Industrialization and social mobilization

In the last decades of 19th century Spain lived a fast process of industrialization which characterized only some areas of the country, especially the Catalonia region. A lot of workers moved from rural areas to big cities such as Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza in order to find a job in the factories.^[9]

This situation led to important social and economic transformations. In particular, a huge concentration of workforce in limited areas facilitated the circulation of socialist and anarchist ideas and the birth of workers' associations. At the turn of the century there was a multiplication of strikes and labor protests and the number of participants and levels of intensity constantly grew in this period. In 1888 the first national trade union was founded with the name of Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), helping to transform strikes in an conscious strategy for collective claims. From the beginning of the 20th century social protests and strikes also spread to rural areas, especially Huesca region.^[10]

At the turn of the century the spread of strikes and trade unionism produced a sense of fear in Spanish authorities, which started to consider them as real challenges to the established order. The State's answer consisted in increasing its repressive ability, by increasing the number of police forces, such as the Civil Guard. However, it soon became clear that police and gendarmerie forces were not enough for preventing and repressing social disorders, spread throughout the country and sometimes difficult to reach due to lack of modern railways or streets.^[11]

As a consequence, authorities were forced to use more and more frequently the army, but this attitude led to the militarization of the public order. At the same time, the incapacity of the State in extending repression to remote areas encouraged the proliferation of self-defense. From the end of the 19th century several groups composed by landlords and employers started to employ violence to fight strikes and defend their properties. An example was the Requeté, a paramilitary group created by Carlists, which during 1910's fought some pitched battles against left-wing associations. This situation facilitated episodes of social clashes and stimulated the use of violence.^[12]

Military defeat

An other factor of crisis was the so-called desastro, the military defeat during the Spanish–American War in 1898. The first consequence for Spain was the loss of her last colonies in the Caribbean Sea and in the Pacific Ocean, resulting from the independence of Cuba and Philippines and the acquisition of Puerto Rico and Guam island by U.S.A.^[13]

This defeat had significant impacts on the internal social order. In the immediate aftermath of the war numerous critics to politicians emerged and the idea of the necessity of a regeneration became very popular. From that moment, several social actors started to promote different strategies in order to improve or modify state institutions, including the use of political attacks (anarchists) or a military solution (sectors of the Church and parts of the bourgeoisie). At the same time, after the war, the Spanish colonial army was forced to come back in Spain and this provided the authorities with a wider military force, which from the beginning of 20th century was used in the repression, often brutal, of protests and strikes. This attitude contributed to accelerate the loss of legitimacy by civil authorities, which became dependent on the use of the army.^[14]

First World War

When the First World War broke out in 1914 the conservative government headed by Eduardo Dato decided to remain neutral and this decision was kept for all the duration of the conflict. This situation led to a big development of Spanish industrial production, due to the increased needs of raw materials and military equipment by the countries participating in the war. Thousands of workers moved to the biggest industrial areas with immediate consequences on the social order. In fact, the high number of job demands allowed the employers to reduce wages, but this decision pushed trade unions to increase protests and struggles.^[15]

Moreover, during the war there was a deterioration of working class's quality of life, because of the reduction of basic necessities imports and inflation. All these elements encouraged the multiplication of food protests, which forced the end of Dato's government in 1915. Simultaneously, the difficult situation faced by many workers, and their concentration in places where left political ideas were highly developed, facilitated the growth of labor organizations and the radicalization of trade union struggle. Overall, the war was the catalyst of all existing problems and frustrations and it produced important cracks within the Spanish society.^[16]

Somatén

The biggest armed organization was Somatén armado de Catalunya, an old paramilitary force born during the Middle Age in order to protect Catalan citizens. It was composed by private citizens, who had the right to bring weapons, including fire ones as pistols and rifles. At the end of 19th century it was radically reformed by the promulgation of a new regulation, which allowed a collaboration with the army and produced the legitimization of the use of violence in order to preserve social peace. At the beginning of the new century Somatén had become a mass movement (44.000 members in 1909) and started to play an important role in the social control of population and in the limitation of socialist and anarchist ideas. In 1905 a royal decree recognized it as an official state police force and from that moment it started to be used in the repression of strikes as an auxiliary force. In general, from the last decade of 19th century Somatén became the armed wing of a corporatist, anti-parliamentarian political culture, deep-rooted in the Catalan bourgeoisie.^[28]

