CGT

The General Confederation of Labor (Spanish: Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT) is a Spanish trade union federation. The CGT was a result of a split in the anarchist National Confederation of Labor (CNT). In 1979, at the first CNT congress after Spain's transition to democracy, there was a fundamental disagreement concerning union elections. Such elections allow Spanish workers to elect union delegates to factory committees every four years. Some deemed this a renewal of anarcho-syndicalism, but the more orthodox in the organization considered such elections a "government intervention in labor-capital relations". Moreover, this would involve receiving state funding. The two fa…   Read more

The colors black and red have been used by anarchists since at least the late 1800s, though generally used by anarcho-communists. The flag was used as the symbol of the anarcho-syndicalists by the CNT during the Spanish Civil War. The black represents anarchism and the red represents leftist and socialist ideals. George Woodcock writes that the bisected black-and-red flag symbolized a uniting of "the spirit of later anarchism with the mass appeal of the First International"

Syndicalism is a current in the labor movement to establish local, worker-based organizations and advance the demands and rights of workers through strikes. Major syndicalist organizations include the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the General Confederation of Labor in France, the National Confederation of Labour in Spain, the Italian Syndicalist Union, the Free Workers' Union of Germany, and the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation. A number of syndicalist organizations were and still are to this day linked in the International Workers' Association.

Syndicalists advocate direct action, including working to rule, passive resistance, sabotage, and strikes, p…   Read more