Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation

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The Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation (Spanish: Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya, FORP) was a Paraguayan trade union center. Established by anarcho-syndicalists in 1906, for a time, the FORP was the only trade union center in the country, organizing a series of strike actions in various different trades. During the Paraguayan Civil War of 1911–1912, the FORP was subjected to political repression and went into a decline, with some unions in the labor movement moving away from anarcho-syndicalism towards reformism. In 1916, the FORP was reorganized into the Regional Workers' Center of Paraguay (CORP), which continued to uphold its anarcho-syndicalist platform.

After the Paraguayan defeat in the War of the Triple Alliance, which had caused a severe labor shortage in the country, the government of the Colorado Party introduced labor laws which bound workers to their jobs through a system of debt slavery.^[1] By the 1880s, Paraguayan workers began organizing themselves into benefit societies, the first workers' organizations in the country, which organized mutual aid and encouraged political participation.^[2] In May 1886, a typographers' society was reorganized into a trade union, the first in the country's history. It was followed soon after by unions of construction workers, carpenters, tailors, postal workers and bakers, the latter of whom carried out the country's first strike action in October 1886.^[3]

Between 1889 and 1904, 15 strike actions took place in Asunción, where workers demanded the eight-hour day, wage increases and other improvements to working conditions.^[4] During this period, the Panic of 1890 caused a severe recession, provoking widespread discontent that led to the establishment of the first anarchist groups in Paraguay. By the early 1900s, Italian anarchists had established contact with Paraguayan trade unions.^[5] Attempts were also made throughout the 1890s and early 1900s to establish a national trade union center, some with the support of the Liberal Party, although these were all short-lived.^[6]

The Liberal Revolution of 1904 was initially supported by the Paraguayan labor movement, which in turn received sympathy from the administrations of Juan Bautista Gaona and Cecilio Báez.^[7] But as the economy industrialised, by 1906, strike actions were becoming increasingly frequent, as workers demanded wage increases and reforms such as the abolition of child labor.^[8] Over the first three years of liberal governance in Paraguay, roughly nineteen industrial disputes took place.^[9]

On 22 April 1906, three of Asunción's trade unions, representing graphic designers, carpenters and drivers, joined together,^[10] establishing the first national trade union center in the country: the Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation (Spanish: Federación Obrera Regional Paraguaya; FORP).^[11] Its founding members included M. Amarilla, L. Castellani, José Cazzulo, G. Recalde and José Serrano.^[12] The FORP, established according to the tenets of anarcho-syndicalism,^[13] was a decentralized and federalist organization, in which its member sections had complete autonomy.^[14] Drawing from the programme of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA),^[15] the FORP aligned itself against political parties^[16] and declared as its goal the establishment of a free association of producers.^[14]

Soon after its founding, on 1 May 1906, the FORP held the country's first International Workers' Day demonstration,^[17] which went ahead despite police attempts to shut it down.^[18] That same day, the FORP also began publishing its official organ El Despertar,^[19] a monthly periodical that published 11 issues during its print run; the paper carried articles about the anarchist movements in Europe and Latin America, and printed works by authors such as Peter Kropotkin and Anselmo Lorenzo; it also published reports of the FORP's activities, named and shamed known strikebreakers and encouraged its members to pay their union dues promptly.^[18]

In the wake of the Panic of 1907, the FORP organized a series of strike actions by trolley-car drivers, printers and railroad workers, the latter of whom received significant support from the press and succeeded in securing a wage increase.^[20] The following year, the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist Rafael Barrett began publishing the journal El Germinal and spoke at the FORP's First Conference of Paraguayan Workers.^[21] Barrett, who coordinated between the various anarcho-syndicalist organizations of South America and advocated for the rights of Native Paraguayans, soon became the FORP's thought leader.^[22]

In July 1908, infighting within the Liberal Party culminated in a coup by Emiliano González Navero, initiating a period of economic recession and political instability. Although the labor movement in Asunción was demobilized by the affair, trade unions outside the capital began to flourish, with tannin workers in the Chaco region carrying out a successful strike for wage increases. The successive presidencies of Manuel Gondra, Albino Jara and Liberato Marcial Rojas grew increasingly hostile towards the labor movement, meeting strike actions with violent repression, dismissals, arrests and even deportation.^[23] Rafael Barrett was himself deported during this period,^[24] although he continued to publish critiques of the Paraguayan yerba maté companies and Liberal Party after his return to Spain.^[25]

During the Paraguayan Civil War of 1911–1912, unions were prevented from carrying out any action and the FORP effectively dissolved. After the war, the FORP resumed its activities,^[23] but by this time, a split had developed within the labor movement.^[26] Many workers began moving away from anarcho-syndicalism and some came under the influence of the Colorado Party, despite the FORP's polemics against it.^[23] By 1913, reformists had broken away from the FORP and established the Unión Gremial del Paraguay [es] (UGP),^[27] which brought together 14 unions of different trades.^[28] In October 1913, the FORP reformed itself and reaffirmed its anarcho-syndicalist ideals; as its new executive committee, it established a Federal Council, which consisted of 4 carpenters, 2 mechanics, 1 printer and 1 shoemaker, as well as a number of intellectuals. The FORP returned to organizing trade unions, now in direct competition with the UGP.^[29]

After the outbreak of World War I caused a recession in Paraguay, both the UGP and FORP declined into inactivity. But from 1916, an increased demand for Paraguayan agricultural exports led to a resurgence in the domestic labor movement, as several new trade unions were established, displacing much of the old guard. On 6 August 1916, the 9 unions of the FORP reorganized themselves,^[30] establishing the Regional Workers' Center of Paraguay (Spanish: Centro Obrero Regional del Paraguay; CORP),^[31] which adopted a modified version of the FORP's anarcho-syndicalist platform.^[30]