Raimundo Ongaro
Encyclopedia
Raimundo Ongaro is a prominent Argentine labor leader.
s from the Lombardy
region, in the Argentine seashore city of Mar del Plata
in 1924. Fluent in Latin
and schooled in music composition, Ongaro became an apprenticed graphist
and was eventually hired at COGTAL, one of Argentina's largest publishing cooperative
s. Becoming active in the Buenos Aires Printworkers' Federation (FGB), the 1966 coup d'état against President Arturo Illia and its resulting advent of anti-labor policies led Ongaro to remove FGB leader Osvaldo Vigna in a coup of his own, that November. This move, however, met with the disapproval of José Alonso
, the head of the CGT
(among whose 62 unions the FGB belonged) and forced Ongaro to pursue alliances within the fractious CGT union (then South America's largest). Ongaro's only ally among the 62 unions was initially the sanitary workers' Amado Olmos, and the duo were no match for Alonso's conciliatory strategy with the repressive new regime of Juan Carlos Onganía
. This stance, shared with powerful CGT leaders such as the steelworkers' Augusto Vandor
and the construction workers' Rogelio Coría, was shaken by Security Committee head General Osiris Villegas' violent March 1967 assault on CGT headquarters done to impede a planned general strike
.
Belonging to a CGT disoriented by the regime's surprise attack, Ongaro traveled to Cuba
in early 1968, where, during a political conference, he met Argentine journalist and writer Rodolfo Walsh
, with whom Ongaro flew to Madrid
to introduce to the CGT's benefactor, exiled populist leader Juan Perón
. Perón was impreseed with both men and subscribed to Ongaro's view that the CGT leadership's efforts at dialougue with the dictatorship would be in vain. President Onganía had already ordered eight of the 62 CGT unions into government receivership
(including the second-largest, the railway
workers') and CGT elections in March 1968 pitted the steelworker's Vandor against Perón's own choice, Raimundo Ongaro. Vandor's steelworkers' union was the largest in the CGT and he still had allies such as Alonso and Coría; but Ongaro's allies now included the rail workers' Lorenzo Pepe and the telecom
workers' Julio Guillán, both of whose unions were in receivership. Where Ongaro had Perón's own support, Vandor could only boast the endorsement of Onganía's new Labor Minister, Rubens San Sebastián, the architect of the President's "divide and conquer" strategy towards the CGT.
), a coalition announced during a rally on May 1, the international labor day.
Drawing from his publishing background, Ongaro had the CGTA draft a weekly newsletter which, under Ricardo de Luca's direction and with regular contributions from Walsh, Rogelio García Lupo and Horacio Verbitsky
, became renowned for its treatment of local as well as international issues (the first issue featured coverage of the aftermath of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
). The CGTA was also the subject of banned documentaries by filmmaker Fernando "Pino" Solanas and others in the vanguard Grupo Cine Liberación
. Numerous leaders from within Alonso's official CGT also extended their support, notably Córdoba Province
light and power workers' leader Agustín Tosco
, who earned the enmity of his union's national leader Juan José Taccone, by joining the CGTA. The CGTA was the target of intense harassment by the dictatorship, who over the next year had around 5,000 of its members detained nationwide. Tosco's support of a local autoworkers' strike at the important Córdoba FIAT
plant in May 1969 was decisive in the demonstrations' brutal May 29 repression, whose subsequent riots became known as the Cordobazo
.
The Cordobazo encouraged a hard line in the regime's labor relations policy. Having detained Tosco and numerous others, the mysterious June 30 assassination of Augusto Vandor provided a pretext for Ongaro's arrest and the banning of the CGTA. These struggles brought him to the attention of the International Labour Organization
, which elected him a member of their administrative council later that year. Tosco's and Ongaro's repeated stays in prison and continued pressure led to the CGTA's inactivity and, on Ongaro's release in January 1972, he disbanded the defunct trade union and founded the independent Argentine Printworkers' Sindicate (SGA). Increasingly focused on influencing Juan Perón, whose return from exile was imminent, he established "Basic Peronism," a leftist political advocacy group.
