Dominant Classes and Political Crisis in Argentina Today

March 11 and May 25, 1973, are important dates that mark deep-running processes of social and political change in Argentina. The first date represents the closure of a period opened in 1966, during which foreign monopoly capital launched a strong offensive in the productive structure of Argentina and tried to consolidate itself politically through an au thoritarian regime similar to that in power in Brazil. Such offensive clashed with the inter ests of various social classes. Their resistance drove Argentina through a series of politi cal convulsions that finally isolated the regime. Therefore, it is in Argentina that the de velopment of the contradictions of monopoly capitalism has met its most radical response. The proletariat was a leading actor in the struggle. Secondary contradictions played a large role as well. Portantiero analyzes these contradictions. His theoretical paper applies Marxian class analysis to the Argentine political crisis. It elucidates principal and second ary contradictions in society, the role of foreign capital, the stalemate in class conflict, the limits of the Brazilian model in the Argentine context, and the features of Peronism as an attempted truce in the unresolved conflict of classes and in the legitimacy crisis of de pendent capitalism. Juan Carlos Portantiero teaches sociology at the University of Buenos Aires. With Miguel Murmis, he has written one of the most influential and controversial analyses of the origins and nature of Peronism Estudios sobre los origenes del peronismo (1971). He is a frequent contributor to the Córdoba-based journal, Pãsado y Presente, where this essay first appeared. This translation is by Mary Addis, who is a graduate student at the University of California in San Diego.