From Mercantilism to Imperialism: The Argentine Case
Daniels, Ed
With the evolution of capitalism in Argentina during the early part of the 20th century, new patterns of social relations appeared. The rapid urban incorporation of European immigrants into the...
...there was a conflict over consumer markets...
...During Peron's first Presidency, the Church became a supporter of populism...
...The reduction in exports produced a decline in surplus capital...
...In the words of Ongania himself, "The country welcomes foreign investment and it neither fears nor distrusts foreign capital...
...Through this penetration, the bourgeoisie began its process of satellization...
...13 Young Lcrds...
...ban in 1926 on the importation of chilled beef (because of alleged hoof and mouth disease) reduced exports...
...The decline was greatest for salaried service workers, and skilled workers suffered more than unskilled...
...Murphy in Fortune, June, July and August 1969...
...Victor Testa, "Crecimiento (1935-1946) y Estancamiento (1947-1963) de la Produccion Industrial Argentina" in Fichas de Investigacion Economica y Social, Ano 1, No...
...Military rule Safety Program) expand, it is likely that the forms excluded the traditional parliamentary channeling of of struggle will develop along the lines of protracted political and economic frustrations...
...As economism fails, workers were forced to resort perience in clandestine activities...
...direct investments in manufacturing rose 60 percent in five years (1963-68) while overall U.S...
...Thus, during Peronism no one class could control State power...
...flax, 72 percent...
...Another example was in 1920-21 when workers and peasants rebelled, seizing lands in Patagonia...
...18 Camilo Yanquificido...
...With the overthrow of Illia, the middle sectors were finally removed from their position within the power structure...
...imperialism...
...1964...
...Thus, Germany and England preferred a neutral Argentina...
...A study of the thirteen U.S...
...investments increased 35 percent in the same years...
...The resulting economic crisis affected all social classes...
...6 6 As small businesses closed, the reserve labor force expanded and the ranks of the under- and unemployed swelled...
...Operating as an autonomous party of the working class, the Partido Laborista embodied most of the reformist demands of the remaining CGT...
...The stockmen themselves were split into two factions: breeders and fatteners...
...Hectares under cultivation in grains and forage increased from six million in 1900 to 20 million in 1913 and 25 million in 1929, under the control of the landowning bourgeoisie.42 Cereal exports grew faster than meat exports even under conditions of world-wide market contraction...
...Instead, the Radical government annulled the elections of 1962...
...investments rose significantly throughout the sixties...
...sources: Alberto J. Pla, America Latina Siglo XX: Economia, Sociedad y Revolucion (Buenos Aires, 1969) p. 232...
...The landowning bourgeiosie raised the cattle...
...See Table 7.) The government's "developmentist" strategy projected that economic growth would follow from foreign investments...
...Testa, p. 8. 51...
...I do not know any better way to improve relations between wo countries than bv the establishment of reciprocal trade...
...In these circumstances, any incident could produce a conflict of a new and unexpected magnitude...
...56.6 percent of the establishments with 69.6 percent of the workers were in the Capital 4 Federal and Buenos Airds province...
...But the most important change favoring the bourgeoisie involved the influx of direct foreign investment...
...Insofar as the middle sectors and the nationally oriented sectors of the landowning bourgeoisie gained access to political power, they weakened the hegemony-of the traditional ruling class...
...investments realized a 15.2 percent return on total capital invested and a 17.0 percent return on capital invested in manufacturing...
...The level of consumption among Buenos Aires workers is For the first time in Argentine history a mass much higher than in the satellite cities (Cordoba, popular uprising, uniting forces from the proletariate, Rosario, La Plata, Tucuman, etc...
...416-417...
...Following the military occupation of the universities in 1966, students gained exFOOTNOTES 37...
...Throughout the sixties, the percentage contribution of economic sectors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remains constant...
...As the years passed, the inability of the UCR to introduce changes within the political and economic structure of the nation became clear...
...Rural unemployment soared, propelling a mass migration to the urban centers...
...See Table 9; the equivalent figures for 1969 in the major sectors are: manufacturing 35.4 percent, agriculture-livestock 16.9 percent, commerce and finance 20.8 percent...
...WORLD WAR II AND THE COUP OF 1943 By World War II the rationale behind industrialization went beyond simply short-term import substitute considerations...
...Id) That paid for amortizsatons and Interest on long-term capital, according to the reports of the CRA n i64 and 1965...
...However, from 1916 to 1922, Irigoyen chose to ignore army requests for modernization of its forces...
...From Mrcantilism to Imperialism: The Argentine Case...
...The presidential election of 1963 brought the Union Civica Radical del Pueblo (UCRP...
...II, pp...
...Finally, increased wages stimulated the development of an internal market...
...In fact, as soon as the interests of international capital came into contradiction with the economic policies...
...Governments after 1963 tried to cutback on Fondizi's exhorbitant spending, but to this day the Argentine economy remains saddled with an overwhelming burden...
...7 1 The military regime had thus now simultaneously antagonized the democratic tradition of the middle sectors) and the populist tradition of the working-class movement, and potentially created the conditions for their alliance...
...Here was a mass in the process of formation which was beginning to adopt a political attitude opposed to the existing regime of the landowning bourgeoisie...
...5 9 With the development of light industry, a favourable balance of trade, and the accumulation of foreign exchange, the new regime attempted to mesh both the interests of the industrial and proletarian elements...
...Smith, from Table 2.4, Rural Society Representation in Inaugural Cabinets, 1910-1943, p. 49...
...See Part I, p. 7. For complete references see Part I (NACLA Newsletter, IV, 4 / July-August 1970...
...Conglomerates and multinational corporations, concenBohemia (Cuba) TABLE 4 COST OF LIVING INDEX Year Index Varintio Yeanr Index Varintion 1915 2.3 1955 19.8 + 130%c 1920 4.0 + 74% 196;0 100.2 + 406 % 1925 2.9 - 28 % 1965 283.8 - :;3 1930 2.8 - 3...
...As long as prosperous economic conditions prevailed, Peronism could fulfill these aspirations...
...In the commercial sector, the firm of Bunge and Born, founded by BelgianJewish financiers with world-wide connections, controlled over fifty companies, including flour mills, estancias, chemical and industrial firms, and loan associations...
...49, (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, 1968), p. 17-19...
...Galloping inflation, combined with the IMF's program of economic austerity, accentuated the unequal distribution of income...
...The Partido Laborista founded in 1945, became the vehicle through which Peron attracted the old working class leaders and their organizations into his populist program...
...In 1935, 5,000 trade union meetings, involving one million workers, were held...
...Consequently, Brazil was able to show a higher rate of growth than Argentina...
...control...
...eight U.S...
...Although real wages had increased between 1943 and 1949, by the time Peron was overthrown in 1955 they had fallen back to approximately their pre-Peron era...
...As a cooptive measure, he permitted the working class to express itself through the Partido Justicialista (under Peronist command...
...this dependency forced a readjustment among the dominant classes and a polarization between classes...
