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122-463: The thesis of Ángel Pestaña was to contribute to the workers' movement by endowing it with a political party which, without interfering in their work, collaborated with the industrial unions, but with full autonomy. It differed from the PSOE - UGT pact in that it intended to avoid all subordination of union work to partisan political interests. Pestaña's libertarian possibilist tendency corresponded with

244-407: A "proletarian style" and Catalonia set up inexpensive abortion facilities), the attitudes of the lower classes remained fairly conservative and there was comparatively little emulation of Russian-style "revolutionary morality". Public order also varied substantially, getting by without the classic forces of public order (the police , Civil Guard , courts , and the army ), which were supplanted by

366-488: A civil war that took a million lives, despite the opposition of the political parties (republicans, left and right Catalan separatists, socialists, Communists, Basque and Valencian regionalists, petty bourgeoisie, etc.), this idea of libertarian communism was put into effect. Very quickly more than 60% of the land was collectively cultivated by the peasants themselves, without landlords, without bosses, and without instituting capitalist competition to spur production. In almost all

488-649: A daily newspaper, El Pueblo . In Barcelona the Catalan Federation of the party published Hora Sindicalista (1936–1937) and then Mañana until January 1939. The youth wing of the party was the Syndicalist Youth ( Juventud Sindicalista ). The republican artillery captain Eduardo Medrano Rivas was party secretary. In the 1936 Spanish general election two party members, Pestaña and Benito Pabón , were elected to

610-632: A free-thinking people; not a mass, but free individuals." On May 25, 1937, the FAI was excluded from the People's Courts. On June 8, the government issued a decree by which it temporarily outlawed rural communes that had not yet been dissolved. On June 14, a new government of the Generalitat was formed, also without the anarchists and revolutionaries. On June 15, the POUM was outlawed and its executive committee

732-540: A letter dated October 17, 1854, Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels : "The careful study of the Spanish revolutions makes clear the fact that they needed about forty years to demolish the material basis of the domination of the priests and the aristocracy, but in that time they succeeded in making a complete revolution in the old social regime". Also in Catalonia, the first general strike took place in 1855, during

854-721: A par with that which was attributed to it) in the revolution of the Paris Commune, also gave preponderance to the International in Spain. This preponderance and the first governmental persecutions, which followed immediately afterwards, greatly increased our ranks in Spain. However, at the time the Valencia Conference was convened, there were only thirteen local federations in the country, apart from some isolated sections in various places. [...] Immediately after

976-451: A spectacular growth, was involved in internal struggles in which two sectors were distinguished, the first and majority sector in which the sector most faithful to the minimum anarcho-syndicalist approaches was incorporated and another minority sector which opted to participate in union elections and works councils, thus accepting the union model imposed by the State. This confrontation provoked

1098-612: A split within the union, creating what is now known as CGT ( Confederación General del Trabajo ), a name that had to be adopted by judicial sentence, since this second sector claimed to be the continuation of the CNT . Also significant was the police set-up of the Scala Case , blaming the CNT for what happened, provoking a wave of repression and persecution that frightened a large part of the anarcho-syndicalist militancy. The CNT remains faithful to

1220-599: A thousand militiamen from the Front of Aragon. On December 17, the Moscow daily Pravda published an editorial that read: "The purge of Trotskyists and anarcho-syndicalists has already begun in Catalonia; it has been carried out with the same energy as in the Soviet Union." The Stalinists had already begun the liquidation of any anti-fascists, collectivizations, and other revolutionary structures that did not submit to

1342-582: Is poles away from the truth. The Anarchists of Spain, through the C.N.T. , are doing one of the biggest constructive jobs ever done by the working class. At the front they are fighting Fascism . Behind the front they are actually constructing the new Workers' Society. They see that the war against Fascism and the carrying through of the Social Revolution are inseparable. Those who have seen and understand what they are doing must honour them and be grateful to them. They are resisting Fascism. They are at

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1464-555: The Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI; Iberian Anarchist Federation). The socialist Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT; General Union of Workers) also participated in the implementation of collectivization. The late Second Spanish Republic and the Nationalists under Francisco Franco suppressed the revolution in their respective territories after its third phase in 1937. On July 17, 1936,

1586-579: The Civil Guard and Assault Guard were sent to Figueras , and other towns throughout the province of Girona , to remove control of the workers' organizations from the police, dissolving the autonomous Council of Cerdanya. Simultaneously, in Barcelona , the Assault Guard proceeded to disarm the workers in public view, in the streets. During May 1937, confrontations between the supporters of

1708-680: The Confederación de Sindicatos Unitarios de Trabajadores which will be chaired by the Madrid letter carrier Jeronimo Lorente. At the same time the ORT will promote the Unitary Union in March 1977. Both trade union centers opposed, to the extent of their strength, the " Pactos de la Moncloa ". The CSUT split and dissolved in 1981. The SU, although a minority, still exists. On April 28, 1977,

1830-487: The Control Patrols made up of volunteers, the popular militias , and the neighborhood assemblies that were intended to resolve problems that arose. The doors of many prisons were opened, freeing the prisoners, among whom there were many politicians but also common criminals, some prisons being demolished. The anti-fascist Carlo Rosselli , who before Mussolini's accession to power was professor of economics in

