Andrew Sage
Appearances
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Even after they went through everything they went through, they didn't lose their sight on what really mattered. Sadly, the 17 students and workers who remained in Encarnacion were arrested. Duarte found himself jailed and interned on Margarita Island after Liberal Party President José P. Cuguiari outlawed trade unions.
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Other revolutionaries were dropped off in the jungle to die at random points along the Parana River. Seven of the captured 17 met this fate, and the other 10 spent a few months in prison before being deported to Argentina. The movement then faced distinct challenges during the Chaco War from 1932 to 1935 between Paraguay and Bolivia, which halted much of the anarchist activism.
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Many anarchists joined the war effort reluctantly, including Duarte, who performed duties in the rearguard while working as a typesetter for various presses, including anarchist presses. With the Paraguayan victory, following the war, the return to domestic concern saw a resurgence of anarchist and labor activities.
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The government's crackdown of leftist ideologies in the late 1930s and 1940s under President Mori Niko's rule led to severe repression of anarchist and syndicalist groups.
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Duarte spent some time as a worker representative at the National Labor Department, or DNT, but was under considerable fire from the communists, who had taken hold of the trade union movement after anarchism waned in popularity. He finally resigned from his post in 1941 after a workers' coordinating committee of seamen, tram workers, beakers, print workers, and other trades
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issued a protest note to President Morinigo threatening to withdraw from the workers' delegate for the infringement of their rights of assembly, to unionize, and to strike. Of course, their protest note was completely ignored. The president's authoritarian tenure pushed several anarchist and socialist organizers into exile.
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There might be. But today, I want to continue our journey through Latin American anarchisms and their histories. Now, compared to all the other countries I've discussed so far, such as Peru and Chile and Argentina and Brazil and Cuba, this one had a bit less information about anarchism in its past.
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Duarte himself ended up in exile in Argentina by 1942, but eventually was able to return and reclaim his appointment as a worker representative. But then, not long after, he became a victim of a police crackdown during the 1944 general strike.
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After the labor movement was hijacked by the Republican Workers Organization after 1947, Duarte dropped out of trade union activity entirely and refocused to publishing articles in trade union publications abroad. and urgent research into Paraguayan trade union history. He had faced repeated arrests and took part in strikes anyway, advocating for workers' rights across various industries.
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He continued his activism against fascism and authoritarianism, operating from Argentina at times, while still supporting strikes at anarchist literature in Paraguay. The 1954 ascension to power of General Alfredo Streisand marked a significant period of intensified authoritarianism. Streisand's regime violently suppressed opposition, including anarchists, for over three decades.
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Even in his 70s, during the 1970s, Duarte was harassed by Stroessner's secret police. Many other anarchists were imprisoned, exiled, or disappeared by Stroessner, who imposed tight control of unions and labor organizing.
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The 1954-1989 dictatorship of Stroessner stifled anarchist activities severely and forced them underground, where they would have to preserve anarchist literature and ideas through secret print publications and solidarity movements.
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The result of this dictatorship was that anarchism in Paraguay experienced resurgence much later than other Latin American nations, with the spark rekindled only in the early 2000s. This rebirth of anarchist sentiment emerged largely within the punk counterculture and youth-led social movements, often interconnected with struggles for indigenous rights, economic justice, and environmental causes.
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The establishment of spaces like La Terraza and Anarchist Squad provided platforms for activists and community engagement, while publications such as Autonomia, Zine, and Grito fanzine disseminated anarchist ideals.
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Despite Paraguay's history of anarchist repression, these newer movements, however small, signify some small hope for a renewed interest in libertarian ideas within Paraguay, one that can be seen even more vibrantly in other parts of Latin America. Paraguayan anarchists have shown us that the drive for freedom and equality is a daily commitment to defy tyranny and resist exploitation.
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Despite facing decades of silencing and the destruction of dictatorship, anarchism did not disappear. The seeds of resistance lay dormant, but they are ready to bloom again as new generations can take up the struggle. As we conclude, let us remember the words of Rafael Barret, who fought tirelessly for the people he came to call his own. Justice, justice above all things.
