1 00:00:01,760 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Al the media. Hello, and welcome to Happen here. I'm 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:11,399 Speaker 1: Andrew Siege. I'm also andrewism on YouTube, and I'm here 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:12,400 Speaker 1: once again. 4 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,440 Speaker 2: With Garrison Davis. Happy to be here. 5 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:18,239 Speaker 1: Happy to have you, and we're going to continue our 6 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:22,440 Speaker 1: journey through Latin American anarchisms and their histories. We've already 7 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 1: discussed Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, Paraguay, Cuba, uapouch Struggle, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, 8 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:32,520 Speaker 1: and Venezuela, and so there are just a few territories 9 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 1: left that are considered Latin America. So just before we 10 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:40,239 Speaker 1: get to Mexico and Uruguay and possibly even Quebec, I 11 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:42,839 Speaker 1: want to round up all the anarchist histories in the 12 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: smaller states. 13 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 2: You're not wrong, but it still is funny. 14 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:51,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, Quebec. I mean, honestly, you could say the same 15 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: for like Haiti, Guadeloube, Martinique. 16 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I mean there's even a lot of anarchists 17 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 2: in Montreal today as a booming anarchist movement, but it 18 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 2: still is a little funny. 19 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, yeah. I actually wanted to include explorations of 20 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:15,039 Speaker 1: Haiti and in Guadelupe and Martinique in this episode, since 21 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:19,000 Speaker 1: it's you know, fairly small anarchist movements there. But I mean, 22 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: I suppose I could just summarize it one time, which 23 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: is that Martinique had a section of the International at 24 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,600 Speaker 1: one point in eighteen ninety five. There was also a 25 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 1: branch of the International in eighteen sixty six in the 26 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: island of Guadeloup, And it's very difficult to establish whether 27 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:40,319 Speaker 1: there were any anarchist groups in Heati. Ever, from my 28 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: research there there was an appearance of socialism more broadly 29 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: as part of the struggle against domination and taking place 30 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: in the country. But the dictatorships of Haiti have made 31 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 1: those kinds of movements very difficult to spring out and thrive. 32 00:01:58,200 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, I can see that. 33 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 1: But today we're going to be focusing on the anarchist 34 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:05,960 Speaker 1: histories and the rest of the smaller states of Central 35 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: America and the Caribbean. So we'll be covering the sparks 36 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: of anarchism in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvor, Guatemala, 37 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,960 Speaker 1: Dimerican Republic, and Puerto Rico. And as with previous episodes, 38 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: this is all possible thanks to Health Capitalet's exhaustive work 39 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:23,680 Speaker 1: titled Anarchism in Latin America. But let me set the 40 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: scene first and foremost across the lush rainforests and turquoise 41 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: seas of Central America. Historically, there were several indigenous peoples 42 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: that have called it home, and that home was violated 43 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: in the nearly sixteenth century as Spanish conquistadors carved bloody 44 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: paths through the region, replacing the ones vibrant pre colonial 45 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,960 Speaker 1: societies with the feudal like arrangements of the incomeenda system, 46 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:50,760 Speaker 1: which forced indigenous peoples into labor under Spanish landowners. The 47 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,520 Speaker 1: colonial eras of the rise of vast plantations for cash 48 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:57,600 Speaker 1: crops like cocoa, indigo and later coffee in Richina small 49 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 1: elite while indigenous and after descendant population endured brutal oppression 50 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: over the centuries. Fast forward to the early nineteenth century 51 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: and the wave of independence sweeping Acrosslast America reached Central America. 52 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty one, the region officially threw off Spanish rule, 53 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: and in eighteen twenty three, Central America gained its independence 54 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,160 Speaker 1: from the Mexican Empire. For a fleeting moment, from eighteen 55 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:22,400 Speaker 1: twenty three to eighteen thirty nine, Central America united as 56 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:25,839 Speaker 1: the Federal Republic of Central America modeled after the US 57 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 1: Constitution and encompass in modern day Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, 58 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,280 Speaker 1: and Costa Rica. Why eighteen thirty eight, the cracks in 59 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:37,280 Speaker 1: the federation would become in too large to ignore. I mean, 60 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 1: for most of its existence, the capital of the country 61 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: alternated between Guatemala City and San South Law, so they 62 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 1: couldn't even decide on that. Liberals and conservatives were also 63 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: split on the economy, centralization versus decentralization, and the role 64 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: of the Catholic Church, and Guatemala was kind of resented 65 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: by the other states because it had such disproportionate influence. 