Avaliação: El anarquismo en América: movimientos y redes de circulación e intercambio, 1870-1950 – Rethinking Peruvian-Chilean Anarchist Networks and Solidarities, 1907-1919

This paper examines the origins of transnational networks and solidarity between Peruvian and Chilean anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists in the first two decades of the twentieth century. In the aftermath of the War of the Pacific Peruvian and Chilean anarchist movements were confronted with a shared set of challenges: the formation of precursor populist states, the rise of nationalism, official support for mutualist ideology and labor organizations, and state sanctioned labor fraternity between Peruvian and Chilean artisans and workers. They also had to contend with capitalist hostility and state repression. The latter, which often entailed the deportation of anarchists or their flight across borders, had the effect of facilitating personal connections between Peruvian and Chilean anarchist movements. Following the savage massacre of mine workers in Iquique in 1907, several anarchist strike leaders escaped to Peru and were readily integrated into Lima’s anarchist movement. José Briggs and Luis Olea Castillo were among the Chilean anarchist exiles who would serve as ‘go-betweens’ and promote closer ties between Peruvian and Chilean anarchist movements. Another seminal development that served to catalyze Peruvian-Chilean anarchist connections and solidarity was the policy of Peruvian president Guillermo Billinghurst to mend diplomatic relations with Chile (severed in 1910) by promoting labor fraternity between artisans and workers of both nations. Billinghurst and to a lesser extent, Ramon Barros Luca, his Chilean counterpart, sought to co-opt workers and prevent worker radicalization and class struggle. This paper will analyze and underscore the 1913 Peruvian-Chilean anarchist opposition to state-sponsored “confraternidad obrera.” In doing so, it will highlight how Peruvian anarchists, imbued with an anarchist internationalist imaginary, sought to create an alternative transnational anarchist workers’ network. The main aim of this paper is to provide a deeper und

• anarchism
• internationalism
• Peru