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Labor movement in Spain
The labor movement in Spain began in Catalonia in 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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.
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Labor movement in Spain
The labor movement in Spain began in Catalonia in 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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.