UGT-CNT Manifesto and the 1917 General Strike in Spain
UGT-CNT Joint Manifesto
Context and Source
The text provided is a politico-historical commentary. It is a primary source of clear political content, dated 1917. It relates to the period of the Restoration crisis during the reign of Alfonso XIII. The authors are collective and represent the two main syndicalist workers’ organizations in the country: the CNT (anarchist affiliation) and the UGT (socialist). The text is addressed to public opinion with the intention of reporting workers’ claims and stating their intentions to move to action if their requests are not met.
Analysis of the Manifesto
Both unions discussed in the text state the following: In the first paragraph, they note that despite warnings from unions and the government, the misery of the proletariat was increasing, caused by unemployment and rising prices. They present the need to unify the forces of the General Union of Workers (UGT) and the CNT and state:
- Firstly, due to the situation of unemployment and the continued observation of the government’s actions not meeting the conditions for a more dignified life for the proletariat, the situation necessitates a general strike to claim their rights.
- Secondly, the need for cautious measures deemed appropriate for the success of the strike.
The main idea of the text is the decision of the workers’ organizations to act together in the realization of a general strike if their petitions regarding the system’s democratization and improvements in workers’ labor conditions had not been responded to.
Historical Context
Around the year 1868, a national movement began in Spain, including the first revolutionary movement of the working class. The First International (1864) was organized in Spain through the IWA (International Workingmen’s Association) via the Alliance of Socialist Democracy. The International Alliance, gaining dominance within the federation, imposed at the Barcelona congress of that year an anarchist program: to refrain from political activity and defend “direct action.”
Meanwhile, Marxism defended the need for a centralized and organized working democracy, and to reach it, argued for a worker’s political party. With the new 20th century, a development of the labor movement was seen, emphasizing the industrialization of Asturias, the Basque Country, and Catalonia. Also occurring at that time were differences within the Spanish movement. There existed “purist” anti-union anarchism, pro-union currents, and flows of individual terrorism and anarcho-syndicalists. In 1907, the Solidaridad Obrera syndical confederation was founded in Barcelona, with an anarcho-syndicalist leaning, and it published an organ of expression of the same name. Faced with redundancies and wage cuts, the newspaper “Soli” raised the possibility of a general strike. With the conscription of recruits for the colonial war in Morocco, this strike erupted. The result was the Tragic Week in Barcelona.
The CNT and the UGT had an almost exclusively working-class base, with very few media outlets. Unlike intellectual classes, by the late 1910s, employers organized in Spain against socialism and the revolutionary movement. Political unionism was overwhelmed by the labor movement, which during the First World War saw Spain’s neutral economy grow, strengthening the working class and the CNT. During the First World War in Spain, social tension increased: while some businessmen got rich by exporting to Europe at war, the popular classes’ living conditions worsened due to inflation. During 1916, there was a significant strike movement, and the UGT and CNT syndicates agreed to sign a joint manifesto in which they asked the government for the stabilization of prices under the threat of a general strike. The social conflict called the August 1917 incident was violent. The government’s response was repression.