Antonio Soto Canalejo, also known as "El Gallego Soto", is a leading anarcho-syndicalist of Spanish descent active in Argentinian politics, one of the principal leaders during the infamous Patagonia Rebelde in 1921/22 and the current chairman of the Patagonian Workers Front. El Gallego has become a legendary figure among workers and anarchists worldwide, and having allied with Emilio Lopez Arango, a famous syndicalist from Buenos Aires, in order to secure the stability within his party, much is expected from the chairman for the years to come.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Antonio Soto Canalejo was born in October 1897 in the city of Ferrol, La Coruña province, Spain. His father died when he was very young and Antonio was not able to attend a proper elementary school. He worked in many different trades, suffering privations, exploitation and punishments. In 1910, he was forced to move to Argentina with his brother in 1910, as the Spanish military threatened to conscript them into the military to fight in Spanish Morocco.
But in bustling Buenos Aires, the financial situation of the Soto brothers would not be any better, especially during the Weltkrieg, when the country was exploited by foreign powers for resources and strikes on the streets became a common sight. During this time, Soto was exposed to increasingly radical anarcho-syndicalist ideas.
Political Activity[]
In 1919, he began to work for the Serrano-Mendoza travelling theatre to earn some well-needed money. The circus embarked southwards into rural Patagonia, mainly performing in industrial coastal settlements, especially in Chile. On the way back, the travelling theatre stopped at Trelew, a Welsh-settled mining town in the Patagonian province of Chubut.
Soto was present in the town when workers' strikes broke out, as the price of wool had dropped significantly, provoking an economic crisis in sparsely populated Patagonia. He began to agitate and support the striking workers, and even though he was arrested and expulsed from Chubut, he would become one of Argentina's most influential political figures only a few months later. Shortly after, he arrived in Río Gallegos, where he was attracted by the working class climate that reigned in the capital of Santa Cruz.
In Santa Cruz, Soto came in contact with a local branch of the FORA, an anarcho-syndicalist political organization, via the local anarchist orator Dr. José María Borrero, a captivating speaker. Borrero encouraged him to join the local union, realizing that Soto was a man of struggle who knew how to express himself well in the assemblies.
In May 1920, Soto was elected General Secretary of the Sociedad Obrera de Gallegos. In July of that year the Sociedad Obrera, in agreement with all the unions of the other cities of Santa Cruz, declared a strike of the hotel personnel and port workers, demanding higher salaries, under the lead of Soto himself. Government troops began move south in early 1921. However, in the end, bloodshed could be avoided and the government worked out a deal with the strikers in May: In return for laying down their arms, the demands for improved wages and conditions would be met.
Two persons stood out from the crowd in particular: Antonio Soto and Facón Grande, a former gaucho turned syndicalist outlaw with great experience in the harsh terrain of Patagonia. While Soto had agitated the masses during the strikes, Font had coordinated movements in the area between Puerto Deseado and Colonia Las Heras, on the Patagonian Railroad line. Nonetheless, Soto had to flee Santa Cruz in the midst of the strike, escaping to Buenos Aires on a steamer, where he was hidden by machine workers. Soto's arrival in Buenos Aires was celebrated by syndicalist newspapers. A few weeks later, he participated in a FORA congress as delegate of the Sociedad Obrera de Río Gallegos, making himself a name among the most high-ranking Argentinian socialists after criticizing them for the lack of solidarity with the workers' movement in Patagonia.
Patagonia Rebelde[]
Only a few months later, in October 1921, strikes broke out once again when ranch owners reneged on their promise of fairer working conditions. Violence was initially limited, with only a small group of bandits led by infamous outlaw Alfredo "El Toscano" Fonte raiding ranches and killing their owners. Nonetheless, police violence became a common sight and an escalation of the situation became imminent. LPA forces began to mingle with the policemen and caused gruesome acts of violence against strikers. It was around the same time that neighboring Chile, a long-time rival of Argentina, began to support the Patagonian strikers as an attempt to weaken the Argentine position and take the lands for themselves in the future.
