The only solution is revolution: the Spanish Confederación Nacional de Trabajo and the problem of unemployment in Republican Spain, 1931–1933

Although the Great Depression has been the subject of much research, focus normally centers on the impact instead of the tactics developed by working-class organizations to tackle the problems it caused, specifically unemployment. Recent research has sought to fill this gap, but numerous areas remain uncovered. This paper covers two of these: the situation in Spain and the reaction of anarcho-syndicalist union – the Confederación Nacional de Trabajo. Spain presents an anomalous case; a country that saw the replacement of a semi-fascist dictatorship by a democracy in the 1930s. Furthermore, the fact that the initial government of the Spanish Second Republic included the Socialists provides an opportunity of comparing and contrasting the positions and policies of reformist and revolutionary workers’ organizations. The study is based on predominantly on articles appearing in the CNT newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. The conclusion reached is that for the CNT rising unemployment was a symptom of an irreversible trend in a failing capitalist system, which could only be solved by the revolutionary overthrow of that system. Nonetheless, the union had to present plausible solutions to ameliorate the conditions of the workers to attract the unemployed and thus, create a force strong enough to lead that revolutionary change.     

A syndicalist moment? Democracy,insurgent unionism,and the ‘Outlaw Strike’ of 1920

This article considers World War I era labor insurgency through an examination of the 1920 ‘outlaw’ switchmen’s strike, one of the largest rank-and-file revolts of the postwar strike wave. Drawing upon Bureau of Investigation surveillance reports, the article argues the strike represented not so much an expression of a ‘syndicalist impulse’ as a struggle over the definition of the new unionism and the ideological legacy of the war. Inspired by the wartime rhetoric of Americanism and industrial democracy, pressed by the rising cost of living, and frustrated with the failure of the state and their parent unions to deliver living wages, the insurgents briefly succeeded in building democratic, cross-craft unions. The rebel unionists failed, but the ‘Outlaw Strike’ arguably was as important as the later and larger 1922 national shopmen’s strike in the way it highlighted issues of wages, union democracy, and employee representation.