Spanish example

[Steve]

Here is an account given at a recent SolFed weekend school about a dispute in Spain. It shows how the CNT, the anarcho-syndiclaist union, handle things and may be helpful, if not now, in the future.

Dispute in Granada.

Granada’s economy depends on three areas, agriculture, tourism and the university. The dispute was centred on the tourist industry. There has been a history of dispute in this sector and in common with all tourist jobs there is a high turnover of staff. One or two streets have recently been converted from derelict house into ‘Arab style’ coffee houses. A couple of years ago the CNT was involved in a dispute and won. The bosses wanted to stop the CNT organising in the area.

Lat year there was a collective dismissal of five women from one coffee house. They had been trying to get the local H&S official to visit the shop to look at the dangerous working conditions. Although not members of the CNT they approached them for help. The general assembly of the Granada CNT agreed to help and organised a boycott of the Coffee House. The women were also seeking redress through the courts.

At every stage there was discussion between the women and the CNT as to what course of action to take. Leaflets were distributed outside, a picket was organised, tourist were leafleted (in Spanish & English) and other sections were involved, education & public service. The Coffee House and the whole street were practically closed down. A strike fund was established and benefits organised. The place was occupied. At every stage as the strike dragged on discussion were held about all tactics and actions with the women themselves and the Granada CNT general assembly involved together.

Police harassment increased as they worked together with the owners and the local council to try to break the strike. Pickets were constantly harassed over minor issue, their identity cards checked and they were arrested on minor things. Minor complaints were made against the women and as Spanish law says you have to appear in court for every one they had to go to court over 500 times.

Up to this point all decisions had been made by the assembly. Then there was an attack on the picket line by bouncers and other hired by the owners. One picket was hospitalised and injured quite badly. The only arrests made by the police were of CNT members. Some local anarchists who were not members of the CNT then decided to take direct action on their own without any consultation and attacked the property of the owner. The result was that the owners, the media, the council and the police, could use this against the CNT and paint them as a violent, mafia style organisation. A local Community association who had been supportive changed sides. The women’s lawyer resigned the case.

The end result was that two women got a small amount of compensation but three got nothing. All the negative aspects of the dispute occurred when the decision making left the general assembly and the women and action was taken by those outside the dispute who did not understand the need for collective decisions and collective action. For about a year as well the number of people coming to the CNT for help sharply declined as it also generated a lot of mistrust in the Granada CNT with the accusations made by the media etc.

The positive aspects were that although the dispute dragged on gains were made while control was kept by the women and the assembly of the dispute.

[michele cryer]

Thanks for that Steve..it's very interesting to read of direct action in other countries as well.

[Brian]

Go to Northern Anarchist Network Conference (NAN) item menu for a further bit of a report on the actions of the Spanish CNT/CGT in the Spanish shipyard dispute of the last few weeks.

[bryan]

Spanish Unions.

Richard (Sol. Fed), who has recently returned from Granada, gave a well informed talk at this Novembers’ Manchester Sol Fed meeting. It demonstrated a clear grasp of the history as well as current issues.

Only about 10% of Spanish workers are in unions, he said. Union membership in Spain, as in France, has probably always been lower than in the UK. Often the trade unionists in Latin countries act as cadres or groups of activists to which other workers are drawn in times of conflict. So that the Socialist UGT; the former communist CCOO; or the anarcho-syndicalist CGT activists would take decisions and try to attract the wider workers movement in an industry to their cause.

They may pull off a snowball action simply by setting the ball rolling. On the other hand the snowball may melt before it gets going. So, Richard told us, when the anarcho-syndicalists in the CGT and smaller CNT during the protests against the Iraq War, tried to call people out on a 24 hour protest strike in the Summer of 2003, it failed. While a 5-minute strike by the UGT/CCOO apparently succeeded.

The former communist CCOO, now claims 1 million members; an increase of 250,000 in 4 years. Based on Ministry of Industry figures the anarcho-syndicalist CGT, the 3rd largest union confederation, claimed to represent more than 1 million workers (see September 2004 issue of Rojo y Negro). This was repeated in a report sent this month by Canadian anarchist, Larry Gambone to Freedom in London, but not yet published.