66 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: So political infight and regional rivalries eventually caused the union 67 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: to splinter. Each state went its own way. But the 68 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: collapse of the federation wasn't the end of the story, 69 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: as seas of resistance would sprout across the former territory 70 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: of the Republic, and among those seeds with the anarchists. 71 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: Let's start from Costa Rica and head north. In nearly 72 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, in Costa Rica, you had libertarian newspapers popping 73 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:25,280 Speaker 1: up all over the place as usual. 74 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:30,040 Speaker 2: And when you say libertarian, You don't necessarily. 75 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: I mean anarchists. Yes, yeah, I refuse let them appropriate 76 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:39,360 Speaker 1: that to it. Yes, so you had names like Eleora 77 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:43,039 Speaker 1: social Eldra Bajo, and Raluca, which would echo in the 78 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: struggles of local workers and the cross continental knowledge of 79 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: international discourses. But even before these publications, which you believe, 80 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:55,000 Speaker 1: there was enough anarchist danger to still up the establishment. 81 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 2: A very little anarchist danger is enough anarchist danger history 82 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 2: of the tablished. 83 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 1: No, but to tell you how how unsettled the establishment was. 84 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: So you know we're recording this a couple of weeks 85 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: before Christmas. 86 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 2: Right, Yes, this is going to come out I think 87 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 2: right after New Year's okay. 88 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 1: And I don't know if you've gone to chooch for 89 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:18,360 Speaker 1: Christmas before. If that's the thing that you've done, okay, 90 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 1: I have as well. And imagine eighteen ninety two, go, 91 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: it's Christmas time, you go into church, you sit down 92 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 1: to get your little you know, you're supposed to keep 93 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:33,400 Speaker 1: the sermon short and sweet, let people get home to 94 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:36,600 Speaker 1: do what they have to do, right, But in eighteen 95 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 1: ninety two, Bishop thil decided to use his Christmas sermon 96 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: to one against anarchists. 97 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:44,760 Speaker 2: That that's pretty funny. 98 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:46,760 Speaker 1: Like imagine you just trying to go home at each 99 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:48,680 Speaker 1: of Christmas lunch and you have to listen to this 100 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: guy preach against like these radical anarchists who come in 101 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:53,799 Speaker 1: to rest up the country. 102 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:57,919 Speaker 2: They're giving out food, they're healing the sick, they're doing. 103 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 1: I mean to be fairly because at the time were 104 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,840 Speaker 1: generally a threat to the to the clerical establishment. 105 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 2: Sure, of course, as was our Lord and Savior Christ 106 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 2: Jesus age Christ Jesus and his affinity group of twelve 107 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 2: traveling around the countryside, stirring up all kinds. 108 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:18,760 Speaker 1: Of trouble, indeed indeed. 109 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 2: Seeding revolt against the Roman Empire. We got to stop them. 110 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, gosh, that's the whole kind of roombs 111 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: I could have got into right there. 112 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:29,839 Speaker 2: Sure is. 113 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:33,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I mean, seriously, Christianity went from being 114 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:37,039 Speaker 1: a response to the Roman Empire to be in the 115 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: Roman Empire, and that is like one of the biggest 116 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:41,320 Speaker 1: downgrades of the millennia. 117 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:45,159 Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it's a super successful recuperation. And that's why 118 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:47,600 Speaker 2: I do find as much as it has some problems, 119 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 2: Liberation theology, especially the version in the South to be 120 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:55,480 Speaker 2: kind of compelling. I wouldn't consider myself a Christian necessarily, 121 00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 2: but as of like a religious sect goes, I am 122 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 2: interested in in what liberation theology kind of does and 123 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 2: how it tries to reradicalize forms of Christianity. 124 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: For sure, for sure I have some concerns about it. 125 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 1: Another strands of Christian anarchism, same as somebody who grew 126 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: a Christian. Yeah, same, But of course this is not 127 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,360 Speaker 1: the place to like ask about that toffic as we 128 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:26,760 Speaker 1: do have quite a few countries to cover. So because 129 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: three can anarchists were not just being called out by 130 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: the bishops bishops, you know, and they were also struggling, 131 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: you know, print eight our work day, such as with 132 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:40,800 Speaker 1: the beaker strike in nineteen oh five, and they would 133 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:45,800 Speaker 1: also demonstrate against the assassination of anarchists educator Francisco Frere Nice. 134 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: They would also found the Centauri Studio Socialist Criminal, which 135 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: was a collective of intellectuals and workers who focus on 136 00:07:53,160 