WEBVTT - Anarchism In Argentina, Pt. 1 feat. Andrew 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:07.200 Also media, Hello and welcome to It could happen here. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:09.920 I'm here with Mia. How are you doing? 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.480 It's it's abominably early, which not even podcast early. It's 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:16.880 like eight am here, So it's gonna be where we're 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:19.400 We've done the caffeine. 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.680 We're holding on for dear life sake. 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.079 I feel you. I feel you. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.960 I have to ask, have you noticed that the continents 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:31.400 are dripping a little bit? 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.279 Continents are dripping? 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:35.959 Yeah, yeah, And I don't mean like blinged out. 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:37.560 I mean like if you take a look at the 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.879 map and you assume that north is up and southeast down, 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:43.800 it'll find it kind of looks like our major landmass 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:45.839 is melting a little bit. 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.239 Oh you know, Okay, now, no, not that you say it. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:50.320 I can kind of see it. 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:51.920 Hmm. Yeah. 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.040 This is a concept known as continental drip. And I'm 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.880 not tripping on anything. I'm not the first person to 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:00.520 notice all. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:01.680 You can look it up. 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:03.920 There's a whole Wikipedia page of what we've seen in everything, 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.520 and well, South America is alongside India. They're kind of 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.800 seen as the quintessential examples of this continential trip. And 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:14.960 this is a very odd way that I've decided to 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:19.600 segue into the next nation in our exploration of Latin 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.120 America and anarchist history. It's right to the east of 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:28.000 Chile and south of every other country near Temisphale. That is, 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:33.080 of course, the Argentine Republic, more commonly known as Argentina, 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:35.600 which is derived, by the way, from the Latin word 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.640 for silver. My name is Andrew Sage. You can find 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.960 me on YouTube as andrewism and thanks to the scholarship 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:47.720 of Chuck Moss, Jeffrey la Focad, and Ahil Capileetti, we're 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.720 going to take a journey into the history of anarchism 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:52.000 in Argentina. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.960 Also got to do the shout out for Calculates Anarchism 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.480 in Latin America. Great book, also great cover, got a 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:00.360 big bird on it. 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:01.200 Good stuff. 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.360 Yeah, shout out of course, of course, So I suppose 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.080 the best place to start us in the beginning. So 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.120 there's this thing called the Big Bang, right. 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:21.040 Universe expanded extremely fast like Peaco second. 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:20.639 Large expansion of matter. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:27.000 And yeah, but seriously, Argentina has been peopled since the 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:32.840 Paleolithic period, in particularly fine evidence of ancient people's butchering 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.480 the meat of an armadillo relative as early as twenty 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.040 one thousand years ago. 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:39.160 Geeze. 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.519 So you know we've been around. 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.920 We've been around from then on as far as we 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.240 can tell for now, at least, because you know, the 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.680 timelines are constantly getting updated with new information, as it 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.360 should be. The area to be known as Argentina was 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.639 pretty sparsely populated by a variety of divus cultures with 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:04.440 diverse social organization, including foragers and farmers. To take a 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:09.080 long and largely unknown history of indigenous co existence and conflicts. Short, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.440 people continue to live and the earth continue to spin 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.400 for the next few millennia until a few ships on 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.160 the horizon spelled doom for all to see. These are, 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.400 of course, the Europeans who first arrived in the region 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.320 with the fifteen oh two voyage of Amerigo Vespucci, with 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.919 the Spanish navigators Juan Dias de Solis and Sebastian Cabo 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.400 in particular, visiting the territory in fifteen sixteen and fifteen 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:38.400 twenty six respectively. Then in fifteen thirty six Pedro de 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.840 Mendoza founded this small settlement of Buenos Aires, maybe avarid 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:45.840 of it, but it was a band that in fifteen 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.560 forty one, thanks to continuous indigenous resistance and had to 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.640 be refounded in fifteen eighty. As for the rest of 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.000 would be Argentina, the Spanish Empire that was run in 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.280 most of the continant was busy looting the silver and 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.800 gold mines in Bolivia and Peru, so Argentina was kind 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.200 of seen as a backwater. It wasn't as much of 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:10.760 an interest by comparison, Argentina stayed under the Viceroyalty of 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.800 Peru and to the creation of the Viceroyalty of the 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:17.240 Rio de la Plata in seventeen seventy six with Buenos 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:21.880 Aires as its capital. After two field the British invasions 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.200 in eighteen oh six and eighteen oh seven, and as 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.920 you could see, the British and Argentina have had a. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:28.920 Bit of a scuffle for some time now. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.479 The Buenos Aires capital would be the stage of revolution, 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.039 as the eighteen ten May Revolution replaced the viceroy Baltassar 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.320 hidl Gorya Cesniros with the First Junta, a new government 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.919 made by and for the locals, and then there was 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.640 a royalist counter revolution, some anti colonial alliance with the 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:54.000 then Spanish Philippines, Divisions between centralists and federalists over the 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.800 newly formed Argentine state, proposals to crown a Sapper Inca 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.719 as a monarch of an independent Argentina and the official 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.040 declaration of independence for a republic on the ninth of 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.400 July eighteen sixteen. Just to go back a bit to 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.320 be clear, there is an alternate history scenario in which 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:18.880 Argentina was briefly or continuously under an Incan monarchy that 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.600 would have ripped literally I believe it was a cousin 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:26.960 of Tuba Kamaru. The food incredible was being considered for 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.640 the position. Incredible, incredible, incredible. 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:30.000 Indeed. 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:32.919 See, people tend to see South America as just like 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.280 you know, it's just the extra continent. I mean, I 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.200 don't think people think about how much has gone on 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.520 down there, or rather it's not really present in the 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.360 English speaking world's imagination. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:45.039 You know. 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.120 We tend to focus on more of the Northern Hemisphere 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.400 side of things, which have a specific region we find 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.200 ourselves in, whether it be the Caribbean or Australia, New Zealand, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.520 UK US Canada. We tend to think about English speaking 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:03.479 colonial history. But Latin America had a lot going on 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.320 in its time. I mean come on, they had an 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:11.599 alliance with the Spanish Philippines. Yeah, rips, Yeah, so I 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.800 mean civil war go per, as they say, between the 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.039 centralists and the Federalists, and that would continue for a 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:23.080 while after the Declaration of the Republic in eighteen sixteen, 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.080 and it was only resolved. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.640 In eighteen thirty one with a Federalist victory. 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.480 Basically, it was a division over how they should organize 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:32.480 the state, whether it should be in a federal manner 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.280 or more centralist unitary manner, so the Federalists, one which 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.120 would lead to the War of the Confederation between eighteen 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.200 thirty six eighteen thirty nine, the establishment of the Constitution 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.599 in eighteen fifty three, and a temporary secession of Buenos Aires, 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.479 which was forced back into Argentina by eighteen sixty one. 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.800 And as in much of that in America, anachism would 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.400 establish itself fairly early on thanks to the waves of 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.280 migration from Europe and particularly from France, Italy and Spain. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.560 So many Italians, so many, just. 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.960 An absurd amount of Italians. 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:11.280 These folks fled political repression and poverty in their home countries, 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.400 refugees from the Paris Commune and anarchist literature from the 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:19.160 aforementioned lands would find themselves in the streets of Buenos 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.640 Aires City and the countrysides of Buenos Aires Province. 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.080 They circulated anarchist. 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.280 Ideas through group meetings such as the group Elmeserabel in 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:31.800 the port city of Rosario, and publications like The Rivolte, 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.160 which was founded by Kropotkin all the way back in Switzerland. 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.680 Kropotkin's Words of a Rebel would also make frequent appearances 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:44.200 throughout Argentina, and his Conquest of Bread received a translation 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.400 by Catalan carpenter Juan Villa. As with the splits internationally, 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.840 the First International's local section in Buenos Airis, which was 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.840 founded in eighteen seventy two, would split between the supporters 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.440 of Marx and the supporters of Acunan. The former were 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:04.160 predominantly French, the latter predominantly Spaniard an Italian. Three decades 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.800 of substantial migration started in the eighteen eighties, which sparked 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.440 significant growth in the anarchist movement, as the migrants found 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.440 Crussian economic deprivation and repressive governance where they'd hoped they'd 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:23.080 find prosperity and liberty. Over three million people arrived, leading 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.600 to the country having a foreign born population of thirty 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:32.160 three percent by nineteen fourteen. Nowadays, as in much of 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:37.280 the world, unfortunately that once foreign born population some percentage 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:39.800 of them and now unfortunately anti migration. 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:41.800 Yeah, and violently. 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.520 So it's a cruel irony that we find ourselves with 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:54.400 just mere decades ago, their own ancestors were migrants. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:58.000 Among the migration. 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.679 Wave came the likes of Hecto Mattae and Italian anarchists 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.720 who helped publish a Socialista, which is a weekly paper. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.560 And of course, believe it's or not, the one and 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.959 only Ara Kamana tester who keeps making guest appearances in 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.480 these lastin American anarchisms. Yes, he's just like all over 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.040 the places, traveling everywhere. If I recall correctly, he made 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:23.360 an appearance in Cuba. He made an appearance in the 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:27.040 Egypt episode as well. Yep, she just keeps showing up. 