Argentine far-right nationalist movement
Nacionalismo
was a
far-right
Argentine
nationalist
movement that around 1910 grew out of the "traditionalist" position, which was based on nostalgia for feudal economic relations and a more "organic" social order. It became a significant force in Argentine politics beginning in the 1930s.
[2]
Nacionalismo
was typically centred upon the support of
order
,
hierarchy
, a
corporative
society, militant
Catholicism
, and the landed estates (
latifundia
), combined with the hatred of
liberalism
,
leftism
,
Freemasonry
,
feminism
,
Jews
and
foreigners
.
[3]
It denounced
liberalism
and
democracy
as the prelude to
communism
.
[4]
The movement was also
irredentist
, declaring intentions to annex
Uruguay
,
Paraguay
,
Chile
and some southern and eastern parts of
Bolivia
and even the
British
-held territory of the
Falkland Islands
(Islas Malvinas) and its
dependencies
.
Nacionalismo
was strongly influenced by
Maurassisme
and Spanish
clericalism
as well as by
Italian fascism
and
Nazism
.
[5]
After the
1930 Argentine coup d'etat
,
Nacionalistas
firmly supported the entrenchment of an authoritarian corporatist state led by a military leader.
[6]
Nacionalistas
often refused to participate in elections because of their opposition to elections as a derivative of liberalism.
[7]
Its advocates were writers, journalists, a few politicians, colonels, and other junior military officers; the latter supported the Nationalists largely because, for most of their existence, they saw in the military the only potential political saviour of the country.
Ideology
[
edit
]
Nacionalismo
supported a "return to tradition, to the past, to sentiments authentically Argentine, ... [to] the reintegration of the nation with these essential values"; these essential values included Roman Catholicism, claiming that to the Church "the Nation should be linked as the body to the soul".
[8]
Nacionalismo
opposed
secular education
, accusing it of being "
Masonic
laicism
", and supported clerical control of education.
[9]
Nacionalismo
based its twin policy of opposition to
liberalism
and
socialism
, which it combined with its promotion of
social justice
, on the papal encyclicals of 1891 (
Rerum novarum
) and 1931 (
Quadragesimo anno
).
[10]
Nacionalismo
supported improving relations between the social classes to achieve the Catholic ideal of an organic, "harmonious" society.
[11]
History
[
edit
]
Beginning in the mid-1930s,
Nacionalistas
declared their concern for the
working classes
and support for social reform, with the newspaper
La Voz Nacionalista
declaring "The lack of equity, of welfare, of social justice, of humanity, has made the
proletariat
a beast of burden ... unable to enjoy life or the advances of civilization".
[12]
By the late 1930s, with industrial development increasing in the country,
Nacionalistas
promoted a policy of progressive
income redistribution
to allow more money to remain with wage-earners, thus allowing them to invest in and widen the economy, and increase industrial growth.
[13]
In the 1940s, the
Nacionalistas
rose from a fringe group to a substantial political force in Argentina.
[14]
In the 1940s, the
Nacionalistas
emphasized the need for
economic sovereignty
, requiring greater industrialization and the take-over of foreign companies.
[15]
By the 1940s, the
Nacionalistas
was effectively run by the military clique known as the
Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (GOU)
.
[16]
The GOU was highly suspicious of the threat of communism and the
Nacionalistas
supported the
revolution of 1943
.
[17]
Nacionalistas
took control of President
Pedro Pablo Ramirez
's junta in October 1943, changing Argentina's foreign policy by refusing to permit any further discussion with the
United States
on the issue of breaking Argentina's relations with the
Axis powers
.
[18]
The United States government responded by freezing the assets of Argentine banks in their country.
[19]
In power, the
Nacionalistas
pursued a policy of social justice by supporting the appointment of
Juan Peron
(who later became the
President of Argentina
) as the head of the department of labour on 28 October 1943.
[20]
Peron declared that the
Nacionalista
government was committed to a "revolution" that would keep national wealth in Argentina, give workers their dues, improve living standards without provoking
class conflict
, and attack both communism and international capitalism.
[21]
Facing pressure from the United States for Argentina to dissolve relations with the Axis powers, President Ramirez yielded on 26 January 1944. This was followed by
Nacionalistas
protesting this action and Ramirez banning all
Nacionalista
organizations in February.
[22]
Nacionalista
cabinet ministers resigned in protest, and the
Nacionalistas
subsequently overthrew Ramirez, retaining their hold on power of the government.
[23]
As an ideology,
Nacionalismo
was
militaristic
,
authoritarian
, and sympathetic to the rule of a modern
caudillo
, who the Nationalists were frequently either hoping for or reinterpreting history to locate in the past. Along these lines, a significant part of the intellectual work of Nacionalismo was the creation of
historical revisionism
as an academic movement in Argentina. Nationalist historians published several works challenging the work of the liberal historians who had forged the dominant historical narrative of Argentina and presented 19th-century dictator
Juan Manuel de Rosas
as the kind of benevolent authoritarian leader that the country still needed.
While the nationalists themselves never really managed to maintain political power despite participating in a handful of successful coups throughout the 20th century (see, for example,
Jose Felix Uriburu
). Their lasting legacy, however, is twofold: first, their enormous influence over the political discourse of contemporary Argentina, where right, left, and centre have all been heavily influenced by their discourse, in part through second-hand clerical and military influences and in part through Peron's adoption of some of their ideas and language.
Second, the
most recent military coup
in Argentina was largely directed and conducted by Nationalists in the Argentine armed forces and most certainly dictated by their ideological legacy
[
citation needed
]
. The
Montoneros
who were their targets were also heavily influenced by
Nacionalismo
, though their political convictions were very different from those of the military officers.
[
citation needed
]
References
[
edit
]
- Hodges, Donald C. Argentina, 1943-1976: The National Revolution and Resistance. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976.
- Rock, David.
Authoritarian Argentina: The Nationalist Movement, Its History and Its Impact
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
- The Heritage of World Civilizations Volume 2: Since 1500'
. Pearson Prentice Hall
- ^
a
b
Sandra McGee Deutsch.
Las Derechas: The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890-1939
. Stanford University Press, 1999. Pp. 210.
- ^
Leslie Bethell
.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 32.
- ^
Sandra McGee Deutsch, Ronald H. Dolkart.
The Argentine right: its history and intellectual origins, 1910 to the present
. SR Books, 1993. Pp. xvi.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 32.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 32-33.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 34.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 33.
- ^
David Rock.
Authoritarian Argentina: The Nationalist Movement, Its History and Its Impact
. Berkeley, California, USA: University of California Press, 1993. Pp. 100.
- ^
David Rock.
Authoritarian Argentina: The Nationalist Movement, Its History and Its Impact
. Berkeley, California, USA: University of California Press, 1993. Pp. 100.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 33.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 33.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 33.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 37.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 47.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 47.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 52.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 47.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 55.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 55.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 56.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 59.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 61.
- ^
Leslie Bethell.
The Cambridge History of Latin America: 1930 to Present
. Volume VIII. Cambridge, England, UK; New York, New York, USA; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. 61.