7 The Labour Movement

and the Historical

Conjuncture: Cordoba,
1917-21
Ofelia Pianetto

Around the world, the years 1917 to 1921 were marked by profound
political convulsion, provoking the Bolshevik triumph in Russia. The
unrest took place in the context of recomposition and adjustment of
capitalist economies during and after the First World War. Latin
America, whose economies were heavily dependent on international
markets, was not immune. Labour movements emerged in Brazil,
Mexico and Peru. In Argentina the distemper flared up during the
first openly elected government of Hipolito Yrigoyen. The 'Tragic
Week' of 1919 marked the high point of agitation in this conjuncture.
This chapter analyses the conflicts in the city of Cordoba, in a regional
and national context.

ASPECTS OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

The province of Cordoba took part in Argentina's social and economic

change starting around 1870. While the railway network spread to the
province, bringing the region into the national market, southern
counties were colonised and agriculture expanded. Helped by geo-
graphy which made it the hub of trade for the north and centre of the
country, the province's capital responded with intense commercial
activity.
Population grew: in 1869 the city of Cordoba's population num-
bered 34469, rising to 66247 in 1888, falling in the wake of the
economic crisis of 1890 to 54 763 in 1895. Thereafter population

142
 Ofelia Pianetto 143

growth was sustained: 92 776 in 1906, and 134935 in 1914. Immigra-

tion and natural population growth account for the dramatic increase.'
The settlement of immigrants in Cordoba was lower than in Buenos
Aires or Rosario. Immigrants accounted for only 11.3 per cent of the
city's population in 1895, 13.8 per cent in 1906, and 22.6 per cent in
1914.
Though less significant than in other Argentine cities, Cordoba's
foreign-born were important protagonists in the city's modernisation.
The local business class was dominated by Italians and especially
Spaniards, who built up local commerce, finance and industry. Big
importing merchants who extended their networks throughout the
country's north-west, were the first to achieve high economic status.
In industry, Catalan immigrants modernised techniques of production
and diversified into the footwear (the most important manufacturing
industry of the city), paper, match, and foodstuffs sectors. 2
From an ideological perspective, these immigrants played the role of
'national' businessmen: doing exactly what native-born capitalists did
in dealing with workers. One owner of a shoe factory, Catalan-born
Pedro Farga, observed in the midst of the first strike in his plant in
1904:

Those who started the strike thought that we would give in, given
the scant pretensions of factory-owners. In this fashion they would
drag the workers into unions, to enrol the proletariat of Cordoba
into the ranks of the rebels, which have for some time been
hampering the country's economic development. We are not dis-
posed to give them the pleasure, even though that would involve
sacrificing our interests. 3

This footwear-artisan believed that 'Argentina is a country with

possibilities for everyone.' In twenty years he managed to amass a
fortune which later bought him a house in Paris and paid for his
children to be educated in Switzerland. He was the model of work-
ethic and discipline who, as Thompson argued, provided an educa-
tional example in the process of disciplining the labour force. 4
For this group of Spanish immigrants, economic success was
normally accompanied by integration into Cordoba's traditional
society through marriage and new family links, as the merger of
Narciso and Antonio Nores into the native elite exemplified. But
perhaps the best example is Rogelio and Heriberto Martinez who
became rich importers during the first decade of this century and who
144 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

through marriage acquired considerable political influence in the city

and province. 5
The ease with which immigrants merged into the social and political
power nexus suggests the weakness of Cordoba's traditional dominant
class, which was poor (though well-educated) on the eve of the agro-
export boom. Later, their control of the State would furnish them with
handsome returns. The native elite gave its 'political talent' to the
cause of constructing a national State and an oligarchic political
regime. Its liberal wing, led by Del Viso, Miguel Juarez Celman,
Marcos Juarez and Ramon J. Carcano, was responsible for the secular
reforms in Cordoba after 1880. 6
Informal channels also allowed immigrants to enter the political
arena. In 1891, Rogelio Martinez was detained for belonging to a
section of the Union Civica which tried, as it had in Buenos Aires
during the 1890 Revolution, to overthrow the 'juarista' regime in
Cordoba. During these years, the Union Civica of Cordoba brought
together militant sectors of the Catholic church and worked closely
with the local bishop to uproot the liberal policies of the government.
Indeed, religious issues divided the waters in Cordoba's politics. The
division between clericalism and anti-clericalism affected natives as
well as immigrants. The hispanic political culture was shared by both
locals and Spanish immigrants, and offered another channel for
integration: 'caciquismo espafiof reinforced 'caudillismo criollo'. While
it is difficult to gauge the influence of the liberal-clerical divide among
Spaniards, there was no doubt that immigration from the 'mother-
land,' Spain, helped to revitalise Cordoban clericalism.
Political parties were also rent by the conflict between liberals and
clerics. After the electoral reform of 1912, which made the vote secret,
mandatory and universal (among men), political participation spread
and modern political parties grew. Within the two main parties, the
Radical Party and the Democratic Party of Cordoba, cross-alliances
began to emerge. Liberals in the Democratic Party were linked to the
old positivist bent of the traditional elite, while Radical liberals
exhibited more populistic tendencies. Some even drifted toward
social-democracy. 7
The Catholic church actively supported clerical militancy, especially
when it came to education. Between the end of the nineteenth century
and 1915, ten confessional schools opened, and five new religious
orders were established in the city - a sizeable amount for a city of
135 000 which already housed numerous orders and schools dating
back to the colonial era. 8
 Ofelia Pianetto 145

