Orthodox Peronism

Orthodox Peronism, Peronist Orthodoxy, National Justicialism, or right-wing Peronism for some specialists, was a faction within Peronism, a political movement in Argentina that adheres to the ideology and legacy of Juan Perón. Orthodox Peronists claim to represent the original policies of Perón, and reject any association with Marxism or any other left-wing ideologies. Some of them were aligned with far-right elements. Orthodox Peronism also referred to the Peronist trade union faction that split from the “62 organizations" and that opposed the “legalists", who were more moderate and pragmatic. They were also known as “the hardliners", “the 62 standing with Perón" and they maintained an orthodox and verticalist stance. Orthodox Peronism had been in several conflicts with the Tendencia Revolucionaria, for example during the Ezeiza massacre.

The term "orthodox Peronism" emerged during the Peronist resistance following the 1955 coup, a period when historical revisionism took hold, deepening the connection between Peronism and nationalism. While the Peronist government had some ties with nationalists, it had not embraced a revisionist historical view, and the nationalists did not play a dominant role in government policy. American historian Michael A. Burdick wrote that despite the nationalist support for Perón, he did not embrace their ideology, sidelined them in favor of the trade unions and dissident socialists; the Peronist administration even dissolved some of the nationalist organizations. According to Burdick, "Nationalism of the Right died with the rise of Perón." It was only after 1955, amidst the context of resistance and under the influence of nationalist thought, that orthodox Peronism began to take shape, in which nationalists reappropriated and redefined key elements of Perón’s original discourse.

This convergence was fraught with tensions. The most intransigent and uncompromising sectors of Peronism emerged during this time, rejecting any form of negotiation with the government. These groups distanced themselves from the more conciliatory tendencies that arose within Peronism in the 1960s, including the neoperonist and vandorist factions. When referring to the traditional orthodox current, it is important to recognize a coalition of unions and organizations that, despite their loyalty to Peronist verticality, initially opposed leaders like Rodolfo Ponce and right-wing unionism. Many of these union leaders gained their influence during the labor conflicts of the early 1960s, such as the "Plan de Huerta Grande" and the "Plan de Lucha" in 1964. This orthodox faction was largely represented by the Secretaries of the AEC (Ezequiel Crisol) and the UOM (Albertano Quiroga), supported by unions with large memberships, though they wielded limited political influence at the time.

Peronism underwent a profound transformation during the campaign "Luche y Vuelve", which culminated in Perón's return to power in 1973. Tensions between the union sectors and the Peronist left, which had backed Cámpora’s government, escalated when Perón took office. The far-left faction of Peronism represented by the Montoneros entered a conflict with the Peronist trade unions, which forced Perón to give concessions to labour bureaucracy and act against the left-wing Peronists, given the threat of trade unions turning against Perón. According to Ronaldo Munck, Perón did not differ from Tendencia Revolucionaria in terms of economic ideology, but rather mass mobilisation: "The purely anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchic political programme of the Montoneros ("national socialism") was not incompatible with Peron's economic project of "national reconstruction", but their power of mass mobilisation was."

According to Donald C. Hodges, "three forces contended for Peron's ear during his third government and for his mantle after he died: montonerismo on the Left, lopezreguismo on the Right, and vandorismo in the Center." Montoneros refused to ally themselves with the vandorist trade unions in order to isolate López, seeing their relationship with the labor bureaucracy as antagonistic instead. This led to López faction successfully aligning itself with the Peronist trade unions. The traditional Peronist sectors—union orthodoxy and right-wing Peronists—formed a verticalist alliance that established a new Peronist orthodoxy. This group sought to marginalize and suppress the left-wing faction of the movement, which held onto its revolutionary ideals.

Orthodox Peronism from this point onward came to represent the factions that, in the name of verticalism, opposed any alignment with Marxism or the Peronist left. Those loyal to Perón's wife, Isabel Martínez de Perón, began to identify themselves as orthodox Peronists, defending the "Peronist homeland" against the "socialist homeland" advocated by the left-wing Revolutionary Tendency. During Raúl Lastiri’s interim presidency and after Perón’s death, this new orthodox coalition used both institutional and extralegal means to push out and marginalize the left-wing heterodoxy, which included leftist Peronists and their aligned governors and officials. Hodges argues that while López's influence over Isabel's government is often exaggerated, the left-wing and centrist factions of Peronism often fought each other, and pursued "a policy of armed confrontation with Isabel Peron, whereas the correct strategy would have been to focus on their common enemy, the Lopezreguist conspiracy. This led to increased political violence within the Peronist movement, further aggravated by armed guerrilla activities, marking one of the most violent periods in Argentina’s history.

Other Peronist factions - left-wing Peronists, trade unions, and even previously pro-López groups, started opposing Isabel's government. This prompted Isabel to declare a "state of siege" against the protests and clashes, though she did not outlaw the Montoneros or ban the trade union militias. Isabel-López administration clashed not only with Peronist-socialist guerillas, but also with "students, left-leaning intellectuals and artists, trade union leaders, journalists, lawyers". Peronist trade unions became a focal point of the opposition to the Isabel government - as López's efforts to control trade unions faltered, the CGT organized mass demonstrations the national, general strike in July 1975. The union militancy led to the dismissal of López, but by then Isabel found herself isolated and unpopular, and the military plotted and executed a coup against her to prevent the victorious Peronist trade unions from taking power.

Initially, orthodox Peronism encompassed those Peronist sectors that followed the Peronist ideals to the letter and opposed the neo-Peronist sectors of the time, as Perón expressed in his speeches: