50 years since the Vitoria massacre: workers' power and repression in Spain’s revolution against Francoism

3 March marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant events of the revolution against the Franco regime in Spain, which is today misnamed the ‘transition to democracy’. 

On that day in 1976, a general strike paralysed the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz in support of workers’ economic, social and political demands. The strike was carried out by worker, neighbourhood and student committees in a climate of popular insurrection. To repress this movement, Franco’s police orchestrated a massacre, which resulted in the murder of five workers.

[Originally published in Spanish at comunistasrevolucionarios.org]

This shocking event and the mass mobilisations it provoked accelerated the decomposition of the moribund Francoist regime, which was resisting its exit from the stage of history by force of repression and terror.

Revolution against Francoism

Following the death of the dictator Franco months earlier, there was an atmosphere of widespread revolt. In the early months of 1976, workers’ struggles gained irresistible momentum. More than a million workers were involved in strikes. The situation reached its climax in Vitoria at the beginning of March.

The struggle in Vitoria began in early January at the Forjas Alavesas metalworks. It quickly spread to other factories, following the drafting of a list of demands by workers’ assemblies. The most important points of these demands were: a flat wage increase of 6,000 pesetas to break the wage caps imposed by the government, a 40-hour working week, and retirement at 60 with 100 percent of salary.

The workers held weekly assemblies in the church of San Francisco de Asís in the city, and there were regular clashes with the police in the streets. There were daily assemblies in each factory to assess the progress of the struggle. The strike spread to the main factories in Vitoria, and a central strike committee was formed.

Assemblies were organised in working-class neighbourhoods and schools, and committees of solidarity with the struggle were created, which were also integrated into the central strike committee.

The most significant development was the election of representative committees in each factory, made up of the most militant workers, to coordinate the struggles and negotiate with the bosses. They were accountable to the assemblies and delegates could be recalled by them at any time. In turn, the delegates to the regional coordinating meetings could also be recalled at any time.

The strike encompassed the main factories in Vitoria, and the stoppage was absolute. The strike committee published a daily bulletin to update workers on the progress of the struggle. Resistance funds were set up to cover the costs of the mobilisation and to help workers in financial difficulties.

From students to the local clergy to agricultural workers, the entire community was involved. Shops provided credit and loans to the strikers, and students organised demonstrations because their parents and siblings were on strike.

Throughout the struggle, women played a prominent role in supporting the workers. They organised a strike fund, collected food from local villages, and held regular ‘empty shopping bag’ marches in the town square to support the workers.

The employers and the state tried to undermine the struggle with dismissals and arrests. The demand for the release of those arrested, and the reinstatement of those dismissed, was therefore placed at the forefront of the struggle.

In the midst of the struggle, there were two general strikes in the city on 16 and 23 February, which both saw the participation of workers, students, professionals and small businesses.

The strike on 3 March

After fifty-four days of uninterrupted strikes, a new general strike was called for 3 March. The strike was unanimously observed. Ninety percent of shops and bars were closed, and shutters were lowered.

From the beginning of the day, there were clashes between the police and pickets outside the factories. Subsequently, large groups of workers began to move towards the city centre. Traffic was completely blocked. Within hours, the city was covered with improvised barricades. Vitoria was paralysed.

At midday, the first cases of repression with live fire occurred. The column of picketing Mercedes-Benz workers was suppressed with gunfire, and the first bullet wounds were reported. 

Until then, the police had respected the churches where the workers were holding meetings. But that day, they entered two of them. This was a warning of what was to come.

The massacre

In the afternoon, more than 5,000 people attended the general assembly convened at the Church of San Francisco de Asís. The building was packed with men, women and children. Another 10,000 were gathered outside.

The police began to disperse the workers who were heading towards the assembly. But instead of blocking the entrance to the church before the meeting began, they waited until the crowd was inside before starting to ‘evict’ the occupants. The police fired smoke bombs and tear gas into the church to force people out. As people left, the police opened fire, killing two workers and wounding many others, many of them seriously, of whom three later died.

The dead were: Pedro Martínez Ocio, 27; Francisco Aznar, 17; Romualdo Barroso, 19; José Castillo, 43; and Bienvenido Pereda, 32. People outside the church who tried to come to their aid were beaten. That same night, those who rushed to hospitals to see their injured relatives were also attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Officially, there were 150 injuries but the real total is much higher, as many stayed away from hospitals to avoid arrest and the possibility of further ill-treatment at the hands of the police.

