WEBVTT - Anarchism In Peru feat. Andrew 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:05.040 All the media. 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.840 Welcome to Karapen here. I'm Andrew Sage from the YouTube 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:10.960 channel Andrewism and I'm joined. 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.960 Today by James. It's me Hi Andrew, So James. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.160 Just before the show we were talking about it a 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.279 couple of different places that we've either been to or 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.840 would like to visit. Have you ever been to the Andes? 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.160 No, anything I have, Actually I'd like to I like mountains. 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.800 Yeah, the Andes is one of my bucket list destinations 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:32.680 for sure. They've always enticed me, you know, as a 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.640 place of settlement, a center of culture, a place of 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.559 political struggle. So, you know, I had to do an 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.560 episode on the development of anarchistsinicalism in Peru. So they're 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.559 continuing along with my previous research on anarchism and other 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:51.800 parts of the group. Much information I've gathered as thanks 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.000 to the work of Stephen J. Hush and Ducent founder Wald, 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.040 particularly anarchism and synicalism in the colonial and post cleaner 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.480 world Easy seventeen nineteen forty. And you know, people don't 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:07.200 usually think of Peru when they think of anarchist clinical struggles, 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.920 not even in the context of Latin America. Folks familiar 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.280 with that history would quicker consider Brazil or Argentina as 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.440 sites of anarchist cynicalism. You know, in Brazil the roots 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.240 of anarchism could be traced back to the late nineteenth century, 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.200 to the influence of European immigrants, and at the early 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.720 twentieth century had anarchist ideas keen interaction across the work 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.720 in class, with the establishment of various associations and newspapers 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.039 like the Brazilian Workers Confederation found that in nineteen oh 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.160 six anarchists would play, of course a crucial role in 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:41.319 the general strike of nineteen seventeen, and then unfortunately, with 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:46.160 the rise of Jitulio Vargas and his Estado Novo regime 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.720 in the nineteen thirties, there was a very severe oppression 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:54.000 of anarchist activities. In Argentina, you also had anarchism taken 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.880 route in the late nineteenth century, again largely due to 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.880 the influence of European immigrants, and by the early twenties 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.280 entry Buenos Airess had become a hub of anarchist activity, 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:08.880 with numerous anarchist newspapers, clubs and unions. The Argentine Region 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.840 of Workers Federation, foundated nineteen oh one, was a leading 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:18.519 Anachosynicus organization that advocated for workers' rights and direct action. Sadly, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:20.840 the movement reached its peak during the first two decades 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:25.280 of twentieth century, and fortunately, similarly to Brazil, due to 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.600 the repression they endured, particularly during the infamous Tragic Week 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.040 in nineteen nineteen, where a major workers strike led to 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.480 violent clashes and a crackdown on anarchists and labor activists, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.799 the overall movement went into a decline. Peru during this 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.800 period was predominantly an agrarian society with a large and 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:49.440 economically marginalized indigenous population. It hardly resembled a nation in 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.359 the throes of industrialization. So though there was significant capus 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:58.239 growth in Peru's export sectors, chiefly mining, sugar, cotton, and wool, 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.840 fast areas of the country remained largely unaffected by these 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:07.400 capitalist changes. Aside from Lima and its adjacent port city, Callao, 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.799 which served as the nation's administrative, commercial and financial hub, 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:16.360 sizeable urban economies were conspicuously absent. This lack of urban 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.120 centers typically associate with industrial growth post a unique challenge 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.440 for the development of a robust labor movement, but labor 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.280 one would still arise. The working class in limaclaw would 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.760 emerge beginning in the eighteen nineties and early nineteen hundreds, 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.240 spurred by the export boom that invigorated the urban economy. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.720 Profits from the export sectors were reinvested into new financial institutions, 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.520 infrastructure projects, utility companies, and consumer goods industries by native 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.520 and foreign capitalists, and this economic growth led to a 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.840 dramatic rise in the urban labor force. In Lima, the 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:53.400 number of manual workers grew from about nine thousand in 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.880 eighteen seventy six tony twenty four thy nineteen oh eight, 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.520 making up seventeen percent of Lima's estimated one hundred forty 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:05.680 thousand residents. In Kalao, the workforce grew at a slower pace, 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.120 doubling in size betree nineteen oh five nineteen twenty to 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.200 around eight thousand out of a total population of fifty 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.840 two thousand. So this is not a bustling industrial heartland 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.440 by any means, and peasant based society is are not 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:24.920 exactly known for their cyndicalism, But despite its unlikelihood, Peru 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.840 was indeed also a place of anarchistinicalism, though most notably 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.159 within Lima and Kalao. The nineteen tens and twenties were 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:37.080 the Heydi of syncalism Peru, as anarchist ideas and publications 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.919 were circulated by a small handful of radical immigrant intellectuals, 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.320 alongside the labor organized and efforts of craftsmen and machine 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.320 tenders who were inspired by Prudon, Bacunin, Kropotkin, and Manchester. 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.400 Thanks to their efforts, anarchistinicalism would come to dominate the 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.280 still fledgling labor movement in Peru, spreading its influence beyond 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.159 Limacalau to the working classes along Peru's northern coast and 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:05.080 central and southern highlands. Workers in factories, crafts transportation, and 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.520 rural settings all found appeal in the ideals and practice 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.359 of the ideology. Of course, at the size of the 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.560 movement of the time, the anarchists may have dominated the movement, 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.600 but the movement itself and the anarchists within it constituted 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.960 a minority of Peru's urban and rural working classes. Keeps 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.719 that in mind as we proceed stea emerging Peruvian working 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:32.200 class was highly diverse. He had workers of different origins, gender, race, ethnicity, age, 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.000 skill level, and despite these differences, They all were dealing 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.320 with long working hours after beteen twelve to sixteen hours 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.200 a day in poor conditions for meager wages the barely 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.200 covered basic living expenses. Seeking to improve their die working 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.799 and living conditions, workers began to turn to anarchism because 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.800 the elite dominated political system in Peru was simply not 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.560 taking them on. But there was a handful of sympathetic 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:01.520 dissolution deletes like Manuel Gonzalez Prada and upper class intellectual 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.400 who became an anarchist after interacting with French and Spanish 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.800 anarchists during a self imposed European exile between eighteen ninety 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.360 one and eighteen ninety eight. Gonzales Prada founded the first 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.520 anarchist publication, Los Parias in nineteen oh four, and this 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.320 was soon followed by other anarchist newspapers like Lasimier and 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:25.600 ter Roja, Elambriento, Umanidad and Oprimido. Anarchist slogans like Kropotkins 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.279 liberties and not pistowed They're seized were prominently featured in 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.760 these newspapers, and these publications mainly produced by radical intellectuals 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:39.000 such as Clicerio Tassara and hil Arihi Cali Carlos del 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:44.200 Barrizo and Ino Sincio Lombarosi introduced workers to European anarchist 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.719 ideas and perspectives on the state, the Bouchoisi, the church, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:52.600 property and class relations. Anarchist study circles further promoted these 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:57.200 ideas among workers, operated by both workers and radical intellectuals. 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.920 Groups like the Center of Socialist Studies First of Me 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.640 in Limo and Love and Light in Calau provided spaces 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.240 for discussing anarchist principles, and these study circles, like the 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:12.960 Anarchist Press, emphasized workers self emancipation and cultural advancement. And 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.040 somehow this man manages to come up in practically every 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:21.840 single one of my explorations of anarchist history, that being 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.120 the Spanish anarchist Francisco Ferrer. He was the guy who 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.200 kickstarted the modern school movement in Spain and led to 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:32.480 the creation of anarchist schools worldwide, and he was also 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.000 unjustly executed by the Spanish state. 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.680 YEA, for there is like a guy I like to 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.160 a lot I like to. If you're in Barcelona, you 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.800 can visit him, along with Ascaso and de Rudy on 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.960 much week. They're in the cemetery there they have like 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.440 a little little area with the three of them. 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:51.800 I was wondering for a second therese he said, oh, 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.120 you could visit him. I was like, well, really, yeah, 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.760 I'm pretty sure he's six feet under he's. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.640 Immortal, like they've reanimated him. 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.480 It's like zombie for there. Yeah. 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:03.400 I feel like the Simpsons did an episode of that 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:03.960 with Lenin. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.640 Fortunately, I'm trying to think. I'm pretty sure that anarchids 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:13.720 have we have spared the world the embalming of our leaders. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:18.920 Fortunately. Yeah, fortunately, I mean his death. Though despite not 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:23.280 being embalmed, his death still continues to refuberate across these 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:27.560 historical episodes across the world. Upon his death, anarchists went 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:32.040 out in their numbers to protest his execution, and Peru 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.880 was no different. On October seventeenth, nineteen or nine, the 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.360 Center of Socialist Studies First of Me organized a public 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.600 protest in response to the execution of perrer A by 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.320 the Spanish government, and these sorts of demonstrations were not 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.360 new to the workers in Peru at the time. In 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.120 the previous year, an anarchist musical group associated with the 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.040 Center held a performance to commemorate the nineteen o seven 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.440 massacre of Chilian mine workers and for the more annual 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:01.520 media celebrations in honor of the Chicago Martyrs were also 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.000 supported by these study circles and the anarchist press. The 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.200 first May Day celebration in Lima, organized primarily by the 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.240 Federation of Bakery Workers Star of Peru, took place in 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.600 nineteen oh five, highlighting international working class solidarity and the 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.160 struggle for the eight hour workday, while honoring Peru's first 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.600 worker martyr and to the dedication of anarchist leaders, publications 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.719 and study circles, the early years of Peruvian anarchism and 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.360 labor organization laid the groundwork for a movement committed to 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:35.080 justice and dignity for all workers. We can say that 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.800 by nineteen eleven anarchist cynicalism had truly firmly taken route. 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.000 Why because this was the year of the first general 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.280 strike in Peru by the urban working class, spearheaded by 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:52.240 anarcho synicalists. In March nineteen eleven, five hundred workers at 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:56.679 the US owned Vitarde cotton Mill initiated a strike demanding 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.640 higher wages, a reduction of the work day from thirteen 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.400 to ten hours and the elimination of the night shift. 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.000 And I found these demands very interesting because I'm imagining 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:11.800 even know people back then saying, you know, how lazy 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.080 can you be? You know, you only want to work 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.920 ten hours? Like, come on, some of us, some of 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.000 us are putting in sixteen, seventeen, eighteen hours, pick up, 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:24.080 pick up the slack. 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:29.560 Yeah, And it's always like these early anarchist demands. You 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.800 just realize the unfathomable misery of being like part of 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.400 the industrial working class in the late nineteenth and early 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:37.320 twentieth century. 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.840 Yes, like can you can you ease the boot off 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:44.320 my neck for like two seconds a day? You know? 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:45.240 Yeah? 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.400 Yeah, it's people fighting and dying right to work, like 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:51.240 the amount of hours that most of us are awake 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.280 in a day. They would work that much without taking 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:58.600 care of any of their family or personal or other needs. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.960 Like can I please see my family more than an already? 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.040 Absolutely not, no youth, And then the Pinkerton's come out 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.640 and yeah. 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.920 Yes, exactly, like, yeah, people are asking for sixteen hour 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.200 day and their response is to send out someone to 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:13.160 murder them. 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.640 Yeah, it's ridiculous, Yeah, but I am impressed by their 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:21.920 tenacity you know, yeah, absolutely, even with the what I 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:26.439 would consider to be rather soft demands, I mean a 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.160 ten hour worth, the higher wages, and the elimination of 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.120 the night shift. I mean those are things that some 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.439 people take for granted today, right, Yeah, but that's what 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.240 they had to fight for. And their strike lasted twenty 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:39.200 nine days. 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.320 Oh wow, that's very impressive. Yeah. 