The Uruguayan Regional Workers' Federation (; FORU) was an anarcho-syndicalist national trade union federation that operated in Uruguay during the early 20th century. Established in 1905 by several trade unions, largely made up of Italian and Spanish anarchists, it quickly became the leading force in the Uruguayan labor movement. It spread throughout the country and led a number of successful strikes, but repression by the conservative government of Claudio Williman caused difficulties for industrial action, and the FORU's activities stagnated. The FORU was reorganized in 1910, following the re-election of the left-wing president José Batlle y Ordóñez, whom many in the FORU supported. In 1911, the FORU led the country's first general strike, which resulted in the promulgation of the eight-hour working day in Uruguay. With one of its main goals achieved, its activities stagnated in subsequent years, while many workers moved over to the Colorado Party and Socialist Party.
The FORU was revived in 1916 and again became the leading force in the labor movement, organizing a series of strike actions, including general strikes. But after World War I, the labor movement split into different factions and the FORU began to lose its strength. Several splinter groups, including the Committee for Workers' Unity, Uruguayan Syndicalist Union and General Confederation of Labor of Uruguay, broke away from the FORU during the 1920s. Despite the decline, the FORU participated in several international initiatives, co-founding the International Workers' Association and the American Continental Workers' Association, and positioning itself in opposition to the anti-fascists of the Spanish National Confederation of Labor. Although it survived the repression of Gabriel Terra's right-wing dictatorship, it continued to diminish in size and increasingly sought to unify with the other union federations. In 1964, it merged into the National Convention of Workers.
Background The first efforts to organize the workers' movement in Uruguay began in the 1860s and 1870s, with left-wing activists forming a Uruguayan section of the International Workingmen's Association and printing workers establishing the country's first trade union. In 1876, workers formed the Regional Federation of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, which would form the basis for the FORU. It published the newspapers La Revolución Social in 1882, La Lucha Obrera in 1884 and La Federación de Trabajadores in 1885. Self-published newspapers grew to become something of a status symbol among Uruguayan workers' organizations.
In the 1880s and 1890s, half a million people immigrated to Uruguay, more than doubling the country's population. Many of them settled in the capital city Montevideo, where many small businesses and workshops developed, alongside a few larger companies that managed the port and on the railways. The migrant workers, most of whom came from Italy and Spain, brought with them the new political philosophy of anarchism. The radicalism of the period further intensified after people who had been expelled from Argentina for extremism found refuge in Montevideo.
By the turn of the 20th century, anarchism had gained a popular appeal among industrial workers in Uruguay, becoming the predominant tendency of left-wing politics. Syndicalism also gained traction among artisans, intellectuals and laborers alike. In the wake of the Panic of 1890, skilled workers in various trades began to organize themselves. Inspired by the model of anarcho-syndicalism, workers began organizing themselves into trade unions, which they intended to use to defend workers' interests in the short term, while building towards the ultimate goal of a social revolution against capitalism and the state. These anarchist unions functioned as a form of direct democracy, in which union representatives acted solely to coordinate between unions, without acting as a mediator between workers and employers.
Establishment
By the early 1900s, there were 38 trade unions in Uruguay, and the growth of the workers' movement led to increased coordination between the unions. In Montevideo, among the most notable trade unions were the coal handlers', electricians' and firefighters' unions, all of which were led by anarchists. In March 1905, Uruguayan anarchist unions came together to establish a national trade union federation, which they named the Uruguayan Regional Workers' Federation (; FORU). Many of its early membership and much of its leadership consisted of Italian and Spanish immigrant workers. Francisco Corney, an experienced Spanish trade union activist, was elected as its general secretary the following year. The FORU also began publishing a newspaper, La Emancipación, in 1907. In the paper's first issue, it declared support for workers' immediate demands for "more respect, more bread and a little more rest", while also calling for them to organize for the eventual overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of an egalitarian, post-capitalist society.
The FORU explicitly defined itself as an anarchist organization. Its stated goal was the "emancipation of the proletariat" from capitalism, through the creation of a "universal union federation". Quoting the Russian anarchist theorist Peter Kropotkin, the FORU declared that "the emancipation of the workers must be the act of the workers themselves". It discouraged its members from participating in elections or efforts to reform legislation. It also rejected state arbitration between workers and employers. It instead called on workers to express their demands through direct industrial action, including boycotts, sabotage and strikes. One of its key short-term objectives was to establish an eight-hour working day, among others that included the introduction of a minimum wage, occupational hygiene measures and rent control, and the abolition of child labor, night shifts and piece work. Although the FORU largely opposed strikes for higher wages, which it considered a reformist objective, some members considered such actions to be a "training ground" for the ultimate goal of a revolutionary general strike.
