Anarchism, the general strike and the Barcelona labour movement, 1899-1914

European History Quarterly

Volumn 27, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 5-40

  Smith, Angel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 27844459667     PISSN: 02656914     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/026569149702700101     Document Type: Review

References (109)

1. Examples of Anglo-Saxon interpretations which in some way incorporate this model are, C.A.M. Hennessy, The Federal Republic in Spain. Pi i Margall and the Federal Republican Movement, 1868-1874 (Oxford 1962), 67
2. Gerald Meaker, The Revolutionary Left in Spain, 1914-1923 (Stanford 1974), 2-3
3. Murray Bookchin, The Spanish Anarchists. The Heroic Years, 1868-1936 (New York 1977), 69-71
4. Richard Kern, Red Years Black Years. A Political History of Spanish Anarchism, 1911-1937 (Philadelphia 1978), 69-71
5. Adrian Shubert, A Social History of Modern Spain (London 1990), 131
6. Albert Balcells, El arraigo del anarquismo en Cataluña. Textos 1926/1932 (Barcelona 1973), 18
7. Manuel Tuñón de Lara, El movimiento obrero en la historia de España (Madrid 1977), Vol. 1, 281, 307-8
8. Pierre Vilar, Historia de España (Barcelona 1978), 105-6
9. Works which include elements of this approach are, for example, Xavier Cuadrat, Socialismo y anarquismo en Cataluña: los origines de la CNT (Madrid 1976)
10. Paul Heywood, 'The Labour Movement in Spain before 1914', in Dick Geary, ed., Labour and Socialist Movements in Europe before 1914 (London 1989), 231-65
11. Benjamin Martin, The Agony of Modernization. Labor and Industrialization in Spain (Ithaca, NY 1990)
12. Angel Smith, 'Spain', in Stefan Berger and David Broughton, eds, The Force of Labour. European Labour Movements and the European Working Class in the Twentieth Century (Oxford 1995), 171-209
13. Pere Gabriel, 'Espacio urbano y articulación política popular en Barcelona, 1890-1920', in J.L. García Delgado, ed., Las ciudades en la modernizatión de España (Madrid 1992), 61-94
14. This is merely a rough approximation based on data from the census of Barcelona's working class prepared by the local government. 'Censo obrero de 1905', in Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, Anuario estadístico de la ciudad de Barcelona (hereafter AECB), Vol. IV, 1905 (Barcelona 1907), 599-606. However, the true figure was, I feel somewhat lower
15. AECB, Vol. I, 1902 (Barcelona 1903), 132
16. AECB, Vol. XIII, 1914 (Barcelona 1916), 57. Contradictorily, however, the 1914 AECB indicates that only 69 per cent of Barcelona's inhabitants were Catalan in 1900. Whichever statistics are correct, Joan Connelly Ullman is clearly mistaken in her claim that the new proletarian districts of Sant Martí and El Clot formed ghettos of non-Catalan speaking migrants. In fact the women and children who worked in the textile factories centred on these districts were often the wives, sons and daughters of adult male skilled workers
17. See Joan Connelly Ullman, La Semana Trágica, Estudio sobre las causas socioeconómicas del anticlericalismo en España (Barcelona 1972), 115-16
18. See the comments in Jacques Valdour, L'ouvrier espagnol. Observations vecues. Tome 1 - Catalogne (Lille and Paris 1919), 78, 228-52, 289-92, 321
19. As late as 1920 54 per cent of non-Catalan immigrants into the city of Barcelona came from Valencia and Aragon, and only 24 per cent from southern Spain. AECB, Vol. XVII, 1918-20 (Barcelona 1923), 135-42
20. See, e.g, José Playá, Estado y estadística de las industrias mecánicas y eléctricas de laprovincia de Barcelona en el año 1913 (Barcelona n.d.), 17-18
21. Edouard Escarrá Eldesarrollo industrial de Cataluña, rev. edn (Barcelona 1970), 68
22. Angel Smith, 'Social Conflict and Trade Union Organisation in the Catalan Cotton Textile Industry, 1890-1914', International Review of Social History, Vol. 36, 3(1991), 337-8
23. El Trabajo National, 30 March 1903
24. La Ilustratión Obrera, 27 August 1904
25. AECB, Vol. VI, 1907 (Barcelona 1908), 541-51
26. There is a large bibliography on this subject. See, for e.g. Michael P. Hanagan, The Logic of Solidarity. Artisans and Industrial Workers in Three French Towns (Illinois 1980)
27. See, for e.g, the comments in, Boletín de la Sociedad del Arte de Imprimir de Barcelona, May, June 1901, October 1906, May 1908
28. Confederación Regional de Oficiales y Peones de Albañil de Barcelona, Memoriay actas del primer congreso celebrado en Villanueva y la Geltrú en el local los días 28 y 29 dejulio de 1914 (Barcelona 1914), 15-16. I have dealt with these issues in more detail in my article
