General Strikes in 20Th Century in Argentina*

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chapter 4 General Strikes in 20th Century in Argentina*

This chapter examines the origins and long-term transformations of general strikes in Argentina. General strikes relate to the changes in capital accumula- tion, the relationship with the state and the very own transformation of trade unions. Why analyze general strikes? What can their study reveal with regards to this book’s general argument? In Chapter 2 we addressed the Marxist debate on trade unions focusing on how theory conceptualized labor conflicts’ transformations. When compared to other countries Argentina has a distinc- tive feature: the Argentine labor movement early deemed general strikes as a form of protest. Long-term changes in strike repertoires affected the ways in which these strikes developed. The study of the process of general strikes’ transformations, thus, enables a long-term approach to the changes in trade union action. To conclude we address general strikes in relation to the study of specific labor conflicts in Argentina between 1990 and 2005. When it comes to understanding the persistence of trade union mobilization during reactionary periods (such as the 1990s’), strike actions tends to be underestimated. As we will argue in following chapters, Argentine trade unions resisted 1990s’ process of neo-liberal reforms by means of general strikes.

The General Strikes in Marx and Engels

General strikes emerged as means of rebellion or insurrection against the es- tablished order. Workers movements, concurrently, were confronted against the issue about its convenience. Anarchists were the most consistent propa- gandists of general strikes, which led to the opposition of Marx and Engels. In 1873 Engels wrote “in the Bakuninist program a general strike is the lever employed by which the social revolution is started” (in Lapides 1987: 118). In Letter to Lafargue (1890) Engels (Lapides 1987: 153) discusses a speech in which “Paul spoke very well—a slight indication of the universal strike dream in it, which non-sense Guesde has retained from his anarchists days”. In 1873 and 1890 Engels criticized the notion of general strike furthered by anarchists and

* This chapter was originally published in 2009 as De la revolución a la movilización. Las huel- gas generales en la Argentina, 1902–2002. Cuaderno de Jóvenes Investigadores 17. Buenos Aires: iigg-uba.

44 chapter 4 revolutionary syndicalists an action of indefinite duration until the accom- plishment of revolutionary changes. In its early formulation, the general strike would be possible because of a strike-fund that would allow workers to sur- vive during the duration of this indefinite action. In Engels’ opinion this was a mere fantasy, for governments would never allow workers such a collection of financial funds, and even if workers’ organizations managed to achieve such funds, this would imply such a power that a general strike would be, on the first place, an unnecessary means to meet their demands. Marx and Engels did not have an overall negative assessment of this sort of action, however, nor was it the subject of a specific conceptualization. Leaving aside the debate with the anarchist conception of general strike, we read in Engels that

When one examines a year’s file of the Northern Star, the only sheet which reports all the movements of the proletariat, one finds that all the proletarians of the towns and of the country manufacture have united in associations, and have protested from time to time, by means of a general strike, against the supremacy of the bourgeoisie.1 The Condition of the Working class in England, in Lapides 1987: 11

In this quote, as in others, general strikes are understood as any strike action ex- tended to all the trades of a factory, or among all the workers of a given branch of activity. In these passages Marx and Engels don’t employ the term “general strike” strictly in the sense of class confrontation between all workers against all capitalists. In Lapides’ compilation of studies about trade unions and workers, we only found two historical references to general strikes in a strict sense: one in 1842, in the north of England; and another in 1886, on May 1rst in the Unites States (1987: 11–13, 212 respectively).2 Other strikes mentioned by Marx and Engels refer to a single company or branch of activity. In 1846 Engels described the episode which began with a strike of only one of the multiple

1 The Spanish edition of Diaspora translates differently, eliminating “general strike” of the sentence (Engels 1984: 218). Engels takes a few narratives of conflict. Brown (1981) followed the suggestion of Engels quantifying the Chartists protests based on this newspaper, count- ing 791 “collective action events” between December 1841 and December 1842 in Lancashire. The author argues (1981: 111–112) that “The central argument proposes that the shape and dynamics of Lancashire Chartism and the political mass strike of 1842 were the result of a se- ries of patterned political interactions specifically grounded in the class relations of liberal- industrial capitalism”. 2 This compilation finds 17 “general strike” references in Marx and Engels works. But these are mostly referred to the 1839 and 1842 insurrections.