The General strike in Spain

After six years of the right-wing PP government of Aznar, the workers of Spain have said "Enough is enough!" Today, June 20, 2002, Spain was paralysed by a one-day general strike.

As I write these lines, everything indicates that the strike call has been massively followed in practically all the regions and provinces of Spain. The demonstrations have started with over 100,000 in Seville, about 50,000 in Granada, and about 30,000 here in Malaga, which where I write.

The strike has been total throughout Andalusia. On the road to Malaga, for a distance of over 100 miles, one could see that not a single factory or building site was working and that even the small shops and bars in the villages were closed. In all that distance, we only saw one man - clearly the owner of a small shop - standing outside the doors looking very disconsolate.

Arriving in Malaga one could see that every shop and bar was closed and shuttered with a sticker posted "Closed due to general strike". About the only exception was the big chain store known as El Corte Ingles, where the union is controlled by the bosses and the workforce was compelled to work.

The demonstration here was the biggest for years. The mood was a combination of militancy and euphoria. In bright sunshine, workers of all ages, men and women, chanted anti-government slogans. The government's so-called reform will hit Andalusia particularly hard, making it easier for the bosses to sack workers, and above all slashing unemployment subsidies that will threaten many Andaluz agricultural workers with misery, and force many to leave the land altogether.

It is clear that this one-day strike and these mass demonstrations are a manifestation of a change of mood in Spanish society - or more correctly, they have brought to the surface a simmering mood of anger, frustration and discontent that has been slowly building up over the last period.

The growing mood of rebellion became evident as the demonstration reached the El Corte Ingles store, which had remained open in defiance of the early morning pickets. Here the cheerful mood of the crowd changed into blazing anger directed mainly at the sight of the riot police, who with their black body armour, helmets and shields, looked exactly like Roman legionnaires.

"Aquí están, esos son, los piquetes del patrón!" shouted the demonstrators as they passed the menacing ranks of the forces of "law and order". ("Here they are, here they are - the pickets of the bosses!") This was an ironic answer to the anti-strike propaganda of the government and the media, who, as always, combined a hypocritical "defence" of the right to strike with an insistence on the "right to work" (what about the unemployed?) and an attack on "coercive pickets". The ruling class naturally singles out for attack the pickets - the front line of the strike and the shock troops of the working class - but conveniently forgets its own coercive shock troops, for whom the workers showed their contempt, describing them as "the mercenaries of the PP".

It should, however, be pointed out that the police itself has been affected by this strike. How could it be otherwise? A general strike makes evident the power of the working class. It shows that not a light bulb shines, not a wheel turns, not a telephone rings without the kind permission of the proletariat. It therefore affects every part of society, even the state itself.

On the eve of the strike, the SUP (the unified police union) and two other police unions made public a communiqué in which they warned the government that they were not prepared to be used against workers in struggle, that they were not willing to defend the "right to work" (i.e. the right of scabs to break a strike) but only to defend the right to strike itself. This fact itself shows how deep the mood of dissatisfaction has gone.

It is precisely this mood of the masses that explains the present strike. It has not been brought about by the leaders of the UGT and CCOO (Workers' Commissions) but by the growing pressure from below.

For the last six years the trade union leaders in Spain - as in Britain, Germany and other countries, have systematically capitulated to the pressure of big business, accepting all sorts of cuts in wages and living standards, under the banner of so-called "new realism". They have attempted to adopt the pose of "realistic pragmatists" and "responsible statesmen", embracing the capitalist free market, liberalisation and all its works. They hoped that by so doing they would be rewarded by big business, which would at least have the good manners to respect the rights of the trade union bureaucracy. Vain hope! They did not understand the elementary fact that weakness invites aggression. Every retreat was immediately followed by a demand for two more. In this way the so-called "realists" have been exposed as the worst kind of utopians.

Last year, the UGT leaders under the pressure of the rank and file expressed a willingness to back a general strike (the Marxist-led Students' Union has consistently been agitating for this), but the CCOO leaders would not hear of it. As late as last December the leaders of UGT and CCOO were willing to reach a pact with the government for "wage moderation". The response of the government to this moderation was the savage decree attacking workers' rights and living standards. The reply of the workers was outright rejection of any further compromises and a general strike.

The union leaders have thus been placed between a rock and a hard place. They have finally understood that their constant retreats have led to a situation where the government and the bosses do not take them seriously (as "negotiating partners") and they are losing support among the workers. The trade union bureaucracy's first concern is to defend its own interests, that means above all to protect the very existence of the unions upon which they rest. They have been forced into opposition by the pressure from below and the fear of losing all credibility.

It was therefore in the interests of the union leaders that the present strike should be successful. But the weakness of the trade union leaders was again revealed by the inadequate preparation for the present strike. While there has been a certain amount of campaigning by the leadership, it has been woefully inadequate. The amount of posters we saw today was not very considerable, and we saw piles of posters that had not been posted on the floor of the UGT offices. There is no reason to believe that the situation in the CCOO is any better.

There have been some mass meetings in the factories, but again there has been no serious campaign by the union leaders to explain the reasons for the strike to the workers. As usual, the bureaucracy has shown a complete lack of confidence in the working class. Their policy seems to have been that in those factories where they had a majority, the committee would vote for a strike without any mass meetings. This is a fatal mistake. The success of a strike - above all a general strike - depends on the active involvement of the workers. The strike must be debated democratically, the arguments for and against must be put, and the workers must decide. Any other method is necessarily fatal.

There is no doubt that today's strike has been an outstanding success. But this success owes very little to the leadership, which, once again, has shown itself, to use an old British expression, "incapable of organising a party in a brewery". The strike has succeeded thanks to the determination of the working class and the union rank and file. Naturally, the most militant elements were to the fore including the Spanish Marxists.

Let us take just two instances. In Madrid, in the suburb of Fuencarral, where 70% of the firms are new industries like mobile telephones, with little or no union organisation, the strike was a great success. On the other hand, the SUP police union last night denounced the fact that the newspaper El Mundo was being distributed by police vans. However, the manoeuvre was frustrated by the mobilisation of a mass picket of 300 vans driven by news distribution workers.

As usual the news on the radio presented a lying version of the events taking place in Spain: the country was working as usual, the big stores were open (no mention of industry). There were supposed to be "reports from the regions" but in fact only one region was cited - Galicia, which, by a strange coincidence, is controlled by the PP, and where, we were solemnly informed, the civil service was working normally - and even that functionaries of the regional government had reported early for work!

Even these dishonest reports contain a tacit admission that today's strike has been an overwhelming success. The fact that the government's disinformation machine made no reference to industry is a tacit admission that all the big factories had closed own. From the partial information available at midday, we know that all the big factories were out: Opel, Renault, Citroën, the engineering and metal industries, the ports, and even the building industry, 90% of which was out. Only in one part of the Spanish state was the result of the strike unsatisfactory. In the Basque Country, the nationalist trade unions ELA-STV and LAB called a separate strike on the 19th, for the purpose of demanding a separate "Basque dimension" for labour affairs. This criminal policy has led to a serious split in the working class and even confrontations between Basque workers. On the 19th, members of ELA and LAB formed pickets to stop members of the UGT and CCOO going to work. The nationalists were largely successful in Guipuzcoa and to a lesser extent Vizcaya, but failed in Alava and Navarra. The situation was reversed in today's strike. The only losers were the Basque working class who are suffering the effects of Aznar's decrees the same as the workers of Madrid and Seville. And Aznar and co. are rubbing their hands with delight.

The right-wing Aznar government has used every dirty trick in the book to sabotage the strike (in a "democratic" way, naturally!) The main trick was, as usual in "democratic" Spain, the so-called law of "minimum services" that requires the workers to operate a certain percentage of trains, buses, etc. This law is always used and abused by governments to sabotage general strikes. Thus in Madrid, in a day of general strike, it seems that 40% of public transport was running!

The unions resorted to the law to protest this, and the judges as always were "sympathetic" but - there is always a but - they withheld a final decision until - after the strike! They will - as usual - pronounce in favour of the unions, but what use is that when the strike is long over? And this lawyers' farce is what passes for "justice" in a bourgeois democracy!

