Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation

Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation

Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya
Abbreviation	FORP
Successor	Regional Workers' Center of Paraguay
Established	22 April 1906 (1906-04-22)
Dissolved	6 August 1916 (1916-08-06)
Type	National trade union center
Headquarters	Asunción
Location	Paraguay
General Secretary	José Serrano (1906–1913) José Cazzulo (1913–1915)
Key people	Rafael Barrett
Publication	El Despertar

The Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation (Spanish: Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya, FORP) was a Paraguayan trade union center. Established by anarcho-syndicalists in 1906, for a time, the FORP was the only trade union center in the country, organizing a series of strike actions in various different trades. During the Paraguayan Civil War of 1911–1912, the FORP was subjected to political repression and went into a decline, with some unions in the labor movement moving away from anarcho-syndicalism towards reformism. In 1916, the FORP was reorganized into the Regional Workers' Center of Paraguay (CORP), which continued to uphold its anarcho-syndicalist platform.

Background

After the Paraguayan defeat in the War of the Triple Alliance, which had caused a severe labor shortage in the country, the government of the Colorado Party introduced labor laws which bound workers to their jobs through a system of debt slavery. By the 1880s, Paraguayan workers began organizing themselves into benefit societies, the first workers' organizations in the country, which organized mutual aid and encouraged political participation. In May 1886, a typographers' society was reorganized into a trade union, the first in the country's history. It was followed soon after by unions of construction workers, carpenters, tailors, postal workers and bakers, the latter of whom carried out the country's first strike action in October 1886.

Between 1889 and 1904, 15 strike actions took place in Asunción, where workers demanded the eight-hour day, wage increases and other improvements to working conditions. During this period, the Panic of 1890 caused a severe recession, provoking widespread discontent that led to the establishment of the first anarchist groups in Paraguay. By the early 1900s, Italian anarchists had established contact with Paraguayan trade unions. Attempts were also made throughout the 1890s and early 1900s to establish a national trade union center, some with the support of the Liberal Party, although these were all short-lived. Most trade unionists considered these initiatives to be too reformist, at a time when anarchist ideas were gaining more support.

The Liberal Revolution of 1904 was initially supported by the Paraguayan labor movement, which in turn received sympathy from the administrations of Juan Bautista Gaona and Cecilio Báez. But as the economy industrialised, by 1906, strike actions were becoming increasingly frequent, as workers demanded wage increases and reforms such as the abolition of child labor. Over the first three years of liberal governance in Paraguay, roughly nineteen industrial disputes took place.

Establishment

On 22 April 1906, three of Asunción's trade unions, representing graphic designers, carpenters and drivers, joined together, establishing the first national trade union center in the country: the Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation (Spanish: Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya; FORP). Its founding members included M. Amarilla, L. Castellani, José Cazzulo, G. Recalde and José Serrano. The FORP, established according to the tenets of anarcho-syndicalism, was a decentralized and federalist organization, in which its member sections had complete autonomy. Drawing from the programme of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA), the FORP aligned itself against political parties and declared as its goal the establishment of a free association of producers.

Activities

Soon after its founding, on 1 May 1906, the FORP held the country's first International Workers' Day demonstration, which went ahead despite police attempts to shut it down. That same day, the FORP also began publishing its official organ El Despertar, a monthly periodical that published 11 issues during its print run; the paper carried articles about the anarchist movements in Europe and Latin America, and printed works by authors such as Peter Kropotkin and Anselmo Lorenzo; it also published reports of the FORP's activities, named and shamed known strikebreakers and encouraged its members to pay their union dues promptly.

In the wake of the Panic of 1907, the FORP organized a series of strike actions by trolley-car drivers, printers and railroad workers, the latter of whom received significant support from the press and succeeded in securing a wage increase. The following year, the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist Rafael Barrett began publishing the journal El Germinal and spoke at the FORP's First Conference of Paraguayan Workers. Barrett, who coordinated between the various anarcho-syndicalist organizations of South America and advocated for the rights of Native Paraguayans, soon became the FORP's thought leader.

Decline and reformation

In July 1908, infighting within the Liberal Party culminated in a coup by Emiliano González Navero, initiating a period of economic recession and political instability. Although the labor movement in Asunción was demobilized by the affair, trade unions outside the capital began to flourish, with tannin workers in the Chaco region carrying out a successful strike for wage increases. The successive presidencies of Manuel Gondra, Albino Jara and Liberato Marcial Rojas grew increasingly hostile towards the labor movement, meeting strike actions with violent repression, dismissals, arrests and even deportation. Rafael Barrett was himself deported during this period, although he continued to publish critiques of the Paraguayan yerba maté companies and Liberal Party after his return to Spain.

