Struggle of the Miners in Bizkaia: A Call to Mobilization
INTRODUCTION
- TYPE OF TEXT: Primary source. As regards the form, it is an article, a propaganda text, narrative; in the content, it is a social-political text.
AUTHOR: Socialists, Socialist Bulletin "La Lucha de Clases", published by the socialist committees of Bilbao, Gallarta and La Arboleda (inspired by Facundo Perezagua and founded by Tomás Meabe in 1894).
ADDRESSEE: Workers of Bizkaia (miners), but also the Government, therefore it is a public text.
OBJECTIVE: Denounce the working conditions of the miners and call for mobilization.
LOCATION AND DATE: The text is historically located in the period of the process of industrialization of Bizkaia, 1896, 2 parts, on the one hand, accumulation of capital by the bourgeoisie, and on the other side the bad conditions of life and work for the workers, which will have as a consequence the beginning of the development of the labour movement.
CONTENT
Main idea: Denounce the working conditions of the miners and call for mobilization.
3 ideas:
Explanation of the situation and complaint: The poor working conditions of the miners on the left bank of the Bilbao estuary and the denunciation that the Loma agreement is not being met are explained. After the "Great Strike" of 1890 (2.paragraph), it is denounced that in the signing of the Loma treaty, the concessions obtained by the miners, the entrepreneurs (in the text appear as "little-kings") did not want to apply them as they appear in the same. These refer to going against human dignity, maintaining the "barracks" (barracks) or the stores of the companies (canteens): “made new and noisy demonstrations against the maintenance of barracks and obligatory shops”(line2-3)
Requests made to the government: Compliance with the Loma agreement. The second and third paragraphs mention the objectives that the miners were looking for in the strike of 1890, the reduction of the working day to 10 hours and the elimination of the barracks and the stores of the companies.
Appeal to the mobilization of the workers: it is recalled how the pressure made by the workers achieved certain achievements with the strike of 1890 and call for continuing on that path if the situation continues in that way. In paragraphs 4.5 and 6 the principles of democratic liberalism are used to denounce this situation. Attacking the freedom of work (paragraph 5), unhygienic hovels and food in poor condition (paragraph 4), exploitation against humanity (paragraph 5), all generates signs of a new slavery (paragraph 6).
CONTEXT
Precedents
Beginnings of industrialization in Bizkaia. Appearance of the Bessemer converter, which took advantage of the iron from Bizkaia with excellent characteristics for the steel industry. All this together with open-pit mines (growth of the exploitation of the mines), unskilled workers, very low production costs, closeness to means of transport (the Bilbao estuary) made industrial development offer excellent opportunities for the new industrial bourgeoisie for the development of steel companies in Bizkaia.
Influence of the colonial exploitation, way in which the entrepreneurs organized the mining operations, which brought with it an accumulation of capital in a series of families of the Biscay oligarchy, but on the other hand the conditions of work and life for the workers would be terrible: dismissals without control, long days of work, housing in barracks, shops of the company …
Present Moment
Thus, in this context we must speak of the emergence of the labour movement and its organization, linked above all to socialism and the figure of Facundo Perezagua and his work. In 1886 he began to expand the doctrine and socialist activities through Bizkaia. From the hand of Perezagua came the first stage of Basque socialism, giving the movement its own identity: a radical, hard-working, revolutionary, anti-clerical tendency that chose the union struggle instead of the struggle in the elections. In 1887 the first socialist group was founded in Bilbao.
This was called the militant period of socialism in Bizkaia, more linked to the union struggle than to participation in elections, a period during which the Great Strike of 1890 will be key, was decisive in the emergence of the workers' movement of Bizkaia. The real reasons of the strike were the decrease in the purchasing power of the workers (lower real salaries, higher food costs), long days of work, housing in barracks, the obligation to have to buy in the stores of companies… In order to find a solution to the problem it was signed the “Loma agreement” that supposed the end of the strike. The strikers won a victory: apart from imposing the 10-hour workday, they removed the obligation of having to buy in the company's stores and live in barracks.
Consequences
The Loma agreement, however, was not respected in all places and the strike was repeated in 1891/1892, 1903 and 1910. Even so, the mythical strike was that of 1890. It was the strike that showed that there were ways to pressure and that things could be achieved with it. The success of the strike showed the Socialists in Bizkaia the way to strengthen their project, new socialist groups emerged, the Socialist Federation of Bizkaia in 1903, and in the near future, in the 20th, with Indalecio Prieto and a turn towards moderationism will be made with the government of several institutions.
CONCLUSION/IMPORTANCE OF THE TEXT
We are facing a text that describes the situation in the mines of Bizkaia and the struggle of the workers in them, their painful living conditions and that explains the insatiability of the capitalism of the time (accumulation of capital).
On the other hand we find ourselves with the militant period of Basque socialism and the work they did in the expansion of the workers' movement in Bizkaia: to give workers a class consciousness, mobilization capacity ... and all this in the importance that it could have a weekly like "La Lucha de Clases".