to countries with large immigrant populations, as its influence in Peru and Chile demonstrates. In those countries, workers encountered similar conditions and to many anarchism offered the hope of a better world.
Anarcho-Syndicalism
By the turn of the century, however, anarchism, though it did not disappear entirely as, for example, the involvement of anarchists in Buenos Aires' ' semana trágica ' of January 1919 demonstrated, was evolving into anarcho-syndicalism. There had been debate within anarchist circles over the question of trade unions. On the one hand, the 'pure' anarchists regarded trade unions as reformist and limited in that they were not committed to the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with a new society and so viewed participation in them as a betrayal. On the other hand, a much broader and more pragmatic current had emerged and begun to espouse syndicalism. La Acción Socialista , which described itself as 'revolutionary syndicalist' (a term often used as an alternative to anarcho-syndicalist), described the ideas of anarchism in no uncertain terms as "...una monomanía pseudo-literaria y una masturbación continua...". La Acción Socialista , Buenos Aires, 16 February 1908. Ideologues, many union leaders and no doubt ordinary workers still held to the utopian ideals of anarchism and decidedly revolutionary unions like the IWW in Chile enjoyed considerable support. For most workers, however, utopia was becoming an increasingly distant prospect. They turned to anarcho-syndicalism because it offered more immediate and readily understandable goals.
It is no coincidence that this development came when it did. In much of South America, the years 1900-1914 witnessed spectacular rates of economic growth. This was the golden age of export-led development, characterised by a surge in exports, imports, foreign investment, immigration, urbanisation and even some limited industrialization. Argentina presents the classic case but, broadly speaking, the same process was underway elsewhere in the region. The process entailed the emergence of a more fully capitalist economy and society, with class lines becoming more clearly demarcated. To workers throughout South America, the accumulation of capital seemed to outweigh their own gains by far.
Marcel van der Linden and Wayne Thorpe have identified a number of factors that in combination led to the emergence of anarcho-syndicalism as a major current within the labor movement internationally and these have a clear relevance in the South American context. op. cit., Chapter 1.
1. Growing Radicalization of Workers
The backdrop to the emergence of anarcho-syndicalism was provided by the growing radicalization of workers. Partido Socialista had been formed in Argentina in 1896, the Chilean Partido Obrero Socialista was formed in 1912 and in that year Peruvian workers were instrumental in the election to the Presidency of the populist Guillermo Billinghurst. On Billinghurst see P. Blanchard, 'A Populist Precursor: Guillermo Billinghurst', Journal of Latin American Studies , 9, 2, 1977.Although the formation of unions, the incidence of strikes and the flourishing of a working class press are just part of the picture, they nevertheless provide a measure of the pace and extent of labor radicalization. In all the countries with which this chapter is concerned, elites viewed the increasingly frequent, violent and large-scale strikes with considerable alarm. op. cit. , Chapter 6. These were often co-ordinated by newly established regional or national federations like Argentina's Federación Obrera Regional Argentina , established in 1904. Urban workers were most prominent in the wave of strikes in the first decade of the new century but by the First World War organized militancy had reached rural areas in Peru where sugar estate workers struck in 1912. El Jornalero, Trujillo, 1912 (various issues). This period also witnessed the first general strikes in South American cities. These often developed from more limited strikes by particular groups of workers which drew in others by example. Wage increases were the most common demand but workers at times also struck for union recognition, in solidarity with other workers and for a reduction in the working day, a particularly popular demand with syndicalists as it was one around which all workers could unite. La Acción Socialista also argued that "La jornada de ocho horas no constituye solo una reforma, ni mucho menos un fin; es ante todo un medio de propaganda. Un medio maravilloso". La Acción Socialista , Buenos Aires, 21 September 1906. Levels of unionization were generally low but many strikes, notes Munck, brought into action non-unionised workers thus giving the unions a degree of influence that extended well beyond their own ranks. Proletarianisation in the Third World. Studies in the Creation of a Labour Force under Dependent Capitalism , Croon Helm, London, 1984, p. 263. Though notable victories were achieved, the success rate of strikes was limited. State repression, the use of strike-breakers and the ever present threat of unemployment all made the actual winning of a strike a difficult task. Nevertheless, South America's workers, with anarcho-syndicalists playing a prominent role, ensured that modern class conflict had become a prominent feature of the region's brand of capitalist development.
