Saturday 2 July 2011

Peron in Argentina

For PAPER 3 BULLET POINT "Political developments in the Americas after the Second World War 1945-79 (domestic)"


DOMESTIC 1945-79 – POPULIST LEADERS IN LATIN AMERICA
PERON IN ARGENTINA

Successes
Establishing popular support
1.      Peron took a charge of the Labour Department following the coup in June 1943. The Labour Department was raised to the status of the Secretariat of Labour and Welfare by November 1943.
a.       Peron recognized that the government could use women, ethnic minorities, and the working class to gain public support for the military’s nationalist industrial program.
b.      Peron was able to convince members of the military to stop attacking labour (for example with the Three-decree laws in December 1943) and to instead form alliances with labour leaders to establish a basis of power. 
2.      His work as the Secretary of Labour and Welfare from November 1943 to October 1945 achieved far more for workers than any other organization in Argentina to date.
a.       He passed the ‘Peasant Statute’.
                                                  i.      For the first time, rural workers were unionized and their working/living conditions were subject to law rather than just the will of their employers.
b.      Peron created the Women's Division of Labour and officially recognized that more than 900 000 Argentine women are a part of the paid work force.
c.       Peron responded to rail workers' strikes in December 1943 in support of the Railway Union, and in every strike afterwards Peron settled labour disputes in favour of the unions.
                                                  i.      By mid-1944, union leaders were on the side of Peron.
                                                ii.      Peron’s ability to respond to the demands of unions meant that left-wing parties—which also claimed to represent the interest of workers—led to their loss of appeal because Peron was more effective.  
3.      The most important central labour organizations were the General Confederation of Labour 1 (CGT1) and General Confederation of Labour 2 (CGT2).
a.       Peron dissolved CGT2 and restructured CGT1 as one single union that responded directly to him.
4.      Peron became Vice-President and Minister of War in 1944, once Farrell became president. In his position he launched a massive expansion of the armed forces.
a.       The army tripled in size by 1945 and military spending doubled from 1943 to 1945.
                                                  i.      These policies gave Peron the support of the army.
5.      At this point Peron held three significant positions: Vice-President, Secretary of Labour and Welfare, and Minister of War.
a.       Peron served as a liaison between the largely socialist labour unions and the military regime, because of this he had a solid base of support and strong popularity with the general public
6.      Although Peron had no party structure of his own, he had the support of the Labour Party, Peronist trade unions and the UCR radical party.
a.       He had a wide base of support among organizations that represented the workers and lower class, as well as the army..
b.      Peron’s opposition, the Democratic Union (UD) supporters included: conservatives, socialists, communists, industrialists and landowning classes.
                                                  i.      It was a very heterogeneous organization, which made it difficult for the party to agree on specific matters—it lacked cohesion.
7.      In 1947 (following his victory in the 1956 election), Peron dissolved all the forces that helped support him in his campaign, including the Labour Party, and replaced them with a single party—the Sole Party of the Revolution (later known as ‘Peronista’).
a.       This helped consolidate his power by centralizing the state under one party that was under Peron’s personal control.

Economic (“Economic nationalism”)
8.      In 1945, Peron nationalized the Central Bank and established price and production boards instead.
a.       Alongside new currency and banking regulations, these accommodations gave Peron complete independence over Argentina's fiscal policy.
9.      Under his Five Year Plan, Peron’s regime started investing in Argentina's heavy industry, such as steel and iron industries and subsidizing the manufacture of farm and industrial machinery.
a.       Peron and his supporters believed that the development of Argentine industry would protect Argentina from a post World War II economic crisis by allowing the country to meet its domestic demand for manufactured products and through an increase in exports.
10.  To raise money to fund the creation of new industries, the government created the Argentine Institute for the Promotion of Trade (IAPI).  The IAPI set the purchase price of agricultural products below the export price and used the difference to fund industrialization.
a.       Peron also used the proceeds from the IAPI program to purchase foreign owned assets and to promote himself as the protector of Argentina nationalism.
b.      According to Peron, the centralized, planned development of Argentina's economy represented a middle way between communism and capitalism (hence the claim by U.S. officials at this time that Peron's program was fascist in origin).
c.       However after 1948, the IAPI could not make raise sufficient funds due to export competition by the US and Canada (could be a “failure”).
11.  Peron increased military spending while also ending conscription.
a.       These actions ensured that the military would support Peron's program of industrial promotion.
12.  In 1948, Peron nationalized all foreign-owned (70 per cent British-owned) railways in Argentina.
a.       At this point, the foreign-owned railways had become symbols of the control of the country’s economy by foreign powers and, in particular, ‘British imperialism’.
b.      Argentines saw railway nationalisation as a major step towards the economic independence of their country which had for so long been under the influence of foreign capital. 
c.       Peron “I don’t know if it was a great deal in economic terms… but the important thing is we were buying national sovereignty.” (Peter Winn, Americas: the changing face of Latin America)
13.  Peron nationalized foreign telephone companies such as the Argentine Telephone Company and IT&T—both of which were American.
a.       This was part of the initiative to reach economic independence.
14.  $1.5 billion export surplus from WWII used to pay off all foreign debt in July 1947.
Social (Reform and development)
1.      From 1945-9, real wages for industrial workers was increased by more than half.
a.       This allowed Peron to maintain the base of power he had previously established amongst the working class.
2.      To maintain his power base among workers, Peron's government established minimum wages, controlled the length of the work day, made it difficult for employers to fire workers, and established working condition regulations in major industries.
3.      In 1948, Peron created the Eva Peron Foundation (FEP), a parallel organization to the government.
a.       ‘Evita’ played a major role in connecting the descamisodos (urban poor) and women to Peron’s regime.
b.      This allowed for social policies to be centralized under one institution, and at the same time he did not lose support of the trade unions that were opposed to increased social aid with the government’s money.
4.      The FEP was organized and led by Peron’s wife, Eva.
a.       The success of the FEP added to Peron’s popularity.
5.      Eva became known as ‘the lady of hope’, ‘the mother of the innocent’ and later, ‘the spiritual leader of the nation’.
6.      In 1947, Peron passed a law enabling women to vote. By 1951 90 per cent of women were registered.
a.       Women supported Peron because he worked to improve their social status, and ultimately 65 per cent of these women voted for him in the 1951 election.
b.      Peron wanted to incorporate women into political life because as mothers, they were essential in taking Peronism into the home.
Failures
7.      From 1949 onwards, Peron's programs were less successful. Argentina and the US were competing on the world market for trade of beef and wheat—particularly because the 1948 Marshall Plan required that participating nations traded with the US and Canada.
a.       Argentina could no longer trade these items to the US.
b.      Argentina’s traditional trade partner, Europe, was devastated by WWII and could not continue trade at prewar levels.
c.       Diminished exports meant that funds for paying industrial development programs were severely reduced.
8.      By 1951 inflation increased to 49 per cent as a result of printing bank notes. The amount of money in circulation increased from 6 to 45 billion pesos during Peron's two terms.
a.       As a result, real wages decreased by 30 per cent from 1949-52.
b.      Argentina still very dependent on trade of agricultural products (because economic conditions deteriorated once beef and wheat could no longer be sold in the world market), despite Peron’s efforts to stray from the traditional export-import model and promote industrialization.  
9.      Evita’s death in 1952 dramatically weakened Peron's support among the descamisados and women.
10.  Exports dropped so low that in 1952 Argentina actually had to import wheat. Balance-of-payments deficits replaced the large surpluses that had initially financed the nation's ISI program
a.       It was this decline in purchasing power that led to Peron's political downfall.
*Failures continue in “steps to Peron’s downfall”

Effectiveness of the Opposition
Steps to Peron’s downfall
11.  Peron sought to divert attention from economic issues and in 1951, the regime grew more repressive.
a.       The government took over La Prensa, Argentina's largest and most active opposition newspaper.
b.      Peron used his National Liberating Alliance, a private army of thugs, and the federal police force to intimidate the political opposition.
12.  After Eva's death, Peron authorized a campaign to make her a saint within the Catholic Church. When the Church refused to support this move, Peron attacked it and attempted to reduce its influence in society, and the Church became a center of resistance to his policies.
a.       Peron's attack on the Church further antagonized a military that was already frustrated by his cult of personality.
13.  Peron's unwillingness to go along with the desire of industrialists to decrease wages and to increase productivity by reducing workplace rules alienated that group and they joined forces with agrarian interests, which had long opposed Peron.
14.  Peron's support among the working class declined as inflation reduced the value of their pay.
15.  In 1953 Peron gave Standard Oil the rights for exploration, drilling, refining, and distribution in Argentina and this was the last straw for the nationalist military.
a.       The army was heavily involved in industrial production, so relations with the armed forces continued to disintegrate when he altered his economic policy of self-sufficiency and gave foreign companies greater access to Argentina's economy.
16.  By 1955, Peron was forced to resign or face civil war.
a.       Thus, in his attempt to free the nation from an economic quagmire, Peron undermined the multi-class coalition that had brought him to power and sustained him there and this secured his fall from power.
b.      Peron solved none of Argentina's major economic problems. The nation's industry remained limited for the most part to import-substitution light industry.
**Re-elected 1973, but the ensuing economic recovery and social stability were short-lived because of the 1974 economic crisis.


“Peron gave Argentina’s workers a sense of self worth” Peter Winn

Robert D. Crassweller, Peron and the Enigmas of Argentina (1987)            “By the end of the 1940s, the FEP exceeded… in general significance most of the ministries of the government. Its assets exceeded $200 million.”

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