Abstracts - "Antifascism, unionism and international bodies in Latin America in the 1940s"
Norberto Ferreras (Universidade Federal Fluminense)
"The ILO and Latin America during the Second World War"
The International Labor Organization was created in 1919 as a technical agency linked to the League of Nations to monitor and create internationally applicable regulations on issues related to labor relations. Latin America increased its interest in the ILO in the 1930s during the initial period of import substitution industrialization. In this presentation, we will discuss the consequences of this relationship marked by uncertainty over the ILO's future, mapping the main issues of interest to both parties and the political actions to ensure the ILO's continuity.
Patricio Herrera (Universidad San Sebastián)
"Continental workers' unity against colonialism and Nazi-fascism: the case of CTAL (1938-1945)".
The Confederation of Latin American Workers (CTAL) recently founded, September 1938, had as its objective to work for the construction of a new America, transmitting a thought of Americanness and fraternity among peoples, displacing false diplomacy and governmental relations exclusively for interest.
The war against Nazi-fascism and the economic ties of numerous businessmen and members of the political class of the continent with Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan were considered, by the leaders of the CTAL, as a threat to democracy, political sovereignty and economic autonomy of nations in the world, particularly those that still maintained, in the words of the president of the CTAL, Lombardo Toledano, "semi-colonial or feudal legacies". The unity of the workers' movement in every nation of the continent was a guarantee of the strength of a single voice, to guarantee the political and social rights of the proletariat in the face of the pressing circumstances the world was experiencing. Defeating the enemies, Nazi-fascism and colonialism, was an opportunity to consolidate the position of the CTAL among the workers and initiate a new future in the continent, building its own good neighbor policy.
Andrés Stagnaro (CONICET - Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
Requiem for Good Neighbors: AFL Visits to Argentina at the End of the Rooseveltian Dream
The establishment of the policy of good neighbors enabled, in trade union terms, better conditions for collaboration between the organized labor movements of Latin American countries and their North American counterparts. The growth of the Confederation of Latin American Workers (CTAL) can be understood within this framework. In addition, bilateral relations between North American and Latin American trade union organizations increased and the project of trade union monroism -so close to the aspirations of the leaders of the American Federation of Labor- seemed to enter an impasse. The end of the Second World War and the death of Roosevelt heralded the end of the good-neighbor policy and its replacement by the Truman Doctrine of containment of communism in March 1947.
In this transition framework, two visits of American trade union delegations to Argentina took place in order to inquire about the Argentine labor movement and the possibility of including the Argentine General Confederation of Labor (CGT) in the regional institutional framework promoted by the AFL.
The numerical and political relevance of the Argentine organized labor movement since the creation of the General Confederation of Labor in 1930 had made it a central actor in terms of international labor relations.
Together with the Mexican labor movement, they became the Latin American regional referents and therefore their international alignment -in ideological terms, but also in relation to the different options open on regional alignments such as labor Monroism, the pro-European internationalist option or Latin Americanism- became the center of concern of other actors in the international sphere.
The paper will deal with the visits to the country made by the delegation headed by the American Federation of Labor between June 1946 and February 1947, within the framework of the international ideological realignments in the context of the Cold War.The visit constituted the most important rapprochement and at the same time the definitive rupture in the relations between the Argentine CGT and American trade unionism.Its relevance will be analyzed in relation to the background of the CGT itself in international terms and in relation to American trade unionism -mainly its links with the Congress of Industrial Organizations from the active participation in the CTAL, and above all in relation to the impact that such visit had on the diplomatic relations of the Argentine labor movement in the context of the expansion of free trade unionism and a greater presence of American trade unionism in the region.
The hypothesis to be discussed is that the visit promoted fundamental changes in the relations between the Argentine and North American trade unionism, despite the fact that they coincided on a central point such as their anti-communism, and that it ended the good neighbor policy for the AFL, despite the fact that such policy was fundamental in the bilateral rapprochements and was enthusiastically observed by the Argentine CGT.
The rupture of relations generated difficulties not only in terms of the deployment of bilateral relations, but also profoundly altered the multilateral relations of trade unionism in regional and international terms.
The fundamental sources to investigate will be the periodical publications related to Argentine trade unionism, the personal archives of Serafino Romualdi of the AFL, and archives related to the North American trade union projection in the region.