The Rise of Workers’ Movements and Basque Nationalism in Spain (1890-1923)

Posted on Aug 12, 2024 in History

Workers’ Movement and Nationalism in the Basque Country (1890-1923)

New Social Forces

The Beginnings of the Workers’ Movement in Spain

The characteristics of the workers’ movement during the 19th century were:

  • Workers’ associations
  • Attacks against machines
  • Problems increased with industrialization
  • Strikes became frequent
  • Creation of the first workers’ newspaper
  • The crashed workers’ associations’ activities

In 1860, there were 150,000 workers in Spain. In 1839, the government published a decree accepting the creation of “societies for help,” which offered help to workers. They didn’t have a political aim and they presented the first claims against low salaries. There were some attacks against machines.

Development of Unionism: Anarcho-syndicalism

During the First Republic, in 1868, Giuseppe Fanelli arrived. His aim was to organize the Spanish branch of the International Workingmen’s Association (AIT) following the ideas of Mikhail Bakunin. In 1871, Paul Lafargue arrived with the aim of pushing socialism. All associations related to the AIT were declared out of law. Anarchists split up into two branches: those who wanted to wait until a better moment and those in favor of direct action, who started terrorist actions. It was a movement mainly settled in Andalusia, being successful among peasants without land.

In 1881, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta legalized international associations and freedom for unions. In the Spanish workers’ movement, anarchists were in the majority. They were divided into different branches, including the Federación Regional Española de la AIT (FRTE), created in 1881, whose members were the most extreme in taking terrorism as their way of action. In 1901, different anarchist groups started publishing in Catalonia. In 1907, they created a group with the same name. In 1909, they took part in the Tragic Week.

The characteristics of anarchist ideology were:

  • They denied any kind of power
  • They were against private property and proposed collectivism as the way of organizing the country
  • They proposed revolution as the means of destroying the bourgeois state
  • They were contrary to taking part in politics, so they did not take part in elections
  • They hated priests and they firmly opposed religion and denied Church influence

The Development of Unionism: Socialism

In 1887, the Law of Associations was published and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) was created. The main ideas of socialists were:

  • They demanded complete freedom for workers
  • They proposed to eliminate private property
  • Political power should be in the hands of workers
  • They denied terrorism
  • They were contrary to colonialism and war
  • Their aim was to organize a revolution to obtain power for workers

Relations between socialists and anarchists were very bad because they were completely different in their facts and aims.

In order to confront class unions, the Church tried to support more solidarity than demands and, for that purpose, they created some associations.

Due to industrialization, the lives of workers were harsh. They were subject to strict discipline and they suffered repression. They lived in barracks and hamlets near the mines. They should work for long hours—12, 14, 16 hours per day. Women and little kids could work; they were preferred because they were paid lower wages, although they did the same work as men. Workers created associations in order to fight for the improvement of their situation.

At that moment, Facundo Perezagua, a worker from Toledo, reached Biscay and, thanks to his work, the first socialist association was created in Bilbao. Their organization allowed them to organize important strikes that were successful. In the 1891 elections, socialists obtained a success without precedents: they obtained representatives. In 1900, elections were held with universal suffrage; they obtained four city councilors in Bilbao.

With time, socialism became the main ideology among workers in the Basque Country. They were the most radical, revolutionary, and opposed to agreements with republicans. They organized general strikes to improve workers’ living conditions. Anti-nationalism is considered one of the characteristics of this group. Nationalists created their own union, ELA, in 1911 to defend the interest of Basque workers.

Peripheral Nationalisms

Since the mid-19th century, nationalisms were gaining special importance. Nationalist ideology appeared in regions with particular languages, cultures, histories, and special laws, so, if they had those characteristics, they should form a nation. They demanded state sovereignty for their regions—the possibility of being independent. There were three kinds of nationalism: unitarian, separatist, and state nationalism.