There are several reasons for the growing radicalization of workers in this period. None of these alone was a sufficient condition of radicalization but taken together they do much to explain it. Firstly, conditions for workers, both in the workplace and at home, were almost universally appalling. Workers in major urban centers across the region lived in unhealthy, overcrowded and often expensive tenement blocks. Public health problems were abundant and mortality rates were high. For workers in full-time employment, hours were long, pay was low, safety standards were minimal and the threat of dismissal and unemployment was always present. op. cit. (1982), pp. 36-40. Short-time working was widespread and brought further insecurities. On the Outside Looking In: A Social History of the Porteño Worker During the 'Golden Age' of Argentine Development 1914-1930' , Unpub. Ph. D. Thesis, Rutgers University, 1977, pp. 414-441. Company stores, the provision of credit at very high rates of interest and the iniquities of the enganche system were just some of the additional problems faced by miners and rural workers in isolated locations. In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that growing number of workers throughout the region felt that they had little to lose from militancy.
Secondly, workers found themselves in an unregulated confrontation with capital. The region's elites' commitment to the principles of laissez-faire ensured that labor legislation was minimal before the First World War.Employers, however, were in little doubt that the state could be called upon to restore order when required. The 'social question' in South America was, as it had been described in Brazil, 'one for the police'. op. cit. , p. 332. At times disputes were settled with quite extraordinary levels of repression. The use of violence on the part of the state was common throughout the region but perhaps the most tragic case occurred in the grounds of the Escuela Santa María in Iquique, Chile where, in 1907, troops attacked nitrate workers and their families who had gathered to demonstrate for higher wages and better working conditions. The death toll was over a thousand. Whilst such repression dealt severe blows to the labor movement, it also confirmed to many workers that the state, far from being a neutral institution, was, as the anarcho-syndicalists argued, the repressive tool of the employers.
Thirdly, urban workers tended to live in largely homogeneous neighbourhoods. Gathered together in miserable conventillos and cortiços , often with many families occupying just one room, workers were only too aware of their collective plight. These circumstances undoubtedly served to heighten class consciousness and foster a degree of solidarity. In 1907 a rent strike in Buenos Aires, in which anarchists were prominent, involved some 120, 000 people and spread to Rosario and Bahía Blanca. The outcome was patchy but at least some landlords agreed to hold down rents. op. cit. (1973), p. 264. The attitude of unions, however, was lukewarm. Whilst they professed support for the tenants, they were more concerned with employers than landlords. Moreover, in Buenos Aires at least, improvements in public transport facilitated a move to the suburbs which restricted the likelihood of community and workplace struggles dovetailing. op. cit. (1992), pp. 15-16. In Chile, however, this tendency was less pronounced and major rent strikes took place in Valparaíso and Santiago (where an IWW member headed the tenant league) in 1925. DeShazo, op. cit., pp. 223-226.
A final factor partly responsible for the radicalization of workers and one which undoubtedly favored the anarcho-syndicalists was the political exclusion of workers. Throughout South America the franchise was extremely limited and electoral politics remained the preserve of the elite. In Brazil literacy qualifications still disenfranchised the 75.5 % of the population who were illiterate in 1920. op. cit. , Vol 6, p. 801. Similar restrictions prevailed in Chile and Peru despite the election of Guillermo Billinghurst in the latter in 1912 which owed more to workers' direct action than to their votes. op. cit. (1982), pp . 86-88. In Argentina, however, with the passing of the Sáenz Peña Law in 1912, the landed oligarchy extended the franchise to the middle class and to native-born and naturalized male workers. They continued, however, to make the acquisition of Argentine citizenship extremely difficult. Though the anarcho-syndicalists could still make a strong case in denouncing the facade of bourgeois politics, the strength of the working-class vote and the electoral successes of the Socialist Party in Buenos Aires were at least partly responsible for the seemingly more conciliatory policies toward labor of the Unión Cívica Radical governments of Hipólito Yrigoyen from 1916. Politics in Argentina 1890-1930. The Rise and Fall of Radicalism , Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1975. This opening up of the political system, partial, yet more advanced in Argentina than elsewhere at this stage, was to have significant consequences for the future of both anarcho-syndicalism and the wider labor movement. Nevertheless, anarcho-syndicalism's rejection and denunciation of politics appeared logical as most workers in the region continued to be denied access to the political process and had to rely on their own efforts to bring about change.