Agustintosco.com
in March 1973, which Perón's Justicialist Party
won in a landslide. Ongaro's independent union and leftist stance, however, made him a target to the CGT and to a fascist adviser close to Perón himself, José López Rega
. The Ongaro family's home in the Buenos Aires
suburb of Los Polvorines
was frequently raided with impunity, leading to Mrs. Ongaro's miscarriage on one occasion. Undeterred, Ongaro organized a September 16, 1974 meeting in Bella Vista, Tucumán
to support a sugarmill workers' strike led by Atilio Santillán. Reunited with other former CGTA allies including Agustín Tosco and steelworkers Francisco "Barba" Gutiérrez and Alberto Piccinini, Ongaro organized a conflict resolution committee geared for the defense of targeted unions. Piccinini's November election as shop steward at steelmaker ACINDAR's Villa Constitución
plant eventually led to the March 1975 mass arrests of those at the plant as well as those of Ongaro and others at the committee.
Allowed a radio, he learned of the May 7 murder of his teenage son, Alfredo Máximo Ongaro, at the hands of López Rega's death squad, the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance
(Triple A), and, upon his August 29 release, was deported to Lima, Peru. Mrs. Ongaro and her remaining children had left days earlier and only the warden's precautions prevented Ongaro's abduction and murder by the Triple A. The overthrow of Peru's populist dictator, Juan Velasco Alvarado
, the following day led to an increasingly hostile climate for left-wing Argentine exiles in general, and Ongaro departed for Spain
in June 1976.
Supported by Spanish sympathizers, European radio and TV interviews and remittances from the FGA itself, the Ongaros returned in March 1984, three months after Argentina's return to democracy
.
(a colleague of Ongaro's at the ILO
), the FGA became less prominent as one of the smallest of the CGT's 62 unions. Ongaro, who earned renown for his uncompromising stance against anti-labor policies two decades earlier, concurred with the CGT's grudging support of the anti-labor President Carlos Menem
(a Justicialist candidate elected with the CGT's support in 1989
). Adverse to conflict, Ongaro refuse to condemn Menem's October 1989 pardon of those who led Argentina's last dictatorship
during its infamous 1976-79 campaign of human rights abuses
.
Ongaro also kept a low profile during the advent of free market policies that ushered in an unprecedented era of corporate takeovers and mergers in Argentina during the 1990s. One such takeover, that of Editorial Atlántida
(Argentina's leading magazine publisher) by Editorial Perfil in 1998, led to differences between affected employees and Ongaro, himself, who did not oppose the merger. The event led to strain between Ongaro and the FGA rank-and-file, though he has since been reelected as their Secretary General.
Having led Argentina's largest printworkers' unions since 1966, Ongaro (who turns 85 in 2009) is now the dean of Argentine labor leaders.
CGTA
Clarín: Aniversario del gremio gráfico
La Nación: Raimundo Ongaro, reelegido
Early career and rise to prominence
Raimundo José Ongaro was born to a middle-class family of Italian ArgentineItalian Argentine
An Italian Argentine is a person born in Argentina of Italian ancestry. It is estimated up to 25 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent...
s from the Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
region, in the Argentine seashore city of Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...
in 1924. Fluent in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and schooled in music composition, Ongaro became an apprenticed graphist
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
and was eventually hired at COGTAL, one of Argentina's largest publishing cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
s. Becoming active in the Buenos Aires Printworkers' Federation (FGB), the 1966 coup d'état against President Arturo Illia and its resulting advent of anti-labor policies led Ongaro to remove FGB leader Osvaldo Vigna in a coup of his own, that November. This move, however, met with the disapproval of José Alonso
José Alonso
José Alonso may refer to:*José Alonso , Spanish athlete*José Alonso , Argentine trade-unionist*José Alonso *Jose Alonso , co-discoverer of element Seaborgium...