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Justice, even if it costs blood. All power to all the people. Peace.
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So this will be a sort of a smaller sandwich anarchist history, perhaps fitting of the country that is sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil. I'm speaking, of course, about Paraguay, known for its fraught history of warfare, politically volatile landscape, series of dictatorships, and indigenously intertwined cultural and social fabric.
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Anarchism took root in this rather unique setting, and thanks to the work of Angel Capileti and a few other scattered sources, I've been able to piece together the history of anarchism in Paraguay. Without further ado, nos comencemos.
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For much of its early history, Paraguay's identity was distinct within South America, from its time as a Guarani settlement to its formation as a Spanish colony in the 16th century. Spanish Jesuit missionaries wielded significant influence, and for over a century, Paraguay was a self-sustained colony with a rigidly hierarchical system based on the Spanish casta system.
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Paraguay's economy primarily revolved around agriculture and cattle herding, unlike the mining economies in other Spanish territories. The Guarani people had a significant cultural impact throughout Paraguay's history, and their language and traditions remained central even as Paraguay evolved through the centuries.
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Even today, most of the population speaks some variety of Guarani alongside Spanish. Fast forward to the early 19th century, as South American nations began declaring independence from Spain, Paraguay took a unique approach.
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Rather than aligning with the neighboring revolutionary movements, Paraguay, under the leadership of José Gaspar Rodríguez de la Defensia, declared independence in 1811 and adopted an isolationist authoritarian path. Francia ruled as the country's supreme dictator for nearly three decades, envisioning a self-sufficient, hermetic society.
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He strictly controlled foreign influences, banned European migration, and restricted trade. By the mid-19th century, Paraguay had built up a significant state infrastructure under Francia's successor, Carlos Antonio López.
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However, this era of economic development was short-lived as Paraguay entered the catastrophic War of the Triple Alliance between 1864 and 1870 against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay over territorial disputes. This conflict proved disastrous for Paraguay as they suffered staggering losses. Nearly 70% of its population died, its economy was shattered, and its territory was significantly reduced.
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And yes, you heard me right, nearly 70% of its population perished, including most of its male population. In the war's aftermath, Paraguay was plunged into political chaos, economic ruin, and a period of foreign interventions. Due to the economic devastation of the war, the country became indebted to British creditors.
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And with that leverage, Britain pushed for the development of a free market economy and privatization, which brought Paraguay into closer contact with the global economy and eventually led to a more pronounced class divide and establishment of an exploitative agricultural export system.
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Land that had once been communally managed was swiftly privatized, driving indigenous communities and small farmers off their lands and into the workforce of larger estates. On those estates, workers would find themselves in debt bondage. Tied to the estates are small debts that workers owed to landowners would spiral into insurmountable debts that would become nearly impossible to repay.
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Labourers, called peonies, were typically paid in vouchers or scrip that could only be redeemed at the estate store, where prices were exorbitantly inflated. Any attempt to leave or challenge the conditions was met with violent repercussions from estate managers, creating a cycle of economic entrapment that was essentially slavery by another name.
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Paraguay became a country of ever more wealthy and powerful landowners with a struggling rural working class. As the 20th century approached, the labour struggles and social divisions within Paraguayan society were glaring.
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Crone inequality, exploitative working conditions, and the dislocation of indigenous communities created fertile ground for radical ideas among rural campesinos and urban workers. European immigrants fleeing political repression brought with them some rather radical ideas that began to resonate with Paraguayan workers who were desperate for a way out of their circumstances.
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For a people who had survived centuries of oppression and authoritarian rule, anarchism had a unique appeal. By the 1880s, workers in Paraguay had begun organizing mutual aid societies, and one such society of typographers would organize themselves into a union, the first in the country's history, by 1886.
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That same year saw the rise of construction workers, carpenters, tailors, postal workers, and baker's unions. Those bakers would also conduct the country's first ever strike action in October of 1886. The first distinctly anarchist publication I could find in Paraguay was organized by a group called Los Hijos del Chaco, who published the Libertarian Manifesto in 1892.
