STAFF NOTES: LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS NOVEMBER 5, 1975[SANITIZED] - 1975/11/05

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02693032
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: November 5, 1975

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Latin American Trends
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Efe relt
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3.5(c)
Novemb,:,,r 1975
No. 0534/75
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3.5(c)
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S E C
Argentina: Caving in to Terrorist Pressure
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November 5, 1975
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Argentina: Caving in to Terrorist Pressure
The Argentine government has again acceded tr-
union pressure, which now includes the very real
threat of industrial terrorism, in granting a major
wage hike. This action highlights the Peron admin-
istration's continued failure to come to terms with
labor, its major supporter, and it destroys the
agreement that Economy Minister Cafiero made last
week with Peronist business and labor leaders to tie
salaries to increases in productivity.
The very name "social truce' given to the agree-
ment implies that there were no illusions about the
intense conflict of interests generated by rapidly
escalating inflation and other major economic prob-
lems. It would now seem that labor leaders responded
to Cafiero's appeal without consulting their rank
and file supporters,who would have been barred by the
agreement from striking for six months and forced to
forego cost-of-living wage increases which in many
cases had been negotiated months ago.
Another complicating factor is the upsurge in
industrial terrorism. The recent kidnaping of the
production manager of the Mercedes Benz assembly plant
is illustrative and may be only a hint of violence to
come. Since October 8, some 4,000 workers at the
plant have been striking on demands that go far beyond
cost-of-lying wage adjustments. They want laid-off
workers to be reinstated and their union to be allowed
to reorganize itself democratically. The company could
probably have settled with the workers long ago if they
had not also been challenging the authority of the
externally imposed union leaders--a factor that is
fundamental to Peronist doctrine and over which the
company has no control. So far the guerrilla kidnapers
have refused to discuss the terms of release until the
November 5, 1975
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strike is settled, dismissed workers are reinstated
and all employees are paid for their weeks on strike.
This is not an isolated incident. It appears
that the Peronist leftist Montoneros are now active
in all industrial centers of Argentina. Recently
Ricardo Balbin, the major political opposition
leader, took note of the situation by saying the
guerrillas are in the factor.ies."
The abrogation of the social truce thus con-
stitutes a defeat for union leaders as well as the
government. The labor movement is being radicalized
under them, and it may be only a matter of time be-
fore the middle class labor hierarchy is completely
ignored or deposed by the mass of workers. Under
Maria Estela Peron the government has shifted too far
to the right for too long for Peronism to retain the
ideological appeal it acquired under her late husband.
November 5, 1975
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