A-Infos (en) Asturies burning!!! p.3 (ca)

[prat@chem.ucsb.edu (Luis Prat)]

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MINER'S STRIKES IN ASTURIES

This is a summary of the most important events regarding the asturian 
miners' struggles.Obviously not all the strikes are described here, only the 
most important ones.

1890
The first general strike by asturian miners. It begins on May 6 at Molinucu 
and Lla'scares mines,property of Mieres Factory, spreading a few days later 
to the Nalo'n and Caudal Valleys,accompanied by demonstrations harshly 
repressed by the civil guard and an army batallion from Leo'n. The miners 
demanded: freedom of work, fourteen reales per day (a raise of two reales)
and a reduction of the workday to 8 hours, down from 12. After 15 days the 
workers go back to work after winning some of their demands.

1906
"Big Strike" in Mieres. Miners from several companies ask for raises of 10%. 
The companies refuse and fire 700 workers. Anarchists and socialists had 
presented a united front, but give up faced with staunch opposition from the 
bosses. Almost four years of "social peace" follow this  first struggle of 
the century.

1910
The CNT is founded, as well as the Miner's Union where metal workers from 
the mining valleys are also admitted. One of its principal objectives is the 
creation of a resistance fund to keep strikes going.

1911
The miner's union declares and wins two strikes. The first one for the 
rehiring of 34 fired workers (from Baltasara and Mariana mines), terminated 
for taking part in May Day events. The second due to the firing of a worker 
accused of making socialist propaganda in the Aller Valley. The civil
governor intervenes in the first strike and in the second he sends the civil 
guard and an army regiment, but the miners hold fast and the bosses are 
forced to give in to the miner's demands.

1912
Anarchosyndicalists from La Felguera call a strike in June demanding salary 
increases. A short time later the Miner's Union joins in solidarity. The 
workers have to compromise since they are economically weak.

1916
In the midst of the First World War and as a consequence of the general 
malaise felt throughout the country, the anarchosyndicalists from Xixo'n 
call a strike, followed by similar movements in other points of the 
peninsula. The government answers by declaring a state of war and then the 
miner's union joins the strike in solidarity. The state of war lasts longer 
than in other places and the miner's union confronts the government leading 
massive miner's and metal worker's movements.

1917
That year's summer is the stage for the first strictly political general 
strike, called by all unios together at the national level. The government 
reacts with a state of war, which again lasts a month longer in Asturies 
than in the rest of the country. The Miner's Union doesn't give up until the 
beginning of October. Violence breaks out and armed encounters between 
workers and civil guards and soldiers take place in Asturies, mainly during 
the last month of the conflict. Repression is extremely harsh and many 
miners flee to the mountails. They are the first "escapees".

1934
In a bourgeois Republic ruled by a right wing coalition and frustrated by 
the expectations of social change motivated by the fall of the monarchy, the 
asturian proletariat joins the Alianza Obrera (Worker's Alliance) formed by 
all workers' organizations. On October 5th a general strike is unleashed 
throughout the nation, which fails due to divisions among the different
organizations. Only in Asturies the Workers' Alliance comprises all the 
organizations. On the 5th the revolutionary socialist newspaper financed by 
the Miners' Union prints the slogan "Balls and Dynamite". All civil guard 
barracks in the mining valleys are taken in a few hours. While the workers 
advance to take Uvieu in the valleys several revolutionary experiments begin 
(libertarian communism in the anarchosyndicalist areas and war communism in 
the socialist and communist areas). A true red army is formed which defeats 
government troops in the first encounters. With the failure of the strike in 
the rest of the nation, the first revolutionary committee is disolved,
however the workers gather in assembly at Plaza del Fonta'n in Uvieu and 
decide to elect a new committe and continue the struggle. The government 
send shock troops (moors and legionnaires) under Franco. The republican 
forces advance by placing prisoners in front of the columns. Nevertheless 
the miners stage a fierce resistance, in spite of the lack of weapons, made 
up in part by the use of dynamite and their revolutionary convictions. The 
third revolutionary committe faced with a desperate situation begins 
negotiations with the army, agreeing to surrender in exchange for not having 
the moors and legionnaires occupy the valleys, since their massacres of 
innocent civilians in the Uvieu working class neighborhoods were already 
known. The army agrees (although later it doesn't keep its word). Movement 
leaders announce "the loss of a battle, but not the war" in a meeting in 
front of Sama City Hall. Many miners refuse to surrender and escape to the 
mountains with their weapons. Much armament is hidden away waiting for the 
next assault. The government's repression is brutal: indiscriminate deaths, 
thousands of prisoners are tortured, disappeared ...
The October revolution is an unforgettable landmark in the political 
consciousness of Asturian miners and workers.

1936-1937
Civil war and revolution in Asturies. The collapse in October 1937, after 
being the last region in the north to resist fascism ushered a repression 
that will never be quantified. In Uvieu alone there are 3,000 bodies in the 
cemetery's common grave. Many fighters take to the mountains from where they 
harass Franco's forces for many years. The mines are militarized, with miners
as soldiers, foremen as sargeants, etc.

1958
After the firing of some workers at the begining of March, miners from Maria 
Luisa strike in solidarity, followed shortly by those from El Fondo'n and 
Santa Eulalia mines, the number of strikers quickly reaches 15,000 in the 
main valleys. The government suspends three articles of the Fuero the los 
Espan~oles (sort of fascist constitution T.N.) for 4 months in the region 
affected by the strike. Franco's reply is in the form of arrests, firings, 
fines, beatings, banishments. The first Workers Commission is spontaneously 
created at La Camocha mine, a form of worker's self-organization that would 
spread throughout the country in the following years.