1952-565: The III International for a time. The fact that the Soviet republic functioned in those times through the workers' assemblies or "soviets", allowed the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists to see in it the incarnation of their collectivist ideals. The place where the CNT had most influence, Catalonia, had the most active part of the middle class and the most powerful part of the workers' movement. Bourgeois Catalanism pressed hard, and feared at

2074-600: The Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) and through it to the CNT, which understood the phenomenon in which it participated as a traditional revolution; and the possibilist group, made up of members of a more moderate sector of the CNT, which expressed the convenience of participating in a broader front, later called the Popular Antifascist Front (FPA), the result of adding the unions to the electoral coalition Popular Front . At

2196-679: The Popular Executive Committee of Valencia approved a new action program that subordinated it to the policy of Largo Caballero 's republican government, which included the CNT members Juan García Oliver , Juan López Sánchez , Federica Montseny , and Juan Peiró . During this month, the Iron Column decided to briefly take Valencia, in protest at the shortage of supplies provided by the Popular Executive Committee, subsequently leading to clashes in

2318-524: The Spanish Coup of July 1936 began. On July 18, the ongoing military uprising led to a collapse of the republican state (four governments succeeded each other in a single day) and to the coercive structures of the state being dissolved or paralyzed in the places where the coup plotters did not seize power. By then, the CNT had approximately 1,577,000 members and the UGT had 1,447,000 members. On July 19,

2440-595: The University of Genoa , put his judgment in the following words: In three months Catalonia has been able to set up a new social order on the ruins of an ancient system. This is chiefly due to the Anarchists, who have revealed a quite remarkable sense of proportion, realistic understanding, and organising ability ... all the revolutionary forces of Catalonia have united in a program of Syndicalist-Socialist character: socialisation of large industry; recognition of

2562-641: The Young Christian Workers , ( Juventud Obrera Cristiana, JOC). The labor conflict was favored by the Collective Bargaining Law of 1958. It strengthened company juries and the role of union liaisons. Labor mobilization favored the growth of a trade union organization: the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.), since 1962. The CC.OO. had emerged as a committee, in order to negotiate collective bargaining agreements on

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2684-507: The progressive biennium —a period of extension of the movement to other areas of Spain— and also in Catalonia the first Workers' Congress met in 1865, followed by another in 1868, the latter held after the triumph of the Glorious Revolution of 1868 , which by recognizing for the first time freedom of association put an end, at least momentarily, to the persecutions and prohibitions that incipient workerism had suffered during

2806-413: The "lock-outs" and the general strike called for January 24, produced extreme tension. Terrorism and social struggle spread throughout Spain. Also in 1920, the government passed from the reformist line to the hard line, ceasing to negotiate and repressing the CNT, with the police and the army. The criminal " ley de fugas " was applied, which allowed the murder of detainees alleging attempted escape. There

2928-399: The 'white-collar' worker...I was immensely impressed by the constructive revolutionary work which is being done by the C.N.T. Their achievement of workers' control in industry is an inspiration. One could take the example of the railways or engineering or textiles...There are still some Britishers and Americans who regard the Anarchists of Spain as impossible, undisciplined, uncontrollable. This

3050-494: The 1830s and 1840s as it was the only place where there was a modern industry , the cotton textile sector. It was there that the first conflicts between workers and employers took place, and it was there that the first union was founded in 1840 —a friendly society as it was called at the time— in the history of Spain , the Barcelona Weavers Association ( Asociación de Tejedores de Barcelona ) . In

3172-801: The 1830s and 1840s, although it was during the Democratic Sexenio when it was really born with the founding of the Spanish Regional Federation of the First International (FRE-AIT) at the Workers' Congress of Barcelona in 1870 . During the Restoration , the two major Spanish trade union organizations were founded, the socialist Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT, 1888) and the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT, 1910), with

3294-778: The Barcelona tramway strike of 1951, which spread to several sectors; the general strikes of April of the same year in Biscay and Gipuzkoa, and some other conflicts in Vitoria , Pamplona and Madrid. In addition, there were disturbances in the universities, especially in Madrid in 1956. In the heat of the social changes and of these mobilizations, together with the generational change that took place at that time, new groups of worker activists arose, linked to Christian base movements, Hermandades Obreras de Acción Católica , HOAC, founded in 1946;

3416-649: The British Independent Labour Party , a representation of workers' interests in Parliament with a revolutionary purpose; that is, the achievement of libertarian communism with an organization based on the cooperatives , trade unions and municipalities . Only a minority in the CNT , the possibilist tendency was isolated due to its moderate syndicalist stance, and depended on several cells in Madrid , Andalusia , Zaragoza , Catalonia , and Valencia . The Syndicalist Party published

3538-515: The CNT, proposed to all political and union sectors the formation of Regional Defense Councils confederated with a National Defense Council that would perform the functions of the central government, and agreed to the creation of the Regional Defense Council of Aragon , which celebrated its first assembly on October 15 of the same year. Despite this, on September 26 the most radical and anarchist sectors of Catalonia, dominated by

3660-541: The Civil Guard, and the colonial army. The militias of the parties and groups that were against the Popular Front government soon found government aid cut off, and their ability to act reduced. Consequently, republicans slowly began to reverse the recent changes made in most areas. During this period, some revolutionary structures approved new programs that subordinated them to the government, which gave rise to