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.680 He's really truly a globetrotterer in a mold that we 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:31.600 haven't really seen. 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.240 Hey, I mean move aside football, you know, he's the 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.679 real mister worldwide so at a commana tester. He actually 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.960 fled Italy in eighteen eighty five after escaping imprisonment, and 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.439 he helped establish the Circulo the Studio Socialists, where he 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.920 and others give public speeches promoting anarchism, and he worked 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.800 to organize the society Dad Cosmopolita, the Obereros Panaderos, an 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:59.000 anarchist Baker's Union. I didn't know he could bake, maybe 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.199 he could make, maybe he could and he was just there, 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.640 you know, helping them set up. But in my head, 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.040 I'd like to imagine that he was pretty good at bacon, 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:08.440 bread and making cookies. 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:10.560 You know, I'm pretty sure he. 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:12.560 Was like an ice cream salesman too. At one point, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.480 I might be getting that confused with like some other 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.599 anarchist who was going around everywhere who was also so 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:18.319 like ice cream. 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:19.840 You know, I wouldn't be surprised. 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.199 I have vague memories of there being a story about 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:24.440 like him having an ice cream cart and trying to 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:26.040 make money and he couldn't do it because he kept 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:27.200 giving ice cream the children. 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:30.440 I think I remember that story. I think it's so biger. 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:32.959 I had a video on it. You know that those 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.280 ads used to show on TV A couple like about 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.800 a decade ago, the most interesting man in. 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.800 The world, yeah he was. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:42.679 He was based on our kamat. 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.240 Yeah so man Testelater returned to Europe in eighteen eighty nine, 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.240 yet he left a lasting legacy in helping to organize 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.520 workers and sow the seeds for a powerful anarchist movement 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.480 in Argentina. In the early eighteen nineties, the anarchist paper 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.400 El persic Wido became one of the most popus popular 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.760 and prominent voices of anarchist communism in Argentina. Despite ongoing 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.920 repression and government censorship, the anarchist press continued to expand 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.120 during this period, with publications like Lavoris de la Mochere 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:16.559 and Anarchist Feminist People emerging in Rosario. The eighteen eighties 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.480 and early eighteen nineties also involved significant internal debates, particularly 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.160 around the role of workers unions and revolutionary tactics. Some 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:28.520 groups embraced anarchist cynicalism, while others believed smaller affinity groups 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.480 as catalysts of social revolution with a way to go. 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.320 While in the midst of a massive rapid industrial growth 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:37.760 and dealing with the worst than economic situation for the 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:42.000 working class, such a society was ripe for transformation of 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.400 the anarchist variety. Initially, the anarchists have been focused on 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.679 countercultural concerns, particularly in the field of education, but as 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.480 their ranks swelled in number, the stage was set for 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.160 the debut of a mass anarchist movement among Argentine workers. 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.040 In eighteen ninety seven, the anarchist workers were found that 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:04.719 protester Humana later shortened to lap Protester, which would become 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:09.440 an enduring anarchist paper throughout Latin America. But the anarchists 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.360 didn't just stick to papers though. In nineteen oh one, 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.200 anarchists were instrumental in the founding of the Argentine Workers 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:20.000 Federation or the FOA, which is Argentina's first labor federation. 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.800 Federation was founded in a congress that assembled some fifty 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:27.960 delegates representing thirty to thirty five workers organizations from both 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.200 capital and interior. The aim of the Federation was an 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:35.000 entity that included all workers without regard to their races 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.600 or beliefs, based on a solid foundation of direct action 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.320 and economic struggle, so initially including Marxists. Those would later 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:45.920 depart to found the General Workers Union or the UGT, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.480 which was more meanable to party interests, of course, which 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.199 left the fo way in anarchists hands. The FOA stood 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.600 at the forefront of the struggles, advocating for higher wages 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.920 and better working conditions. At the time, typical workday was 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:05.160 ten hours or more, with wages barely covered essential needs. 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.439 Strikes broke out across industries with notable successes. Painters and 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.760 larder Plata secured an eight hour workday and dark workers 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.160 in minos aires one and nine hour workday, along with 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.360 a wage increase. But despite the oppression, the workers movement 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.760 continued to grow stronger. The FAA's membership surged with forty 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:28.040 two unions and over fifteen thousand members in nineteen o three, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.440 rise into sixty six unions and nearly thirty three thousand 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.160 members a year later. In nineteen oh four, at its 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.920 fourth congress, the group was renamed the Regional Workers Federation 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:44.520 of Argentina or the FARE or FOURA. The reasoning was ideological. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.959 By adding the adjective regional, it made plain that Argentina 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.360 was not considered a state or political unit, but a 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.480 region of the world in which workers struggled for their liberation. 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.720 This fourth Congress also approved of solidarity pass that proclaimed 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.280 the est iblish ones of a class less society with 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.679 neither state nor private property as the ultimate aim of 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.440 their struggle. The anarchist influence was clear, but it gets 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.920 even more explicit in the following year. The UGT had 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.360 been subordinated to the Marxist Socialist Party, but even their 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.640 third Congress in nineteen oh five had a syndicalist emergence. 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:24.400 A preferred workers associations to political parties. Basically, even the 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.480 non anarchist workers organizations would be an influenced by the 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.400 anarchist wave, so much so that the UGT wanted to 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.280 form a solidarity pact with FURA. The anarchists and four 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:39.200 didn't quite trust the parliamentary socialism of the UGT. Still, 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:41.520 they did work with them to call a general strike 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.000 in nineteen o seven in solidarity with car drivers and Rosario, 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.360 joined by some one hundred and fifty eight thousand workers 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:53.000 from around the republic. That strike ended in victory for 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.600 the workers. In nineteen oh five, two years before and 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:01.400 as fifth Congress FORA made its commitments to revolutionctionary anarchist 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.800 communism explicitly known quote the advice and recommend to all 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.400 our followers the broadest possible study and propaganda with the 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.520 aim of insterning workers the economic and philosophical principles of 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.120 anarchist communism. This education, not content with achieving the eight 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:21.960 of our workday, would bring total emancipation and consequently the 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:26.120 social evolution we pursue end Quote four. Was among the 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:31.400 largest federations of workers organizations, and it was officially anarchist communists. 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:33.920 The nineteen o six ninety over seven general and tenant 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.760 strikes gone a greater favor, and in response, Buenos Aires 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.560 police head Colonel Falcones swore to a finish ser of 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.640 the anarchists. Nineteen oh seven saw fora and ugt attempt 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.880 a merger, but since the majority sought adherence to anarchist communism, 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.960 the merger could not be achieved. For her was militant 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:57.479 and effective in achieving many of its schools, including wage increases, 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.840 reductions and the length of the workday, and farious rights 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:07.640 of association. Port workers, crown transport workers, seamen's unions, bakers, metalworkers, 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.920 construction workers and ship workers were all prominent in the 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:15.760 federation and were well positioned to paralyze the Argentine economy 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.160 and win their demands. In the first decade of the 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:23.240 twentieth century. These unions led six general strikes and many 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.480 more partial strikes, and women were more involved than in 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.280 any other radical movement of the time, taking part in 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.960 consumer boycotts and rent strikes as well. But the anarchists 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.040 knew the ruptures in the capitalist economy wouldn't be enough. 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.320 It could never be enough to merely confront the system 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.720 and refuse to corporate the system as it is. The 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:55.520 social revolution, or so demands consciousness, solidarity, and the prefiguration 0:16:55.720 --> 0:17:00.800 of an enlightened progressive society in social organizations. Thus, anarchists 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.439 engaged in counter culture, multiple papers in multiple languages, theater 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:11.040 and poetry, may day marches, social centers, popular education centers, 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.359 popular libraries, and discussion circles. All of these efforts were 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.639 ceded throughout the cities and linked to various unions to 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:23.919 create a veritable and dynamic network of revolutionary causes. And 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.960 since the government understood the anarchist threat, they tried their 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.800 best to raise the cost of revolutionary activism. The actions 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:35.199 included petty police harassment, the humiliated and inconvenient searches, and 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.800 protuitors demands for identification, which were a familiar experience for 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:39.879 the anarchist militants. 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:41.720 There was also the out law and. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.320 Of radical publications, the suppression of the right to public assembly, 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.639 mass arrests, martial law declared for a total of eighteen 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.320 months between nineteen o two and nineteen ten, and of course, 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:56.960 outright violence to the police, the army and other formal forces. 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.640 In addition to thugs acting on their behalf, the governor 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.720 also attempted to undermine the anarchists movement through legislative means. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.359 The Resident's Law in nineteen oh two granted the government 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:12.159 the right to deport foreigners that are deemed undesirable without trial. 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.160 After the lord had been in effect for a few years, 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.639 Foura called a general strike against its oppressive conditions. For 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.200 as leadership condemned the law as a violation of human rights, 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:25.960 labor it as a tool by the state to suppress 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:26.800 free thoughts. 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.639 And working class movements. The government did not budge. 