The Tragic Week and the Patagonian Tragedy

The urban working class found little in common with the middle class. They resented the economic privileges of factory owners, landholders, and exporters, as well as the Radical party's patronage of the middle class. Strikes became more disruptive as industry attempted to deal with material shortages caused by World War I. The war disrupted coal imports from England, forcing industry to operate at reduced levels. Railway companies struggled to maintain schedules while imports plunged. Real wages fell between 1914 and 1917 by a third as shortages forced industries to dismiss workers. Use of agricultural wastes compressed into briquettes for heating and cooking symbolized wartime hardships and the decline in living standards. Frustrated workers clashed with factory owners as strikes became violent. Employers with links with vigilante groups formed the Labor Association (Asociacion del Trabajo) to break strikes with replacement workers. The meatpacking strike of December 1917 ended bloodily, as the police stormed union headquarters armed with sabers slashing anyone unlucky enough to be in the way. A railroad strike earlier in the year resulted in damaged and burned equipment. The government usually intervened against strikes mounted by supposed radicals, while moderate union leaders often received President Yrigoyen's support. In the case of the rail strike the president imposed a generous contract on the companies, including an eight-hour day, annual paid vacations, and sick and overtime pay. Yrigoyen's tactics undercut the Socialists and pushed the Anarchists into confrontation, with grim consequences. Two violent clashes, the January 1919 Semana Tragica (Tragic Week) and the Patagonia Tragica (1921-1922), rank among the worst labor disturbances of the early twentieth century.
The Semana Tragica began with a strike against a metalwork factory by an Anarchist union late in 1918. Fighting broke out between strikebreakers and workers. Heavy-handed police tactics added to the violence. Over the course of the next several diays, events spun out of control. The Anarchist Labor Federntion's call for a genernl strike provided the pretext for vigilantes, who subsequently provided the core of Liga Patriotica Argentina (Argentine Patriotic League). Thugs swept into the Jewish barrio of Buenos Aires (popular perceptions associated Jews with Anarchists) and by the time the destruction ended, 700 to 1,500 people died and another 4,000 had been beaten or injured. The army, without orders from the president, assumed control of the capital. Property damage and lost production and wages cast the economy millions of pesos. Yrigoyen offered to arbitrate between the parties. In the end, an alarmed government forced the company to settle the strike. Lingering police and vigilante violence slowly played itself out and the Semana Tragica ended. Upper class perceptions that the government lacked the will or ability to discipline workers resul ted in the forma tion of the Liga Patriotica Argentina. The LPA responded to fears that foreign ideologies, and labor organiziltions influenced by them, would shred the social fabric and damage the economy. Manuel Carles established the League in 1919 with the idea of using physical force to root out radicals. Organized as a paramilitary organization, the LPA drew much of its leadership from the Jockey Club. The league's mission to indoctrinate the working class to counter radicalism had the support of the Church, the elite, and the middle class. A female division labored to bring the League's message to working-women. While the upper and middle classes becnme more concerned, labor became increasingly desperate and militant.
In Patagonia, violence came on the heels of a momentary improvement in working conditions. In late 1920, employers, mainly British sheep operators, organized as the Sociedad Rural de Santa Cruz, responded positively to demands for better wnges and conditions. Workers wanted a limit on the number of occupants per hut, a mattress for each person, and salaries in hard currency to protect the value of wages. Unfortunately, a drop in the price of wool on world markets led to deterioration of labor and living conditions. A general strike drew a sharp line between owners and workers. The issue cnme down to which side would bear the burden of hard times. Angry workers seized property, while landowners formed white guards to defend their interests. Local Radical party officials sided with the owners. Unbalanced reports picked up by the press presented an alarmist and distorted picture. After local muscle failed to break the strike, the army arrived in early 1921, believing that it faced an Anarchist insurrection. The Tenth Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Colonel Hector Varela assisted by LPA members, shot suspected Anarchists in cold blood, tortured strikers, and dumped their bodies into mass graves. After some 2,000 victims, the strike collapsed. In a gruesome aftermath, Colonel Varela died in a bomb blast, his assassin subsequently murdered by a guard, who then in turn died violently: a chain of death that shook the nation.

Argentina: What Went Wrong By Colin M. MacLachlan