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They call themselves anarchist communists and declare their intent to abolish private property, the clergy, the state, and the armed forces. We seek the complete emancipation of the proletariat as we fight to abolish the unjust exploitation of man by man.
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We dedicate all of our moral and physical strength to overturn all tyrannies, to establish genuine liberty, equality, and fraternity in the human family. We seek to transform private property into a common good. We seek to do so because individual property is the basic cause of all the evils that afflict us.
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It is on that basis that the dregs of humanity, government, clerics, lawyers, militaries, entrepreneurs, maintain themselves in power, live as parasites, and the continued enjoyment of their plunder finances large armies with the products of our labor. End quote.
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Even prior to that manifesto, anarchists were making moves in the graphic, railway, and bakers' unions as early as 1889, fighting for and winning the eight-hour workday by 1901. Strike actions in this period were focused on that goal alongside wage increases and other improvements to working conditions.
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The anarchists also tried to establish a national trade union center, but unfortunately did not succeed. In 1892, thanks in part to the growing Spanish and Argentine immigrant populations, there was a wave of libertarian union formation throughout Paraguay.
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The anarchists were also quite successful among the peasantry, as they helped organized armed resistance societies to aid in their struggles against the landowners. Anarchists also managed to establish Rafael Barrett Cultural Center in the early 90s, hosting an impressive collection of books by fellow Paraguayan and foreign writers, and emboldening the formation of even more trade unions.
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Rafael Barrett, by the way, is one of the most significant figures in Paraguayan anarchist history, according to every account I've read. Born in Todavega, Spain in 1876, Barrett's early life was typical of a well-to-do intellectual. He studied languages, piano, and eventually engineering.
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By his late 20s, he was drawn to Latin America, partly by adventure and partly to make a difference, driven by a growing commitment to justice and solidarity. He arrived in Buenos Aires in 1903, where he found work as a journalist, soon making waves with an article that condemned the stark inequality he observed in Argentina's capital. This critique cost him his job.
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Yet it deepened his dedication to speak for those who were voiceless. Barat's experiences of seeing European immigrant workers toiling under brutal conditions fueled his indignation against unchecked wealth and poverty's vicious hold on the working class. In 1904, Borat made his way to Paraguay.
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He was initially welcomed as a correspondent for El Tiempo and even held government positions, including as the director of the Department of Engineers and the Railroad Agency. But his commitment to exposing the country's political and social rot soon put him at odds with Paraguay's new liberal government.
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He saw that simply swapping out conservative leaders for liberals did little to improve conditions for ordinary Paraguayans. as demonstrated by the continuous labor struggles that arose in response to the industrialization undertaken by the liberal government. Workers were fighting to abolish child labor, improve their conditions, increase wages, and so on. He couldn't stand by in silence.
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So he resigned from government service, now fully committed to social justice, even as his growing radicalism began to alienate the political elite. Barrett's personal experiences sharpened his perspective, transforming him from a sympathetic observer to a dedicated anarchist.
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His writings in Criminal became essential reading for workers and peasants alike, urging them to see beyond superficial reforms and to challenge the entire structure of oppression. Perrette condemned the government's abuses and spoke out against exploitative systems that kept the majority of Paraguayans marginalized. He was a fiery advocate for social justice.
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And one right in particular, Augusto Roa Bastos, called him the discoverer of Paraguayan social reality. Because Barrett didn't just observe these injustices, he threw himself into exposing and condemning them with fufa. His impact was so significant that even when he was forced to flee Paraguay in 1908 under government pressure, his ideas endured.
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His health was deteriorating from tuberculosis, but he continued to write, receiving support from intellectual comrades in Uruguay and Brazil. His final years were just a continuation of his relentless dedication, even as his health continued to decline. In 1910, he went to Paris to seek treatment, but his health failed and he passed away in December of that year.
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But just before Barrett's exile and passing in 1906, De Anacus would form the first and for some time only workers' federation in the country by joining together the illustrators, carpenters, and drivers' unions. Raphael Barrett actually became something of a thought leader for this group.