3782-711: The General Council on the situation in Spain, Portugal and Italy". In 1870 the FRE-AIT had 30,000 members and the Alliance eventually achieved the domination of the Federation, imposing in the Barcelona Workers' Congress of 1870 the anarchist program: to abstain from political activity (not to create a workers' party and not to vote) and the defense of " direct action ". Meanwhile, Marxism defended

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3904-428: The International was founded first as a simple appendix of Bakunin's secret society, the Alliance, which was to serve as a kind of recruiting base and, at the same time, as a lever to manipulate the entire proletarian movement. You are going to see now that the Alliance is also openly trying today to put the International in Spain back in the same subordinate position in which it had it before. Because of this dependence,

4026-733: The Ministry of Labor, the conditions to which labor relations had to conform, in which the employers could intervene by adapting the regulations of the industry to the specific characteristics of the enterprise. There were, however, some important workers' conflicts since the second half of the forties, such as the general strike of May 1, 1947 in Biscay and Gipuzkoa , encouraged by the Basque Government from exile and seconded by both nationalists and leftists, which were harshly repressed. The rise in prices provoked several labor conflicts:

4148-548: The PCE (ml) and member of the FRAP never participated in the CC.OO.), and became part of the CC.OO. But now, in legality, the need to make them a union was inevitably imposed on them. This implied time, a change of mentality and, above all, trying to capitalize on the previous inertia in the new measuring system: the trade union elections of 1978. These ideological struggles not only affected

4270-414: The Popular Front parties and the unions was reflected in the formation of Largo Caballero's "first Government of Victory" on September 4. Among the measures aimed at legitimizing the activity of the revolutionaries were: Despite this apparent concession to the revolutionaries, the government did not actively intervene in the development of the revolution, as its main objective was to promote and strengthen

4392-416: The Spanish trade union movement. It created a trade union action platform with CC.OO. in 1988 to protest, in the opinion of these unions, against the social-liberal policies of the PSOE , calling a general strike throughout Spain on December 14, 1988, with a massively supportive response from the population. In 1992 they called another general strike, this time for half a day, which had less repercussion than

4514-512: The Valencia Conference, the London Conference was held (September 1871). The Spaniards sent a delegate, Anselmo Lorenzo , and he was the first to bring to Spain the news that the secret Alliance was inconceivable in our Association, and that, on the contrary, the General Council and the majority of the federations were decidedly against the Alliance, for its existence was already known at that time." Friedrich Engels (1872) "Report of

4636-638: The advance guard of the coming revolution. A new world was born with them, and it is a joy to serve that world. But despite the de facto decomposition of state power, on August 2 the government took one of its first measures to regain control against the revolution, with the creation of the Volunteer Battalions , the embryo of the Spanish Republican Army . Overwhelmed by the revolutionary phenomenon, it also promulgated some symbolic decrees: The first tensions also arose between

4758-479: The army as the foundation stone of the centralized state. In addition to the repeated attempts at the dissolution of the popular war and defense committees, they decreed: As the war dragged on, the spirit of the first days of the revolution lessened and friction between the diverse members of the Popular Front began, in part due to the policies of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), which were established by

4880-403: The city of Alcoy . In Catalan industry, the CNT workers' unions took over numerous textile factories, organized the trams and buses in Barcelona, established collective enterprises in fishing, in the footwear industry, and even in small retail stores and public shows. In a few days, 70% of industrial and commercial companies in Catalonia – in which, by itself, two-thirds of the industry of Spain

5002-471: The civil war, surpassing the UGT. Composed of unions "without ideology" in principle, they have little organizational discipline, trying to avoid the promotion of the strike as an economic weapon to stop the "direct action". The anarcho-syndicalist or revolutionary syndicalist character of the CNT was clear. This great trade union center, if in the State as a whole it surpassed the UGT, in Catalonia it became almost

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5124-477: The countryside. Partial victory of the CNT, after a hard fight. And the mobilization was important: on March 24, 1919 the CNT again called a general strike to free the prisoners of the previous strike. There were three weeks of social struggle in Barcelona and other cities. The government reacted with panic and on April 3 the parliament approved the 8-hour working day. The government ordered the formation of mixed negotiation commissions. These were triumphs wrested by

5246-603: The decision of the left-wing trade unions to support the electoral coalition of the Popular Front and the return to the government of the republic of the left-wing parties. After the Spanish Civil War and during the Francoist period , all the workers' movements and political parties plunged into exile and clandestinity. Their activities were part of the opposition to Franco's regime . During this period,

5368-406: The democratic period of trade union organizations in Spain began. Enrique de la Mata Gorostizaga , then Minister of Trade Union Relations, opened the door to trade union pluralism with the recognition of UGT, CC.OO., USO, ELA-STV, SOC and CNT. In the following years they suffered enmities around what were called "trade union models". CC.OO, wanted to capitalize on habits of clandestinity, and UGT,

5490-652: The direction of Aragon . It was the Durruti Column , of around 3,000 people, mostly workers coordinated by Buenaventura Durruti , who first implemented libertarian communism in the municipalities through which they passed. In addition, other popular military structures were formed, such as the Iron Column and the Red and Black Column , the latter also departing for Aragon. All this movement gave rise to an extraordinary concentration of anarchists in parts not taken by

