Coyuntura histórica y movimiento obrero. Córdoba, 1917-21

Abstract

This paper analyzes the rise of social conflicts in Córdoba between 1917 and 1921, which involved workers' strikes intertwined with the democratic student movement of the University Reform. The historical conjuncture was marked worldwide by the commotion provoked by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in a context of capitalist recomposition and adjustment in the immediate postwar period. The conflicts in Córdoba were the product of an accumulation of union organizing experiences that had begun at the end of the 19th century and combined with a rise in the middle sectors and an increase in the demand for university education. The labor market situation, working conditions and wage levels were the immediate causes of workers' conflicts. In a framework of opening of the political system, the workers' strikes by sector were accompanied by the Local Workers' Federation, whose main leaders identified with socialism. These events were contemporary to the university strike that led to the Reform of 1918, which produced solidarities between them in order to have a more successful impact on social democratization.