The Industrialization of Bizkaia: Social and Labor Consequences
1. Introduction
The novel “El Intruso” by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez reflects the sudden change and clash between two worlds and the social conflicts in the industrial environment of Bilbao: from the pre-industrial society (peasant, traditional, Catholic) to a new society (proletarianized, immigrant, in favor of new ideologies).
2. Content
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, 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. * Growth of the exploitation of the Encartaciones mines due to a series of favorable conditions: price, cheaper, easy to transport due to its proximity to the Bilbao estuary and the development of the railway and an iron of excellent quality. * 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 Bizka oligarchy.
Present moment
* Consequences of development in workers. Emergence of the working class. Explain the conditions of life and work of the workers. * In the Basque Country the workforce was composed of immigrants in a very large proportion. * From the first moment, the immigrants had to endure subhuman living conditions and poor working conditions. The hardest working conditions were borne by the workers of the mines without any doubt: crammed into barracks, days of more than 12 hours of work, without any type of labor agreement, forced to buy in the official stores of the companies by the system of vouchers … Before this painful panorama emerged the first socialist groups (Bilbao, Ortuella, La Arboleda …) At the state level, in Bizkaia emerged the most active and important socialist movement.
Consequences
* Beginnings of the workers’ struggle: (especially the mining strike of 1890) strengthened the PSOE, and in this way, this party became little by little the representative in Bizkaia of the workers. Important historical figures of socialism were related to the workers movement in Bizkaia: Pablo Iglesias, Facundo Perezagua, Indalecio Prieto, Tomás Meabe… this strike would end with the signing of the Loma agreement. The implementation of the 10-hour workday would be achieved, the elimination of the obligation to buy in the company’s stores and freedom of choice of housing, not in barracks. The measures in exchange were not guaranteed and the strikes were repeated in the following years.
3. Conclusion/Importance of the Text
* The influence that the Bessemer converter will have on the development of the growth of the mining activity in Bizkaia due to the excellent quality of the iron ore suitable for the converter, being the starting point of the industrialization. * Explanation of the consequences of the industrialization process: * Social: appearance of the working class, crisis of the traditional society, replaced mostly by an unskilled and immigrant workforce. * Demographic: increase in immigration mainly from provinces bordering the Basque Country, and also a significant increase in population. * Abandonment of working and living conditions of workers, and as a consequence of this the emergence and expansion of the workers’ movement.