Hands across the Río de la Plata: Argentine and Uruguayan Antifascist Women, 1941–45

The Junta de la Victoria, an Argentine women’s antifascist group that sent aid to the Allies during World War II, arose in September 1941, several months after the German invasion of the Soviet Union.  Among its many activities, it held national conventions.  I found that several members of an Uruguayan group called Acción Femenina por la Victoria, including two of Uruguay’s first congresswomen, addressed the Junta’s national convention of 1943.  This intriguing information led me to ponder the extent of contact between the two antifascist women’s organizations.

     Research in Argentina and Uruguay revealed that the contact was deep and meaningful.  Inspired by goals resembling those of the Junta, and similarly influenced by the Communist party, Acción Femenina was founded in May 1942.  Even before its creation, Junta members shared their organizational experience with Uruguayan antifascist women.  Thus, since its beginnings, the Junta provided Acción Femenina with a model.  Both became Popular Front associations, with members of diverse political, social, ethnic, and religious origins who labored with their hands to produce clothing and supplies for Allied soldiers.  Representatives frequently spoke at each other’s events.  After the Argentine military regime (1943-45) closed the Junta, it secretly funded its Uruguayan counterpart’s campaign to make bandages and garments.  Acción Femenina expressed solidarity with their persecuted “hermanas argentinas” and accompanied them to demonstrations in Buenos Aires protesting official repression of the universities in 1945, at considerable risk.  The intertwined histories of the Junta de la Victoria and Acción Femenina por la Victoria offer an extraordinary example not only of Argentine and Uruguayan collaboration, but of transnational solidarity and Communist mobilization of women in the Americas.