Craftsmen of the printed word and social conscience

Abstract

On the one hand, this paper looks into the reasons why it has been the printing workers who initiated the union movement in Paraguay, with support from Neil Postman’s theory on the importance of the written word as means of relationship of the people with the world they live in. Some aspects regarding the press in Paraguay before the War against the Triple Alliance are inquired as well -this is the press seen by the State itself, as the sole authorized printing source and, afterwards, the beginnings and consolidation of the workers’ unions once the conflagration ended. On the other hand, the historical study of an old printing worker leads to, perhaps, getting to know the sole link in the continuum of the formation of a social conscience of the working class before and after the 1864-1870 war.