LMT#143 The ‘Ateneo Popular’ of the United Needleworkers’ Union, Montevideo, Uruguay – Rodolfo Porrini

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 Rodolfo Porrini
Professor of Institute of History, University of the Republic (Uruguay)

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Among the working-class memory sites in Uruguay, there are many interesting examples of how social organizations built, maintained and transformed the material spaces in which their political, social, intellectual and cultural projects developed.

One such reference to the labour movement in the country and its capital, Montevideo, is the former building of the International Center for Social Studies (CIES). The CIES was established in the Centro neighbourhood at the end of 1897 or the beginning of 1898, by a group of tailor workers of various nationalities, mostly Italians, but also Spaniards and Creoles. Alongside the tailor workers, a broad group of intellectuals and artists also participated. Ideologically, the CIES was pluralist. Socialists, freethinkers and radical liberals moved through it, although an anarchist tone predominated. It was the best-known labour space in Montevideo and had a long lifespan, reaching 1924, and was subsequently continued through other experiences and multiple activities.

From the early twentieth century on, debates, courses and conferences took place there, as well as individual and “commented” readings, sustained by an important library and periodicals from around the world. The space served as a hub for trade union organizations and assemblies, a support center for labour disputes, and a base for trade union and political publications of a predominantly libertarian character. It was also the setting for multifaceted artistic veladas, that is, cultural gatherings in the evening.

From the outset, the CIES was closely linked to the tailors, united since 1901 in the Resistance Society of Tailor Workers. Other resistance societies and more ambitious initiatives also operated there, seeking to build instruments of struggle and an alternative, working-class and socialist culture. The large premises were located at Río Negro 274, which, following changes in street numbering, became 1180 in 1913, an address it retains to this day.

The International Center hosted multiple workers’ assemblies of resistance societies, successors to the mutual aid societies that preceded the trade unions, and it was there that, in August 1905, the first federal organization with significant continuity into the twentieth century was founded: the Uruguayan Regional Workers’ Federation (FORU), of anarchist orientation. Internationalist demonstrations set off from there, such as the one that protested against the execution of Francisco Ferrer in 1909, and another in support of the First General Strike in Uruguay in May 1911. Conferences and courses, debates and “controversies” among speakers of diverse ideas and nationalities -predominantly anarchists, but also socialists and freethinkers – regularly took place on its premises.

The artistic veladas promoted sociability and fundraising to sustain the press and the families of “social prisoners.” They included music, poetry, dance, song and theatrical performances, as well as lectures on ideological, philosophical or internationalist themes. The celebrated playwright Florencio Sánchez, an anarchist militant for a while,  performed with its “philodramatic” group, premiering social theatre pieces such as Puertas adentro in 1899 and Ladrones in 1901.

The CIES also housed the editorial offices of several publications, including the newspaper El Trabajo, the first anarchist daily in Uruguay (September 1901 – March 1902), and the weekly Tribuna Libertaria (1900–1902), both connected to the CIES.

The Russian Revolution of October 1917 acted as a watershed in the labour movement of the era. Around 1920, it drove the Socialist Party, founded in 1910,  towards its transformation into the Communist Party (April 1921) and the reconstitution of a new Socialist Party in 1922. For anarchism, it generated tensions across the multiple social circles, resistance societies and the FORU. Between 1921 and 1923 the FORU split, and in October 1923 the Uruguayan Trade Union Federation (USU) was created, defined as anarcho-syndicalist and also including a communist minority.

In 1920, workers established the important Graphics Arts Union (SAG). On 25 November 1921, traditional occupational categories in the garment sector, such as tailors, shirt-makers, waistcoat and trouser seamstresses, and cutters, founded the Unified Needleworkers’ Union (Sindicato Único de la Aguja, SUA). Both were important reference points for the USU, and all operated from the CIES premises.

