CHAPTER IX

Socialism and Labor in Spain

It

The Federation of Employers in Catalonia started a lockout on November 3, 1919, on account of the exorbitant demands of labor, and in order to prevent a general strike. This lockout continued for nearly three months, ending in January. showed that though the Socialists in Spain had gained, they were neither as practical nor as well organized as the Syndicalists, and also showed that the two groups were not in harmonious relations. The Syndicalists' Congress, in December, passed a resolution against the amalgamation of the Syndicalist organization, "Confederacion Natcional del travajo," with the Socialist organization "Union General De Trabajadores," but in favor of the absorption of the latter by the former.

The resolution also decreed that a manifesto be addressed to all the workmen in Spain, giving them three months in which to join the Syndicalist Confederacion, and should they fail to do so, they would be classed as blacklegs. (See the "Epoca" of Madrid, in "Political Review" of January 9, 1920.)

The main Barcelona strike was complicated by contemporaneous strikes through a great part of Spain, in a great variety of fields. Terrorism and bomb explosions ruled Barcelona for a time, but public service was not seriously interrupted. Strikes occurred in Madrid, Valencia, Vigo, in the mines of Almaden, and so forth.

As indications of Bolshevist propaganda in Spain, the “Figaro" of Madrid publishes a letter from the Bolshevist Committee at Basle, dated October 4, 1919, making arrangements for supplying funds for Bolshevist work in western Europe. It further states that two German Bolshevist agents, Brockmann and Albrecht, well provided with funds, reached Portugal, and commenced operations in the Balkans, but were detected by the police, and passed into Spain. They approached the People's Institute (Socialist headquarters) in Madrid, but were repulsed. However, they found supporters amongst certain Spaniards, who acted as German agents during the war. ("Epoca," 18, of Madrid, in "Political Review," February 13, 1920.) The elections that have just taken place show that the Spaniards are gravitating to the two extremes. The revolutionary camp of the Syndicalists on the one hand, who practically kept out of the voting, and the

anti-revolutionary camp of reactionaries. The government openly characterized the Syndicalists as a criminal association. They seemed to have obtained the upper hand in Catalonia and northern Spain.

The Syndicalists issued a manifesto declaring that although the ultimate object of the organization was the complete overthrow of the State, as at present constituted, the abolition of the army and of frontiers, its immediate action demands the application of these principles, and although communism was its goal, it would reach out slowly and quietly. ("Sol." of Madrid, No. 31, in "Political Review," January 16, 1920.)

The Employers' Federation refused to recognize the union of workmen, and issued a manifesto outlining the terms on which they would put back the men whom they had dismissed in the lockout.

The government, however, put an end to the lockout by ordering a resumption of work, and putting both parties in the wrong. It was a form of compulsory arbitration. Barcelona gradually resumed its normal life during February. The fight between the Syndicalists and the Socialists, however, continued. The Socialist deputies, Saborit and Menendez, proclaimed themselves Syndicalists at a meeting in the People's Institute in Madrid. The bulk of the workmen in the industrial regions of the north are clearly Syndicalists, considering the Socialists as largely a party of theorists.

It

Until recently the Socialist Party had remained under their old leader, Pablo Iglesias, a lifelong Marxian, who was their sole representative in Parliament; but since the war, the body has changed hands. A Socialist Conference was held in the spring of 1919, in Madrid. It voted to remain attached to the Second International, and not to join the Third (Moscow) International, but it declared against any interference with Soviet Russia. sent representatives to the Berne and Luzerne Conferences of the Second International. The "Red" section, under Bonefacio Martinez, has been constantly gaining strength, and it favors violent revolutionary tactics for the party. Such organizations as the Juventud Socialista of Madrid, and such publications as the "Red Wave" have adhered to the Left Wing.

It was the strikes of 1917 which gave Socialism its first popularity in Spain, and brought it into rather painful prominence. The General Workers' Union, and the General Confederation of

Labor in March, 1917, issued a manifesto declaring that unless the economic situation was relieved by legislation, a general strike was inevitable. Strikes were called during the summer, culminating in a railroad strike followed by a general strike. The government claimed that the object of this strike was the revolutionary overthrow of the State, and the army was used in industrial centers to break it up. In the course of the disorders several hundred workers were shot, and many of the leaders and the rank and file were arrested. Among these were Caballero, Anguiano, and Saborit, as well as the university professor, Bestiaro. These four men were nominated as candidates in December, 1917, in the municipal elections of Madrid. Although elected, their election was declared invalid by the government. They were re-elected in 1918, on the Socialist ticket, and the Cortez was forced to grant them complete amnesty. This triumph is considered to have inaugurated the real practical Socialist movement.