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: study and expanded upon anarchism at A nineteen eleven, and 137 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,360 Speaker 1: they woul launch the journal Renovacion, which a sid and 138 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: impressive seventy plus issues. They helped organize Costarica's first May 139 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,080 Speaker 1: Day celebration in nineteen thirteen and he results. As in 140 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:13,680 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, groups explicitly formed for libertarian action, but unfortunately, 141 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 1: the anarchist influen wouldn't be as impactful in the country 142 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: heading into the mid twentieth century, as the country faced 143 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:22,800 Speaker 1: two dictatorships. However, the defeat of the latter in nineteen 144 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: forty nine actually ushered in the most peaceful and stable 145 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:30,440 Speaker 1: political situation in all of Latin America. I suppose that 146 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:34,239 Speaker 1: might be because the democratic government that followed didn't transgress 147 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 1: US interests. They do have a US military base in 148 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 1: the country, after all, But let me not speculate too much. 149 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:45,959 Speaker 2: Look who doesn't have a US military base these days? 150 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,200 Speaker 1: Come on, cut them some sack. 151 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:55,280 Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, Andrew. I thought you were pro internationalism, 152 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:56,520 Speaker 2: but here we go. 153 00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, look at this, Look at this, this this 154 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: perole ko backwards regressive. You're telling me you don't want 155 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:06,840 Speaker 1: boots on the ground in your country. 156 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:25,040 Speaker 2: Globe aboji in bio version of internationalism. 157 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,320 Speaker 1: So moving on north to Nicaragua. The spark of labor 158 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:31,920 Speaker 1: organization began to flicker in the early nineteen hundreds, but 159 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:36,720 Speaker 1: there's little evidence of any anarchists specific influence. In nineteen eighteen, 160 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:41,400 Speaker 1: in the Federals Nicaraguenes or the fo N, emerged and 161 00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:44,640 Speaker 1: pulled together various mutual societies from across the country, from 162 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:49,480 Speaker 1: shoemakers to baker's to telas, from Leon to Managua. But 163 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 1: this federation wasn't anarchist and character both conservative and liberal 164 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:56,400 Speaker 1: elites actually tried to use these workers groups with their 165 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:59,720 Speaker 1: own ends. Within the fo N, the group of Socialista 166 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:03,079 Speaker 1: ended up emerging as a rebel force to challenge these 167 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:06,080 Speaker 1: elites and the influence and the workers' movements. But even 168 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: that rebel group was a performist in nature. Now it 169 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: is possible that libertarians from Spain in Mexico played roles 170 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:17,920 Speaker 1: in the Stevedore strikes of nineteen nineteen in Corinto, which 171 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: was nicragu was major port city, but a caste for Shure. 172 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:23,680 Speaker 1: For my research, we do know that at least one 173 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: influential person was perhaps inspired by anarchism, and that was 174 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:32,199 Speaker 1: Augusto Sandino, the leader of the Sandinista rebellion against the 175 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:36,280 Speaker 1: US occupation of Nicaragua. Sandino worked alongside anarchists during his 176 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: time in exile in Mexico, Juni's revolution, and the red 177 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 1: and black of the Sandinistas actually came from that anarchist influence. 178 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:47,640 Speaker 1: By the nineteen thirties, after the US withdrawal, the labor 179 00:10:47,679 --> 00:10:50,840 Speaker 1: movement had to navigate a somewhats of family dictatorship, which 180 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:53,520 Speaker 1: was marked by the severe oppression of anything that even 181 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:58,720 Speaker 1: smelled red. Even in the face of state violence, unions 182 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,960 Speaker 1: and workers groups continue to organize, laying the groundwork for 183 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,800 Speaker 1: future resistance, including the eventual Sandinista revolution that overthrew the 184 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:10,240 Speaker 1: Soumotzas in the late seventies. Some social progress was then 185 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:12,800 Speaker 1: possible in the country, but it was still marred by 186 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:16,200 Speaker 1: corruption and authoritarianism, made worse by the re election of 187 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:20,080 Speaker 1: Daniel Rodegger in two thousand and six. He still holds 188 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,079 Speaker 1: the presidency in nicarat War to this day. Managine to 189 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: stave off this swell of protests against him between twenty 190 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 1: eighteen and twenty twenty, of which anarchists, however small number 191 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 1: did indeed take part if returned to Honduras. Now, this 192 00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:36,200 Speaker 1: not too much to say about anarchists so again, but 193 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 1: Honduras did have a vibrant labor movement. In eighteen ninety, 194 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: La Democracia, one of the country's first mutual aid societies, 195 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,640 Speaker 1: emerged with a cooperative spirit that laid the foundation for 196 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,920 Speaker 1: was to come. By the early twentieth century, the workers 197 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:51,480 Speaker 1: move when in Honduras had begun to heat up even more, 198 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:55,199 Speaker 1: particularly among miners and banana plantation laborers, two groups that 199 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:58,960 Speaker 1: were central to the country's economy. In March nineteen o nine, 200 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:04,600 Speaker 1: miners struck against brutal conditions and poverty wages. The response Garson, 201 00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:09,760 Speaker 1: maybe you can guess bad things, violent, brutal repression, ding 202 00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: ding ding ding ding. 203 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,199 Speaker 2: Yeah, that is, that is you know what I was assuming, 204 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:15,960 Speaker 2: but I didn't want to, you know, make a fool 205 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:16,720 Speaker 2: out of myself. 