The General Workers' Union ( es, Unión General de Trabajadores; abbreviated UGT) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

labor confederation from 1903 to 1909. It was founded in 1903 as a rival to the country's first national labor confederation, the

Argentine Workers' Federation The Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (Spanish: ''Federación Obrera Regional Argentina''; abbreviated FORA), founded in , was Argentina's first national labor confederation. It split into two wings in 1915, the larger of which merged into ...

(FOA), known as the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA) from 1905. Around this time, the FOA had become more openly

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

, leading to tension between the socialist

syndicalist Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pr ...

s and the anarchists in the federation. The UGT was thus founded by the former and it was more moderate than its predecessor. Unlike the FOA, it did not discourage participation in elections and encouraged its members to become Argentine citizens - as the majority of the Argentine working class at the time consisted of European

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

who were thus disenfranchised. Nonetheless, it claimed that

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

"can be an effective means of struggle", but rejected starting it for "violent ends". This position became more radical in the following years as the relations between the syndicalists in the UGT and the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

became more strained, and in 1906 the UGT declared that the general strike was "an arm of struggle of superior effectiveness". The UGT had 7,500 members in 1904, membership peaked at 10,000 in 1906. Despite the two organizations' rivalry, there was a lot of cooperation between the FORA and the UGT. Together, they fought against the 1902

Residence Law Ideas and practices of nationality and citizenship in the Republic of Argentina (and before that, in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and the Inca Empire) have changed with distinct periods of its history, including but not limited to period ...

, which allowed the expulsion of subversive aliens and collaborated on many strikes. On the local level, the cooperation was even more intense. During its last years of existence, the UGT was unable to gain members. Therefore, it merged with the more moderate syndicalists in the FORA in 1909, to form the

Argentine Regional Workers' Confederation Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish language, Spanish (Grammatical gender, masculine) or (Grammatical gender, feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be resident ...

(CORA). Pg. 29 and Thompson 1990, pg. 170, 172.

References

{{Trade unions in Argentina 1903 establishments in Argentina Syndicalism National trade union centers of Argentina Organizations disestablished in 1909 Trade unions established in 1903