UNION CULTURE AND PRACTICE

The particularity of Argentina's economic and social transformations

left its mark on Cordoban and national labour organisations. Germa-
ni's concept of 'mobilisation' helps to understand important aspects of
the early experiences of workers in Cordoba after 1880.9 There are
three components to the first stage of ·mobilisation':

(I) the supply of wage labour for extensive agriculture which

determined overall demand for labour, was fed by domestic and
international migration, especially of peasants;
(2) the seasonal nature of the harvest induced workers to live for the
rest of the year in the cities where they worked in construction,
transportation, ports, public works and commerce;
(3) the absence of ethnic, artisanal or corporative structures which
might have resisted the penetration of wholly capitalist relations
of production within Argentina's traditional society, permitted a
flourishing labour market. 10

Geographic and occupational flows of this considerable mass of

native and foreign workers was possible because they were 'mobilised':
uprooted from their traditional peasant cultural origins. In the wake of
this cultural uprooting, newcomers to the agro-export labour market
began to reflect on their new situation, and develop new cultures. This
new cultural phenomenon, complex and multifaceted, sprang funda-
mentally from an urban experience. 11
Union practice was one aspect of this new culture. Beginning in
1890, but above all after the turn of the century, a combative labour
movement emerged. Infused mainly with anarchist tendencies, unions
grew in the port-cities of Buenos Aires and Rosario. New labour
organisations evolved while social classes were not yet clearly demar-
cated from each other. Cloudy class relations did not prevent open
confrontations, and the frequent violence reflected the disillusionment
of seeing immigrant dreams of 'making it in America' dashed.
Until 1910, the union movement gained strength. But rising
unemployment and tough repression against anarchism in 1910
staunched militancy. In 1917, matters swung in favour of unions
again. Between 1917 and 1921 the agro-export sector was beset with
unparalleled disputes with unions. In these years, the Socialist Party
became a force to be reckoned with in Buenos Aires, and revolutionary
146 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

syndicalism which espoused direct negotiation with management and

the State, displaced anarchism as the chief ideology among unions. 12
In Cordoba, developments followed the rest of the country, but with
their own colour. The most important factor setting Cordoba apart
was that the majority of Cordoban workers were native-born. Mobi-
lisation in the provincial capital had brought peasants down from the
north and north-west of the province, as well as from the neighbouring
provinces of La Rioja, Catamarca and San Luis. They came as
seasonal migrants for the harvest in agrarian south, staying on in
the city afterwards. 13
Cordoban workers launched their own union movement, with
unique features. The Club Vorwarts, which operated in the city in
1890 and 1891, tried to organise immigrants, but folded in the wake of
the economic crisis and the drop in the local population, leaving the
memory of a May Day commemoration with a musical band and red
flags in the central square of the city. In 1895, the poet Leopoldo
Lugones helped to start the Workers' International Socialist Centre
(CSOI). Almost at the same time, members of the CSOI set up the
Cosmopolitan Society of Bakers (SCOP) - the city's first union.
Thereafter, socialism because the principal political influence on
Cordoban unions. Socialists' rivals were not anarchists, but Catholic
organisations which the church established to check workers' radica-
lisation. The Circle of Catholic Workers and the Association of
Josephines included members of the traditional dominant class who
were active in Church circles, as well as some successful immigrants
involved in the same organisations.
From the turn of the century, following developments at the
national level, worker-management disputes intensified in Cordoba,
frequently culminating in the formation of local unions. In many of
these strikes, worker-Socialist activists were dispatched from Buenos
Aires to assist in the creation of unions. 14
The panorama of unions reflected the productive activity of the city:
bakers, printers, shop-attendants, footwear-workers, coach-drivers,
masons, carpenters, cigarette-makers, tinsmiths, cart-builders, noo-
dle-makers, tailors and railway employees all had unions. These
unions held a general meeting in 1904 and voted to join the national
socialist General Union of Workers (UGT) which was waging
ideological war with the anarchists. 15 Cordoban workers thus helped
to shape the emerging civil society and the process of national
'modernisation', while their conflicts and claims made clear their
intentions to affect social decisions.
 Ofelia Pianetto 147

