A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Industrialisation and the Working Class: The Contested Trajectories of ISI in Chile and Argentina Adam Fishwick Thesis submitted for Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations University of Sussex July 2014 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature ………………………………… UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Adam Fishwick, DPhil in International Relations INDUSTRIALISATION AND THE WORKING CLASS: THE CONTESTED TRAJECTORIES OF ISI IN CHILE AND ARGENTINA SUMMARY Research on import-substitution industrialisation (ISI) in Latin America continues to portray it as an aberration of state-led development inevitably condemned to failure and held up as an example of the mistakes scholars and policymakers must avoid. In this thesis, however, I show that this misunderstanding of a “model” that lasted several decades and brought gains to a wide array of socioeconomic actors is due to an inability of leading approaches – those that focus on institutions, ideas, and class – to understand the role of labour. Drawing on detailed primary and secondary empirical evidence on leading sectors in Chile and Argentina, my central claim is that workers determined the trajectories of ISI by contesting the effect of strategies pursued by firms and the state within the workplace. I show that ISI was no aberration, but that it comprised an intrinsically purposive set of strategies aimed at ameliorating or suppressing the real and potential resistance mobilised by workers. Through a novel theoretical synthesis, bringing into IPE innovations from critical labour relations theory, Marxist development studies, institutional theories of ideas, and Latin American labour history, I overcome the predominant perspective on labour that conceptualises workers’ as inherently disruptive, but institutionally far weaker than other societal actors. The problem with such a view, I argue, is not that labour is absent, but rather that the way in which it has been understood leaves workers with little or no influence over a process that simply unfolded beyond their control. In this thesis, the result is a counter-narrative on the history of ISI in Chile and Argentina, with the relationship between measures aimed at establishing control over labour and the resistance this engendered firmly at the fore. Tejedor – L. H. L “Tejedor” que con hilos de tristezas y con los hilos de illusion vas tejendo la tela de tu vida sin poder alcanzar, tu ambición. Seguiras tejendo día a día esta tela interminable de dolor y en una “lucha” sin fin de metro a metro para ese “capital” sin corazón. “Tejedor” por que sufres en silencio tu cabeza inclinada ante el telar. Tejes para ganarte el sustento para tu hambre que apenas alcanzas a mitigar. “Cese” tejedor de ese silencio busca tus derechos, que lo hallarás. Unete a tus hermanos que te esperan y junto lucharemos por la felicidad (Poem published in Obrero Textil , 3rd April 1937) Table of Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... i List of Tables ............................................................................................. iii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................. vi Introduction Import-Substitution Industrialisation and the Working Class ........... 1 The Politics of Import-Substitution Industrialisation ................................................ 4 The Politics of Production: Bringing Workers Back In? ......................................... 12 The Structure of the Thesis ...................................................................................... 18 Chapter 1 Towards a Political Economy of the Working Class .......................... 22 Control and Discipline in the Social Spaces of Production ..................................... 24 The Experience of Work and Resistance ................................................................. 27 Ideas, Institutions, and the Politicisation of Experience .......................................... 31 Class Formation: Work, Resistance, and Subjectivity ............................................. 34 Autonomy and the Political Subject of the Working Class ..................................... 37 Producing the Working Class: Implications for Research ....................................... 40 The Trajectories of ISI in Chile and Argentina ..................................... 43 Chapter 2 Beyond and Beneath the “Compromise State” in Chile .................... 44 From Export-Linked Industry to the Consolidation of ISI ...................................... 46 Repression and the Radicalisation of the Politics of Industrialisation ..................... 55 The Limits of Reform and Revolution in the Breakdown of ISI ............................. 64 The Failed Consolidation of Repression, Reform, and Revolution ......................... 75 Chapter 3 The Continuities of State-Led Discipline in Argentina ...................... 77 Crisis, Conflict, and the Political Foundations of ISI .............................................. 78 The Pacification of the Working Class and the Consolidation of ISI ...................... 87 Resistance and the Radicalisation of the Trajectory of ISI ...................................... 96 The Limits of Repression and Revolution in the Breakdown of ISI ..................... 104 The Failed Fragmentation of Industrial Development ........................................... 113 The Politics of Production in Textiles, Metalworking, and Automobiles ................................................................................................................... 116 Chapter 4 Consolidating the Double Crisis in Chilean Textile Production ..... 117 Textile Production and the Emergence of Workplace Conflict ............................. 118 Consolidating Expansion and Working Class Struggle ......................................... 125 Continued Decline and Re-Organised Struggle in Textile Production .................. 134 The Emergence and Consolidation of the Chilean Textile Sector ......................... 141 Chapter 5 The Limits of Modernisation in Metalworking and Automobile Production in Argentina ...................................................................... 144 The Fragmentation of Metalworking and the Working Class ............................... 145 Consolidating State-Led Industrialisation and Workplace Conflict ...................... 152 Repression and the Resurgent Radicalism of the Working Class .......................... 160 Consolidating Metalworking and Automobile Production in Argentina ............... 170 Chapter 6 Failed Revolutions in Chile and Argentina ....................................... 173 Reform, Revolution, and the Rise and Fall of Socialism in Chile ......................... 175 Fragmenting Manufacturing and the Working Class in Argentina ....................... 187 The Culmination of Workplace Conflict and the Breakdown of ISI ..................... 198 Conclusion Industrialisation and Bringing the Working Class Back In ............ 201 The Workplace Politics of Production in Chile and Argentina ............................. 203 Towards an Alternative Trajectory of ISI .............................................................. 213 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 218 i Acknowledgements My time at the University of Sussex has been spent in the vibrant and engaging environment of the Department of International Relations where I have benefitted from the support of friends and colleagues too numerous to mention. I am indebted, in particular, to the insights and guidance of my supervisors in the Department. To Benjamin Selwyn, who has been and continues to be an inspirational source of ideas on the scholarly and political significance of the themes in my research. To Kees van der Pijl, who had identified many of the core arguments of my work long before I had even become aware of them. And, in particular, to Samuel Knafo, to whom I offer a special gratitude, as, without his dedication, commitment, and time in its earliest stages and throughout, this project would have never come to fruition. The project has also benefitted immeasurably from funding provided by the Economic and Social Research Council. Thanks must go to the friends and colleagues in the Department and beyond who have been immeasurable sources of support and who have made this experience even more worthwhile. Special thanks go to Erica Consterdine and Tom Chambers, whose ongoing friendship and support have been invaluable, but also to Liam Stanley, Katie McQuaid, Andrea Lagna, Nuno Pires, Sahil Dutta, Dan Watson, Oli Weiss, Jasper Green, Ross Wignall, Matthieu Hughes, Steffan Wyn-Jones, and Richard Lane. Memories