The Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983) and its impacts on the working class and the trade-union movement in a context of structural change

BASUALDO, VICTORIA

Berlin

Conferencia; Conferencia "Global Labour and the Crises of High Capitalism: Rethinking the 1970s"; 2015

Re:work, Universidad de Humboldt

This paper aims at providing a basic analysis of some of the main impacts of the policies implemented by the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983) on the working class and the trade union movement. It will provide first a brief analysis of the economic, labor and repressive policies of the self-denominated "Proceso de Reorganización Nacional" between 1976 and 1983. Section 2 will analyze some of the impacts that these policies had on workers and unions, and sections 3 and 4 will study some of the ways in which different sectors of the labor movement reacted against these policies in two different sub-periods, 1976-1979, and 1979-1983. The fifth and last section will analyze the main historiographical contributions regarding the origins and significance of the dictatorship, and will close with an appraisal based on the evidence and interpretation presented.