29. 'Trabajadores "dignos" en profesiones "honradas": los oficios y la formación de la clase obrera barcelonesa, 1899-1914', Hispania, Vol. LVI/2, 193 (1996), 655-87
30. AECB, Vol. IV, 1905, op. cit., 171-8
31. Pere Casals, 'L'habitació obrera ahir i avui' La Natión, 2 October 1915
32. José Elías de Molíns, La obrera en Cataluña en las ciudadesy en el campo (Barcelona 1913), 32-3, 42
33. Manuel Escudé, 'Monografía estadística de las clases trabajadoras de la ciudad de Barcelona', AECB, Vol. XVI, 1917 (Barcelona 1918), 581-91
34. AECB, Vol. II, 1903 (Barcelona 1905), 522
35. La Nació, 2 October 1915
36. Museu Social de Barcelona, Anuari d'Estadística Social de Catalunya (hereafter AESC), Vol. II, 1913 (Barcelona 1914), 158
37. The only official statistics on trade union membership for this period are to be found in Instituto de Reformas Sociales, Estadística de la asociación obrera en 1° de noviembre de 1904 (Madrid 1907). It is, however, incomplete and has, therefore, been supplemented by information gleaned from newspaper and trade union sources, and by data collected by Miguel Sastre y Sama in his eight volumes on strikes in Barcelona between 1903 and 1914, Las huelgas en Barcelona y sus resultados durante los años 1903-1914 (Barcelona 1904-16)
38. José Alvarez Junco, La ideologia politico del anarquismo español, 1870-1910 (Madrid 1976), 547-92
39. Enric Olivé Serret, 'El moviment obrer català i l'obrerisme', unpublished PhD thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 1977, 52-162; El Productor (hereafter EP), 1901-3
40. La Cuña, 1 January 1899
41. EP, 20 December 1902, 21 March, 6 June 1903
42. La Guerra Social, 27 June 1903
43. Soledad Bengoechea, Organització patronal i conflictivitat social a Catalunya. Tradició i corporativisme entre finals de segle i la dictadura de Primo de Rivera (Barcelona 1994), 39-101
44. ES, 15 June 1900
45. ES, 23 November 1900
46. La Protesta, April 1901, 18
47. See, e.g., LP, 31 March, ME, 14 July, Night Edition (hereafter NE), 24 November, NE, 1901
48. La Huelga General, 15, 25 December 1901
49. EP, 7 February, 21 March 1903
50. EP, 5 September 1903
51. Alfredo Bueso, Recuerdos de un cenetista, Vol. 1 (Barcelona 1976), 52
52. EP, 20 December 1902, 21 February, 21 March, 28 March, 6 June 1903
53. El Trabajo (hereafter ET), 12 September 1903
54. Pere Gabriel, 'Classe obrera i sindicats a Catalunya, 1903-1920', unpublished PhD thesis, Universitat Central de Barcelona 1981, 504-5
55. Smith, 'Trabajadores "dignos" en profesiones "honradas"', 680-7
56. LP, 7 May 1901, NE
57. LP, 6 November, ME, 1901, 2 January, ME, 18 January, NE, 1902, EP, 25 January, 1 February 1902
58. La Huelga General, 25 January, 5 February 1902
59. El Diluvio, 17 February 1902
60. There is a growing literature on the 1902 general strike. See in particular, Alfonso Colodron, 'Aproximación al estudio de la huelga general (la huelga general de Barcelona de 1902)', Revista del Trabajo, 33 (1971), 67-119
61. Joaquín Romero Maura, La Rosa del Fuego. Republicanos y anarquistas. La político de los obreros barceloneses entre el desastre colonial y La Semana Trágica (Barcelona 1975), 203-23
62. Borja de Riquer, Lliga Regionalista: La burgesia i el nacionalisme (1898-1904) (Barcelona 1977), 227-40
63. Jordi Nadal and Carles Sudrià, Història de la Caixa de Pensions (Barcelona 1981), 17-45
64. Gemma Ramos and Soledad Bengoechea, 'La patronal catalana y la huelga de 1902', Historia Socialv, 5 (1989), 77-96
65. Angel Duarte, 'Entre el mito y la realidad: Barcelona 1902', Ayer, 4 (Madrid 1991), 147-68
66. Miguel Sastre y Sama, Las huelgas en Barcelona y su resultado durante el año 1905 (Barcelona 1906), 16-17
67. ES, 27 February, 2 March 1902
68. La Justicia Social, 16 June 1910
69. EP, 7 February, 7, 21 March, 20, 27 June 1903
70. See Roger Magraw, 'Socialism, Syndicalism and French Labour', in Dick Geary, ed., op. cit., 74-86
71. Nuestro Programa, 30 June 1903
72. Revista Socialista, 16 May, 1, 16 June, 1, 16 November, 1 December 1904, 1 January, 16 February 1905
73. La International, 6, 20 November 1908
74. Antonio Fabra Ribas, La Semana Trágica, el caso Maura, elkrausismo (Madrid 1975), 15-17, 214
75. José Negre, Recuerdos de un viejo militante (Barcelona n.d.), 9; SO, 18 September 1908. Even given the economic depression these unions only represented between 10,000 and 15,000 workers. More detailed accounts of the formation of SO are to be found in Romero Maura, op. cit., 461-542
76. LP, 27 June 1909, ME, 14 July 1909, NE
77. El Poble Català, 16 July 1909
78. SO, 15 April 1909; Angel Pestaña, 'Historia de las ideas y luchas sociales en España', Orto, 16, January 1934, 37
