A-Infos (en) US, Anarchist WSA* - renewd Ideas & Actions - Interview with a CNTista By Deric Shannon

Over the summer I had the pleasure of staying in Madrid with my brother. Most of my time 
was spent relaxing and recovering from work, but I did take some time to meet up with 
local comrades while I was there. ---- The second time I got together with the CNT folks 
there, they were doing roving pickets of Hotel Vincci. As a result of an unfair firing (Is 
there ever a âfairâ one?), they were exerting pressure on the hotel by paying a visit to 
its Madrid locations. My compa, Abbey, and I tagged along for three of the locations where 
we stood outside the hotel and fliered, informed patrons and prospective patrons about the 
hotelâs bad labor practices, stickered the outside of the hotels, and got the cops called 
on us once (they never showed). ---- The ConfederaciÃn Nacional del Trabajo (âNational 
Confederation of Labourâ) is a confederation of labor unions in Spain (there is a French 
CNT as well) with a lot of significance for anarchists.

Founded in 1910 (and only taking a year to be declared illegal in 1911!), the 
anarcho-syndicalist union played a major role organizing workers and developing a sense of 
solidarity among them prior to, and during, the Spanish Civil War. Contemporarily, in 
Spain, the CNT has thousands of workers, but still lags behind the mainstream unions in 
numbers within the country (which are funded by the stateâthe CNT is not). It is a proud, 
fighting organization of workers committed to direct action strategies and self-management 
rather than capitulating to the demands of politicians or bosses.

When I asked our comrades about common CNT strategies, our hosts told us that often, when 
workers needed solidarity work due to firings or unfair labor practices, the union would 
wage campaigns like the Hotel Vincci pickets that we took part in. The union, however, 
also involves itself in other social struggles and participates in workersâ struggles 
outside of the workplace as well. I sent some interview questions over to our comrades in 
Madrid and, what follows, are their responses. I do think some of the questions didnât 
âtranslateâ very well (for example, when we talk of âpolitical organizationsâ in the Anglo 
world, we mean anarchist organizations that DO NOT participate in state politics in which 
we develop theory and practice collectively while also organizing in mass organizations 
with workers as militant minorities in social movementsâwe call this dual 
organizationalism), but I feel the interview carries with it some important insights (and 
differences) for discussion among anglo comrades.

1. First, can you tell us a little about the CNT, its structure, and some of the things 
the organization does?

The CNT is an anarchosyndicalist union. The organization aims to be a tool to channel and 
support workersâ day to day struggles. We try to reflect how we would like a future 
society to look in the way we organize and struggle. That future society would be (and 
this union now is) horizontally governed, decisions are made through direct democracy, and 
actions are carried out by self-management. We accept no subsidies from the government and 
do not believe in hierarchical structures. Everyone in the CNT is a âvolunteerâ, the arm 
of his or her own struggle, and our strength comes from each and every personâs awareness 
and willingness to help their comrades.

The CNT is a federation of independent, autonomous unions scattered throughout Spain. 
These unions make their own decisions in their general assemblies and do not depend on 
national permissions or oks. To coordinate the different unions and to be able to make 
CNT-wide decisions, we hold plenary sessions and Congresses where delegates given 
decision-making authority by their local unions agree on more far-reaching actions and 
problems.

The CNT organizes in workplaces, creating union sections (âsecciones sindicalesâ), minding 
health and security issues and progressively building up a social conscience, focused on 
the struggle. When conflict arises, all comrades, unions and International sections help 
in solidarity with actions that go from phone calling, faxing, sending mailings, picketing 
in front of the company, leafleting, graffiti, going inside the company and increasing 
pressure as the conflict escalates, going to the bossâs house or family business, where 
ever direct action is more effective.

2. What campaigns are the CNT focusing on in Spain right now?

On the ground, we have campaigns open against Ferroser in Madrid, Giraud in Valladolid, 
NuevoFuturo in Sevilla, STV GestiÃn in Pilar de la Horadada, LavanderÃas Azul in Ciudad 
Real, Mercadona in PuÃol and in San SebastiÃn de los Reyes, Eulen and Satein in CÃrdoba 
and a few more. We have International campaigns against StartPeople, Hotel Vincci and the 
publishing house Editorial Oceano.

At a national level we are working against the crisis, as a failure of international 
capitalism, the governmentâs response (as expected) bailing out banks with public funds 
and then immediately afterwards cutting workers wages like some sort of inverse solidarity 
measure. This occurred, of course, when a plethora of national media published recently 
that there are 16,000 ânew wealthyâ members of this society. The four million currently 
registered as on unemployment should not be forgotten.

