General Confederation of Labor of the Argentine Republic

The General Confederation of Labor of the Argentine Republic (CGT) is the historical trade union center of Argentina. It was founded in 1930 as a result of an agreement between socialists, revolutionary syndicalists, communists and independents to create a unitary and plural union center. In general, it had a Socialist majority until 1945 and a Peronist majority since then. It is currently the majority central and has become autonomous from the political parties. Internationally, it is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (worldwide), the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas and the Coordinator of Central Unions of the Southern Cone (CCSCS) (Mercosur). As of 2021, its management is made up of 33 secretaries in charge of a man and a woman.

History

The General Confederation of Labor of the Argentine Republic or CGT is a labor union founded on September 27, 1930 as a result of an initial agreement between socialists and revolutionary syndicalists, to which the communists would later join, and which originated from the merger of two pre-existing centrals: the Argentine Union Union (USA), continuation of the FORA of the IX Congress and the Argentine Workers Confederation (COA).

In the 1930s, Argentina began to develop a considerable industrial structure. In this context, the CGT became a broad mass organization built on the basis of powerful branch unions, and presented itself as a vertical, bureaucratic, and conciliatory center of classes against the horizontal, assembly-based, and direct-action anarchist center, FORA. of the V Congress. At that time the CGT was mainly supported by the railway unions, the Union Ferroviaria and La Fraternidad.

Among the main leaders of the period were José Domenech (Railroad Union), Ángel Borlenghi (General Confederation of Commerce Employees) and Francisco Pérez Leirós (Municipal Workers Union).

The headquarters of the CGT in 1953.

In 1935 the two main socialist and revolutionary syndicalist sectors clashed hard causing the division of the central in two: CGT-Independencia (socialists and communists) and CGT-Catamarca (revolutionary syndicalists). The latter, in 1937, refounded the Argentine Union Union.

In 1943 the CGT again divided into two:

• the CGT N.o1, led by the socialist José Domenech, grouped most of the socialist unions, including the strategic railway unions.
• the CGT N.o2, led by the also socialist Francisco Pérez Leirós, grouped the communist unions (construction, meat, graphics), and some important socialist unions such as the General Confederation of Trade Employees (Borlenghi) and the Union of Municipal Workers (Pérez Leirós).

After the 1943 coup, the vast majority of the socialist leaders grouped in the CGT No. 1 and No. 2, the revolutionary syndicalists grouped in the USA, and some communists (such as the unions of graphic and the oil workers) supported the pro-labor policies of the Minister of Labor Juan Domingo Perón. When he was imprisoned, the CGT proposed a general strike for October 18, which due to popular impatience became October 17, 1945, an important popular demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo, which achieved their release and the call for democratic elections.

Under these conditions, the CGT re-established itself as a unitary union center, due to the incorporation of many unions that were in CGT No. 2 (dissolved by the military government) and the USA.

In view of the elections, the unions organized the Labor Party, which was decisive for the triumph of Peronism, obtaining 52.84% of the votes obtained by the alliance that supported Perón's candidacy.

After the 1946 elections, Perón unified the three parties that supported him (Partido Laborista, Unión Cívica Radical Junta Renovadora, and Partido Independiente) into the Peronist Party.

The CGT then became the “backbone” of the Peronist movement, and one of its leaders, the socialist Ángel Borlenghi, was appointed to the strategic Ministry of the Interior, the second most important position after the vice presidency, while another of them, Juan Atilio Bramuglia (a lawyer for the Railway Union) was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The CGT during Evita's funerals.

In 1950 the preamble of the CGT was modified with this text: “…that the Peronist Doctrine masterfully exposed by its creator, General Juan Perón, defines and synthesizes the fundamental aspirations of the Argentine workers, and points out the true doctrine with root and national sense, whose broad and loyal application has to forge a just, free and sovereign Homeland ".

The 1950 Extraordinary Congress of the CGT sought to increase the control of the unions by the entity and approved a resolution entrusting affiliated organizations and workers in general with the elimination of open or covert communist elements, eliminating them from leadership positions and preventing them from exerting their pernicious influence on the working environment.

In 1955 a bloody military coup, the Revolución Libertadora, overthrew Perón and prohibited the activity of the Peronist trade unionism, a vast majority. The CGT then began a long period of resistance, to reorganize itself in hiding, and force the annulment of the ban on Peronism and Perón's return to the country. During the 1960s some of its leaders (Vandor) unsuccessfully tried to develop a Peronism without Perón.

In 1966, an important part of the CGT welcomed the coup d'état against Arturo Umberto Illia that gave rise to the Argentine Revolution, but was unable to reach a stable agreement with the dictator Juan Carlos Onganía, who was inclined to consolidate the alliance with the traditional sectors of economic power, contrary to the existence of state companies and the industrial sector in Argentina, where the bases of the CGT unions were located. In 1968 the CGT was divided for a couple of years when the CGT of Argentines led by Raimundo Ongaro was formed, with a more definitely anti-imperialist position and opposition to the military regime.

In the same period, political violence intensified and several guerrilla organizations appeared, including Montoneros of Christian-nationalist-Peronist origin, one of whose targets would be "the union bureaucracy" of the CGT, assassinating several union leaders, among them two of their general secretaries: in 1970 José Alonso and in 1973 José Ignacio Rucci.

