Peron’s State

Last week, in Buenos Aires’ city hall, handsome, hard Colonel Juan Domingo Péron, Argentine Under Secretary of War, was sworn in as head of the new Secretariat of Labor and Welfare. Around him were the Army officers who, with him, control Argentina and President-General Pedro Ramirez.

Their instrument is the GOU (Government of Order and Unity), otherwise known as “the Colonels’ Clique” which put President Ramirez in office last summer. By last week, Colonel Péron and his dominant GOU had taken on many of the aspects, used some of the tricks of German Naziism. One of the first objectives: complete control of Argentine labor. Colonel Péron had already smashed the strongest union (Confederación General de Trabajo, 250,000 members), was enticing others with promises to “get your rights without outside agitators.”

Colonel Péron’s goal was apparently to coordinate both capital and labor in a corporate state. The new state, said he, would be governed by a principle higher than law, “the welfare of the country.” Colonel Péron was already higher than law. In his files, ready for instant use, were the signed resignations of the army officers who comprise the GOU. Opponents of the Government were threatened last week with concentration camps and some had already been sent there.

Free or Fat. But Argentines are proud, well-informed, hard to bully. The democratic, pro-Allied masses lack leadership but they are showing increasing resentment. But democratic Argentines do not expect a democratic uprising soon. They tell each other that the country is too prosperous, too well-fed. They wryly acknowledge that they will have to get a good deal madder before they find leaders and act.