The aim of this paper is to analyze the social roots of two political parties (PT in Brazil and PJ in Argentina) in relationship with trade unions (CUT & CGT). We analyze: a) the origin of the union roots of the parties being analyzed, b) the dynamics of party competition, c) the dynamics of union competition, and d) the presence of unions within those parties during the decade of the eighties and nineties. The selection of these dimensions seeks to understand, on one hand, to what extent the arrival of the PT to the Brazilian Presidency, in 2002, involved some sort of "labor-unionist revolution", and, on the other hand, how much without unionist influence was the Peronismo at the moment of the election of Nestor Kirchner in 2003 Argentina.
Peronist party; Partido dos Trabalhadores; CGT; CUT; Argentina; Brazil