Anarchism in Argentina - FORA Founding and Radicalization

FORA Founding and Radicalization

In 1901, Argentina's first national labor confederation, the Argentine Workers' Federation (FOA), was founded. Although its founding principles were influenced by Paraire and Gori, it was at first a joint project with the socialists. In 1902, the first general strike in Argentinian history took place. It led to the passing of the Residence Law, which gave the government the power to deport "subversive foreigners". This law was used to expel hundreds of anarchists, while a great number of them fled to Montevideo in Uruguay only to reenter the country afterwards. In 1903, La Protesta Humana was renamed as La Protesta, the name under it which exists to this day. In the same year, the moderate wing of the FOA left the federation to form the General Workers' Union (UGT), thus leaving the hegemony in the FOA to the anarchists. They renamed the union as Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA) as a sign of the organization's internationalism in 1904. In 1905, at the FORA's fifth congress, its adherence to anarchism was formalized. In a resolution, it declared that it should "inculcate in the workers the economic and philosophical principles of anarchocommunism". This resolution became the basic policy for the following years. The FORA disagreed with the revolutionary syndicalists over the question of the unions' role after a revolution. While the anarcho-communists viewed labor unions as a by-product of capitalist society, which would have to be dissolved with the establishment of an anarchist society, the syndicalists viewed their unions' democratic structure as a model for the society they envisioned and wanted the unions to be the basis of such a new society. A series of strikes, many of them instigated by the anarchists, followed in 1905.

During this period the anarchist movement experienced rapid growth. 50 to 70% of the males in the working class were disenfranchised, because they were not native Argentinians. Hence the legal political framework was not an option for them and anarchism gained appeal. The movement's strength and its relationship to the state is demonstrated by the events on May 1, 1904. 70,000 anarchist workers marched in the streets of La Boca (Buenos Aires' total population was of 900,000). Proscribed by Roca's government, the demonstration ended in the death of Juan Ocampo, a teenager.