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In 1924, workers in the sector created the Ateneo Popular of the Unified Needleworkers’ Union to “contribute to the cultural elevation of the working class.” It can be considered a continuation of the International Center. In this initiative, alongside anarchists, some socialists also participated.

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In December, the Athenaeum proposed purchasing the old building. Activities were organized to raise funds, and financial support was secured from the municipal legislative body. Under the management of socialist councillors, the purchase was completed in 1925. The union planned to expand and renovate the premises, a project completed in 1928, after receiving state funding. The result was a three-storey art deco building: on the ground floor, a space for a theatre hall, and on the upper two floors, spaces for the library and various social and trade union activities. During these years, several unions operated there.

From the 1940s onwards, society, the working classes and the trade union movement underwent significant changes. Within this context, the General Workers’ Union (UGT) was formed in 1942. Communist militants led the UGT, while several unions remained “autonomous” and formed their own coordinating bodies. Separately, in 1951, the Trade Union Confederation of Uruguay was established.

In 1944, tension arose between a group rooted in the original anarchist tradition of the Ateneo Popular and the leadership of the Unified Needleworkers’ Union, which had aligned itself with the communist UGT. This gave rise to a conflict that resulted in the premises remaining under the control of a commission from the old Ateneo Popular, forcing the SUA to relocate. A complex period for the Athenaeum, the SUA itself, and the trade union movement of the time.

From the late 1950s into the mid-1960s, driven by the country’s economic and structural crisis, the process of trade union unification advanced in Uruguay, leading to the creation between 1964 and 1966 of the National Workers’ Convention (CNT), which unified the majority of class-based trade unions in the country. Harder times followed: state authoritarianism (1968–1973) and the installation of the civil-military dictatorship beginning on 27 June 1973.

After the end of the dictatorship, the SUA continued to fight to return to what it considered its premises. This was only achieved in 2004. With the space recovered, the union decided to honour one of its militants, of communist orientation, by naming the new Ateneo Popular after him: “Bernardo Groisman,” deceased in 2003.

Since then, alongside its trade union work, the Union has sought to develop cultural, social and solidarity activities, returning to the motivations and practices of the workers and intellectuals of its origins. It has hosted cultural events, celebrations, book launches and press presentations. During the pandemic, it carried out solidarity work: making face masks and supporting community kitchens and food distribution projects in the face of a difficult economic and social situation.

Even today, despite a degree of structural precariousness, the SUA has managed to maintain the building and carry out trade union, solidarity and cultural activities. Its existence constitutes an indelible mark on the cultural and material heritage of the labour and social movement of Montevideo and Uruguay. A space for alternative culture.

^{Facade of the SUA Bernardo Groisman Cultural Center, the former headquarters of the International Center, at 1180 Río Negro Street, Montevideo, Uruguay. Source: Photo taken by Rodolfo Porrini, October 9, 2025.}

Translation: Yasmin Getirana

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MOREIRA, “El Sindicato Único de la Aguja y su Ateneo popular”, en Ana Frega (coordinación), Montevideo 300 años, Montevideo, Intendencia de Montevideo, 2024, pp.408-413.

MUÑOZ, Pascual, La primera huelga general en el Uruguay. 23 de mayo de 1911, Montevideo, La Turba Ediciones, 2011.

PORRINI, Rodolfo, Montevideo, ciudad obrera. El ‘tiempo libre desde las izquierdas (1920-1950), Montevideo, Ediciones Universitarias, 2023 [2019].

VIDAL, Daniel, “Centros de estudios Sociales. Conferencias y controversias”, en letra chica. Revista de ramos generales, número 3, diciembre 2009 (internet)

ZUBILLAGA, Carlos, BALBIS, Jorge, Historia del movimiento sindical uruguayo, tomos II, IV, Montevideo, Banda Oriental, 1986, 1992.

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Cover image credit: Workers’ meeting in the lobby of the International Center, 1901. Source: Carlos M. Rama, Workers and Anarchists, Montevideo, Editores Reunidos/Arca, 1969, p. 24.

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