We should beware - ‘representation’ - doesn’t mean ‘membership’. It just means the CGT has the right to represent 1 million workers.

Richard described the rivalry between the CNT and UGT in the 1920s-30s. He explained about the corporativist National union of the Franco period, and the rise of the CCOO; the then communist rank & file workers’ commissions in the 1960s. At that time, we in the Spanish Libertarian Youth movement were challenging the then new introduction of tourism to Spain and trying to undermine the Franco regime with minor acts of political violence. We tried to circulate libertarian propaganda against the regime and the young Spanish exiles in France tried to plan how to get rid of the dictator without success. What of the Socialist UGT? Well the communist said at that time they were enjoying '40 years of vacations' after 1939.

Although he didn’t say as much, it seemed that Richard was implying that, at that time, the communist CCOO had the best strategy by mobilising the rank & file workers.

After the death of Franco many Spaniards flocked to the old unions of the CNT and UGT. Richard claimed the Spanish government in the late 1970s, wanted to set up both the UGT and CNT as national organisations. He said the intention was to keep the communist CCOO away from power and influence. This doesn’t surprise me. In 1977, I was told the CIA was putting money into the CNT to try to undermine the then spread of communist influence across southern Europe. That was before the fall of the Soviet Union.

It’s tempting to present the events of post-Franco Spain as a simple conspiracy. A plot by the Spanish State to control the workers’ movement. Naturally the new democracy wanted promote political stability, and who could blame the Spaniards - the Spanish working classes - from seeking some affluence and comfort after all they had suffered in the recent past. When I was in Alicante in 1963 - full of romantic enthusiasm - Jim Pinkerton, who when he died a few years ago we came to call ‘The father of Northern Anarchism’; wrote to me that the Spaniards needed a break from suffering and needed to experience some of the benefits that modern life has to offer. As an anarchist of 20-odd I didn’t like that advice then, but now it seems a wise observation.

A French journalist who expected something other than the Spaniards’ cold reaction to the attempted coup of 23rd, February 1981 declared: ‘Spaniards have lost their inclination to die for freedom’. See how foreigners like us are happy to impose high moral standards on the Spaniards. At the time of the coup, some reports had the Spanish trade unionists burning their union cards: when I asked Carlos Beltran about this he said it was only the women who did that.

It’s as if those of us who live North of the Pyrenees always expect the Spaniards to live out our most romantic dreams and fantasies in some operatic way. According perhaps to some dramatic script drafted by some militant anarchist over a pint in the Hare & Hounds. Fortunately the Spaniards have more sense than their foreign admirers.

A modern Spanish democracy was bound to create problems for the CNT, just as much as the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in the 1920s. Richard mentioned the pact between the Government and the unions. How to negotiate; whether to negotiate; how to organise; whether to organise? Should there be shop stewards and workers’ committees or shouldn’t there? Should the CNT elect shop stewards and participate on the workers’ committee? All these questions were argued about at the Congress V of the CNT in December 1979.

That wasn’t a conspiracy it was a genuine debate. Though it led to a small breakaway and later in 1984, to a bigger breakaway. Then on to the dispute between what were known as the ‘classicos’ or ‘traditionalists‘(CNT) and the ‘renovators’ (now the CGT). Now Richard admits the CNT is the smallest union confederation in Spain with perhaps less than 5,000 members, but as Richard would say - the CNT is at least ‘ideologically pure‘. The CGT is now the 3rd largest union federation in Spain.

Is the CNT a genuine union federation or a federation of affinitive groups? Richard was not clear on this, but didn’t dispute my figures that the CNT has no more than 5,000 members. He argued that the CGT is guilty of unreliable and dodgy anarchism. He claims the CGT may drop the ideal of anarchism at a forthcoming Congress, if the members vote against them. It seems there have been problems over the years, which culminated 10 years ago with a conflict over anarchism which has since been resolved. These kind of disputes also occurred in the CNT in the 1930s, when the Trentistas tried to reform the CNT.

The Canadian anarchist, Larry Gambone, who has had a recent interview with the International Secretary of the CGT in Barcelona, says the CGT Agenda Confederal states:
‘Anarchism is not a closed or final doctrine, it expresses ideas that could appear contradictory: radical pacifism, or justification of violent acts as social protest; extreme individualism and membership of syndicalist unions; absolute rejection of institutions and limited participation in them. Anarchism is characterized by confidence in individual liberty and its capacity to judge and act.’

Furthermore, Gambone says: the CGT Agenda Confederal 2004 states:
‘Self-management combined with direct democracy, mutual aid and solidarity present the complete and total alternative to the pyramidal, hierarchical, authoritarian and exploitational model of capitalist society incarnate in neo-liberal ideology.’

Richard (Sol Fed) considers that the CGT ‘falsely recovers its anarchist history’ and has prison officers and security guards syndicates (branches). Gambone argues the CGT regard ‘a narrow anti-political ideology...divisive.' He says: ‘Many union members belong to, or vote for political parties, yet in practice are good syndicalists. But ...the CGT never fails to point out the problems inherent in parliamentary politics and parties. Nor does the union have time for nationalism, but the autonomy of union branches and decentralisation allows historically oppressed peoples such as the Basques and Catalans to have their own language publications and federations.’

Probably both Gambone and Richard have too high expectations of both the CGT and CNT. Both are outsiders looking for a Spanish political miracle. Gambone writes: ‘the CGT’s success will hopefully rub off on other syndicalists...already in France the CNT-F has experienced a surge in support, with some 5,000 members, compared with a few hundred a decade ago, and Richard looks to a few local boycotts CNT in Granada for inspiration.

But this is not to say we don’t have a lot to learn from the Spanish experience, and we could do worse than invite someone over from one of these organisations to give us a few tips in Burnley and Manchester. The Spaniards now offer a valuable resource that we must draw upon if the forces of libertarianism are to advance in a serious way.

[Steve]

Probably both Gambone and Richard have too high expectations of both the CGT and CNT. Both are outsiders looking for a Spanish political miracle. Gambone writes: ‘the CGT’s success will hopefully rub off on other syndicalists...already in France the CNT-F has experienced a surge in support, with some 5,000 members, compared with a few hundred a decade ago, and Richard looks to a few local boycotts CNT in Granada for inspiration.

Just for the record Richard had been living in Granada for the past three years and has only just returned to the UK. While there he was an active member of the Granada CNT. He was a member of SolFed before he went to Spain but had first been a member of the CNT before that in the 1980s.

[bryan]

Spain confounds us all!

It doesn't seem to matter how long we live and work in Spain, or how much we experience its culture, it still seems to remain mysterious to most of us. I thionk there is a saying that the closer one gets to Spain the further away it recedes from us.

Even Gerald Brennan got it badly wrong when he said that the Spaniards would never embrace capitalism. He lived in Andalucia on and off from 1919 until his death in the mid-1980s. He got it wrong for the same reason most of us get it wrong, because he wanted to believe the Spaniards were special: that the Spaniards were different from the rest of us. It was a kind of wishful thinking that we are all susceptible to; particularly foreign anarchists, who somehow want the Spaniards to do what they are unable to do in their own dreary towns and cities.

Now I think I said that Richard had recently returned from Granada, and that he gave a workman-like account of the situation of the unions in Spain. I suppose Steve in reminding us that Richard was a member of the CNT when in Spain, and a member of Solidarity Federation when in UK, is reminding us that Richard may be presenting a partisan position. Despite this I think he tried hard to give an accurate account and only towards the end glossing over important details: and then probably only because he had to go and catch his train.

The problem is that the Spanish CNT, of which I was a member of the La Linea Branch in 1986-88, is now so small that it seems to be more like a national federation of affinity groups than a genuine trade union movement. Richard didn't seem to challenge this proposition when it was put forward. Thus small groups can in times of conflict have a decisive impact as in the shipyard disputes in Cadiz and Puerto Real. Thus it would seem the CNT operates more as an anarchist body rather than having an anarco-syndicalist function. Certainly the La Linea CNT branch to which I belonged wasn't a proper union branch in the late-1980s.

Fortunately in the 1980s, because I was a T&G shop steward in the Gibraltar Shiprepair yard where I worked, as well as being a member of the Spanish CNT in La Linea where I lived, I could contrast British trade unionism directly with the Spanish unions. At the same time in my electrical dept. I represented Spaniards, Moroccans, Gibraltarians and British electricians. Working closely with these ethnic groups it is hard to foster and sustain illusions about any national group. During the working day in Gib I had address life in a British colony, but in the evening and the weekend I was amongst Spaniards. That is a very sobering situation, because very often the conflicts in the Gib. shipyard were more militant than anything going on in La Linea. With threats of General Strikes and such physical threats to the employers that they had to leave the Rock for a time.

Of course, the leader of the Gibraltar T&G (affiliated to the British T&G) Jose Netto, was an anarchist, and had been a libertarian since the 1960s, when I first knew him. It is not that the Spaniards are racially superior or that their trade unions are organisationally better, it is simply that the anarchists in Spain and Gibraltar, are more seasoned and seem to have more gumption than the English libertarians. Mostly they're more grown up and often respected by other citizens: in contrast to this the small-minded manner in which a tiny local libertarian group (whose name escapes me) has recently dismissed a distinguished northern militant and lifelong anarchist activist, would seem to underline the low-bred nature of left wing politics here. If we wanted an example to explain why British anarchism has done so badly compared to the Spanish experience, we need look no further than this display of political ineptitude.

[RichardSF]

Some clarifications on the talk given by Richard in Manchester on 3 November on the subject of the Spanish unions. The reporter of this meeting has not actually got things right. Richard did NOT speak of the "anarcho-syndicalists of the CGT" and in fact made it quite clear that he believed that the CGT was not an a/s organisation as it has police, prison guards and security people as members, as well as taking money from the Spanish state. While there may be a few a/s in the CGT the general membership is reformist left or nationalist.

[bryan]

It is kind of Richard to come on-line and put me right. I thought I made it clear that Richard, as a Sol.Fed member, saw the CGT as 'unreliable and dodgy' politically from an anarchist point of view. But is he suggesting that all the 1 million CNT members in the 1930s, were pure anarcho-syndicalists to a man and woman?

Surely not!

Richard says members of the CGT are not 'anarcho-syndicalist' because they vote in national elections. Well as he knows the historic CNT could be quite pragmatic when it came to elections. When in April 1936, the Popular Front promised amnesty for prisoners, the CNT toned down its campaign for abstention in the forthcoming national elections. Some unions stood firm, but others such as the influential construction union deviated from the classical anarchist position. The policy of 'negation of the negation', gave the green light to the rank and file to vote for the Popular Front. And as Stuart Christie has pointed out in his latest autobiography 'Granny Made Me an Anarchist', Durruti openly advocated CNT members go to the polls. And this year the turn-out in the Spanish elections jumped as the anarchists joined others to throw out the PP (conservative party).

Throughout most of its history the CNt has had a very loose and anti-bureaucratic structure. Individual unions had a lot of autonomy and to its credit the CNT had a horror of overcentralisation. But this independence often led to different unions in the CNT behaving differently.

The modern CNT, of which I was a member, seems to be a shadow of the one in the 1930s, even according to Richard's account. I would like Richard to tell us in which industries it has realinfluence?

Julian Pitt-Rivers in his book 'The People of the Sierra', says we can only understand the anarchist in relation to his pueblo or town/people. A figure like Jim Petty for example; we can best understand in relation to the culture and traditions of the people of Burnley and the Colne valley. Pitt-Rivers says the villagers in Andalucia would turn to 'a small nucleus of convinced anarchists' or '"those who had the ideas" (i.e. ideas anarco-syndicalistas)'. Thus he says: 'The Anarchist Movement appears, then, as a certain number of convinced anarchists, a small percentage of the pueblo (town), who enjoy the support of the great majority of the pueblo (people) upon certain occasions...'