...I have drawn heavily on this study for the analysis of intra-class conflicts, alliances and fusions for the 1930-1940 period...
...3 When compulsory military service was established in 1901, the military became a socializing institution...
...The petit bourgeois and working class elements which emerged and expanded in the late 19th century sought out political means to express their needs...
...oats, 32 percent...
...The net result was an unsatisfied consumer market...
...After this it includes petroleum and several other sectors and is obviousely used to mask some of the data after 1950...
...6 7 These "stability"oriented policies extended wage freezes that further aggravated the conditions of the working class...
...The azules won and elections followed...
...on the other labor clamoured for an increased capacity to consume and an improvement in living as well as working conditions...
...3 3 Radicalismo (the Union Civica Radical, UCR), though predominantly petit bourgeois in numbers, was dominated in Buenos Aires by enlightened elements of large landowning interests (cultivators and livestock growers...
...Irigoyen's popular base became alienated from his government, and a social-political crisis resulted...
...In 1925, the Argentine contribution to total world exports was: maize, 66 percent...
...Zuniga, p. 87...
...It should be noted that metropolis control of this accumulated debt offers a marvelous lever for manipulating the economy to their advantage...
...PeriodTHE PERON ERA National populism began to take form between 1943 and 1946...
...5 8 In Argentina, Peronist national populism came forth as an alternative to the vacuum created by a general weakening of all social classes...
...middle sectors, students and progressive clergy, took place...
...The increased penetration and domination of the strategic sectors (banking, manufacturing, trade, public services, wholesaling and retailing) by U.S...
...Frondizi proved unable to assure the social tranquility and political order necessary to cement a bourgeois democracy...
...December...
...and British firms did most of the slaughtering of the cattle and controlled the marketing of produce...
...Saturating the employment market, this mass prohibited the native lower classes from entering the new productive areas...
...Moreover, the British expected that, following the war, Argentina would remain within her Imperial domain...
...Before World War II, 60 percent of the nation's food production was onsumed domestically...
...thus the political frustration of the UCR and the dependent character of the classes it represented...
...Sefiores: Es tiempode decir que el hombre, antes de sentir la necesidad de la cultura, ha sentido la necesidad del orden...
...Finally, growing labor militancy (expressed during the Plan de Lucha of the CGT -- which involved general strikes and the seizure of plants) and high school and university demonstrations against the U.S...
...The Argentine bourgeoisie depended on the world market for its survival...
...On the other hand, the "developmentists," with industrial interests, were best represented by a segment of the Army, led by General Juan Carlos Ongania...
...3 6 While the middle sectors had been effectively coopted into the political system, the highly concentrated industrial labor force was not...
...The resulting inflation particularly squeezed the salaried middle sectors...
...3 9 Foreign interests dominated: by 1926, U.S...
...Next the government handed over a lucrative concession to Standard Oil of California in order to raise domestic petroleum production and diminish expensive imports...
...192 1 eplained by the act tt the latter was based on data supplied by the redltors wh.lle hoe that are shown for after 1964 inclusive cocre from tnp Banco Central de IR Repubiica Argentina...
...For instance, the growth rate in the production of electrical and metallurgical machinery surpassed that of the 1937-45 period (see Table 3 ). This process took place within the context of further concentration of capital, primarily in the dynamic industries (e.g., electric, chemical, synthetic fibers, etc...
...Yankee "ingenuity" began to devise numerous mechanisms for social pacification, cooptation and control...
...The utilization of highly advanced industrial technology in underdeveloped Argentina caused severe labor dislocations (i.e., unemployment...
...In short, the Sgialists coalesced while the Communists were repressed...
...Peron, an army colonel, rose from Secretary of Labor and Welfare to Minister of War, then to Vice President under Farrell, and finally to President in 1946...
...This led to the curtailment of foreign immigration in the early 30's, enabling peasants to find employment in the Litoral cities...
...Victor Testa, "Significacion del Capital Internacional en la Industria Argentina: El Capital Norteamericano," in Fichas, Vol...
...For a discussion of Radicalismo as a moral movement concerned with "formal democracy" see Galletti, and Jose Luis Romero, A History of Argentine Political Thought, translated from the Spanish by Thomas F. McGann (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963...
...IMPERIALISM: THE INTEGRATION OF THE BOURGEOISIE The coup of 1955 clarified the social, economic and political crisis of the populist regime and brought to an end the period of autonomous capitalist development which had begun in 1935...
...In rupturing those ties, however, World War II withdrew the stabilizing mechanisms of metropolis-satellite relations...
...The working class ws to respond by organizing itself into a strong political force, fighting persistently to regain those economist rights -- political participation and wage increases -- attained during Peronism...
...Illia, the new president, was innaugurated with only 26 percent of the popular vote...
...Furthermore, severe droughts, in the period 1950-52, also cut back on agricultural production, inhibiting the agricultural sector's ability to simultaneously satisfy the rising internal and external market demands.The worsening balance of trade (see Table 5) drained the government's gold and hard currency reserves (when Peron came to power, reserves had risen to 6,032 million pesos...
...which may not have taken Into account some of the recently as yet undisbursd authorlzed loans...
...To the contrary, it indicated how weak that class was...
...Alfredo Parera Dennis, "Una Decada Decisiva en la Formacion de la Moderna Clase Obrera Argentina: 1935-1945" in Fichas..., Ano...
...Ernesto Laclau(h), "Argentina-Imperialist Strategy and the May Crisis," in New Left Review, No...
...During the 1935-46 period, half-a-million persons entered the industrial labor force, an increase of over 100 percent...
...It appeared first in the cities where the work- a supportive capacity...
...133 respectively.9 For instance, in order to attract foreign capital, Argentina was forced to submit to the economic policies of the International Monetary Fund...
...Furthermore, from 1916 to 1930, ten out of a total of 21 cabinet posts were held by members of the Sociedad Rural Argentina (Argentine Rural Society) -- the crucial core of the landowning upper class...
...Once in power, Radicalismo turned out to be no more than a variation in the status quo whose possibilities and limitations were well known to and controlled by the traditional ruling class...
...New Zealand...
...capital, were nationalized (i.e., railroads, urban transport, gas and electric utilities, mass media and telephones...
...With the conclusion of World War II, the United States had emerged as the metropolitan center of the capitalist world...
...Smith, p. 135...
...By 1960, a network of more than 1,200 such suppliers had been developed...
...14,780 in December of 1958 on foreign capital investment in the country...
...Thus, the institutionalized violence of the State went unmet by organized violence of the working class...
...The military, led by former Commander-inChief of the Army, General Juan Carlos Ongania, seized power in 1966...
...to join the Allies, Germany would impede the flow of goods from Argentina to Britain...
...government policies had shifted toward fulfilling the industrial and landowning bourgeoisies' need for capital and the supportive infrastructure...
...7 0 Thanks to the services rendered by these key men, U.S...
...However, this crack in the power structure never brought it to the point of collapse...
...Testa, from Chart 1, p. 6. 52...
...3, p. 60...
...by 1941, the numbers decreased to 3,000 and 200,000 respectively...
