Permanent Exhibition

The Electric Years.
The Mancomunitat
The Republican Generalitat
The Working Class Movement and Social Conflict

The Montjuïc trials of 1897 and the severity of the government’s repression destroyed the Catalan workers’ movement. Recovery was slow and the failure of the general strike in 1902 and the repression that followed the Setmana Tràgica (Tragic Week, when many religious buildings and schools were destroyed and executions were carried out in punishment) in 1909 made the process more difficult. The Confederació Nacional del Treball (CNT - National Confederation of Labour) was set up in 1910, and became the dominant trade union within the Catalan working-class movement until the civil war. The strike at the Canadenca in 1919 demonstrated its capacity to mobilise workers. Later, however, the escalation in anarchists' terrrorist attacks and increase in the numbers of employers' gunmen turned the streets in Catalan cities into a veritable battle ground. Severe repression was launched against workers' organisations by Miguel Primo de Rivera's military dictatorship.


1902. General strike in Barcelona.
1907. Founding of Solidaritat Obrera.
July 1909. Setmana Tràgica.
1910. Founding in Barcelona of the Confederació General del Treball Espanyola (Spanish General Confederation of Labour), immediately renamed as the CNT.
1913. Between 13,000 and 22,000 women workers lead the general textile strike in Barcelona.
1917. Revolutionary general strike.
1918. CNT congress in Sants.
1919. Strike at the Canadenca. Working day of eight hours is won.
Emergence of union and employers' gunmen.
1920. Assassination of Francesc Layret.
1923. Assassination of Salvador Seguí.
Primo de Rivera's dictatorship initiates very severe repression of the Catalan workers’ movement.


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