In 1975 the CGT affiliated with the social-democratic International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which in 2006 would merge with the WCL to create the International Trade Union Confederation.

On March 24, 1976, there was a military coup that gave rise to the military dictatorship that called itself the National Reorganization Process. 30,000 opponents were disappeared and many more imprisoned and tortured in hundreds of clandestine detention and extermination centers.

Since the 1976 military coup and State Terrorism, many of the CGT leaders and their base militants were disappeared. The big unions are intervened and their leaders imprisoned or disappeared. The CGT is first intervened and then legally dissolved. Despite this, unionism was reorganized into two sectors: a) a "confrontational" sector; with the dictatorship, first called "los 25" and then CUTA and CGT-Brasil; and b) a "dialogist" with the dictatorship called first CNT and then CGT-Azopardo.

On April 27, 1979 "Los 25" they declare the first of a series of general strikes against the dictatorship. In November 1980 "Los 25" they reconstitute the CGT despite its explicit illegalization, being known as CGT-Brasil. On July 22, 1981, the second general strike against the military government, now declared by the CGT-Brazil, took place. On November 7, the CGT-Brasil calls the first open demonstration against the dictatorship, taking advantage of the annual tradition of marching towards the church of San Cayetano (Saint of Work). On March 30, 1982, tens of thousands of people responded to the call of the CGT-Brazil to demand democracy in Plaza de Mayo and several other cities in the country. The mobilization generated a severe repression, with thousands of detainees and a serious deterioration of the military regime. Cornered, two days later the military regime gave the order to take over the Malvinas Islands.

The defeat in the Falklands War causes the collapse of the military regime and the call for democratic elections, in which Raúl Alfonsín triumphs, defeating Peronism through a campaign in which he accuses him of promoting a military pact -union. At the beginning of his government, Alfonsín decided to confront the CGT head-on. One of his first measures is to send Parliament a new union law that had not been consulted or agreed with the unions. The CGT responded with a succession of general strikes (13 in total) that ended up weakening the government. Not having a majority in the Senate, a weakened Alfonsín resolved to modify his initial strategy and negotiate with the CGT, resulting in a consensus union law that was approved unanimously in both houses of Parliament.

Alfonsín's government ended early in 1989 in the midst of uncontrollable hyperinflation. The CGT participates in the electoral campaign of the triumphant Peronist candidate Carlos Saúl Menem carrying a twenty-six-point popular-nationalist program that proposed, among other things, a moratorium on foreign debt.

Upon coming to power (1989) Ménem produced a surprising political turnaround, fully adhering to the policies promoted by the "Washington Consensus". This produces an enormous debate within the CGT, affected in its traditional role of "backbone" of peronism. The CGT is then divided into four large groups: a) Those who propose to support Menem and his liberal policies (Menemists, like Barrionuevo); b) Those who propose to negotiate without openly confronting it (the fat ones: Commerce, banking, etc.); c) Those who propose to face it without breaking the CGT (the MTA-Moyano); d) Those who propose to confront it by forming a new trade union central. The latter, with a Peronist-Christian tendency, separated from the CGT and formed the CTA.

The CGT, although clearly the majority, has had to resign in recent times the monopoly of socio-labour space, to begin to share it, at least partially, with the new trade union center (the CTA) and the left-wing and social organizations of the unemployed -Christians (piqueteros) who have been the protagonists of strong street and social confrontations in recent years.

Debut of the Worker Choir of the CGT on October 27, 1950 at the Colon Theatre

The Peronist labor movement and culture

With the growth and consolidation of the General Confederation of Labor during the first Peronism (1946-1955), the expansion of its bureaucratic structures turned the unions into true multifunctional organizations that were no longer only in charge of negotiating wages and working conditions, but also began to develop management in areas such as education and leisure. On the one hand, this development can be evidenced in the creation of some institutions within the Confederation's own organizational sphere: the Teatro Obrero de la CGT from 1948, the Coro Obrero de la CGT from 1950, and the School of Dances and Folk Instruments from 1954. On the other hand, the influence of the labor movement on state government institutions also had its correlate in the management of official cultural policies. One of the best known cases were the weekly performances of concerts, opera and ballet inside the Teatro Colón from 1949, which were given exclusively to the workers.

Headquarters

Facade of the building on Azopardo Street today.

On October 18, 1950, one day after the anniversary of Loyalty Day, President Juan Domingo Perón inaugurated the building destined to be the headquarters of the CGT. It was donated by the Eva Perón Foundation, it is located on Calle Azopardo no. 820 and belongs to the rationalist style. The inauguration ceremony was attended by the then general secretary of the CGT, José Espejo.

The CGT building has a basement, a ground floor and 6 floors, as well as a tower on top of which stands a sign with the initials of the labor union with the Argentine flag behind it, and which can be seen in the distance, being fully recognizable by those who distinguish it.

The main room "Felipe Vallese" It is located on the 1st floor and has a capacity for 300 people, on the 3rd floor is the Eva Perón Library for Workers, on the 4th is the Board of Directors meeting room, and on the 5th is the room "José Ignacio Rucci".

The headquarters of the CGT was declared a National Historic Monument by decree 1233 of the year 2007.

Driving

Main unions

The main national trade unions (unions) or federations of the CGT and their estimated affiliates in 2012 are the following: