National Workers' Federation (Chile)

National Workers' Federation (Chile)
Name	National Workers' Federation (Chile)
Native name	Federación Nacional de Trabajadores (Chile)
Founded	1929
Dissolved	1938
Headquarters	Santiago, Chile
Key people	Arturo Alessandri Palma, Luis Emilio Recabarren, Marmaduke Grove, Juan Antonio Ríos
Affiliation	International Federation of Trade Unions
Members	120,000 (peak)

National Workers' Federation (Chile) was a Chilean labor federation active from the late 1920s through the 1930s that sought to coordinate industrial action among miners, port workers, and urban laborers. The federation engaged with major Chilean figures and institutions such as Arturo Alessandri Palma, Luis Emilio Recabarren, and Marmaduke Grove and interacted with organizations including the Communist Party of Chile, the Socialist Party of Chile, and the Confederación de Trabajadores de Chile. It played a central role in strikes in the nitrate fields, coal districts, and Atacama mining region and was influential during the governments of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo and Gabriel González Videla.

History

The federation emerged amid the social upheavals following World War I and the Great Depression, linking strikes in the nitrate fields of Tarapacá and Antofagasta with dock actions in Valparaíso and Concepción and textile actions in Santiago. Its formation built on precedents including the Federación Obrera de Chile, the Federación Obrera Austral, and local miners' federations associated with figures like Luis Emilio Recabarren and Diego Portales’s historical industrial policies. It negotiated with administrations such as those of Arturo Alessandri Palma and Carlos Ibáñez del Campo while clashing with state actors like the Carabineros and judicial institutions during the 1930s. Internationally, it corresponded with the British Trades Union Congress, the American Federation of Labor, and the International Labour Organization while responding to influences from the Communist International and the Socialist International. Key incidents included involvement in strikes contemporaneous with the 1932 Socialist Republic of Chile and the 1938 Frente Popular electoral campaigns that featured Pedro Aguirre Cerda and Juan Antonio Ríos.

Organization and Structure

The federation organized along industrial lines with major sections representing the nitrate miners of Tarapacá, the coal miners of Lota, the saltpetre workers of Antofagasta, the dockworkers of Valparaíso, and urban public-sector employees in Santiago and Concepción. Leadership positions were occupied by delegates from local sindicatos tied to municipalities like Iquique, Tocopilla, and Antofagasta, and by trade leaders who had ties to educational institutions such as the Universidad de Chile and the Escuela de Derecho. Decision-making relied on congresses convened in Santiago and Valparaíso with representation modelled on structures seen in European unions like the General Confederation of Labour (France) and the British Trades Union Congress. Support units included strike funds, mutual aid societies patterned after the Italian mutual aid societies in Punta Arenas, and publication organs echoing titles like El Socialista and La Vanguardia. The federation maintained liaison committees with the Confederación de Trabajadores de Chile and the Unión General de Trabajadores of Spain while coordinating with municipal councils in Antofagasta and parliamentary deputies in the Congreso Nacional.

Ideology and Political Alignment

Ideologically, the federation encompassed currents from anarcho-syndicalism linked to activists influenced by Buenaventura Durruti and Federación Anarquista Ibérica contacts, to Marxist tendencies aligned with the Communist Party of Chile and Trotskyist groups sympathetic to Leon Trotsky. It also contained reformist socialist elements close to the Socialist Party of Chile and moderate laborists who negotiated with presidents such as Arturo Alessandri Palma and Pedro Aguirre Cerda. The federation’s platform echoed themes found in international documents like the Communist International theses and the Labour Party manifestos of Ramsay MacDonald, yet it preserved autonomous labor practice akin to the Industrial Workers of the World and the Federación Obrera Regional Argentina. These ideological divisions affected alliances with political movements including the Popular Front, the Radical Party of Chile, and smaller syndicalist currents inspired by the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil War.

Major Actions and Strikes

The federation coordinated several major strikes: a miners’ general strike in the Tarapacá nitrate fields that paralleled actions in the Atacama region; dockworkers’ stoppages in Valparaíso and Talcahuano affecting trade with the United Kingdom and the United States; and a nationwide public-sector strike during economic austerity measures under Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. It led solidarity mobilizations during the Lota coal miners’ revolts and organized mass demonstrations in Santiago that intersected with student protests at the Universidad de Chile and PUC. These actions involved confrontations with state forces such as the Carabineros, interventions by the Supreme Court of Chile, and mediation attempts by figures like Juan Antonio Ríos and Gabriel González Videla. International repercussions included attention from the International Federation of Trade Unions, sympathy resolutions from the British Labour Party, and press coverage in publications like The Times, The New York Times, and El Mercurio.

Relations with Political Parties and Unions

The federation maintained complex relations with the Communist Party of Chile, the Socialist Party of Chile, the Radical Party, and smaller parties such as the Partido Nacionalsocialista and the Partido Conservador. It alternated between alliance and rivalry with the Confederación de Trabajadores de Chile and allied occasionally with international unions such as the American Federation of Labor and the British Trades Union Congress. During electoral cycles it negotiated platforms with Popular Front coalitions that included Pedro Aguirre Cerda and Marmaduke Grove. Relations with parliamentary actors included lobbying deputies in the Congreso Nacional, engaging ministers like Gustavo Ross, and confronting repressive measures from administrations including that of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.

Dissolution and Legacy

The federation declined amid internal factionalism, government repression under emergency statutes, and competition from emerging unions like the Central Única de Trabajadores and party-controlled structures within the Communist Party of Chile and the Socialist Party of Chile. Its formal dissolution in the late 1930s followed organizational splits that paralleled developments in European labor movements during the Spanish Civil War and the Popular Front period. Legacy elements include labor law reforms influencing legislation debated in the Congreso Nacional, institutional precedents for the Central Única de Trabajadores, archival records in the National Library of Chile, and commemorations in miners’ museums in Lota and the Museo del Salitre. Its historical footprint is reflected in biographies of leaders such as Luis Emilio Recabarren, studies of the nitrate industry, and historiography connecting Chilean labor history to international labor movements like the International Labour Organization and the British Labour movement.

Category:Trade unions in Chile Category:Labor history of Chile Category:1930s in Chile