Pitt-Rivers is an anthropologist in the 1950s describing the influence of anarchists in a village in Andalucia which I know called Grazalema, and he thinks this applies generally through the rural South. What Richard needs to show us is a convincing account of the relationship between the CNT militants today and the pueblos and barrios. I could see such a relationship in Puerto Real, but not much sign of it elsewhere.

Pitt-Rivers describes the growth of what he calls 'syndicalist ideas', and in the Civil War, the tensions between the anarchists in the large towns and cities, and those in the surrounding villages. One explanation for the success of the CGT, at least in terms of size, is that it represents the accelaration of what Pitt-Rivers was describing in the 1950s; that is the shift in Spain to a more industrial and urban society leading to perhaps more 'syndicalist' unions. What I'm asking is; is rise of the CGT over the CNT yet another case of the triumph of the city and the urban over the pueblo and the rural areas?

If so, as one who loves the pueblo and rural Spain, this thought depresses me. I, like Pitt-Rivers, see the pueblo as the bastion of the values of the community over the those of the central power. If the pueblos are suffering - I suffer. But its no good wishing the CGT away, its development has to be analysed seriously and if there was a flaw in Richard's talk it didn't do that. It didn't do it, because the Sol.Fed. can't afford to take the CGT seriously as its own very existence depends on a myth that the CNT is still a functioning trade union movement.

Every time I've seen Richard since about 1990, he has continued to tell me of the demise of the CGT. Today he tells us the CGT is going to cast off its 'libertarian statutes', maybe next year or the year after. Well this kind of dismissive wishful thinking is not satisfactory, we deserve better.

[michele cryer]

****************STOP PRESS*******************


ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS ARGUE OVER NAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Well boys, I hope you're enjoying educating us all on the Spanish CGT/CNT....all fascinating stuff...

How about someone supplying us with an interesting account of the rise of anarchist organisations in the UK...in plain language please!!!! ;D

[michele cryer]

Oh..and before I forget it...it's Rap Time...and no, Eminem didn't write this before any of you ask!

SPELLING IT OUT:

The BSP became the CPGB
Gave 'em all the heebie geebies
Now they all hate the SWP
Who took their bat from the WRP.
This all sprung from the SDF
Who used to be called the SDP
But not I think the SDP
That's more familiar to you and me you see...
Of course the PLP was the LRC
Or the Fabians and the ILP.
Now we all think that the PLP
Are a little bit like the more recent SDP...
Marxists, Leninists, Trotskyists, Maoists,
Stalinists, anarchists-can you please tell me
how is
One supposed to understand all this?
When the BWSF
Is the NWSF,
All under the IWSF
And the IUWPE.
I don't really think that it could be any harder,
So let's all get a ticket for
The International Red Workers Spartakiade.


Phew!!! that took some copying...

Words courtesy of the Mikron Theatre Group...from their production entitled 'Pedal Power'...

Hope you enjoyed it...

[Mitch]

;D Titter.

Mind you, I noticed theatre groups can change/become a little complex and bogged down in the political minefield of funding - the hour at the end thanking all the sponsors (Arts Council/Kirklees Council and so forth, all in the front row) I did not enjoy.

Funding means increasing influence and control by the State. It's something I'm spending a lot of time thinking about at the moment. Mikron have changed a little over the last two years I've been following them.

[michele cryer]

Yes I see your point Mitch..it would be sad to see the theatre company losing touch with its roots for the sake of more funding!

[bryan]

MEETING ON THE SPANISH REVOLUTION:
will deal with the British involvement.

ORGANISED BY THE CLARION CYCLING CLUB and speaker from the Clarion Cycling Club:

At Bolton Socialist Club, Wood Street, off Bradshawgate, Bolton: on Friday, November 19th, 2004:

STARTING 8p.m. ~ opening 7.30pm.

Some Northern anarchists will be attending this.

[michele cryer]

Thanks for that link Bryan...

