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Clasismo: Rethinking Working Class Radicalism in Argentina

This study explores the evolution of working-class radicalism in Argentina, from the origins of Peronism to the growth of worker discontent and Clasismo activism. It delves into the struggle for worker rights, shifting ideologies, and the emergence of a coherent class identity post-1969.

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Clasismo: Rethinking Working Class Radicalism in Argentina

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  1. Clasismo Rethinking Working Class Radicalism in Argentina Adam Fishwick, University of Sussex adf25@sussex.ac.uk

  2. Peronism and Workers’ Identity • Origins debate (Germani, Murmis & Portantieroetc) • Who were the Peronist workers? • A ‘new’ working class or a continuity of union leadership? • Return to the grassroots (James) • Politics of Peronism and the significance of working class experience • Ideological credibility and persistence of experience • Beyond the centrality of Peronism – from struggle to the political

  3. Beyond Peronism • Rethinking passivity in the 1930s • Limited strike activity BUT popular radicalisation • Growth of Communist Party influence • 1936 general strike – ‘social combat’ of masses • Workers under and against Perón in the 1940s-1950s • Persistence of conflictividad amongst workers • Direct transmission of worker discontent from factories to and against union and CGT leadership • Continued relative weight of the Communist Party • La Resistencia and beyond in the 1950s-1960s • Unsanctioned protest and new methods of struggle • Alternative political currents and ‘recomposition’ • Compañerismoand nascent class consciousness

  4. Clasismoafter 1969 “abrevabade elementosque se encontraban en la conciencia y en la identidad de los obreroscomosujeto social” (Schneider 2005: 387) • Younger workers, more modern industries, prominent across industrial cities • Culmination of protest and struggle, locally rooted but politically significant, a coherent class identity?

  5. SITRAC-SITRAM • “se proponeser el fielintérprete de la lucha de los trabajadorespor la eliminación de la burocraciasindical, la explotacion de los obrerospor parte de los grandescapitales y la liberación social y nacional de la patria” (Boletín del SindicatoTrabajadores Concord, 1:1, 13/01/71, Archivo del SITRAC, Subarchivo 1, Ficha 1, p. 6) • Workers’ movement at FIAT plants in Córdoba against ineffective union representation – clasismo came after • Addressing worker demands alongside hierarchical relations • New forms of organisation and struggle – from the masses

  6. SMATA and Salamanca • “la marcha a unasociedadrealmente NUESTRA, a un estado popular y revolucionario y a unaépoca de enfrentamiento real y franco al imperialismo, dirigidopor la claseobrera y el pueblo” (SMATA Córdoba, No. 102, 18/05/73, p. 1) • Union representing automobile workers – later formation than traditional Peronist unions; historical role of Left • Tensions persisted and increased both in the workplace and with the leadership in Buenos Aires • Growth of clasista influence after 1969-71 under Salamanca, control after 1972 and MovimientoSindicalCombativo

  7. Conclusion • Peronism and the working class – related but separate • No passivity – persistence of working class conflictividad • Clasismo as a embedded in historical experience • From the workplace to the political

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