A Panoply of Political Parties

...Justicialista Party: Founded in 1949 as the Peronist Party, it was renamed the Justicialista or Justice Party...

...Infighting leading up to the 1987 contest brought a 7% vote loss over two years ago...

...the reformist Renewal sector is led by the recently elected governor of Buenos Aires and ex-Per6n cabinet minister, Antonio Cafiero, and a group of young national deputies...

...It is notable for its well known co-founders: Nestor Vicente, formerly of the Christian Democrats and the PI, and Ret...

...The Trotskyist MAS pulled out when Communists signed the Radicals' ambiguous "Act of Democratic Accord" during the Easter Army rebellion...

...Although the party received less than 7% in September's national elections, its vote totals, especially in the capital, reflect significant growth since the 1985 elections...

...Women also won the right to vote...

...With a strong student following, MAS has actively demanded civilian justice for those who committed crimes during the "dirty war...

...The exception is the Neuquen provincial movement, a center-Left coalition...

...Orthodox Peronists have strong ties to labor bosses such as Lorenzo Miguel of the metal workers and former Labor Minister Carlos Alderete, who lost out in a post-election cabinet reshuffle...

...Seriously discredited, the Peronists made an impressive come-back in the September 6 elections, indicating success in efforts to distance themselves from the L6pez Rega era...

...Bussi is denounced by human rights groups for brutal crimes as commander of a major counterinsurgency operation in Tucumin just prior to the 1976 coup and later as the junta-appointed military governor of the province...

...All for the Country Movement (MTP): Founded recently by activists in human rights and the Popular Church, former political prisoners and ex-guerillas, the MTP is influenced by the Sandinistas...

...A small centrist party focussing on economic development, since 1983 MID has won a few congressional seats...

...Bussi aide Martin Trivino, an intelligence officer during the dictatorship, was questioned by a federal judge for the grave robbery of Per6n's hands...

...Plagued by fragmentation since the early 1950s, an electoral alliance between Popular and Democratic Socialists, Socialist Unity, made a modest showing in September, garnering 235,000 votes nationwide...

...and the Revolutionary Peronists, including the former urban guerrillas, the Montoneros, whose leader, Mario Eduardo Firmenich, was extradited from Brazil in 1983 and remains jailed on a 30year sentence...

...During the late 1940s and early 1950s, massive support for Peronism and Per6n's own anti-communism denied most militants any role in union leadership and curbed the party's ability to make lasting inroads into the working class...

...Jorge Videla as the mildest among possible military rulers and were widely viewed by other progressives as junta collaborators...

...Before Alfonsin's rise, the late Ricardo Balbin (of the Popular UCR) had dominated the party since the 1950s...

...A vague, anti-class analysis and inability to develop youthful leadership to succeed the aging Alende places the party's future in doubt...

...Since then, the party has been struggling to regain credibility...

...the C6rdoba Line (a center-Right provincial grouping led by Vice-President Victor Martinez and C6rdoba's governor, Eduardo Angeloz), and several other factions...

...Its gubernatorial candidate, Ret...

...The ineptitude and corruption of the regime and its supporters in the union hierarchy paved the way for military intervention...

...Broad Liberation Front (FRAL): A 1987 attempt by the Communist Party in alliance with small Left groups to continue their electoral front (FREPU), which received 3.5% of the vote in Buenos Aires province in 1985...

...Bypassing electoral politics, it organizes "Committees to Defend Democracy" in working-class neighborhoods...

...Christian Democrats (PDC): A centrist organization formed by moderate Catholics in reaction to Per6n's conflict with the Church in 1954-1955...

...Larger provincial blocs are represented in the national Senate...

...Communist Party (PC): One of the older national parties, it remains small and usually follows Soviet analysis, which has led to periodic splits...

...Socialists: Although efforts are underway to form a confederation of socialist groups, there is no one socialist party...

...Current tendencies include President Alfonsin's Renovation and Change (which comprises the Junta Coordinadora consisting mainly of young national deputies...

...The party has two major tendencies: the nationalist, right-of-center orthodox Peronists are led by former Senator Vicente Saadi, who has just been elected governor of Catamarca...

...Pledged to political reforms such as universal male suffrage...

...PI is dominated by the deputy, Oscar Alende, who was governor of Buenos Aires during the Frondizi era...

...MAS is directed by Luis Zamora, a human rights lawyer, who works with the Center for Social and Legal Studies (CELS...

...Provincial Blocs: Most of the country's 22 provinces have some kind of bloc or party, usually centrist or to the right...

...Alvaro Alsogaray, founder and national deputy, has always maintained tight relations with the armed forces and defended the recent military dictatorship...