...For example: in 1960, five U.S...
...62, July-August 1970, pp...
...The rapid urban incorporation of European immigrants into the tertiary (services) and secondary (meatpacking, textiles, food processing) sectors of the economy began to redefine the class composition of Argentine society...
...as an autonomous capitalist class it was now dead...
...3, May-June 197C...
...When railroads were expropriated in 1948, the British received the equivalent of $300 million above the real value of the railroads...
...In 1961, U.S...
...4 8An unfavorable balance of trade, a decreased capacity to import manufactured consumer goods, and a contraction in foreign investments, however, prompted the development of import substitute industries...
...In addition, Alvaro Alsogaray, former Argentine Ambassador to the United States, represented the interests of Deltec International Corp...
...As exports fell, the landowning bourgeoisie's surplus contracted and the industrial bourgeoisie was constrained in its ability to import capital goods (machinery, equipment, fuels and raw materials...
...5 7 Conflicts among the international imperial powers impeded any world metropolitan center from dominating the country...
...On yet another level, Peronista mobs burned a number of important church buildings in Buenos Aires...
...Dept...
...and seven U.S...
...Finally, practically all were from the U.S...
...Alberto Ciria, Partidos y Poder en La Argentina Moderna (1930-1946), pp...
...In 1952, the government granted a major concession to Armour & Co...
...Their recommendations influenced Alvear's selection of his Minister of War...
...13 U.S...
...Moreover, the Radicales failed to fulfill all their campaign promises to the Peronist supporters which had been crucial for their election in 1958...
...Peronist nationalizations were accomplished through more than adequate compensation...
...The industrial bourgeoisie, hurt by a sharp decline in consumer capacity, vied for a greater participation in the power structure...
...cartels, was willing to give better deals in its desire to gain entry to the Latin markets...
...Data provided in Ortiz, Vol...
...In this venture, the ruling class was backed by anti-Irigoyen Radicals and the right-wing Independent Socialist Party...
...The Communist Party, at the time, put its energies into a popular front to support the Allied cause...
...Despite minor nationalist measures dealing primarily with the petroleum industry, Irigoyen left the Argentine economy almost exactly as he found it: dependent on the world market for the sale of its cereals and meats, and the national economy depepdent on the agrarian sector...
...See Dario Canton, "Notas Sobre las Fuerzas Armadas Argentinas," working paper No...
...1 have devoted all my lfe to business, and it is the only thing I know...
...U.S...
...President Castillo had unsuccessfully tried to acquire U.S...
...This crisis in the job market was intensified by the internal rural-to-urban migration which followed the decline in agro-exports of the early 1950's...
...After 1935, rapid industrialization began to incorporate the post-depression rural-to-urban migrant force...
...A conflict ensued, resultingn] in the removal of Catholic instruction from the school curriculum by the administration...
...In fact, while helping to offset an unfavorable balance of trade, import substitute industrialization allowed the dominant class to adapt itself to the changing conditions in the world market...
...United Nations, Foreign Capital in Latin America (New York, 1955) p. 37...
...10 for institutions...
...On the other hand, the wage freezes produced wide discontent among the popular masses, making them a viable political means for a populist regime...
...capital (see Table 7 ) initiated a process of vertical and horizontal integration of the Argentine economy...
...It is in this context that the working class is revealed as the enemy of capitalist "development...
...On the one hand, this brought the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie into contradiction with those of the landowning class...
...The Socialists, in turn, created the Union General de Trabajadores (UGT...
...The Argentine post ranks very high in assignments--six ambassadors served as Under Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs (or its previous equivalent) just before or after being stationed in Buenos Aires-- primarily because of the country's important world-wide commercial operations and investment opportunities...
...A rise in agricultural prices, in the domestic market, meant that consumers spent a greater percentage of their income in purchasing foodstuffs than manufactured goods...
...4 9 Industrial productign expanded by 53.7 percent between 1937 and 1946U and the number of workers employed in industrial enterprises (employing more than ten workers) doubled (from 440,582 to 936,387) in the period 1935-46.51 Industrial growth also reinforced the trend toward economic centralization in the Litoral, and primarily in the Capital Federal and Gran (metropolitan) Buenos Aires...
...The result was a political radicalization of this group which made it increasingly difficult to keep within the dominant oligarchic bloc formed in 1955...
...indicating the significance of Cuban commerce in U.S...
...The first real break in this direction occurred in 1950 when the government agreed to guarantee a $125 million loan from the United States Export-Import Bank to purchase U.S...
...Insofar as the working class was concerned, industrialization, under conservative control, followed the tradition of classical capital accumulation through worker exploitation...
...Following the initiation of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the United States began to rationalize the administration of its Latin American empire...
...Brazilian policy, resulted in the United States favoring Brazil and not Argentina with economic and military aid...
...Once Peron was overthrown, resistance to U.S...
...In other words, they were excluded from seems to have crossed geographic boundaries and government and economic well-being...
...They wiped out the Uturunco guerrilla front in Tucuman (1958), enforced a state of seige six months after Frondizi's inauguration and implemented Plan Conintes (see above...
...transactions...
...In Argentina, intra-class contradictions (vaguely aligned with inter-imperialist ones), were reinforced by the instability generated by World War II...
...1, from Chart 1, p. 6. 50...
...Raul Prebisch transferred his great success in Argentina to the rest of Latin America through his executive position in ECLA...
...En un cierto sentido, se puede decir que en la historia, el polibia ha precedido al profesor...
...The surplus was channelled to the industrial sector...
...As Table 4 shows, in the period 1955 to 1960, the cost of living index skyrocketed by 400 percent...
...Since May of 1969 the the economic conditions described above, the triumph Tupamaros, of Uruguay, have become the focus of reof the Cuban Revolution and the harsh military re- volutionary attention...
...Henceforth, agricultural exports and productivity showed a continual decline, further reducing available capital...
...On the other hand, the industrial working class remained loyal to Peron, yearning for a return to the regime's first years...
...According to the 1925 Census, of the 91 banks in Argentina, five controlled 60.3% of the total capital, 57.5% of loans and 60% of deposits...
...9 ARGENTINA: GROSS INTERNAL PRODUCT AT FACTOR COST AND 1960 PRICES FOR SELECTED YEARS (In thousands of millions of NC$ and in % for sectors of economic activity) 1955 1957 1960 1962 1963 1964 TOTAL in thousands of millions of NC$ 748.5 803.5 876.0 916.1 873.3 946.5 INDICES 100 107.3 117.1 122.4 116.7 126.4 PER CAPITA INDICES 100 103.5 107.1 108.3 101.8 108.6 % for sectors of economic activity: 1. Agriculture-livestock 19.9 17.4 16.8 16.4 16.8 16.8 2. Mining 0.7 0.7 1.1 1.5 1.6 1.5 3. Manufacturing 30.3 32.0 32.4 32.3 32.0 33.7 4. Construction 4.1 4.3 4.2 3.9 3.8 3.9 5. Electric energy, gas and water 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.6 1.7 1.8 6. Transport and Communications 7.8 7.7 7.6 7.3 7.3 7.3 7. Commerce 16.5 17.0 17.1 18.2 17.1 16.7 8. Banking, Insurance and Real Estate 4.3 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.6 4.2 9. Government services 7.8 8.1 7.4 7.1 7.5 6.9 10...
...imperialism...
...Oligopolies and monopolies increased geometrically within and outside the United States, bringing the economies of more and more countries under U.S...
...by 1952 more than 80 percent was internally consumed...
...This was the ex- workers at the barricades and defended their own pression of a class rather than an economic conscious- communities with snipers...
...In addition, friction arose over control of certain key unions such as the meat packers union...
...From a speech given May 1, 1944, quoted in Romero, p. 246...
...At one time they exported 30 percent of all Argentine grains and, being middlemen for many other products, Bunge and Born came to control most of the available foreign exchange...
...In these conditions, the workers' movement could only become politically effective as the organized nucleus and vanguard of the entire popular masses...
...imperialism with the Argentine industrial and landowning bourgeoisies relegated to the status of junior partners...
...While the abundance during 1943-48 permitted a temporary class collaboration, the economy's contraction and surplus shrinkage revealed the basic antagonism between social classes...
...Besides competition on the world market and lower productivity on the land due to a lack of capital investment, the landowning bourgeoisie showed its displeasure with Peron's state monopoly by cutting back production...
...The process of turning over the economy to foreign control was most clearly exemplified in the dramatic rise in the long term public debt...
...The next one, the Federaci Obrera Argentina (FOA), founded in 1904, was crushed, but reorganized itself as the Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina (FORA...
...The gravitation was economic, political, ideological and cultural...
...39...
...often they needed and received technical or management assistance to develop their potential....many companies have found it a good investment for the long run, both from a purely business viewpoint and as evidence of their wholehearted integration into the Argentine Community (sic...
...4 4 This meant that the landowning bourgeoisie maintained its hegemony over the financing of production throughout the period of Radicalismo's dominance...
...by 1952, net gold and exchange reserves had fallen to 1,354 million pesos...
...5 3 However, low agricultural productivity and a growing urban demand for foodstuffs led to a rise in prices and a consonant decrease in the living standards of the newly urbanized masses...
...When in 1925 the Union Industrial Argentina (Argentine Industrial Union) granted honorary membership to the Sociedad Rural Argentina, it only recognized a well-known fact: "most of Argentina's industry at the time NACLA NEWSLETTER Vol...
...II, p. 11...
...Middle sectors joined in ness...
...Out of this experience grew a new sense of power: The splits within the Socialists, Communist and the that the organized violence of the popular masses remnants of the Radicalismo and the social christian could, in time, battle and defeat the repressive movements were caused by several factors, including: apparatus of the State...
...To cite only one outstanding example, Industrias Kaiser Argentina (IKA, recently bought by Renault of France) has actively sought suppliers for components and materials used in the manufacture of its automotive vehicles in Cordoba...
...Instead, the CGT, wrought by internal dissention, split into two factions in 1942: CGT-1 (socialists) and CGT-2 (communists...
...This in turn would lower fuel costs for manufacturers, but since the concession had little immediate effect, fuel imports continued to rise (see Table 6...
...Moreover, industrialization was of a peripheral nature, sustaining its dynamic growth by relying on the basic industries of the developed countries...
...The internal market was in check: an inflationary process had set in (between 1946 and 1952 money in circulation jumped from 17 to 45 billion pesos...
...By 1891, the movement had a shortlived central federation, the Federacion de Trabajadores de la Region Argentina...
...However, strikes no longer brought victories to the working class...
...The regime also passed a law that legalized divorce and another one that legalized prostitution...
...This time, the Peronists abstained from voting in protest against their party's exclusion from the electoral process...
...From 1935 to 1946, the number of industrial enterprises (excluding construction) doubled...
...Despite these anti-working class measures, the anxiety of the bourgeoisie -- shaken by the Peronist electoral victory and ill at ease with a regime which lacked popular support -- was not allayed...
...Import substitute industries increasingly attracted large amounts of capital and labor...
...In addition, the domestic consumption of foodstuffs rose steadily according to increased demand in the urban areas...
...Young workers seized their factories and took to the streets...
...It bought the commodities at low prices and sold them on the world market at higher prices...
...The economic rivalry between Brazil and Argentina and the national development politics of the military -- embodied in the GOU (United Officers Corps) -- were the leading factors, given Castillos' failures, to the military coup of 1943...
...They not only produced systems for the training and equipping of Latin American armies and police forces for the maintenance of political stability in economic crisis, but also resulted in the transformation of the U.S...
...Germany, desirous of establishing a foothold in Latin America, increased its investments in Argentina...
...Copyright c 1970 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...imperialist hegemony, undermined the economic bases of the petitbourgeoisie...
...4 5 President Alvear (1922-28) was himself a prominent member of this Society...
...data Is taken from the book "El Fnanclamiento Eterno de Amenca Ltna...
...By 1921, two logias were functioning as pressure groups, and by 1922, when Alvear became president, the Circulo de Armas (a military association) was holding yearly luncheon meetings of officers from all over the country...
...It now started to turn toward a popular alliance whose basic axis could only be workingclass...
...With the bourgeoisie weakened, new groups vied for power...
...The resultant Roca-Runciman Treaty, signed in 1933, granted the British government import licenses for 85 percent of Argentine beef exports, while Argentina retained a mere 15 percent...
...Benito Mussolini - .5 TABLE 3: ANNUAL GROWTH RATE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT (1937-55) Foodstuffs Textiles Metals Vehicles and Machinery Electrical Equipment 1937-45 2.90 11.80 -0.06 5.00 1.06 1945-55 2.93 1.39 9.12 5.74 45.10 Source: Juan Carlos Esteban, Imperialismo y Desarrollo Economico (Buenos Aires: Editorial Palestra, 1961), Table 1, p. 19...
...This was the point of friction between the military and that regime...
...PERONIST DECLINE: THE COUP OF 1955 In 1950, Peron ran into a crisis over the lack of capital...
...In order to survive, small industrialists had to extract larger amounts of surplus from their workers or attach themselves to foreign-owned or controlled enterprises...
...of Chicago for the production of pharmaceuticals from the pancreas and pituitary gland of slaughtered cattle...
...companies accounted for 15.6 percent of sales in chemical products...
...Disoriented and frustrated in their experiences, the rank-and-file turned away from active political or trade-union participation...
...British coal became exempt from import duties and 1930 tariffs remained frozen for all other goods...
...Testa, from Chart 1, p. 6. 54, Foreign Capital in Latin America, (New York: United Nations, 1955) by Department of Economic and Social Affairs,_p...
...attempts to include the country in mutual defense agreements and bring the market under its domination proved to no avail...
...Previously, the hegemony of the Argentine bourgeoisie was dependent on its closeness to the world power which sustained it...
...14 U.S...