206 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:22,000 Speaker 1: Nineteen sixteen banana plantation workers at the Quama Food Company. 207 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:22,960 Speaker 1: What was their. 208 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:27,319 Speaker 2: Response, Oh, violence, murder, I assume. 209 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: Ding ding ding, ding ding. Four hundred strikers were four 210 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:35,960 Speaker 1: hundred strikers were arrested and imprisoned in the infamous Castillo 211 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 1: der Moor. I didn't see any evidence of mass deaths 212 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 1: in this particular case. 213 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,280 Speaker 2: Which is honestly progressive considering the time. 214 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 1: I don't know, mass incarceration not really that much better. 215 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:53,640 Speaker 1: I mean, they literally got imprisoned in this castle, dungeon jail. 216 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: Not not something I would want to be. Rats nibbling 217 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:00,040 Speaker 1: at you tools and stuff like that. You know, no, 218 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: no so. Following these early twentieth century strikes, workers gradually 219 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:07,320 Speaker 1: began to build some momentum when they're fired for rights, 220 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: but circularly during the nineteen fifty four general strike against 221 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,600 Speaker 1: the US banana companies. This strike led to significant gains, 222 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:16,360 Speaker 1: including the legal right to organize and the emergence of 223 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: a more unified labor movement. Now will anarchists involve these movements. 224 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: It's possible, as movements do bear much of the language 225 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:27,960 Speaker 1: and hallmarks of the anarchist Cynicolus thoughts at the time, 226 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:31,960 Speaker 1: but identify specific names as difficult, and there doesn't seem 227 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:34,600 Speaker 1: to be any evidence of specifically anarchist groups in the 228 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: early labor history of the country. As in other parts 229 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,480 Speaker 1: of Central America, it appears that Marxists had a bit 230 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 1: more influence in their struggles. In response to the workers' gains, 231 00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 1: the US backed military coups of roles to counter that progress. 232 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:51,559 Speaker 1: The nineteen sixty three coup against President Harmone vieda Morales 233 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:55,199 Speaker 1: usher in decades of military rule, which stifled labor movements 234 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:59,920 Speaker 1: and pasiant movements, often violently. Due to the nineteen seventies, 235 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:04,440 Speaker 1: Campesino or peasant land struggles intensified as the people demanded 236 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 1: redistribution and reforms. They did get some reform under General 237 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:13,480 Speaker 1: Zuldo Lopez Ariano, but these reforms were limited and met 238 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 1: with the usual repression. In transition in to a civilian 239 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:21,040 Speaker 1: government in nineteen eighties, Honduras remained under heavy US influence, 240 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:24,840 Speaker 1: serving as a base for anti communist activities and Central America. 241 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 1: Then neoliberal policies in nineteen nineties eroded many of the 242 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:32,520 Speaker 1: hard won social and labor rights, as privatization and austerity 243 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:36,360 Speaker 1: measures deepened the inequality in the country. Two thousand and 244 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:39,920 Speaker 1: nine coups against President Manuel's Liar marked another turning point 245 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: in modern hundred resistance. Slaia's progressive policies, including raised in 246 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: the minimum wage and considering a Greeran reform. Imagine you're 247 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:53,600 Speaker 1: considered progressive, even considering a greering reform. But for that 248 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 1: thought crime of considering a Greeran reform, he was alienated 249 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 1: by the business elite and the US aligned military and 250 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:03,160 Speaker 1: thus could and this triggered, of course, a wave of 251 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: militarization and repression, and protests were met with violence and 252 00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:11,600 Speaker 1: human rights abuses usual in the years following the coop. 253 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 1: Movements like that Resistentsia unified a broad coalition of workers, 254 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:20,400 Speaker 1: indigenous grows, feminists, students who were all demanding systemic change. 255 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,600 Speaker 1: But the issues persist and Dorus continues to face crises 256 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: of poverty, violence and migration, but Grassts organizing continues. The 257 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 1: ground there is indeed fertile for an anarchist resurgence, and 258 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 1: then we come to the Salvor. Anarchists, both local and international, 259 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:43,720 Speaker 1: played a key role in shape in the early labor movement. Spanish, 260 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:47,120 Speaker 1: Mexico and Panamanian anarchisynicalists work with them ideas of collector 261 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:50,720 Speaker 1: resistance and workers' autonomy. One of the earliest milestones in 262 00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:54,480 Speaker 1: the country was the Union Operetra Savagorinia, founded in nineteen 263 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:57,480 Speaker 1: twenty two, which united workers under the principles of mutual 264 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: aid and direct action. Nineteen before the Ferracri Theravadores Salvador 265 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:07,920 Speaker 1: or FRTs emerged and was initially steeped in anarchist cynicleust 266 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: ideas before shifting towards Marxism in the late nineteen twenties. 