2. The Labor Process and the Strike Weapon
The capitalist transformation of South America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought with it changes in the composition and structure of the working class. The growth of light industry and the development of transport systems raised the pace of proletarianization and workers were increasingly concentrated in larger enterprises. In economies highly dependent on foreign trade, from which governments derived much of their revenue, workers employed in the export sectors or in occupations servicing them found themselves in a powerful bargaining position. Whilst strikes of textile workers could hit individual employers, those of port workers, railroad workers and miners went to the very heart of the export economy. There can be little doubt that workers were aware of this and it is hardly coincidental that these groups of workers were responsible for the most important and dramatic strikes of the period.This awareness of their collective strength and the potency of the strike weapon dovetailed closely with the anarcho-syndicalists' emphasis on direct action.
At the centre of anarcho-syndicalism lay the general strike. Bringing together workers, not all of whom were unionized, at an industry or city-wide level, general strikes which often involved considerable violence became an unwanted fact of life for employers and governments between 1900 and the early 1920's. Hostile commentators were quick to draw attention to the influence of anarcho-syndicalists in these highly-charged displays of class conflict. For militant workers in key economic sectors the general strike represented a mighty expression of class solidarity. For some it represented a revolutionary challenge to capitalism. Even their less radical colleagues would have seen it as a potent weapon at their disposal if all else failed. In fact their participation in these strikes demonstrated that though they may not have been committed anarcho-syndicalists themselves, they were nonetheless prepared to take action when they felt that the preferred tactic of the anarcho-syndicalists would pay off in terms of improvements in wages and working conditions.
3. Rejection of Alternative Labor Strategies
The influence of anarcho-syndicalism can also be viewed as a conscious rejection by many workers of alternative strategies for the labor movement. Though anarchism was not entirely exhausted, it was increasingly seen as a blind alley. The strength of workers in industries or services vital to the efficient functioning of export economies lay in their ability to confront capital collectively. The anarchist emphasis on individualism hardly corresponded to the conditions in which they lived and worked. Moreover, the violence associated with anarchism, whether individual or collective, only appeared to result in bloodshed and repression. La Protesta , Buenos Aires, 16 January 1910.
Socialist parties had made their appearance in the region around the turn of the century yet, in the circumstances then prevailing, their case was far from persuasive and their success was limited. Socialism in Peru and Brazil made little progress before the First World War but some electoral successes were recorded in Chile and most notably in Argentina. op. cit. , pp. 20-21. However, with the partial exception of Argentina after 1912, the electoral focus of reformist socialism made little sense to workers, especially immigrants, excluded from the formal political process. If gains were to be made, then they would have to come from the direct action of workers themselves.
As will be seen, anarcho-syndicalism itself came to be largely rejected as a viable labor movement strategy after the First World War. In Argentina, however, this process was underway before 1914. The revolutionary aims of the movement there were giving way to a more openly reformist form of syndicalism, represented by the Confederación Obrera Regional Argentina , established in 1909. Workers were well aware that improvements in wages and conditions could be won through negotiations with employers. Immigrant workers, realising that they were unlikely to make their fortunes and return home wealthy, sought instead to make the most of the present. Strikes, therefore, though still militant, were seen as the means to achieve immediate economic gains rather than paving the way for revolution. Union leaders may still have been committed to the overthrow of capitalism but in practice they responded to their members' day-to-day, yet for them more pressing, concerns. This tendency became more pronounced with the election of the Radical Yrigoyen in 1916, during whose Presidency it was increasingly perceived that the state was not wholly impervious to the demands of labor and indeed could, on occasion, act in its immediate interests.
World War 1 and Its Aftermath
The emergence of a reformist variant of syndicalism in Argentina notwithstanding, the First World War ushered in a period in which the intensity of the battle waged between labor and capital in South America was unprecedented. During the early years of the war, economic dislocation and high levels of unemployment seriously weakened the region's labor movements and the level of strike activity was negligible. By 1917, however, an economic upturn, based on rising prices for primary exports, had significantly reduced unemployment and labor regained its confidence. The experience of Brazil during the war differed somewhat from that of the other countries but even there workers joined with their colleagues elsewhere in launching an onslaught of militancy. op. cit. , pp. 77-94. In all countries strikes occurred with increasing frequency and in 1919 general strikes took place in Argentina, Peru and Brazil.
