The Evolution of Labor Movements and Nationalism in Spain
The labor parties are legally organized from the enactment of the Law of Associations. Since the breakdown of the AIT in 1872, the labor movement was split into two ideological currents: the Marxist socialist and the anarchist Bakunin.
• In Spain: The largest socialist party, PSOE, was founded in 1879 by Pablo Iglesias, who defended the Marxist view of capitalist society and the private ownership of the means of production by workers’ revolution to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. However, PSOE gradually evolved into reformist positions, with Social candidates participating in elections. In 1888, P. Iglesias founded the UGT union, which focused its fight on improving working conditions (minimum wage, 8-hour workdays, Sunday rest, prohibition of child labor).
• Anarchists: By their very nature, lacked a single doctrine but shared a common rejection of all forms of state organization. In Spain, we find two streams: in Andalusia, the anarchism of Bakunin, who advocated the formation of autonomous, self-managed communities without authority or private ownership, and anarcho-syndicalism in Catalonia, which wanted to maintain unions as the only form of social organization. The CNT, founded in 1911, was the largest anarchist union.
• Regionalism and Nationalism:
From the Revolutionary War, a centrifugal tendency of revolutionary character appeared in Spain, called federal or cantonal, which emphasized self-government and the development of freedom in the cultural development of a nationality. From the mid-nineteenth century, a sense of nationalism developed throughout Europe, understanding the nation as a living entity, characterized by cultural demonstrations, a common history, and territorial boundaries that do not coincide with political boundaries, which were artificially created. In this sense, nationalism could be politically conservative or revolutionary, as a model state to defend.
During the last years of the century, Spain experienced a nationalist movement in Catalonia and the Basque regions, where there was a linguistic distinction that served as a foundation for nationalist sentiment.
• Catalonia: This movement began with Valenti Almirall from the Republican Party and federalist Pi Margall. They intended to unite all those who, regardless of their political tendencies, advocated for the development of Catalan culture (Renaissance). The political movement soon split into two streams: a conservative party, the most representative being Lliga, and a republican and revolutionary party, the most representative being Esquerra Republicana (founded in 1931).
• Basque Nationalism: This was a later development; until the Second Republic, it was very minor. Sabino Arana founded the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in 1895, which was very conservative in its approach and based its claims on radical Catholicism (