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Roca radiators strike, 1976-7

Striking Roca workers assembly

Background information and two strike bulletins put out by the assembly of strikers at the Roca radiator manufacturing plant in Gava, Spain in 1976-7.

ROCA IN GAVA
Roca Radiators Ltd is situated in Gava, some 35 km south west of Barcelona. Founded at the beginning of the century by the Roca family it now employs some 4,500 workers and is listed as the 65th largest company is Spain. Some 20% of the share capital was owned by American Standard but these shares were sold as soon as the strike began.

Reflections on the shoe industry strike and assembly movement in Alicante, 1977

Highly informative and detailed article about a wildcat strike of shoe workers run by workers' assemblies which the state attacked, and which unions and political groups attempted to divert to their own ends.

FROM THE TIME WHEN REVOLUTIONARIES WERE CORRECT

Workers for Proletarian Autonomy and Social Revolution

REFLECTIONS ON AND LESSONS OF THE STRIKE IN THE SHOE INDUSTRY (22nd AUGUST UNTIL 3rd SEPTEMBER 1977) AND ON THE ASSEMBLY MOVEMENT IN THE PROVINCE OF ALICANTE

Notes of a militarised Spanish Renfe rail worker, 1976

Renfe train from the 1970s

The very interesting personal account of a rail worker in post-Franco Spain when the railways were militarised following a strike in 1976.

RENFE: THE TESTIMONY OF A MILITARISED WORKER...
Renfe, through its rail services, spreads throughout the Spanish State, and is the company which employs most workers (72,000). Every Spaniard knows this and also knows that these workers have the job of ensuring a regular service to the country, crucial to its well-being and development.

Wildcat Spain encounters democracy, 1976-1978

Garment workers' assembly

A fascinating set of documents from and about the workers assembly movement which swept Spain as strike spread following the death of dictator General Franco.

A MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN VITORIA

By: Los Incontrolados
HOW FRANCOISM BECAME DEMOCRATIC

'When legality is sufficient to save society then, by all means deploy legality; when it's not enough then dictatorship'

(Donoso Cortes, in a speech, 4th January 1849)
Comrades,

The third wave of the Chinese labour movement in the post-Mao era

Chinese electronics workers strike in 2007

Article from the China Labour Bulletin on the development of class conflict in China in the post-Mao era with particular focus on the spring 2002 protests.

By Trini Leung, China Labour Bulletin, 2 June 2002

Introduction

Conditions of the working classes in China

Article from Monthly Review on the effects of China's economic transformation on the working class since Mao's death.


by Robert Weil

Introduction

1951: Barcelona general strike

A brief description of social conditions in post-Civil War Spain followed by an account of the Barcelona general strike of 1951. The events in Barcelona led to strikes across the country and signalled the potential for a return to working class combativity in Spain after over a decade of rule under the Franco regime.

The situation of the Spanish working class at the turn of 1950 was a desperate one. Franco's regime had ruled over the country for the last eleven years, and severe conditions fuelled by austerity measures imposed on workers after the end of the Civil War were becoming rapidly worse.

Jose Yglesias remembers the solidarity of the cigar makers and their lectors - Studs Terkel

Postcard of lector reading in Havana cigar factory - 1900s.

A personal account, as told to the late Studs Terkel, of the cigar workers community in early 20th century Tampa, Florida - its strong traditions of solidarity and self-education; and the role of the 'lectors' or workplace readers.

Source; Hard Times - An Oral History of the Great Depression ; Studs Terkel, Pantheon Books, NY, 1970.

Wobbly Fred Thompson on the 30s Depression - Studs Terkel

The late Wobbly veteran, in conversation with the late Studs Terkel, looks back on his experience in the class struggle.

Source; Hard Times - An Oral History of the Great Depression ; Studs Terkel, Pantheon Books, NY, 1970.

Long lost wildcat strikes in the UK, 1960s - 1990s

Rubbish piles up during the winter of discontent

Interesting article with snippets of analysis and often personal anecdotes about a number of unofficial strikes in the UK since the 1960s.

An introduction…