1962
On April 7 miners from Nicolasa mine declare a strike. The following day 
those from Baltasara do too, next those of Polio and so on until a week 
later the whole Caudal Valley is on strike. On monday the 16th the strike 
spreads to Turo'n and later to the Nalo'n Valley, with 60,000 workers 
striking. The slogan is "General salary raises and solidarity with our 
comrades". The ruler's answer is again detentions, beatings of workers and 
their women and other outrages. Other regions of the country, such as the 
mining and iron areas of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa  solidarize. On May 4 the 
government declares the state of siege in the provinces. But nothing can 
stop the miners and on May 24 the Official State Bulletin agrees to the 
strikers' demands. For the first time under franquism a mass workers 
movement wins. The struggle has international implications. Intellectuals 
publish a manifest denouncing the torture of miners' women. In the following 
years conflicts continue intermittantly in Asturies mining. In 1965 a 
miners' demonstration in Mieres demanding freedom for some prisoners ends 
with the assault of a local police station, an event unherad of under 
franquism. Faced with serious losses in the mining enterprises, the Franco 
government decides to nationalize most of the mines, creating the mega 
enterprise Hunosa, which harbors the majority of asturian mining operations.

1976
 The struggle begins in November 1975 at Tres Amigos mine with a demand for 
salary raises by wagon drivers and continues in mid-December with 48 hours 
of struggle for which Hunosa disciplines 4,500 workers. On December 30 mine 
helpers lock themselves up in well number 32,they are suspended without pay 
for a month. Miners at that well stop work in solidarity and are
likewise punished. On January 10 the strike spreads to Caudal and later to 
Nalo'n. The demands are: Lifting of sanctions, readmission of  workers fired 
for political reasons, unfreezing of salaries, discussion of the agreement 
with the participation of a workers commission elected by the workers and 
later freedom for those arrested during the strike would be included in the
demands. The company refuses to discuss these points. Assemblies and 
demonstrations multiply, mine and area commissions are elected. In Mieres 6 
workers are arrested and jailed in Uvieu prison, where they start a hunger 
strike. 52 union delegates lock themselves up in Sama union offices and are 
evicted by the police at 15 hrs. Miners from La Camocha ask for a legal
strike, which is denied giving rise to a wildcat strike. Minas de Figaredo 
fires 895 workers. 200 miner's wives lock themselves in the archbishop's 
palace in Uvieu. The police arrests 11 miners in Figaredo. 300 retired 
miners lock themselves in a church in Sama for 48 hours. Around mid-February 
the struggle reaches its peak: large assemblies (3,000 people at El Entregu 
on the 27th) multiply. Lock-ups in the mines of Carrio, Cerezal and Candi'n 
and in the curches in Sama, L'Entregu and Barredos. On the 25th the police 
cause several injuries in L'Entregu while breaking up a demonstration. The 
company closes the mines and laboral normalcy is not re-established until 
mid-March. This process of strikes is characterized by self-organization, 
generalization of the assemblies, the election of delegates by the base and 
the spreading of the struggle to women and retirees. The vertical union ends 
up rotting away thanks to this struggle in the mining valleys.

1987
Unions are legal and for a long time since have opted for a policy of 
demobilization and appeasement that empowers the political weight of the 
union structures but does not offer a solution to the industrial downsizing 
in Asturies promoted by the structural reform started by the spanish 
capitalists.With the future plans for public mining there are several days 
of strikes in Hunosa as well as general strikes in the mining valleys (up to 
3 per month). There are confrontations with the police in many ocassions. 
The newspaper "La Nueva Espan~a" opines that these mobilizations started the 
exercises in "urban guerrilla" on the part of the miners during their 
mobilizations. Three great demonstrations in Uvieu end in confrontations 
with the police. The last one was part of a general strike in Asturies 
organized by CCOO that ends in the center of Uvieu with large damages in the 
official establishments, banks and commerce (not a window was left intact in 
Uri'a Street) and confrontations with the police (several anti-riot units 
brought in from other parts of the country).

1991-92
The negotiations for a new future plan at Hunosa provoke a lock-up at 
Barredo well by the top levels of UGT and CCOO unions. Outside, uncontrolled 
miners and unemployed confront the police and the civil guard for two weeks, 
creating a veritable battlefront near Barredo mine, in Mieres' Vega de 
Arriba neighborhood. True combats take place, which are in many ocassions 
silenced by the press, such as the ambush in the old Uvieu-Mieres road of a 
civil guard convoy returning from Barredo mine with molotov cocktails thrown 
from the hills. Finally the union leaders, having lost their prominence 
abandon the lock-up and sign a pact that in 5 years cuts Hunosa's payroll in 
half.

DATA ABOUT THE CRISIS

Asturies lost 8,300 jobs in 1997, according to INEM (?). The employed 
population went from 334,542 people in 1996 to 326,208 in 1997, being 
Asturies the only autonomous community that has lost jobs. According to INEM 
there are 70,000 unemployed workers in Asturies (17.65%) first place in the 
state, a number that the more trustworthy EPA (Encuesta de Poblacio'n Activa 
- Survey of the Active Population) puts at 85,000.

According to a European Union report Asturies and Ulster are the regions of 
Europe with the most somber perspectives. There they have a war. Here there 
will be one.

FIRE PURIFIES.
 
   Luis
@@@@@@@@@@                                 
                                           
Luis J. Prat                             
                                          
University of California                   
Chemistry Dept.                             
Santa Barbara CA 93106
(805) 893-3295
(805) 893-4120  FAX

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2374

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