79. Francesc Bonamusa ed., Congreso de constitutión de la Confederatión National del Trabajo. Prólogo de Juan Peirats (Barcelona 1976)
80. Tuñón de Lara, op. cit., Vol. 2 (Madrid 1977), 126
81. SO, 27 November 1913
82. SO, 8 September 1911, 20 November 1913
83. SO, 6 December 1910, 8 October 1914
84. SO, 13 November 1913, 4, 11 June, 11 July 1914
85. LP, 20 June, ME, 17 August, ME, 14 October, ME, 1910
86. SO, 26 March, 12 August 1910, 10 July, 16 October, 4 December, 31 December 1913
87. LJS, 6 December 1913
88. Miguel Sastre, Las huelgas en Barcelona y su resultado durante los años 1910-1914 (Barcelona 1916), 248-53
89. ET, 12 September 1903; La Cuña, 1 April 1911
90. SO, 13 May, 9 June 1913, 5, 12, 16, 26 February 1914
91. Dick Geary, European Labour Protest, 1838-1939 (London 1981), 19
92. Santos Juliá, Madrid 1931-1934. De la fiesta popular a la lucha de closes (Madrid 1984)
93. However, it is worth noting that many workers (even those in anarchist-led unions) voted Republican at election time. This complex issue cannot be dealt with adequately here. Two elements were, however, probably at work. On the one hand, in the early years of the century the leader of Barcelona Republicanism, Alejandro Lerroux, presented himself as, in many respects, a filo-anarchist. On the other, as we have noted, being in an anarchist-influenced union by no means meant the rank-and-file worker was strongly committed to specifically anarchist goals. Similarly, scepticism regarding elections was not incompatible with voting for what was seen as the best alternative. On these issues see in particular, Joan B. Culla, El republicanisme lerrouxista a Catalunya, 1901-1923 (Barcelona 1986)
94. José Alvarez Junco, El emperador del paralelo. Lerroux y la demagogia populista (Madrid 1990)
95. Justin Byrne has stressed the harshness of labour relations in the Madrid construction industry in, 'Trabajo y conflictividad en el sector de la constructión de Madrid, 1900-1914', Sociología del Trabajo, 15(1992), 115-42
96. Instituto de Reformas Sociales, Estadística de huelgas, 1905-1914 (Madrid 1906-1916)
97. Tuñón de Lara, op. cit., Vol. 2, 12
98. Santiago Castillo, Historia del socialismo, Vol. 1., 1870-1909 (Madrid 1989), 230. For the sake of uniformity strike figures from the Institute for Social Reforms have been used for both Barcelona and Madrid. The modified set of Sastre y Sama's figures reproduced in Table 2 are, however, quite similar to the I RS's statistics for Barcelona. There has been no study of the reasons behind this divergence, but the fact that Madrid manufacturing largely served the local market and was in no way integrated within the European economy (the divergence between the Barcelona and Madrid metallurgical industries is a very clear example), and the tiny scale of many workshops, were probably important factors
99. Juan Pablo Fusi, Política obrera en el País Vasco, 1880-1923 (Madrid 1975), 129, 233-42, 484-5
100. The quote is from the Roda Socialist militant A. Solà, La uerra Social, 27 June 1903
101. LP, 30 May 1899, NE. The Catalan Socialists are dealt with in more detail in Angel Smith, 'The Failure of the UGT and PSOE in Catalonia, 1888-1915', Journal of the Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies, Vol. 2, 2 (1989), 27-38
102. For more information on the TCV see also Smith, 'Social Conflict'
103. La Unión Ferroviaria. Reus Norte, May, August 1914
104. The counter-model is, of course, late nineteenth-century Britain, where craft workers and some factory operatives built up strong self-enclosed craft-based unions and isolated themselves from the unskilled. This was the case in construction, wood working, textiles and metallurgy. See, for example, H.J. Fyrth and Henry Collins, The Foundry Workers. A Trade Union History (Manchester 1959)
105. H.A. Turner, Trade Union Growth, Structure and Spread. A Comparative History of the Cotton Unions (London 1962)
106. Richard Price, Masters, Unions and Men. Work Control in Building and the Price of Labour, 1830-1914 (Cambridge 1980)
107. Keith Burges, 'New Unionism for Old? The Amalgamated Society of Engineers in Britain', in W.J. Mommsen and Hans Gerhard Husung, eds, The Development of Trade Unionism in Great Britain and Germany, 1880-1914 (London 1985)
108. ET, 25 January 1905, 30 June, 7 September, 26 December 1906, 12 January 1907
109. This is, in fact, what was to happen to the CGT after 1909. For an excellent analysis of how this shift from militant direct action to purely trade unionist goals was possible, see Nicolas Papayanis, Alphonse Merrheim: The Emergence of Reformism within Revolutionary Syndicalism, 1871-1925 (Dordrecht 1985)