BY JOSEPH HANSEN
During the 1960s and 1970s mass protests of students and workers erupted throughout Latin America. In Argentina the upsurge was especially based in the working class. The following excerpt, from The Leninist Strategy of Party Building: The Debate on Guerrilla Warfare in Latin America by Joseph Hansen, gives a picture of the mobilizations by industrial workers and students there in 1969. The book is copyright 1979 by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission. Subheadings are by the Militant.

Since May 1969 the situation in Argentina has been prerevolutionary.

In that month the country was shaken by mass struggles touched off by student protests. A general strike paralyzed Rosario, Argentina's second largest city. Major flare-ups followed in various cities, the biggest and most violent being in Co'rdoba, hence the name Cordobazo for this historic struggle. The two big trade union federations called a nationwide solidarity strike. This widespread upsurge in May amounted to a semi-insurrection.

The use of the term semi-insurrection rather than spontaneous rebellion or uprising is deliberate. It accurately indicates the nature of the struggle - in the streets, with masses confronting the army and police; and the target the masses had in mind - the national government. What gave it the character of a semi-insurrection was the clear political aim of the mobilizations and confrontations - to bring down the government.

That is the profound difference from the uprisings in the Black ghettos in the United States, which were spontaneous rebellions, with no specific political demands either explicit or implicit.

But even the Argentine explosions were not insurrections. For that, a revolutionary leadership applying a clear program for the conquest of power was required. None of the mobilizations of the working class in Argentina has had this feature...

In Co'rdoba a series of struggles flared up on the eve of the May events. On February 24 the metalworkers voted to call a strike. Four days later, the workers of Luz y Fuerza (light and power) held assemblies. The struggles in this period were occasionally accompanied by marches. In the following month all the metalworkers went on strike, and in April the teachers began to mobilize, voting for a plan of struggle.

The Rosariazo and the Cordobazo
Turmoil broke out on the University of Corrientes campus on May 11. The issue was an arbitrary boost in prices at the student cafeteria. On May 15 the police killed a student. The campus uproar spread to Rosario on May 16. Two days later the police killed another youth.

The workers responded to the appeals of the students and staged a solidarity strike. The CGT [General Confederation of Labor] bureaucrats, sensing the rising tide, gave their endorsement to the strike. On May 21 the police killed a young metalworker. This led to street demonstrations and confrontations with the police. Barricades went up, and the masses, in a completely spontaneous manner, took over an area of twenty blocks.

Under the impact of what had happened in Rosario, Co'rdoba exploded.

Mass discontent had been building toward such an outcome in this powerful proletarian center, the seat of Argentina's auto and aviation industries. On May 5, the transport and metalworkers went out on strike. As a show of solidarity the CGT of Co'rdoba voted a twenty-four-hour general sympathy strike. This resulted in a confrontation with the police on May 14 in which a worker was wounded.

The students now stepped forward. Aroused by the events in Corrientes and enthused by the action of the workers, they organized a march. This was repressed. The medical students answered the police by organizing resistance in their own district. A week of struggle was then voted by the students. In face of the mounting tension, the police arrested Tosco, the leader of the light and power union. High school students began showing up at demonstrations organized by the university students. The Catholic university students joined in the struggle, and student demonstrations spread beyond Rosario and Co'rdoba to Tucumán and other cities.

General strike in Co'rdoba
Disregarding the wishes of the CGT bureaucrats, factory committees began to call for a general strike. The students declared full support for the action.

On May 30 and May 31, a thirty-six-hour general strike paralyzed Co'rdoba. It went through three stages:

1. With the rate of absenteeism in the main plants running at 98 percent, the workers marched to the center of the city. The police threw all their forces into the streets in a showdown fight. The battle swept over a large area and involved thousands of workers and students.

Besides throwing rocks and other missiles against the police, the workers and students began using Molotov cocktails. A small number of sharpshooters harassed the police from the tops of buildings.

The outcome was a defeat for the police. This marked the high point of the semi-insurrection.

2. The army entered the city at 5 p.m. The troops occupied key points and then spread out. Proceeding on foot, and firing at roofs, the troops drove back the demonstrating workers and students, regaining buildings they had occupied.

The workers and students retreated to their barrios (neighborhoods where they lived).

3. During the night several police stations were attacked and set on fire. Such actions continued the next day on a wide scale. Worker-student committees began to appear. They discussed how to resist the army and how to organize and coordinate the movement from the barrios. Propaganda began to be directed to the troops. A significant slogan was "Soldiers, you are our brothers. Don't shoot."  
 
 
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