Soto quickly returned to Patagonia, recruiting workers' combat detachments against violent government and LPA troops. Then, he and his men left for the ranches in the mountain range in a long journey with automobiles and horses. By November, Soto had incorporated the rural workers of the Buitreras, Alquinta, Rincón de los Morros, Glencross, La Esperanza and Bella Vista ranches into the movement, spreading the uprising to the southwestern region of Santa Cruz. The movement was still completely peaceful at that point, requisitioning weapons and taking food for the campaign, on which they gave vouchers for later return, and occasionally taking the ranch owners or administrators as hostages. By mid-November, most of the province's ranches and roads had been captured, with protestors flying red and black flags everywhere.
Lather that month, President Hipólito Yrigoyen decided to sent the cavalry once again south, this time to squash the uprising without mercy. Initially, the strikers thought that the army was once again going to negotiate with them, as the approaching cavalry troops were led by Colonel Héctor Benigno Varela, the same man who had struck a deal with the strikers back in May. However, they were eventually informed by runners that Varela had instead come to crush them; This strengthened the strikers' will to fight. At Estancia La Anita, to the south of Lago Argentino near the Chilean border, Soto's men met Varela's forces. Though the army had superior weapons and training, it proved insufficient when outnumbered ten to one and the rebels gained a decisive victory.
At this point, the strikes had escalated into an outright rebellion; The Patagonian Worker's Front (Frente Obrero Patagónico, FOP) would be proclaimed shortly after. The With the help of Facón Grande's communication network, the news of the government's attempt to violently take down the uprising spread over all of Chubut, Santa Cruz and Rio Negro fastly. Soto also reluctantly allied with "El Toscano", who would support the strikers with weapons and helped them to burn down ranches and lynch their owners. Government control was already non-existent in Patagonia at that point and most landowners fled north.
Via telegraph, the strikers established contact with the CORA and FORA cells in Buenos Aires, where as a consequence a general strike was called as well, leading to a complete escalation of the situation. The anarchists in the capital also contacted the Commune of France, asking for weapon supplies for their brothers in arms in Patagonia. Remaining weapon stocks from the Weltkrieg and the French Civil War were shipped to Patagonia; At that point, the situation was hopeless for the government troops; Vastly outnumbered by heavily armed rebels and now also occupied with unrest in the capital, they eventually decided to withdraw in April 1922, leaving Patagonia behind in a complete state of anarchy. The rebels destroyed all bridges over the Rio Negro in the aftermath, cutting off Patagonia from the rest of the country - The unexpected revolution had succeeded, at least for the moment.
Chairman of the FOP[]
The general strike in Buenos Aires however would be crushed shortly after by the combined force of the military and gendarmerie, leading to a large influx of left-leaning individuals from all across the country to Patagonia. Famous socialists and anarchists from the capital were smuggled in fishing vessels to Puerto Madryn, among them most prominently famous anarcho-syndicalist Emilio López Arango, democratic socialists Nicolás Repetto, Manuel Baldomero Ugarte, Alfredo Palacios and Alicia Moreau de Justo and communist Victorio Codovilla. Outside of Patagonia, the Argentinian socialist movement was pretty much dead.
With the end of the revolt, Soto had been become the figurehead of Argentinian anarchism, a symbol for brave freedom fighters all around the world, and yet, it would become clear very soon that he would not be able to lead the FOP alone, as all the different well-established Argentinian socialists from Buenos Aires would begin to challenge his rule. Soto therefore realized that cooperation would be crucial if he did not want to be eventually sidelined.
Therefore, soon after the successful end of the rebellion, proper political parties were formally established in Puerto Madryn. Soto allied himself with famous anarcho-syndicalists from the capital, including the famous Emilio López Arango, one of the most important theorists of the anarchist labor movement in Argentina. Soto and Arango are seen as ideological unifiers and have ruled Patagonia in a stable coalition for the past 14 years. Soto in particular, as a famous idol of the Patagonian worker's struggle, guarantees the continued stability within his party and the labor movement as a whole, however radical circles within the party have begun to criticize the moderates louder than ever in recent times and other socialist currents have grown significantly in popularity, so Soto's chairmanship might no be as stable as one might assume; Additionally, tensions with the revanchist government in Buenos Aires are growing with every month and Chilean pressure to finally begin an armed confrontation with the oppressors to the north is steadily increasing: Confrontation between Patagonia and Chile on the one side and Argentina on the other seems more and more inevitable, and Soto will need to make difficult decisions to steer the FOP into a brighter future.