The Union and Solidarity Pact was a Spanish labor organization founded in

1888 In Germany, 1888 is known as the Year of the Three Emperors. Currently, it is the year that, when written in Roman numerals, has the most digits (13). The next year that also has 13 digits is the year 2388. The record will be surpassed as late ...

, which succeeded the

Federation of Workers of the Spanish Region The Federation of Workers of the Spanish Region ( es, Federación de Trabajadores de la Región Española, FTRE) was a Spanish anarchist organization founded in the Barcelona Workers' Congress of 1881 by the initiative of a group of Catalan anarch ...

. It was valid until

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that ...

History

Between May 18 and 20, 1888, an "expanded" Congress of the

was held in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, but it was not attended by the Andalusian federations which had already opted for

anarcho-communism Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains res ...

and

illegalism Illegalism is a tendency of anarchism that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland during the late 1890s and early 1900s as an outgrowth of individualist anarchism. Illegalists embrace criminality either openly or secretly ...

. The delegates, the vast majority of whom were Catalan, and the Federal Committee decided to create the Spanish Federation of Resistance to Capital, better known by the name of the Union and Solidarity Pact, whose purpose was "to unite in a common action the resistant force of the Spanish proletariat to direct it against the prevailing capitalism ..." For this purpose, "unconditional support for any strike promoted by workers to safeguard their outraged dignity or to improve their working conditions" was approved, although it was recommended that strikes only be carried out "under favorable conditions". The new organization, according to Tuñón de Lara, "was halfway between anarchism and societarism". However, according to Josep Termes, it was rather contrary to societarism, as the following statement would prove: "Understand well, we are talking about spontaneous and natural resistance, not that which presupposes a universal, patient and calculated organization, to get a few more cents in wages or an hour less work… This kind of resistance is as ineffective and impractical as cooperation." In October 1888 the "Pact" held a Congress in Valencia in which it was decided to dissolve the Federation of Workers of the Spanish Region, and separate union activity, which would be reserved for the newly created Union and Solidarity Pact. Meanwhile, the Anarchist Organization of the Spanish Region was founded for the purpose of revolutionary activity, "which was the least organization possible; the commission created had no other function than to act as a liaison. There were no statutes or disciplinary rules." But the new organization disappeared the following year. Between March 22 and 25,

1891 Events January–March * January 1 ** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany. ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. ** Germany takes formal possession of its new Af ...

the anarchist members of the ''Pact'' convened a congress in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, with

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

participation, where the antipolitical workers' struggle was agreed, and a general strike for

May 1 Events Pre-1600 * 305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor. * 880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches. *1169 – N ...

. Although the strike failed in Barcelona, it had quite an impact in the south of the country. When the "Pact" fell into decline, some of its members met to form an organization that would continue its work, which finally happened in 1900, with the founding of the

Federation of Resistance Societies of the Spanish Region The Federation of Resistance Societies of the Spanish Region ( es, Federación de Sociedades de Resistencia de la Región Española, FSORE) was an anarchist workers' federation founded in 1900 and extinguished in 1907, when it was succeeded by Sol ...

References

Bibliography

* * * *{{cite book , last=Tuñón de Lara , first=Manuel , authorlink=Manuel Tuñón de Lara , title=El movimiento obrero en la historia de España. I.1832-1899 , edition=2ª , year=1977, orig-year=1972 , publisher=Laia , location=

, isbn=84-7222-331-0 , language=es 1888 establishments in Spain 1896 disestablishments in Spain Anarchist organisations in Spain Anarchist Federations Trade unions in Spain Syndicalist trade unions