The radio communications of the police during the course of the day capture chilling conversations. This small excerpt tells us everything we need to know about their attitude to the workers they gunned down:

“Proceed to clear the church. Over.”

“So we have personnel surrounding the outside. We're going to have to use weapons. Over.”

“Get them out by any means necessary.”

“Send reinforcements here, we've fired over 2,000 shots. Over.”

“I was asking if there were any casualties. Over.”

“None of our own so far. Over.”

“Okay, fine. Fine. Over.”

“So there's been a massacre here. Over.”

“Okay, okay. Over.”

When news of the killings spread, the workers erupted in a wave of fury. They vented their anger by tearing down telephone booths and lamp posts to erect barricades. Rioting continued well into the night.

At the funeral of the murdered workers, there was a huge demonstration, with more than 100,000 people in attendance. Political speeches were given over the graves of these martyrs of the working class. As one of the strike leaders put it, “This is not just a mourning for the families of these men. It is a mourning for the entire working class.”

The executioners who ordered the shooting of these workers have names and surnames: Minister of the Interior Manuel Fraga and Rodolfo Martín Villa, who replaced him while he was out of the country.

The events in Vitoria had an electric effect on the consciousness of hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the Spanish state. Spontaneous strikes and demonstrations were called in different parts of the country. By 4 March, there was already a total strike in Pamplona. On 5 March, a Duro Felguera worker was killed by the police in Tarragona. Another worker was killed in Elda (Alicante). 

Everywhere, people were waiting for a general strike to be called. However, the leaders of the CCOO union called for calm and did not call for any action. Only in the Basque Country, on 8 March, was a general strike called: 500,000 workers responded in solidarity with the workers of Vitoria. In Basauri (Vizcaya), an 18-year-old worker was shot in the head and killed by the police.

It was time to intensify the struggle. The situation was clearly pre-revolutionary. The objective conditions for socialist revolution were in place. The heroism shown by the workers in every strike and every demonstration indicated that they were prepared to fight to the end. The petty bourgeoisie, small farmers, small traders, university students, the self-employed, etc., viewed the workers' struggle with increasing sympathy and, in many cases, joined it. The bourgeoisie was in a state of panic, demoralised and divided, completely isolated from the majority of society.

But waging a revolutionary struggle against the remnants of Francoism was the last thing the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) – the party that controlled the Workers' Commissions (CCOO) and most of the organised opposition to the regime in the labour and neighbourhood movement – wanted. They sought at all costs to reach an agreement with the ‘open’ wing of the regime for an orderly ‘democratic transition’.

They eventually achieved this by giving in on everything: the monarchy, the Francoist flag, the maintenance of the Francoist state apparatus and, of course, respect for the property of the big monopolies and banks that had sustained the dictatorship for decades.

Without hesitation, the leaders of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) joined in the betrayal.

The aftermath

After the massacre, the businessmen remained just as obstinate. They were determined not to reinstate the dismissed workers or open the factory gates. But faced with the explosive situation, the government intervened. Fraga Iribarne ordered that a binding arbitration award be imposed. This relieved the employers of the painful necessity of voluntarily rehiring those who had been dismissed.

Fifty years later, we neither forget nor forgive / Image: Zarateman, Wikimedia Commons

The strike ended on 16 March, when the employers accepted almost all the points in the workers’ list of demands. The workers' victory was clear, but it had a bitter taste.

However, there would be political consequences of the events in Vitoria. Four months later, the Prime Minister, Carlos Arias Navarro, and the Minister of the Interior, Manuel Fraga himself, were dismissed. It was clear that the government used the Vitoria massacre as a bloody warning to the labour movement against the proliferation of strikes after Franco's death. The then Minister of the Presidency and Second Deputy Minister, Alfonso Osorio, admitted: 

“We had already been informed by business leaders that small soviets were forming and had to be extinguished.”

No police officers or commanders were ever arrested. Three union leaders were imprisoned and granted amnesty five months later by then-President Adolfo Suárez.

Fifty years later, we neither forget nor forgive. But we will not be able to obtain justice or reparation for these or the other crimes committed against the working class within the current 1978 regime, which was established on the basis of the fraud and betrayal that was the so-called ‘Transition’. 

This regime must be overthrown along with the capitalist system on which it is based. To tackle this task, the new generation must apply itself to studying the revolutionary struggle against Francoism and the so-called ‘democratic transition’. We must draw the correct lessons from these historical processes in order to contribute to the success of the struggle for socialism today.