Review by Choice Review
A solid work on the history of Argentine labor movements from the founding of the First International in Argentina in 1872 to the graphic transformation of the labor movements under Juan Domingo Per;on and his heirs. For most readers, the last chapters on the labor movements since Per;on are most exciting. Munck argues that there was no division in their support to Peronism between the old urban and new migrant working classes, as previously believed. This revisionist view is further strengthened by the argument that the rise of Peronism was willingly embraced by labor, when the workers remained convinced the general was willing to grant the status that was out of their reach for so long. Munck places the Per;on-labor relationship in the new light of an emerging partnership of the late 1940s; his perspective helps explain the difficulty in sustaining this relationship during the second Per;on rule in the 1970s. It is significant, however, to note that in the 1970s, Per;on and his successor, Presidenta Isabel, spent much of their time attempting to depoliticize Peronist unions of the left. Worsening economic and social conditions, cum Isabel's bumbling acts, only turned the labor unions into cripplingly effective strikers. Labor brought the Per;ons to power as the symbol of their renewed unity of 1973, but in the end, the fractious unions failed to defend the Isabel Per;on government from the 1976 military coup. Peronist unionism died with the general; the new generation of labor leaders is in search of a new political role more consistent with a democratic society. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-E.-S. Pang, Colorado School of Mines
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