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And this was the Federación Obreras Regional Paraguay, or FORB, partially inspired by the Federación Obrera Regional Argentina, or FORA, where they borrowed many of their programmatic ideas. If you recall the episodes I did on Argentina, you know that the reasoning for the name was ideological.
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By adding the adjective regional, it made plain that the country in question, whether Paraguay or Argentina, was not being considered a state or political unit, but a region of the world in which workers struggled for their liberation.
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Soon after its founding, on the 1st of May 1906, the FORB held the country's first International Workers' Day demonstration, despite police attempts to shut it down.
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FORB also launched their official publication, El Despertar, in the same year, and the paper carried articles about the anarchist movements in Europe and Latin America, printed works by authors such as Peter Kropotkin and Anselmo Renzo, published reports of the FORB's activities, named and shamed the known strikebreakers, and encouraged its members to pay their union dues promptly.
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Subsequent years would introduce other libertarian newspapers such as La Rebellion, La Tribuna, and Asia El Futuro. After the 1908 coup by Emiliano Goncalves Navarro destabilized the economy and restricted Asuncion's labor movement, anarchism still found strength among rural and tannin industry workers.
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Despite increasing hostility from figures like Presidents Gondra and Jara, labor strikes continued, which were met by fierce repression, arrests, and forced deportations. With the outbreak of the Paraguayan Civil War from 1911 to 1912, anarchists and other labor organizations faced a government crackdown. Groups like the FORP became inactive, temporarily at least.
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By 1913, in the wake of the war, a schism was emerging as some unions moved toward reformist ideologies, influenced in part by the populist Colorado Party. Meanwhile, FORP reaffirmed its anarcho-syndicalist roots, forming a federal council that included both workers and intellectuals, aiming to rekindle its union activities amidst a wave of reorganization.
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Post-World War I, a new surge in demand for Paraguayan exports revitalized labor activism. In 1916, the Corp, or Centro Obrero Regional del Paraguay, took on the role of championing anarcho-syndicalism and labor rights. This movement gained support from a wide network, launching influential publications like El Combate and Renovación.
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Other groups like Mayday and the Revolutionary Nationalist Alliance, which sought a federalist union of the peoples of Latin America, also took part in the resurgence of anarchist ideas. In 1922, the Paraguayan anarchists were able to finally establish links with the International Workers' Association.
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By the 1930s, Siriaco Duarte emerged as a prominent voice, advocating for workers' rights despite, you know, everything. He was a protege of fellow anarchist and printmaker Felix Cantalicio Aracuyo, a Paraguayan mestizo of mixed indigenous and black ancestry.
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Hello and welcome to It Could Happen Here. I'm Andrew Sage. I'm on Andrewism over at YouTube. And I'm not on YouTube right now. I'm on It Could Happen Here. And I'm joined by the disembodied voice of the one and only... Garrison Davis.
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At one point, Aracuyo and his comrades had helped organize a tram worker strike in Asunción, which compelled the government to round them up and dump them in the middle of the jungle in Mato Grosso, hoping that they would die.
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And yet Aracuyo and his friends made their way through over 1,300 kilometers of mountain jungle, surviving on roots, fruits, and game to make their way back to their hometown of Encarnacion. And speaking of Encarnacion, both Duarte and Aracuyo took part in the little-known attempt at an anarchist uprising in Paraguay, which was actually centered in Encarnacion.
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On the 20th of February 1931, a group of 150 workers and students, organized in a couple popular assemblies, took control of the city of Encarnacion with the goal of establishing a libertarian commune, part of a plan to spark a wider anarchist-syndicalist revolution in Paraguay.
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This was the culmination of a series of strikes and widespread leafleting by anarchists and students in support of revolution.
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It wasn't meant to be centered in Encarnacion, as there was a planned construction worker-led general strike in Asuncion and similar action in Villarica and Concepcion, but key organizers in those struggles and those cities were deported in the days leading up to the action, so those planned actions ended up failing.
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After 16 hours, when their efforts were not reinforced by workers and the rest of the nation, the insurrectionists of Encarnacion took over two steamboats and made their way along the river to Brazil. But not before they attacked the Yerba Mate companies and burned the records related to indentured laborers in two ports. Their solidarity never died.