The 1865 Barcelona Workers Congress was held in December —in September, according to

Manuel Tuñón de Lara Manuel Tuñón de Lara (1915–1997) was a Spanish historian. Life Born in Madrid on 8 September 1915. He earned law degree from the University of Madrid in 1936. In 1932 he had joined the Communist Youth Union, in 1937 becoming director of ...

- from

1865 Events January * January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City. * January 13 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Fisher – Unio ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

(

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) and brought together 22 Catalan workers' societies, taking advantage of a moment tolerance during the final crisis of the reign of Elizabeth II (1863-1868). It was the first workers' congress to be held in Spain, although it was limited to

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Background

After the Progressive Biennium, workers' societies were once again banned, although some continued to exist underground. There was some initiative to address the social question by members and sympathizers of the Progressive Party in Catalonia as the foundation in 1862 of the Catalan Working Class Athenaeum. The situation changed in 1864 when the

Captain General of Catalonia The office of Captain General of Catalonia (; ) was created in 1713 by the Nueva Planta decrees of King Philip V of Spain to replace that of Viceroy of Catalonia. List of Captains General of Catalonia Under Philip V Under Ferdinand VI ...

, Domingo Dulce y Garay, in fact allowed the workers' societies to function, which opened a period of freedom, during which two newspapers of some importance appeared, '' El Obrero'' and ''La Asociación''. The first issue of ''El Obrero'' was released on September 4, 1864, directed by Antoni Gusart i Vila, with the aim of defending "the interests of the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

" and achieving the right of workers' association, both for the "resistance to capital" and to form "workers' societies applied to production and consumption", that is, to form

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

s, a movement that gained strength by those years and that also gave legal cover to the resistance societies. The idea of holding a Congress in Barcelona to coordinate the existing workers' societies came from ''El Obrero''. The editors of ''El Obrero'' thought that the congress would serve to "promote the cooperative movement, which, implanted in England a few years ago, has spread rapidly throughout the European nations."

Development

Chaired by Gusart and by various members of the editorial staff of ''El Obrero'', the Congress was held from December 24 to 26, 1865 — or in September, according to other sources - at the ''Salón Universal'' in

. Some 300 delegates from twenty-two associations attended, according to Josep Termes. Forty, according to Tuñón de Lara. The agenda consisted of the following three points proposed by ''El Obrero'': The first important agreement that was reached was the formation of a federation of workers' societies and workers' centers in those places where there was more than one society, of which ''El Obrero'' would be its official organ. One of its objectives would be to propagate "the practice of cooperative societies." The second was to send a petition to the Government to recognize

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline membe ...

, "since how many exhibitions have been addressed to the Cortes have been as many stones thrown into deep chasm." The "Exhibition" was published in ''El Obrero'' on January 7, 1866, with Gusart as the first signatory, followed by Ramón Cartañá, Miquel Martorell, Matías Fuster, Josep Morera, Josep Espinal and Josep Roig. The exhibition said, among other things, the following: Politics was not discussed in Congress, "nor was anyone allowed to speak about the state, nor would it have been allowed, as it was not the responsibility of the meeting."

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

External links

"Primer Congrés Obrer Estatal" at veuobrera.org (in Catalan)
accessed on September 11, 2014. 1865 in Catalonia 1865 in Spain 1865 in politics Labour movement in Spain