In the pre-WWI period Somatén showed its strength especially during the Tragic Week of 1909, when it took control of some cities and allowed authorities to concentrate all military corps in Barcelona. Although it was widely spread in all Catalonia, with local sections also in small villages, until the end of WWI it did not exist a Somaten's section in the center of Barcelona, because of the will of not increase levels of clashes. However, in January 1919 sectors of the Catalan bourgeoisie, which were the main funders of the armed group, decided to create a local section of Somatén also in the city center, in order to face the union trade movement.^[29]

Since then, the armed corp was often used as an instrument in employer's hands to fight CNT and anarchist action groups. Their members participated into social clashes and contributed to arrest many CNT's activists and leaders. The first important participation of Somatén in the counter-revolutionary war was in March 1919, in the aftermath of the general strike of 24th, when the government led by Álvaro Figueroa y Torres suspended constitutional guarantees and declared the state of war in all country. In this context Somatén was used for arresting many CNT's militants, which remained in prison for long periods. Overall, in this period Sométen was the main armed wing of Barcelona's industrial men and it contributed to increase levels of violence in city's streets.^[30]

The Black Band

In the same months the counter-revolutionary front became bigger after Federación Patronal de Barcelona decided to create a private police force, Banda Negra (Black Band), with the purpose of increase the military pressure against the syndicate movement. Black Band was materially organized and led by Manuel Bravo Portillo and in a few time it became an important actor in CNT's repression, thanks to generous funding from industrial men. It was composed by ordinary criminals, ex policemen and syndicalists, who organized a series of personal attacks against CNT's executives. In September 1919 an anarchist action group killed Portillo and Rudolf Stalmann, known as König baron, became the new leader. König had an important deal with Miguel Arleguì, the police chief of Barcelona, thanks to which Black Band became a parallel police force. From that moment Black Band started to participate to raids and interrogatories, by using more and more violent practices against leftists. For some months the organization operated under the protection of Jaime Milans del Bosch, the captain general of Catalonia.^[31]

The use of violence and of extreme actions was the main element of the organization, which acted in the city until the middle of 1920, when the new government headed by Eduardo Dato decided to dissolve it. In general, Black Band strongly showed the lack of will of Barcelona's industrial world to adopt strategies in order to reduce social clashes and to find a compromise with trade unions. This attitude led to the rise of city's violence, because faced to brutal attacks the labor movement understood that the only way for surviving was to respond to violence by raising levels of violence.^[32]

The winter between 1919 and 1920 was a turning point, because employers organized a ten weeks lockout of factories in order to put a limit to strikes and social riots. This decision deteriorated the economic situation of many workers, stimulating a new wave of strikes. In this situation, from the beginning of the new year conservative sectors and members of Spanish authorities decided to definitively suppress CNT's initiatives by using all possible tools. In these months two new military actors appears in Barcelona's social life, inaugurating the most bloody period of recent Spanish history. In the biennium 1920-1921 only in Barcelona 148 people were killed during social fights and 365 people were injured.^[33]

Sindicatos Libres

The main reason of the rise of murders and political attacks was the brutal clash between CNT's militants and a new social actor, active from the beginning of 1920: Sindicatos Libres. They were officially founded on 19 December 1919 by Carlist catholic workers and they represented the attempt to create a well-structured company union, expression of the industrial sectors and able to defend Catalan bourgeoisie's interests face to left trade unions. In the first moment Libres's birth and organization was possible thanks to the Carlist Party, which provide essential services. Moreover, the trade unions got the support of many important Catalan industrial men, Carlist middle-class journalists and lawyers and also catholic movements.^[34]

