The Workers' Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores, PRT) was a

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, mainly active in the 1960s and 1970s. Currently there are different groups that claim to be a continuation of the historical PRT. The PRT was founded in 1965 by Mario Roberto Santucho (FRIP) and Leandro Fote by merging two existing far-left political parties.

History

The origins of the PRT lay in the merger of two leftist organizations in 1965, the Revolutionary and Popular Indoamericano Front ''(Frente Revolucionario Indoamericano Popular (FRIP))'' and Worker's Word ''(Palabra Obrera (PO)''. The FRIP had been founded by Francisco René Santucho and his brother Mario Roberto in 1961 at

Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero (, Spanish for ''Saint-James-Upon-The-Lagoon'') is the capital of Santiago del Estero Province in northern Argentina. It has a population of 252,192 inhabitants, () making it the twelfth largest city in the country, with a surf ...

, Argentina. It was a ruralist,

indigenist Indigenism can refer to several different ideologies that seek to promote the interests of indigenous peoples. The term is used differently by various scholars and activists, and can be used purely descriptively or carry political connotations. D ...

(pro-

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

) and revolutionary movement that extended its influence throughout the provinces of Tucumán, Chaco and Salta. ''Palabra Obrera'', on the other hand was a

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

party founded by

Nahuel Moreno Nahuel Moreno (real name Hugo Miguel Bressano Capacete; April 24, 1924 – January 25, 1987) was a Trotskyist leader from Argentina. Moreno was active in the Trotskyist movement from 1942 until his death. Biography 1950s–1960s During the 1953� ...

, active in the trade unions. Its main strategy had been infiltrating sectors of the

Peronist Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of A ...

movement in order to win them over to

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

. In 1968 the PRT adhered to the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...

, based in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. That same year a related organisation was founded in Argentina, the ERP ( People's Revolutionary Army) that became the strongest rural guerrilla movement in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

during the 1970s. The PRT left the Fourth International in 1973.POR QUÉ NOS SEPARAMOS DE LA IV INTERNACIONAL, PRT Argentina. Junta de Coordinación Revolucionaria (JCR) Agosto de 1973.
/ref> Both the PRT and the ERP were suppressed by the Argentine military regime during the

Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...

. ERP commander Roberto Santucho was killed in July 1976. Owing to the ruthless repression PRT showed no signs of activity after 1977.

Leaders

* Benito Urteaga * Enrique Gorriarán Merlo * Mario Roberto Santucho

References

{{Former political parties in Argentina Communist parties in Argentina Dirty War Trotskyist organisations in Argentina

History

Leaders

See also

References