E BUILT sinst Argentina By the close of the war Argentina had built up gigantic foreign currency reserves, and the nationalistic government of General Juan Perón used that money to buy out the holdings British capitalists in the country and establish state-owned companies to develop new areas of the economv.
At the end of the war, Argentina seemed to be poised for large-scale independence industrial development. It had established a considerable industrial base in the previous decades, it had bought out the largest imperialist holdings, and it possessed large amounts or capilal oult during the war. But the hoped-for independent development did not take place.
With the end of the war, the imperialist Coracs could turn their attention to Argentina. By the early 1950s, foreign corporations, now predominantly US, entering the county numbers, often purchasing Argentinian owned companies that had been built up in the preceding two decades.
Canada 27,300,000 23,940,000 72% 75.5% $61.5 billion $245.8 billion $6.7 billion $62.6 billion $7.8 billion 29.05 billion 335.71 billion 3.2 million 16.1 million 2.03 million 9.02 million 135,000 1.14 million 45,480 610,800 10.37 billion 215.35 billion 2.6 million 14.5 million 3.19 million 1.06 million 59% 76% 59.0 12.4 To controlled by or with foreign capital.
amined the Photo: JOHN by Argentinian capitalists chases existing tions.
automobile industry growing COnTOl functioning in Argentina, ship. two up locally-owned again were again in the industry in the early 1960s. large Today the story ferent. The the remaining panies are all foreign owned 'Between 1958 and 1964, that is, period during which industry was made, that amounted to $52.3m.
1970s when annual dividends and royalties capita invested period.' Crying for Argentina, by the military In 1954, a study of the 100 most important companies functioning in Argentina. Iound that at least 89 were cians, closely connected Another study in the 1960s excountry's largest companies, as defined by sales, and found that half of the total sales volume to foreign-owned firms. third to state-owned firms, and only one-sixth to private companies owned The trend toward imperialist purArgentinian industries is continuing. Of the 50 large state enterprises that the Argentinian over private control between 1963 and 1968, 29 passed into the hands of US corporaThe evolution of the Argentinian of In 1960, 21 automobile companies were of which only 4 had majority foreign ownerThe remainder were either entirely or majority Argentinian owned, and operated under license from imperialist firms. In 1963, locally owned auto firms still accounted for more Ine than 50 per cent of total production. outflow Leaving aside the fact that all the companies were already tied to imperialist corporations through licensing agreements, these figures show that there was still significant Argentinian participation is totally difArgentinian producers have folded or been bought out and fiye automobile comIn a study of the Argentinian auto industry, British scholar Rhys Jenkins points out that the imperialists take far more capital out of the country than they invest in it. He reports that:
most of the over foreign investment in the automotive the inflow of $33m into the industry was exceeded Colly by the outflow of dividend payments Jenkins adds that the situation got even worse in the late 1960s and early payments OI foreign to foreign owners exceeded the total new foreign six-year This pattern is not unique. In fact it is the norm. Contrary to the myth expounded by generations of pro imperialist economists and politiforeign investment does not result in an inflow of capital to the semicolonial world and does necessarily result in the creation of new industrial capacity of the Department of Commerce shows that between 1950 and 1965, US private in. vestment in Latin America totalled $3.8bn, while in those same years the flow of profits from Latin America to the United States totalled $11.3bn.
In addition, most "foreign' investment does not bring new capital into the semicolonial countries from the imperialist countries. According to a US Department of Commerce study, 96 per cent of US foreign investment in Latin America is actually raised in Latin America.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America points out that: "The growing tendencv of foreign investors in recent years to purchase all or part of industrial enterprises that are already operating in Latin America, far from providing a stimulus to industrial activities in region, entails an increasing of financial I CoulLeS. without the creation of new producton capacity to justify it.
This pattern imperialist investors borrowing Argentinian capital to purchase Argentinian plants and sending the profits out of impact besides the export of capital from the country. It also establishes Argentinian industry as a branch office operation, in which imperialist firms satisfy the local internal market through their own local production rather than through imports. But all research, development, technical innovation, engineering, and the like is carried out in the 'home' office.
The degree of imperialist control Argentina's industrial produchuge from the start. As Polit shows, they 'emerged in the economic arena of Argentina as fully developed offspring of large foreign enterprises.' Already by 1936, still in the early SLaLC. Argentinian development, (one-tenth of 1 per cent of the total) employed 15 per cent of all workers -a degree of concentration that was 10 times higher than in the United States at the same time. largest establishments responsible for 20 per value of production.
The Argentinian working class, therefore, concentrated in large factories, which are the most conducive arena for the development of sciousness and organisation. result, the Argentinian working class has traditionally been one of the most class-conscious and militant in the capitalist world.
This huge, powerful working class confronts stunted capitalist class. In face of competition from huge foreign corporations, most Argentine capitalists are content to play the role of junior partner to imperialist firms, or avoid industrial inYOU LOLY.
The Argentinian capitalist asks himself, says Polit: millions be invested in such items as blast furnaces if a capital investment will bring high and immediate profits when invested in land, elegant buildings, market, or textile enterprises?
This stunted Argentinian capitalist class finds itself sandwiched between two giants — the Argentinian workers perialists. Unable to control and contain the working class on its own, must rel on brute military to keep the workers in check, and it turns over the reins of government representatives perialism.
150 largest 47 individual factories porations government ministers By 1954, the 69 alone were cent of the was from its beginnings working-clas conAs a The since 1976, Argentinian economic tial palace.
sion:
end of Because of should much smaller ted profits, trom Japanese and deformed $35bn.
and the imits millions, tions. breaking force by the capital im"JOBS NOT BOMBSI"
In 1970 and 1971 James Petras and Thomas Cook carried out interviews with the top executives of the corporations and in dustrial associations in They found that 55.4 per cent of the top executives of foreign owned corhave nelo Argentinian posts as cabinet cabinet advisers, ministerial subsecretaries. But only 19.7 per cent of the top executives of Argentinian owned companies had held similar posts.
Today Argentina is in the midst of a terrible economic crisis characterised by years of triple-digit inflation, a rising wave of bankruptcies and bank collapses, unemployment that is of ficially 10 per cent but is thought to be nearly double that figure in reality, an a dizzying fall in the living standards of Argentinian working people.
military, which has ruled has no solution to the crisis. In 1981, five different officers occupied the presidenone arter anotner wa. swept out by the deepening depresToday Argentina faces the dead semicolonial development. the penetration of imperialist investment, Argentina sends massive amounts of capital to the imperialist centers in the form of remitand then has to turn around and borrow that same capital US European banks to finance infra structural development. Argentina's foreign debt now stands at more than The Argentinian working class, in with its fighting tradiis the only force capable of the hold of imperialist on and taking charge of the country's destiny. From Intercontinental Press
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