WORLD WORLDWIDE SOUTH AMERICA BRAZIL - news journal UPDATE - (en) Brazil, OSL, Libera #181 - REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM AND COOPERATIVISM IN CATALONIA (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 In the second half of August, the Ideal Peres Libertarian Study Circle

(CELIP) welcomed Elena, a member of the General Confederation of Labor
(CGT), an important and historic anarcho-syndicalist organization in
Catalonia, to the city of Rio de Janeiro. At this meeting, Elena
presented the relationship between Catalan anarcho-syndicalism and the
cooperative strategy. Historically, revolutionary syndicalism and
anarcho-syndicalism developed a strategy that understood the role of the
union not only as an organization for the defense of rights, but also as
the "embryo" of a new society. From this, Catalan anarchism created
several tools that sought to defend labor rights, form solidarity funds,
found consumer/production cooperatives, and maintain educational/class
training institutions (modern schools, athenaeums, theaters, etc.),
aiming to break with the capitalist system. The CGT seeks to recover
this historical legacy of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism and update it for
contemporary social struggles.
Since 2018, the CGT of Catalonia has been the union that has mobilized
and called strikes the most, with significant achievements in improving
working conditions. The CGT understands that self-management has always
been one of the pillars of the revolutionary action of the working class
and that cooperativism has played an important role in the Spanish
social struggle. In the 1970s, self-management and Catalan cooperativism
(housing, cultural, food cooperatives, etc.) were mainly carried out in
areas outside the struggles of the world of work, losing the strength
they had before the Franco dictatorship.
In some cases, many "cooperatives" have exploitative practices similar
to those of any capitalist company, and may even accentuate them. With
this in mind, the CGT decided to engage with different structures of the
Catalan cooperative movement, creating tools to improve working
conditions in cooperatives, pressuring and denouncing cooperatives that
violate labor rights. And also identify companies or areas where the CGT
has a significant presence and at risk of bankruptcy/closure, creating
new cooperatives with the intention of improving working conditions.
Certainly, the reality of Catalan cooperatives and trade unions is not
the same as the Brazilian reality, but the union and cooperative action
of the CGT Catalonia can serve as a parameter for us to think and
reflect on our own reality.

https://socialismolibertario.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Libera_181_set_dez__2024.pdf
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