Our work is not only against these governmental measures but, perhaps more importantly, to 
raise workersâ awareness about the complete injustice of these draconian methods, the 
danger in terms of future attacks, and the turncoat nature of âsocialistâ governments who 
are completely unable to withstand international monetary pressure and act as autonomous 
entitiesâmuch less ârepresentâ their voters. The big name unions (UGT and CCOO), 
supposedly working in the workersâ interest, repeatedly sell out the workers for the 
people paying for their fancy cars and their summer houses until, at this point, they are 
openly on their knees.

3. In what ways can comrades in the US contribute to your struggles?

You can take action against Hotel Vincci in New York and Editorial OcÃano, Inc. in 
Florida. Weâll try to keep you informed about these conflicts. When you have any conflicts 
where we can help please do send us information. Itâs also important to raise awareness 
about the whiplash affect throughout all of Europe where 100 years of labor struggle is 
being given a military haircut, in general with the passive acceptance of the major 
unions. Anarchosyndicalist organizing has an opportunity to be an incredibly valid 
alternative, and a strong way to combat this affront.

4. Can you talk a little bit about the CNTs organizational âidentityâ?
There seems to be some disagreement in the IWW and the SAC, for example,
over whether they should be unions (mass organizations), political
organizations, or both. Are there similar disagreements within the CNT?

CNT wants to be a mass organization; there is no disagreement on this. It is in our 
principles; we want to be a tool for workers to fight, to win, to learn and to join us. We 
need to be a mass organization to be able to create a social revolution. If âpolitical 
organizationâ means working within the state we cannot be for it. We would be tacitly 
accepting the validity of the state (and its dinner table partner, capitalism) by working 
with it.

Mass organization is the aim but we cannot lose our principles of horizontality, direct 
action and self-management. Accepting subsidizes from the state and playing in the Spanish 
workers council framework like CGT does is a sure way to losing these principles.

5. What role, if any, do you see for anarchist political groups (like the FAI) within the CNT?

FAI has no role in the CNT. FAI is a sister organization and many FAI anarchists are in 
the CNT, but FAI as an organization has no special role.

6. What developments have you seen within anarchism and the Left in Spain in the last 
decade or so? What ideas and events have inspired Leftists and anti-authoritarians there?

The anti-authoritarian and anarchosyndicalist movement has stayed much the same for the 
last 10 years, growing slowly. Spanish society is, as a whole, less and less radical, and 
the working class less and less combative. The mainstream unions are totally discredited 
and the working class does not have any clear reference to subverting this situation. At 
the same time, squatting, animal rights, environmentalism, vegetarianism, so-called 
âanti-systemâ movements, immigrant rights, antinuclear power and antiwar have all gained 
momentum in the last ten years. The 2002 general strike and massive 2003 antiwar 
demonstrations were the big events of the 2000âs.

7. What does the CNT do in terms of member education, both around theory and organizing?

We donât do much member education in the traditional sense of the word, seated in a 
classroom. Much of the âeducationâ members can receive comes from participating in the 
struggles of their comrades and in their own struggles, at the assemblies, in the street, 
in protests, etc. Then we have our newspaper and all the unions have many books for any 
comrade to take as they please

8. How does the CNT relate to the anarchist movement in Spain?

The CNT is, and has been for 100 years, part of the anarchist movement. The union aspires 
to be the practical end of a more theoretical, private, anarchist ideology by 
materializing those beliefs in open conflict with late capitalism, the ever more 
cumbersome state structure and suppression of workers struggles in open (police) and 
insidious (laws, legislation, policy, media) ways. Our natural habitat is the street and 
the workplace, our natural forum is combat.

9. How has the economic crisis affected the CNT? Has it grown, stayed the same, decreased 
in membership?

It is growing steadily but it should be growing a hell of a lot more with the current 
situation!

10. Can you tell us a bit about how you organize? In what ways does the CNT organize for 
workerâs power on the shopfloor and in your communities?

The main CNT unit is the union assembly: all decisions are made there. In the union there 
are many union sections. A union section is a group of workers in a company. No union 
elections are needed, just one or more workers get together, create a union section and 
inform the company. This is our main weapon. This union section figure is in the Spanish 
legislation together with the âworkers council delegateâ figure. The union section enables 
us to fight horizontally and with the workers in the companies. Community work is done 
through âathenaeumsâ or specific causes create committees, like the recent committee 
against CCTV in our neighborhoods.

Posted: August 31st, 2010 under International, Labor.
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* http://workersolidarity.org/ May 1st, 2010 - We are proud to announce the launch of our 
online version of ideas & action, the journal of Workers Solidarity Alliance (W.S.A.).
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