...Peter G. Snow, "Argentine Political Parties and the 1966 Revolution," (University of Iowa, 1968), prepared for conference on Political Parties and International Stability in Latin America, held at SUNY at Buffalo, March 21-22,.1968...
...Furthermore, the government devalued the peso and readjusted prices in favor of agricultural producers...
...Postin Paper on omen...
...The presence of Adalbert Kreiger Vasena -- director of National Lead Co...
...The relative autonomy previously enjoyed by the bourgeoisie gave way to clear cut satellization...
...Once it became clear to the Peronist working class that its economist demands could not be met by the regime, it repudiated Frondizismo...
...under its control, a faction in the labor movement...
...The unpaid debt Includes the authorized loans sinous disbursements, so that it comprises the disbursed and undisbursed portions of authorized loans...
...academic community into the "fourth armed service" of U.S...
...A national populist regime evolved wherein the diverse social classes found, through compromise, satisfaction of their perceived interests...
...Economically weakened by the depression, their political power rested cn the resumption of fraudulent elections and repression of the working class movement...
...For an in-depth study on the Argentine labor movement see Arberto Belloni, Del Anarquismo al Peronismo: Historia del Movimiento Obrero Argentino (Buenos Aires: Editorial A. Pena ilo, 1960...
...mark(ing) the beginning of the end for Frondizi who was deposed by the armed forces just eleven days later...
...Henry W. Lavrant, Factors Affecting Foreign Investments in Argentina (Menlo Park, Cal.:Stanford Research Institute, 1963), International Development Center, Investment Series-5, p. 29...
...TABLE 7 FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT TN ARGENTINA: 1929 - 1968 (in US$ millions) 1929 1935 1943 1950 1955 1963 19681 Britain 2 2,026 1,813 1,414 243 324 -- -United States 332 -- 380 356 447 829 1,148 Manufacturing 82 -- 101 146 230 454 729 Transport 148 -- 182 77 69 - Transport Petroleum 30 -- 39 48.5 -- -- -Trade 53 -- 27 35 45 38 57 Other 3 19 -- 31 83 28 336 362 1. preliminary figures...
...4 6 Later on, a decline in world grain prices and the U.S...
...Bourgeois democracy proved unable to cope with the deepening-class antagonisms and unable to secure the position of the ruling class...
...The oversized reserve labor force thus created weakened the bargaining position of the working class and allowed the bourgeoisie to curtail wage increases...
...the draft card became the voter-registration card...
...Peron's neutrality was mistaken for fascism, and thus came under the attack of the pro-democratic anti-fascist front...
...Now they joined to extra-legal forms of action...
...the external long-term public debt includes all debts with maturities oft more than one year contracted or guaranteed by official Instittlions n Latill America (Ineclulng local governments, public and state enter- prises, as well as central governments) and which are contracted and paid for abroe Excluded are loans ranted by foreln governments, but payable In local currency...
...Reliance on surplus capital from the export sector left industrialization dependent on that (agrarian)sector, and subject to fluctuations in the world market...
...See Table 8.) 10 TABLE No...
...However, with the incorporation of the Socialists into parliamentary politics during Radical rule, their position as a working class party began to deteriorate, their base became increasingly "middle class," and they suffered a succession of schisms...
...57 (Buenos Aires: lnstituto Torcuato Di Tella, Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, 1969), and from Zuniga...
...A rise in foreign investments, however, did not shake the economy out of its stagnation...
...IV, No...
...military aid...
...as well as obIlgatlols derived from notes drawn on tile IF...
...British and Argentine commercial interests resisted the pressure...
...This process was to continue through the next decade, becoming more accentuated as monopoly capita] seized the economy...
...Since domestic savings were insufficient to finance industrial growth (Argentina had not recovered from the post-War depletion of its monetary reserves), the government approved Law No...
...The military's economic plan was oriented to service the needs of U.S...
...92-93...
...6 8 During Frondizi's presidency, the denationalization of the Argentine economy and the satelization of the country's bourgeoisie showed a remarkable rise...
...wheat, 20 percent...
...As grains gave way to meats as the most important export commodity, it became increasingly clear that the Roca-Runciman Treaty assured only the stockmen of a steady market for their goods...
...In this regard, Radicalismo did not pose a threat to the dominant classes...
...Peron's intention was to forge a social pact between classes through the apparatus of the State...
...6 4 Finally, the bourgeoisie, hoping to accelerate the economy's shift toward U.S...
...From 1930 to 1935 high unemployment and repressive measures weakened the bargaining power of the labor unions...
...In addition, the army was put in charge of overseeing elections...
...This marked a return to a "limited democracy" form of government based on the restriction of popular participation...
...new loans and credits were extended...
...6 1 Banking and insurance, as well as the export of cereals came under state control, the latter through the creation of the Instituto Argentino de Promocion de Intercambio (IAPI...
...bi Up to 1962...
...Australia and Texas...
...23 Issue...merely an ethical and moral movement...
...Wnen in 1931 the Radicales found themselves excluded by the coup from the electoral process, they turned to an oppositional strategy of conspiratorial and coup d'etat meanderings...
...It could not challenge the interests of the hegemonic sector of the landowning bourgeoisie (tied to the world market) as long as the agro export sector remained the base of the Argentine economy...
...See Smith and Miquel Iurmis and Juan Carlos Portanteiro, "Crecimiento Industrial y Alianza de Clases en la Agrentina (1930-1940)," working paper No...
...In order to understand the military's role in the coup, some background information is needed...
...ECLA...
...foreign capital continued to penetrate and mold the economy...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, New York.provided services and technology which supported the export-import economy...
...At the same time the increasing unemployment, caused by the long periods of recession and by the installation of capital-intensive large enterprises with a high technological performance, eliminated the tradeunions' room for manoeuver and obliged them to move beyond mere economism by an increasing resort to political mobilizations of the working class...
...The middle sectors, increasingly lost their capacity to follow the traditional parliamentary route...
...this resulted in the massacre of 2000 persons by the military...
...The origins of the early labor movements and organizations were directly related to the economic expansion and the immigration process of the last quarter of the 19th century...
...In order to attract the unorganized new proletarian masses, parallel trade unions were established from the top down...
...IV, No...
...The establishment of the Industrial Bank in 1944, along with a strengthened system of controlled exchange, promoted light industry...
...The Klebergs of Texas are one cf the ;uost important world cattle--prcducing families, with ranches in Areentina...
...The most significant of these, in 1918, led to the formation of the International Socialist Party (a forerunner of the Argentine Communist Party) which joined the Third International.38 In as much as the workers' movement postulated a total transformation of society and through militant strikes threatened landowning and foreign capital interests, it was brutally suppressed...
...On the one hand, the anarchosyndicalists were influential in the militant strikes that preceded Irigoyen...
...the period was branded as the "Infamous Decade...
...The brain trusts created subtle and not-sosubtle techniques of couterinsurgency to meet the guerrilla and insurrectionary movements in rural and urban Latin America...
...For the industrial bourgeoisie, profits from their enterprises were enlarged and wages were stabilized through new controls (i.e., two year labor contracts, instead of the previous one year agreements, were instituted...
