Spanish Labor Movement: From Isabel II to the Restoration
The Beginnings of the Labor Movement
The Life of the Working Class
The peasantry was the largest social group in the country. Mid-century, they comprised about 80% of the population, and their situation was deteriorating. Falling prices, low wages, and confiscations hurt the most. Tenants were affected as new landlords raised rents. The secularization of Madoz gave the death blow to the rural economy by eliminating the economic break the villagers had in the exploitation of these council lands. The Elizabethan government thwarted the hopes and the support that the peasantry had rendered the liberal revolution. Only a minority took more aware positions, such as those involved in the uprising of Loja in 1861. Most peasants lived outside political movements. The church played a crucial role in keeping the peasants appeased. Periodic crises caused by poor harvests caused riots and protests, which were put down by the Guardia Civil. The situation became untenable, and the answer was emigration.
The most significant changes in Spanish society in Elizabethan times were:
- The emergence of the industrial working class.
- The development of the cotton industry.
The result was the growth of workers’ quarters, consisting of barracks and hastily built shacks. Factory work involved days of 12 to 14 hours. Wages were very low and only allowed a diet consisting essentially of bread, beans, and potatoes. In addition to infectious diseases, social issues like alcoholism and venereal diseases were prevalent. Illiteracy was widespread: it affected 69% of men and 92% of women.
The Labor Movement During the Reign of Elizabeth II
The Beginnings of the Labor Movement
At first, the workers did not understand well what was happening. The abolition of the guilds had destroyed the whole system of assistance and relief that protected the worker. The addition of steam to factories and gender dismissals provoked some episodes of destruction of machinery, like the fire at the Bonaplata factory in Barcelona. Luddism had little impact in Spain. The first glimmer of labor organization was mutual aid societies. In 1840, the Mutual Protection Society of Cotton Spinners was founded. Soon, similar societies proliferated throughout the country. They only tried to defend wages, but in 1844, moderates banned them, and most of them went underground. There were some advocates of utopian socialism. The lack of class consciousness led the workers to make common cause with their employers in defense of protectionism.
Two Progressive
The experience proved decisive. The progressive biennium saw the labor movement take a great development, and the riots led to frequent clashes in the streets against the troops. A general strike broke out in Barcelona in 1855 in defense of freedom of association. But the Labor Act that finally passed the Cortes was really disappointing and defended employers’ interests.
Government of the Liberal Union
During the government of the Liberal Union, the labor movement remained dormant due to a few causes, such as economic prosperity and government repression. However, we must highlight the important work of cultural formation and political consciousness that several workers’ academies played. From 1863, mobilizations of the working class became organized conspiracies against the regime of Isabel II and the economic crisis that would end her reign in 1868.
The Labor Movement in Six Years: The International
Fanelli
In October 1868, Fanelli, a member of the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA), arrived in Spain with the objective of organizing the international section of Spain. He established two sections in Madrid and Barcelona. The First Congress of the Spanish section of the International, mostly anarchists, was held in Barcelona.
Paul Lafargue: The Marxist
He contacted the heart of Madrid, whose principal members accepted his thesis. After the Congress of Zaragoza, the Marxist leaders were expelled and later founded the New Madrid Federation. The anarchists were expelled from the IWA.
The Proclamation of the Republic
It provoked a wave of demonstrations and strikes in Barcelona and Andalusia. But it was the workers’ participation in the strike of Alcoy and the cantonal movement that was used to end the IWA. In 1874, after the coup of Pavia, the Serrano government decreed the dissolution of the International. The six-year period meant a time of clear consciousness and organizational policy for the Spanish labor movement and the assimilation of the main ideological currents that existed in the European labor world, especially the introduction of anarchism and Marxism.
The Labor Movement During the Restoration
The living conditions of the working class had not changed; the situation was so brutal that the courts created a Commission of Social Reforms.
Anarchism
After the Restoration, the labor movement went underground for several years. The ban on trade unions and press censorship continued, minimizing industrial action. The government relaxed its repression under Sagasta and allowed associations. Anarchists founded the Federation of Workers in the Spanish region. Anarchism was divided into two: predominantly union activism and demands. A radical minority opted for direct action. In the first decade of the twentieth century, anarchist unions continued to grow, while a wave of strikes in industrial regions and in the countryside of Andalusia and Extremadura, successfully resolved, fostered the establishment of trade unions.
Socialism
The Socialists in Madrid, along with others, founded the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in May 1879. Pablo Iglesias soon became the main leader. The first program was based on three objectives: the abolition of classes, the transformation of private property into collective property, and the conquest of political power by the working class. In 1888, the General Workers’ Union (UGT) was founded in Barcelona. In 1890, the first of May was celebrated for the first time.
Catholic Unions
The Pope issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum, which denounced socialism and, after making a mild criticism of the capitalist system, encouraged attempts to improve the lives of the working class through the gospel channel.