Huelga de La Canadiense

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The Vaga de la Canadenca ( Catalan Vaga de la Canadenca, Spanish Huelga de la Canadiense) was a general strike in Catalonia that developed from a strike in the energy company Riegos y fuerzas del Ebro in Barcelona in 1919 . This belonged to the group Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, limited , which was known colloquially as La Canadiense (German: The Canadian ). The name went back to the main shareholder of the group, the Canadian Bank of Commerce of Toronto .

The industrial action began in Barcelona on February 5th and lasted 44 days during which it escalated into a general strike that paralyzed Barcelona's infrastructure and 70% of Catalan industry. The results of the strike represent one of the greatest successes in the history of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Spanish labor movement in general. Wage increases, the reinstatement of laid-off workers, the release of thousands of workers imprisoned during the industrial action and before especially the introduction of the eight-hour day across Spain.

Course of the strike

Starting position

In Catalonia, one of the industrial centers of Spain, anarcho-syndicalism experienced a boom after the end of the First World War . The Catalan regional federation of the CNT alone had around 400,000 workers in 1919. In Barcelona in particular, the CNT was a major power factor. The strike was preceded by restructuring within the Catalan CNT, which in 1918 decided at a congress in Sants-Montjuïc to set up unified trade unions that grouped all professions in one company and one branch. These industrial unions replaced the previously common professional unions.

Start of the strike

The industrial action began as a solidarity strike with eight dismissed accounting workers at Riegos y fuerzas del Ebro and aimed at their reinstatement. The company lowered workers' wages as part of the termination of their employment contracts. Some of the workers affected protested the wage cuts and demanded equal pay for equal work. Meanwhile, they tried to anchor the branch union of the CNT in the company. The company owner Fraser Lawton had them terminated. On February 5, most of the accounting workers went on strike and demanded the reinstatement of the sacked colleagues. Lawton had the strikers evacuated by the police. As a result, on February 8, other departments of the company went on strike.

The news of the escalating labor dispute at Riegos y fuerzas del Ebro caught the attention of the Catalan working class , as the point of contention in this conflict was not only the planned wage cuts, but also the general right to organize in trade unions. For this reason, the workforce of the energy company Energía Eléctrica de Cataluña went on strike. The Canadiense strikers published the following demands: reinstatement of all those dismissed, dismissal of strikebreakers, wage increases and no further reprisals by the management against the strikers. The management of Riegos y fuerzas del Ebro responded with a public statement in which they accused the CNT of misusing the conflict for political purposes.

On February 17th, a strike began in the Catalan textile industry. The local CNT unions demanded the introduction of the eight-hour day, half-day free on Saturdays, recognition of the union, abolition of piecework, full payment of weekly wages in the event of failures after accidents and a ban on child labor.

General strike in Barcelona

On February 21, workers from all electricity producers in Catalonia joined the strike. 70% of the Catalan industry was paralyzed by this point. Local public transport also had to cease operations. On February 27th, gas and water utility workers also joined the strike. On the same day, the Prime Minister of the Spanish central government Álvaro Figueroa Torres announced his resignation for the time when order was restored.

On March 9, the government issued a decree calling for workers in all companies on strike to join the military. Failure to comply with the draft was given the prospect of a four-year prison term. The publication of the decree was hindered by the so-called censura roja (dt .: red censorship ): the workers organized in the media union of the CNT boycotted the printing of publications that contradicted the interests of the working class. The majority of the strikers failed to comply with the draft notice, leading to mass arrests. Almost 3,000 prisoners were arrested in the Castell de Montjuïc alone . On March 7, the railway workers also went on strike.

The CNT managed to collect money and maintain support payments for the strikers and their families throughout the duration of the strike. In addition, a solidarity movement formed throughout Spain, which also gave the strikers support in the form of money and food donations.

The end of the strike

On March 13, the government declared a state of emergency across Spain . The aim of this measure was to prevent the strike from spreading to other regions in which the CNT had influence, such as the Valencian Community , Andalusia and Aragon , as well as preventing the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) from going on strike and thus a further revolutionary dynamic . At the same time, the government sought dialogue with the strike committee in Barcelona, ​​which included Ángel Pestaña . Negotiations between the conflicting parties took place between March 15 and 17. The following points were agreed: the end of the strike, recognition of the trade unions, immunity for the strike committee and the trade union secretaries, the release of all prisoners, reinstatement of all strikers without reprisals, general wage increases, the payment of half the monthly wage for the month of the strike and the introduction of the eight-hour day per Government decree.

At a meeting organized by the CNT in the Las Arenas bullring , attended by around 20,000 union members, Ángel Pestaña and Salvador Seguí spoke out in favor of the agreement. Their motion was accepted by the congregation, but five workers were still detained. The assembly decided to give the government three days to release the prisoners. On March 20 , the work was resumed.

aftermath

During the huelga de La Canadiense , the establishment of branch unions by the CNT proved to be an effective measure in the class struggles. In the course of the conflict, however, the state and the employers began to adjust to the increased fighting power of the unions.

Even after the strike ended, the five workers remained in custody. A strike was then called again on March 23. On March 24th, the military occupied Barcelona and started registering residents. Again there were mass arrests. On April 14th this strike had to be broken off without success.

In March 1919 the Spanish business association Federación Patronal Española was founded . On December 1, the Catalan regional association began a lockout that affected 150,000 workers and their families. The submission of the CNT membership cards was requested. This labor dispute between the entrepreneurs was broken off on January 26, 1920 without success.

In the years that followed, thousands of union activists were murdered by so-called pistoleros . These were death squads that were paid for by the employers' associations and covered by parts of the political class. For their part, anarchist groups such as Los Solidarios carried out attacks on representatives of the state, the church and the economic elites.

literature

  • Miguel Ìñiguez: Esbozo de una Enciclopedia histórica del anarquismo español. FAL, Madrid 2001, ISBN 84-86864-45-3 , p. 117.
  • Reiner Tosstorff: The strike at the "Canadian", in: Axel Weipert, Stefan Bollinger, Dietmar Lange, Robert Schmieder (eds.): A second revolution? The spring of 1919 in Germany and Europe . Buchmacherei, Berlin 2020. pp. 129–144. ISBN 978-3-9820783-9-7