The accelerated pace of events giving birth to the trade union

movement, found fertile ground in long working days, low wages
and punitive fines, professional discipline, and the erosion of control
over the use of workers' time. The operation of unions allowed
workers to acquire experiences which eventually led them to transcend
strictly economic claims. Unions offered a context in which workers
generated a new culture within capitalist society. The task of organis-
ing and running a union requires reflective learning, and acquired skill
in collective decision-making. On the other hand, general assemblies -
which were a common practice in these years - were exercises in direct
democracy. Without mediating levels of representation, workers
became aware of their rights and the power of social and political
participation. 16 Knowledge and experience of union practices were
passed on to younger workers. The acquisition of a distinctive worker
tradition took shape quickly: less than fifty years later some dimen-
sions of this new culture came to fruition.
Cordoban unions were largely led by Socialists who advocated an
evolutionary and reformist road to social change. In practical terms,
Socialists placed emphasis on educating workers. Libraries, discus-
sions, popular pamphlets all created a knowledge aimed especially at
workers. In the words of one worker, a baker:
The union was like an academy for me because I learned many
things ... [as the secretary of meetings] I wrote long proceedings,
like the national Congress, which I liked. In spite of the fact that I
had poor writing - because with 4th grade you can't have too much
- I improved because I paid attention. After that I made manifestos
- I have sown Cordoba with manifestos! - during strikes. My
manifestos tried to explain, but were very simple, didn't have
anything about culture because I didn't have any of that, but I
learned ... 17
Union solidarity also generated an ethic:
It was prohibited to offer yourself to the bakeries! It was the biggest
insult you could tell a compaflero. You are an ofertado because we
should get work through a strict list, not just during strikes, but all
the time ... 18
Workers saw themselves as members of a different culture. Violence
was common in labour-management relations because 'we saw
employers as enemies; we didn't go to ask for things, and we saw
them as those who denied us everything, and we had to use force'. 19
148 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

Catholic organisations challenged the Socialists in an attempt to

erode the polarisation of cultures. The founding of the footwear-
workers' union in 1904 saw the two groups clash. In one of the
factories, a group of workers tried to press their claims through the
Circle of Catholic Workers (COC) in which they were already
members. When two Socialist activists, Galleti and Gregorio Pinto
intervened in one COC gathering, the assembly split, the defectors
forming a union of their own and declaring a strike to press claims
directly to the employer. According to one worker, 'we all have strong
arms to work another way, before we go pounding on the doors of
those who try to exploit our religious feelings' 20
Catholic organisations did not get a toe-hold. Paternalist depen-
dence among traditional sectors and religion in general - which was a
stronger force among native workers than among immigrants -
became a private concern, and was less manipulable.
Between 1907 and 1916 strike action decreased in Cordoba. Periodic
unemployment and repression at the hands of employers led to the
collapse of most Cordoban unions. Only those with experienced
leadership, like the coach-drivers, tailors, and bakers survived.
Anarchism was otherwise a dead-letter iri Cordoba, except among
bakers, who formed one of the city's most militant unions. The
Socialist Party meanwhile, used May-day ceremonies, lectures, and
newspapers to help union leaders. These leaders would play a vital role
in the outbursts of 1917-21. At the same time, the local leadership of
the PS was in the hands of union leaders, unlike Buenos Aires where
the Party was dominated by middle class intellectuals and profes-
sionals.

THE CONJUNCTURE, 1917-21

These five years represented the high-water mark of social conflict

within the agro-export structure. It coincided with political opening (in
1916) and with the democratic student movement for university reform
of 1918. The overlap created the conditions for an immensely complex
historical conjuncture.
By 1917, a hard core of workers had accumulated a great deal of
experience in solidarity and organisation. This experience was not
needed for nearly a decade, but it was used to good advantage in a new
round of union practice. In the short run, the employment situation
had improved, since the country had begun experiencing net out-
 Ofelia Pianetto 149

