The spatial configuration of Tucuman sugar industry model, economic collapse, productive reconversion, and social conflicts. Argentina (1870-1970)

Abstract

This paper analizes the public policies that generated the Tucuman sugar industry boom (1870-1895), and contrasts them with those that caused the socio-economic collapse of the agro-industry (1956-1970). During the last third of the nineteenth century the Tucuman industrial park was shaped by protectionist policies, access to credit, and railway development. The social landscape was modified as a result —urbanization of sugar factory, and the formation of sugar towns grown next to the railway stations. A century later, the sugar industry activity in Tucumán was drastically reduced under the military dictatorship of Onganía with the following consequences: abrupt reduction in the productive volume as well as the manufacturing and agrarian concentration, the closure of 11 sugar factories, the growth of unemployment and people migration. These policies caused a protest movement that organized the affected sugar production sectors, and led to the creation of new actors such as Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo (Priests for the Third World) and the General Confederation of Argentine Workers (CGTA).