Sindicato Unitario

Sindicato Unitario ("Unitary Trade Union", abbreviated SU) is a trade union movement in Spain. SU was tied to the Workers Revolutionary Organization (ORT), a Maoist political organization.[1][2]

Sindicato Unitario
FoundedMay 1, 1977 (1977-05-01)
Location
  • Spain
Members
47,000 (1977)
Key people
José Miguel Ibarrola, general secretary

Split in CC.OO.

The organization emerged from a split away from Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.) trade union movement in 1976.[3] ORT was part of the 'Minority Tendency' inside CC.OO.[4] A meeting was held on November 7, 1976 in Coslada at which opponents to the CC.OO. leadership gathered. The CC.OO. dissidents opposed the dominance of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in CC.OO.[5][6] However, the dissident unionists gathered in Coslada were split in two. One group went on to form CSUT. The other, led by José Miguel Ibarrola, formed SU.[5]

Founding congress

SU was founded at a clandestine congress on May 1, 1977 in Madrid.[5][7] The civil government of Madrid had prohibited the group from holding the congress, citing concerns about disturbances to the 'public order'.[8] Around one thousand unionists had gathered. The congress approved the name, symbol and statues of the new organization.[7]

The organization identified itself as a class-based union, seeking to engage in class struggle.[5] SU rejected the Moncloa Pact.[9]

Ibarrola was elected general secretary of SU. Cristino Domenech was elected second secretary. Five other secretariat members were elected; Jesús San Martín, Luis Royo, Pedro Cristóbal, Paco Esteban and María del Carmen Fraile. SU had invited other unions to the closing session of the congress, but only CSUT and a French group called 'Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition' were present.[7][10]

Organization

At the time of its foundation SU was estimated to have a membership of 47,000. Its strongholds were Navarre, Cantabria, Madrid, Cáceres, Badajoz, Burgos and Murcia.[7] In June 1977, a statewide council of SU was elected.[11]

As of 1978, the organization had 217 offices across the country.[12] Cristino Domenech was the first secretary of SU in Madrid.[13] At the time, SU claimed a membership of 500,000.[14]

1978 trade union election

In the 1978 trade union elections SU raised the slogan "Un frente común por el pan, el trabajo y la libertad" ('A common front for bread, work and freedom').[15] SU won 3,376 delegate seats across Spain (2.7% of the seats elected).[16]

SU emerged as a major force in Navarre in the polls. In Navarre, the majority that had been active in Comisiones Obreras had left to build SU.[17] According to the official count, SU had won 269 delegates out of a total of 2,614 (becoming the largest trade union in the fray). However a count made by Diario de Navarra presented different numbers, putting SU at 432 seats (15.23%, just behind CC.OO.).[18][19] SU also obtained high numbers of delegates in Huelva province, where it won 248 delegates (23.4%).[20]

SU won the election at the conservative newspaper ABC in Madrid.[21][22] At the Barajas printing centre, SU won 7 out of the 13 committee seats. At the calle Serrano editorial and administrative office, SU won 7 out of 22 seats.[2]

SU dedicated its May Day rally of 1978 to highlighting its opposition to the Moncloa Pact. According to Guardia Civil, 4,000 people took part in the SU rally in Madrid (SU itself claimed a participation of 50,000).[13]

Second Congress

The second congress of SU convened in Madrid on May 25, 1978. Around one thousand delegates took part in the event, which had the slogan 'Common front against the Social Pact'. The dias carried the portrait of Joaquín Macías, a SU leader from Badajoz that had died in an accident. A number of international delegations visited the congress, from Germany, France, Argentina, Italy and Portugal.[23][24] The congress approved new statues for the organization.[25]

Decline

The electoral failures of ORT in the 1977 general election had a negative impact on the movement. SU would never recover from this set-back.[26] By 1979 the SU membership was estimated at 17,000.[27] As ORT moved ahead towards a merger with the Party of Labour of Spain (PTE), SU and CSUT (the PTE labour wing) entered into a unification process.[28][29] The process did however not proceed smoothly, as there were differences regarding the organizational structure and the national question.[30]

The third congress SU was held in June 1980.[31][32] At the congress Ibarrola discarded the possibility of a merger with CSUT. Instead the majority of the SU leadership proposed taking part in unity processes from below, such as the Confederación Sindical Galega. A minority, headed by Miguel Jesús Sánchez (provincial secretary from SU in Valladolid and member of the confederal secretariat of SU) and supported by the SU organizations in Madrid and Biscay, argued in favour of a merger with CC.OO.[31]

