JUAN DOMINGO PERÓN

A third way
by Radbod

"I have always thought that above all material values
are the permanent values of spirit, which are the only eternal things."
- Juan Domingo Peron

The Life of Juan Peron

Peron was President of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 and again from 1973to 1974, the greatest Latin American leader of the 20th century, who wrought long-lasting changes in the nation's politics and social services. He became a friend of the poor hardworking masses and enthusiasticly nationalistic.

Juan Domingo Peron was born in Lobos, which means Wolves, a Buenos Aires Province, on October 8th, 1895. He was the son of a of a small agricultural producer, but nephew of a wealthy and famous medical doctor. Perón was educated at the Colegio Militar from 1911 to 1913 and at the Escuela Superior de Guerra from 1926 to 1929. Following graduation he made good progress through the ranks. He held minor posts in the infantry and published works on "Military Morale" and "The Eastern Front in World War I: Strategic Considerations".

In 1930 Peron took part in a military uprising against President Hipólito Irigoyen and held a number of important positions under the regime. He served as private secretary of the minister of war from 1930 to 1935. He later taught at the Escuela Superior de Guerra, with the rank of Colonel he spent a year in Chile as military attaché, published five books on military history, and traveled to Mussolini's Fascist Italy as a military observer to study alpine military methods and tactics. He led a military delegation in fascist Italy to meet Mussolini. While there, he also studied Fascism contemplating whether it would successfully function in Argentina.

Upon his return to Argentina in 1941, Perón as a colonel joined other officers in a secret military group that staged a coup d'état by the GOU (United Officers' Group) in June 1943 against the civilian government of Ramón S. Castillo. Initially Under-Secretary for War under Gen. Pedro Ramírez, he became Secretary of Labour and Welfare in November 1943. He proceeded to transform the labor movement by weakening the influence of left-wing parties on it, enacting new laws and implementing old ones, and creating new syndicates to replace the unions. Perón was made vice president and minister of war in 1944 under Gen. Edelmiro Farrell in February 1944. Perón already was the real power behind the administration. His opposition to US pressure on Argentina to join the Allies partly contributed to the personal hositilities with US ambassador Spruille Braden.

His support for labor unions and social reform resulted in widespread support for him among the Argentine masses. As his power grew, opposition within the armed forces became widespread. On October 9, 1945, he was forced into resignation from his three posts by opponents within the armed forces. Perón was arrested shortly afterward on a dubious charge, but mass demonstrations organised by the CGT trade union federation demanded his release. Perón's resignation triggered a government crisis that was resolved on October 17, when his labor supporters obtained his release. A Peronist myth was born: the Loyalty Day was held every year from then on. Four days later, Perón, a widower, married Mariá Eva Duarte. Eva Duarte de Peron (1919 - July 26, 1952) was hugely popular. Known as Evita, she helped her husband develop support with labour and women's groups.

With Peron, a new political group emerged in Argentina in 1945. It had its main support among the most depressed sections of the agricultural and industrial working class. Called the Peronistas, the group supported Perón as its candidate for the presidency. His party's official name was Partido Justicialista, which is derived from the Spanish words for justice and social. Perón indeed emphasised social justice in his rhetoric. The Peronistas campaigned among members of the working class, which were popularly known as Los Descamisados (Spanish for "shirtless ones," implying that they did not wear suitcoats like the middle class). The elections, held on February 24, 1946, resulted in a decisive victory for Perón. After being elected, Perón expounded his doctrine. The key points stressed the importance of autarky and a classless society in which the state was to assume the role of negotiator between conflicting interests.

As president he pursued pro-Labor, pro-Nationalist policies and instituted massive social reform but was ruthless in suppressing all opposition. He was widely supported by his popular wife Evita, who became an influential, although informal, member of his government. Few would deny that his first two terms of office (1946-55) overwhelmingly enhanced the living conditions of the country's working class and pursued social policies aimed at empowering the working class. He greatly expanded the number of unionized workers, and helped establish the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT) which embraced many of the trade unions. He called this the "third position", between capitalism and communism, although he was strongly anti-United States and anti-British. Perón also pushed hard to industrialize the country, in 1947 he announced the first five-year plan to boost newly nationalized industries. The government of Juan Perón was one of the most progressive in Latin American history in the 20th century. Here is a list of its accomplishments:

1. Taking advantage of government leniency if not outright support, trade unions were formed in every industry.
2. Social security was made universal.
3. Education was made free to all who qualified.
4. Vast low-income housing projects were created.
5. Paid vacations became standard.
6. A working student was given one paid week before every major examination.
7. All workers (including white-collar employees like bank tellers, etc.) were guaranteed free medical care and half of their vacation-trip expenses.
8. A mother-to-be received 3 paid months off prior to and after giving birth.
9. Workers recreation centers were constructed all over Argentina, including a vast resort in the lower Sierras that included 8 hotels, scores of cabins, movies, swimming pools and riding stables. This resort was available to workers for 15 days a year, at the cost of 15 cents per day, all services included.

