The anticlerical preaching of anarchists of La Pampa: a tour around the newspaper Pampa Libre (1922-1930)

Abstract

The arrival of transoceanic immigrants to the National Territory of La Pampa, since the end of the nineteenth century, allowed an increase in the job offer, while favoring the arrival of new ideas, often antagonistic to the interests of the State, landowners and merchants. In this way, the action of anarchists and socialists became present, penetrating the agricultural workers, in large proportions Italians and Spanish, who were the predominant groups in the productive areas. Beyond their ideological differences, for socialists and anarchists the critique of religion was an important component of their preaching. In this article we propose to show the central components of the anticlerical anarchist preaching from a tour of the pages of Pampa Libre, the organization's advertising body. The analysis is circumscribed to the years 1922-1930 because it is precisely the years among which the newspaper was published. First, in a contextual way, we briefly refer to the presence of the anarchist movement in the National Territory of La Pampa and the emergence of Pampa Libre. Then, we focus on the anticlerical anarchist preaching, which we have structured into three sections: the criticism of religion as a reflection of authority; the questioning of the Church and the Catholic clergy; and finally, we refer to the Christian elements that can be identified in the anarchist discourse.