|
|
Template:Anarchism The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ("National Confederation of Labour" or "CNT"), founded in Barcelona, Spain, in 1910, was at one time that country's largest labor union. It is the main Anarchist organization in Spain. It was prominent in combating the coup d'état by General Francisco Franco that led to the Spanish Civil War in 1936. It is also the name of Marxist or Syndicalist labor confederations in countries from France to Panama.
| Contents |
History
The CNT was formed in opposition to the majority union, the socialist General Union of Workers (UGT). It began in the Catalan anarcho-syndicalism of Labor Solidarity, born in 1908. In the First Congress of the CNT (taken place in 1911, year in which the union received its name officially) a general strike, reason for the one was already summoned which the union was declared illegal up to 1914. From 1916, the Confederation changed its strategy regarding the UGT: it began relationships with this union and both agreed to summon the general strike of 1917 together. The bonds between both organizations were strengthened, and in the Second Congress of the CNT (1919) the possibility was formulated of merging the two unions to restore the unity of the working class. In this Congress the provisional linking was approved from the CNT to Third International. But the visit of the directing Ángel Lash to the Federated Soviet Socialist Republic of Russia (the territorial nucleus of where in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would arise), dissuaded the merger and in 1922 the CNT moved definitively away from that organization.
The 1918 Catalan industrial crisis impelled thousands of workers to join the organization. So to counteract the new strength of rank and file organized labor, the bosses financed pistolerismo ("gunfighterism") to attack unions. In 1923, after the rise of the dictator-general Miguel Primo de Rivera, the CNT went underground. Split by the pressure of the radical wing of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), constituted in 1927 for the sake of anarchic character in the union, its activity during that period was marked by participation in several “combines” against the régime.
After the Spanish transition to democracy, the CNT became legal again, but wasn't as prominent as before the war. CNT boycotted the system of elections for workers' representatives. This refusal caused a faction of the CNT to break away, forming the Confederación General del Trabajo.
Objectives
To develop the association spirit in the workers, to practice mutual support and solidarity among the workers, to represent, to defend and to promote the economic and social interests, professionals and culture of the members, as well as the necessary actions to get social and economic improvement, as much for the members as for the workers in general.
Symbols
CNT_FAI_flag.png
The CNT flag has a diagonal dividing it in one red and one black halves.
See also
External link
- CNT Official Website (http://www.cnt.es)
ca:CNT de:Confederación Nacional del Trabajo eo:CNT es:Confederación Nacional del Trabajo fr:Confédération nationale du travail (Espagne)