Perón and Perónism: The Saviours of Argentina

Introduction

Greetings! This is my first article written for this blog and my first article period. Throughout, I will endeavor to adequately articulate the beauty of Perón’s ideology and everything he did for Argentina during his nine years in office. I make no secret of my sympathy and admiration for Juan Domingo Perón, who I see as one of the greatest men of the 20th century, alongside other such figures as Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. However, this sympathy shant obfuscate my vision or prevent me from delivering an objective measure of Perón’s successes, his failures, and what his worldview did for Argentines.

Perónism as Argentine Fascism

Perónism’s classification as a form of fascism has been under contention for many years since the death of Perón due to the liberalization of its doctrines and the shuttling of Juan Perón’s legacy. Modern Perónism is currently split between far leftists and far rightists, each claiming to be the true Perónists. In the context of Perónism, this is nothing new; there were far-left-far-right splits within the Justicialist Party even while Perón was alive (albeit during his 18 years of exile), between the leftist Montoneros and the rightist ALN (Alianza Libertadora Nacionalista). Perón recognized the necessity of a united Perónist wing and sought to mend the split¹, which he, unfortunately, was not capable of doing during his single year in power after returning from exile.

With all that being said, it is yet possible to go through the history of Perónism and Perón’s writings to determine that his formulation of Justicialism was a new branch of fascism. The evidence for this conclusion is varied.

First, let us go into Perón’s own stated influences. There are a variety of quotes that put on full display Perón’s sympathy for and alignment with the fascist powers. I’ve decided to only use the most poignant of these. Additionally, before his taking power, he was a part of a pro-Axis coalition within the Argentine military, the GOU². This displays his pro-Axis sentiments, which he never repudiated.

Italian Fascism led popular organisations to an effective participation in national life, which had always been denied to the people. Before Mussolini’s rise to power, the nation was on one hand and the worker on the other, and the latter had no involvement in the former. Exactly the same phenomenon happened in Germany, meaning, an organised state for a perfectly ordered community, as well as for a perfectly ordered population: a community where the state was the tool of the nation, whose representation was, under my view, effective. I thought that this should be the future political form, meaning, the true people’s democracy, true social democracy.

• Juan Perón. Quoted in “Perón and Perónism” by Kerry Bolton.

Mussolini was the greatest man of our century, but he committed certain disastrous errors. I, who have the advantage of his precedent before me, shall follow in his footsteps but also avoid his errors.

• Juan Perón. Quoted in "Argentina, 1943-1979: The National Revolution and Resistance" by Donald C. Hodges.

Furthermore, he continued to view the Second World War as a battle between socialist nations (the fascists) and international synarchy, Perón’s term for globalist conspiracy³.

All of this goes to show Perón’s clear preference for the fascists, and his admiration for Benito Mussolini. Another piece of evidence is his well-documented protection of German “war criminals,” whom he and his wife, Eva “Evita” Duarte Perón, gave official protection and allowed to remain in Argentina⁴.

Perón borrowed from fascism the concept of the corporate state - what he called the organized community - which is an organized collective of interest groups directed by the State for the national interest. Perón’s understanding of the Corporate State derived from Roman Catholic social teaching and an Aristotelian conception of the State; the State is the whole of society, and the whole necessarily precedes the parts of which it is composed. Therefore, the State has the right and duty to manage its parts per the common good. In short, society is viewed and governed in the manner of the human body; no one part is more important than another, and they all cooperate to form a healthy whole. Incidentally, this ideal is Biblical and is how the Church is described by St. Paul of Tarsus in 1 Corinthians 12:12-18.

“...political society as a body governed by the immutable laws of harmony: heart, digestive system, muscles, will, brain, are in the simile of Plato bodies happily taken by their functions and purposes of collective biology: A State of Justice, where each class exercises their functions in the service of all. The whole, with a central proposition of law, as a law of harmony, the human body, predominated over singularities on the Greek political horizon, which is also the first political horizon of our civilization.”

• Juan Domingo Perón. Quoted in Perón and Perónism by Kerry R. Bolton.