267 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: In the nineteen thirties, the anarchist Centro Synical Libretario was 268 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:19,360 Speaker 1: founded and operated in San Salvador. Unfortunately, for pretty much 269 00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:24,320 Speaker 1: everybody in El Salvador, nineteen thirty two happened the devastating 270 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 1: La Mantaza of nineteen thirty two. To be specific, this 271 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,360 Speaker 1: was a massacre that was orchestrated by the dictatorship of 272 00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:34,360 Speaker 1: General Or I shouldn't have told you. I should have 273 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: asked you what you think to la matanza means un 274 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 1: as you've be brushed up in your Spanish. 275 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 2: Unfortunately. No, my Spanish is actually quite famously bad. I 276 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:45,760 Speaker 2: really should work on it. 277 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:49,640 Speaker 1: I'm sure you're envying my my stumbling through the all 278 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: these Spanish names throughout this series. 279 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:54,720 Speaker 2: See, that's usually me. I'm just happy to have it 280 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:57,840 Speaker 2: be someone else, so James doesn't laugh at me for 281 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,960 Speaker 2: reading too many books but not practicing saying things out 282 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:02,960 Speaker 2: loud as a kid. 283 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,119 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel you. I mean for me, 284 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,479 Speaker 1: I think one of the difficulties I have been in 285 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,280 Speaker 1: the Spanish like all my life. Yeah. The difficulty is 286 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:17,199 Speaker 1: when you're speaking at a momentum in one language, at 287 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,159 Speaker 1: least in my experience, it's really difficult to switch the 288 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: patterns of pronunciation to the other language. You know, the 289 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:27,160 Speaker 1: way that Spanish like reads vowels is different from how 290 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:30,440 Speaker 1: English reads vowels, so it's hard to like quickly switch 291 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:31,200 Speaker 1: in and switch out. 292 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that has always been my struggle is reading 293 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:40,920 Speaker 2: their vowels like my vowels, and it produces some sometimes 294 00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:46,080 Speaker 2: quite quite comical pronunciation which is really really my bad. 295 00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:51,119 Speaker 1: I can imagine, but yeah. The La Matanza of nineteen 296 00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:55,399 Speaker 1: thirty two was a massacre orchestrated by the dictatorship of 297 00:17:55,520 --> 00:18:01,800 Speaker 1: General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez that aimed to crush the peasant 298 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:05,280 Speaker 1: u prize in that was sparked by systemic poverty and 299 00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 1: landist possession. Tens of thousands were slaughtered, many of them 300 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 1: indigenous people, and the anarchists and labor movements in the 301 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: country suffered immense losses as activists were either killed or 302 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:21,640 Speaker 1: forced underground. This marked the beginning of decades of military 303 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,280 Speaker 1: rule designed to protect the interests of the land owned 304 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:28,879 Speaker 1: in oligarchy, the fourteen families that practically owned everything in 305 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:33,679 Speaker 1: Al Salvor. But despite this repression, radical organizations have persisted. 306 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:36,480 Speaker 1: The mid to lay twentieth century, so the rise of 307 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: armed revolutionary groups, culminating in the salvadorra In Civil War 308 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:42,760 Speaker 1: from nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety two. The war 309 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:46,399 Speaker 1: pitted the primarily marx Lenists and socialist factions against the 310 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:50,920 Speaker 1: US backed salvador And military dictasership. The Marxists transitioned into 311 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:53,760 Speaker 1: a political party after the nineteen twinety two peace Accords, 312 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:58,440 Speaker 1: which ended the war but left many systemic inequalities unresolved. 313 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,879 Speaker 1: In the twenty first century, labor struggles have continued amid 314 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:05,920 Speaker 1: new liberal economic reforms and international financial pressures. While the 315 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,560 Speaker 1: left wing fml AND won the president seems those nine 316 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,440 Speaker 1: and held power one until twenty nineteen. His tenure was 317 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: criticized for failing to sufficiently addressed issues plague in the country. 