Forging a Peripheral Inter-nationalism: The Argentine Socialist Party’s Relationship with the Internationals (1889–1940)

Abstract This article examines the relationship of the Argentine Socialist Party (PS) with international socialist organizations between 1889 and 1940. During this period, the PS emerged as the leading Latin American social-democratic organization and one of the few non-European members of both the Second International and the Labour and Socialist International. The article argues that the PS’s unique trajectory is best understood through the concept of “peripheral inter-nationalism”. This framework analyses how a socialist party in a non-colonial state built by mass European immigration engaged in a competitive nation-building project. The PS sought to construct its own version of the nation for a largely immigrant working class while simultaneously confronting the official nationalism being forged by the Argentine state. By analysing this dual challenge, the article complicates existing understandings of socialist “inter-nationalism”, revealing a distinct path to reconciling national and international loyalties. Drawing on archival research on the PS and the Internationals, the article shows how Argentine socialists actively translated and contested European norms, ultimately contributing to the historiography of international socialism by addressing the underexplored role of non-European parties.