...Economist labor urban guerrilla warfare, to achieve national along leaders were displaced from the center of political with international liberation...
...The result was that it now started to become conscious of its own revolutionary goals...
...no one class or sector was able to emerge as nationally dominant...
...A new set of international contradictions emerged, placing the dominant segment of the Argentine bourgeoisie in conflict with the United States and in collusion with both the British and Axis markets...
...In order to regain access to British markets, Argentina was forced to submit to metropolitan capital interests...
...Besides vertically integrating Armour's meat packing operations and thus raising its profits, the agreement permitted the export of production in excess of Argentine consuption...
...LOS RADICALES LOS RADICALES LOS RADICALES LOS RADIC The landowning bourgeoisie, threatened in its ability to extract surplus capital, and supported by commercial and emergent industrial sectors, chose to consolidate its weakened political power by calling on the military...
...Led by General Uriburu, the 1930 military coup signalled the return of the landowning class to political power, but within the context of industrialization...
...Jaime Fuchs, Argentina: Su Desarrollo Capitalista (Buenos Aires: Editorial Cartago, 1965), p. 267...
...Its role as a socializing institution was welcomed as long as its political power remained in check...
...The government, led by a group of Army officers (the GOU), attempted to enlist the support of the existing trade unions -- CGT 1 and 2. CGT 2 refused to cooperate and was crushed while CGT 1 implemented the government's program...
...But, when Irigoyen returned to the presidency in 1928, he cut back on military appropriations and, ignoring the Circulo's candidate, appointed his own Minister of War...
...Their collective orientation was presented by Ambassador Stanton Griffis (1949-51) when he arrived in Buenos Aires: I will carry out ny assignment trom the point of view of a businessman...
...And many of the newly formed industrial elements culturally identified with and traced their descendence to Italy -- at the time ruled by Mussolini...
...By 1952...
...The promised release of imprisoned labor leaders, cessation of the previous regime's repressive policies and satisfaction of traditional trade union demands were forgotten...
...This systematic suppression of labor was a part of the continuing capitalist consolidation of the economy...
...ambassadors that have served in Argentina from 1939 to the present reveals that seven were career diplomats ad six were big businessmen...
...Public services, previously under the control of British, German or U.S...
...The limited nature of industrial growth did not conflict with the interest of the predominant segment of the landowning class, which sought to decrease imports to the level of exports...
...In the interior, Radicalismo was composed of those landowning sectors not admitted into their own provincial power structures...
...evolved into a regional strategy of liberation from U.S...
...The first workers' societies were established along immigrant-ethnic lines: French, German, Italian, Spanish...
...In the 1950's, however, the Church tried to establish...
...Robert J. Alexander, An Introduction to Argentina,(New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1969), p. 116...
...61...
...1, No...
...73 activity...
...At this time, banking was under national control with a minimal foreign participation (15.3 percent total capital, 19.1 percent of the loans and 18.3 percent of bank deposits...
...1, No...
...The process of economic denationalization, halted briefly during World War iI, was again proceeding apace...
...Taking place at a time when the landowning bourgeoisie suffered its hegemonic crisis, due to the rupture in the foreign sector, Peronism sought to create autonomous capitalist development...
...In Minimum contribution for one-year subscription: $5.00...
...To the extent that the new system proved unable to reabsorb these sectors in decline, the position of the middle sectors deteriorated...
...Other services 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.6 7.7 7.3 SOURCE: PEL, based on data published In the Yearbook of Current Accounts, for 1955 and 1957...
...See Part I, p. 6. 40...
...companies accounted for 22 percent of sales in vehicles and machinery...
...TABLE 6 ARGENTINA: IMPORTS OF GOODS (percentages) Consumer Raw Fuels & Capital Goods Materials Luoricants Goods Total 1937-39 40.2 19.9 8.2 31.7 100% 1947-49 21.2 24.4 10.6 43.8 100 1950 11.9 29.6 17.1 41.2 100 1957 7.7 46.0 23.1 23.3 100 1960 9.7 36.1 13.5 35.2 100 1965 9.2 53.2 10.2 23.3 100 Sources: Arthur P. Whitaker, The United States and Argentina (Cambridge, 1954), p. 198...
...This monopoly, reinforced by their control over the Argentine Rural Society, sustained the privileged position of the fatteners among the stockmen and made them the dominant sector of the landowning bourgeoisie...
...and roads were constructed, facilitating the urban-rural movement of goods...
...and, on the other hand, by the expansion of a domestic market...
...In 1940, German investments equaled $540 million,) 5 4 Argentina chose to remain neutral in order to take advantage of a temporary -- though limited -- margin of economic independence...
...company received $95 million in compensation...
...As bourgeois democracy failed to provide the conditions necessary for imperialist development, the Argentine armed forces increased in political power...
...Smith, pp...
...In 1962, "Peronists obtained almost a third of the total vote, outpolling the UCRI by about 700,000 and gained control of nine of the nation's 22 provinces including all-important Buenos Aires...
...Intense exploitation of the labor force permitted the ruling class to extract great amounts of surplus for investment in industry and services...
...The latter were especially hard hit and their economic decline was soon transformed into poltical opposition...
...The Peronist mass, in the face of a decline in its standard of living, turned against the government...
...On the one hand, the landowning bourgeoisie, best represented in the Navy, strongly opposed a rapprochment with the working class...
...Inflation was being controlled by wage freezes...
...ers had achieved the fewest economist demands...
...For example, Hipolite Irigoyen, the Radical president of Argentina from 1916 to 1922 and again from 1928 to 1930, was himself a rich Buenos Aires estanciero (landowner who sells his produce in the internal market...
...27, (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, 1967...
...monopoly expansion...
...Ferrer, p. 99...
...In the words of Peron himself, "We seek to suppress the struggles between classes, and to supplant them by a just agreement between workers and employers -- that is to say, the people -- under the sheltering justice that emanates from the State...
...presidents chose their successors...
...Much of the class analysis on roots and emergence of Peronist national populism was drawn from Juan Carlos Portantiero and Miguel Murmis, "El Movimiento Obrero en los Origenes del Peronismo," working paper No...
...invasion of the Dominican Republic precipitated the overthrow of the regime...
...Their tactics and strategy pression...
...112-3...
...At this point, Peronism had to choose between the various class interests now in open contradiction...
...Among these were the Alliance for Progress and the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD...
...In fact, the official industrial program was not opposed by any social group...
...This new central union was controlled by anarcho-syndicalist elements...
...Under this condition it was no longer possible to satisfy simultaneously both the economist demands of the working class and the capital-technological needs of the industrial bourgeoisie...
...Engulfed in the war, Britain's hold over the Argentine economy weakened precisely at a time when her foodstuff needs were critical...
...technology...
...As the cost of living rose (real wages were declining), the consumer market narrowed, reinforcing the stagnation of the economy (see Table 4...
...In addition, massive urban under and unemployment led to a contraction in the domestic market for manufactured goods requiring the bourgeoisie to export those goods to new markets, including Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay...
