Part 1 of a report in the New Statesman by Gareth Stockey and Jo Grady and Chris Grocott
IN February
2016, the Gibraltar branch of the Unite union is helping to organise a
conference to explore Gibraltar’s role in the Spanish Civil War. The event
comes in the year in which we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of
the civil war, but also takes place not long after the 40th anniversary of the
death of Franco. Doubtless under discussion will be the role that the Rock
played in providing sanctuary for over 10,000 Spaniards fleeing the early
fighting (and savage Francoist repression) in the neighbouring Campo de
Gibraltar in the summer of 1936. But also of note is the solidarity and activism
of Gibraltar’s Transport and General Workers’ Union (now Unite) in support of
Spanish democracy during the civil war. This ranged from fundraising and
parliamentary lobbying on behalf of the Spanish Republic to practical and
symbolic assistance. Many Gibraltarian workers offered unpaid overtime in the
winter of 1938, for example, in a bid to repair the damaged Republican warship
the José Luis Diez. The TGWU’s organiser, Agustin Huart, appeared at one point
in the civil war in a Republican newspaper, at the front with a revolver in his
hand. His (and the union’s) commitment to those republican refugees left in
Gibraltar after 1939 remained unwavering well into the 1950s.
Official and
elite interaction across the Gibraltar frontier is widely recognised in the
period before Franco’s dictatorship. Most famously of all, British and Spanish
officers and aristocrats would join local civilian dignitaries by hunting foxes
in the Campo. The ‘Royal Calpe Hunt’ boasted as its joint patrons the kings of
Britain and Spain. Dozens of Gibraltar’s wealthiest inhabitants owned
businesses across the frontier and built summer houses in the Campo, while
local Spanish notables were intimately embedded into the social and economic
life of Gibraltar. The Larios family, for example, had property on both sides
of the border and the head of the family acted as the Master of the Calpe Hunt
for decades. The family also insisted on speaking English and serving meals at
‘English’ times.
As social
history has become more common in Gibraltar and the Campo in recent years, a
similar picture has emerged for the local working classes, that is to say the
vast majority of the local population. Now rescued from what E.P. Thompson
referred to as ‘the enormous condescension of posterity’, a vivid picture of
extensive and daily interaction between Gibraltarians and Spaniards has
emerged. This went well beyond the workplace – at times over 12000 Spaniards
were crossing into Gibraltar each day to work alongside Gibraltarians – and
extended to thousands of friendships, marriages and children. Sport was another
bonding agent for the local population, and while football remained the most
popular cross-frontier sporting fixture, bullfighting boasted thousands of fans
on the Rock.
As noted
above, Unite and its predecessor the TGWU are testimony to this shared history
of working-class cooperation across the frontier. Few people realise, however,
that the origins of organised labour in Gibraltar are not British, but in fact
derive from a very different tradition: that of Spanish anarchism. In a
recently published article, we have attempted to chart the origins of labour
organisation on the Rock. What is notable is not only the fact that early
‘union’ activity in Gibraltar drew its ideological and organisational
inspiration from anarchism, but also just how radical and effective these
anarchist activities proved to be.
Anarchism
was gaining ground quickly in southern Spain in the last two decades of the
nineteenth century. While there is great debate as to the reasons for
anarchism’s popularity in the region, it is widely acknowledged that one of the
principal attractions of the movement was its roots in the everyday experiences
of workers, not only in the workplace itself, but also in response to the harsh
living conditions of the population and the repressive nature of the Spanish
state. Living and working conditions on the Rock were generally acknowledged to
be better than those across the frontier, but it should be remembered that Gibraltar
was a heavily garrisoned and strictly regulated fortress community in this
period. There was also a perception (not always warranted) that the British
officers and colonial administration in the territory favoured the interests of
local employers and merchants over those of workers. As anarchist ideas were
brought to the colony by those thousands
of Spanish labourers each day, it is little surprise that Gibraltarian workers
found much to commend in the ideas and practices espoused by anarchists.
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