Orthodox Peronism is a topic that has generated great interest and debate in modern society. For years, Orthodox Peronism has been the subject of study, discussion and controversy in various fields, including politics, science, culture and history. Its relevance and impact on people's lives make it a topic of great importance for understanding today's world. Over the years, a wide spectrum of opinions and points of view on Orthodox Peronism have developed, which has contributed to enriching the knowledge and understanding of this phenomenon. In this article, we will explore some of the most relevant perspectives and reflections around Orthodox Peronism, with the aim of analyzing its impact and significance in contemporary society.
Argentine political ideology
Orthodox Peronism
Peronismo Ortodoxo
José Ignacio Rucci was the most important orthodox traditional syndicalist.
^A: The Orthodox Peronist economic management in the government of Isabel Perón, was labeled as neoliberal.[30]
Orthodox Peronism, Peronist Orthodoxy,National Justicialism,[31] or right-wing Peronism for some specialists,[32] is a faction within Peronism, a political movement in Argentina that adheres to the ideology and legacy of Juan Perón. Orthodox Peronists are staunch supporters of Perón and his original policies, and they reject any association with Marxism or any other left-wing ideologies. Some of them are aligned with far-right elements.[33] Orthodox Peronism also refers to the Peronist trade union faction that split from the “62 organizations" and that opposed the “legalists", who were more moderate and pragmatic. They were also known as “the hardliners", “the 62 standing with Perón" and they maintained an orthodox and verticalist stance.[34] Orthodox Peronism had been in several conflicts with the Tendencia Revolucionaria, for example during the Ezeiza massacre.
Origin of the denomination
The term "orthodox Peronism" emerged during the Peronist resistance following the 1955 coup, a period when historical revisionism took hold, deepening the connection between Peronism and nationalism. While the Peronist government had some ties with nationalists, it had not embraced a revisionist historical view, and the nationalists did not play a dominant role in government policy. It was only after 1955, amidst the context of resistance and under the influence of nationalist thought, that orthodox Peronism began to take shape. This marked a dual process: Peronism began adapting to nationalist ideals, while nationalists reappropriated and redefined key elements of Perón’s original discourse.
This convergence was fraught with tensions. The most intransigent and uncompromising sectors of Peronism emerged during this time, rejecting any form of negotiation with the government. These groups distanced themselves from the more conciliatory tendencies that arose within Peronism in the 1960s, including the neoperonist and vandorist factions. When referring to the traditional orthodox current, it is important to recognize a coalition of unions and organizations that, despite their loyalty to Peronist verticality, initially opposed leaders like Rodolfo Ponce and right-wing unionism. Many of these union leaders gained their influence during the labor conflicts of the early 1960s, such as the "Plan de Huerta Grande" and the "Plan de Lucha" in 1964. This orthodox faction was largely represented by the Secretaries of the AEC (Ezequiel Crisol) and the UOM (Albertano Quiroga), supported by unions with large memberships, though they wielded limited political influence at the time.
Peronism underwent a profound transformation during the campaign "Luche y Vuelve", which culminated in Perón's return to power in 1973. Tensions between the union sectors and the Peronist left, which had backed Cámpora’s government, escalated when Perón took office. The far-left faction of Peronism represented by the Montoneros entered a conflict with the Peronist trade unions, which forced Perón to give concessions to labour bureaucracy and act against the left-wing Peronists, given the threat of trade unions turning against Perón.[35] According to Ronaldo Munck, Perón was not so far from Tendencia Revolucionaria in terms of economic ideology, but rather mass mobilisation: "The purely anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchic political programme of the Montoneros ("national socialism") was not incompatible with Peron's economic project of "national reconstruction", but their power of mass mobilisation was."[36]
According to Donald C. Hodges, "three forces contended for Peron's ear during his third government and for his mantle after he died: montonerismo on the Left, lopezreguismo on the Right, and vandorismo in the Center." Montoneros refused to ally themselves with the vandorist trade unions in order to isolate López, seeing their relationship with the labor bureaucracy as antagonistic instead. This led to López faction successfully aligning itself with the Peronist trade unions. The traditional Peronist sectors—union orthodoxy and right-wing Peronists—formed a verticalist alliance that established a new Peronist orthodoxy. This group sought to marginalize and suppress the left-wing faction of the movement, which held onto its revolutionary ideals.[37]
Orthodox Peronism from this point onward came to represent the factions that, in the name of verticalism, opposed any alignment with Marxism or the Peronist left. Those loyal to Perón and his wife, Isabel Martínez de Perón, began to identify themselves as orthodox Peronists, defending the "Peronist homeland" against the "socialist homeland" advocated by the left-wing Revolutionary Tendency. During Raúl Lastiri’s interim presidency and after Perón’s death, this new orthodox coalition used both institutional and extralegal means to push out and marginalize the left-wing heterodoxy, which included leftist Peronists and their aligned governors and officials. This led to increased political violence within the Peronist movement, further aggravated by armed guerrilla activities, marking one of the most violent periods in Argentina’s history.[33][24]
Ideology
Until 1973
Initially, orthodox Peronism encompassed those Peronist sectors that followed the Peronist ideals to the letter and opposed the neo-Peronist sectors of the time, as Perón expressed in his speeches:
“We have, yes, an ideology and a doctrine within which we are developing. Some are on the right of that ideology and others are on the left, but they are in the ideology. Those on the right protest because these on the left are, and those on the left protest because those on the right are, and I don’t know which of the two is right in the protest. But that is something that does not interest me."(english) (spanish)
— Juan Domingo Perón, 8 de setiembre de 1973
It was mainly organized under the orthodox union leadership. This traditional orthodoxy was part of the National Transference Table.
