Federación Obrera Regional Argentina

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Demonstration of the FORA around 1915

The Federación Obrera Regional Argentina (short: FORA ) was an Argentine trade union federation with an anarchist or anarcho-communist orientation. After its founding in 1901 it has been for about two decades, the strongest trade union power in Argentina, until - weakened by internal struggles - the early 1930s after the military coup of Uriburu into insignificance sank. The FORA continues to exist as an anarchist organization to this day, but has not been a union member since the 1970s.

History of the FORA

The Argentine labor movement in front of the FORA

Stamp of the FORA Federal Council

Argentina experienced strong economic growth from the second half of the 19th century and gradually became an economic center of South America . From the 1850s onwards, a wave of immigration began that brought many European workers to Argentina. Only a few immigrants, most of whom came from Italy or Spain, managed to become self-employed. Most of them stayed in the economic centers like Buenos Aires and earned their living as industrial workers or day laborers .

With the European immigrants, anarchist ideas also came to Argentina and Italian and Spanish sections of the International Workers' Association were formed in Argentina. However, while the majority of the anarchist groups were shaped by individual anarchists and were hostile to organizations, pro-union forces grew stronger over time. The stay of Errico Malatesta , who was active in the Argentine labor movement from 1885 to 1889 , had a decisive influence on this .

First attempts at a union in the Federación de los Trabajadores de la Región Argentina ('Federation of Workers of Argentina') failed quickly due to the tensions between the socialist union leadership and the predominantly anarchist professional associations. With the help of Pietro Gori , a political refugee from Italy, the Federación Libertaria was founded, which declared in a declaration of principles the goals and means of the political and trade union action of the anarchists. The newspaper La Protesta Humana appeared from 1897 and became the most important newspaper of the anarchist movement and later the FORA organ.

Foundation and first years

First edition of La Protesta Humana newspaper , June 13, 1897

In 1901 the Federación Obrera Argentina emerged from the amalgamation of anarchist and socialist trade unions , with around 10,000 members. The organization saw the general strike and solidarity within the working class as a means in the struggle of the workers , but the support of political, including socialist parties, was rejected.

This was followed in 1902 several successful strikes, such as the strike by dock workers of Rosario , which expanded to a general strike. The dock workers of Buenos Aires fought for the nine-hour day that same year and the government responded to the strikes with bloody repression and expulsions. The FOA was renamed Federación Obrera Regional Argentina in 1904 and decided at the V Congress in 1905 to embark on a socially revolutionary and anarcho-communist course. This step led to the formation of the Confederación Obrera Regional Argentina in 1909 , which adopted the principles of the old FORA and represented an ideologically neutral standpoint and revolutionary syndicalism . From this point on, the Argentine state began systematic persecution and suppression of the FORA, and many expulsions of mostly non-Argentine workers followed. The increasing unemployment following the crisis of 1913/14 weakened the FORA further.

Reunification and division

FORA graffito in Buenos Aires

After the CORA dissolved in 1914, most of the members joined the FORA. On the IX. Congress in 1915 decided on ideological neutrality and decided to return to the principles of the old FORA of 1914. A minority left the FORA (IX.) And founded the FORA V., named after the respective congress. The FORA V. had about 10,000 members and defined itself as an anarcho-syndicalist organization. The FORA IX. formed the far stronger part and united about 100,000 to 120,000.

On January 7, 1919, when an anarchist union with ties to FORA V went on strike in Nueva Pompeya, Buenos Aires, an exchange of fire between police and unionists resulted in five people being killed. At the funeral two days later, police raided the funeral procession of 200,000 workers present to the Cementerio de la Chacarita cemetery, killing another 39 people. In the following Semana Trágica ('Tragic Week') the Argentine military intervened and an estimated 100 to 700 people died. This led to frequent strikes and a strengthening of the unions. Only in Buenos Aires were 397 strikes carried out in 1919, involving around 300,000 workers.

Decline

The question of membership in the Bolshevik Red Trade Union International led to an internal dispute within the FORA. The FORA IX. then dissolved in 1922 in favor of the Unión Sindical Argentina . However, this USA never achieved the importance of the FORA and finally merged into the CGT .

The FORA V. then took over the name FORA again, but could no longer match the strength of the old FORA. General Uriburu's military coup in 1930 brought about the decline of the FORA as an anarchist organization.

From the end of the 1930s, the FORA was of little importance and only appeared temporarily in regionally limited strikes by small individual unions. In 1968, after 40 years without trade union congresses, it organized its 11th congress in Buenos Aires, which, however, did not stop the further decline. In the 1970s union activity was given up.

Today, the FORA continues to exist as the Argentine section of the International Workers' Association under the name FORA-AIT and publishes the magazine Organización Obrera , but it has hardly any significance in the labor movement.

literature

Movie

Web links

Commons : Federación Obrera Regional Argentina  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b F.ORA La anarquía - Fin del Movimiento Obrero , publication of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation
  2. ^ Munck, Ronaldo: Cycles of Class Struggle and the Making of the Working Class in Argentina, 1890-1920 , p. 25. In: Journal of Latin American Studies 19, Cambridge, May 1987, pp. 19-39.
  3. ^ A b Thompson, Ruth: The Limitations of Ideology in the Early Argentine Labor Movement: Anarchism in the Trade Unions, 1890-1920 , pp. 173ff. In: Journal of Latin American Studies 16, Cambridge, May 1984, pp. 81-99.