Basque Nationalism and the Labour Movement in the 19th Century
Labour movement has always been related to Nationalism in the Basque country.
In Bizkaia the industrialization process of the 19th century carried a massive influx of immigrants from other parts of Spain. These workers had very poor working and living conditions, which resulted in labor protests and movements, when the feeling of nationalism was emerging.
1.The Basque Pluralism in the Restoration Period
Catalonia was the only industrialized territory in the 1840’s in Spain. The 1869 Constitution allowed contact with the European labor movement and with the IWA which was mainly socialist following Marx even though it splitted into: Anarchists, who took more violent solutions and Socialists who used strikes and demonstrations to get what they wanted. In Spain, the main ideology was the anarchist one while in the Basque Country they were mainly socialists. Those socialists of the Basque Country would later set up the political party
PSOE in 1879 led by Pablo Iglesias, and a trade union: the UGT.
In the Basque Country, the labor movement didn’t start until the 1880’s where a new social class, the proletariat, appeared. They were mainly immigrants from Castilian rural areas and their living and working conditions were horrifying, especially in the mining district. In spite of these conditions, in 1886, Facundo Perezagua, a member of the PSOE, came to Bilbao to spread the socialism ideology and founded the first socialist association in Bilbao. This provoked the main influence of socialism in the Basque Country. In fact, later, in 1891, Manuel Orte would be the first councilor of the Socialist Party.
2.Early Socialism and Labour Disputes
Because of that socialist influence, in 1890 the first successful general strike took place. It was given by the miners, who claimed for the suppression of barracks and canteens and the reduction of working hours. Fortunately, these claims were accepted thanks to the “Pacto Loma”.
Even then, the pact didn’t make enormous changes and new strikes were given in the following years. The UGT took part in the general strike of 1903 where the process and the solution were repeated but the mediator here was General Zappino. In the 20th century, the 1910 miner’s strike with Aguilar as the mediator was a success and Canalejas gave in to the demands of workers as he needed their support. Therefore, Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos was created to bring Basque workers to a national ideal as they thought that socialism should disappear.
In 1911 the PSOE became more moderate when Indalecio Prieto took the leadership. Perezagua then left the PSOE, and joined Pérez Solis and Dolores Ibarruri forming the Communist party, followed by the Basque provinces’ anarchism. But the crisis of 1921, the disaster of Annual, worsened the working conditions. –>
Sabino Arana, founder of Basque Nationalist Party, gathered and organized all the ideas and sentiments. Arana thought that the only defense against all evils of the modern world was to cut all links to Spain and to reach full independence. To achieve independence they only needed to return to the original freedom, to the historical essence of Basque people and to the Old Law. In 1894, he founded the Euskaldun Batzokija, in order to know if Nationalism had enough support. Internal tensions appeared between independentists and autonomists, represented by Ramón de la Sota; but later, both trends united on mixing both positions.
At first, Basque Nationalism was called “Bizkaitarrismo” because it began as a party exclusively tied to Bizkaia, but later it spread in all the Basque provinces. In 1906, after the death of Arana, the PNV had already created Juventudes Vascas and the first batzokis, meeting points of nationalist. –>