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5 - Opening Argentina: Menem’s Repression of the CGT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2022

Adam Dean
Adam Dean
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
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Summary

Argentina transitioned from military dictatorship to democracy in 1983 and elected Raul Alfonsin as President. Alfonsin attempted to lower Argentin's tariffs and pass other neoliberal policies, but his economic reforms were blocked by a series of thirteen general strikes launched by the CGT, the labor union confederation led by Saul Ubaldini. When Alfonsin left office in 1989, Argentina's average tariffs still stood at 25 percent, only three percentage points lower than they had been in 1982, the last year of the military regime. By 1991, however, Alfonsin's successor, President Carlos Menem, was able to low tariffs to just 12 percent. This chapter tells the story of how Menem used labor repression to overcome union opposition and quickly open Argentina's economy.

Keywords

Carlos Menemtrade liberalizationArgentinaGeneral Confederation of Laborlabor repressionRaul AlfonsinSaul Ubaldinigeneral strikesarchival researchinterviews
Type
Chapter
Information
Opening Up by Cracking Down
Labor Repression and Trade Liberalization in Democratic Developing Countries
 , pp. 113 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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