migration since 1913. Real wages had also eroded because of both
unemployment before the war and the rising price of imported
consumer goods during the war-years. A rising cost of living,
depressed wages, and shrinking unemployment as wartime demand
picked up, created the classic conditions for worker militancy and a
struggle over the division of the economic surplus.
In 1916 naturalised workers voted freely and secretly in presidential
elections for the first time. Indeed, electoral reform in 1912 was the
product of worker unrest since the turn of the century, and armed
revolts led by the Union Civica Radical (UCR). Germani described the
post-1916 period as widened political participation, though not total
participation since most foreign-born were excluded. The election
served to broaden the legitimacy of the political system, and at the
same time increased the population's social and political expectations.
Democratisation was another factor encouraging workers to push for
a larger social role - which necessarily became political in Cordoba
because a high proportion of workers were native-born and partici-
pated in the elections.
Likewise, the democratic student movement for university reform
sprang from constant pressure from middle-class sectors and high
social mobility since the beginning of the century, creating pent-up
frustration. The University of Cordoba, a bastion of power and
resistance of conservative Catholics, preserved an anachronistic and
elitist organisation which was suddenly exposed to the democratic
winds of 1916.
Finally, the ideological climate was electrified by the Russian
Revolution of 1917, whose effects were felt in Cordoba with increas-
ing challenges to the system, the formation of an International
Socialist Party (PSI, later Communist) which split from the Socialist
Party supported in Cordoba by the bulk of trade union leaders.
The national railway strike of September 1917 ignited the conflict.
The strike affected the whole spectrum of unions, bringing them
together and raising the pitch of their claims. A strike wave spread
across urban and rural landscape. In this context, Cordoban workers
formed the Local Workers' Federation (FOL) - the first trade union
central in the city. The FOL brought together fifteen unions, from
waiters to painters, including the workers of the Central Argentine and
the Central Cordoba railways. 21
Tramway workers, employees of the city electrical power plant
(owned by a US firm), and municipal garbage collectors followed
the railway workers to claim higher wages, an eight-hour day and
150 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

recognition of their union - standard demands of the day. Striker-

violence soon became a daily occurrence. In spite of union leaders'
urges to keep peaceful, bombs were placed under telegraph posts and
rails, while trams driven by strike-breakers were assaulted and garbage
carts overturned. The FOL organised a public demonstration in
support of strikers, while union leaders met to discuss forms of
solidarity with the strikers. Leaders were also on the look-out to
gauge the level of popular support to see whether there were grounds
for calling a general strike, which could boost the FOL's profile
immensely. The demonstration on 30 September was well attended.
The crowd was addressed by local Socialist and union leaders. But the
general strike idea went nowhere.
But the First World War sowed the seeds of discord within the
labour movement. The Socialist union leaders in Cordoba formed a
bloc within the PS leadership, and defended a position of strict
neutrality during the War. Yet the parliamentary wing of the Party
wanted to break diplomatic relations with Germany and the Austro-
Hungarian Empire. The split was aggravated when union leaders
declared their support for the Bolshevik cause in 1917, paving the
way for their separation in January 1918 to form the PSI.
Positions on the war also divided union leaders from the progressive
liberal movement in Cordoba who wanted a partisan position on the
War. Represented by the 'Cordoba fibre' association, and led by left-
leaning intellectuals such as Deodoro Roca and Saul Taborda, local
Radical Party activists and Socialists, this group exercised much
influence over the student movement. Notwithstanding the differ-
ences, workers and students would soon be able to join together to
occupy the streets of Cordoba.
In early 1918, events began to unfold faster. The Pro-Reform
Committee of students declared a strike for 31 March after University
authorities rejected their claims. But when authorities shut down the
University before the strike began, students appealed to President
Yrigoyen. The President sent Nicolas Matienzo, who proposed a series
of reforms. In May, the faculty was allowed to vote for the first time
for deans and vice-deans, while 15 June was appointed as the day for
the University Assembly to elect a new rector. The reform candidate
was Enrique Martinez Paz, but a local alliance of Catholics and
conservatives convinced the undecided to vote for Antonio Nores,
influential leader of the ultra-conservative political group, 'Corda
Frates'. Students responded by invading and tearing up the Assemb-
ly. As the Cordoban student unrest became national news, notables
 Ofelia Pianetto 151

such as Juan B. Justo, Jose Ingenieros and Alfredo Palacios became

involved. On 21 June Deodoro Roca's Manifesto Liminar de Ia
Reforma was issued, and on 23 June, the Socialist Congressman
Alfredo Palacios led a march of about 10 000 people in favour of
university reform. The climate of agitation intensified by the day.
Defenders of the status quo supporting Nores, replied to the calls of
reformists with a counter-demonstration while the Bishop of Cordoba
denounced the anti-clerical and anti-Catholic nature of the reform
movement.
Unswayed, students held the first congress of the Argentine
University Federation in July, amid attacks by conservatives. Their
list of claims included important measures to democratise the Uni-
versity: equal and tripartite University government by professors,
students and alumni; a system of regular and open competition for
hiring professors; free attendance at classes; and University involve-
ment in social causes. By September, still locked out of the University,
the students called on President Yrigoyen to intervene again. The delay
in naming the new intervenor (the national Education Minister,
Salinas) and his postponed arrival gave way to more unrest. On 9
September, students took the University by force, only to be ousted by
the police and army. In the end, Salinas was able to douse the flames,
and the rebuilding of the University administration with the naming of
Eliseo Soaje as Rector allowed enough reforms to put an end to this
phase of the student reform movement. 22
For their part, workers inaugurated 1918 by shutting down the city's
main flour mill. Rejecting their demands, the employers began
replacing workers. One group of strikers attacked flour carts, spoiling
the product and stabbing the horses. Only the intervention of the
provincial Minister of Interior (Radical), put an end to the conflict.
Workers got their wage increase and eight-hour day.
The triumph of the millers paved the way for one of the most
important strikes of the era: the Footwear-workers' Union (SOC) led a
dispute that lasted through July and August 1918 which coincided with
the peak of the university reform movement. The strike quickly spread
from one shoe factory to all the footwear factories in the city. The SOC
was in a constant state of alert to stimulate but control strike action. In
mid-August, the employers association, the Union of Footwear
Industrialists, declared a lock-out. Workers responded by preparing
a 48-hour general strike for 2 and 3 September, and holding meetings
with the FOL. A demonstration of support on 1 September was
addressed by Deodoro Roca, and backed by the Student Federation.
152 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