, the head of the CGT
General Confederation of Labour (Argentina)
The General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine Republic is a national trade union centre of Argentina founded on September 27, 1930, as the result of the merge of the USA and the COA trade union centres...
(among whose 62 unions the FGB belonged) and forced Ongaro to pursue alliances within the fractious CGT union (then South America's largest). Ongaro's only ally among the 62 unions was initially the sanitary workers' Amado Olmos, and the duo were no match for Alonso's conciliatory strategy with the repressive new regime of Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto president of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling, in a coup d’état self-named Revolución Argentina , the democratically elected president Arturo Illia .-Economic and social...
. This stance, shared with powerful CGT leaders such as the steelworkers' Augusto Vandor
Augusto Vandor
Augusto Timoteo Vandor was an Argentine trade unionist leader, military and politician.-Career:Vandor was born Bovril, Entre Ríos Province, to a Dutch father and a French mother, in 1923. He enlisted in the Argentine Navy in 1940, and later became an officer in the ARA Comodoro Py warship...
and the construction workers' Rogelio Coría, was shaken by Security Committee head General Osiris Villegas' violent March 1967 assault on CGT headquarters done to impede a planned general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
.
Belonging to a CGT disoriented by the regime's surprise attack, Ongaro traveled to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in early 1968, where, during a political conference, he met Argentine journalist and writer Rodolfo Walsh
Rodolfo Walsh
Rodolfo Jorge Walsh was an Argentine writer, considered the founder of investigative journalism. He is most famous for his Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta which he wrote the day before his murder, protesting that their economic policies were having an even greater effect on...
, with whom Ongaro flew to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
to introduce to the CGT's benefactor, exiled populist leader Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
. Perón was impreseed with both men and subscribed to Ongaro's view that the CGT leadership's efforts at dialougue with the dictatorship would be in vain. President Onganía had already ordered eight of the 62 CGT unions into government receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
(including the second-largest, the railway
Rail transport in Argentina
The Argentine railway network comprised of track at the end of the Second World War and was, in its time, one of the most extensive and prosperous in South America. However, with the increase in highway construction, there followed a sharp decline in railway profitability, leading to the break-up...
workers') and CGT elections in March 1968 pitted the steelworker's Vandor against Perón's own choice, Raimundo Ongaro. Vandor's steelworkers' union was the largest in the CGT and he still had allies such as Alonso and Coría; but Ongaro's allies now included the rail workers' Lorenzo Pepe and the telecom
Communications in Argentina
Communications in Argentina gives an overview of the postal, telephone, Internet, radio, television, and newspaper services available in Argentina.-Postal:...
workers' Julio Guillán, both of whose unions were in receivership. Where Ongaro had Perón's own support, Vandor could only boast the endorsement of Onganía's new Labor Minister, Rubens San Sebastián, the architect of the President's "divide and conquer" strategy towards the CGT.
The CGTA
Ongaro was elected Secretary General of the CGT on March 30, 1968, without a concession from the defeated Vandor and the Labor Minister annulled the election, impeding Ongaro's taking office. Writer Rodolfo Walsh and numerous adherents of the activist Third World Priests' Movement joined Ongaro, Pepe and their CGT supporters in creating the Argentine CGT (CGTACGTA
The CGTA was an off-shoot of the General Confederation of Labour created during the Normalisation Congress of the CGT of 28–30 March 1968, and which lasted until 1972....
), a coalition announced during a rally on May 1, the international labor day.
Drawing from his publishing background, Ongaro had the CGTA draft a weekly newsletter which, under Ricardo de Luca's direction and with regular contributions from Walsh, Rogelio García Lupo and Horacio Verbitsky
Horacio Verbitsky
Horacio Verbitsky is a prominent Argentine investigative journalist and author. He writes for the left-leaning Argentine newspaper Página/12 and heads up the Center for Legal and Social Studies , an Argentine human-rights organization.He is also a member of the Directive Board of Human Rights...
