Andrew Sage

That same year saw the rise of construction workers, carpenters, tailors, postal workers, and baker's unions. Those bakers would also conduct the country's first ever strike action in October of 1886. The first distinctly anarchist publication I could find in Paraguay was organized by a group called Los Hijos del Chaco, who published the Libertarian Manifesto in 1892.

They call themselves anarchist communists and declare their intent to abolish private property, the clergy, the state, and the armed forces. We seek the complete emancipation of the proletariat as we fight to abolish the unjust exploitation of man by man.

We dedicate all of our moral and physical strength to overturn all tyrannies, to establish genuine liberty, equality, and fraternity in the human family. We seek to transform private property into a common good. We seek to do so because individual property is the basic cause of all the evils that afflict us.

It is on that basis that the dregs of humanity, government, clerics, lawyers, militaries, entrepreneurs, maintain themselves in power, live as parasites, and the continued enjoyment of their plunder finances large armies with the products of our labor. End quote.

Even prior to that manifesto, anarchists were making moves in the graphic, railway, and bakers' unions as early as 1889, fighting for and winning the eight-hour workday by 1901. Strike actions in this period were focused on that goal alongside wage increases and other improvements to working conditions.

The anarchists also tried to establish a national trade union center, but unfortunately did not succeed. In 1892, thanks in part to the growing Spanish and Argentine immigrant populations, there was a wave of libertarian union formation throughout Paraguay.

The anarchists were also quite successful among the peasantry, as they helped organized armed resistance societies to aid in their struggles against the landowners. Anarchists also managed to establish Rafael Barrett Cultural Center in the early 90s, hosting an impressive collection of books by fellow Paraguayan and foreign writers, and emboldening the formation of even more trade unions.

Rafael Barrett, by the way, is one of the most significant figures in Paraguayan anarchist history, according to every account I've read. Born in Todavega, Spain in 1876, Barrett's early life was typical of a well-to-do intellectual. He studied languages, piano, and eventually engineering.

By his late 20s, he was drawn to Latin America, partly by adventure and partly to make a difference, driven by a growing commitment to justice and solidarity. He arrived in Buenos Aires in 1903, where he found work as a journalist, soon making waves with an article that condemned the stark inequality he observed in Argentina's capital. This critique cost him his job.

Yet it deepened his dedication to speak for those who were voiceless. Barat's experiences of seeing European immigrant workers toiling under brutal conditions fueled his indignation against unchecked wealth and poverty's vicious hold on the working class. In 1904, Borat made his way to Paraguay.

He was initially welcomed as a correspondent for El Tiempo and even held government positions, including as the director of the Department of Engineers and the Railroad Agency. But his commitment to exposing the country's political and social rot soon put him at odds with Paraguay's new liberal government.

He saw that simply swapping out conservative leaders for liberals did little to improve conditions for ordinary Paraguayans. as demonstrated by the continuous labor struggles that arose in response to the industrialization undertaken by the liberal government. Workers were fighting to abolish child labor, improve their conditions, increase wages, and so on. He couldn't stand by in silence.

So he resigned from government service, now fully committed to social justice, even as his growing radicalism began to alienate the political elite. Barrett's personal experiences sharpened his perspective, transforming him from a sympathetic observer to a dedicated anarchist.

His writings in Criminal became essential reading for workers and peasants alike, urging them to see beyond superficial reforms and to challenge the entire structure of oppression. Perrette condemned the government's abuses and spoke out against exploitative systems that kept the majority of Paraguayans marginalized. He was a fiery advocate for social justice.

And one right in particular, Augusto Roa Bastos, called him the discoverer of Paraguayan social reality. Because Barrett didn't just observe these injustices, he threw himself into exposing and condemning them with fufa. His impact was so significant that even when he was forced to flee Paraguay in 1908 under government pressure, his ideas endured.

His health was deteriorating from tuberculosis, but he continued to write, receiving support from intellectual comrades in Uruguay and Brazil. His final years were just a continuation of his relentless dedication, even as his health continued to decline. In 1910, he went to Paris to seek treatment, but his health failed and he passed away in December of that year.

But just before Barrett's exile and passing in 1906, De Anacus would form the first and for some time only workers' federation in the country by joining together the illustrators, carpenters, and drivers' unions. Raphael Barrett actually became something of a thought leader for this group.

And this was the Federación Obreras Regional Paraguay, or FORB, partially inspired by the Federación Obrera Regional Argentina, or FORA, where they borrowed many of their programmatic ideas. If you recall the episodes I did on Argentina, you know that the reasoning for the name was ideological.

By adding the adjective regional, it made plain that the country in question, whether Paraguay or Argentina, was not being considered a state or political unit, but a region of the world in which workers struggled for their liberation.

Soon after its founding, on the 1st of May 1906, the FORB held the country's first International Workers' Day demonstration, despite police attempts to shut it down.