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Argentina 1976, 50 Years Later: Workers’ and Social Insubordination in the 1970s
International Colloquium, Paris, Condorcet Campus, 9-10 February 2026
Argentina 1976, 50 Years Later: Workers’ and Social Insubordination in the 1970s is an international colloquium to be held in Paris (Campus Condorcet-Aubervilliers) on 9 and 10 February 2026 and which is part of the continuity of the SETEnTAS seminary cycle. This colloquium aims to contribute to the elaboration of a (new) chronology and cartography of the workers’ conflicts of the 1970s in Argentina, fifty years after the 1976 coup.
The contributions to this colloquium will seek to interrogate the process of 1973-1976 that led to a growing rupture of the working class with respect to the Social Pact under the presidency of Héctor Cámpora, transformed into a touchstone of national politics under Perón, and which led, under the government of Isabel Martínez, to the Rodrigazo (June-July 1975 strikes) and the Mondellazo, a few weeks before the coup.
The purpose of the colloquium is to understand the process that culminates with the coup d’état of March 24, 1976 – which in turn closes a broader cycle of workers’ and social insubordination in the region (particularly in Bolivia, Uruguay and Chile) – in the light of a political reading of the “low intensity social war” that developed from 1969 and that has been qualitatively amplified since 1973-1974, facing each other more and more brutally
We invite the participants to resume the debate about the place of workers’ protest, the factory conflict and the insubordination of the world of work as main coordinates of the period and as decisive factors of their outcome – both in Argentina and in the region during the previous years – although this cycle of protests is more globally inscribed in a particular continental context: that Latin American Cold War in which both the United States actively participated, from abroad, both the United States
The colloquium aims to understand the entire period culminating in the coup d'état of March 24, 1976—which in turn closed a broader cycle of worker and social insubordination in the region (particularly in Bolivia, Uruguay, and Chile)—in light of a political reading of the "low-intensity social war" that developed from 1969 onward and intensified qualitatively from 1973-1974, confronting with increasing brutality a Peronism that had been overwhelmingly brought to power in the 1973 elections.
We invite participants to revisit the debate on the role of worker protest, factory conflict, and labour insubordination as the main coordinates of the period and as decisive factors in its outcome—both in Argentina and in the region during the preceding years—even though this cycle of protests is more globally situated within a particular continental context: the Latin American Cold War in which was participated actively from abroad, both by the United States and Western European countries in defense of their economic, commercial and diplomatic interests.
The colloquium aims to examine the period 1973-1976, a pivotal moment for contemporary Argentina, focusing on the "productive territory" and the social spaces of production (agricultural sector, industrial sector, private and public, services, administration, and civil service), from the perspective of working-class insubordination, both against the employer or state chain of command and against its traditional guardians: the official Peronist trade unions and Justicialism.
We intend to pay particular attention to the less studied and more obscured processes of those "1970s seen from the perspective of the world of work." In this context, we seek to shift our focus to the interior of the country, without ignoring the federal capital and the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, La Plata and its surroundings, or Córdoba, which have received greater historiographical attention in the last decade and a half. At the same time, without neglecting the main centers of conflict in the 1970s (automotive industry, steel industry, etc.), we want to give special consideration to other wage-earning sectors that, both in the union and social spheres, were also key players during that period.
Finally, in contrast to the abundant scholarship of the last twenty years focused on the main left-wing Peronist current and, more generally, on armed groups, we want to dedicate significant space to the study of the currents that advocated a different strategy in the 1970s, one more oriented towards the insurrectionary general strike, and that developed a strategy of integration and intervention within and from the working class: other currents of left-wing Peronism (the Peronist Base or the CGT of Salta, for example); and in the case of the Montoneros and the PRT, whose trajectories are better documented, their union fronts (Peronist Workers' Youth and the Base Union Movement). and also the currents stemming from the “new (or old) left” (Maoism, Trotskyism, etc.).
Within the framework of the current and highly polarized debates on the “legacy of the 1970s,” the contributions will seek to enrich the discussions that animate both the academic world and the public sphere in the lead-up to the events being organized to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1976 coup.
Calendar and Key Dates of the International Colloquium
Until November 21, 2025: Submission of paper proposals to the following addresses: antonio.ramos-ramirez[at]univ-paris8.fr // jean-baptiste.thomas[at]polytechnique.edu
Paper proposals (2500 characters, in Spanish, French, or English, the colloquium's languages) must be accompanied by a 500-character introduction of the author(s).
Note: The colloquium's organizing committee does not have sufficient funds to cover participants' travel expenses. In order to balance the number of presentations between in-person (priority) and virtual (possible) sessions, we ask contributors to specify in their proposal their intended presentation format should it be accepted.
December 1, 2025: Notification of acceptance or rejection of proposals
December 2025: Publication of the final program
February 9 and 10, 2026, Paris, Campus Condorcet, Auditorium 150: Colloquium “Argentina 1976, Fifty Years Later: Labor and Social Insubordination in the 1970s”
Organizing Committee
Andrea ANDÚJAR (CONICET/IIEGE – Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Victoria BASUALDO (CONICET)
Enrique FERNÁNDEZ DOMINGO (Université Paris 8)
Frank GAUDICHAUD (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès)
Christophe GIUDICELLI (Sorbonne Université)
Fatiha IDMHAND (Université de Poitiers)
Martín MANGIANTINI (CEHTI – Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Alicia SERVETTO (CEA - Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)