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Clasismo. Rethinking Working Class Radicalism in Argentina. Adam Fishwick, University of Sussex adf25@sussex.ac.uk. Peronism and Workers’ Identity. Origins debate ( Germani , Murmis & Portantiero etc ) Who were the Peronist workers?
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Clasismo Rethinking Working Class Radicalism in Argentina Adam Fishwick, University of Sussex adf25@sussex.ac.uk
Peronism and Workers’ Identity • Origins debate (Germani, Murmis & Portantieroetc) • Who were the Peronist workers? • A ‘new’ working class or a continuity of union leadership? • Return to the grassroots (James) • Politics of Peronism and the significance of working class experience • Ideological credibility and persistence of experience • Beyond the centrality of Peronism – from struggle to the political
Beyond Peronism • Rethinking passivity in the 1930s • Limited strike activity BUT popular radicalisation • Growth of Communist Party influence • 1936 general strike – ‘social combat’ of masses • Workers under and against Perón in the 1940s-1950s • Persistence of conflictividad amongst workers • Direct transmission of worker discontent from factories to and against union and CGT leadership • Continued relative weight of the Communist Party • La Resistencia and beyond in the 1950s-1960s • Unsanctioned protest and new methods of struggle • Alternative political currents and ‘recomposition’ • Compañerismoand nascent class consciousness
Clasismoafter 1969 “abrevabade elementosque se encontraban en la conciencia y en la identidad de los obreroscomosujeto social” (Schneider 2005: 387) • Younger workers, more modern industries, prominent across industrial cities • Culmination of protest and struggle, locally rooted but politically significant, a coherent class identity?
SITRAC-SITRAM • “se proponeser el fielintérprete de la lucha de los trabajadorespor la eliminación de la burocraciasindical, la explotacion de los obrerospor parte de los grandescapitales y la liberación social y nacional de la patria” (Boletín del SindicatoTrabajadores Concord, 1:1, 13/01/71, Archivo del SITRAC, Subarchivo 1, Ficha 1, p. 6) • Workers’ movement at FIAT plants in Córdoba against ineffective union representation – clasismo came after • Addressing worker demands alongside hierarchical relations • New forms of organisation and struggle – from the masses
SMATA and Salamanca • “la marcha a unasociedadrealmente NUESTRA, a un estado popular y revolucionario y a unaépoca de enfrentamiento real y franco al imperialismo, dirigidopor la claseobrera y el pueblo” (SMATA Córdoba, No. 102, 18/05/73, p. 1) • Union representing automobile workers – later formation than traditional Peronist unions; historical role of Left • Tensions persisted and increased both in the workplace and with the leadership in Buenos Aires • Growth of clasista influence after 1969-71 under Salamanca, control after 1972 and MovimientoSindicalCombativo
Conclusion • Peronism and the working class – related but separate • No passivity – persistence of working class conflictividad • Clasismo as a embedded in historical experience • From the workplace to the political