Since 1973
With the return of Perón, Orthodox Peronism mainly advocated its total adherence to the governments of Perón and Isabel Perón, highlighting that the twenty Peronist truths were relevant and nothing else (emphasizing it to the tendency); the opposition to the revolutionary youth sectors of Peronism and the "Homeland Socialist", which it considered alien to the movement; and the reaffirmation of the Third Position distancing itself from both United States and the Soviet Union.[2][38] Orthodox Peronism positioned itself as the opposite of the left-wing Revolutionary Peronism, objecting to the ideas of armed struggle and Marxist elements of revolutionary Peronism.[39]
Before 1973, Perón himself did not consider right-wing Peronists as "orthodox" or the most loyal faction; up to 1973, Perón supported the left-wing "special formations" of Peronism and denigrated several men who would later claim the label of Orthodox Peronism. Juan Luis Besoky writes that in fact many Orthodox Peronists were either newcomers to the Peronist movement, or were reluctant to follow Perón's directives, contrary to their label.[39] Even following Perón's conflict with the Montoneros between 1973 and 1974, in his last speech from June 1974, he denounced "the oligarchy and the pressures exerted by imperialism upon his government", considered an implication that he was being manipulated by the Peronist right.[40]
The term of right-wing Peronism is included within the parameter of the orthodoxy, but not only, since the term could denote old Justicialists or centrists/centre-rightists who simply wanted to distance themselves from the postulates of the tendency. The distinction of the orthodox organizations of "far right" obeys to that these last ones assumed the fight against the Marxist advance within the Peronist movement through the armed violence, with a marked antisemitic, anticommunist and antisynarchist bias.[2][41]
In the seventies, there were several terrorist organizations that adhered to this Peronism. Among the main groups of Orthodox Peronism include the Orthodox Peronist Youth, with Adrián Curi as executive secretary; Concentration of the Peronist Youth, with Martín Salas as organization secretary; Peronist Union Youth, which has Claudio Mazota in t.he union secretariat; the Iron Guard, the FalangistNational University Concentration; the Peronist Youth of the Argentine Republic, National Student Front, which had Víctor Lorefice as press and finance secretary, and the neo-Nazi and Antisemite organization the Tacuara Nationalist Movement is also part of this movement. The Alianza Anticomunista Argentina (AAA) also Is included, although it is not yet clear if it is its own political organization, a mere death squad, or a confederation of right-wing groups.[49] Other minor groups such as the Comando Rucci are also part of this denomination.[50]
^Bonavena, Pablo Augusto (UBA / UNLP). (2007). La ofensiva de Perón y la ortodoxia sindical contra los gobernadores de la Tendencia: notas sobre los casos de San Luis y Catamarca. XI Jornadas
Interescuelas/Departamentos de Historia. Departamento de Historia. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Universidad de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán.
^Besoky, Juan Luis (2010). "La revista El Caudillo de la Tercera Posición: órgano de expresión de la extrema derecha". Conflicto Social (in Spanish). 3 (3): 7–28. ISSN1852-2262. Retrieved 5 April 2023. "Será a través de la consolidación del revisionismo histórico luego del ’55 que se irán tejiendo vínculos cada vez más sólidos entre el peronismo y el nacionalismo. Si bien ya existía alguna relación con el gobierno peronista, sabemos que éste nunca fue revisionista en su lectura de la historia y que incluso la presencia de nacionalistas en el gobierno distó de ser hegemónica. Será recién a partir del ’55 en el marco de la resistencia y a través del nacionalismo histórico que podremos ver la conformación de manera muy embrionaria de un peronismo ortodoxo."
^Alonso, Dalmiro (2012). "Ideología y violencia organizada en la Argentina en los años de la Guerra Fría". repositoriosdigitales.mincyt.gob.ar. Retrieved 6 April 2023. "Para definir al peronismo ortodoxo, se parte del conglomerado de agrupaciones y tendencias que, ya sea teniendo su origen en el propio movimiento peronista o fuera de él, construyeron a partir de su experiencia social una concepción de la ideología peronista rescatando, alimentando y potenciando los rasgos más conservadores de la misma."
^"PROVINCIAL CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE TREND AND ORTHODOXY. La Rioja, a case study". www.google.com. Retrieved 10 March 2023. «It was another significant expression that designated all those actors located in the so-called Peronist right; but that, ultimately, went beyond it since it could also include the centrist or moderate sectors of Peronism. It was neither more nor less than his quintessential opponent: the Peronist Orthodoxy.»