318 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,320 Speaker 1: Recent years under President Abukele have seen the construction of 319 00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:23,159 Speaker 1: a proper mass casseral police state while we were going 320 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:27,280 Speaker 1: to struggle against privatization and austerity measures. By the way, 321 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:31,040 Speaker 1: the rise of Achille is just really fascinating to me, 322 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:36,159 Speaker 1: particularly from a Trindardy in context, because we have a 323 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:39,800 Speaker 1: pre surveyor murder rate situation going on. Our murder rate 324 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 1: has been rising steadily in the past two decades, and 325 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:46,280 Speaker 1: there's just been in general a lot of crime issues 326 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:49,600 Speaker 1: lately and the response a lot I've seen a lot 327 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:52,560 Speaker 1: of Trindadians have toward the rise of Auchilli and a 328 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:55,600 Speaker 1: Salvador is literally like, we do that too, We need 329 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 1: to do that too, like we need to you know, 330 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:01,760 Speaker 1: institute like a mass cossus as well. And I feel 331 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:06,440 Speaker 1: like I'm fighting a wave. I'm like talking to a wall. 332 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:08,879 Speaker 1: Like really, it's really difficult for me, I think, to 333 00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:12,480 Speaker 1: challenge that because I know some people's frustrations, but to me, 334 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,000 Speaker 1: my mind is just boggled at it. You know, like 335 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: you really think we we complaining about corruption all the time, right, 336 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:22,879 Speaker 1: Like it's very openly nepotistic and corrupt in this place, 337 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:26,680 Speaker 1: people who are like either political party that is presented 338 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:29,919 Speaker 1: to us as the options. And yet people are so 339 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:32,520 Speaker 1: thinking about the crime situation that they're willing to put 340 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,240 Speaker 1: that much power in the hands of the government to 341 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:37,560 Speaker 1: make that judgment. That's the thing is, we know that 342 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:40,840 Speaker 1: they are innocent people in for killer's prisons. You know, 343 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:44,760 Speaker 1: we know that journalists haveing locks of criticizing the government. 344 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:48,240 Speaker 1: We know that all people are locked up without charges, 345 00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:53,240 Speaker 1: without rights, without anything. And what's crazy to me is 346 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:57,400 Speaker 1: that like people are like cheering it on until it's them, 347 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,200 Speaker 1: until you happen to be unlucky enough to have a tattoo. 348 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:03,760 Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, as long as it's someone else, then 349 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:04,879 Speaker 2: it's not them. 350 00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. It's like it's fine as long as somebody else. 351 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,920 Speaker 1: But like, let's say you have a tattoo or I mean, 352 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:13,840 Speaker 1: the thing is the police. I'm sure it's the case 353 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,040 Speaker 1: in Saba as well, because the police are themselves a 354 00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:18,440 Speaker 1: gang pretty much anywhere in the world, but the police 355 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,760 Speaker 1: and should not literally connected in some cases with with gangs. 356 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,560 Speaker 1: In fact, there's some gang members who end up like 357 00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: joining the police force later on in their lives. And 358 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:30,159 Speaker 1: so to just give that kind of policy that, you know, 359 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:35,239 Speaker 1: let's say you criticize an officer, you say something they 360 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:37,320 Speaker 1: were like, and then before you know it, you're the 361 00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:40,480 Speaker 1: one behind boss as well. I understand the frustration, I 362 00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:44,280 Speaker 1: don't understand the response, and it remains to be seen 363 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,800 Speaker 1: how Pikuli's policies continue to play out in the country. 364 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:52,399 Speaker 1: I feel like it's a disaster wayson to happen. In 365 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,000 Speaker 1: many ways, it is already a disaster. But you know 366 00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,159 Speaker 1: there are people point to oh, look, I'll see if 367 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 1: things have got no But I don't know how long 368 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:05,280 Speaker 1: that will last, especially when the families that are responsible 369 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:09,359 Speaker 1: for so much of the disparity in the country are 370 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,240 Speaker 1: still in their position of power. But I digress. The 371 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:17,040 Speaker 1: spirit of mutually direct action and anti Thoritain resistance still 372 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,160 Speaker 1: has a potential to persist in the country without Salbado. 373 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,879 Speaker 1: At last, we've reached Guatemala. The nineteen twenty sixth, the 374 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:36,680 Speaker 1: publication Orientacition Syndical started circulating in Guatemala calling for the 375 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,639 Speaker 1: kind of direct, grassroots union action that went around or 376 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:44,200 Speaker 1: even opposed fiscal parties as obstacles liberation. Meanwhile, the Marxists 377 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:46,720 Speaker 1: in the country had a different vision. They pushed for 378 00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:50,159 Speaker 1: the formation of the Federaci Jianalo Verradia Guatemala and with 379 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:54,040 Speaker 1: that the launch of fan Gardia Proletaria, a communist led 380 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:57,160 Speaker 1: people that aim to rally the working class behind Marxist ideas. 