Perón’s Corporatism manifested with his implementation of a national syndicalist economic model. Unfortunately, full implementation was not possible due to the time constraints that Perón was saddled with; nonetheless, by 1952 Perón had created 2000 agricultural cooperatives with over 750,000 members, which received state credit and preferential distribution of farm machinery⁵. The unions, furthermore, were stripped of the class struggle character they had been given by Marxism and Demoliberal Capitalism and became a true and essential aspect of the organised community, similar to what fascists did in their respective regimes; the integration of labor into the nation.

Unions, syndicates, companies, or whichever word you wish to use, played a central role in the planning of Argentina’s economy under Perón. Ownership/management of the means of production was granted to them, rather than to the State or the individual, and each member of a given syndicate held a personal stake as a shareholder⁶. This curbed Demoliberalism and offered organic representation to the noble workers, or the “shirtless ones” (Descamisado) as Evita called them, as opposed to the cold and impersonal representation of a political party which, more often than not, only used the worker as a means by which to gain power and no more.

This, however, did not prevent a cult of personality from being formed around the Peróns. Evita in particular is much beloved amongst Argentines even today, due to her work for the poor and downtrodden Descamisado. Both Peróns are practically worshipped by Argentine trade unions, and one such organisation has petitioned to the Roman Catholic Church to have Evita canonised as a Saint⁷.

The Achievements of the Perónist State

All of the previous quibble is redundant if these policies did not achieve their stated purpose; the betterment of Argentina and her people. The evidence that they did just so is abundant, and will be explored throughout this section.

Perón’s economic reforms were driven, primarily, by a quest for financial independence from encroaching Marxist and Demoliberal Capitalist powers though, much like Hitler, he appeared to put much more stock in the geopolitical threat posed by American-style Capitalism than he did Soviet Marxism. Among his reforms were the nationalisation of the banking system and the issuing of State credit, instituted to secure independence from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)⁸.

All commodity export was carried out by the Argentine Institute for the Promotion of Trade (IAPI). It bought meat and cereal from producers and sold them on the international market, taking the monopoly away from companies such as Bunge y Born. Profits were used to assist private, state, and provincial needs; subsidise consumer prices, and fund social aid projects. The IAPI planned and prioritised production and acquired raw materials for manufacturers. Argentina’s $1,000,000,000 debt to the Bank of England was paid off⁹.

Though still reliant on grain and meat exports to Europe to keep the economy stable, Perón developed an international peso that allowed the war-torn France and Germany to pay in pesos in exchange for exporting machinery to Argentina¹⁰. Perón also implemented barter trade, similar to what National Socialist Germany implemented, to curb international finance further¹¹.

Perón’s first three years as President saw a 27% wage increase for skilled workers and a 37% increase for unskilled workers. Salaried workers increased to 55% of the workforce, and the GDP grew by 30%¹². The increase in spending power meant that luxury items could be purchased by a wider variety of people, and the increase to wages allowed more children to attend school as opposed to finding work¹³. New schools were established by the State and, later, by the Eva Perón Foundation.

Healthcare, too, received significant State funding and many new hospitals and health centers, which offered free services in a country that once left the majority without healthcare¹⁴. State intervention in the medicinal fields allowed for the creation of the Eva Perón School of Nursing. Under the Perónist government, prospective nurses were required to take a two-year course instructed in hygiene, epidemiology, anatomy, physiology, semiology, general pathology, national defense, public disasters, first aid, infirmary (medical and surgical) obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, dietetics, and social medicine. Students who could not afford fees were subsidised by the Foundation¹⁵. Between 1950 and 1951, 5000 nurses were trained by the nursing school¹⁶.

The Eva Perón Foundation took it upon itself to build School Homes (Hogares Escuela) for children whose parents wrote to Evita telling her of their child’s needs, and for children who were orphaned or neglected¹⁷. They were built in areas where economic need was greatest and were open with small hedges to not block them off from the rest of society¹⁸. Family connections with children who were boarding at the Hogares Escuela were encouraged¹⁹. Social workers were assigned to each child’s family before and after their stay at the Hogares, and every child received a medical checkup every two months following their admittance²⁰. Following Perón’s ouster, the new regime commissioned investigators to check into the Foundation’s activities. They were shocked to discover how well such “low-class” children were treated.

