INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-SPAIN:

CONGRATULATIONS ANARCHOSYNDICALISM FROM THE CGT:

As mentioned before on this blog this year marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Spanish Confederación Nacional de Trabajo (CNT) in Barcelona. All of the Spanish anarchosyndicalist groups are planning events to mark this centennial. The CGT have recently published the following congratulatory note in their paper Rojo Y Negro. As can be seen from the article Rojo Y Negro plans to have a continuing series with historical documents and how they relate to the present time. Molly hopes to be following this series and translating at least some of the essays. To my knowledge the article below is the first time that it has appeared in an English translation.

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Congratulations, Anarcosindicalism:

2010 is the centenary of anarcho-syndicalism, that is, each and every one of the organizations. groups and individuals who declare themselves as such. And each and all deserve a fraternal greeting, congratulations for having held to type, congratulations to one of the most rebellious critical and constructive currents for liberty and equality which we could provide to human beings, congratulations to each and every one who in his or her life built anarcho-syndicalism.

And congratulations, then, to all anarchosyndicalist organizations : the first historical CNT of course , and now the CNT-AIT, the Solidaridad Obrera, a splinter or separate CNT in Barcelona, the CNT France but also all sections of the AIT, and other unions outside of Spain that claim anarchist syndicalism (SAC in Sweden, the two USIs in Italy Workers’ Initiative in Poland, the Greek ESE, etc.), and including that this is also the centenary of other anarcho específicos many groups, mainly Latin American, who largely subscribe to the anarcho-syndicalist ideas that emerged from the historic Congress 1910 in Barcelona.

And obviously, despite the current divisions of some anarchosyndicalist sectors , the non-dogmatic anarchonsindicalist backbone, wide and pluralistic, of the CGT, the General Confederation of Labor. Of course.

Its self-organization, its struggles, its popular assemblies, its self critical ability, and its construction of a society open to the horizontal movements of the social base, and especially to all workers , in every sense of the word, testify to a path and a practice that, with its errors and contradictions, is the most genuine expression of anarcho-syndicalism: the constant search for the self-emancipation of the exploited classes.

Rojo Y Negro is reporting the early acts of this anniversary, opening a page that will be revisited over the next eleven months, in which part of an historical text on a specific theme (of the many that have been directly or indirectly been treated by anarcho-syndicalism) will be used for another consideration of the matter and updating of the points made in the historic document. Each page will be accompanied with an original illustration that, with artistic freedom, express an image of what is being "discussed" in the current and historical texts. This is the particular contribution of Royo Y Negro to the centennial.

I cannot but emphasize another fact which was duly reported in the pages of Rojo Y Negro, and coincides with the centennial, and what it means for reflection and updating of libertarian principles, with the formation on the confederal level of the "Jóvenes Anarcosindicalistas-CGT’ (Anarchosyndicalist youth), certainly a historic milestone for the Confederacy, small now but it will hopefully enhance its presence and importance in the not too distant future. That a youth group, affiliated to the CGT, has decided to be called "anarcho" is not trivial. It indicates a clear intention to necessarily follow a path open to innovation, self direction, and self-management of their own lives. The precariousness, both social and in employment, and conditions of manipulation, exploitation and repression in which we live are directly suffered by women and men, and therefore it is up to us to confront this reality, deal with it, and build from solidarity and mutual support an alternative which is urgent and necessary to radically transform the oppressive and unjust world. They are the CGT.

Antonio Carretero,

Rojo Y Negro