Editing anarchy from Río de la Plata region. A review of cross-border cooperation (1890-1939)

Abstract

The anarchist editorial work was one of the most significant political and ideological tools used, at the same time it served as the backbone of the movement and developed around very active affinity groups, which had an enormous organizational capacity. The Río de la Plata region, especially Buenos Aires, was a central location used by the international libertarian movement to spread propaganda thanks to its large cosmopolitan community. This article analyzes the edition of books and brochures in Spanish between the time period from 1890 to 1939. This is inscribed within a transnational circuit of militancy, with constant connections with the Iberian Peninsula, confirming the hypothesis of the complementarity between the Argentine and Spanish publishing tasks in this language, particularly within the interwar period. This period, although convulsive in both territories, benefited from the chronological non-coinciding situations of repression, which facilitated the transfer of militants and propaganda. Some very laborious individual profiles appeared. In turn, we can see the make-up of long-distance affinity networks that participated in the broad political transfer that took place throughout the libertarian movement in the Atlantic and helped their survival.