...Once its quest for "formal democracy" was satisfied, resolving its moral indignation over fraudulent elections and previous disenfranchisement, the movement failed to deal with either social or economic problems...
...The depletion of available surplus set the stage for the demise of Peronism...
...The party's heterogeneous class composition prevented the development of ideological and programmatic clarity...
...and on the board of ADELA Co., a multinational corporation -- as Minister of Economy, gave foreign capital confidence in the regime...
...IAPI was a state monopoly for the buying and selling of agricultural products...
...The economic direction pursued by Peronism after 1950 benefited all segments of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the working class and the middle sectors...
...capital-technological dependency, turned to the military for a coup d'etat...
...National populism was by now inimical to imperialism, By this time the industrial bourgeoisie's need for capital, capital goods and technology forced it to submit tO the new metropolis...
...This factor opened up the possibilities for a national populist regime...
...8 ARGENTINA: EXTERNAL LONG-TERM PUBLIC DEBT AT YEAR'S END (a) (In US$ millions) Indices o Unpaid Payments Interest Year unpaid balance bsaloaces World Bank World Bank 1955 100.0 600 - - 1956 114.3 685.5 14.4 3.4 1957 178.8 1,072.8 52.7 20 1958 229.2 1,375.1 92.7 32 1959 248.8 1,492.6 118 43 1960 246.4 1,478.1 203.9 50 1961 310.4 1,862.6 194.5 57.4 1962 (b) 348.7, 2,092.1 203.2 74.6 1963 PEL 343.8 2,002.8 182.2 67.0 1964 BCRA 318.0 1,908.1 lc) 173.5 d) 39.6 (dal 1965 ,, 299.1 1,794.3 140.5 (d) 30.1 (d} (a) According to World Bank norms...
...The working class movement was repressed...
...Some did both...
...Subscription price: $5 per year for individuals...
...The State's intervention for increased real wages and better working conditions solidified a majority of the trade unions' support...
...The exhaustion of foreign exchange reserves, accumulated during World War II, was accentuated by the world-wide recession of 1949...
...These disadvantageous arrangements, as well as strong competition even within the British market, forced the Argentine bourgeoisie to gravitate toward the Axis market...
...1 Che...
...When the military coup occurred, their passive response insured them a minor role in the post-Peron governments...
...These obstacles were reinforced at the Ottowa Conference where the United Kingdom accorded preferential treatment to its dominions -- Canada, Australia and New Zealand...
...However, the plan backfired when, in 1962, the ruling UCRI party lost most of the state and congressional elections to Justicialista candidates...
...Ortiz, Vol...
...Deltec, another multinational firm, recently bought out International Packers Limited (a meat producer) and has on its board the Klebergs of the notorious King Ranch...
...2, July 1964...
...An increased and stabilized world demand for chilled beef gave them a monopoly control over sales to the export market...
...1935 2.3 - 18% 1966 374.3 + 32 % 1940 2.6 + 13 % 1967 483.7 + 29 % 1945 3.5 + 34% 1968 562.1 + 16% 1950 8.6 + 146 %8 trating capital and technology, assumed an extraordinary importance in the world economy...
...4 3 The trend toward capital concentration and centralization in the Litoral carried over into the financial and commercial sectors...
...At the same time, foreign firms sought to integrate nationally owned firms into their line of production...
...The imperialist role of the IMF is described in Hector Melo and Israel Yost, "Funding the Empire, Part II: The Multinational Strategy," NACLA Newsletter, Vol...
...By 1930, the military was neither foreign to politics nor inexperienced in its role as a praetorian guard...
...The Catholic Church -- a pillar of Argentine society -came into open hostility with the regime in 1954, further undermining its base of power...
...This process of industrialization redefined the nature of Argentine dependency and spurred a regrouping of social forces, leading to a new configuration of class alliances, fusions and contradictions...
...During those years the surge in manufacturing was accompanied by a corresponding development of basic industry controlled by Argentine nationals...
...Their leader, General Aramburu, who had been president of the provisional government from 1955 to 1958,was responsible for the assassination of numerous Peronist labor leaders...
...In the 1940's and 1950's, six also served in Cuba or had important business connections with that country...
...4 7 THE 30's: REGROUPING OF SOCIAL FORCES AROUND INDUSTRIAL UNDERDEVELOPMENT The general breakdown in international trade, the establishment of tariff barriers in metropolitan countries, and the emergence of the United States as an exporter of wheat elbowed Argentine exports out of their traditional markets...
...From March to April of 1963 both factions, the azules (developmentists) and the colorados (gorilas, i.e., staunchly anti-Peronists and right-wing) , vied for State control...
...13-14...
...The value of the peso consequently declined from 28 to 140 to the dollar...
...This was an extension of Plan Conintes, the domestic component of the Argentine military's overall counter-revolutionary strategy...
...Bagu, p. 74...
...3 4 These elements of the dominant PART 2 classes in the original Buenos Aires leadership of the UCR, however, were not closely tied to the world market...
...companies accounted for 18.8 percent of Argentine corporate sales in foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco...
...Brazil...
...Moreover, fascism fitted the Argentine bourgeoisie's ideological needs of nationalism and their approach to the working class...
...Disturbed by Radicalismo's inability to curtail worker, student and popular strikes, the coup's ideology was influenced by the progress of Fascism in Italy and the Prussian training of its army cadres...
...In the Capital Federal alone, 36 banks held 79.5% of the total capital, 95.7% of loans and 84.7% of deposits...
...At this point, splits within the bourgeoisie became more important than conflicts between classes...
...The meatpacking industry, which had expanded considerably since 1902, was a prime example...
...Imports of manufactured goods diminished significantly (from 39.1 percent to 11.8 percent of total imports between 1945 and 1952), while imported capital goods rose from 13.3 percent to 41.5 percent of total imports between 1945 and 1950...
...Illia's curtailment of foreign investments and annullment of the 1958 oil contracts elicited pressures from the United States...
...FRONDIZI: THE FAILURE OF LEGITIMIZATION In 1958, national elections brought to power the Union Civica Radical Intransigente (UCRI), a faction of the old Radical party (UCR...
...Benito Marianetti, Argentina: Realidad Z Perspectivas (Buenos Aires: Editorial Platina, 1964), p. 347...
...and 68.8 percent of the establishments with 78.7 percent of the workers were found in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and the Capital Federal...
...5 2 As the capitalist mode of production strengthened itself through industrial capital accumulation, in and around Buenos Aires, the demand for labor expanded...
...6 2 The public debt was stabilized and reduced through a favorable balance of trade...
...of_the Illia government, the political life span of the regime expired...
...penetration broke down...
...In 1946, 29.1 percent of the industrial establishments, employing 10.7 percent of the industrial workers, were concentrated in the Capital Federal...
...Prior to 1930, European immigration, concentrated in the cities, provided commerce and industry with a labor force...
...Laclau, p. 15...
...See an article in three parts by Charles J.V...
...Law 14,780 put foreign capital on an equal standing with national capital, permitted the unrestricted repatriation of profits and granted customs franchises for the import of capital goods...
...Fatteners purchased the bred cattle and, being closer to the ports of exit, sold their livestock directly to the meat packers...
...The high concentration in these industries provided the economic base for the industrial bourgeoisie (59 firms controlled 50 percent of industrial production in 1954).63 But after 1950, these same industries became increasingly dependent on U.S...
...Annual report of the BCRA for other years...
...of Commerce, Survy of Current Business, periodic issues...
...and meat, over 50 percent...
...Government forces were called out, and for a whole week, the strikes were forcibly put down...
...The revitalization of the Argentine economy would occur within the framework of U.S...
...Argentina, increasingly dependent on the United States for capital goods and technology, was placed in competition with Brazil for the role of sub-metropolitan power in the chain of imperialist exploitation...
...The "Tragic Week" of January 1919 best illustrates Radicalismo's anti-labor stance...
...companies accounted for 19.2 percent of sales in electrical equipment 69 MILITARY RULE: THE END OF BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY The count of 1962 brought to the fore the divisions within the upper class with regard to the working class whose identification with Peronism still remained high...
...In assuming State control, the armed forces filled a class vacuum and became the bulwark of the system...
...The predominance of large corporations and the monopoly control of markets worked against the development of small-scale industries...
...Military Forces Abroad...
...UCRI's electoral program was tailored to meet the demands of the Argentine bourgeoisie for the capital, capital goods and technology needed to revitalize the nation's economy...
...4 1 The economy continued to specialize in the export of meats and cereals...
...This class collaboration was personified through the mediating role of The Leader and took place within an urban context...
...Worker exploitation and rising employment increased worker demands and labor union expansion...
...hegemony, and military and failure of traditional forms opened people up to ex- police programs (such as AID's Office of Public periment with new forms of struggle...
...Relinquishing any claim to legitimate rule, it declared a state of siege and carried out wide repressive sweeps against militant labor and leftwing leaders and organizations...
...From then on, the rapid monopolization of industry, under further U.S...
...In addition, the capitalist growth which took place during the first war years precipitated contradictions within the upper class...
...upper class-- not one was a labor leader, professional, black, a woman, Chicano or Puerto Rican...
...On the one hand, industry needed a domestic market in which to place its manufactured goods...
...The dynamic of the economy was defined, on the one hand, by the growth of the industrial sector which was strongly dependent on the availability of surplus capital from the export sector...
...7 211 TABLE No...
...This will be my function...
...303-5...
...These requests were stimulated by competition with other Latin American powers, particularly Brazil...
...5 5 Argentine neutrality, in contrast to the proU.S...
...See Part I, pp...
...companies also showed a marked control over the domestic market of basic and manufacturing goods...
...goods...
...Guido Di Tella and Manuel Zymelman, Las Etapas12 del esarrollo Economico Argentino (Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 1967), p. 84...
...c) The difference of USS 75 million with the amount of long-term debts published In PEL No...
...6 / October, 1970 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August, when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, New York 10027...
...6 But the ability of Peronism to sustain the equilibrium of social forces rested on the continuation of prosperous economic conditions...
...In so doing, they finally went beyond the limits of liberalism and began to comprehend the historical meaning of Peronism...
...On the other, the Socialist Party, founded in 1896, espoused economist and reformist politics...
...The integrated under U.S...
...His ability to implement the nationalist program of the UCRP was seriously hindered by his limited base of power...
...United Nations, Economic Survey of Latin America: 1957 and 1965 (New York, 1959 and 1967) p. 106 and-p...
...When the military seized State power in 1943, the coup did not, as in 1930, signal the return of the landowning bourgeoisie as a ruling class...
...This contradiction was aggravated by the law of exchange control introduced by the Central Bank, which made available to the industrial sector foreign exchange funnelled out from the agro-export sector...
...Foreign firms demanded a stabilized economy and the government complied: wage freezes were instituted, strikes were banned and the currency stablized after an initial devaluation...
...a faction of the old Radical Party in opposition the the UCRIS' to rule...
...Though Radicalismo defined itself in political opposition to the previous foreign-oriented landowning regime, it remained The NACLA NEWSLETTER is published ten times a year by the North American Congress on Latin America...
...Coupled with a growing imperialist economic integration of "developing" economies came increased domination over the dependent countries' social and political systems...
...However, the world economic crisis, and the emergence of the United States and Canada as exporters of wheat, affected the agricultural sector...
...companies controlled 330 million and British companies 228 million cubic meters of volume in freezing chambers and meat deposits, while Argentine companies held only 86,000.40 A year later, a new meat pool gave the United States control over 54.9 percent of meat exports, the United Kingdom 35.1 percent, and Argentina 10 percent...
...For example, the state monopolies decreased their prices they paid for commodities, including beef...
...Such monopolies centralized the buying of foodstuffs and therefore regulated prices so that the State took most of the surplus from agricultural trade for reinvestment in the industrial sector...
...The Axis, itself in competition with other European and U.S...
...This development could not have occured had the government opposed it...
...The foreign-oriented landowning bourgeoisie still maintained a margin of political power through a conservative majority in the Senate...
...When ITT's holdings were expropriated, the U.S...
...and U.S...
...In Buenos Aires, a metalworkers' strike at the Pedro Vasena plant (mixed Anglo-Argentine capital) became the nucleus of a series of solidarity strikes throughout Argentina...
...Includes mining and smelting for 1929-1950 period...
...As quoted in George I. Blanksten, Peron's rgentina, (Chicago, [Chicago, 1953] pp...
...Throughout the thirties, the British-oriented segments of the ruling class had the upper hand...
...Following a period of capitalist growth based on intense labor exploitation, the working class, systematically excluded from political power, found its demands unfulfilled, its experiences in struggle frustrated...
...New forms of struggle emerged in May of 1969 during the spontaneous popular uprising in the cities As the economics of the Rio de Plata Zone are of Rosario, Santa Fe, Cordoba, Tucuman, etc...
...Britain feared that if Argentina were Sefores: Es tiempo de decir que la policia debe ser no solamente respetada sino tambi6n honrada...
...3 7 Two political currents provided leadership and direction to the working class...
...3 5 Moreover, the three Radical presidents submitted themselves to the institutional apparatus of the liberal-landowning state...
...The Communist and Socialist parties, predominant in the leadership of the CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajadores), failed to introduce new forms of struggle...
...65 From 1955 to 1958, the provisional military government partially implemented what was known as the "Prebisch Plan," a strategy geared to the elimination of those industries with a low rate of capital accumulation and productivity and a high labor concentration...
...Political parties were on he decline...
...This lack of available capital necessarily constrained export-related industrial development, and contracted the capacity of Argentina to import manufactured goods...
...To this end, the State adopted economic measures for strengthening the development of the industrial bourgeoisie...
...The consequent decline in productivity made it impossible to satisfy consumer demand...
...2. Years are 1931, 1934, 1945, 1949, and 1955...
Vol. 4 • October 1970 • No. 6