Whilst inflation, falling real wages and the high levels of profits being made by employers fuelled the fires of labor unrest, the period must also be seen as one in which workers, together with disaffected elements of the urban middle class, mounted the strongest challenge yet seen to the old oligarchies. La Nación recorded "the first strike of teachers in Latin America" on 13 August 1918. Furthermore, the battles waged by workers in South America formed part of a world-wide rising of workers symbolized most clearly by the October Revolution. The victory of the Bolsheviks was widely reported in the working class press and it undoubtedly provided encouragement as the confrontation with capital became more bitter and bloody at the end of the war. Anarcho-syndicalists, with their emphasis on direct action and the general strike, were at the peak of their influence at this time and the region's elites were swift to blame them for the unrest.
The Decline of Anarcho-Syndicalism
Looking back at this period from 1920-21, when the brief post-war boom had subsided, workers would have been justified in asking what immediate benefits their efforts had brought. Notable concessions, such as the eight-hour day in Peru, had been won but the cost was high and many were soon taken away as even supposedly reformist governments wrested back the initiative. The anarcho-syndicalists, often occupying leading positions in strike movements, had promised much, demanded much but delivered little. During the 1920's their influence began to decline and by the 1930's they were a spent force as an independent current within the labor movements of South America. Three factors were largely responsible for anarcho-syndicalism's decline.
Firstly, in Argentina and Brazil , employers and the state resorted to the tried and tested methods of repression. The outcome of the semana trágica in Buenos Aires was a blood bath. La Protesta claimed that there were 700 dead and 4, 000 wounded. La Protesta , Buenos Aires, 23 January 1919. It was also a further manifestation of the isolation of the anarchists who were abandoned by the syndicalists and then left to face the attacks of the newly-established, anti-labor, anti-immigrant Liga Patriótica Argentina.semana trágica , see Julio Godio, La Semana Trágica de Enero de 1919 (Granica, Buenos Aires, 1972) and Rock, op. cit. In Brazil similar organizations, such as the Liga da Defesa Nacional and Ação Social Naconalista , combined with the forces of the state in the decimation of the labor movement. Arrests and deportations effectively left it without leadership in the face of continued repression under the state of siege in force from 1922 to 1926.
Secondly, the success of the Bolsheviks in capturing state power in Russia offered a persuasive alternative for militants. Whilst the October Revolution was viewed with considerable alarm by elites, it was reported as a triumph in the labor movement press. Anarcho-syndicalists tended to give 'critical support' to the Bolshevik regime, though from 1921, with the suppression of the Kronstadt rising, the persecution of Nestor Makhno and the clamp down on independent workers' organisations, this turned to outright criticism of Bolshevik authoritarianism. Nevertheless, the prestige of the Russian Revolution gave impetus to the region's newly established Communist Parties and though small they represented a significant challenge to anarcho-syndicalists who viewed the growing number of ' moscovisados ' with consternation.Indeed, many anarcho-syndicalists came to accept the need for disciplined political parties along Bolshevik lines. As they had done previously, workers were consciously rejecting a strategy which appeared to have failed them in favor of one which could point to the Russian Revolution as real evidence of its viability and practicality.
Thirdly, and arguably most significantly, the partial opening up of politics to workers after the war, a process which, it has been noted, was already underway in Argentina, reflected a change in the nature of the state in South America. The bitterness and intensity of the battles fought by workers was at least partly responsible for the emergence of reformist sections of the elites who saw the need to integrate the working class into political life in the hope of promoting a more harmonious and conflict-free brand of capitalist development. The victory of Yrigoyen in 1916 was thus followed by the coming to power of Leguía in Peru in 1919 and Alessandri in Chile in 1920. op. cit. , p. 270. Though under these Presidents workers expectations were hardly satisfied, this process of reform and integration helped strip anarcho-syndicalism of one of the major strengths of its appeal, namely its rejection of politics. Workers increasingly came to believe that they could improve their conditions by putting pressure on and even gaining a voice in government.
