The ‘invention’ of human rights as a revolutionary concept: Confronting orthodox Marxism and the New Left (Argentina, 1972)

Abstract

Studies on the global history of human rights often identify the use of this concept as a recent trend in contemporary ideologies, linked to the decline of revolutionary movements in the Western world after the 1960s. This framing, however, tends to overlook phenomena of hybridization between revolutionary prospects and appeals to human rights in actual social movements and intellectual debates. This article focuses on the case of Argentine mobilizations for human rights. It demonstrates that the use of “human rights” in mobilizing discourse was discussed among revolutionary activists, and actually fostered by an emerging network of revolutionary lawyers with a heterodox reading of Marxism. The article first shows how law became a major tool for revolutionary action in the early 1970s, transforming lawyers into key actors in the spread of radical activism in Argentina. It then analyzes the first debate on the use of the concept of human rights among revolutionary lawyers, who opposed orthodox Marxists and members of the so-called “New Left” in 1972. Finally, the article shows that this original debate paved the way to an increased use of human rights in the discursive repertoire of Argentine revolutionary activists.

Notes

1 All of these documents can be accessed at the Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno in Buenos Aires (Fondo Centro de Estudios Nacionales; subfondo Silvio Frondizi; Box n ° 7). I gathered these sources during a research stay in Argentina in 2014, funded through a fellowship granted by the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris.

2 That document will hereafter be considered of Silvio Frondizi’s authorship and quoted as such.

3 “On the Jewish Question” (Marx and Engels 1972) is Marx’s most famous text on the criticism of human rights, although other references to the topic can be found in his work. For further details on Marx and the issue of human rights, see Lacroix and Pranchère (2012).

4 The orthodoxy of both Frondizi and Pegoraro must here be related to the other contributions in the symposium, and should not be understood outside of this context. Silvio Frondizi, specifically, has been considered a representative of the New Left in other opportunities—although he always remained an outsider in this intellectual microcosm (Tarcus 1997).

5 “When such threats [of the oppressed over the oppressing classes] are not present, forms of government in which formal guarantees are apparently in effect develop” (Asociación Gremial de Abogados de la Capital Federal 1972c).

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David Copello

David Copello holds a PhD in political science from Sciences Po Paris, where he led research on the political uses of human rights in Argentina since the 1970s. He is currently an associate researcher at the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation des Amériques (IHEAL-CREDA) in Paris, where he works on the radical Left and the circulation of ideas between Europe and Latin America, from a social history of political ideas perspective. His publications include articles in Revue Française de Science Politique, Latin American Perspectives, and Global Society.