Solidaridad Obrera is a newspaper, published by the Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

n/Balearic

Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...

 regional section of the anarchist

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

 labor union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...

 (CNT), and mouthpiece of the CNT in Spain.

The paper takes its name from an organization of the same name that started in 1907 and reorganized the labor movement in Spain based on the structure of the Federación de Trabajadores de la Región Española (FTRE). This name has been used by numerous anarchist periodicals in several countries.

The newspaper Solidaridad Obrera was founded on October 19, 1907, in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

 (Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

) as the mouthpiece of the Solidaridad Obrera federation and has been published, in different forms up to today, now consisting of an online version as well as a print-version that has a print-run of 5,000 copies that have been distributed for free since 2005.

History

The paper was first established by Anselmo Lorenzo

Anselmo Lorenzo

Anselmo Lorenzo was a defining figure in the early Spanish Anarchist movement, earning the oft quoted sobriquet "the grandfather of Spanish anarchism," in the words of Murray Bookchin; "his contribution to the spread of Anarchist ideas in Barcelona and Andalusia over the decades was enormous"...

, Ricardo Mella

Ricardo Mella

Ricardo Mella Cea was one of the first writers, intellectuals and anarchist activists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Spain. Was characterized as an erudite in various subjects and versed in languages, mastering French, English and Italian...

, and José Prat among others. It has been alleged that Francisco Ferrer provided economic support, though nothing conclusive has been proven.

Throughout its history, Solidaridad Obrera has had troubles with the authorities. Publication was suspended on November 30, 1907, but resumed the following February. In 1918, following a major recruitment drive by the CNT, the government shut down publication for a brief period. In 1919, publication was moved to Valencia from Barcelona, though it was moved back to Barcelona in 1923, only to be banned the following year by the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera

Miguel Primo de Rivera

Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte, Knight of Calatrava was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating...

. After de Rivera stepped down, the Second Spanish Republic

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

 was founded, and the paper resumed publication on August 31, 1930 with economic help from anarchists of Manresa

Manresa

Manresa is the capital of the Comarca of Bages, located in the geographic centre of Catalonia, Spain, and crossed by the river Cardener. It is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are arranged around the basilica of Santa María de la Seo....

, Spain, and their own printing press. At this time the paper was being edited by Joan Peiró

Joan Peiró

Joan Peiró i Belis was a Catalan anarchist activist, writer, editor of the anarchist newspaper Solidaridad Obrera, two-time Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo and Minister of Industry of the Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War.-Life:Though he was born in the...

, and had a press-run of 26,000 copies. In September 1931, the paper took a new direction when it was taken over by members of the FAI

Federación Anarquista Ibérica

The Federación Anarquista Ibérica is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups inside the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo trade union. It is often abbreviated as CNT-FAI because of the close relationship between the two organizations...

, after a confrontation between more moderate treintistas and the anarchists of the FAI, going through seven editors in a matter of fourteen months.

The publication ups and downs continued into the Republican period. The paper, along with the CNT, had urged workers to abstain from voting in the election of November 1933. After the confrontation between the treintistas and faistas, the paper was suppressed by the government, publication being suspended for 104 days, and entire press-runs being seized. To counteract this, the title of the paper was shortened to "Solidaridad". Notwithstanding, in 1934, despite having the second-largest circulation of any paper in Catalonia, the paper was regularly suppressed by the government of former CNT defense lawyer Lluis Companys and Joan Selves.

The paper's status as mouthpiece for the CNT was reflected in its pages, as it was the scene of many ideological battles

Issues in anarchism

Anarchism is a heterogeneous philosophy with many different tendencies and schools of thought; differences on questions of ideology, values and tactics are common. Ideas about how an anarchist society might work vary considerably, especially with respect to economics...

. During the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 the paper's press-run exploded to 220,000 copies, elevating it to the largest circulation newspaper in Spain. But the paper continued to have trouble staying in print. During the war, an editorial appeared in its pages denouncing the Communists. The Communist Commissar for Public Order in Madrid, Cazorla, was particularly criticized, and had the Madrid offices of the paper closed. After the fall of the Republic at the end of the civil war, the paper was banned by the government of Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

.

During the Franco regime

Spanish State

Francoist Spain refers to a period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975 when Spain was under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco....

, despite its prohibition, the paper appeared occasionally, though clandestinely. From 1945 to 1947, it was published monthly, and later sporadically. When the dictatorship ended with the death of Franco in 1976, the paper began publishing weekly (though sometimes just monthly) as the mouthpiece of the newly legalized CNT of Catalonia, under the editorship of Luís Andrés Edo

Luís Andrés Edo

Luís Andrés Edo was a militant and historian of Spain's anarchosyndicalist movement the CNT.-Early life:...

. In 2005, under the direction of Jordi Exposito, the paper became a free publication, financed with the support of subscribers and donations. In 2007, it became the mouthpiece of the CNT-AIT of Spain, and that of the Catalonian/Balearic branch of the CNT.

Sources

• Archer, William. The Life, Trial, and Death of Francisco Ferrer, Moffat, Yard and Co., 1911.
• Bolloten, Burnett. The Spanish Revolution : the Left and the struggle for power during the Civil War, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, c1979, ISBN 0807812978
• Gómez Casas, Juan. Anarchist Organisation: The History of the F.A.I., Black Rose Books Limited, 1986, ISBN 0920057381
• Jones, Norman. Regionalism and Revolution in Catalonia, in Paul Preston: Revolution and War in Spain, Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0415098947
• Payne, Stanley G. The Spanish Revolution, Norton, 1970. ISBN 0297001248
• Thomas, Hugh. The Spanish Civil War, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1961.

External links

• Online edition of Solidaridad Obrera
• Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Official site of the CNT
• 100 years of ‘Solidaridad Obrera’