Worker resistance to the last military dictatorship. A contribution to its conceptualization

Abstract

The objective of this article is to rethink the concept of “resistance” as a synonymous of non-consensual behaviors undertaken by workers during the last period of civic-military dictatorship in Argentina. This includes both acts taken against the economic and labor policies as well as the employer policies in the workplace. In the existing studies, we found flexible definitions of “resistance” as forms of non-consensual behaviors. This involves an advantage: to demystify these behaviors. However, it has also a disadvantage: it does not include attitudes of “escape” or “conditional obedience”. In this article we propose to evaluate different conceptual alternatives that bring us closer to solving this problem. We will consider both classical texts as well as the most recent contributions on the topic.