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.920 This has reminded me of like, I'm working on a 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.199 book right now, and I've been reading this biography of 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.760 Duluti for a while. The able pass wrote and it 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.480 passes book where de Ruti goes into exile for a 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.640 way too and turn travels across South America and these 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.600 these anarchist schools are being set up along the modern 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:04.200 system as envisaged by Jess fel Air. And they don't 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.079 have any funding, right because everyone's so dirt poor that 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.920 like that, there isn't much surplus to contribute to their 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.440 children's education. And they have once they have taken care 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.720 of their subsistence needs. And there's this line in the 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.800 book which, for whatever reason, it's just like a line 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.320 I aspire to write something this beautiful. It's de Ruty 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.200 was very fond of children, and so he risked his 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.000 life robbing banks to fund their education, which is like 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.400 I just love the pivot from like he liked kids 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.040 and therefore he conducted on bank robbery throughout the world. 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.080 Yeah yeah, it's like you know, put the money in 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.800 the bag and maybe some textbooks while yeah at it. 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.480 Yeah yeah, and like he at this time, like the 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.880 anarchists were so pure at this time, and like in 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.160 their sort of aspirations and in their actions in many ways. 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.200 In other ways, not of course that they could not 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.720 rid themselves to some of their gender assumptions, but they 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.360 would make an accounting of everything they stole, which is 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.600 really not like if if you're involved in crimes and 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:06.760 you're listening, it's not a good. 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.360 Idea, yeah, exact. 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.600 Yeah, but he would do it to to like prove 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.440 sure everyone that he wasn't stealing for his own personal benefit. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:19.440 He'd be like, we get this to this school, and 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.440 we bought some textbooks and like that. You know, they 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.000 needed school lunches, so we got some sacks of rice 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.680 and bananas, and like, as you can see, the entire 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.480 money from this bank heightst has been redistributed, and we're 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:30.840 off to another country to do the same. 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:35.080 Now, I'm just imagining this guy like he's keeping all 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.600 these records because the anarchist auditor is going to come 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:38.920 and you know, check all. 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.520 Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like I'm not sure who would like 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.480 doubt the commitment of the man traveling around the world 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.080 robbing the banks. But apparently they felt that, like no 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.360 one should be above approach, which is admirable. 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.600 Yeah, yeah, you know what's not admirable, Andrew ads. 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.760 Yeah, it's our obligation to include products and services in 0:13:58.800 --> 0:13:59.880 these podcasts, but we have to. 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:00.760 So here we go. 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:13.640 Okay, we're back, and yeah, you're telling me about their 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.400 twenty nine day general strike or that strike rather not 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:16.960 general strike. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.680 Yeah, the strike, but you're close because the strike started 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.920 in March as a regular strike, it last twenty nine 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.000 days and then eventually escalates into a general strike on 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.840 April tenth, bring in Lema's business and transport to a 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:35.720 complete halt. And so the following day, President Leguya intervened 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.880 and forced the mills management to meet the workers' demands. 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:41.160 That's a win. 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.400 It is a way of a ten hour workday, but 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:45.040 a win. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.360 Nonetheless, Yeah, I guess it's approved that you can force 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.360 them to change and you can you can continue from there. 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:56.400 Yeah, yeah, And so to save safeguard their heart won victories, 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.840 textile workers in Vitality established the Textile Workers Unification of 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.880 Ititarate in May nineteen eleven, dedicators to defending the rights 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:09.200 of all workers. Inspired with Ytart's example, workers at other 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.400 major mills and Lima began forming their own resistance societies 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.280 dedicated to serving and defending the right of the proletariat 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.800 in general and the textile workers in particular. The movement 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.200 continued to gain momentum in nineteen twelve nineteen thirteen. In 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.040 October nineteen twelve, the that protester group succeeded in forming 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.480 the first Workers Regional Federation of Peru, uniting various worker 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:35.520 resistance societies modeled after Argentina's Workers Regional Federation. The FORP, 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.320 as it was also called, advocated for both immediate improvements 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:45.120 