Together with the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA), the FORU was one of the only national trade union federations in Latin America to adopt a specifically anarchist orientation. Recruitment was selective, as union members were expected to be ideologically committed to the cause, for which they would form the labor movement's vanguard. Through its ideology, the FORU more closely resembled a political organization than one with a purely economic focus.
Early activities
After the founding of the FORU, anarchist trade unions spread throughout the country, including the cities of Colonia del Sacramento, Durazno, Florida and La Paz. Several new anarchist publications and social centres were established in Uruguay to support the anarchist labor movement. Students and teachers held public lectures and educational courses for workers, which covered subjects of interest to the unions of the FORU. International Workers' Day demonstrations were held each year, where notable anarchist writers such as Virginia Bolten and gave speeches. Anarchists also agitated against militarism and parliamentarism. Strikes became much more frequent, beginning with massive walkouts by construction, maritime and railroad workers, which shut down parts of the country's infrastructure throughout 1905. Businessmen complained that ships were no longer able to drop off passengers, mail or cargo, as the port strike had effectively incapacitated the shipping industry. In early 1906, a street cleaners' strike managed to achieve victory despite the army being mobilized against them. The anarchist unions became so powerful that, in August 1907, the anarchist electricians' union won a wage increase and Sundays off without even going on strike.
However, the FORU was also sharply criticized by the anarchist newspaper El Libertario, which had not been invited to attend the FORU's founding congress; it engaged in such frequent polemics with the FORU that its shoemakers' union decided to boycott the paper. Debates also broke out about the FORU's retention of paid union secretaries, a model which they shared with the Brazilian Workers' Confederation, but which was opposed by their Argentine counterparts of the FORA. Both sides of the debate were published in La Acción Obrera, with Adrián Troitiño defending the practice due to the needs of a large-scale organization, while Marcos Filoment insisted that the practice ran counter to anarchist principles. The latter position won out, with the FORU's second congress resolving to rescind paid secretaries' speaking and voting rights in their organizations. This second congress would precede a period of decline for the FORU.
Although the FORU had encouraged abstentionism and anarchists had celebrated low turnouts in the 1907 Uruguayan parliamentary election, the appointment of the conservative Claudio Williman as president led to an increase in political repression against the labor movement. Strikes under the Williman administration were largely unsuccessful. An unsuccessful streetcar strike in 1907 led to the union collapsing. During a rail workers' strike in 1908, the union's headquarters were seized by police, and Antonio Laredo, the editor of La Acción Obrera, was imprisoned; the strike was ultimately defeated after two months and its union likewise collapsed. Between 1908 and 1910, the FORU entered into a period of stagnation. Strikes continued during this period, usually demanding higher wages or the reinstatement of dismissed workers, and most were unsuccessful. In 1908, only 3 out of 13 strikes were successful; and in 1909, none of the 9 strikes were successful. Meanwhile, the FORU's refusal to engage in party politics had enabled other left-wing tendencies to proclaim themselves the representatives of the working class, with José Batlle y Ordóñez's Colorado Party and Emilio Frugoni's nascent Socialist Party both attempting to fill the void.
1911 general strike
By 1910, the FORU had reorganized itself and trade union activity had again increased, with a series of strike actions by various trade unions in Montevideo. The re-election of the left-wing president José Batlle y Ordóñez in late 1910 led a radical change in the political climate for the labor movement. Strike actions in 1910 had already seen greater success, with 9 out of 13 strikes ending in victory for the workers. The year 1911 saw a massive increase in strikes, with 41 strike actions taking place, 16 of which were successful; in contrast to earlier strikes, one-third were now motivated by demands for a shorter working day, although wage increases were still the primary demand. In early 1911, the FORU truck drivers' union led a successful strike that secured them the eight-hour workday and union recognition. Walkouts also took place in Mercedes, Paysandú, Salto and San José de Mayo, and trade unions in Durango called for wage increases and working hours reductions. By this time, most industrial sectors throughout the country had their own trade unions. The unions of the FORU represented an estimated 90,000 industrial workers, out of a total of 117,000 industrial workers in the country. Historian Ángel Cappelletti called the FORU a "'true central union of workers', not by government decree or fascistic collusion, but by the will of the working class."