1931-33 Left Response/Repression

• The PSOE proposed to introduce many measures that the left welcomed, including:

  • nationalisation of the banks and railways, mines and forests
  • legalisation of divorce
  • legal protection for civil rights
  • separation of the Catholic Church from the state
• Many on the left believed that parliament democracy was an essentially bourgeois form of government and therefore incapable of truly radical action.
• Frustrated at the slow pace of change, radical unions such as the UGT and the FNTT, as well as the anarchist CNT, which had never supported the Republic, initiated strike action.
• The first major strike was initiated by dockworkers in Pasaia, a port town in the Basque Country, in May 1931. Representatives of the PSOE asked striking workers to be patient, but the CNT argued that waiting was pointless, as the new republic was little better than the old military dictatorship. The government sent the Civil Guard to break up the strike. 8 workers were killed in fighting between union members and government soldiers. As a result, the UGT became more radical and the influence of the anarchists grew within the union movement.
• Strikes spread in the summer of 1931 to Madrid, Barcelona and Seville.
• The telephone workers' strike of July 1931 divided the left. Anarchists and communists supported the striking workers, while PSOE ministers in the government ordered the police to break up the strike.
• A CNT organised general strike in Seville led to further violence as workers engaged in gun battles with the police. The strike was only brought to an end by military action against the CNT headquarters in the city.
• In Badajoz, where local landlords and police worked together to deny peasants' rights, the FNTT called a strike. The Civil Guard responded by opening fire on unarmed, peaceful protesters.
• Violence and divisions among the unions led to a decline in the number of strikes and the end of 1931. However, the clashes between the PSOE-led government and the union movement led to bitter divisions on the left.
• Divisions on the left were obvious in 1932, when the CNT called a general strike but the UGT refused to collaborate. Moreover, the leaders of the UGT condemned the strike, arguing that the new republic should be given time to consolidate and to deliver the promised reforms.