General Confederation of Labour (Argentina)

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**CGT**

General Confederation of Labour
Confederación General del Trabajo de la República Argentina
Founded	September 27, 1930
Country	Argentina
Affiliation	ITUC
Key people	Moyano Hugo, secretary general
Office location	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Website	www.cgtra.org.ar

The General Confederation of Labour (Confederación General del Trabajo de la República Argentina, CGT) is a national trade union center of Argentina founded on September 27, 1930 as the result of the merge of the USA (Unión Sindical Argentina) and the COA (Confederación Obrera Argentina) trade union centers.

After the coup d'etat of 1943, its leaders embraced the pro-working class policies of the Labour Minister, Col. Juan Domingo Perón. When Perón was separated from the government and confined in the Martín García island, the CGT called for a major popular concentration in Plaza de Mayo, succeeding in releasing Perón from prison. Afterwards, the CGT became one of the strongest arms of the Peronist Movement, and the only trade union center recognised by Perón's government.

After the Libertadora Revolution, the CGT was banned from politics. In response, the CGT began a destabilisation campaign to end Perón's proscription and get him back to the country. During the 1960s, the leaders of the CGT attempted to create a "Peronism without Perón", that is, a form of Peronism that retained the ideals set forth by Juan Perón but not founded on the personality cult that had existed around him in the 1940s and 1950s. They celebrated president Arturo Umberto Illia's overthrow in 1966, but failed to reach an agreement with dictator Juan Carlos Onganía. The next years were blemished by often bloody internal disputes and the fight against the leftist Montoneros. In 1973, a commando killed José Ignacio Rucci, Secretary-General of the CGT and Perón's friend. Montoneros, who neither claimed responsibility nor denied it, are accused of Rucci's death.

During the Dirty War of the second half of the 1970s, many of the CGT's leaders and activists were disappeared, while others negotiated with the militar dictatorship the control of the medical-care health-insurance organisations (obras sociales). The CGT split into

CGT Azopardo (official, led by Jorge Triaca) and
CGT Brasil (dissident, led by Saúl Ubaldini),

named after the streets on which the headquarters were located.

After Falkland/Malvinas War, Raúl Alfonsín denounces a "militar-labour pact". After he is elected president of Argentina, he fails on passing through the Senate a new law regulating trade unions and guaranteeing freedom of association. In his negotiations with the CGT, Alfonsín had cede the sit of the Minister of Labour to CGT man Hugo Barrionuevo.

Under Ubaldini's guidance, the CGT launched 13 general strikes during Alfonsín's government. In 1989, with an hyperinflation corroding the economy, the CGT introduced a 26-point program to support Carlos Menem bid to the Presidency, including measures such as declaring an unilateral external debt default. After winning the elections, Menem didn't quite follow all the progressive points on the campaign platform, leaving the Ministry of Economy to the Bunge y Born company. In 1996, during Menem's second mandate, the CGT finally reacts with a general strike against the neoliberal policies of the government.

In recent years, and in spite its strength as the only labour representative in many forums, the CGT is facing growing opposition from other trade union centers, such as the Central de Trabajadores Argentinos (CTA), or the left-leaning grassroots organisations of unemployed people known as Piqueteros (Picketing Men).