5612-659: The directives of Moscow. On December 23, the Gijón War Committee was transformed by decree into the Interprovincial Council of Asturias and León , which was regulated by the republican government and was more moderate in its policies, at the same time as it officially recognized the formation of the National Defense Committee . On January 8, 1937, the Popular Executive Committee of Valencia was dissolved. During this stage,

5734-785: The dissolution of the anarcho-syndicalist publication Solidaridad Obrera . On September 16, political rallies were prohibited in Barcelona. On September 26, the Asturian Council proclaimed itself the Sovereign Council of Asturias and León , independent from the Second Spanish Republic . On October 21, a demonstration by anarchist and socialist militants took place in front of the San Miguel de los Reyes prison in Valencia, threatening to break down

5856-470: The dissolution or beginning of absorption, appropriation, and intervention of the revolutionary structures by the republican state government. The situation in most Republican-held areas slowly began to revert largely to its prewar conditions. An exception was the consolidation of the collectivist process in Aragon, where thousands of libertarian militiamen from Valencia and Catalonia arrived, and where, before

5978-473: The doors if the prisoners were not freed. On November 12, the CNT withdrew from the FPA committees. On January 6, 1938, the government published a decree prohibiting all new issuances of banknotes and coins by committees, municipalities, corporations, etc.; and a period of one month was given for them to be withdrawn from circulation, in an attempt to end the last remnants of the revolution. During that year many of

6100-544: The economic circumstances were not. It was precisely these circumstances that made the workers impatient, as they did not see all the benefits promised by the Republicans and revolutionary disorders occurred, such as those in Arnedo , Castilblanco and Casas Viejas , which in the long run would harm the workers' movement, as they caused the progressive parties to leave the government. This situation culminated when, after

6222-529: The economy of neutral Spain in World War I strengthened the working class and the CNT. In 1917-18 there was an increase in strike activity. The government banned the "Soli" ( Solidaridad Obrera , official organ of the confederation), closed workers' centers and arrested leaders. In 1919 there was a strike at the electric company " La Canadenca ", which spread and produced a general strike in Catalan industry and

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6344-774: The electoral triumph of the CEDA in November 1933, the social advances obtained in the previous two years began to be cut back, which gave rise to the revolutionary movement of October 1934 and its harsh repression by the government, especially in Asturias and Catalonia . The situation in Europe , with the Nazi and Fascist regimes in government in Germany and Italy respectively and increasing their influence in other countries, motivates

6466-443: The end of 1919, the government tried to make a pact with the unionist sector of the CNT, but the Federation of Employers raised the " lock-out " and the struggle intensified. The bosses formed declassed workers in the Sindicato Libre (ultra-Catholic and favorable to the bosses) against the single unions of the CNT. The gun fight between the two groups produced a new terrorist escalation. The extension of terrorism in 1920, together with

6588-472: The end of the war. Anarchist communes produced at a more efficient rate than before being collectivized, with productivity increasing by 20%. The newly liberated zones worked on entirely libertarian principles; decisions were made through councils of ordinary citizens without any bureaucracy. In Aragon, where libertarian communism was proclaimed as the columns of libertarian militias passed, approximately 450 rural communes were formed, practically all of them in

6710-429: The enemy. In the Popular Front government, there were parties such as the Republican Left , Republican Union , and the Republican Left of Catalonia , supported by the votes and interests of the middle class (civil servants, liberal professionals, small merchants, and landowning peasants). The anarchists and the POUMistas ( left communists ) disagreed with the PCE, understanding that the war and revolution were one and

6832-456: The essential principle of communism, 'From each according to his ability and to each according to his needs.' They coordinated their efforts through free association in whole regions, created new wealth, increased production (especially in agriculture), built more schools, and bettered public services. They instituted not bourgeois formal democracy but genuine grass roots functional libertarian democracy, where each individual participated directly in

6954-413: The existing offers of athenaeums and union centers and in which the educational postulates of Francesc Ferrer i Guardia , Ricardo Mella , Leo Tolstoy , and Maria Montessori were carried out. Similarly, in the social field, some traditions were considered as types of oppression, and bourgeois morality was also seen as dehumanizing and individualistic. Anarchist principles defended the conscious freedom of

7076-426: The expropriated area of republican Spain was collectivized, according to IRA data. The provinces where rural communes became most important were those of Ciudad Real – where 1,002,615 hectares (98.9% of cultivated lands) were collectivized in 1938 – and Jaén – where 685,000 hectares (76.3% of cultivated lands) were collectivized, leaving the rest of the republican provinces far behind. Many communes held out until

7198-462: The figure was as high as 75%. Factories were run through worker committees, and agrarian areas became collectivized and run as libertarian socialist communes . Many small businesses, such as hotels, barber shops, and restaurants, were also collectivized and managed by their workers. The collectivization effort was primarily organized by the rank-and-file members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT; National Confederation of Labor) and

7320-414: The foreign ministry of the Stalinist Soviet Union , the largest source of foreign aid to the republic. The PCE defended the idea that the ongoing Civil War made it necessary to postpone the ongoing social revolution until the republicans won the war. The PCE advocated not to antagonize the middle classes, the grassroots of the republican parties, which could be harmed by the revolution and side with