The following general strike completely shut down the city. Attempts
to distribute bread and milk were sabotaged, and demonstrations saw
police and strikers come to blows, leading to woundings and arrests.
When employers refused to budge, the FOL ordered the general strike
to continue indefinitely. When an agreement was finally reached on 5
September, the strike was lifted.
Cooperation between students and workers which began in 1918,
continued into the 'epoch of peace'. They helped each other in modest
ways and students led discussions in unions. Events flared up again in
the wake of the 'Tragic Week' of January 1919 in Buenos Aires. The
provincial government feared that similar events would spread to
Cordoba and warned of a 'maximalist' plot. The police protected
arms deposits, and arrested a growing number of union leaders. The
FOL protested that 'the massacre by the police in the Federal Capital
and [the FOL] is in solidarity with the decided and brave attitude of
the workers and will do what it can to make the solidarity effective. 23
This solidarity led to a general strike, supported by the University
Federation of Cordoba, on 13 January 1919. Hardly a shop opened or
a public vehicle moved. In the streets, demonstrations were broken up
by police, leading to many arrests.
The armed right-wing Catholic group, the Patriotic League, had
already spread from Buenos Aires to Cordoba, and resolved to deal
with the 'maximalists' either on its own or with the help of the police.
The League organised a demonstration against the actions of workers,
and while passing by the offices of the liberal newspaper, La Voz del
Interior, shots were exchanged between League members and employ-
ees of the newspaper. Police surrounded the offices, and the reformist
leader, Deodoro Roca, was arrested, along with the Radical provincial
Deputy Lencinas and the philosopher, Carlos Astrada. The clash
between clerics and anti-clerics hit the streets.
The year 1919 was marked by sustained union agitation, peaking in
early November, when municipal employees, electrical workers of the
Luz y Fuerza union, and tanners struck. One typographical worker
called on his fellow-workers to join ranks with strikers:

In the present circumstances, when the proletariat lifts its voice in

just protest against the eternal enemy, capital, while this city of
Cordoba suffers the lives of Indians due to the unexplainable actions
of a small group who forces the workers out on strike, while
tramway workers, tanners and other unions have paralysed their
work in defiance of their arrogant and selfish bosses, forces the
 Ofelia Pianetto 153

typographical workers to adopt long-range solutions to deal with

the events surrounding us, and in the face of which we cannot
remain indifferent. 24
Negotiations between tramways workers and the American-owned
company collapsed and the company threatened to replace all striking
workers. Other unions did what they could in aid of strikers, and the
FOL issued a manifesto, calling for a general strike for 14 November.
Massively supported, the strike prompted large street demonstrations
in which the Students' Federation took part. According to the Catholic
paper, Los Principios, from the rostrums, 'maximist doctrines was
espoused and a 'holy war' was announced against capital, religion, and
society' ?5
The police harshly repressed, detaining union leaders, closing local
branches, and attacking picket lines, leading to over a hundred arrests.
The provincial government accused the agitation of being:
instigated and directed by foreign elements, known agitators who
pronounce daily the social revolution in the country and support the
general strike across the Republic ... [therefore] they constitute a
threat to the institutions, life and property of residents. 26
The city's Chamber of Commerce offered its aid to provincial and
municipal authorities to maintain order and keep public services.
Automobiles and horses were put at the disposal of the police, while
money was set aside to pay extra police costs.
On the seventh day of the strike (21 November), workers and police
clashed violently again, leading to three deaths and numerous
wounded. But worker-resistance weakened. Unions began discussing
lifting the strikes even though tramway workers (UTA) and Luz y
Fuerza had not settled. But many workers drifted back to work of their
own accord - sometimes massively as in the case of brewers, tailors,
and typographical workers whose union assemblies suspended strikes.
The FOL finally ended the general strike on 26 November, but
warning that this was only a strategic pause to reorganise forces for
the sustained struggle against 'the exploiters of the people'. 27 The
UTA, with the economic help of the rest of the city's unions, remained
on strike until February 1920. But the struggle was doomed when the
company began bringing in scab labour from the province of Tucu-
man.
In spite of the reversals of November 1919, Cordoban workers kept
up their fight in 1920. Conflicts escalated to peak again in the early
154 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