The attention given to the minors was varied and almost sumptuous. We can even say that it was excessive and not at all in accordance with the norms of the sobriety of a Republic which should form its children in austerity. Poultry and fish were included in the varied daily menus. As for the [children’s] clothing, it was renewed every six months and the old clothing destroyed.

• Cited by Bolton, “Perón and Perónism” by Kerry R. Bolton

The strength of the Eva Perón Foundation laid in its inability to be obstructed by bureaucracy. It was established in 1948 by decree 220.564 of Congress, though its foundations were laid during Perón’s time as Secretary of Labor from 1943 to 1945, when Perón started meeting with individual individual petitioners for assistance. Evita continued this work after Perón assumed the presidency in 1946. She worked tirelessly with her staff preparing packages for the needy. The Foundation swiftly became the primary means of distributing social care amongst Argentines, with the working class, children, and the elderly being especially doted upon.

Emergency Homes were set up for people suffering extenuating circumstances until such a time where their difficulties could be solved²¹. Mothers with children were prioritised, although anyone who required assistance was allowed to lodge in one of the Homes²². Evita donated many of the gifts she received during her tour of Europe to the Homes, such as furniture, tapestries, paintings, rugs, porcelain, and other fine objects²³. The other Hogares received similar donations.

Residents stayed for about eight days until Foundation social workers had solved their housing, employment, or medical problems²⁴. The Hogares did not provide mere material comfort but provided moral and spiritual support as well. Medical and financial support were offered, and clothes were given out²⁵. Sewing classes for women and movies and crafts were also available for children²⁶. There were clothing sections that allowed each guest to pick out their clothes²⁷, and children had fully equipped playgrounds supervised by licensed caregivers²⁸.

On August 28, 1948, Evita pronounced the decalogue of rights for the elderly, which were later added to the 1949 Perónist Constitution. They guaranteed the following:

1. The right to assistance and to protection

2. The right to housing

3. The right to food

4. The right to clothing

5. The right to health care

6. The right to spiritual care

7. The right to entertainment

8. The right to work

9. The right to tranquillity, free from anguish and worry

10. The right to respect²⁹

A Hogar for the elderly was built, Hogar Colonel Perón, on 17 October 1948. Constructed in Buenos Aires, it spanned 80 acres and included amenities such as a cinema, libraries, and workshops, with paid employment available to residents, of which 80% of them took part. Options included ‘an ecologically managed farm, a print shop, weaving and other craft shops, and voluntary work as librarians, and musicians.³⁰’

In 1950, Congress granted the first pensions to the elderly, and in 1949 the Foundation personally gave grants to elderly Argentines aged 60 or above in need³¹.

The Rights of Workers

The 1949 Perónist Constitution enumerated the rights of the workers. The Worker Bill of Rights reads as such:

Proclaimed by His Excellency the President of the Argentine Republic, General Juan Perón, at Buenos Aires, on February 24th 1947.

The President of the Argentine Republic, true interpreter of the aspiration for social justice cherished by the peoples, and bearing in mind that the rights deriving from work, as also the individual liberties, constitute the natural, inalienable and imprescriptable attributes of human beings, and that if these rights are ignored or injured they result in social antagonisms, struggles and unrest, considers it necessary and advisable to expressly state them in a declaration, so that, in the present and in the future, this declaration may serve as a rule to guide the action of individuals and public powers tending to raise the standard of social culture, to dignify labour and to humanise capital as the best means of establishing a balance among the concurrent forces of economy and to strengthen, in a new juridical organisation, the principles which inspire social legislation. For all these reasons, and in accordance with the preceding aims and purposes, he solemnly sets forth the following.