^Carta politica (in Spanish). Sociedad Anonima Editora Sarmiento. June 1974. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
^Besoky, Juan Luis (2010). "La revista El Caudillo de la Tercera Posición: órgano de expresión de la extrema derecha". Conflicto Social (in Spanish). 3 (3): 7–28. ISSN1852-2262. Retrieved 5 April 2023. "Sin embargo, no todas las teorías conspirativas son antisemitas. También entre los responsables de la conspiración figuran el capitalismo salvaje, el individualismo acérrimo y el comunismo, entre otros. Dentro de las visiones conspirativas se destaca la figura de la “sinarquía"."
^Besoky, Juan Luis (2010). "La revista El Caudillo de la Tercera Posición: órgano de expresión de la extrema derecha". Conflicto Social (in Spanish). 3 (3): 7–28. ISSN1852-2262. Retrieved 5 April 2023. "Sin embargo, no todas las teorías conspirativas son antisemitas. También entre los responsables de la conspiración figuran el capitalismo salvaje, el individualismo acérrimo y el comunismo, entre otros. Dentro de las visiones conspirativas se destaca la figura de la “sinarquía"."
^Besoky, Juan Luis (24 May 2013). "La derecha peronista en perspectiva". Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos. Nouveaux Mondes Mondes Nouveaux – Novo Mundo Mundos Novos – New World New Worlds (in Spanish). doi:10.4000/nuevomundo.65374. hdl:11336/4140. ISSN1626-0252. Retrieved 5 April 2023. "…hasta llegar a las expresiones más furibundamente antimarxistas y antisemitas de la extrema derecha."
^"Rodolfo Walsh, a palabra definitiva: Escritura e militância" (Rodolfo Walsh). Consultado el 29 de marzo de 2023.«Las escenas del alboroto de las masas en la mira de la voluntad fascista de estas alas del peronismo ortodoxo.»
^Bohoslavsky, Ernesto; Echeverría, Olga; Vicente, Martin (2024) . Márquez, Florencia (ed.). "Las derechas argentinas en el siglo XX. El retorno democrático y el largo plazo". Revista de Historia Americana y Argentina. 59 (2). UNICEN: 1–4. eISSN2314-1549. ISBN978-987-4901-49-1. ISSN0556-5960.
^Alonso, Dalmiro (2012). "Ideología y violencia organizada en la Argentina en los años de la Guerra Fría". repositoriosdigitales.mincyt.gob.ar. Retrieved 9 December 2023.«Finalmente, en julio de 1975, se produjo la principal escisión en el seno del peronismo antizquierdista que opuso a la derecha moderada que controlaba las 62 organizaciones de la C.G.T. a los ultraderechistas dirigidos por López Rega.»
^"PROVINCIAL CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE TREND AND ORTHODOXY. La Rioja, a case study". www.google.com. Retrieved 10 March 2023. It was another significant expression that designated all those actors located in the so-called Peronist right; but that, ultimately, went beyond it since it could also include the centrist or moderate sectors of Peronism. It was neither more nor less than his quintessential opponent: the Peronist Orthodoxy.
^Besoky, Juan Luis. Loyal and Orthodox, the Peronist right. A coalition against revolutionary? (in Spanish). Argentina. pp. https://www.ungs.edu.ar/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Besoki.pdf. Not all the Peronist organizations that were critical of the left can be encompassed within the right, such as the case of Guardia de Hierro, which later became the Unique Organization for Generational Transfer (OUTG). Taking into account the work carried out on this organization by Tarruella (2005), Anchou and Bartoletti (2008) and Cucchetti (2010), among others, it would be pertinent to place it in the political center, at a more or less equidistant distance (depending on the moment) from the right and left of Peronism. In this case it would be more appropriate to locate them within the field of orthodox Peronism but not of the right.
^Corigliano, Francisco (2007). "Colapso estatal y política exterior: el caso de la Argentina (des)gobernada por Isabel Perón (1974-1976)". Revista SAAP: Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Político (in Spanish). 3 (1): 55–79.
^James, Daniel (1988). Resistance and integration: Peronism and the Argentine working class, 1946-1976. Cambridge University Press. pp. 240–244. ISBN0-521-46682-2.
^Munck, Ronaldo (April 1979). "The Crisis of Late Peronism and the Working Class 1973-1976". Bulletin of the Society for Latin American Studies (30). Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS): 10–32.
^"PROVINCIAL CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE TREND AND ORTHODOXY. La Rioja, a case study". www.google.com. Retrieved 10 March 2023. It was another significant expression that designated all those actors located in the so-called Peronist right; but that, ultimately, went beyond it since it could also include the centrist or moderate sectors of Peronism. It was neither more nor less than his quintessential opponent: the Peronist Orthodoxy.
^Corigliano, Francisco (2007). "Colapso estatal y política exterior: el caso de la Argentina (des)gobernada por Isabel Perón (1974-1976)". Revista SAAP: Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Político (in Spanish). 3 (1): 55–79.
^Guadagno, Facundo. El partido político Segunda República y Ricardo Lirio: Una mirada antropólogica sobre un nuevo nacionalismo argentino (in Spanish).