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.639 On May Day, nineteen oh nine, police violently attacked a 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:38.840 peaceful protest organized by transport workers and anarchists, killing eight 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.160 people and wounded many others. 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.399 Colonel Falcone, the recurrent villain. 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.000 Who ordered the attack, later became the target of a 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:51.520 retaliatory bombing by young anarchists Simon Radowitski in November nineteen 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:55.120 oh nine. This act of defiance shook the whole country. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:59.359 In the meantime, the anarchist cause also resonated internationally. In 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.000 response to the execution of Francisco Frere, a Spanish educator 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.879 and anarchist, Fura led a series of strikes in Argentina, 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:12.919 joining global protests against his death. Nineteen ten marked Argentina's 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:17.120 preparations for the centenary celebrations of its first national government, 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.000 portray itself as a beacon of prosperity. But oh, here 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:24.160 come the workers with their unrest and protests to sour 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.280 the vibes and demand the release of political prisoners and 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.040 the abolition of the law of residents. Naturally, the government 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.640 responded by declaring a state of internal war, arresting hundreds 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:40.560 of anarchists, including foreigner leaders, and imposing extreme censorship and 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:45.600 restrictions on civil liberties, shutdowns of publications, and the declaration 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.439 of a state of emergency. The government also introduced the 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.840 Social Defense Law, which levied a series of penalties against 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:57.959 anarchist activities, specifically as a centennial celebrations unfolded Argentina had 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.879 transformed into a heavily military rise state, with more than 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:06.639 two thousand anarchists arrested or deported, so much for a 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:13.600 grand celebration of their free democracy. Despite the repression, the 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:17.960 workers move once continued to grow forest general strikes forced 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.800 the government to make in sessions and release jailed workers, 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:24.760 but divisions began to appear within the movement after deal 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.040 with so much repression for their radical ideas. A split 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.399 occurred in nineteen oh nine with the formation of the 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.000 syndicalist group CORA, which adopted much of for As structure 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:38.200 and retained some anarchist ideas, but leaned towards a less 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:42.760 radical approach, hoping to be less of a target. The 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:46.040 anarchist took yet another hit when in nineteen twelve the 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:50.640 Science Pennier Law made vote in secret and obligatory, thus 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:55.399 making anarchist abstentionism as a tactic illegal. The range of 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:59.920 possible actions was being intentionally closed. While deli were these 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.760 external pressures, anarchist also had to deal with the pressures 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.639 from within the workers' movement by even more folks wanted 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.520 to compromise the revolutionary goals. Another split between the synicalist 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:14.440 anarchists occurred the fors Ninth Congress in nineteen fifteen. Unions 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:19.280 were increasingly led by reformists, social democrats, and uncommitted anarchists, 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:23.160 which led to the thesis of a neutral cynicalism focused 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.120 on winning workers' rights becoming the dominant position within fur 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:30.119 her The cynicalists dropped their commitment to anarchist communism and 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.480 claimed the name the Fora of the Ninth Congress, while 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.520 the minority of anarchists that maintained their commitment anarchist communism 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:40.679 took the name the Fora of the Fifth Congress. The 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.160 timing of the split was impeccable, though you see, as 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.080 has been a recurring theme in this series, the Russian 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:52.000 Revolution of nineteen seventeen had a significant impact in Argentinian 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:56.720 anarchism in a sense it reignited the revolutionary further within 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.720 the movement and led to the reformist and cynicalist for 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:04.119 an nine lose an influence, but revolutionary ideas once again 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:09.080 gain momentum. For a brief moment, there was hope, but 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.920 the Bolsheviks will waste little time in crushing that hope. 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:18.720 By nineteen twenty Argentinian anarchists, like their European counterparts, began 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.040 to distance themselves from Leninism. They began to recognize the 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.320 authority in nature of the Bolsheviks, took notes of Kropotkin 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:29.000 and Lenin's correspondences, and soon came to reject the idea 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:34.000 of the dictatorship of the proletaria. On his part, alongside 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:37.359 his mass loads of the anarchists in Cronstad then also 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.800 ordered the confiscation of anarchist texts which he saw us 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:45.400 influence in the conflict within the Bolshevik ranks. Tale as 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:50.720 old as time. Anyway, next time we'll see if and 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:54.359 how the anarchist Argentina managed to navigate the tumultuous twenties, 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:58.840 thirties and beyond to leave a lasting mark on Argentine history. 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.760 But things on looking too good for them right now. 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:07.239 Until then, Well, Paula, to all the people, this has been. 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:12.000 It could happen here, It could happen. Here is a 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:13.480 production of cool Zone Media. 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:16.720 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:20.359 coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:24.000 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:26.359 now find sources for it could happen here, listed directly 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:28.679 in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.