7442-424: The fringes of trade unionism. Other clandestine unions also emerged, such as the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), formed in 1960 in Asturias and the Basque Country from nuclei of the JOC; it was joined by the survival of the UGT and the CNT in some areas, and the weaker ELA-STV in the Basque Country. From the beginning of the 70s, some other unions appeared, such as the CSUT or the Sindicato Obreiro Galego (SOG). From

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7564-446: The government definitely controlled the anarchist popular militias, dissolving them so that they were compulsorily integrated into the Spanish Republican Army , which was under the command of professional officers. On February 27, 1937, the government banned the FAI 's newspaper Nosotros , thus initiating the period during which most of the publications critical of the government began to suffer censorship. The next day it prohibited

7686-403: The hands of the CNT, with around 20 led by the UGT. In the Valencian area, 353 communes were established, 264 led by the CNT, 69 by the UGT and 20 with mixed CNT-UGT leadership. One of its main developments was the Unified Levantine Council for Agricultural Export ( Catalan : Consell Llevantí Unificat d'Exportació Agrícola , CLUEA) and the total socialization of the industries and services of

7808-470: The individual and the natural duty of solidarity among human beings as an innate tool for the progress of societies. Thus, for example, during the revolution, women achieved the right to abortion in Catalonia, the idea of consensual free love became popular, and there was a rise in naturism . However, the social effects of the revolution were less drastic than the economic ones; while there were some social changes in larger urban areas (Barcelona emphasised

7930-442: The industries, factories, mills, workshops, transportation services, public services, and utilities, the rank and file workers, their revolutionary committees, and their syndicates reorganized and administered production, distribution, and public services without capitalists, high salaried managers, or the authority of the state. The various agrarian and industrial collectives immediately instituted economic equality in accordance with

8052-460: The large landowners returned and demanded the return of their property. Collectivization was progressively annulled despite its popular support. Sam Dolgoff estimated that about eight million people participated directly or at least indirectly in the Spanish revolution, which he claimed "came closer to realizing the ideal of the free stateless society on a vast scale than any other revolution in history". In Spain during almost three years, despite

8174-439: The largest electoral representation are the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT). The CC.OO. arose as a result of the Asturian mining strikes of 1962 and 1963 (their first antecedent being the factory commissions of the Basque Country in 1956 and the workers' commission of 1958 in Gijón ). Backed by the PCE , they achieved a rapid diffusion and were characterized by fighting, from within, against

8296-489: The latter predominating until the Second Spanish Republic . CNT and UGT were the protagonists of the social revolution that took place in the Republican zone during the first months of the Spanish Civil War . During Franco's dictatorship , the two historical centers were harshly repressed until they practically disappeared. In the final stage of Franco's regime, a new organization called Workers' Commissions (in Spanish : Comisiones Obreras ) emerged, which together with

8418-473: The minority Marxist group tried to fill this vacuum with the creation of the workers' party PSOE in 1879 and the working class union UGT in 1888. It can be said that in Spain there was no Catholic-social movement properly speaking before the encyclical Rerum novarum of Pope Leo XIII in 1891. The exception would be the workers' unions of the Jesuit Antonio Vicent . In 1895, the workers' circles numbered 169 and their membership exceeded 36,000. With

8540-437: The month of March, the "militarization" of the militias was completed, transforming them into a regular army subject to its disciplinary and hierarchal regimes, against which many anarchist voices rose up. On April 17, the day after the ministers of the CNT returned to the Generalitat, a force of Carabineros in Puigcerdá demanded the CNT workers' patrols hand over control of customs on the border with France. Simultaneously,

8662-400: The need for an organized and centralized workers' democracy, and to reach it defended the need for a workers' political party. The break between Marx and Bakunin occurred in 1872, leaving the Spanish Federation aligned with the latter, without having created any workers' party, which was supplemented with anti-electoral slogans or with occasional support for the federal republicans. Meanwhile,

8784-558: The need for military measures against the rebellious military, from October–November 1936 the unions began to cede control of the columns to the state for the Defense of Madrid , which was directed by a semi-independent body – the Madrid Defense Council , in which all the Popular Front parties were represented, in addition to the anarchists. The beginning of all this progressively greater agreement and rapprochement between

8906-595: The new 20th century, there was a development of the workers' movement, highlighting the industrialization of Asturias , the Basque Country , and Catalonia . At that time there were also divergences in Spanish anarchism . There were anti-union "purist" currents, currents in favor of individual terrorism and finally there were anarcho-syndicalist currents, based on the theory of revolutionary syndicalism coherently formulated by French revolutionary theorists. It

9028-516: The normal motives of civilized life – snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc. – had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master. The communes were operated according to the basic principle of " From each according to their ability, to each according to their need ." In some places, money

9150-406: The only center (especially important because Catalonia was the largest Spanish working class region). The CNT and the UGT had an almost exclusively working-class character, with very few middle-class intellectuals. Their tone was "coarse" and of a decidedly proletarian anti-intellectualism. And yet, the magazines and libraries that their groupings promoted contributed decisively to the culturization of

