The looms in Catalan factories stopped working, and the Catalan working
class organized in the summer of 1855 for the first general strike inthe state. This strike was limited territorially to certain areas of
Catalonia, where the textile industry was most developed. It didn't come
from nowhere, nor was it a spontaneous movement, but rather a reflection
of two years of struggle that began with the Revolution of 1854, and
reflected the pioneering mutualist and union organization that was
beginning to emerge among the working class. From its beginning, the
conditions of exploitation to which capitalism had forced the working
classes have been so urgently needed to be addressed that the working
class made it clear from the outset that they would construct themselves
as a collective political entity.
Background: The Self-Acting Conflict of 1854 and Proletarian Demands
While a popular uprising erupted in Madrid in July 1854, in the heat of
the political and monarchical events unfolding in the capital, a popular
revolt also took place in Barcelona and its surrounding areas, with the
factory proletariat taking a significant role. This conflict, with a
much more clear class component, became known as the "Self-Acting
Conflict." It was an expression of direct action and protest against the
mechanization of spinning that facilitated the so-called self-acting,
which, according to Catalan workers, led to the forced unemployment of
many workers.
Since the previous decade, in the 1840s, collective and individual
boycotts of the implementation of machinery in the textile production
process had been taking place, primarily in the Mediterranean region.
Similarly, in Barcelona, in 1835, in the context of anti-clerical
revolts against Carlist supporters, the Bonaplata Factory, dedicated to
the production of materials for the textile industry, was burned down,
and four workers were shot for this incident. Self-acting machines were
introduced in Catalonia in 1844, and ten years later they were already
handling more than 200,000 spinning spindles.
After the Revolution of 1854 began, it quickly spread to other urban
centers. In Barcelona, specifically, a strike was declared, leading to
several fires in textile factories on July 15, even leading to the
execution of a factory owner and his foreman. The following day, the
Captain General of the territory of Catalonia, Ramón de la Rocha,
ordered the publication of a proclamation defending private property and
the safety of employers, under penalty of execution. Three spinners were
murdered on July 16, but two days later, around fifty textile factories
remained closed due to worker pressure demanding the removal of the
self-acting machinery. The leading textile workers presented their
demands, and on July 25, an order was signed prohibiting the self-acting
machines and replacing them with older machines.
The textile employers appealed this ban to the new government installed
in Madrid, which prolonged the conflict. On August 8, the new captain
general in Barcelona, Domingo Dulce Garay, met with the workers'
societies, and three days later, they met with the civil governor
Pascual Madoz, issuing a workers' manifesto calling for an end to the
strike. The workers' societies were political interlocutors, legitimized
by their own strength to convey proletarian demands. A compromise was
reached: a pardon for the convicted workers, the opening of a
negotiation period, and an extra half-hour of rest for the spinners at
lunch. Furthermore, the weekly work week was reduced from 75 to 72
hours. The so-called progressive government repealed the order banning
self-acting machines, but its official publication was delayed until the
spring of 1855 for fear of worker backlash. This laid the groundwork and
precedent for the first general strike in Catalonia.
Let's all unite. Workers' societies and the outbreak of the general
textile strike
Because Espartero's new government sought to promote a progressive
social outlook, the political context allowed for the emergence of
workers' associations that even formed a Central Board, that is, a
federation of societies. By now, more than 50% of Catalonia's population
was located in coastal and riverine areas, traditionally reversing the
demographic presence in the rural interior. The peasantry was collapsed
by the price crisis imposed by the industrial bourgeoisie and the
remnants of the conflicts of ultramontane Carlism in the heart of
Catalonia. Meanwhile, the urban working class, a direct offspring of
liberal thought, was becoming increasingly aware of the material misery
to which this expanding capitalism was condemning them. Working-class
Barcelona was crowded within walls that still maintained a one-kilometer
perimeter from the cannonball range that could be used to bombard the
city. This had already happened during General Espartero's regency in
1842, when, to suppress some liberal popular uprisings, he bombarded
hundreds of houses in the city's poor neighborhoods from Montjuïc
Castle. Barcelona, therefore, had appalling living conditions for the
working classes. Crowded into old housing and exposed to disease,
malnutrition, and alcoholism, they also suffered from miserable working
conditions.