I - The Right To Work
Work is the indispensable means to satisfy the spiritual and material needs of the individual and their community, the cause of all the conquests of civilisation and the foundation of general prosperity; therefore, the right of work must be protected by society, which must consider it with the dignity it deserves and must provide employment to all those in need of it.

II - The Right To A Fair Remuneration
Wealth, income and interest of capital being the exclusive outcome of human labour, the community must organise and reactivate the sources of production in such a manner as to make possible and ensure for the worker a moral and material remuneration which not only satisfies his vital needs but also compensates for the results obtained and the efforts carried out.

III - The Right To Capacitation
The improvement of the human condition and the preeminence of spiritual values impose the necessity of promoting the raising of the standard of culture and professional capability, endeavouring that all minds must be guided towards every field of knowledge; society must stimulate the individual effort providing the means by which, afforded the same opportunities, any individual may exercise his right to learn and perfect himself.

IV - The Right To Appropriate Working Conditions
From the considerations due to the human being, the importance of work as a social function, and the mutual respect among the concurrent factors of production, arises the rights of individuals to demand fair and appropriate conditions for the development of their activities and the obligation of society to watch over the strict observance of the precepts under which these conditions have been established and regulated.

V - The Right To The Preservation Of Health
The care of the physical and moral health of individuals must be one of society’s principal and constant concerns. Society must see to it that the working regimes meet the necessary requirements of safety and hygiene, that they do not exceed the normal possibilities of human effort, and that they afford due periods for rest for recovery.

VI - The Right To Welfare
The right of workers to welfare, which may be summed up in the possibilities to obtain adequate dwelling, clothing and food, and to satisfy their own needs and those of their families without undue distress, so that they may work with pleasure, rest without worry, and enjoy in moderation spiritual and material expansions, imposes the social obligation of raising the standard of living and of work by means of the direct and indirect resources allowed by economic development.

VII - The Right To Social Security
The right of individuals to protection in cases of decrease, discontinuance or loss of their working capacity, imposes upon society the obligation of taking into its charge, unilaterally, the corresponding measures of compensation or of promoting systems of obligatory mutual aid, destined, both of them, to cover or to supplement the insufficiencies or inabilities proper to certain periods of life or those resulting from misfortunes arising from eventual risks.

VIII - The Right To The Protection Of His Family
The protection of the family is born from a natural feeling of the individual, since the family is the source of his highest sentiments of affection, and any effort tending to ensure its welfare must be encouraged and stimulated by the community as the most favourable means of achieving the improvement of mankind and the consolidation of the spiritual and moral principles which are the very essence of social relationship.

IX - The Right To Better Economic Conditions
Productive capacity and man’s ambition to surpass himself find a natural incentive in the possibility of improving economic conditions, hence, society must support and encourage any individual initiative tending to achieve this aim, and stimulate the formation and utilization of capitals insofar as they constitute active elements of production and contribute to general prosperity.

X - The Right To The Defence Of Professional Interests
The right to unionise freely and to participate in other lawful activities devoted to the defence of professional interests constitute essential rights of the workers which society must respect, ensuring their free exercise and repressing any action which might impair or prevent it.

• Quoted by Bolton, “Perón and Perónism” by Kerry R. Bolton

[Apologies for this section being a simple document, but I couldn’t think of a better way to exposit how much attention was paid to the rights of the worker except to showcase the document that enumerated such rights.]

Perónism as Genuine Social Justice

The modern reader, when reading or hearing terms like “social justice,” might have in mind blue-haired cretins fighting for the newest degenerate behaviour pushed for by the bourgeois elites, kosher politicians, and other social parasites. The Perónist conception of social justice could not be further from this bourgeois interpretation. It is, in fact, the driving force and most beautiful aspect of Perónism.

We are forming a social conscience based on the three postulates of our social justice: in ethics, firstly, the elevation of social culture, secondly, bestowing dignity on labour, and thirdly, the humanisation of capital.

• Juan Domingo Perón, A obreros maderos, 24-9-45, quoted in “Perón and Perónism” by Kerry R. Bolton.

