''Agrupación de Trabajadores Latinoamericanos Sindicalistas'' or ATLAS was a Latin American
trade union confederation in the early 1950s.
History
During the first presidency of General
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...
, "
workers attaches" were stationed at Argentina's Latin American embassies encouraging the creation of
Peronist
Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...
trade unions. After years of preparation, the Argentinian
CGT called a conference of trade unions in
Asunción, Paraguay in February 1952. This conference decided to set up a preparatory committee to create a new inter-American trade union confederation. With the help of the Mexican trade union
CROM
Crom or CROM may refer to:
Places
* Crom, a townland in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
* Crom Estate, a Northern Irish National Trust Property
** Crom Castle
* Ben Crom, a mountain in the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland
* Cr ...
a general congress was held in Mexico City which launched the new Agrupación de Trabajadores Latinoamericanos Sindicalistas.
The CGT had been barred from addressing the founding conference of
Confederación Interamericana de Trabajadores Confederación Interamericana de Trabajadores (CIT) was an international trade union confederation, founded in Lima, Peru, in 1948. It was founded on the initiative of AFL, as an alternative to the communist-led CTAL.Rubio, José Luis. ''Las intern ...
(forerunner of
ORIT), due to their criticism of U.S. trade union policies. The leader of the CROM delegation,
Luis Napoleón Morones
Luis Morones Negrete (1890 – 1964), also known as Luis Napoleón Morones, was a Mexican major union leader, politician, and government official. He was a pragmatic politician who experienced a rapid rise to prominence from modest roots and ma ...
, had protested this move at the CIT conference. Moreover, CGT was barred from joining ORIT once it was formed.
[ Rubio, José Luis. ''Las internacionales obreras en América''. Madrid: 1971. p. 85-86]
Headquartered in
Buenos Aires, ATLAS began an intense campaign across Latin America. Its
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
emphasized that it wished to "humanize capitalism",
[Coldrick and Jones p.1029] and provide a "third way" in the Latin American labour movement (different from the pro-U.S.
ORIT and the pro-communist
CTAL), arguing that Latin American trade unions should build unity without 'external' interference.
, leader of CTAL, on the other hand sought unity in action between CTAL and ATLAS (which like CTAL took up
anti-imperialist positions), a move which was rejected by ATLAS.
In 1954 the
Venezuelan pro-
Pérez
Pérez, or Perez as most commonly written in English, is a Castilian Spanish surname. Perez (pronounced Peretz, see below) is also common in people of Sephardic Jewish descent and is the 4th most common surname in Israel, most common surname not o ...
union federation
CNT joined ATLAS.
[ Alexander, Robert J. ''Rómulo Betancourt and the transformation of Venezuela''. New Brunswick, cop. 1982. p. 338] ATLAS also financed the
Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
, that favored
Rojas Pinilla.
ATLAS disappeared as a functioning organization in 1955, with the
overthrow of Juan Domingo Perón in Argentina. The CGT and ATLAS offices where stormed by the junta forces in November, and closed down.
In 1973, with Peron's return to power, the general secretary of the CGT announced the revival of ATLAS, but the attempt foundered.
[Coldrick and Jones pp.1029-30]
See also
*
José Alonso, Argentine representative of the CGT present at foundation
References
Inter-American trade union federations
Trade unions established in 1952
Trade unions disestablished in 1955
Peronism
Defunct transnational trade unions
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