At that time, factories concentrated hundreds of workers, and industrial
workers' colonies would begin to be built in the city's metropolitan
areas the following decade. In this way, the contact between these
workers and the dissemination of transformative, if not revolutionary,
ideas that were beginning to arrive from Europe were reflected in the
creation of workers' associations. This network, which would later
develop into the nascent unionism, affected many levels of workers'
lives, both in their literacy training through the future athenaeums and
in the mutual funds to cover contingencies due to illness.
The new Captain General of Catalonia, General Zapatero y Navas, ended
tolerance with the Barcelona Weavers' Association, among others, and
initiated a policy of repression of the labor movement in the spring of
1855. In May, the Espartero government officially announced the lifting
of the ban on self-actin, which workers interpreted as a betrayal and
began proposing mobilizations. Workers' associations and mutual funds
were outlawed, and dozens of workers were arrested. On June 6, 1855, the
execution of Josep Barceló i Cassadó, one of the main workers'
representatives who had been advocating for the struggle, was ordered,
and seventy workers were deported to Cuba. This escalated into a state
of worker revolt and insubordination that culminated in the declaration
of a general strike on July 2, 1855, supported by all sectors of the
textile industry.
Come on strike, comrades, don't go to work. Association or death, bread
and work!
At lunchtime on July 2, workers in Barcelona and some towns such as
Badalona and Igualada walked out of their factories in a coordinated
manner. In the Sants neighborhood, the president of the employers'
organization and member of the Cortes, Josep Sol i Padrís, was shot
dead. Both Captain General Zapatero and the Barcelona City Council urged
the workers not to be led by inflammatory rhetoric, attempting to sow
division between workers of good and bad morals. Even the Bishop of Vic
spoke directly to the workers about the need for resignation on earth
for the blessings of the life to come. All the political, military, and
religious authorities acted in a coordinated manner, also against the
organized force of the working class.
However, on July 3, it was clear that these appeals had no effect, and
the strike spread to the Osona region, further north in the province of
Barcelona. In Barcelona, a demonstration that afternoon marched through
the streets; the workers also went to City Hall to demand the return of
a red flag seized the day before by a municipal police officer. On July
5, a workers' commission left for Madrid to meet with Prime Minister
Baldomero Espartero, bringing with them the recognition of the right to
association, the ten-hour day, and the constitution of a jury composed
of mixed workers and employers. The condition for these demands was an
end to the strike, which would partially end on July 8, when shops and
offices reopened. Although factories also reopened, hardly any workers
showed up.
On July 9, demonstrations took place on Las Ramblas, and General
Zapatero ordered a ruthless crackdown. Some factories were occupied by
the military to force them to return to work, and the army took over
some working-class neighborhoods in Barcelona, ordering numerous
arrests. The press, both liberal and conservative, also attacked
workers' self-organization and the force they had deployed in the
strike. Colonel Saravia, personally sent by Espartero, was the one who
finally ended the strike on July 11, persuading them with vague promises
of creating a mixed jury of workers and employers; although he later
boasted that he had not given in to the workers' concessions and that
the detainees would serve their sentences.
On September 7, a "Presentation presented by the working class to the
Constituent Cortes" was published in Madrid. This text was written by a
young Francesc Pi i Margall, calling for worker unity around a set of
demands and the recognition of workers' associations. This speech spread
to other cities such as Seville, Valencia, Alcoy, and Malaga; it
constituted the first major peninsular workers' movement for better
organization of the struggles and achievements to come. In some
contexts, there was more of a mutualist association, and in others, more
of a militant and unionist nature, but without a doubt, this general
textile strike constituted a fundamental experience in the nascent
workers' organization, one that only future struggles would endow with
greater theoretical and practical depth.
Angel Malatesta, Liza activist.
https://www.regeneracionlibertaria.org/2025/07/24/erase-una-vez-la-primera-huelga-general-en-catalunya/
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