Centro de Estudios Históricos de los Trabajadores y las Izquierdas (CEHTI)

In Argentina, the history of the left, the working class, and the labour movement is part of a long-standing tradition whose roots reach back a century and a half. Over time, hundreds of activists, historians, essayists, journalists, and academic researchers have contributed to this legacy. More broadly, this reflects a field of inquiry that has existed—and continues to flourish—across the world, developing through social, political, economic, cultural, intellectual, and gender history, and constantly engaging with the contributions of the social sciences. The Centro de Estudios Históricos de los Trabajadores y las Izquierdas (CEHTI)—which I direct—forms part of this tradition. Our aim is to help advance it by fostering interdisciplinary and innovative approaches in dialogue with the most recent international developments in the social sciences.

The collective project that has taken shape around CEHTI can trace its roots to a series of activities, debates, and positions we have maintained since the early 1990s. After several earlier initiatives, a turning point came in 2011 with the formation of the group that, the following year, launched the journal Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda. This peer-reviewed journal, available in open-access format through the Open Journal Systems platform as well as in print, has been published biannually for thirteen years. Each issue includes a thematic dossier, and to date the journal has published nearly 300 scholarly articles, essays, interviews, book reviews, and other contributions, all subject to a strict double-blind peer-review process. Archivos has a diverse editorial board and an advisory board made up of leading national and international specialists. The journal is widely indexed and included in an extensive range of academic catalogues, databases, and directories. A look at its tables of contents reveals the breadth of topics addressed and the ambitious scope with which the journal seeks to expand and rethink its fields of study.

In 2014, the editorial project grew with the launch of the book series Colección Archivos: Estudios de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda, which has so far published twenty volumes under the CEHTI and Imago Mundi imprints. This series is among the most significant collections of works on the history of the labour movement and the left in Argentina.

Since 2015, our collective has also organised the National and International Conferences on the History of the Working Class and the Left, hosted at various universities. These events attracted substantial participation in 2015, 2018, and 2021, and the next conference is scheduled for 2026.

As a result and continuation of these efforts—and with the strategic aim of broadening the scope of our research, reflection, dissemination, and outreach on the history of the left, the working class, the labour movement, Marxism, critical thought, socialist culture, and feminism, both nationally and internationally—CEHTI was officially founded on 1 July 2016. Since then, it has operated from its own headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires.

Over the years, CEHTI has remained highly active. We have hosted conferences, panel discussions, book presentations, workshops, training courses, and study groups, with many colleagues participating as speakers, panelists, commentators, or engaged attendees. To date, we have organised around ninety public events—free and open to all—attended by nearly 3,000 people, not counting dozens of smaller meetings, visits from international scholars, or gatherings aimed at more specialised audiences. We take pride in CEHTI’s reputation as an open and plural space, welcoming diverse perspectives and knowledge without exclusion. In all our activities, we strive to honour the best of the left’s historiographical tradition—combining scholarly rigour, a grounded critical perspective, and commitment to emancipatory causes—as the historian Georges Haupt recommended many years ago. For this reason, we promote cooperation and constructive dialogue with other intellectual and cultural spaces, in Argentina and abroad, rather than retreating into self-referential isolation.

From the outset, CEHTI has stood out for its diversity, particularly in terms of intergenerational collaboration: senior researchers, established scholars, early-career academics, and recent graduates with a wide range of experiences and trajectories work together. Our activities have brought together academics and professors primarily from the History Department at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), as well as from related disciplines such as Sociology, Political Science, and Anthropology. In addition to this close relationship with UBA and researchers affiliated with CONICET, the Centre also includes members and collaborators based in other Argentine cities, including Rosario, Mendoza, Córdoba, and Mar del Plata.

CEHTI has gradually strengthened its institutional presence while maintaining its autonomous, self-managed, and self-funded character, sustained by the voluntary commitment of its members. We have completed all the necessary legal steps and are officially recognised as a Civil Association in Argentina with legal status. Along similar lines, CEHTI is now a member of the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI), a global network which, for more than fifty years, has brought together archives, libraries, documentation centres, museums, and research institutions specialising in labour history and theory. IALHI holds annual conferences in different countries—its 2022 meeting took place in Buenos Aires, with CEHTI as the host organisation.

One of our core objectives has been the creation of the CEHTI Documentation Centre, which includes a Library and Periodicals Archive. Thanks to numerous institutional and personal donations from colleagues and friends in academic, intellectual, and cultural circles in Argentina and abroad, we now hold a collection of around 15,000 volumes, including books and journals spanning academic, cultural, theoretical, and political topics. All materials are fully catalogued and available for public consultation at our headquarters. The collection covers subjects such as the working class and the labour movement; the history of the left in Argentina and globally; Marxist classics and critical theory; anarchism; feminism and gender studies; historiography; sociology, political science, and philosophy; Argentine and global economics; Argentine and Latin American social and political history; European and world history; student and university movements; and arts and culture. The Documentation Centre also houses a primary sources archive, with more than 5,000 items, including collections of press materials, pamphlets, and both public and internal documents from various leftist and labour organisations. Much of this material is currently being digitised and gradually made available through the CEHTI website for open access.

The existence of an initiative like this, in a country such as Argentina—permanently beset by economic crisis—is always under threat due to scarce resources, limited funding, and chronic instability. Only a small fraction of our work is supported by university contributions; the project depends largely on the voluntary support of its members and a small number of external collaborators, both individual and institutional. Under the present political context, marked by the reactionary, far-right government of Javier Milei, the challenges are even greater. Nevertheless, CEHTI’s work has not only endured—it has expanded. Our publishing programme remains active, with the continued release of books and journal issues. We have advanced in cataloguing library materials and digitising key historical sources for public access. Our activities continue in both in-person and online formats, and our online presence—particularly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube—has grown exponentially.

In the mid-1970s, British historian E. P. Thompson, reflecting on his own intellectual trajectory and that of his generation, wrote:

“Socialist intellectuals must occupy a space that is, unconditionally, their own: their own journals, their own theoretical and practical centres; places where no one works to earn titles or professorships, but to transform society; places where criticism and self-criticism are rigorous, but also spaces of mutual support and theoretical and practical exchange—places that, in some way, prefigure the society of the future.”

CEHTI draws deep inspiration from those principles and is committed to a long-term path of construction and collective effort. It is a project that embraces multiple perspectives and is grounded in active engagement—a historiographical, theoretical, and cultural initiative within the plural field of the left, striving to advance knowledge in the service of the emancipatory struggle of the working class.

Contributed by Dr. Hernán Camarero - Director, CEHTI