, became renowned for its treatment of local as well as international issues (the first issue featured coverage of the aftermath of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
). The CGTA was also the subject of banned documentaries by filmmaker Fernando "Pino" Solanas and others in the vanguard Grupo Cine Liberación
Grupo Cine Liberación
The Grupo Cine Liberación was an Argentine film movement that took place during the end of the sixties. It was founded by Fernando Solanas, Octavio Getino and Gerardo Vallejo...
. Numerous leaders from within Alonso's official CGT also extended their support, notably Córdoba Province
Córdoba Province (Argentina)
Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
light and power workers' leader Agustín Tosco
Agustín Tosco
Agustín Gringo Tosco was an Argentine union leader, member of the CGT de los Argentinos and an important participant in the historic local uprising known as the Cordobazo.-Thought and maturity:At 27 years old, he was the general secretary for Luz y Fuerza...
, who earned the enmity of his union's national leader Juan José Taccone, by joining the CGTA. The CGTA was the target of intense harassment by the dictatorship, who over the next year had around 5,000 of its members detained nationwide. Tosco's support of a local autoworkers' strike at the important Córdoba FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
plant in May 1969 was decisive in the demonstrations' brutal May 29 repression, whose subsequent riots became known as the Cordobazo
Cordobazo
The Cordobazo was a civil uprising in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, in the end of May 1969, during the military dictatorship of General Juan Carlos Onganía, which occurred a few days after the Rosariazo, and a year after the French May '68...
.
The Cordobazo encouraged a hard line in the regime's labor relations policy. Having detained Tosco and numerous others, the mysterious June 30 assassination of Augusto Vandor provided a pretext for Ongaro's arrest and the banning of the CGTA. These struggles brought him to the attention of the International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
, which elected him a member of their administrative council later that year. Tosco's and Ongaro's repeated stays in prison and continued pressure led to the CGTA's inactivity and, on Ongaro's release in January 1972, he disbanded the defunct trade union and founded the independent Argentine Printworkers' Sindicate (SGA). Increasingly focused on influencing Juan Perón, whose return from exile was imminent, he established "Basic Peronism," a leftist political advocacy group.
Agustintosco.com
Terror and exile
Political pressure led the dictatorship to call for free and fair national electionsArgentine general election, March 1973
The first Argentine general election of 1973 was held on 11 March. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 85.5%, it produced the following results:-President:...
in March 1973, which Perón's Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
won in a landslide. Ongaro's independent union and leftist stance, however, made him a target to the CGT and to a fascist adviser close to Perón himself, José López Rega
José López Rega
José López Rega was Argentina's Minister of Social Welfare during the Peronist government started in 1973 by Juan Perón and continued after Perón's death in 1974 by his third wife and vice-president, Isabel Martínez de Perón , until the coup d'etat of 1976 that initiated the so-called National...
. The Ongaro family's home in the Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
suburb of Los Polvorines
Los Polvorines
Los Polvorines is a district of the Greater Buenos Aires urban connurbation in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the county seat of the Malvinas Argentinas Partido.-External links:...
was frequently raided with impunity, leading to Mrs. Ongaro's miscarriage on one occasion. Undeterred, Ongaro organized a September 16, 1974 meeting in Bella Vista, Tucumán
Bella Vista, Tucumán
Bella Vista is a small city in southeastern Tucumán Province, Argentina. It is located south of the provincial capital of Tucumán.-Overview:...
to support a sugarmill workers' strike led by Atilio Santillán. Reunited with other former CGTA allies including Agustín Tosco and steelworkers Francisco "Barba" Gutiérrez and Alberto Piccinini, Ongaro organized a conflict resolution committee geared for the defense of targeted unions. Piccinini's November election as shop steward at steelmaker ACINDAR's Villa Constitución
Villa Constitución
Villa Constitución is a city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, and the head town of the Constitución Department. It is located on the south-western banks of the Paraná River between the courses of the Arroyo Pavón and the Arroyo del Medio, about 214 km south from the provincial capital,...
plant eventually led to the March 1975 mass arrests of those at the plant as well as those of Ongaro and others at the committee.