9272-591: The organizations involved but, as a result, a large part of the USO 's militancy joined the UGT in 1977 and the Comisones Obreras in 1980, weakening it considerably. Despite this, it has managed to maintain itself to the point of currently being the third most representative union in Spain. For its part, the National Confederation of Labor (CNT-AIT), which entered the post-Franco period with

9394-502: The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and for two to three years resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and, more broadly, libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country, primarily Catalonia , Aragon , Andalusia, and parts of the Valencian Community . Much of the economy of Spain was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia ,

9516-555: The parliament as affiliates of the Popular Front . The group backed the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War . However, affected by the death of Ángel Pestaña, the party dissolved itself in December 1937, still numbering 30,000 members. In 1974 a new generation of syndicalists launched a party with the same name, based on the tradition of the old Syndicalist Party. In the 1977 Spanish general election , together with

9638-462: The peculiar doctrines of the Alliance: the immediate abolition of the State, anarchy, anti-authoritarianism, abstention from all political acts, etc., were preached in Spain as doctrines of the International. At the same time, every prominent member of the International was suddenly included in the secret organization and imbued with the belief that this system of direction of the public association by

9760-410: The police from belonging to political parties or unions, a measure adopted by the Catalan regional government on March 2. On March 12, the Generalitat approved an order demanding the seizure of all weapons and explosive materials from non-militarized groups. More confrontations began between the sectors of the FPA; and on March 27 the anarchist advisers of the Catalan autonomous government resigned. During

9882-635: The possibilists, began a policy of collaboration with the state, integrating themselves into the autonomous government of the Generalitat de Catalunya , which was reborn in place of the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia , which dissolved itself on October 1. On the other hand, on October 6 the Regional Defense Council of Aragon was legalized and regulated by decree. The proposed National Defense Council

10004-526: The possibility of a general strike. With the call-up of recruits for the war in Melilla , this strike broke out. The result: the Tragic Week of Barcelona. The anarcho-syndicalists, with control of the "Soli", call a National Workers' Congress in Barcelona in 1910. They agreed to create the CNT ( National Confederation of Labor ), which would become the main mass union of the Spanish working class until

10126-416: The previous forty years. With the formation in Spain of the first two groups of the First International in 1869, one in Madrid and the other in Barcelona, a new stage in the history of the workers' movement in Spain began, in which, as Manuel Tuñón de Lara warns, "for the first time, class consciousness was expressed at a level in which the entire system of production relations , institutions and values

10248-497: The previous one. During the XXXVI Congress of the UGT (1994), Nicolás Redondo , who had been its secretary general since 1976, was replaced by Cándido Méndez . From the 1980s onwards, other trade unions considered to be minorities emerged in Spain, within different professional branches. The most important are: Spanish Revolution of 1936 The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began at

10370-416: The principles of struggle with direct action that made it the most important Spanish trade union in the 30s and carrying out the social revolution, now despite its limited social presence, maintains not only its principles and impeccable purposes but preserves its anarcho-syndical structure ready for moments of crisis in which the working class can see the CNT as an alternative. At present, the two unions with

10492-404: The rebel military. The arrival, on the one hand, of the thousands of anarchist militiamen from Catalonia and Valencia , and the existence, on the other, of a large rural Aragonese popular base allowed for the progressive development of the largest collectivist experiment of the revolution. During this first phase most of the Spanish economy was brought under the control of workers organized by

10614-510: The reconstituted UGT, will be the two majority unions from the beginning of the new democratic period until the present day. "Insurrections are as old in Spain as the rule of the Palace favorites against whom they have usually been directed". Karl Marx , Revolutionary Spain ( New York Daily Tribune , Sept. 9, 1854). The origins of the labor movement in Spain are located in Catalonia in

10736-630: The revolution and those opposed to it intensified. On May 13, after the events of the Barcelona May Days , the two Communist ministers, Jesús Hernández Tomás and Vicente Uribe, proposed to the government that the National Labor Confederation (CNT) and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ) be punished, bringing into practice repression against the latter party. On May 16, Largo Caballero resigned, which

10858-637: The rupture of the "unitary syndical current" with CC.OO. will be originated, driven by the Maoists of the PTE and ORT, Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (among its leaders Francisco Casero, Diego Cañamero and Sánchez Gordillo), Sindicato Obreiro da Construcción de Vigo y La Coruña in Galicia (José Luis Muruzabal Arlegui, member of the PTE, will play a central role in the origin of them). In 1976 representatives of these unions, in an assembly in Barcelona, will create

10980-465: The same time creating the New Workers' Order which is the only alternative to Fascism. That is surely the biggest things now being done by the workers in any part of the world." And in another place: "The great solidarity that existed amongst the Anarchists was due to each individual relying on his own strength and not depending on leadership. The organisations must, to be successful, be combined with

11102-418: The same time the strength of the workers. At the end of the 1910s, the bosses organized throughout Spain against socialism and revolutionary syndicalism. The police were overwhelmed by the workers' movement. Many workers saw individual anarchist terrorism as a provocative maneuver to justify police persecution and repression. The "white" terrorism of the bosses' pistoleros made matters worse. The growth of