381 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,040 Speaker 1: At the same time, Spanish and Peruvian workers alongside Quatemalan 382 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:04,320 Speaker 1: students and workers came together to form the Committee Proxy 383 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:08,480 Speaker 1: and Sindical, which was the space where anarchistyndicalism truly found 384 00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,520 Speaker 1: its voice in Quatemala, Guds. You can probably guess the 385 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:13,119 Speaker 1: powers that be weren't going to let this kind of 386 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: antical action stand. In nineteen thirty a military dictatorship spread 387 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: swept into the country and in the committ Dae, effectively 388 00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:24,040 Speaker 1: silence and anarchistnicalism in Quatermala and set in the stage 389 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:27,320 Speaker 1: for years of political oppression as the state worked tirelessly 390 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,679 Speaker 1: to suppress any form of workers self organization, often with 391 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:35,080 Speaker 1: the back end of the one and only us say 392 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 1: us say us say. The mid twentieth century marked a 393 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,800 Speaker 1: period of extreme violence against workers movements, passive movements, and 394 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:49,240 Speaker 1: leftists movements, especially after the nineteen fifty four CIA backed coup. 395 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:53,720 Speaker 1: Despite these setbacks, workers and political movements really never stopped fighting. 396 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:58,360 Speaker 1: In the nineteen sixties and seventies, thriller movements gainablemental inspired 397 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,240 Speaker 1: by Marxist and anti imperialist side urologies, and although these 398 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:04,520 Speaker 1: movements were frequently crushed with state violence in the Fourth 399 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,680 Speaker 1: massacres and disappearances, they persisted until the end of the 400 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,600 Speaker 1: Civil War nineteen ninety six. Still, social inequality and economic 401 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,680 Speaker 1: exploitation persisted they will move on, especially in this sweatshop industry, 402 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:19,199 Speaker 1: have continued to fight for workers' rights. Automno today is 403 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,200 Speaker 1: still fighting to breathe free. Its people are still fighting 404 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: against the continued dominance of neoliberal economic policies, fighting against 405 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,520 Speaker 1: crop political elites, and most importantly fighting for autonomy, frest 406 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,119 Speaker 1: indigenous and working peoples, and that it was time to 407 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:35,040 Speaker 1: hit the islands on. Our first stop is the Dominican Republic. 408 00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 1: Through the efforts of Spanish immigrant workers, the ideas of 409 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,560 Speaker 1: mutual aid and syndicalism found very fertile ground, particularly in 410 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:45,040 Speaker 1: the mid eighteen eighties, where we see the emerging into 411 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:50,280 Speaker 1: the first mutualist associations such as La Alianza Chipayania in 412 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four and Society dad at tsinale Ecosted Pueblo 413 00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:56,680 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety. The River road Workers strike and eighteen 414 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,159 Speaker 1: ninety six struck in protest against their conditions on the 415 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,680 Speaker 1: Puerto Plata Santiago Line among the first direct actions in 416 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:07,639 Speaker 1: the American Republic outside of its historical maroonages and slaver vootes. 417 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:10,919 Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety seven, the first labor union was formed, 418 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,960 Speaker 1: the Union de Panaderos de Santo Domingo. Not long after, 419 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:20,439 Speaker 1: strikes erupted across the country. Bakers, cobblers, bricklayers all marched 420 00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,960 Speaker 1: in protest, often the heart of Cologne Park, fighting for 421 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,800 Speaker 1: better working conditions and respect from their employers. Fast forward 422 00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:30,000 Speaker 1: a bit, and in nineteen twenty we saw the first 423 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:34,800 Speaker 1: Premier Congress to de Rabajadores Dominicanos convene in Santremingo, where 424 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,680 Speaker 1: the Confederacion Dominicano del Tabajo was born. The demands were 425 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,840 Speaker 1: basic but crucial, things like the eight hour workday, the 426 00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:45,280 Speaker 1: right to strike, a salary schedule, and profit sharing. But 427 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:48,760 Speaker 1: it wasn't just about improving their daily lives. They also 428 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:52,439 Speaker 1: sought to fight foreign intervention. Specifically, they called to the 429 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:55,359 Speaker 1: end to the North American occupation, which had had a 430 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,240 Speaker 1: heavy presence in the region for decades. The nineteen twenties 431 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,520 Speaker 1: also the rise of another powerful union, the Ferreacion Local 432 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:06,240 Speaker 1: Devajo de sant Domingo, which was founded by thirty one 433 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:09,639 Speaker 1: different unions. But despite the strength of these movements, the 434 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: Dominican Republic remained under the heavy influence of foreign powers 435 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: and corrupt local elites. In nineteen forty six, the Dominican 436 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,800 Speaker 1: Republic saw a major strike in the sugar plantations of 437 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:22,119 Speaker 1: La Romana and San Pedro de Macoris, and this time 438 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:24,679 Speaker 1: the influence of Spanish anarchists who had fled the Spanish 439 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,320 Speaker 1: Civil War was undeniable. Today, the anarchist presence in the 440 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:32,280 Speaker 1: American Republic is not pronounced, but the conditions are as 441 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:36,760 Speaker 1: with the others ripe for such a transformation. Finally, let's 442 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:39,800 Speaker 1: jump across to Puerto Rico for a final historical review. 