CHAPTER X

Socialism and Labor in Austria and Czechoslovakia *

The situation in the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire was complex and unfavorable to unified action either in fields of Socialism or labor. This was due largely to two reasons. The first was the multiplicity of languages and races in the Empire which split up the Austrian Social Democratic Party into a number of national groups, such as Germans, Czechs, Poles, Italians, Slavs, Ruthenians, respectively grouped in different sections of the empire. It was not until nearly 1890 that any organization began which drove the trade unions into affiliation with the Socialist Party in order to secure political influence. The tyrannical exercise of autocratic power by the government was more drastic than in northern Germany, largely because the labor element in Austro-Hungary was not sufficiently large to insure respect on the part of the government.

However, in 1901, the Socialists elected ten members to the Reichrath, and succeeded in their extensive campaign to secure universal manhood suffrage. This campaign was not successful until the enormous increase of the influence of Socialism in 1905 and 1906 combined with the threat of a general strike, to force the government to carry out to a certain extent the Socialist demands for universal suffrage in December, 1906. This led to a tremendous increase in the Socialist vote throughout the empire, which amounted to over a million, or nearly a third of the total vote. It secured an increase of Socialist members of Parliament from eleven to eighty-seven and it coincided with the increase in two years of the number of trade unionists from 180,000 to over 500,000. This applies to the Austrian half of the empire, and does not include the development of Socialism and trade unionism in Hungary, where a larger proportion of the population is of agricultural instead of industrial character. The agitation for universal suffrage carried on in Hungary at the same time as in Austria was even more violently opposed by the government which dissolved 354 trade unions in 1906 in its attempt to suppress the whole trade union movement.

This led to giving to the Socialist Party of Hungary a more extreme and radical view than to the Socialist Party in Austria. The organization of the Social Democratic Labor Party in Austria was in two branches. The Austrian party proper, centered in Vienna, and the Czecho slovak party, centered in Prague, * See Addendum, Part I.

The break between these two elements came in connection with the election of 1911, when, after years of harmonious work, the Czech or Bohemian separate labor unions were created, introducing a nationalist fight in the labor movement. This break in the party entered also into the parliamentary membership, resulting in the cleavage between the two parliamentary groups. Although the International Congress at Copenhagen blamed the Bohemian Separatists, no attention was paid to the attitude of the Congress. The principal leader of the Austrian Party before the war, and practically its founder, was Victor Adler, father of the more recent leader, Friederich Adler.

The Socialist Labor Union press before the war consisted of fifty German, forty-four Czech, eight Polish, one Slovak, one Ruthenian and three Italian organs.

While the Union Labor movement in Austria-Hungary was so strongly thwarted in its development by government opposition, the other phase of labor development, the co-operative movement, was remarkably successful. It increased from 483 branches, with 206,620 members in 1908 to 560 branches with 590,000 members in 1914. Co-operative labor organizations were established in practically every city with an industrial population.

The attitude of the Social Democratic and Labor groups during the war will be studied later.

The Socialist Party of Austro-Hungary, on account of the great variety of languages and nationalities already noticed, and the Separatist tendencies within its ranks, has been termed quite rightly "The Little International," because it represents on a small scale practically all the important characteristics which have to be considered in connection with the big international meetings. This accounts for the lack of influence which the party has exercised in the general international conference.

"There are two Socialist parties in Czecho slovakia: the Social Democratic, which is undoubtedly much stronger, and the former National Socialist Party, now the Socialist Party. Marxism has played a very small part in the Czech Socialist movement. The great majority of the Czech workers regard Socialism primarily as an idealistic conception of a better human society Revolutionary Marxism, or Bolshevism, is foreign to the Czech mind and has therefore no future in Bohemia and on January 16 (1919) the Socialist Party executive published an explicit repudiation of Bolshevik propaganda."