During the Paraguayan Civil War of 1911–1912, unions were prevented from carrying out any action and the FORP effectively dissolved. After the war, the FORP resumed its activities, but by this time, a split had developed within the labor movement. Many workers began moving away from anarcho-syndicalism and some came under the influence of the Colorado Party, despite the FORP's polemics against it. By 1913, reformists had broken away from the FORP and established the Unión Gremial del Paraguay (UGP), which brought together 14 unions of different trades. In October 1913, the FORP reformed itself and reaffirmed its anarcho-syndicalist ideals; as its new executive committee, it established a Federal Council, which consisted of 4 carpenters, 2 mechanics, 1 printer and 1 shoemaker, as well as a number of intellectuals. The FORP returned to organizing trade unions, now in direct competition with the UGP.

After the outbreak of World War I caused a recession in Paraguay, both the UGP and FORP declined into inactivity. But from 1916, an increased demand for Paraguayan agricultural exports led to a resurgence in the domestic labor movement, as several new trade unions were established, displacing much of the old guard. On 6 August 1916, the 9 unions of the FORP reorganized themselves, establishing the Regional Workers' Center of Paraguay (Spanish: Centro Obrero Regional del Paraguay; CORP), which adopted a modified version of the FORP's anarcho-syndicalist platform.

Bibliography

• Alexander, Robert J. (2005). "The Paraguayan Organized Workers before Stroessner". A History of Organized Labor in Uruguay and Paraguay. Parker, Eldon M. Praeger Publishers. pp. 89–120. ISBN 978-0-275-97745-0.
• Bozzolasco, Ignacio González; Rojas, Raquel (2023). "The Paraguayan Labor Movement at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century". In Levy, Charmain; Elgert, Laureen; L'Heureux, Valérie (eds.). Social Movements and the Struggles for Rights, Justice and Democracy in Paraguay. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_6. ISBN 978-3-031-25883-1.
• Cappelletti, Angel (2017). "Paraguay". Anarchism in Latin America. AK Press. ISBN 978-1-84935-282-6.
• Costa, William, ed. (2024). Paraguayan Sorrow: Writings of Rafael Barrett, A Radical Voice in a Dispossessed Land. Monthly Review. ISBN 9781685900793.
• de Laforcade, Geoffrey (2011). "Federative Futures: Waterways, Resistance Societies, and the Subversion of Nationalism in the Early 20th-century Anarchism of the Río de la Plata Region". Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe. 22 (2): 71–96. doi:10.61490/eial.v22i2.286. ISSN 0792-7061.
• Lambert, Peter; Medina, Ricardo (2007). "Contested Discourse, Contested Power: Nationalism and the Left in Paraguay". Bulletin of Latin American Research. 26 (3): 339–355. doi:10.1111/j.1470-9856.2007.00228.x.
• Nickson, Andrew (1989). "Paraguay". In Carrière, Jean; Haworth, Nigel; Roddick, Jacqueline (eds.). The State, Industrial Relations and the Labour Movement in Latin America. Vol. 1. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 67–98. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-05905-8_3.
• Nickson, R. Andrew (1993a). "Barrett, Rafael (1876-1910)". Historical Dictionary of Paraguay. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 64. ISBN 9780810879645.
• Nickson, R. Andrew (1993b). "Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya". Historical Dictionary of Paraguay. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 219–220. ISBN 9780810879645.
• Simon, S. Fanny (1946). "Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in South America". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 26 (1). Duke University Press: 38–59. doi:10.2307/2507692. ISSN 1527-1900. JSTOR 2507692.
• Vara, Ana María (2016). "When a Rebel Finds a Cause, a Discourse, and a Homeland: Rafael Barrett and Latin America". In Melville, Gert; Ruta, Carlos (eds.). Potency of the Common: Intercultural Perspectives about Community and Individuality. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. pp. 411–428. doi:10.1515/9783110459791-024. ISBN 9783110459791.

