Without us a train doesn't move. CC.OO., UGT and other railway and machinist unions issued the warning when the agreement between ERC and PSOE was transcended. Transfer to the Government of three Rodalies lines and a mixed Generalitat-State management model, with the former predominating. Without us a road is not crossed. This is the message.
The agreement, although it does not involve a comprehensive transfer, is what was agreed between the independence movement and Pedro Sánchez and what will bring Catalonia closest to a State, if it is implemented. In silver, in the absence of tangible achievements by Junts, it is what will give the Generalitat the greatest share of responsibility. Being a State is that.
What CC.OO. and UGT of Catalonia have supported the strike promoted and in the end called off by their state counterparts, with whom they are confederated, in the face of an agreement to be finalized shows to what extent the independence movement is at the mercy of the national (Catalan) and statist will of both unions and of the need for constant negotiation with them. Unlike models that have inspired him, such as the Irish or, closer, the Basque.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the PNV helped promote Solidaridad de Obreros Vascos, the parent company of ELA. Objective: to frame the workers of Basque origin in the shipyards of the Bilbao estuary. Its rapid expansion in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, especially in the railway sector, limited the strength of the UGT and the CNT, and strengthened nationalism in a segment of the working class.
During the transition, ELA marked its political independence without renouncing its nationalist character. Forty years later, the socio-labor approaches of the union and those of the PNV are further apart than ever. ELA, the majority union confederation, acts as a – tough – opposition to the Basque Government, but together with the Abertzale LAB it has a central role in Euskadi. Both unions push the jeltzales towards a more sovereigntist political horizon.
Catalan nationalism has never achieved anything comparable. His dream until the 1930s was to protect the anarcho-syndicalism of the CNT. Much more powerful union in Catalonia, where it was founded, than anywhere else in the State. A good part of the failures of the Catalan political projects have been due to the inability to exercise this protection - revolutionary strike of 1917, insurrectional attempts during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, labor pacification during the Second Republic, failure of the events of October 1934 and, of course, the Civil War.
In a long century of history, Catalan nationalism has not been able to build a related union. The independence movement even less so. This has been one of the main blind spots of the process. The mirage of the general strike on October 3, 2017 has prevented the movement from reflecting on it. The absence of a powerful union force that contributes to implementing its political achievements continues to be one of the weaknesses of the independence movement.