443 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,560 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico, as we know, was a Spanish colony into 444 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:44,600 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight, but after that it fell under the 445 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: control of the United States. Anarchism in Puerto Rico didn't 446 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:49,919 Speaker 1: have quite the same impact as it did in there 447 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,000 Speaker 1: By Cuba, let us men, it wasn't there pushing back 448 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,639 Speaker 1: against the powers of be anarchism. Militans, particularly from Spain, 449 00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,760 Speaker 1: made their way to Perto Rico and eighteen eighties bring 450 00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:02,840 Speaker 1: them the fire of direct action and commitment to the 451 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: idea that workers should control their own lives. In the 452 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,480 Speaker 1: liberal period between eighteen sixty eight and eighteen seventy three, 453 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:12,280 Speaker 1: the first artist and based organizations started popping up. These 454 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:16,520 Speaker 1: were mutual aid societies and cooperatives, They weren't exactly radical 455 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:20,119 Speaker 1: in organization, a far cry from the anarchist uprisings happening 456 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,879 Speaker 1: elsewhere in that America, but there were spaces where workers 457 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,000 Speaker 1: could find solidarity and support. In eighteen ninety four, things 458 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,720 Speaker 1: began to change. A monetary crisis hit, followed by a 459 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:35,040 Speaker 1: devaluation that ten prices chyrocketing, and the population started to 460 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,320 Speaker 1: push back. Dis triggered a wave of strikes and mass protests, 461 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:39,639 Speaker 1: and this is where we started to see the direct 462 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:43,080 Speaker 1: influence of anarchists. Were now for sure that Spanish anarchists 463 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,080 Speaker 1: who had settled in Puerto Rico were active in these 464 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:50,040 Speaker 1: early struggles, pushing freemancipation and non sin expoitation. Eighteen ninety eight, 465 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,040 Speaker 1: when Puerto Rico was already under US control, anarchists and 466 00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:58,200 Speaker 1: socialists came together to form the Federacrialrichnal the Rostrabadories, a 467 00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: group clearly inspired with the Spanish Rasciol Richiernallystpanola. Their program 468 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:06,320 Speaker 1: was a simple yet radical one, abolished the exploitation of 469 00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:10,439 Speaker 1: workers and build a society without borders or masters. But 470 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,800 Speaker 1: as with all movements, there were contradictions and splits. In 471 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,600 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine, a major rift occurred within the Federation 472 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:18,639 Speaker 1: when it became clear that some of its leaders were 473 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:21,879 Speaker 1: more willing than others to accept the support of political parties, 474 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,800 Speaker 1: something the anarchists traditionally rejected. This caused those that were 475 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:30,040 Speaker 1: true to syndicalist autonomy to form the Federascian Libre, a 476 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,800 Speaker 1: group that split from that original federation and stuck to 477 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:37,840 Speaker 1: the principles of the First International. Yet, just a few 478 00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:40,440 Speaker 1: years later, in nineteen oh one, this same group ended 479 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:44,320 Speaker 1: up affiliated with the Conservative American Federation of Labor, which 480 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:49,440 Speaker 1: is a very strange bedfellow considering their earlier anarchist commitments. 481 00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:53,160 Speaker 1: But the anarchists didn't feed away just after these splits. 482 00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,680 Speaker 1: They didn't achieve the downant position in Puertrico's worker movement, 483 00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 1: but they kept pushing forward anyway, and one of the 484 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 1: ways they did this was through the press, as they 485 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:05,360 Speaker 1: spread ideas, shared literature, and build networks. Bauz Sumana, a 486 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:09,720 Speaker 1: publication based on Kaguas, was one such example. The energy 487 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,320 Speaker 1: anarchist in Pertorico was translated into action, especially in the 488 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:16,400 Speaker 1: labor front, where they were there and part of strikes 489 00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 1: and meetings and ongoing battles. So as we look at 490 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,880 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico today, whether with the fight for sovereignty, for 491 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: labor rights, against crunalism, or whatever else, we can remember 492 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,480 Speaker 1: the potential of anarchism on the island. There are Puerto 493 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,080 Speaker 1: Ricans and history who understood that freedom wasn't solely about 494 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:37,800 Speaker 1: political independence, but about the liberation of all people from 495 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,280 Speaker 1: all forms of exploitation. So I take a step back 496 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:43,800 Speaker 1: and look at the broader picture of labor and anarchists 497 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: struggle across the region. Do the anarchist move once We're 498 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,640 Speaker 1: not as vibrant as elsewhere, whether indeed dormant or dead 499 00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:54,600 Speaker 1: in many cases, we still see a very powerful thread 500 00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,640 Speaker 1: of resistance and a very futile ground for anarchist development, 501 00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,080 Speaker 1: which our comrades in these places can hope the flourish within. 502 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:04,400 Speaker 1: That's all for me today. You can find me on 503 00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,360 Speaker 1: YouTube at andrazom and pature on nat seem Drew. This 504 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:12,040 Speaker 1: is it could happen here. All power to all the people. 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