Further reading

• Albornoz, Martín (2007). "Anarquismo y extranjería: Notas en torno a la vida y la obra de Rafael Barrett". Entrepasados (in Spanish). 16 (32): 11–26.
• Benisz, Carla Daniela (2018). La literatura ausente: Augusto Roa Bastos y las polémicas del Paraguay post-stronista (in Spanish). Vol. 2. Sb editorial. ISBN 9789874434241.
• Castells, Carlos; Castells, Mario (2009). "La huelga es la peor amenaza para el capital". Rafael Barrett en el Paraguay de la república liberal (PDF). XII Jornadas Interescuelas/Departamentos de Historia (in Spanish). National University of Comahue.
• Castells, Carlos; Castells, Mario (2010). "Rafael Barret." El humanismo libertario en el Paraguay de la era liberal (PDF) (Thesis) (in Spanish). National University of Rosario.
• Castells, Carlos (2009). "Rafael Barrett y la cuestión social en el Paraguay hacia el centenario". In Contardi, Sonia (ed.). Arte, creación e identidad cultural en América Latina (PDF) (in Spanish). Centro de Estudios de América Latina Contemporánea. pp. 271–286. ISBN 978-987-26252-1-4.
• Castells, Carlos (2013a). Del "dandy" europeo al periodista libertario: la trayectoria de vida de Rafael Barrett (1876-1910). VI Taller Paraguay desde las Ciencias Sociales (in Spanish). Grupo de Estudios Sociales sobre Paraguay.
• Castells, Carlos (2013b). Del "dandy" de Madrid al "apóstol de los oprimidos" de Asunción; la trayectoria de vida de Rafael Barrett (1876-1910) entre España y America (PDF). XIV Jornadas Interescuelas/Departamentos de Historia (in Spanish). National University of Cuyo.
• Castells, Carlos (2023). "Veteranos y comuneros: la memoria histórica del Paraguay en la retina del anarquismo de las primeras décadas del siglo XX". Revista Estudios Paraguayos (in Spanish). 41 (2): 103–132. doi:10.47133/respy41-23-2-6. ISSN 2520-9914.
• Corral, Francisco (1995). "Un "joven del 98", en el Río de la Plata: Rafael Barrett". Philologica Canariensia (in Spanish) (1): 467–481. ISSN 1136-3169.
• Duarte, Ciriaco (1987). Sindicalismo en el Paraguay (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). Asunción: Rafael Peroni. OCLC 17341200.
• Gaona, Francisco (2007). Introducción a la Historia Social y Gremial del Paraguay (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). Arandã Editorial. ISBN 9789995350161. OCLC 228417017.
• Gómez, Rocío (2005). "Intertextualidad y anarquía: Rafael Barrett y el Centenario". La Trama de la Comunicación (in Spanish) (10): 335–350. doi:10.35305/lt.v10i0.155. ISSN 1668-5628.
• Izard, Miquel (1996). "Perpetuar el embelezo o rememorar lo ocurrido". Boletín americanista (in Spanish) (46): 243–257. ISSN 0520-4100.
• Martini, Silvia Rosana Modena (2010). "Levantamento parcial de periódicos sindicais do século XX do acervo do Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth". Cadernos AEL (in Portuguese). 7 (12/13): 177–261.
• Masjuan i Bracons, Eduard (2003). "El pensamiento demográfico anarquista: fecundidad y emigración a América Latina (1900-1914)". Revista de Demografía Histórica-Journal of Iberoamerican Population Studies (in Spanish). 21 (2): 151–180. ISSN 1696-702X.
• Mendoza, Justo G. (1996). "Influencia de Rafael Barret en Augusto Roa Bastos. Un ejemplo: Hijo de Hombre". Boletín americanista (in Spanish) (46): 259–274. ISSN 0520-4100.
• Oliveira, Vitor Wagner Neto de (2003). "Internacionalismo operário: a identidade de classe dos trabalhadores no transporte fluvial da Bacia do Prata". Trajetos Revista de História UFC (in Spanish). 2 (4): 95–111. ISSN 1676-3033.
• Oliveira, Vitor Wagner Neto de (2005). "Idéias que nadam contra a corrente: solidariedade de classe entre trabalhadores na Bacia do Prata". Métis: História & Cultura (in Portuguese). 4 (7): 81–106.
• Oliveira, Vitor Wagner Neto de (2019). "Movimiento obrero transnacional en el Cono Sur Americano a principios del siglo XX: los marítimos de los ríos Paraná y Paraguay" (PDF). Revista de estúdios marítimos y sociales (in Spanish). 12 (14): 197–226. ISSN 2545-6237.
• Speratti, Juan (1984). La Revolución del 17 de febrero de 1936 (in Spanish). Asunción: Escuela Técnica Salesiana. OCLC 252656936.
• Vara, Ana María (2011). El anti-imperialismo de Rafael Barrett, entre la crónica y los cuentos. VI Jornadas de Historia de las Izquierdas “José Ingenieros y sus mundos” (in Spanish). pp. 16–41.
• Vara, Ana María (2013). Sangre que se nos va : naturaleza, literatura y protesta social en América Latina (in Spanish). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 9788400097172.
• Vitale, Luis (1998). Contribución a una historia del anarquismo en América Latina (PDF) (in Spanish). Instituto de Investigación de Movimientos Sociales "Pedro Vuskovic". OCLC 55418493.