Committee, Barcelona, 20 July 1936
Note: This very morning we broadcast instructions over the radio for the bakers, milkmen, market employees, etc., to return to work so that vital necessities should not run short […]
This statement, then, asserted that they had reverted to an almost normal economy, something that sat uneasily alongside the repeated exhortations to libertarian communism associated with previous essays on revolution.
Two different watchwords very soon surfaced: Back to work57 and Against looting.58
At the same time, two campaigns were launched: 1) Alliances entered into with other sectors against the military, despite the notable earlier resentments that still simmered;59 and 2) Protection for foreign-owned assets, given the danger of intervention if this was not done.60
Meanwhile, with the military barely routed in Barcelona, the CNT-FAI decided to raise militias for the liberation of Zaragoza. Since the unions had taken over the lynchpins of the economy—metalworking, transport, energy services, communications, trade and provisions—from 24 July on it proved possible to outfit some 2,500 men and women.
Metalworking: On page two of its 22 July 1936 edition, Solidaridad Obrera announced that the CNT metalworking union was inviting “iron boilermakers and welders” to adapt production centres for “the armor-plating of trucks and other necessary tasks”.
On 12 August, a journalist writing in the Boletín de Información CNT-FAI wrote: “In metalworking firms, as a result of the events in July, two new forms of administration have surfaced. One, involving worker management without restrictions of any sort, by means of take-over. The other represents a greatly attenuated bourgeois mode of administration through monitoring activity carried out by workers’ factory committees”.
By way of an example of straightforward take-over, let us look at the Torrens Company, which employed 500 workers and which armor-plated six trucks during the fortnight after 20 July 1936. And if we are looking for examples of worker monitoring, it affected several factories, inclining us to the view that this was the most widespread arrangement.
Barret S.A., with a workforce of 2,000, was not taken over because: “The Belgian consulate brought it to our attention that 80 percent of its capital came from the country it represents”.61 The inference is that it was not turned over to armor plating. At the Girona Company—with its 1,500 workforce—4 armored trucks were produced between late July and 6 August; at the Vulcano Company, with its 520 workers and joint CNT-UGT committee, trucks were being armor-plated and it was “working around the clock”.
It should be said that, for blatantly ingratiating purposes, the Generalitat had passed laws decreeing the forty-hour working week and a 15 percent wage increase.62 The CNT spoke out against the cut in work hours in a time of war, and against wage increases at a time of economic straits.
As might have been expected, torn between the two schools of thought, quite a few workers and collectives took the course of least resistance, boosted by the all too reasonable impression that the war would be over in weeks, since two days had been enough to see off the right-wing coup across one half the country.
So, in the factories listed above, the Generalitat’s measures were, as a rule, implemented.
At the Vulcano plant, as well as at Maquinaria Terrestre y Marítima, the UGT also sat on the committee. The CNT made the running, but the UGT lent a hand after a while.63
Transportation: Catalonia had three railway companies: the Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante (MZA) line, the Northern line and Catalan Railways.
The MZA line: In 1936 the company was operating at a loss, primarily due to the high salaries paid to directors. The line was taken over by the UGT and CNT. When Spain was divided by the war, there was a 70 percent decline in traffic. The same source mentions a levelling-out of wages and reduction in fares.64
Catalan Railways: Operated at a profit, and high salaries were paid to the managers.
Northern Rail: An under-manager earned a minimum of 41,000 pesetas a year, and a porter 5.5 pesetas a day (about 1,650 per annum). According to a number of sources, an industrial worker was earning 10 to 12 pesetas a day (3,000 to 3,200 per annum).
Given this situation, it made sense to amalgamate all three lines, especially in wartime. This was achieved within a few days; the timetables were overhauled, rolling stock centralised and wages amended according to the principle of fairness, etc.
The article, “The future structures of the railways”,65 refers to electrification of Spanish railways, something that became a reality many decades later.
Transportation services in Barcelona presented a similar picture: they were centralized,66 wages were standardised,67 hours were cut so as to provide work for the unemployed,68 pensions were paid to retired employees,69 a range of initiatives overhauled and reconciled time-tables, shift arrangements, spare parts, and a number of other practices that had been in place for years. And the workers made all of these improvements within days because they knew their trade, and could identify what problems needed resolution.
Energy sources: Initially, gasoline was distributed free of charge, and it was only after mid-August that it was priced, and rationing introduced.70 It seems extravagant that unification of the railways should have been pursued while gasoline was free. One plausible explanation is that this might have been the result of different capabilities among trade unionists.
The water, gas and electricity companies were taken over by their trade unions towards the end of July.71
Communications: The Telefónica, a subsidiary of the US Bell company, was controlled by the CNT-UGT, which was to become a political issue in May 1937.
Commerce: Large stores, like El Siglo and El Águila, were impounded.72 Barbershops and hairdressers were collectivised in mid-August.73
Provisions: The Damm brewery with its 610 employees, overhauled its payroll by cutting high wages and doling out a 70-pesetas pension instead of the previous 35-pesetas one.74
A workers’ committee proceeded to re-open a pasta factory, which had closed down after it had gone bust.75
The nerve centre of Barcelona’s food supply, as well as its greatest achievement, was the Borne market in the city centre.
Public Entertainment: Almost right after the failure of the attempted coup, there was a gathering together of musicians, actors, stage hands, etc., who decided to join the CNT. They launched an Entertainments Union and solved the problems of unemployment (500—of 1,500—musicians were unemployed), favouritism and wages. The Argentinean anarchist writer Rodolfo González Pacheco staged a number of plays, and numerous documentary films on the war and self-management were shot.76
After this short flurry of activity, there was a tremendous slowing down due to the contrary activity of the CNT-FAI leadership and the failure to take over the banks. The question of whether or not self-management was a spontaneous phenomenon has been left open. Chronology offers us one way to determine the answer since, if self-management began at around the same time in many firms, we may infer that the order came from above and the application was at the grassroots level; whereas, if things were less coordinated, the inference is that in each factory or workshop there was debate, delay and hesitancy until a final decision was reached.
This chronology falls into two distinct phases. The first, a period when there was no lawful authority, lasting until 8 August 1936, which saw the Generalitat government taking control of
