Latin American ‘free-trade unionism’ and the cold War: an analysis based on educational policies |
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Authors: | Gabriela Scodeller |
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Institution: | Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina |
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Abstract: | The political education of workers and their leaders was viewed as a strategic concern in the cold war period’s bipolar world. This article discusses how this issue was dealt with by Latin American reformist trade unions grouped together in the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT, for its Spanish acronym), analyzing the educational policies promoted by its Inter-American Institute for Labor Studies (IIES), focusing specifically on its educational program for trade union instructors. We argue that the nature of the education provided changed, shifting from a rationale based on explicit ideological confrontation to a more focalized technical type of training. We claim that this shift started in the early 1960s, when the Alliance for Progress was launched. |
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Keywords: | Workers’ education Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT) Latin America Cold War |
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