What Perónism posits in social justice is simply the unity of all members of Argentina into a single body, informed by Roman Catholic social teaching and Greek philosophy, in addition to his experiences with the fascist project in Italy. Social justice and economic independence were the pillars Perónism built itself on, though Perón did not believe social justice to be possible without economic independence.

Economic independence, to Perón ans other Justicialist theoreticians, meant nationalising the banks to protect the Argentine currency from foreign meddling, whether through parasitic programs like the Marshall Plan, organisations like the IMF, or domestic traitors working for such imperialist forces, called Sepoy. It was this policy of nationalisation that granted Perón the maneuverability he did have in domestic economic affairs, when not being stifled by the actions of Sepoy infiltrators.

For Perón, social justice was the balance of all interest groups in society; the unity of labor and capital, the abolition of individualistic (egoist) notions of property and a shift to a social conception, etc. In this, it distances itself from the materialist and bourgeois ethics of modern-day “social justice warriors,” who are by nature of their materialism individualists in the worst possible sense. They are individualistic because, censorious though they may be, it is ultimately formed from selfish notions of self-actualisation and self-expression. Their censorship of opposing positions is simply a defense of their individualist dogma, as intolerant ideologies don’t leave room for dissidence. In some sense, the “social justice warriors” can be said to be intolerant in their absolute tolerance, which is a paradox termed by Karl Popper, a Jewish political theorist and Liberal, as the “tolerance paradox.”

To make things simple, Justicialist social justice is Perón's articulation of a corporate state and socialism. It is the bedrock of his ideology, and even for a fascist intellectual it is profound and beautiful.

Perón and the Roman Church

Perónism viewed the Roman Catholic religion as essential to the future of Argentines, so much so that the 1949 Perónist Constitution mandated that every sitting president must be a Roman Catholic³². Much of Perón's ideology was informed by Roman Catholic social teaching from encyclicals such as Rerum Novarum, which outlines the symbiotic doctrine of class collaboration inherent to the fascist corporatism Perón adopted.

Criticism, much of it valid, has been levied upon Perón for how he treated the Roman church in the later years of his administration, which was a factor that led to the coup against him in 1955. It is prudent to note, however, that Perón realised his mistake in targetting the church and offered to abdicate if it would appease them³³. It was the view of Antonio Plaza, the Archbishop of La Plata, that Perón was manipulated into taking a stance against the church by Masonic elements. This argument is incredibly weak, however, as Perón had access to the information provided by his intelligence agencies and practicing Romanists telling him his actions were wrong³⁴. The actions of Romanist laymen, rather, incited this antagonism. From 1954, Romanist laymen formed the Christian Democratic Party with the expectation of replacing Justicialism³⁵. This spurred Perón to take action to preserve the Perónist State. Such action can be seen as either positive or negative, depending on if you think Perón was solely acting in his own interests or in the broader interests of Argentines.

Regardless, such happenings damaged Perón's rapport with the church, which had previously supported his movement³⁶. As previously mentioned, the church backed the 1955 coup that removed Perón and sent him into exile for 18 years. Claims that Perón was excommunicated are, however, debatable, as the decree issued by the Sacred Consistorial Congregation to excommunicate all responsible for the expulsion of Bishop Tato did not name any names³⁷. Fr. Pedro Bandanelli denied that this decree legally excommunicated Perón, arguing that bodies could not be excommunicated but only specific individuals, therefore Perón's expulsion was not legal by Canon Law. Citing Canon Law 227, he claimed that the excommunication of a head of state can only be carried out by the Pope and not by a church body like the Sacred Consistorial Congregation. No such excommunication of Perón came down from Pope Pius XII. Nonetheless, during his exile Perón wrote a letter to Pope John XXIII expressing his repentance in case he actually was excommunicated by this decree³⁸.

Prior to this drama, Evita received an audience, during her tour of Europe, with the then Pope Pius XII. Meeting in his library, they spoke for 30 minutes and Evita was presented with the customary gift of a rosary. The day after, a Vatican messenger delivered a papal decoration to the Argentine embassy for Perón³⁹.