and long term social revolution, aimen to unite workers across Peru. Unfortunately, 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.480 as is the case with many workers struggles in this time, 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.440 economic instability and state hostelsy during World War One led 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.920 to the dissolusion of the FORP in nineteen sixteen. Thankfully, 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.760 this setback was temporary, between nineteen sixteen and nineteen nineteen, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:04.360 anacosynicalis redouble their efforts, focusing on organizing both urban and 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:08.560 rural workers. Following the death of Manuel Gonzalez Prada nineteen nineteen, 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:13.120 work around union presses emerged, spreading anachosyniclust ideas and replace 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:18.560 in earlier anarchist publications. This renewed activity strengthened the labor movement, theadnity, 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:23.680 establishment of new labor federations and the revival of the FORP. 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.600 And with the deteriorating conditions during the war years and 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.800 real wages fallen sharply, they had to be a wave 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.600 of strikes in nineteen eighteen. The most significant strike occurred 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.440 in December nineteen eighty, when nearly twenty nine hundred textile 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:42.360 workers demanded an eight hour workday. Finally we're making some progress. 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.240 Yeah, yeah, we'll get in there. 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:46.520 What I find so interesting about the demand of an 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.160 eight hour workday is if we look at their first 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.880 demand nineteen eleven, they fought to reduce their work day 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:57.040 from thirteen hours to ten hours, right, and then a 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:02.320 mayor seven years later eleven to nineteen eighteen, I mean 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:03.240 seven years. 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.240 Later, Yeah, they go them down to eight They go. 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.320 From ten hours to eight hours. And by the way, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.720 by January nineteen nineteen, they organized a general strike. They 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.840 moved on to general strike to let to street clashes 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.840 and business shutdowns, and despite the arrests and the torture 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.679 of strike leaders, the strike continued until president they were 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.760 conceded to the eight hour weekday. So in seven years 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.320 they went from ten hours to eight hours. Yeah, and 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:32.760 then we've all collectively as a global society been stuck 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.639 on eight hours for the past century, over our century 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.240 this point, I mean it's twenty four this was nineteen nineteen. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.560 Yeah. Wow. Putting it that way, that is blake. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:44.560 We should we should be down to on hour this point. 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.040 Yeah, yeah, we give it extrapolate, right, we take two 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.960 points and draw the line. That's what happened when like 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.160 they see the success of the people in the street 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:55.879 train and they know they had a power and they 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:56.639 can keep going. 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.399 Yeah yeah, because they wouldn't have felt so boll demand 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:02.760 the eight hours if they didn't fight and win that 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.960 that's in hours at first, just a couple of years before. 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:09.399 Yeah, Like it's why we have made a versus International 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.440 Workers Day, right, Like because like the number of rights 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.840 that we enjoy visa VI, our employers and the state 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.600 were all fought for and won by people who sometimes 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:22.000 died in the process, and like, yeah, we ought to 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.280 remember that. I think like sometimes now organizing forgets how 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.520 hard fought those were, but also like they won. Yeah, 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.159 we have not had many dubs in the in the 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.960 intervening period, of course, the state, like the state has 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:38.240 grown exponentially stronger. 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.919 Yeah, yeah, I mean the situation has changed. We have 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.720 to acknowledge that. Yeah, but it's just it is very fascinating, 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.320 you know that the way that you know, these small 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:52.400 wins was able to embolden bigger wins yeah, later down 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.600 the line, and that keeping that momentum really is vital. 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:57.399 Hmm, yeah, definitely. 