The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-11-02
Dictator Peron
Apes Hitler In
Union Busting

VuIVn DuVShsu6
Brussels, Belgium (LPA)-Dic.
tator Juan Peron of Argentina is
following the footsteps of Other
modern tyrants.
From the beginning, he's aimed
at destroying the free trade unions
just as Adolph Hitler did in Ger
many before him, according to
Free Labour World, monthly jour
nal of the International Confeder-
alton of Free Trade Unions. That
Peron is succeeding was evident
in August, the ICFTU publication
says, when the 90-day strike of
Argentina's General Confederation
of Maritime & Allied Trades ended
in defeat.
Peron is smarter than Hitler in
some ways, the ICFTU study says.
By bribes and promises, the one
man government of Argentina has
induced a number of trade union
leaders to support him-"to offer
themselves for the chains he has
ready for them" Moreover, to gain
his ends Peron has used force, even
murder.
The Maritime Confederation, a
group of 20 seamen's and dock
workers unions, was the last free
labor organization left when it's
members struck last May. Strikes
detectives: reinstatement of work
ers victimized by the big govern
ment-owned Dodero Steamship Co. !;
implementation of an agreement
signed by the Ministry of Trans
port establishing a joint commit
tee recognition of the right of
unions to make their own union
policies.
The strike Immediately won
worldwide support from the Inter
national Transportworkers Fedora
tion to which the Argentine group
was affiliated (as are AFL sea-
mems unions in the US). The ITF
declared a boycott of Argentine
ships in ports throughout the
world. Dockers in other countries
refused to handle Argentine YES
sells. Nonetheless, Peron was able
to starve the maritime unions into
in 80 days. The unions
said their capacity" for economic
resistance" was exhausted" And
that was that.
Peron and his famous wife,
Evita, used some familiar tactics in
breaking the strike. On the one
hand, the strongly and traditional
ly anti-Communist ITF was den
ounced as "that notoriosly Com
munist-inspired organization" On
the other hand, Evita called the
maritime strike itself an "emin-
entity capitalistic movement" In
Evita Is her husbands
Minister of Labor for all practical
purposes.
The Maritime Confederation be-
came the last free labor group
after Peron, with Evita's help,
broke other big strikes. In Novem-
Der, 1949, the Sugar Workers in
Tucuman province struck for high
er wages. Presently, seven workers
we're arrested for holding an
illegal" meeting, and were tortur-
ed as Peron's men tried to wiring
confessions" from their lips. A
worker named Carlos Aguirre was
killed in the process. His mutilated
body was "found" by one of the
policemen who arrested him. Early
this year, strike of the Meat
Packers Union was crushed.
What Peron was up to broke
three years ago when representa-
lives of the AFL and the Railway
Labor Executives Association visit
ed Argentina on the dictator's own
invitation. apparently ly Peron
thought he had everything covered
up or he wouldn't have asked the
Americans down. But if he thought
so he was wrong. The Americanl
lnionists blistered him in a report
Of their trip.
The Americans discovered that
Peron had two tricks by which hel
gained control of the unions. OneI
was to withhold the legal recogni-
ton, the "personeria gremial,"
which Argentine unions must havel
to be legitimate, The other was toI
install his own administrators" tol
run union affairs. The administra-
sors either stripped a unions elect
ed officials of all power or held re-
peated elections until slate salts |
factory to the government was
elected. Joe Stain himself couldn't
10 much better.