The law of "minimum services" is an undemocratic assault on the right to strike. In Barcelona the workers rightly ignored it, and the metro was not running. This law should be abolished. The workers are quite competent to decide themselves what services should operate in a strike. The workers are responsible people and would never allow the old, the sick and so on to suffer unnecessarily. But the decision as to which services should be allowed to operate should be a matter for the strike committees in each area. Incidentally, the author of the present article has seen this system of workers' control run very efficiently in strikes in Britain in the past.

Meanwhile, the bourgeois "democracy" has been showing its true face in Madrid, where the police have been involved in heavy-handed repression, even surrounding the UGT headquarters, drawing pistols, beating up strikers and arresting people (seven in Leganes alone) - just like the good old days of Franco! There is no doubt that the same picture will emerge in other provinces.

The conclusion is inescapable. While the workers' leaders have been falling over themselves to show "moderation", the only effect has been to encourage the bosses and their government to ever greater excesses in their attacks against the working class - not just in Spain but everywhere.

Let us remember that in a period of boom, with ever-increasing profits of the bosses, we have seen constant attacks against wages, conditions and rights of the working class everywhere. While the labour leaders have been preaching sweetness and light, the bosses have been organising an unprecedented counterattack of Capital against Labour.

No doubt in tomorrow's newspapers the union leaders will express their astonishment at the extraordinary response of the workers to the call for a general strike, while the government will continue to deny that the strike took place at all. That is quite predictable. The union leaders are always astonished when the workers show their readiness to struggle. They have no faith in the class or in their own membership, or even in themselves, if the truth were to be told.

The success of today's general strike is a motive of great satisfaction, of great joy for all those who have the workers' interests at heart. It is a great step forward. It shows the colossal power that lies in the hands of the working class. With the right organisation and leadership, that power could change society and create a better world for all.

But let us also be frank. A general strike of 24 hours is really only a demonstration - although a demonstration on a massive scale. It has undoubtedly shaken the government, but it will not necessarily make it change its course. That will depend on the conduct of the workers, the unions and the leadership.

What is needed is a militant policy that will really challenge the power of Capital. If, as we must fear, the union leaders see the general strike as just a means of putting pressure on the government, a way of making it "see sense", of returning to the negotiating table and "listening" to the "moderate" leaders of UGT and CCOO, then it will have failed in its most important objective. It is necessary for the activists to be vigilant. Prepare for another general strike! Organise mass meetings in every factory, workshop, office and mine! Involve the women, the youth, the peasants! Make this a hot summer and even hotter autumn for señor Aznar!

Aznar will respond with the accusation that this is a "political strike". We answer: yes! A thousand times yes! This is a political strike against a reactionary government - a government of the capitalists and bankers whose main aim is to destroy the living standards and rights of working people. Our aim is to stop this government in its tracks, to prevent it from carrying out its anti-worker plans, and yes, to overthrow it.

The leaders of the parliamentary opposition, after two years of collaborating with the government, have at last been pushed by the working class into semi-opposition. But Zapatero, the leader of the PSOE, wishes to hunt with the hounds and run with the hare! On the one hand he tells the people they must oppose the unjust decrees of Aznar, on the other hand, he insists that the PSOE does not call for a general strike! The socialist workers did not vote for the PSOE leaders to play games but to actively fight against the PP. They should stop this shameful sitting on the fence and openly support every strike of the workers against this reactionary government.

The general strike of June 20 has broken the ice. It is not the end of an episode, as the bourgeois hope, but the beginning of a process. Until now the workers of Spain had their heads down. They were waiting for a lead that never came. Many activists of the UGT and CCOO were disappointed and passive. Now the entire mood has begun to change. Older activists have recovered their spirits when they saw the class once again on the move. The new generation is beginning to awaken to political life and look to the unions with hope in their hearts. At last - someone is prepared to fight!

It is a beginning, and a most important one, but it is still only a beginning. The final success will depend on one thing and only one thing: the fight to transform the unions into genuine fighting organs of the working class to change society. It is not possible to separate trade unionism from politics. The fight against the present reforms is in essence a fight to overthrow the Aznar government. This immediately poses the question of an alternative.

The unions must call a general strike with a demand for new elections. Down with the Aznar government! Call a general election now! For a government of the PSOE and IU with a genuine socialist policy! That is the only way to carry the movement forward.