SOCIALISM IN SPAIN AND THE

BASQUE COUNTRY
ANARCHISM SOCIALISM
• What is anarchy? • What is socialism?
• History: • Why was it so
 Beginnings important in Spain?
 The expansion of  Spanish labour
anarchism movement
 The “Tragic Week”  PSOE
 CNT  Ideology
 History
 UGT
• Socialism in the
Basque Country
 ANARCHISM
• What is anarchism?
 Individual freedom

 No authority

 Public power

 Cooperation

 Volunteering
 History
• Beginnings:
 By the year 1850 anticlerical and anti
governmental feeling, but no anarchists (Pi i
Margall)
 Entered in 1868 (Giuseppe Fanelli and Mijaíl
Bakunin)
 Workers wanted more radicalism
 Low class people defended this movement
 They gathered in Madrid (1870, 2000 people),
more popular in Barcelona
 Left hand people rejected anarchists, so workers
organized themselves with no bureaucrats
• The expansion of anarchism

 In 1873 bloody confrontations

 In consequence until the XX century anarchism
was suppressed
 Groups of anarchists still fought for their ideas
(Andalucía), so the government considered them
terrorists (Montjuich, Barcelona)
 Syndicalism became popular and terrorism ceased
 In 1900 a new organization was created, very
successful, but the government suppressed it,
although it did not disappear
• The “Tragic Week”
In 1909, in Barcelona, textile industry workers
had very bad working conditions, so workers
went on strike
It was very aggressive; they destroyed many
important buildings, even killed 6 people
A lot of people was accused, and even though
the majority was set free, many were
sentenced
After this syndicates were abolished and
libertarian establishments and associations
closed
• CNT:
Confederación Nacional de Trabajo (1910)
After the main anarchist group in Spain was
abolished by the government, they created
the CNT (1907, Solidaridad Obrera)
Bureaucracy was avoided, the union was
divided in small groups
Very different to socialist syndicates
Was declared illegal five days after its
foundation, after another violent strike
 SOCIALISM
• What is socialism?

 Democratic possession of the production

system

 Collective administrative control

 Democratic control of the civil political structures

by citizens
 Why was it so important
in Spain?
• Spanish labour movement:
Born between 1868 and 1874 (La Primera
Internacional).
Politic anarchism, religious atheism and
socialist-collective economy.
At first there were not labour parties (Bakunin
- most people; Marx - few people→PSOE &
UGT).
20th century industrialization in Asturias,
Basque Country and Catalonia.
 Anarcho-syndicalism very important in Spain
(Barcelona→Solidaridad Obrera).
 Soli newspaper, general strike, Tragic Week.
 Soli newspaper, 1910, CNT, very important in
Catalonia.
 Industrial strikes on the North; agricultural strikes on
the South.
 The triumph of the Bolshevik gave hope to Spanish
anarcho-syndicalists.
 In the 1st World War economy grew strengthening
workers and the CNT.
 The government prohibited Soli, closed labourer
centres, arrested leaders and labourers went on
strike.
There were more strikes, the government
tried to pact with the CNT but a very hard fight
begun.
In consequence terrorism and fight expanded
to the whole Spain and the government
started to repress.
Police killed those who were arrested saying
that they tried to escape, and this led to the
murder of the Prime Minister, Eduardo Dato.
After that the army took part on the
repression, and Primo de Rivera came to the
power.
• PSOE:

Ideology:

 Represent and defend working class ideology

 Get the power

 Marxist and socialist beliefs

 Nowadays social democrat group

History:

 Madrid, 2nd May 1879, Pablo Iglesias.

 At first only important in Madrid, the Basque
Country and Asturias.
 They got their first representation in the parliament
in 1910.
 Not very popular at first because of the importance
of anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism.
 Very linked to UGT, both rejected Primo Rivera’s
coup d'état.
• UGT:

Spanish labour union organization.

Barcelona, 12th August 1888, Pablo Iglesias

Very close to the Marxist socialism, but

apolitical

In the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera was

permitted to carry on with its activity for their
collaboration and passivity.
 Socialism in the Basque
Country
• Last decades of the 19th century.
• 11th July, 1886, Facundo Perezagua,
Agrupación Socialista de Bilbao.
• Very radical → May 1890 30.000 workers
on strike.
• “La Lucha de Clases”, Miguel de
Unamuno
• 1904, Tomás Meabe → Juventudes
Socialistas de España.
• Republicans and socialists got together →
Pablo Iglesias deputy.
• 1910 Perezagua dismissed, Indalecio
Prieto (antinationalist, liberal and
regenerationist) → socialist expansion.
• Metallurgic and miner section of UGT.
• After the Russian revolution dispute in the
party → PCE.
• 1897 Agrupación Socialista de Eibar.