11224-409: The same time, administrative structures were formed outside the state, most of a local or regional character, but exceeding such limits in specific cases; some of the most important were: In a few days, the fronts of the Spanish Civil War were established, one of the main fronts, in the context of the revolution, being that of Aragon . On July 24, 1936, the first voluntary militia left Barcelona in

11346-454: The same. They believed that the war was an extension of class struggle, and that the proletariat had defeated the military precisely because of this revolutionary impulse that they had been carrying for years and not because of defending a bourgeois republic. The nationalists represented precisely the class that these revolutionaries were fighting: the rich capitalists, the landowners, the Church,

11468-500: The secret society existed everywhere and was a matter of course. [...] In June 1870 the first Congress of the Spanish International was held in Barcelona, where the plan of organization was adopted which was then fully deployed at the Valencia Conference (September 1871), which is in force today and which has already given the best results. The same as in all other places, the participation that our Association had (on

11590-471: The small proprietor, workers' control ... Anarcho-Syndicalism , hitherto so despised, has revealed itself as a great constructive force ... I am not an Anarchist, but I regard it as my duty to express here my opinion of the Anarchists of Catalonia, who have all too often been represented to the world as a destructive, if not criminal, element. I was with them at the front, in the trenches, and I have learnt to admire them. The Catalan Anarchists belong to

11712-591: The social policy of Francoism annulled the reforms of the Republic, especially the agrarian reform, and also returned properties and factories seized in the Republican zone during the war to their former owners. The bodies of vertical unionism gave a clear advantage at all times to the employers, and the workers would only have a chance to defend their interests in directly elected positions (trade union liaisons, company juries from 1954). The State regulated, through

11834-668: The start of the Civil War, there was the most important anarcho-syndicalist labor base affiliated with the CNT in all of Spain. In the final weeks of September 1936, the assembly called in Bujaraloz by the Regional Committee of the CNT of Aragon, with delegations of the towns and confederated columns, following the directives proposed on September 15, 1936, in Madrid by the National Plenary of Regional members of

11956-823: The still illegal Communist Movement , Socialist Movement and Workers' Communist Party , it formed part of an electoral alliance called the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), positioned to the left of the Communist Party of Spain . In the 1979 Spanish general election , the Syndicalist Party obtained 9,777 votes (0.05%), the majority of them obtained in Catalonia where it got 5,932 votes (0.2%). The party lasted until 1985, when it once again dissolved itself. Labor movement in Spain The labor movement in Spain began in Catalonia in

12078-511: The strategy of the anarchists and the policy of the Communist Party of Spain and its extension in Catalonia, the PSUC ; and on August 6 members of the PSUC left the Catalan autonomous government because of anarcho-syndicalist pressures. Both in this stage and in the previous one, the state was usually limited to legislating in accordance with the faits accomplis of the revolution. However, due to

12200-399: The streets of the city between libertarian militias and communist groups, leaving more than 30 dead. On November 14, the Durruti Column arrived in Madrid, after giving in to the pressure of the possibilists, who demanded collaboration with the state. On November 20, Buenaventura Durruti died under suspicious circumstances, fighting in the battle of Madrid, where he had arrived with more than

12322-529: The theorizations of "the leadership". Evidently, the assembly and federalist character of the organization allowed each federation of the confederation, at the sectoral or local level, to make the decisions it saw fit. Industrial strikes were spreading through the north, peasant strikes through Andalusia at the end of the 1910s. This was the atmosphere in which the triumph of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia

12444-603: The unions; mainly in anarchist areas such as Catalonia. This phenomenon extended to 75% of the total industrial sector , but in the areas of socialist influence, the rate wasn't so high. The factories were organized by workers' committees, the agricultural areas became collectivized and functioned as libertarian communes . Even places such as hotels , hairdressers , means of transport, and restaurants were collectivized and managed by their own workers. The British author George Orwell , best known for his anti-authoritarian works Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four ,

12566-430: The uprising reached Catalonia, where the workers took up arms, stormed the barracks, erected barricades, and eventually defeated the military. The CNT and UGT unions called a general strike from July 19 to 23, in response to both the military uprising and the apparent apathy of the state towards it. Despite the fact that there were specific records in previous days of the distribution of weapons among civilian sectors, it

12688-643: The vertical unionism of the Central Nacional de Sindicatos . Declared illegal in December 1966, they lost part of their influence during the period of clandestinity, although they once again became the main union after being declared legal in 1977. In the trade union elections of 1978 they had a higher position than the UGT, a predominance which they lost in the trade union elections of 1986 and later regained. In 1987, Antonio Gutiérrez Vergara replaced their historic leader, Marcelino Camacho , as president. Antonio Gutiérrez gave way to José María Fidalgo, who

12810-408: The working class in those years when public education was conspicuous by its absence. Although, theoretically, neither partial nor economic strikes were supported, obviously the member unions of the CNT were immersed in them. If the CNT union, in its rank, had not supported these mobilizations, it would never have been a mass union. It was the class instinct of the class militants which prevailed over

12932-439: The working class with its struggle. But the arrest of trade unionists led to the leadership of the CNT to pure anarchists, who responded to "white" terrorism with actions of individual terrorism. This was criticized by many sectors of the same organization. Former policemen of the "Political-Social Brigade" were in charge of leading the bosses' gangs of pistoleros against the confederals and workers' organizations in general. At

