The “Astarsa Collection” contains testimonies regarding the political and organizational experience of unions in the company Astarsa (Argentine Shipyard Workers of Rio de la Plata S.A.) during the sixties and seventies. This episode constitutes one of the greatest cases of repression of the working sector by State terrorism.

The shipyard workers of Astarsa, located in the Zone of Tigre (North of suburbs), worked in the reparation and construction of locomotives and ships and the manufacturing of pipes, industrial machines, and tractors. In the context of the economic development and the growth of new working sectors in the sixties and seventies, the company grew to 1500 people, both naval workers and metallurgists.

In the midst of the radicalization of political and union-related practices of the time, in 1971 a group of naval workers formed an Association in Astarsa that tried to compete with the Workers’ Union of the Naval Industry (SOIN). Although the attempt failed electorally, the Association did win an important victory amongst the workers of the plant.

In response to an accident suffered by a worker in late May of 1973 during the peronist government of Héctor J. Cámpora, members of the Association occupied the company, taking hostages and demanding better working conditions. The takeover was successful, and from that moment the Naval Association, linked to the Working Peronist Youth (JTP) came to represent the combative unionism of the times.

In light of achievements such as the creation of the Commission of Workers’ Control of Hygiene and Security, Astarsa became an experiment of workers’ control and management of production. The employers viewed this as a potential point of conflict. Different political groups, overall the Montoneros, became increasingly interested in increasing their political and union-related activity at Astarsa. The increase in activity, the augmentation of conflict within Peronism itself, and the economic crisis all obligated the militants of the Association to adopt more radical political practices.

Between the middle of 1974 and the summer of 1976, the repressive climate intensified. The personnel office of the plant, into which entered well-known members of the Peronist right, was restructured. The management sector adopted a systematic intransigence regarding new workers’ demands and intervened in the union at the end of 1975. Multiple assassinations of militants of the zone and those directly related to Astarsa also took place at this time. Despite the increased repression, the Naval Association and other organizations of the zone participated in the large mobilization against Celestino Rodrigo, Economy Minister under María Estela Martínez de Perón. At the same time, the contradictions generated by the political situation produced internal ruptures within the Association.

The coup of March 24, 1976 was first felt in Astarsa through the massive detention of 60 workers in the entryway of the plant. According to some witnesses, this military operation was carried out with the collaboration of the company owners who supplied the army with information. From that incidence on, numerous disappearances and assassinations of workers took place at Astarsa, the majority between March and July of 1976. The repression also reached the families of the workers, those most exposed and unprotected in the task of confronting the repression and demanding information regarding their loved ones.