The General Secretary or Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is the head of the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The (CNT; ) is a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist national trade union center, trade union confederation.
Founded in 1910 in Barcelona from groups brought together by the trade union ''Solidaridad Obrera (historical union), Solidaridad Obrera'', ...
(National Confederation of Labour; CNT), a Spanish
confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
of
anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both ...
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
s. The position is elected by a congress or plenary session of the confederation. The position's powers are limited to technical and administrative affairs.
Since the confederation does not have fixed headquarters, the elected General Secretary's local federation becomes the confederation's central operations and a local plenary session of the local federation chooses the secretariats for other leadership positions. Together they are known as the ''Secretariado Permanente del Comité Confederal'' (Permanent Secretariat of the Confederal Committee, or SPCC). They, together with other regional federation's secretaries general, form the full Confederal Committee. The first general secretary of the CNT, chosen at its 1910 constitutional congress, was
José Negre. He had been general secretary of
Solidaridad Obrera, a Catalan union and precursor to the CNT. Thus
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 ...
was the first headquarters.
The CNT operated clandestinely during years of repression and splintered. Sources support several timelines of CNT Secretaries General during this time.
Through the Civil War (1910–1939)
Unless specified otherwise, the Headquarters of the CNT's General General and National Committee during this period were based in Barcelona.
During Franco (1939–1976)
During this period, the CNT worked clandestinely both inside Spain and in French exile. A schism among the exiles created two confederal committees with their own corresponding secretaries general.
In Spain
In exile
1. After his death, Germinal Esgleas Jaume took over.
Orthodox faction
1.He resigned in December 1948.
Possibilist faction
Reunification of exiled factions
The reunification of the CNT was ratified by a congress in
Caracas
Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
,
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
, on 18 December 1960.
1. He resigned in January 1975.
Since the transition to democracy (1976–present)
References
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{{portal bar, Anarchism, Organized labour, Spain
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo