Miners' Struggle in Bizkaia: 1896 Industrialization

Document Analysis: Prim Sour

Type: Article, propaganda text, and narrative/content, socio-political text.

Author: Socialists, their Bulletin La Lucha de Clases, published by socialist committees of Bilbao, Gallarta, and Ortuella (inspired by Facundo Perezagua). Introduction: La lucha de clases.

Addressed: Workers of Bizkaia (miners), but also the Government (public text).

Objective: Denounce the working conditions of miners and call for mobilization.

Location and Date: Period of the process of industrialization in Bizkaia (1896), accumulation of capital by the bourgeoisie, poor living and working conditions for workers, leading to the beginning of the labor movement.

Main Idea: Denounce the working conditions of miners and call for mobilization. Content.

Three Main Ideas

Explanation of the Situation and Complaint:

• Poor working conditions of miners on the left bank of the Bilbao estuary.
• Denunciation that the Loma agreement is not being met.
• After the "Great Strike" (1890), the signing of the Loma treaty was obtained.
• Entrepreneurs (referred to as "little kings" on page 2) did not want to apply the treaty.
• These conditions were against human dignity: maintaining barracks, company stores, etc.

Request Made to the Government:

• Compliance with the Loma agreement.
• Pages 2 and 3 mention the objectives that miners were seeking in the 1890 strike: reduction of the working day (10 hours) and elimination of barracks and company stores.

Appeal to the Mobilization of the Workers:

• Workers achieved certain things with the 1890 strike, so they are called to continue if the situation remains the same.
• Pages 4-6 use principles of democratic liberalism to denounce the situation, attacking the freedom of work (page 5), unhygienic hovels and poor food conditions (page 4), and exploitation of workers (page 5), all generating signs of a new slavery (page 6).

Description of the terrible situation lived by miners in Bizkaia during that period while the industrial bourgeoisie accumulated capital, sowing the instability of capitalism of the time and affecting the people.

On the other hand, this occurred during the militant period of Basque socialism, which did huge work for the expansion of the workers' movement in Bizkaia (giving them class consciousness, mobilization capacity, etc.). The weekly "La Lucha de Clases" was very important for all of this. Conclusion.

Precedents: Context

Beginning of Industrialization in Bizkaia:

• Appearance of the Bessemer converter, an advantage for Bizkaia due to the excellent characteristics of iron.
• Open-pit mines, growth of exploitation of the mines, unskilled workers, very low production costs, closeness to the Bilbao estuary.
• Industrial development offered excellent opportunities to the new industrial bourgeoisie and the development of steel companies in Bizkaia.
• Influence of colonial exploitation (how mining operations were organized) led to an accumulation of capital for some families of the Bizkaia oligarchy.
• Terrible working and living conditions for workers: dismissals without control, long workdays, housing in barracks, company shops.

Present Situation

This caused the emergence of the labor movement, linked to socialism and to the figure of Facundo Perezagua. In 1886, he began to expand socialist doctrine through Bizkaia, giving the movement its own identity: a radical, hard-working, revolutionary, anti-clerical tendency that chose union struggle instead of electoral struggle. In 1887, the first socialist group was founded in Bilbao.

This was called the militant period of socialism in Bizkaia, more linked to union struggle than to participation in elections. The Great Strike of 1890 was decisive in the emergence of the workers' movement in Bizkaia. The real reasons for the strike were the decrease in the purchasing power of workers (lower real salaries, higher food costs), long workdays, housing in barracks, and the obligation to buy in company stores.

To find a solution, the Loma agreement was signed, ending the strike. Strikers won a victory: imposing a 10-hour workday and eliminating the obligation to buy in company stores and live in barracks.

Consequences

The Loma agreement was not respected in all places, leading to repeated strikes. However, the most important was in 1890, showing that things could be achieved through fighting. The success of the strike showed the Socialists in Bizkaia the way to strengthen their project. New socialist groups emerged (Socialist Federation of Bizkaia in 1903), and later, in the 20th century, with Indalecio Prieto, a turn towards moderationism occurred, with participation in government institutions.