Social Origins of Counterrevolution in Argentina, 1900-1932
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THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF COUNTERREVOLUTION IN ARGENTINA, 1900-1932 By SANDRA F. MCGEE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL ITJLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1979 Copyright 1979 "by Sandra F. McGee To My Parents This work is an attempt to understand your sufferings, albeit in very different context. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to reverse the usual order of acknowledgements and first thank my husband, Jim, for his constant love, understanding, and support. Next, I wish to thank Professor David Bushnell for his guidance in the preparation of this study and in my graduate work. For seven years, I have deeply appreciated and admired his thoughtfulness, modesty, intellect, and perennial good humor. I am indebted to Professor Max Kele, a fine teacher and scholar who aroused my interest in the right wing. I am also very grateful to Professors Lyle McAlister, George Pozzetta, Harry Paul, Cornells Cli . Goslinga, and Alfred Hower for their help, encouragement, and interest in my work. I could not have carried out my research without the invaluable assistance of Julio Irazusta. 1 greatly appreciate his friendliness, his hospitality, and his generosity in letting me consult his papers. For their kindness and their cooperation, I am indebted to the employees of the Biblioteca Nacional, Archivo General de la Nacion, Institute Torcuato Di Telia, Archivo de La Prensa , Colegio de Escribanos, Biblioteca Tornquist, Jockey Club, Sociedad Rural Argentina, and the Fulbright Commission, all in Buenos Aires. The librarians in the Latin American collection of the University of Florida library have also helped me a great deal. I wish to express my appreciation to the following persons for their helpful suggestions and assistance: . Felix Fares, Nestor Tomas Auza, Jose Luis de Imaz, Boleslao Lewin, Mark Falcoff, Richard Walter, Charles Bergquist, Carlos Floria, Francis Korn, Arnaldo Musich (h.), Ezequiel Gallo, Maria Teresa Piragina, Nicolas Rossi, Eduardo Saguier, Eduardo Baumeister, Carlos Mayo, Leonardo Senkraan, Clodomiro Aran jo Salvadores, Maria Constanza Huergo, Judith Sweeney, and George Heaps-Nelson. A Fulbright-Hays dissertation grant from the U.S. Office of Education enabled me to conduct the research necessary for this study. At other times in my graduate school years, the Center for Latin American Studies and the Department of History provided the necessary financial support. Professor William Carter, former director of the Center for Latin American Studies, was a constant source of encourage- ment, as was Vivian Nolan, whose friendship I deeply appreciate. Finally, I thank my typist, Vicki Turner, for reassuring a nervous author. The many persons who helped me are not responsible for the deficiencies of this work, nor do they necessarily agree with my findings TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT viii INTRODUCTION 1 Notes 12 CHAPTER I BACKGROUND TO COUNTERREVOLUTION: ARGENTINE SOCIETY AND POLITICS BEFORE 1916 15 Notes 58 CHAPTER II IDEOLOGY AND SOCIAL CONTROL 64 Notes 115 CHAPTER III THE RISE OF THE LIGA PATRIOTICA ARGENTINA 121 Notes 173 CHAPTER IV COMPOSITION AND SOCIAL THOUGHT OF THE LIGA PATRIOTICA ARGENTINA 180 Notes 232 CHAPTEK V "LET'S ORGANIZE THE COUNTERREVOLUTION": THE NEW FORCES OF ORDER 238 Notes 286 CHAPTER VI COUNTERREVOLirnON, I9I9-1932: COMPOSITION AND SOCIAL THOUGHT OF THE NATIONALISTS 295 Notes 343 . Contents— continued Page SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 349 I. Biographical Sources 349 II. Periodicals of Buenos Aires 351 III. Publications and Papers of the Liga Patri6tica Argentina 352 IV. Other Works 354 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 367 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida in Partial P'ulf illment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF COUNTERREVOLUTION IN ARGENTINA, 1900-1932 By Sandra F. McGee December 1979 Chairman: David Bushnell Major Department: History Students of the Argentine right wing have generally focused on its political ideas and roles in the years since 1930. In this study I trace the origins of counterrevolutionary movements from 1900 to 1932 and explore tlie social conditions and motivations which led to their formation. Counterrevolution is defined as antagonism to the emancipatory process which found its philosophical expression first in liberalism and then in Marxism; here it does not mean suppression of or opposition to any particular revolution. The membership, views, and activities of the Liga Patriotica Argentina, Liga Republicana, Legidn de Mayo, Accidn Republicana, and Legi6n Civica Argentina are examined, along with La Nueva Rcptiblica