Miners Struggle in Spain
"I do not blame my fate that I'm born a miner / And though I'm haunted by death of death I have no fear ..." thus goes the lyric of a Spanish song "Soy Minero" that was much popularised in the 1950s and 1960s by Antonio Molina.i The Spanish miners showed the world again that they mean it. In the 1930s the coal miners of Asturias sparked a revolutionary wave. The same Asturias, and Leon and other coal provinces of North Spain, though with far less number of miners due to shift away from coal and technological development, showed the world that they are the same as far as temperament is concerned.ii In this hyper tech world the blue collar workers smelling of sweat and coal–dust or machine–oil once again provoked such lines as "[#ResistenciaMinera] Asturias, una vez m?s, nos ense?a el camino" (Miners' Resistance of Asturias once again shows us the way) [AcampadaPatraix], "Nos gusta ver que, a pesar de la influencia de CCOO y UGT como centrales sindicales bur?cratas, los trabajadores mineros est?n demostrando que esta lucha se gana en las calles (we were pleased to see that going against the established bureaucratic central TU–s CCOO and UGT the miners have showed that fights are to be taken to the streets)" [Indymedia, Madrid], "Whilst we 'set ablaze' social networks, miners set real fire to barricades on the motorways. Whilst we call a strike every two years, with no great conviction ... the miners opt, inflexible, for an indefinite strike lasting weeks. Whilst we write posts and tweets denouncing the cutbacks ... they ... paralyse the traffic, put entire regions onto a war footing, and finally start walking along the highway. Whilst we paint ingenious posters and compose nice couplets to shout out at the demonstration, they go up against the Guardia Civil. Whilst we ... hit thousands of 'Likes' to support the demands of those collectives that are being punished the most, they go from village to village giving and receiving hugs, sharing food and shelter. ...[Z net]" We only cited a few out of thousands of such lines.
And not only written lines, the miners struggle evoked many things else too. Just think — after the victory of La Roja Furia (The Red Fury) — the Spanish version of Total Football — the football team was greeted gloriously back home; the team members enjoyed a lot; but then, two of the team, David Villa and Cazolra "also made time to visit miners in Asturias, to show their support for the miners in their protests against government cuts, and for those miners who are staging a strike underground. Both of them asked for the desires of the miners to be heard"!iii And on the other side, after the brutal attack on the miners and more–than/nearly 100,000 supporting people assembled in Madrid (the most ghastly in recent times in western world) the people were by no means scared — "...last Friday, (see back inside cover) people from all around the country were protesting: health care workers began sit–ins in several hospitals, the railroads are blocked in many cities near Madrid and even police have announced mobilizations on their own behalf. People's patience is beginning to run out. One legislator, Andrea Fabra, said "fuck them" about the workers when cuts on unemployment benefits were announced, and it spread through social media networks last Wednesday. Nearly 131,000 people signed a petition in less than 24 hours to demand her resignation, and that night thousands went to the headquarters of the ruling party, Partido Popular, in several cities. In Madrid, police charged demonstrators again when they tried to reach the congress, but this time demonstrators didn't disperse. Police charged one side of the demonstration, while other demonstrators blocked the road in the other side, causing a traffic jam. Police gave up, and the demonstration continued to Sol square. Among civil servants, police, firefighters and other sectors, an anonymous call circulated to camp at the congress on July 15, when the new cuts took effect, imitating the camps of the 15M movement. Thousands of civil servants — including police, firefighters, teachers and health care workers — took part and attempted to spend the night, but they were evicted at 3 a.m. with three arrests. Protests there, however, continued throughout the following day. ..."iv The miners shed their blood not for nothing! In the AcampadaSol website an Indignado youth wrote eloquently how they felt the aroma of 'revolution'.
Just 100 years ago Lenin congratulated the British Miners for their glorious strike and said, "In Britain a change has taken place in the balance of social forces, a change that cannot be expressed in figures but is felt by all."v After the great defeat of the first offensive of the international working class movement a slow sign of resurgence is now felt and these words of Lenin are again coming in mind.
i Watch Antonio Molina in the film "Esta voz es una mina" in at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWd35SMlVSA&feature=player_embedded
ii Spain is perhaps now the World No: 1 in producing/utilizing alternate renewable energy resources like wind and sun
iii http://conlaroja.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/hopefully–this–will–never–end/
iv http://indypendent.org/2012/07/17/miners%E2%80%99–protest–revives–anti–austerity–movement–spain Miners' Protest Revives Anti–Austerity Movement in Spain
vhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/jan/01.htm The British Labour Movement in 1912
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