[Steve]

michele said:

How about someone supplying us with an interesting account of the rise of anarchist organisations in the UK...in plain language please!!!! ;D

You really don't want to go there Michele, you really don't. ;D

[Steve]

If you are intersted there is a book about the origins of anarchism in Britain called "The Slow Burning Fuse". It was published in 1978 (London, Paladin Books).

I've got a copy but it's now out of print. You can find them second hand on the web the ISBN is 0586082255. Try
www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/The_Slow_Burning_Fuse/0586082255/

The first few chapters have been put on the web www.geocities.com/~johngray/fusetitl.htm#toc

If anyone wants to borrow mine they're welcome.

For more recent events and developments you could look at www.solfed.force9.co.uk/PDFs/SelfEd/unit20.pdf
although that doesn't cover all the ins and outs.
Trouble is there will be lots of different viewpoints as many people involved in developments since the 1970s are still around.

[Mitch]

These are interesting - especially on development of anarcho-syndicalism - thanks. The last summary definitely misses quite a lot of context around the failure of reformist unionism - like the changing nature of work:

The decline in manufacturing/increase in services (although dot.com unions now springing up in France and the US, e.g. Amazon where workers under similar sweatshop conditions as in manufacturing – in warehouses on the line – long hours/low pay etc)

Increasing polarisation of the workforce - professional/low paid.

Privatisation of Public Services

Expansion of self-employed/PT work - high numbers of women in Part-time work - inability of unions to reach out to atypical workers (gender issues)

Growth of small business
Cyclical/structural unemployment

Lean production – single union deals – multi-nationals – Greenfield sites – Some no-strike deals eg. AEEU – favouring nostrike policy.

Homeworkers/atypical workers difficult to unionise.

Work intensification and decentralisation.

Employer power enhanced through statutes – case law.

Human Resource Management – hardline corporatist tactics/new management approaches – marginalizing unions through use of HRM.


But then if the stance hadn't been reformist, with a top-down organisational structure really in place since the post-war 2nd WW period - grassroots challenge might have taken off? - did alignment of unions to reformism/political affiliation to the Labour Party from the start spell doom for grassroots organisation.

Anyway, I'll read the other Units on Anarch-syndicalist ideas for grassroots led organisation today. ( although a summary here would be good) I do find it interesting to talk to older anarchists about their journeys to anarcho-syndicalism - I learn a lot from them, and find much similarity in their rejections of reformist unions - as I reject their strategy as a complete dead duck now!

[michele cryer]

Thanks for the links Steve...I haven't had a chance to explore them yet, but I'm sure I will find something of interest there...perhaps a history of your local anarchist group could be written on the site...something less formal...more personal...that would be interesting to 'ordinary' people who wonder what anarchism is really all about...dispel a few of the stereotypical views of it? what do you think?

[Mitch]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking Michele when I put this bit about listening to older anarcho-syndicalists.

I was thinking of Fred here - unfortunately he seems to be temporarily buried under a pile of house dust, and he's been without water for one week (thought he wiffed a bit at last meeting - titter).

Of course, he's trying to blame it all on a woman - dear me. Hope he returns to the forum soon, and brushes the dust off his computer.

[michele cryer]

LOL...poor old Fred...come on!!! come back, we're missing yer stories man!!

[Steve]

If I've got the time I'll write a short account of the SWF/DAM/SolFed. I'll start another thread though. I also know a bit about the pre WWI movement if anyone's interested. Again it's the time factor.

[michele cryer]

That would be great Steve, thanks...any and all info much appreciated..yeah, new thread would be a good idea...take your time son, (teehee), I know you're a busy man!

[bryan]

British Anarchist Rise & Fall:

I've put part of a history of British Anarchism on the NORTHERN ANARCHIST NETWORK THREAD.

[michele cryer]

Thanks Bryan...btw, are u struggling to post as a member again..or do you wish to remain as a guest only?

[bryan]

I'm always struggling Michele. Life seems to be one endless struggle. But I'll dust myself off and try again soon.

[michele cryer]

LOL...Ok Bryan...best of luck! ;D