and its writers. I classify these groups according to their members' social status and ideas as conservatives, reactionaries, or counterrevolutionaries. The roots of counterrevolution lay in the tensions associated with the rapid economic growth of the period 1880 to 1914. Development of the export sector, immigration, urbanization, and industrialization greatly altered the social structure, creating the conditions for labor unrest and mass politics. Members of the political class responded to a perceived radical threat by repressing the labor move- ment, organizing yellow unions, restricting immigration, and wooing labor away from leftism. The social Catholic movement encouraged class conciliation by bringing workers and entrepreneurs together in the same organizations and establishing confessional unions and social projects. Social Catholics and other conservative reformers joined Socialists in advocating social legislation and mutualism. A conserva- tive ideology which encompassed economic nationalism, hostility toward immigrants and workers, traditional anti-Semitism, and support for social measures gained adherents before 1919. These elements of counterrevolutionary thought and action coalesced in the Liga Patriotica Argentina, founded in 1919. Vigilante squads and military officers who had repressed workers in the Semana Tragica formed the Liga's core. In 1922 the Liga boasted 1500 brigades throughout Argentina and a cohesive organizational structure. Brigade members were largely recruited from the middle sectors and national leaders from the upper class. From 1919 to 1921 the Liga mainly suppressed union activities; afterwards it established social welfare programs, which female ligui stas helped administer. With these programs ix the Liga hoped to convince workers that class struggle was unnecessary. Manuel Carles, the Liga's longtime president, and other members also discussed broader means of class conciliation. The social backgrounds and views of liguistas characterize them as conservatives, primarily concerned with maintaining the status quo. In contrast, the right-wing groups active in the Revolution of 1930, or nationalists, as they called themselves, exhibited both reactionary and counterrevolutionary traits. Except for the Legion de Mayo and Legion Civica Argentina, these groups were small and elitist. Nationalists tended to be young members of interrelated landholding families which had been prominent in the past and at least had retained social prestige. Displaced from decisionmaking roles by the Radical party, they constituted a defunctionalized segment of the political class. Counterrevolutionaries have usually come from such groups doomed by economic and political modernization. Like European counter- revolutionaries, nationalists desired sweeping change and activism, and some were ideological anti-Semites. By the early 1930's some national- ist intellectuals demanded the end of foreign economic domination. In their militant Catholicism, ties to the land, the unwillingness to form a popular base, however, nationalists also resembled reactionaries. Like reactionaries elsewhere, they hoped to re-establish a rigidly hierarchical society buttressed by the Church, local communities, landed estates, and corporatist groups. INTRODUCTION One of the most distinctive features of twentieth-century Argentina, viewed in its Latin American context, has been the pro- minence of the right wing. The revolution of 1930 transformed its government from that of a liberal republic to a corporatist-leaning dictatorship. The conservative and antidemocratic regimes of the 1930's, military and Peronist rule in the 1940's, and the activities of fervent nationalists from these decades to the present have demonstrated the weakness of liberalism and leftism and the ascendancy of the right. Right-wing extremism in Latin America is not peculiar to Argentina; one may cite the Brazilian integralistas , the Mexican cristeros and sinarquistas , and the National Socialist party of Chile, among others. In general, however, such movements have enjoyed periods of importance and then have faded from view, whereas the Argentine right, although rarely large in number, has managed to exert influence on leading intellectuals, politicians, military officers, and priests for over sixty years. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Argentine right lias appropriated the term "nationalism" to refer to its ideas and membership. Nationalism has been a significant factor in the political evolution of many Latin American countries, and yet it has been predominantly leftist-oriented in some of these settings, in contrast to its best-known manifestations in Argentina. A major element in contemporary Argentine history, the right wing clearly merits extensive study. The literature dealing with