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.280 It still works that way when I like, you know, 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.000 in the last couple of years, I've been to Rajava 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.040 and to Mian Mahar, Like, they have done things that 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.520 would have seemed inconceivable to them ten years before they 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.720 did them. And in both cases it's by staying in 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.159 the streets, right or staying in the jungles or the 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.359 mountains or wherever you're fighting them, and then refusing to 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.640 like accept that the state can tell you what to do, 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:24.040 even when the state tries to bring its coercive violence 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.760 against you. And like that's how all of these these 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:32.199 winds occur. But it doesn't happen without organization, without community, 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.560 without like all the things that they had built in Peru, 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:37.840 right like before they did their first strike, they had 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.639 to have confidence that their strike would succeed, and presumably 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.159 a strike fund and a means to collectively support the 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.040 people who weren't getting paid, and they had to build 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.000 all that and then like these things can kind of 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.560 cascade once the once the movement has a strong base. 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.360 Exactly. There's the reason that I'm going through these histories. 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.000 You know, these are the sort of lessons I want 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:57.080 people to be able to glean. 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:57.960 Yeah, totally. 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.639 I think it can be frustrating Otherwise, like it can 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.919 be frustrating to be people. I'm not saying people right 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:05.760 now aren't trying, because people do a lot and they're 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.880 working hard, But it can be frustrating until you see 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.640 that it takes years of building that base and then 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.399 things things can seem to come quickly, but it does 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.679 years of work sort of behind the scenes. 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:19.040 That has happened first. 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.000 Absolutely, so In the months following the general strike, workers 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.199 continue to protest the rising costs of living. Organizers like 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:32.480 ad Alberto Funken Nicolas Gutara formed the Committee for the 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:37.439 Cheapen Enough of Prime Necessities, mobilizing thousands. I think we 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:39.240 definitely need a Committee for the Cheap Enough of Prime 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:40.320 Necessities today. 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.480 It's an amazing group. Like I've just what a great thing. 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:49.520 Yeah, fantastic name. When the demands were ignored, you know, 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.720 here we go again. A general strike was declared in 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.359 May nineteen nineteen, resulting in violent clashes with the state 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.760 and the arrests of Kutara and another figure, Carlos Barper. 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:05.200 Upon their release, resolve unshaken, Gutara and Barba defiantly addressed 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.520 President Leaguya, stating in part that the populace of today 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.760 was not the team one of yesterday, which had silently 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:13.160 borne all terrannees. 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.560 Sounds like a threat, yeah. 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.240 Two days later, FORP was reactivated with a mission to 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.520 dismantle capitalism and create a society based on mutual aid 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:29.119 and equality. Serocosilicus' movement had dissolved any linkering passivity among 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:33.359 Leemaclau's workers. The passion hunger and aggression towards state and 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:38.120 employer threats had reached a crescendo by this point. For example, 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.639 in September nineteen twenty one, textile workers seized el Inca 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.880 mill in response to management's plans to close the factory. 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.879 Although they were eventually dislodged by troops, their active resistance 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:53.160 demonstrated their determination and boldness. And it isn't that fascinating 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.040 that these workers were willing to seize the mill they 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:58.280 had worked at because the margin and plan and closing 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:00.480 it down. They were willing to take control of that 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:05.480 place and work at it, and you contribute to the economy. 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:08.399 But the troops were mobilized ensure that they did not 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:14.200 exercise autonomy as workers to self organize their own labor. 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:17.800 It's either you're under management or out of a job. 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.960 There's no working for yourself or working as a collective. 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.640 Also in nineteen twenty one, the FORP was replaced by 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:32.040 the Local Workers Federation or fol which lashed out against 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:38.879 the government's legal rules against strikes. So in nineteen twenty 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:44.359 President Leaguiya put forward a new constitution with very strict 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:48.400 provisions to regulate this wave of strikes and to put 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:53.639 the labor conflicts under arbitration by the state, and so 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.159 the Local Workers Federation the FOL, which had replaced the 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.879 FORP in nineteen twenty one, lashed out at this government's 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:05.440 legal rules and vowed to completely ignore it. At the time, 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:10.480 as well, alongside the labour struggles, anaqual syncalists were struggling 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:14.040 to transform culture. Contrary to the idea that the FOL 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.280 neglected cultural issues, evidence shows that they actively developed a 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:21.080