months of 1921. By the end of February, the level of strike activity

reached 1919 proportions: in railways, bakeries, flour mills and
quarries, workers presented their claims jointly. As in 1919, union
locals were invaded and shut, and leaders were detained - this time
with less delay. This new wave of repression marked a sharp end to
union agitation not only in Cordoba, but also in Buenos Aires and
Rosario.
The conjunction of events of 1917 to 1921 offer some clues to
understand some of the structural, longer-term causes of worker-
unrest, as well as some of the enduring features.
The social movements of the period were situated in the broad
context of the ebb and flow of the agro-export economy. The economic
problems of the conjuncture dated back to 1913, when foreign capital
investment dropped sharply, followed by poor harvests in 1914. 28
Economic activity declined, prompting business closures and rising
unemployment and falling wages. Hard times continued during the
war as cereal exports stagnated - though this was partly offset by
rising meat exports. According to Oiaz Alejandro, the depression of
1913 to 1917 was more severe than that of 1929 to 1933. In the former
crisis gross domestic product (GOP) fell by 19.6 per cent, while in the
latter it fell by only 9. 7 per cent. From 1917 to 1929 exports increased
again and foreign investment resumed (as did immigration after the
war). The GOP rose by 9.8 per cent from 1918 to 1920, and from 1921
to 1923 it rose another 7.2 per cent- maintaining positive growth until
1929?9
Labour unrest was fuelled by the losses suffered from 1913 to 1917,
but was sparked because workers' fortunes changed abruptly after
1917. Rising wages and employment created conditions favourable for
workers' bargaining power. In the long run, workers' struggles were
patterned by the expansion of the agro-export economy. GOP growth
from 1917 to 1929 was accompanied by wage increases, though lagging
somewhat. In other words, workers' earnings began to regain lost
ground after 1919, just as the conflict peaked. 30 While the turn-around
of workers' earnings after 1919 may be explained by the worker-
militance which erupted after 1917, there was no such relationship
thereafter: after 1921 union activity actually declined but wages
continued rising.
An analysis of workers' demands helps to shed light on work
conditions. Wages remained a constant source of disputes - a sore
spot that eased as growth resumed after the war. The.. two other
principal sources of disputes were the length of the working day and
 Ofelia Pianetto 155

union recognition by employers. The eight-hour working day, which

occasionally figured in contracts signed as far back as the beginning of
the century, was seldom realised and was subsequently rolled back
with the crisis and rising unemployment after 1913. But from 1917 to
1919, the eight-hour day climbed to near the top of worker demands:
tramway workers (1917-19), footwear employees (1918), and waiters
(1920) all walked out for eight-hour days. In other cases, as in the
Central Cordoba Railway in 1920, workers had to defend the ten-hour
day, but fought for an 'English Saturday' - a half-day's work on
Saturday for a full day's effort (48 hours pay for 44 hours work).
Footwear workers (1919), carpenters (1919), and cart-makers (1921)
all struck for an English Saturday. In most of these cases, some
reduction of hours was conceded to workers - either Saturdays or
weekdays.
But if workers successfully exacted concessions in pay and hours of
work per week, they were less successful in getting their unions
recognised. Employers fiercely resisted recognising unions since they
preferred to deal with workers on an individual contract basis. The
direct worker--employer relationship left the boss with greater bargain-
ing power and divided the ranks of workers. The demand for the
recognition of collective bargaining with unions was an issue in- the
first years of the century, but was swamped by other issues. After the
war, it became a central source of conflict: tramway workers on
successive occasions ( 1917-19), footwear workers almost as frequently
(1918-19), brewers (1918), and waiters (1920) fought for the recogni-
tion of their unions. In the midst of the footwear-workers' strike of
1918, one worker pointed out:
you, the industrialists, create associations of capital to get more out
of labour in the factories, while we, the workers, will associate our
will and energy in solidarity, with the single aspiration of improve-
ment, to get a more reasonable return from the industrialists. 31
In many cases part of the demand for union recognition included
closed-shop clauses: employers could only hire members of the
respective unions. Bakers had already won the closed-shop, which
helped to protect them against competition·· in a turbulent labour
market. Closed-shop demands were especially common among higher
skilled groups of workers to halt the replacement of personnel which
typically took place during conflicts. The tramway notoriously sacked
its employees when they went on strike: the concession of union
recognition and a closed shop would have been a big advance for
156 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