Allowed a radio, he learned of the May 7 murder of his teenage son, Alfredo Máximo Ongaro, at the hands of López Rega's death squad, the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance
Alianza Anticomunista Argentina
The Argentine Anticommunist Alliance was a right-wing death squad active in Argentina during the mid-1970s, particularly active under Isabel Perón's rule . Initially associated with the Peronist right, the organisation was bitterly in conflict with the Peronist left and other left organizations...
(Triple A), and, upon his August 29 release, was deported to Lima, Peru. Mrs. Ongaro and her remaining children had left days earlier and only the warden's precautions prevented Ongaro's abduction and murder by the Triple A. The overthrow of Peru's populist dictator, Juan Velasco Alvarado
Juan Velasco Alvarado
Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado was a left-leaning Peruvian General who ruled Peru from 1968 to 1975 under the title of "President of the Revolutionary Government."- Early life :...
, the following day led to an increasingly hostile climate for left-wing Argentine exiles in general, and Ongaro departed for Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in June 1976.
Supported by Spanish sympathizers, European radio and TV interviews and remittances from the FGA itself, the Ongaros returned in March 1984, three months after Argentina's return to democracy
Argentine general election, 1983
The Argentine general election of 1983 was held on 30 October and marked the return of Democracy after the 1976's dictatorship self-known as National Reorganization Process...
.
Ongaro's return to the FGA
Ongaro was proptly reelected Secretary General of the FGA, which, despite its ordeal, still counted with around 25,000 members and remained Argentina's largest printworkers' union. Welcomed into the CGT by Secretary General Saúl UbaldiniSaúl Ubaldini
Saúl Edólver Ubaldini was an Argentine labor leader and parliamentarian for the Peronist Justicialist Party....
(a colleague of Ongaro's at the ILO
Ilo
Ilo is a port city in southern Peru, with some 58,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the Moquegua Region and capital of the province of Ilo.-History:...
), the FGA became less prominent as one of the smallest of the CGT's 62 unions. Ongaro, who earned renown for his uncompromising stance against anti-labor policies two decades earlier, concurred with the CGT's grudging support of the anti-labor President Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
(a Justicialist candidate elected with the CGT's support in 1989
Argentine general election, 1989
The Argentine general election of 1989 was held on 14 May. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 85.3%, it produced the following results:-President:aAbstentions.-Argentine Congress:...
). Adverse to conflict, Ongaro refuse to condemn Menem's October 1989 pardon of those who led Argentina's last dictatorship
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
during its infamous 1976-79 campaign of human rights abuses
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
.
Ongaro also kept a low profile during the advent of free market policies that ushered in an unprecedented era of corporate takeovers and mergers in Argentina during the 1990s. One such takeover, that of Editorial Atlántida
Editorial Atlántida
Editorial Atlántida is a prominent Argentine publishing house and the country's leading magazine publisher and distributor.-Development:Editorial Atlántida's origins began with three magazines founded by an Uruguayan-Argentine journalist, Constancio C...
(Argentina's leading magazine publisher) by Editorial Perfil in 1998, led to differences between affected employees and Ongaro, himself, who did not oppose the merger. The event led to strain between Ongaro and the FGA rank-and-file, though he has since been reelected as their Secretary General.
Having led Argentina's largest printworkers' unions since 1966, Ongaro (who turns 85 in 2009) is now the dean of Argentine labor leaders.
CGTA
Clarín: Aniversario del gremio gráfico
La Nación: Raimundo Ongaro, reelegido