By 1954 Perón had initiated more than 45 major hydroelectric projects designed to produce 2 billion kilowatt-hours of energy, 20 times the amount that was available in 1936. While in hindsight we can say that these projects had ecological drawbacks, they still represented an audacious step in the direction of making every citizen's life more fulfilling. By 1947, Argentina had launched its own iron and steel industry. It was also moving forward in coal extraction and other raw materials using the most advanced technology available at the time. It began to make farm machinery, planes and cars in modest numbers. Ship-building had expanded by 500 percent under Perón's regime.

In order to strengthen Argentina's economy, Perón created the Argentina Institute for Promotion of Exchange (AIPE), a monopoly that handled all commodity exports. Cattle, wheat, etc. were sold at a high price overseas. While not socialism, this measure was consistent with the traditional Marxist demand for a monopoly on foreign trade. Perón also bought out the local IT&T operation and the railroad and trolley system from Great Britain. He paid off Argentina's foreign debt and launched a 5-year plan in 1946 that covered everything from the woman's right to vote to shipbuilding.

Perón won re-election in 1951, but economic difficulties in the country led to a growing opposition. The death of Evita in 1952, increasing labor unrest, high levels of corruption and his conflict with the Catholic Church in such an overwhelmingly Catholic country as Argentina contributed to his ouster from office in an army-navy coup in September 1955.

He went into exile in Paraguay, eventually settling in Madrid under Franco. After Perón the overthrow in 1955, the ruling class took steps almost immediately to foster the development of democracy, which in reality was a fig leaf for their brutality and greed. Arturo Frondizi was groomed to take over as the first “democratic” President. In this venture he was backed by a millionaire ex-Communist named Rogelio Frigerio, who defined democracy as "that system where money speaks louder than principles." It was no accident that an ex-Communist would lend his energy and resources to such a project. As a Communist, Frigerio - following the party line - was for the overthrow of Perón. Now as a capitalist, he could have his cake and eat it too. Using funds from Frigerio, Frondizi launched a magazine titled "Qué" that recruited both rightist and leftist talent. All you needed to get a job was a facile pen and hatred for the Perónist legacy. Meanwhile, Frigerio had no trouble making pals with the military, even though his magazine was promoting 'democracy'. Paying heed to Mexico's revolutionary President Alvaro Obregón, who once said, "I do not know of a single general able to resist a cannonade of one million pesos," Frigerio got no less than two hundred generals to serve on the boards of corporations he either influenced, owned or controlled.

Once Frondizi was elected, he gave the oligarchy tax concessions and lucrative contracts, all in the interests of the kind of 'development' promoted by the likes of Walt Rostow and Brad DeLong. This went hand in hand with opening up Argentina to aggressive foreign investment. To show his sincerity, he agreed to pay American corporations $60 million for twenty-two power plants expropriated by Perón.

Although some projects were successful (joint oil exploration with Standard Oil in Patagonia), others were colossal flops. Steel production had ground to a halt. By 1962 the country was only producing 600,000 tons when it needed 3,000,000. Meat production dropped from a high of 145,000 metric tons under Perón to 87,000 by the end of 1961.

With the drop off in production, a destructive trade imbalance ensued:

Year     Deficit (in millions)
1960     $237
1961     $450
1962     $640

These imbalances, in turn, caused the money supply to tighten up and inflation outran wage increases. In the period following the overthrow of Perón, wages went up 400 percent while the price of food went up 750 percent. The economic contradictions deepened. This led to a series of workers revolts in cities like Cordoba where auto workers built barricades and fought the army and police. Due to a combination of political immaturity and sectarianism, a revolution did not occur in Argentina despite a clear desire for fundamental change.

Throughout 18 years of exile, however, Perón retained his labor support and influence in Argentine politics. His popular support never faded entirely. From afar he controlled opposition to the sitting Argentinian government. During Perón's absence, the movement increasingly fragmented in a left-wing movement against the military dictatorship and rightist unions while Perón left his sympathies quite unclear for strategic reasons.

In Argentina, the 1950s and 1960s were marked by frequent changes of government and low economic growth and continued social and labor demands. When the governments failed to revive the economy and suppress escalating terrorism from groups like the pro-Perón Montoneros in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the way was open for Perón's return. General Alexander Lanusse had taken power in March 1971 and had declared his intention to restore constitutional democracy by 1973. From exile Perón supported left-wing Peronists and the more active unions.