...Intransigent Party (PI): A non-Marxist alternative for left-leaning intellectuals, professionals and progressive labor leaders looking for a nationalist, anti-imperialist party with middle-class acceptance...

...For the past three years they have sent work brigades to Nicaragua, drawing heavy criticism from the Radicals, the Right and the military...

...Rallying around democracy: Alfonsin supporters Under the leadership of President Juan Domingo Per6n (1946-1955 and 1973-1974) and his second wife, "Evita" Duarte de Per6n, the Peronists represented an alliance between the working class and national bourgeoisie...

...Workers Party (PO): A small independent, Trotskyist party on the fringes with a high profile nonetheless in the human rights and labor movements...

...Radical Civic Union (UCR): Founded at the end of the 19th century by Leandro Alem and Hip6lito Yrigoyen (president from 1916-1922 and 1928-1930), the movement attracted recent European immigrants, particularly professionals, small traders and merchants...

...At the turn of the century, immigrant Italian and Spanish anarchists and other European socialists helped develop Argentina's early labor movement...

...Their commitment to 19th century liberalism seems to extend only to the free market economy...

...In 1973, a broad-based popular movement re-called Per6n from an 18-year European exile...

...As minister of labor and social welfare following the military coup of 1943, Per6n had instituted strong pro-labor measures...

...FRAL ran a successful petition drive calling for an end to compulsory military service...

...Another tiny front member is the recently formed Popular Democratic Left Party (IDEPO...

...The recent vote reflects growth in the alliance since the 1985 polling, especially in Santa F6, where the Popular Socialist Party is led by Guillermo Estevez Boero...

...She succeeded him on his death in 1974, and granted sweeping powers to her occultist minister of social welfare, Jos6 L6pez Rega, who organized the AAA death squads in collusion with the miliJULY/AUGUST 1987 37Repor o04' Te Amica The Ties That Bind tary...

...The party was in coalition with the Renewal Peronists in a number of races in the September 6 elections...

...MAS criticized parties which signed the Radical's "Act of Democratic Accord" as a gesture of conciliation with the military...

...As a popular labor minister, Per6n began to undercut Socialist and Communist influence in the unions...

...Several other aides were identified as those who allegedly shot three youths demonstrating against Bussi...

...One disturbing trend was the strong showing in September's polling for a newly formed provincial party in Tucumdin, Provincial Defense...

...This time, however, the vote count dropped to 1.6...

...Elected president on the Justicialista Liberation Front ticket (FREJULI), Per6n named his third wife, Isabel Martinez, his running mate and vice-president...

...The party evolved from the Labor Party of independent, nationally oriented socialists who selected Per6n, then a colonel, as their presidential candidate...

...Socialists REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 38were the first to put "social justice" on the national agenda, a slogan later adopted by the Peronists...

...But the leadership's go-easy approach did not save its own rank and file from death squads...

...Antonio Bussi, won 18% of the vote...

...The most notable of a number of smaller tendencies are the fascist fringe group, the October 17th Movement, led by Herminio Iglesias, a friend of the military and political boss in Avellaneda, an area in the industrial belt around Buenos Aires...

...A "Humanist" faction opposed the Punto Final and Obediencia Debida legislation, which absolved most human rights criminals...

...Democratic Centralist Party (UCeD6): Considered a modern, rightist version of the oligarchy's Conservative Party which dissolved before Per6n's first term...

...The PI grew rapidly after Alfonsin took power, and by the 1985 elections captured around 10% of the vote...

...Like most of the Left, MTP advocates a moratorium on foreign debt payments and a referendum to decide long-term solutions...

...After the 1976 coup, the Communists initially supported Gen...

...Luis CUsar Perlinger...

...His electoral campaign received unofficial support from Alsogaray and his party, the UCeDd...

...Integration and Development Movement (MID): Developed out of a Radical Party grouping, led by former president Arturo Frondizi (who was toppled by a coup in 1962) and the economist, Rogelio Frigerio...

...Peronism promoted a consolidation of the labor movement in the Central Labor Confederation (CGT) and major social welfare reform along with development of light industry and natural resources...

...Located somewhere between these two groups are the followers of the popular governor of La Rioja, Carlos Satil Menem, who like Cafiero wants to replace Alfonsin as president in 1989...

...Movement Toward Socialism (MAS): Launched in 1982 by the father of Argentine Trotskyism, Nahuel Moreno (1924-1987), who had also founded, with Mario R. Santucho, the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) in 1965...

...Like the Democratic Centralists, it is a sizeable minority party with a few congressional deputies...