Despite all of this, Romanism's influence on Perón is undeniable. Like most fascists, he was rather anticlerical and didn't take challenges to his authority lightly, but the figures of Thomas Aquinas and Aquinas’ interpretation of Aristotle loomed high over Perón. As previously mentioned, he was willing to abdicate from the presidency in order to make amends for his mistakes in how he treated Roman Catholics, though his resignation was rejected by the Partido Justicialista and the CGT, who staged nationwide protests until his resignation was withdrawn⁴⁰.

Personal Criticisms

The main issues with how Perón governed, as I see them, were his maintaining of a democratic means of choosing a government and his refusal to execute the traitors responsible for a failed coup against him in 1951.

Democracy potentially could have threatened the Perónist State. While it did not, and Perón was voted into his second term with a 60% majority, risking the State so early on was reckless. It is somewhat admirable that he believed in his people to vote for him, but it is my view that this was an unnecessary manoeuvre that could have been avoided entirely the moment Perón centralised power to himself.

The second point is more-so to do with my own view on how traitors ought to be dealt with, a view Perón did not share. When General Benjamin Menéndez's coup failed, Perón was asked by another General to permit the man's death sentence and execution. In response, Perón said that his hands shall never be tainted by another man's blood⁴¹. My problem here is largely a disagreement with Perón on the necessity of violence in certain situations, this being one of those situations.

These concerns are, however, rather small in the face of everything the Peróns did for Argentina and I have nothing but respect for him.

Conclusion

I believe to have shown, if not as thoroughly as I might otherwise like, that Perónism was a net positive for Argentina and that Perón was a good leader with some (huge) shortcomings. This is simply a cursory glance and I implore you to read as much as you can about the Peróns. This article will be subject to change and editing as my own views, historical knowledge, and writing style develops. So, what you see here now might not be the same as in a few months or years!

I am a great admirer of Eva Perón, and her dying as young as she did brought me to tears when I first read about it. She was a stunning woman with a kind heart, and she was dearly missed by Argentines when she died from pelvic cancer.

While Perón, being a human, made many mistakes, he was a competent leader and a great man. He will be remembered as one of the greatest men of the 20th century, if not of all time.

1. Perón and Perónism by Kerry R. Bolton, page 162.

2. Ibid, pages 14, 15; Perón: A Biography by Joseph A. Page, pages 64, 65.

3. Perón and Perónism by Kerry R. Bolton, pages 33-34.

4. https://churchandstate.org.uk/2022/03/evita-the-swiss-and-the-nazis/ https://www.thoughtco.com/juan-domingo-peron-and-argentinas-nazis-2136208

5. Perón and Perónism by Kerry R. Bolton, page 245.

6. Ibid, page 42.

7. https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2019/05/argentine-union-wants-evita-to-be-saint-church-says-not-so-fast

8. Perón and Perónism by Kerry R. Bolton, pages 133, 146-148.

9. Ibid, page 168.

10. Ibid, page 163.

11. Ibid, pages 136, 138, 147.

12. Ibid, page 164.

13. Ibid, page 165.

14. Ibid, page 165.

15. Ibid, page 114.

16. Ibid, page 114.

17. Ibid, page 117.

18. Ibid, page 117.

19. Ibid, page 117.

20. Ibid, page 117.

21. Ibid, page 110.

22. Ibid, page 110.

23. Ibid, page 110.

24. Ibid, page 110.

25. Ibid, page 110.

26. Ibid, page 110.

27. Ibid, page 110.

28. Ibid, page 110.

29. Ibid, page 111.

30. Ibid, page 112.

31. Ibid, page 111.

32. Ibid, page 99-100.

33. Ibid, page 270.

34. Perón: A Biography by Joseph A. Page, page 424.

35. Perón and Perónism by Kerry Bolton, page 267.

36. Ibid, page 51.

37. Perón: A Biography by Joseph A. Page, page 433.

38. Ibid, page 533.

39. Ibid, pages 276-277. All information in the paragraph is from these pages.

40. Perón and Perónism by Kerry R. Bolton, page 270.

41. Ibid, page 151.