SU applied for membership in the European Trade Union Confederation in 1980, but this request was denied as the organization was perceived as lacking representativity amongst workers in Spain.[33]

SU and CSUT did not launch campaigns of their own ahead of the 1980 trade union elections. Rather, they took part in building workers unity slates (especially at the level of the autonomous communities).[34]

SU continues to exist in places like Huelva, Madrid, Cantabria and Barcelona.[26] SU is active in the Barcelona Metro, having won four delegate seats in the 2006 trade union election and three seats in 2010.[35]

References
  1. Gunther, Richard, Giacomo Sani, and Goldie Shabad. Spain After Franco: The Making of a Competitive Party System; [with a New Epilogue]. Berkeley [u.a.]: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1988. p. 203
  2. Sindicato Unitario de Catalunya. QUIENES SOMOS Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Carr, Raymond, and Juan Pablo Fusi Aizpurúa. Spain, Dictatorship to Democracy. London: Harper Collins Academic, 1981. p. xvii
  4. Brugos Salas, Valentín. La izquierda revolucionaria en Asturias. Los diferentes intentos de construcción de un proyecto alternativo al PCE Archived 2013-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Lieberman, Sima. Labor Movements and Labor Thought: Spain, France, Germany, and the United States. New York: Praeger, 1986. pp. 95-96
  6. Aracil Martí, Rafael, Antoni Segura, and Macià Alavedra i Moner. Memòria de la transició a Espanya i a Catalunya. Barcelona: Edicions Universitat de Barcelona, 2000. p. 22
  7. El País. Constituido el Sindicato Unitario
  8. El País. Prohibido el congreso del Sindicato Unitario
  9. Fishman, Robert M. Working-Class Organization and the Return to Democracy in Spain. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990. p. 219
  10. Harper, F. John. Trade Unions of the World. Detroit: Gale Research Co, 1987. p. 373
  11. El País. Constituido el consejo estatal del Sindicato Unitario
  12. Guinea, José Luis. Los movimientos obreros y sindicales en España de 1833 a 1978. Madrid: Ibérico Europea de Ediciones, 1978. p. 219
  13. El País. El Sindicato Unitario centró la celebración obrera en su oposición al pacto de la Moncloa
  14. El País. El SU centra su campaña en la consecución de un frente sindical común
  15. El País. Las centrales ultiman sus campañas
  16. El País. Comisiones Obreras y UGT han ganado en elecciones sindicales
  17. El País. Hoy comienzan las votaciones en Navarra
  18. Ramírez Sábada, José Luis, and Ignacio Aranda Pérez. Democratización y amejoramiento foral: una historia de la transición en Navarra (1975-1983). [Pamplona]: Gobierno de Navarra, Departamento de Presidencia e Interior, 1999. p. 162
  19. Gran Enciclopedia Navarra. SINDICALISMO
  20. El País. UGT pasa al primer lugar en Granada
  21. El País. Amplia victoria del Sindicato Unitario en "ABC"
  22. Eaton, Samuel Dickinson. The Forces of Freedom in Spain, 1974-1979: A Personal Account. Stanford, Calif: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1981. p. 166
  23. El País. Comienza en Madrid el II Congeso del Sindicato Unitario
  24. Sindicato Unitario. Unidad Sindical, no. 10. June 1978
  25. ABC. El Sindicato Unitario aprueba nuevos estatutos
  26. En Lucha. [Entrevista Sindicato Unitario]
  27. Revista de fomento social, Edition 157–160. 1985. p. 345
  28. Berger, Suzanne. Organizing Interests in Western Europe: Pluralism, Corporatism, and the Transformation of Politics. Cambridge [Eng.]: Cambridge University Press, 1981. p. 397
  29. El País. Hacia la fusión entre CSUT y SU
  30. El País. Dificultades en la fusión SU-CSUT
  31. El País. Intento minoritario del SU para integrarse en Comisiones Obreras
  32. Sindicato Unitario. Unidad Sindical, no. 25. 1980.
  33. El País. La Confederación Europea de Sindicatos rechaza el ingreso de SU, CSUT y SOC
  34. El País. Hoy comienzan las elecciones sindicales
  35. CGT FeTyG. LA CGT VUELVE A GANAR LAS ELECCIONES EN EL METRO DE BARCELONA Archived 2012-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
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