However, the growth of Sindicatos Libres was possible only when they started to be attractive for a significant part of the working class. In fact, from the summer 1920 a growing number of workers refused CNT's anarchist ideology and decided to join Libres, because of their catholic and conservative ideas or because they did not agree with CNT's extreme political strategy. In the autumn 1920 a real war between CNT and Libres broke out and the starting point was the attempt to kill CNT's leader Salvador Seguí. In few months factories became battlefields and personal murder attempts became an everyday phenomenon. Libres created their own armed groups, formed by carlist workers and professional gunmen who in the previous years had joined other armed groups as the Requeté. They had the support of police authorities and from the beginning of 1921 they started to disarticulate CNT's local units, by murdering or arresting many anarchist militants.^[35]

Overall, in the period 1919-1923 it is possible to observe three different moments of the Libres initiatives. Firstly, between their foundation and the beginning of 1921 they had a slow growth, because CNT still maintained a big influence on the working class. At the same time, during this first phase the organization got important collaboration with Catalan owners and sectors of bourgeoisie, which later would have permitted the development of trade unions. Secondly, from mid-1921 to October 1922 Libres became a real mass movement (175.000 members in 1922^[36]) and virtually the only representatives of Catalan organized labor, because CNT was outlawed by political authorities and a big number of left activists was imprisoned or murdered. In this period they organized some successful strikes and negotiations, thanks to which they obtained important benefits for many workers. However, in the same time relationship with employers deteriorated and the hearth of the organization radically shifted towards the proletarian world. Thirdly, from the end of 1922 to the Primo de Rivera's coup in September 1923 Libres lost official protections and they were persecuted by lasts Liberal governments, headed by José Sánchez Guerra and Manuel Garcia Prieto. Simultaneously, after the end of the strongest repression there was a return of CNT's union actions, which further weakened Libres. After the failure of a clerk strike in August 1923, it started a period of resizing and decomposition, with many workers who gave up the organization.^[37]

The Army and Ley de fugas

The rise of Sindicatos Libres was strongly supported by official protections, especially after Severiano Martínez Anido arrived in Barcelona. In December 1920 the government headed by Eduardo Dato decided to massively use the army in order to defeat anarcho-syndicalist front in Catalonia and particularly in Barcelona. For reaching this goal Anido was appointed at the same time as civil and military governor of Barcelona, catching in his hands an enormous power. From the begin Anido had close relationships with Libres and he hugely supported them with protection and military equipment.^[38]

Anido's nomination finally established the superiority of military authorities on civil ones in the administration of the public order. Civil authorities were completely deprived of real powers and almost for two years Anido created an autonomous military dictatorship in the middle of Liberal Spain. In this period levels of violence reached their apex and for defeating CNT and anarchist action groups the counter-revolutionary front adopted some brutal strategies, such as mass deportations, depredations, indiscriminate body searches in streets, arbitrary arrests and forced closures of trade union's sections and newspapers.^[39]

The most cowardly instrument employed by the counter-revolutionary front were the Ley de Fugas (Law for the Fugitives), a form of extrajudicial execution of syndicalists used by security forces. It started to be employed in the aftermath of the general strike of March 1919, but they were generally adopted after Anido's arrive in Barcelona. Prisoners were informed to be free, but when they move away from their prison they were immediately killed in cold blood. This system enabled to hide extrajudicial executions, because authorities wrote on police reports that killings were the consequence of prison escape attempts. By this way, there was a shortage of legal liability and, at the same time, it was almost impossible to understand who had committed murders from who has simply participated to strikes.^[40]

Overall, the brutal repression implemented by Anido with the support of different armed groups managed to strongly reduced CNT's ability to defend worker's rights and to organize an efficient union struggle. If in 1919 3.250.000 working days were lost because of strikes, in 1921 this number was reduced to 101.950. However, the anarcho-syndacalist movement wasn't completely defeated and from the end of 1922, in a mutated context, it started to reorganize itself.^[41]