CNT Bilbao (machine translation) || The CNT called a May Day demonstration that set off at 11:30 a.m. from the center of Bilbao. The march proceeded along Gran Vía to Plaza Arriaga, where the rally that concluded the event took place.
Tubos Reunidos: Workforce reduction, public debt and common shareholders
The first intervention was carried out by members of the CNT Union Section at Tubos Reunidos de Amurrio, a company that is going through a major labor dispute: management is proposing a workforce reduction plan that includes the dismissal of 240 people, the closure of the steelworks and the outsourcing of the Logistics department, in addition to the threat of filing for bankruptcy.
The union representatives denounced that the company requested a €170 million loan intended for the acquisition of another company, a transaction that never materialized, and whose majority lender was BBVA. In addition to this private debt, there is an estimated €150 million debt to the public treasury, the forgiveness of which—in the union’s view—is the true objective of the workforce reduction plan. The spokespeople pointed to the existence of shareholding ties between Tubos Reunidos, the Vocento Group, and BBVA as partly explaining the media coverage of the conflict.
“ This is why we are fighting, against capitalist greed and the embezzlement of public funds with the complicity of politicians from all parties ,” they stated. The CNT union section at Tubos Reunidos champions anarcho-syndicalism as an organizational tool in contrast to the “ compromising ” approach it attributes to other currents within the labor movement.
Peace, work and revolution: the organization’s statement
Aida Arroyo Noval presented the CNT’s statement for this May 1st, structured around three main points: the denunciation of current working conditions as an expression of a system of structural exploitation; the rejection of war as an instrument at the service of economic and political interests alien to the working classes; and the demand for a peace built on social justice and mutual support.
Disobedience against unjust orders and direct action as an alternative to reformism were called for: ” There is no future without disobedience ,” states one of the central ideas. The communiqué calls on the working class to organize from the ground up—through grassroots unions, mutual support networks, strikes, and cooperatives—in the face of what it calls a “capitalist offensive” in the labor and geopolitical spheres.
Mobilization versus organization: the call to build a union section
Endika Alabort Amundarain offered a reflection on the difference between mobilization and union organization. Using the visual metaphor of matches—a single match breaks easily; a handful does not—the speaker articulated the argument that the working class’s capacity for resistance depends on its degree of stable organization in the workplace, not solely on its occasional presence in the public sphere.
The speech alluded to the general strike of March 17 as the starting point of an organizational process that the CNT considers unfinished. ” Mobilizing means getting people into the streets. Organizing means building permanent workers’ power ,” it stated. The final appeal invited those present to establish or strengthen union sections in their workplaces, to share experiences of workplace abuse, and to recruit unorganized female colleagues.
The day ended with a communal meal for members and supporters of the anarcho-syndicalist union.
The following lines contain the final statement
Today is the day to demonstrate the strength we have as a class, it is the day to begin to commit.
Have you seen the matchstick videos? One hand strikes a match. The other, effortlessly, breaks it. That’s what we are when we go to work alone. When we silently endure abuse. When we think the problem is ours, not the system’s. A lone match always breaks.
But the hand pulls out more matches. Two, three, four. And it breaks them all the same. With a little more effort, yes. But it breaks them. That’s what happens when we mobilize without organizing. When we took to the streets on March 17th—and we did take to the streets, and it was important, and we did it well—but we came home without having built anything permanent.
Mobilization without organization is fragile resistance.
And then the hand pulls out a handful. A bunch of matches. And the other hand can’t break them. That’s what the union section is. That’s what organizing at work is, with your coworkers, in the company, in the industry. Not just once a year in the street. Every day, on the job.
But there’s a second video. Matches don’t just stay together. They ignite. A single flame, easily extinguished. Several flames, with effort. But when there are many, when they burn together, the hand can no longer put them out. The fire is class consciousness. It’s knowing that what happens to us at work isn’t individual, it’s structural. It’s understanding that management doesn’t make mistakes, it implements a strategy. And that, faced with a strategy, there’s only one other strategy.
And the third video. A match tries to stop a machine. It breaks. Several matches. They break. Many matches, packed together. The machine stops. The machine is capitalism. And capitalism, today, is on the offensive. We see it in the assembled pipes, where they’ve tried to exclude us. We see it in the strike of archaeologists at Can Masana, which they’ve tried unsuccessfully to outlaw. We see it in every disguised furlough, in every bogus self-employed worker, in every collective agreement negotiated without us.
On March 17th, we went on strike. We really went on strike. The general strike was a resounding success. We took to the streets of Bilbao, of Bizkaia, of the entire Basque Country. And we in the CNT said: this cannot be the end, it has to be the beginning.
We set ourselves goals: to expand union branches, to reach workplaces we haven’t been able to reach before, to gradually work in neighborhoods, to build a base in the most precarious sectors. Not just taking to the streets. To organize.
May 1st is the moment to give an account to you, and to ourselves. We have learned a great deal from the process, including from our mistakes. And we are working towards ensuring that all the efforts of the working class translate into greater organization. But to achieve this, we need you.
There is a difference that we in the labor movement can no longer ignore. Mobilizing means getting people into the streets. Organizing means building workers’ counter-power.
The CNT doesn’t believe in leaders who speak for us. It believes in the union branch where we speak. It believes in direct action: the union branch that negotiates with its company without intermediaries. It believes in the union branch as a living structure, as a tool for building counterpower.
The difference in union models isn’t about the acronym. It’s about who makes the decisions: the workers themselves, or a union professional. It’s about the ultimate goal: managing the daily struggles, or aspiring to transform everything from the ground up.
Comrades: it is the working class that moves the world. Not the markets. Not the ruling classes. Not the state or its political class, nor the unionism of compromise. The hands that manufacture. The hands that care. The hands that clean, drive, teach, and build.
And that working class, today, needs to organize at work. Not just in the squares, or on social media. Not just on May 1st. The capitalist offensive never rests. Neither do we.
To confront this offensive, we need to be many. Class-conscious. In solidarity. Supporting the striking pipe workers, and joining more struggles, because that too is confronting the capitalist offensive.
If you leave here today… and there’s a coworker who isn’t part of the union, talk to her. If there’s abuse that no one has reported, report it. If there’s a union branch that needs to be formed, form one. That’s what May 1st is about. Not a day off. A day of commitment.
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