workers. But neither tramways nor most other employers gave in to

the closed-shop, even if they recognised unions.
In general, wage increases, a shortened working day, and the
strengthening of union organisations crowned by the formation of
the FOL, marked a significant advance in working conditions and the
social power of Cordoban workers during this period.
The methods used in labour conflicts, the strike, sabotage, boycotts
and their variations, were common to workers across the country
irrespective of ideological leadership - anarchist in Rosario, revolu-
tionary syndicalist in Buenos Aires, or international socialist in
Cordoba. So, too, was violence commonplace, instigated by police
and hired security forces. But violence varied in degree. Cordoba never
experienced the bloodshed of Buenos Aires - nothing like the 'Tragic
Week' occurred in Cordoba. According to Rock, the events of January
1919 should be seen in the context of spontaneous violence generated
by police repression. Union leaders were not responsible for the crack-
down meted out against workers, for unionists' power to threaten the
system was curbed by the low degree of unionisation. 32 While this
diagnosis may apply to the specific case of the 'Tragic Week', a more
encompassing appraisal of worker-unrest during this conjuncture
suggests a more classical scenario: in a growing economy, an abrupt
and very sharp recession - such as the crisis of 1913-14 - an equally
sharp and abrupt outbreak of violence followed, in which workers
aimed to regain lost ground and enhance their share of the wealth
created by the agro-export expansion.
Moreover, the consequences of the economic crisis coincided with
new expectations of participation associated with electoral reform. All
the accumulated social and political contradictions of rapid moderni-
sation came to the surface at once. Faced with the elitism and scientific
backwardness of the local University still in the hands of conservative
Catholics, the general rise in demand for university education was one
such contradiction. Worker-unrest overlapped with the student uni-
versity reform movement. Both movements supported each other
mutually in search of social democratisation.
The particularity of Cordoban politics complicated the patterns of
progressive social movements. On one hand, politics polarised ideolo-
gically. On the left, the Socialist Party and the International Socialists
gathered support within the workers' movement, while the student
movement and its intellectual leaders like Deodoro Roca and Saul
Taborda, advanced sectors within the Radical Party, like the 'Red
Radicals', as well as the Democratic Party, shared similar progressive
 Ofelia Pianetto 157

inclinations. They squared off against conservative Catholics, led by

the Bishop, who resisted the change that welled up within political
parties, the press, and the University. Thus social struggles in Cordoba
acquired a local flavour, which pitted clerics against anti-clerics. 33
The neatness of the ideological confrontation may obscure a more
ambiguous and heterogeneous political process. If the workers behind
the great strikes clearly supported their International Socialist leaders
within their unions, this did not necessarily imply that workers voted
for International Socialists or the SP outside unions. Helped in part by
occasional UCR abstention, Left-wing parties gained only a few seats
in the provincial parliament during the 1920s. The Socialists never
gained more than a mere 2 or 3 per cent of the city's votes - this, in
spite of the overwhelming majority of workers in the city's electoral
registry (which was helped by the fact that much of Cordoba's working
class was native-born). The situation reflected a clear division of
loyalties. A leader of the bakers' union, Adolfo Dominguez, made a
clear distinction between the spheres of work and politics:
I was an anarchist in the union and a Democrat in politics. I was a
bitter enemy of politics in the union and thought that anarchism was
the apoliticism for unions! In the union there was everything:
Radicals, Socialists. Politics appeared when there were problems
(like arrests). I, as leader of the union local [branch] could get access
to the government and intervene. 34
Like most of his fellow-workers, Dominguez was native-born,
participating actively in the unrest of 1917-21. He expressed a long
political tradition of clientelistic relations which, in spite of the changes
of 1912, accounts for part of the narrow appeal of Left-wing parties. If
Cordoban unions succeeded in breaking from the church after the turn
of the century and acquired independent practices, workers were less
inclined to break with the past on the political level, and did not follow
their leaders in the support of Left-wing political alternatives. The
Hispanic political culture, adapted domestically, resisted the tide of
changes, and was able to withstand the surge of revolutionary and
reformist ideologies.
This underlying durability in politics was clouded during the stormy
years 1917 to 1921. Social and ideological trends appeared to polarise.
But on a political level, alliances and the strength of forces was more
complex and heterogeneous. There, the whole range of nineteenth-
century expressions coexisted: the conservatism of the Catholic news-
paper, Los Principios, and the lodge, 'Corda Frates', which included
158 The Historical Conjuncture: Cordoba, 1917-21

factions of the Radical and Democratic parties; the liberalism of the

newspaper, La Voz del Interior, many students as well as the bulk of
Radical and Democratic Party members; and the various Left-wing
parties and their papers, and the group, 'Cordoba Libre', which
brought together progressive student leaders and reformist intellect-
uals which exercised considerable cultural influence. Faced with this
polyglot of criss-crossed political forces, the political system became
paralysed. It was incapable of articulating the demands generated at
the heart of the local society: the legislature became a mere 'sounding
box' for what was happening in the streets, in the factories and in the
University. The electoral reform of 1912 which opened the system for
worker-participation and made politics more democratic, did not
unleash sufficient forces to break down traditional ways of conducting
politics. Rather, the reform was a belated and ineffective attempt to
transform the old political culture.

