A-Infos (en) Spaine, Regeneration: Once upon a time... the first general strike in Catalonia By ANGEL MALATESTA (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The looms in Catalan factories stopped working, and the Catalan working 
class organized in the summer of 1855 for the first general strike in 
the 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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