13054-403: The working-class organisations in Spain. The large industries were clearly, in the main, in the hands of the C.N.T.--railways, road transport, shipping, engineering, textiles, electricity, building, agriculture. At Valencia the U.G.T. had a larger share of control than at Barcelona, but generally speaking the mass of manual workers belonged to the C.N.T. The U.G.T. membership was more of the type of

13176-757: Was a soldier in the Lenin Division of the CNT-allied Partido Obrero Unificación Marxista (POUM; Workers' Party of Marxist Unification). Orwell meticulously documented his first-hand observations of the civil war, and expressed admiration for the social revolution in his book Homage to Catalonia . I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one

13298-504: Was a spectacular anarcho-syndicalist response, ending with the assassination in Madrid of Prime Minister Eduardo Dato in early 1921 by three anarchist gunmen. The army reacted brutally against the CNT. In 1922 the violence decreased due to the victory of repression. During the first two years of the Second Republic , the workers' movement enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, since the authorities were favorable to it, although

13420-421: Was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of

13542-467: Was arrested. Likewise, the eleventh communist division attacked various committees of the Aragonese people and dissolved collective agricultural production, which soon after was reorganized. On September 7, the government reauthorized religious worship in private, one of its many measures to reestablish the power of the government in the republican zone, while in Barcelona there were demonstrations against

13664-738: Was arrested. On the June 16 the 29th Division (formerly the POUM's Lenin Division ) was dissolved. In August 1937, criticism of the USSR was prohibited by means of a government circular. In this month, the central government also ordered the dissolution of the Aragón Defense Council, practically the last remaining body of revolutionary power, which was militarily occupied by republican army troops on August 10. Joaquín Ascaso , its president,

13786-608: Was called into question". The First International (originated in London in 1864) was organized in Spain through the Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA strongly influenced by the Bakuninist International Alliance of Socialist Democracy ). Thus, the Spanish labor movement had a preponderance of anarchist sectors, as opposed to the socialist preponderance of most of the rest of Europe. "In Spain,

13908-497: Was concentrated – had become the property of the workers. Alongside the economic revolution, there was a spirit of cultural and moral revolution: the libertarian athenaeums became meeting places and authentic cultural centers of theoretical education, in which were organized literacy classes, talks on health, excursions to the countryside, public access libraries, theatrical performances, political gatherings, sewing workshops, etc. Numerous rationalist schools were founded, which expanded

14030-469: Was during the General Strike when groups of trade unionists, linked to the convening unions and smaller groups, assaulted many of the weapons depots of the state forces, independently of whether they were in revolt against the government or not. Already in these first weeks, two groups were established within the anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary sectors: the radical group, fundamentally linked to

14152-607: Was eliminated, replaced by vouchers. Under this system, the cost of goods was often little more than a quarter of the previous cost. During the revolution, 70% of rural areas were expropriated in Catalonia, about 70% in Eastern Aragon, 91% in the republican sector of Extremadura , 58% in Castilla-La Mancha , 53% in republican Andalusia , 25% in Madrid , 24% in Murcia , and 13% in the Valencian Community . 54% of

14274-573: Was followed by the formation of a socialist government under Juan Negrín , but without support from anarchists or revolutionaries. Fenner Brockway, Secretary of the ILP in England who traveled to Spain after the May events in Catalonia (1937), expressed his impressions in the following words: "I was impressed by the strength of the C.N.T. It was unnecessary to tell me that it was the largest and most vital of

14396-400: Was in Spain where anarcho-syndicalism managed to create a true mass force. In 1907 the trade union confederation Solidaridad Obrera was founded in Barcelona, of anarcho-syndicalist tendency, and which published an organ of expression of the same name, a newspaper popularly known as the " Soli ". With the economic recession of 1908-1909, faced with layoffs and wage reduction, the "Soli" raises

14518-512: Was interested in defending the usual practices and structures of a trade unionism in legality, common to the rest of Europe. UGT defended a syndicalist logic, while CC.OO. was of a movementist logic. In reality, the communists discovered during the clandestinity that for them a platform, a movement, was infinitely more operative than a union: for this reason they liquidated the one they had, the OSO ( Oposición Sindical Obrera , an organization promoted by

14640-520: Was received. The Spanish working class, like the world working class, was very impressed with the victory of the Soviet Bolshevik revolution. The impact on the PSOE and the UGT is quite well known, leading to the creation of the first Spanish Communist Party ; but not so much is insisted on the fact that it produced great sympathy among the confederal milieus, with the CNT becoming affiliated to

14762-411: Was regulated, aborting its development. Faced with this apparent tolerance, on October 9 a decree by the Generalitat outlawed all local committees in Catalonia, formally replacing them with the municipal councils of the FPA. All these concessions to the institutions were considered by some as a betrayal of the classical principles of anarchism, and received harsh criticism from colleagues. On November 2,

14884-525: Was secretary general of CC.OO until December 2008, when the current secretary general, Ignacio Fernández Toxo, was elected during the 9th congress of CC.OO. The UGT experienced spectacular growth during the Second Republic , which it defended in the big cities after the 1936 uprising. It was declared illegal during Franco's regime , so it lost much of its influence and all its assets. After the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975, it regained legality and from 1986 onwards strengthened its leadership within

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