Such a strategy necessitated political expression and workers gave their support to a variety of currents that best appeared to articulate their interests in the inter-war years. Throughout the region Communist parties and labor unions attracted and organized many but nowhere were they unchallenged. In Peru, Haya de la Torre's APRA gained considerable influence and the urban masses provided a base of support for populist politicians. Confronted by a hostile military regime from 1930, Argentine workers, at the expense of the independence of their union organizations, eventually found a political voice in Peronism. Yet elsewhere, anarcho-syndicalism retained some of its influence for a time. In Brazil's weakened labor movement, particularly in São Paulo, predominantly female textile workers kept the tradition alive at plant level. The Chilean IWW continued to play a leading role in the labor movement in Santiago and Valparaíso until falling victim to the repression of the Ibáñez government in 1927. Even then, the spirit was not entirely crushed as anarcho-syndicalists later came to occupy leading positions in the Socialist Party of Chile. op. cit. , pp. 285-286. The heyday of anarcho-syndicalism in South America, however, had passed. Though once articulating the experiences and aspirations of many of the region's workers, it gave way to movements deemed more appropriate in increasingly complex societies by workers themselves.
Notas
1. I would like to thank the University of Wolverhampton and the Nuffield Foundation for financial support for some of the research on which this chapter is based and the staff of the International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam.
2. Antero Aspíllaga - Ramón Aspíllaga, 18 August 1916, Cartas Reservadas , Cayaltí Archive, Archivo Agrario, Lima.
3. The South Pacific Mail , Valparaíso, 1 July 1920.
4. Arturo Alessandri, elected President of Chile in 1920, expressed the new reformist mood of at least part of the country's elite when he wrote, "I believed that the moment had come to produce harmony between capital and labor on the basis of human solidarity and social justice, to thus defend public order and social salvation...In a word, I felt that it was necessary to have rapid evolution to avoid the revolution and the holocaust which in conformity with a reiterated historical law always takes place when evolution is retarded". R. J. Alexander, Arturo Alessandri: A Biography , 2 vols., Ann Arbor, 1977, p. 18.
5. During the First World War, The Economist maintained that striking Argentinian railway workers were influenced not only by "Spanish and Italian revolutionary socialism" but also by "German agitators and German money". The Economist , London, 13, 20 October, 1917.
6. J. O. Morris, Elites, Intellectuals and Consensus. A Study of the Social Question and the Industrial Relations System in Chile , Ithaca, 1966, p. 113.
7. E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, Penguin, Harmondsworth, London , 1968, pp. 9-10.
8. In 'The Limitations of Ideology in the Early Argentine Labour Movement: Anarchism in the Trade Unions, 1890-1920', Journal of Latin American Studies , 16, 1 (1984), Ruth Thompson argues forcefully against the assumption that the union rank and file shared the views of the leaders. Most workers, she maintains, were interested in improving their wages and conditions rather than overthrowing the state. This was recognised by union leaders themselves who, despite their rhetoric, negotiated with employers and the state on behalf of their members.
9. A bibliography of Latin American labor history would run to many pages. Essential English language works on the region as a whole are H. Spalding Jr., Organized Labor in Latin America. Historical Case Studies of Urban Workers in Dependent Societies , Harper and Row, London, New York, San Francisco, (1977) and C. Bergquist, Labor in Latin America. Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia , Stanford U. P., Stanford, 1986. On Argentina, see J. Adelman (ed.), Essays in Argentine Labour History 1870-1930 , Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1992; on Peru, P. Blanchard, The Origins of the Peruvian Labor Movement, 1883-1919 , Pittsburgh U. P.,Pittsburgh, 1982; on Chile, P. DeShazo, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902-1927 , Wisconsin U. P., Madison , 1983; on Brazil, J. F. W. Dulles, Anarchists and Communists in Brazil, 1900-1935 , Texas U. P., Austin, 1973.
10. Spalding, op. cit., pp. 50-1.
11. The framework of analysis draws on that developed by Marcel van der Linden and Wayne Thorpe (eds.), Revolutionary Syndicalism: An International Perspective , Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1990. This chapter is limited to a discussion of developments in Chile, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. The influence of anarchist-inspired theory and practice was, of course, felt throughout Latin America; in addition to its extremely substantial collection of periodicals from these four countries, the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam has significant holdings of publications from Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.
