Part 2 of a report in the New Statesman by Gareth Stockey and Jo Grady and Chris Grocott
LAST week we left Gibraltarian workers fascinated by the
beliefs of anarchists. Gareth Stockey, Chris Grocott and Jo Grady continue with
the story:
The result was a noticeable increase in labour agitation on
both sides of the frontier. The tactics adopted by local workers confounded
local employers and the Gibraltar authorities, not least because anarchism
proved remarkably successful at encouraging boycotts of businesses and
‘sympathy’ strikes in favour of fellow workers in disparate industries. When
necessary, anarchists were also willing to adopt ‘direct action’ to combat what
they perceived as the inherently violent practices of the bosses and local
political authorities who protected them. The rhetoric of meetings gives us a
flavour of this new-found militancy, with one worker threatening to ‘eat the
liver’ of a local tobacco merchant during a strike in 1902. Following an
earlier dispute in October 1901, a local anarchist newspaper urged its readers
to remember the long-term goal of ‘total and definitive emancipation […] the
abolition of private property with all its consequences, state, religion,
militarism, magistrates […] a great work, larger than the massive Rock we have
in our view’. Crucially, anarchists were willing to act as well as to talk.
Several local bosses were assaulted during industrial disputes in the period –
so much so that Gibraltar’s employers occasionally resorted to using firearms
in self-defence – and ‘scab’ workers had stones thrown at them as they
attempted to cross picket-lines.
Arguably what offended local businessmen more than the
threat to their person was the very real challenge that anarchism offered to
their economic interests. If we might dismiss as hyperbole, in the context of a
heavily garrisoned British colony, the question posed by one local businessman
to the Governor of Gibraltar in 1892, ‘are our goods and chattels safe?’, we
can nonetheless point to several successes of anarchist militancy at the turn
of the century. Across numerous industries, wage settlements favoured workers
thanks to the effectiveness of strikes, boycotts and the occasional spot of
physical intimidation. Most impressive of all, employers were forced to concede
the dream of the ‘tres ochos’ (three eights) to many local workers – that is to
say eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep and eight hours for leisure. Committed
to improving living as much as working conditions, local anarchist groups also
made up for the absence of state provision by offering schooling to hundreds of
local children, as well as myriad cultural initiatives to bring learning to the
local working classes.
Gibraltar’s employers were so shell-shocked by the growth
and success of anarchism that they offered to pay the salary of a British union
official who had been sent to the Rock in 1898. In his memoirs Lorenzo Quelch,
who had been sent by the nascent Social Democratic Foundation, left a vivid
account of his time in Gibraltar, but he decided not to take up the employers’
offer. The culmination of all of this activity was a ‘general strike’ of
industries in Gibraltar in 1902. This time, having prepared meticulously and
coordinated their response to the dispute, the employers emerged victorious. On
the Spanish side of the frontier, the anarchist movement was to face worse, as
the local political and military authorities staged a bloody massacre of local
militants in October 1902, closing down workers’ centres and confiscating their
funds.
Much work needs to be done, but this brief account of the
infancy of labour organisation in Gibraltar highlights the intimacy of
relations across the frontier. Many years later, in 1919, Gibraltarian workers
would formally attach themselves to a British gradualist, rather than Spanish
anarchist, form of organisation through the TGWU. But as we have noted, the
Gibraltar TGWU retained strong links with its counterparts in the Campo for
several decades and workers continued to fight side-by-side for better living
and working conditions. The early successes of Gibraltarian and Spanish
anarchists shows just how much workers on both sides of the frontier stood (and
stand) to gain by recognising common grievances and acting collectively to
address them.
Gareth Stockey is lecturer in Spanish studies at the
University of Nottingham. He has published widely on the history of Gibraltar
and Spain, including (with Chris Grocott) Gibraltar: a Modern History
(University of Wales Press, 2010).
Chris Grocott is lecturer in Management and Economic
History, and Jo Grady is lecturer in Industrial Relations and Human Resources
Management, at the University of Leicester.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment