June 18, 1897.
The first issue of La Protesta Humana is published. In 1903 it becomes La Protesta.
March 25–26, 1901.
FOA (Argentine Workers Federation) is formed with approximately ten thousand members. It is syndicalist in nature and rejects party political involvement.
1905.
At its Fifth Congress, FOA becomes the FORA (Argentine Regional Workers’ Federation) with a commitment to anarchist communism.
May 1, 1909.
A cavalry detachment under the overall command of Ramon Falcon, Chief of Police, opens fire on a demonstration in Plaza Lorea. Several demonstrators are killed and many wounded. An ensuing General strike last nine days with over two-thousand arrests.
November 13, 1909.
Eighteen-year-old Ukrainian anarchist Simon Radowitzky throws a bomb at Falcon’s car, killing both Falcon and Falcon’s secretary. Due to his age, he will be sentenced to indefinite imprisonment.
Martial law is declared and remains until January 1910. The offices and printing press of La Protesta are destroyed during this period.
April, 1915.
9th Congress of FORA reverses their support for anarchist communism. A minority of members break away and form FORA V, remaining committed to anarchist communism. This is the FORA that appears in this book. The majority become FORA 1X.
December, 1918.
A strike breaks out at the Vasena metal works in Buenos Aires.
January 2–14, 1919.
Events take place that will become known as La Semana Trajica (The Tragic Week).
January 7, 1919.
Strikers attempted to stop a shipment of materials from leaving the plant. The police open fire, killing five workers and wounding many.
January 9, 1919.
Violence breaks out between police and mourners at the funeral of the five workers killed outside the Vasena plant. The two FORAs call for a General Strike.
January 10, 1919 onwards.
The right-wing Argentine Patriotic League attack the Russian Jewish areas of Buenos Aires.
January 12, 1919.
The 9th Congress FORA decide to call off the General Strike.
January 14, 1919.
Police raid the offices of La Protesta and smash its printing press.
January 20, 1919.
The strike is called off. Over the course of the Tragic Week, fifty thousand would be imprisoned and many workers killed.
May 19, 1919.
The first politically motivated armed robbery in Argentina takes place as the manager of a bureau de change is targeted. It is a failure with no money taken and a policeman killed. The robbers are captured.
1921.
The newspaper La Antorcha breaks away from La Protesta and will run until 1932.
1920–1922.
A series of strikes, general strikes, and insurrections take place among the rural workers of Patagonia. In 1921, hundreds of striking workers (some of whom had surrendered) were summarily executed by the 10th Cavalry under the command of Colonel Hector Varela.
January 27, 1923.
Colonel Hector Varela is killed by the Tolstoyan anarchist Kurt Wilckens in response to the killings of workers in Patagonia.
June 16, 1923.
Kurt Wilckens is murdered in prison by a member of the right-wing Patriotic League, aided by the connivance of prison officials.
August 4, 1924.
Gunmen from La Protesta and FORA wreck the presses of anarchist newspaper Pampa Libre. One person is killed, several are injured.
September, 1924.
FORA advises its members to boycott the anarchist newspaper La Antorcha.
June 9, 1925.
Three members of the Spanish action group Los Solidarios (Ascaso, Durruti, and Jover) arrive in Valparaiso, Chile.
July 11, 1925.
Los Solidarios rob the Bank of Chile in Santiago
Early August 1925.
The group moves on to Buenos Aires.
August 1925.
Culmine, the paper of Di Giovanni and the Renzo Novatore group, appears as a monthly journal.
October 18, 1925.
An armed raid by Los Solidarios on Las Meras tram depot nets very little money.
November 17, 1925.
Los Solidarios raid on Primera Junta metro station results in the death of a policeman and little money taken.
January 19, 1926.
Roscigna and others are involved in the robbery of a provincial bank in San Martin. Substantial money is taken with one employee killed and one wounded.
February 1926–April 1928.
Culmine appears as a weekly.
April 30, 1926.
Ascaso and Durruti arrive in France. Jover arrives soon after them.
December 1926.
Of the protests and campaign to resist the extradition of Ascaso, Durruti, and Jover from France to Argentina, La Protesta writes “they do not qualify for the description anarchist.”
April, 1927.
Extradition of Ascaso, Durruti, and Jover from France to Argentina is confirmed.
July, 1927.
The time limit for extradition runs out and Ascaso, Durruti, and Jover are released in Paris and immediately extradited to Belgium.
October 1, 1927.
Raid on Rawson Hospital is coordinated by Roscigna to gain funds for anarchist prisoners. A policeman is killed during the raid and Roscigna and others flee to Uruguay. The proceeds from the raid are used to make counterfeit money.
August 11–16, 1928.
Tenth Congress of FORA is held—the last major congress of the federation for fifty years.
October 20, 1928.
Pere Boadas, a member of the Spanish action group The Nameless Ones leads a raid on a bureau de change in the Cambio Messina in Montivideo. Boadas had been sent to Argentina to encourage Roscigna to come to Spain and work with the anarchists there. The raid is carried out against Roscigna’s advice, and three people are killed (a business man, a shoeshine boy, and a taxi driver).
November 9, 1928.
Boadas and others are arrested.
May 20, 1929.
FORA stages a twenty-four-hour strike in solidarity with the “Free Radowitzky” campaign.
October 25, 1929.
Someone (Di Giovanni?) assassinates Emilio Lopez Arango, an editor of La Protesta.
April 13, 1930.
Radowitzky reprieved and expelled to Uruguay.
October 2, 1930.
Roscigna and Di Giovanni rob a sanitary services wage clerk, taking 286,000 pesos. The money is used to fund the escape of Boadas et al. in March the following year.
January 29, 1931.
Di Giovanni and Scarfo are arrested.
February 1, 1931.
Di Giovanni is executed by firing squad.
February 2, 1931.
Paulino Scarfo is executed by firing squad.
March 18, 1931.
In an escape plan engineered by Roscigna and Gino Gatti, an Italian anarchist, Boadas and three others from the Cambio Messina raid are sprung from prison through as carefully constructed tunnel. Three anarchist members of the Bakers Union also are freed.
March 27, 1931.
Roscigna and others are arrested.
June 12, 1931.
Juan Antonio Moran and others shoot and kill Major Rosasco in retaliation for his ill treatment of prisoners, including the use of torture.
July 11, 1931.
Pere Boadas is arrested. He is released in 1953.
September 6, 1931.
The era of military government begins. The worker’s movement is attacked, newspapers are shut down, and trade unions and political and cultural organizations are banned. Anarchists are imprisoned or deported.
Sept 1932.
Martial law is lifted. La Antorcha and La Protesta and various unions bring out the joint manifesto Eighteen Months of Military Terror.
June 28, 1933.
Juan Antonio Moran is captured.
August 11, 1933.
Juan del Piano, the last of the expropriators at large, is killed by the police.
October 7, 1933.
Anarchist prisoners in Caseros make an escape attempt. It fails. Three guards and one anarchist are killed.
May 10, 1935.
Juan Antonio Moran is released for lack of evidence, and is kidnapped outside the prison.
May 12, 1935.
Juan Antonio Moran’s body is found. He had been shot in the head.
December 31, 1936.
Miguel Arcangel Roscigna and three others are released from prison in Uruguay, and handed over to the Argentinian police. Roscigna and two others disappear while in police custody. Their bodies are never recovered.
—Kate Sharpley Library