12. M. Gonzales Prada, Anarchy , IWW, Tucson, 1972: p. 1
13. The important Argentinian publication La Voz de la Mujer , for example, proclaimed on its masthead that "Aparece cuando puede y por subscripción voluntario." The IISH has nine copies, published in 1896-7.
14. Many, however, still saw trade unions as inherently reformist.
15. Adelman, op. cit. , and 'State and Labour in Argentina: The Portworkers of Buenos Aires, 1910-21', Journal of Latin American Studies , 25, 1, 1993.
16. Van der Linden and Thorpe, op. cit., pp. 1-2.
17. J. Wolfe, 'Anarchist Ideology, Worker Practice: The 1917 General Strike and the Formation of São Paulo's Working Class', Hispanic American Historical Review , 71, 4, 1991; Working Women, Working Men: São Paulo and the Rise of Brazil's Industrial Working Class, 1900-1955 , Duke U. P., Durham, 1993.
18. M. H. Hall and H. A. Spalding Jr., 'The Urban Working Class and Early Latin American Labour Movements, 1880-1930', in L. Bethell (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin America , Vol. 4, Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1986, pp. 345-6.
19. Cecilia seems to have foundered over the colony's female members' reluctance to accept Rossi's ideas on 'free love'. Back home Rossi later considered the possibility of purchasing women from the "semi-savage tribes" with the proceeds of a new colony's distillery. He asked his correspondent to consider the scheme "without giving it any publicity". Giovanni Rossi Archive, IISH, Amsterdam, Rossi - A. G. Sanftleben, 29 November, 1896.
20. B. Albert, South America and the First World War. The Impact of the War on Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile , Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1988, p. 239; S. L. Maram, Anarchists, Immigrants, and the Brazilian Labor Movement , Unpub. Ph. D. Thesis, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1972, pp. 7-8.
21. Blanchard, op. cit., p. 49.
22. See also J. Godio, Historia del Movimiento Obrero Argentino, Migrantes Asalariados y Lucha de Clases, 1880-1910 , Editorial Tiempo Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, 1973, pp. 78-80, 128-9.
23. E. J. Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels , Manchester U. P., Manchester, 1959, p. 83. It should be noted, however, that Hobsbawm's millenarian interpretation of Spanish anarchism has prompted a revisionist critiwue which emphasises the more immediate and practical aims of the movement. See, for example, T. Kaplan, Anarchists of Andalusia: 1868-1903 , Princeton U. P., Princeton, 1977.
24. As late as 1924, long after the eclipse of anarchism, a Chilean anarchist fortnightly, El Surco , was still warning of the dangers of alcohol: "El alcohol es una de las causas de las armas poderosas, para atrofiar el cerebro del obrero, y por lo tanto obstrucciona el camino de su liberación". It urged its readers, when thirsty and in need of company, to drink a glass of water and read a book. El Surco , Iquique, 15 November 1924.
25. See, for example, La Organización Obrera , Buenos Aires, 24, 1903.
26. M. Molyneux, 'No God, No Boss, No Husband. Anarchist Feminism in Nineteenth Century Argentina', Latin American Perspectives , 13, 1, 1986.
27. See the article 'El Amor Libre: Por qué lo queremos?' signed by Carmen Lareva in the first issue of the paper, 8 January 1896.
28. A. Lavrin, 'Women, Labor and the Left: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1925', Journal of Women's History , 1, 2 1989, p. 95.
29. E. A. Gordon, Anarchism in Brazil: Theory and Practice, 1890-1920 , Unpub. Ph. D. Thesis, Tulane University, 1978, pp. 18-19. On conditions see Hall and Spalding, op. cit. , pp. 332-7
30. The Argentinian paper La Acción Socialista , which described itself as 'revolutionary syndicalist' (a term often used as an alternative to anarcho-syndicalist), described the ideas of anarchism in no uncertain terms as "...una monomanía pseudo-literaria y una masturbación continua...". La Acción Socialista , Buenos Aires, 16 February 1908.
31. Van der Linden and Thorpe, op. cit., Chapter 1.
32. Workers also found other outlets for their radicalism. The Partido Socialista had been formed in Argentina in 1896, the Chilean Partido Obrero Socialista was formed in 1912 and in that year Peruvian workers were instrumental in the election to the Presidency of the populist Guillermo Billinghurst. On Billinghurst see P. Blanchard, 'A Populist Precursor: Guillermo Billinghurst', Journal of Latin American Studies , 9, 2, 1977.
33. It is not possible here to discuss the strike wave in detail. For a useful summary see Albert, op. cit. , Chapter 6.
34. For details of the strikes, see El Jornalero, Trujillo, 1912 (various issues).
35. La Acción Socialista also argued that "La jornada de ocho horas no constituye solo una reforma, ni mucho menos un fin; es ante todo un medio de propaganda. Un medio maravilloso". La Acción Socialista , Buenos Aires, 21 September 1906.
36. R. Munck, 'The Formation and Development of the Working Class in Argentina, 1857-1919' in B. Munslow and H. Finch (eds.), Proletarianisation in the Third World. Studies in the Creation of a Labour Force under Dependent Capitalism , Croon Helm, London, 1984, p. 263.
37. Some workers were able to extract concessions over safety matters, most notably in Peru which in 1911 became the first Latin American country to provide compensation through the Law of Professional Risk for workers who were injured or became ill on the job. Blanchard, op. cit. (1982), pp. 36-40.
38. Shipley has calculated that most Buenos Aires workers with families earned nowhere near enough to meet necessary expenditure. R. E. Shipley, On the Outside Looking In: A Social History of the Porteño Worker During the 'Golden Age' of Argentine Development 1914-1930' , Unpub. Ph. D. Thesis, Rutgers University, 1977, pp. 414-441.
39. An important exception to this was Uruguay under the reformist President José Batlle y Ordóñez, 1903-7 and 1911-15.
40. Hall and Spalding, op. cit. , p. 332.
41. Godio, op. cit. (1973), p. 264.
42. Adelman, op. cit. (1992), pp. 15-16. In Chile, however, this tendency was less pronounced and major rent strikes took place in Valparaíso and Santiago (where an IWW member headed the tenant league) in 1925. DeShazo, op. cit., pp. 223-226.
43. B. Fausto, 'Brazil: The Social and Political Structure of the First Republic, 1889-1930', in Bethell (ed.), op. cit. , Vol 6, p. 801.
44. Blanchard, op. cit. (1982), pp . 86-88.
45. The best analysis of these developments is to be found in D. Rock, Politics in Argentina 1890-1930. The Rise and Fall of Radicalism , Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1975.
46. In contrast to Bergquist, DeShazo maintains that the workers of Santiago and Valparaíso rather than nitrate miners were the driving force of the organized labor movement in early twentieth century Chile. Nevertheless, a major role was played by the portworkers amongst whom anarcho-syndicalism was highly influential.
47. Such was the case following the assassination of the Buenos Aires police chief Ramón Falcón by the young Russian immigrant Simón Radowitzky in November 1909. La Protesta , Buenos Aires, 16 January 1910.
48. Spalding, op. cit. , pp. 20-21.
49. On Brazil see Albert, op. cit. , pp. 77-94.
50. Following the establishment of the university reform movement in Córdoba, Argentina in 1918, students elsewhere pressed for change and, like the young Haya de la Torre in Peru, frequently supported workers' organizations. Santiago's La Nación recorded "the first strike of teachers in Latin America" on 13 August 1918.
51 . La Protesta claimed that there were 700 dead and 4, 000 wounded. La Protesta , Buenos Aires, 23 January 1919.
52. For contrasting interpretations of the semana trágica , see Julio Godio, La Semana Trágica de Enero de 1919 (Granica, Buenos Aires, 1972) and Rock, op. cit.
53. Marques da Costa - Diego Abad de Santillán, 8 May 1924. Santillán Archive, Korrespondenz, 1924, International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam.
54. In Brazil the reformist Rui Barbosa's presidential campaign of 1919 was unsuccessful. Albert has argued that the lack of national political parties and the country's extreme federalism made the Brazilian state less vulnerable to pressure from below. Albert, op. cit. , p. 270.
55. De Shazo, op. cit. , pp. 285-286.
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