Nationalist consciousness appeared as a consequence of the implantation of liberalism as the political and economic regime. The most conservative of the liberals wanted a centralized and uniform state. In regions with special laws, nationalist consciousness appeared. There was a literary, linguistic, and historical renaissance. The essential nationalist groups were formed by the medium and small bourgeoisie and then expanded to some members of the big bourgeoisie.

Catalan and Basque Nationalisms

The basic ideas: both territories were nations, so they had every right to form their own state. They defended that they had a common language, historical rights, culture, and traditions. In politics, they were divided into radicals and moderates. Some of them asked for autonomy and others asked for self-determination and independence.

Basque Nationalism

Basque nationalism appeared in the defense of the fueros and these were the characteristics: not born from the modern bourgeoisie, it was very important the role of the July 21, 1876, law eliminating the fueros. A deep crisis expanded as a consequence. There were two possible answers: accept defeat and take advantage of it or follow traditionalism and defend the foral recovery.

Nationalism development was the industrial revolution. Workers came from other regions; their arrival created a break with traditional Basque society and their religious feelings.

Creation and Evolution of Basque Nationalism

Basque nationalism appeared in the second half of the 19th century as a consequence of the social, economic, and ideological changes of the time. The nationalist project was conducted by the medium and low bourgeoisie and peasants. Demographic and social change were essential in the development of the nationalist movement.

Pre-Nationalism

  • Larramendi-ism: Manuel Larramendi was in favor of the defense of Basque fueros and he is considered one of the predecessors of Basque nationalism.
  • Carlism: In the apparition of Carlism, there was a mix of political, dynastic, and foral elements. In 1841, when a law eliminated the fueros, its defenders united with the Carlists.
  • Foralism: The fuero’s defenders were in need of maintaining the fueros as the original and special law of the Basques, the defense of the different Basque history, and the need to reinforce Basque culture. There were two trends among fueros’ defenders: moderates, who were in favor of regionalism, and radicals, who put into question the unity of Spain.

Basque Nationalism: Sabino Arana

There were some previous conditions to the Basque nationalist project. There was a theoretical discussion about the concept of nation. As a consequence of industrialization, the society of Biscay experienced a dramatic demographic, economic, and social change.

Sabino Arana, the creator of Basque nationalism, belonged to a Carlist family. He presented his ideology in a leaflet titled Bizkaya por su independencia and in the newspaper Bizkaitarra.

Arana’s ideology:

  • Biscay—after that, Euzkadi—is a nation because they have the essential elements
  • They aimed at recovering Basque independence, separating the six regions and creating a Basque State
  • Praise of the Basque race
  • Catholic fundamentalism: only accepted the Catholic religion and he appeared in favor of a theocratic state
  • He wanted to recover the Basque language and traditions
  • He condemned capitalism because it supposed corruption and it also brought socialism

In 1890, Arana, in his article, asked for a place for Biscay to be safe from the modern world, laicism, immigrants, and industrialization. In 1893, in the Larrazabal Speech, he presented the need for creating a Basque nationalist party.

In 1895, he created the Basque Nationalist Party (Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea, EAJ). Supporters of EAJ were peasants and members of the mid-bourgeoisie. In the future, some liberals in favor of fueros, members of the high bourgeoisie, entered the party.

Nationalism after Sabino Arana

Arana died in 1903 and, in 1906, the first EAJ assembly was organized to explain all their work until that moment: in 1904, Eusko Gaztedi had been created and batzokis were opened in several towns. They created the nationalist symbol: ikurrina. There were divisions among nationalists: those in favor of fueros and the Basque Country, those in favor of autonomy, and sub-nationalists or patriots in favor of independence.

In 1916, Ramón de la Sota gained control of the EAJ. The claim was nationalism—that is, autonomy instead of the independence proposed by Arana. He won the 1917 elections.

Basque nationalism became bourgeois. The aim was to form a decentralized autonomy inside Spain. With other members of Eusko Gaztedi and Luis Arana, they created the new EAJ.

They created a new EAJ under José Antonio Aguirre’s direction.

During the Second Republic, the main aim of EAJ was to obtain their Autonomy Statute, which was finally accepted during the Civil War.