Resistance to rationalization: the textile workers of La Matanza between 1955-1959

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the studies that reconstruct the factory workers' activism in the period 1955-1959, in the framework of the workers' resistance to the rationalization policies, trying to go through particularly the activism in the West Zone of the Conurbano Bonaerense. For this purpose we have taken a feminized industry, the textile industry, trying to recover the activism of its women workers. From the qualitative methodology we consulted different archives in which we reviewed the communist press and the official communiqués of the Textile Workers Association, among other sources. In them we filtered the search limiting it to the textile workers' conflict in the period, with focus on La Matanza, where we highlight the Danubio and Textil Oeste factories. In the conclusions reached, we determine the importance of the feminization of an industry in decline and the defensive worker positioning in periods of economic crisis in the sector. In this sense, we highlight the importance of incorporating a gender perspective to the studies of feminized industries, capable of critically analyzing the place of women in the factory, in the protest and when expelled from the labor market.