Notes

I. For an overview see Anibal Arcondo, La agricultura en Cordoba, 1870-80

(Cordoba, 1965); Poblacion y mano de obra agricola, Cordoba 1880-1914
(Cordoba, 1971 ); Hilda Iparraguirre, 'Notas para el estudio de Ia
demografia de Ia ciudad de Cordoba, 1869-1914', Volumen Homenaje
al Dr Ceferino Garzon Maceda (Cordoba, 1973) pp. 267-88; Ofelia
Pianetto, 'Industria y formacion de clase obrera en Ia ciudad de
Cordoba, 1880-1906', in ibid, pp. 335-54.
2. See Pianetto, 'Industria y forrnacion de clase obrera en Ia ciudad de
Cordoba'.
3. Los Principios (Cordoba) 16 April 1904.
4. E. P.Thompson, 'Tiempo, disciplina de trabajo y capitalismo industrial',
in Tradicion, revuelta y conciencia de clase (Madrid, 1984) pp. 239-3.
5. Ofelia Pianetto and Mabel Galliari, 'La inserci6n social de los inmi-
grantes espafioles en Cordoba, 1870-1914', £studios migratorios Latinoa-
mericanos, 13 (December, 1989).
6. Efrain U. Bischoff, Historia de Cordoba (Buenos Aires, 1979) pp. 281-
338.
7. Pianetto and Galliari, 'La insercion social de los inmigrantes espafioles en
Cordoba, 1870-191 7'; Gardenia Vidal, 'Aiianzas y conflictos en e1 sistema
politico de Cordoba. El Partido Democrata, 1922-1925', mimeo (Cor-
doba, 1989).
8. Bischoff, Historia de Cordoba, pp. 330-8.
9. Gino Germani, Politica y sociedad en una epoca de transicion (Buenos
Aires, 1968) p. 195 and passim.
 Ofelia Pianetto 159

I 0. Pianetto, 'Mercado de trabajo y accion sindical en Argentina, 1890-

1922', Desarrollo Economico, 94 (1984) pp. 297-307.
II. See Luis Alberto Romero, Los sectores populares urbanos como sujeto
historico (Buenos Aires, 1988).
12. For an overview, see Sebastian Marotta, El movimiento sindical argentino
(Buenos Aires, 1970); David Rock, El radicalismo argentino, i890-i930
(Buenos Aires, 1977) especially pp. 138-204.
13. Pianetto, 'Industria y formacion de clase obrera en Ia ciudad de
Cordoba'.
14. Ibid; Marta Sanchez, 'Movimientos de lucha y organizacion de Ia clase
obrera en Ia ciudad de Cordoba, 1895-1905', in Homenaje a! Dr Ceferino
Garzon Maceda, pp. 393-408.
15. Sanchez, 'Movimientos de lucha y organizacion'.
16. See Leandro Gutierrez, Juan Carlos Korol, Luis Alberto Romero, Hilda
Sabato, Organizacion y cultura de los sectores populares (Buenos Aires,
1986).
17. Interview with Adolfo Dominguez, 26 May, 1972. He entered his union in
1904, and was its general secretary three times.
18. Ibid. Translator's note: an ofertado was a worker who hired himself out
directly to the employer without first registering with the balsa de trabajo
which was organised by workers to regulate their supply.
19. Ibid.
20. La Libertad (Cordoba) 23 April 1904. For more discussion on Catholic-
Socialist conflict, see Pianetto and Hilda Iparraguirre, 'La organizacion
de Ia clase obrera en Ia ciudad de Cordoba, 1870-1895', Revista de Ia
Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, 3-4-5 (1967).
21. La Voz de/interior, (Cordoba) 20 September-2 October 1917.
22. La Voz del interior, 16-20 April 1917; Alberto Ciria and Horacia
Sanguinetti, Los Reformistas (Buenos Aires, 1968) pp. 25~2.
23. La Voz de/interior, II January 1919.
24. Ibid, II November 1919.
25. Los Principios, 21 November 1919.
26. Ibid, 12 November 1919.
27. La Voz de/interior, 27 November 1919.
28. A. G. Ford, El patron oro, i880-i9i4: inglaterra y Argentina (Buenos
Aires, 1966) pp. 283-313.
29. Carlos F. Diaz Alejandro, Ensayos sabre Ia historia economica argentina
(Buenos Aires, 1975) p. 62.
30. Ibid, p. 54.
31. La Vozdelinterior, II July 1918.
32. Rock, El radicalismo argentino, pp. 167-86.
33. See Vidal, 'Aiianzas y conflictos en el sistema politico de Cordoba'.
34. Cf. note 17, interview with Adolfo Dominguez.