The Intruder: Social Upheaval in Basque Mines at the Turn of the Century
The text. VICENTE BLASCO IBÁÑEZEN THE PASSENGER OF THE ELBOW INTERVENTION (1904)
The text I have here is an excerpt from the poetic novel “The Intruder“. The writer, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, is a novelist born in Valencia, which may be his most political novel. The text summarizes the social upheavals of Biscay, the riots between the Carlists, the nationalists, the proletarians of the mines and the times of the furnace and the middle class of the developing middle-class city. The writer describes the living and working conditions of workers in Bizkaia, specifically the Encartaciones mines, at the beginning of the 20th century.It is a first-level document because is narrative in its written form and social in content.
Firstly, I will talk about the industrialization of Bizkaia historically and the social changes that will result. It refers to the time of the rebuilding of the new society at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the next. The population increased immensely due to immigration, specifically the immigration of men from Gipuzkoa, Alava, Burgos, Cantabria …
This led to economic and social changes. The first effort to develop the industry in Biscay began around 1841 when “Santa Ana de Bolueta” and the Ibarra group founded “Fabrica de Nuestra Señora del Carmen”. The developed sector was mainly steel and concentrated in Bilbao. The bourgeoisie of the time was enriched by trade but continued to consolidate its economic power until a new bourgeoisie of an oligarchic nature was created. The latter will control the economic evolution of Biscay and other factories will be created due to these investments by foreigners. This will be the case since 1865 when the English began using the Bessemer converter. In fact, for this purpose they did not need iron and this was in Biscay. For this reason, from 1865 the intensive mining of the Biscay’s ore zone began. Although many investments were foreign, many bourgeois succeeded in accumulating capital. Then, around 1880, several other factories were set up by Francisco de las Rivas, the “San Francisco” factory; Victor Chávarrik “Sociedad Vizcaya”, Ibarrataras “Sociedad de Altos Hornos de Bilbao”. All this caused more and more immigrants to come to Biscay from different parts of Spain.As a result, the Basque Country moved from being a territory of emigration to many immigrants.
But with capitalism, and the goal of businessmen, the authorities were trying to make the most of their profits and imposing very harsh working and living conditions for them. Demographic concentration in some towns and districts was sudden and they were not prepared to do so resulting in increased mortality and life expectancy due to illness, alcoholism and work–
Related injuries. The workers were forced to live in the dirty huts of their owners in the surrounding mines and factories. Working hours were long (12-16 hours even on Sundays), so they didn’t have time to go home. The barracks were weak facilities that could easily be replaced by a depleted mining range. There was a single room, often without a toilet, and over a hundred beds were accumulated; each bed was for two or three staff. In addition, they were forced to go shopping in the canteens of the principal and their food was bad and expensive. Food was scarce, poor in quality and insufficient in quantity. Bread was the basis of the diet. The wages were very small and paid in cash or in bonds.
This was worse than not being able to protest. In fact, there were so many who were ready to take on any job, where the complainant or the strike would not return to work the next day, because his job was replaced.
Having such living and working conditions was no surprise, as workers began to come together to improve their lives. However, in the beginning, they would have no organization.
After a general strike of 1890, the workers made some progress: 10 hours working and living in barracks, being forced to buy canteens, even though patrons disrespected them.
To start with the text comment, I must say that the writer talks about different aspects of work: conditions of work, poor living, poor nutrition, and lack of job security. The workers at the Encartaciones mines, who were mainly mining iron ore, worked in very poor conditions. They worked in the “Destajuan”, charged according to what they produced (quantity and quality). They worked long hours and even on most Sundays.
They lived in poor hygiene sheds, as a result of which they spread easily due to humidity, accumulation, lack of windy spaces or biting of the backbone.
As a result of the above, people became very ill. In addition, alcohol and work-related injuries were common.
Wages were very low. And because they were forced to buy in the canteens, it was often the case that they went to collect and the canteen’s debts were higher than what they were required to collect because their patrons were inflating their debts. In this situation the worker remained connected to a factory or mine.
About the lack of job security in the last paragraph Blasco Ibañez distinguishes between two types of workers: specialized and non-specialized. Well-trained workers in difficult access mines were needed, and finding them was not easy; these were at greater risk of accidents. In the external mines, no special training was needed, so it was not difficult to get into it. There was little risk, but if one day they didn’t go to work because of an illness or accident or start protesting, the owner of the mine was fired and hired another non-specialized worker. This made it difficult to organize a labor movement in several places.
Most of the workers were from Castile, Extremadura and Galicia. They were poor and had previously been involved in agriculture, but could not live a full year away from agriculture, unlike in industry. So they came in the hope of a better life. They had to live through very harsh working conditions and if they were injured or injured, they would have consequences for their entire lives.
The locals did not see very well the workers from other lands, other languages, customs, culture. It was a big blow to Basque society, because immigrants were completely different.This led to the creation of racist nationalism, led by Sabin Arana.
On the other hand, workers began to organize themselves to improve their working and living conditions. The first socialist leader was Facundo Perezagua of Toledo. This created the first Socialist Association of Bilbao in 1886 and succeeded to become councilor at the end of the century in Bilbao.
The document is important because it describes the unfavorable situation that occurred in the Basque mines.
There the owners of the mines were enriched by exploiting the workers.