Even though the party was officially forbidden during most of this time, disguised Peronist groups constantly gained a third of the electorate. In 1970 a Peronist guerrilla group, the Montoneros, made its name by kidnapping General Aramburu. The ransom demand was the corpse of Evita.

He was finally allowed to return to Argentina in 1973. The tensions within his movement resulted in the battle of Ezeiza airport when he finally triumphantly returned to Buenos Aires. On March 11, 1973, Argentina held general elections. Although Perón was prevented from running, voters elected his stand-in, Hector Campora, as President. Campora resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections. By now Argentina was in such shambles political leaders were literally begging Perón to return. Perón traveled back to his homeland, and won a decisive electoral victory. He became President for a second time in October 1973 with his third wife Isabel de Perón as Vice President.

The new Perón regime was disrupted by conflict between his leftist and rightist supporters as Perón became more right-wing, there was a high level of terrorist acts. The government resorted to a number of emergency decrees to try and restore public order. Perón died in office on July 1, 1974 with the problems unresolved and was succeeded by his widow Isabel. She was overthrown on March 24, 1976 and prompty replaced by a military junta.

Perón is buried in Chacarita Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina. His movement lives on in Argentina and he will always live on in the hearts of his people as the greatest leader their country ever had. The era had a momentous impact on Argentina's political landscape. It politicised all sectors of society. The Partido Justicialista has remained the country's foremost political force until the present day. Since Perón, few Argentines could identify themselves as patriotic without being Peronist at the same time. It was equally difficult to champion social justice without claiming to fulfill the work begun by Perón in the early forties. All attempts to put an end to Peronism in Argentina failed.

The Legacy of Juan Peron

Juan Peróns ideology would be dubbed Peronism and became a central influence in Argentine political parties. Peron liked to call his ideology the "Third Way" or "Justicialismo", trying to steer clear between capitalism and socialism. Among historians, however, Peróns policy and political style has always been contested. Many would agree on the terms "nationalist" and "populist", some use "corporatist" or "authoritarian" and a few stress fascist influences. Peronism is certainly a key set of ideas to be considered when we look at Argentina's history since World War II. In order to gain a deeper understanding of Peronism itself we have to focus on two crucial issues: one is the general tendencies of Argentine nationalism which were "in the air" before Perón came to power. The domination of a liberal nationalism was severely challenged in the 1930s by a group of historians who called themselves revisionists who arguably influenced the ideas of Perón. However, their more authoritarian fractions were particularly alienated by Perón's appeal to the popular masses as well as by his unwillingness to appoint them to office and to idealise Rosas in education.

The second issue we have to take into consideration are Argentina's broader political, social and economic constellations in the first half of the twentieth century. While the "descamisados", i.e. the extremely poor migrants who poured into Buenos Aires from the hinterland, benefited from Evita's personal allocations, Perón recruited his most loyal supporters from a more established urban working class that was organised before 1943. As Secretary of Welfare in the military government from 1943-45 Perón managed to colonise their unions with a tutelary deal: the unions relinquished the right to go on strike, while Perón guaranteed they profited from his politics of redistribution. This intimate relationship, however, could hardly curb the increasing resentment against Peronism in the more oligarchic ranks of the army, which were responsible for his overthrow. 

One crucial problem was that the poor strata lacked serious political representation before 1946. The Radical Party discredited itself when the Yrigoyen government caused a massacre of striking workers in 1919. The governments of the 1930s lacked any democratic legitimation and often sought to restore the oligarchic order that had existed before 1916 which was not popular among the working class either. Under such circumstances Perón's offer to make the poor an integral part of the nation did not fall on deaf ears.

Despite the strong corporatism, it is certainly problematic to label Perón's regime as fascist (see Buchrucker). The mass mobilisation, the indoctrination, Perón's oft-cited admiration for Mussolini, the tight grip on the media, the personalist leadership and the repression of the opposition were certainly all elements pointing in a totalitarian direction. But Peronism did not compound a racist ideology, nor did it show elements of counter-revolutionary reaction, so characteristic in fascism. Also, Perón's room for manoeuvre was limited by domestic political factors and the country's difficult economic situation after World War II. He effectively nationalised the British-owned railways, introduced suffrage for women, but his economic policy was less anti-imperialist than he claimed. A crisis of the export economy, the tragic death of Evita in 1952 and a clumsy anti-clerical campaign all contributed to a dramatic fall in his popularity and ultimately to his overthrow in 1955.

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