CNT-AIT (Spain)

Solidarity Protest - Free the 7 Anarchists detained for their political beliefs by ‘Operación Pandora’ in Spain

MEET: Spanish Consulate, 63 North Castle St, Edinburgh EH2 3LJ
FRIDAY 16 JAN – FROM 10:00am

On 16/12/2014 the Mossos, a specialist police squad in Spain stormed 14 homes and community centers, destroying and stealing everything they could find of value. Without making any specific accusations and acting in complete secrecy, 11 anarchists were transferred to the National Court. 4 were released two days later - and 7 have ended up in prison, one is a member of the CNT-AIT Union. They all facing secretive Court proceedings.

We want them Free!

This week Brighton SolFed is attending a call out for solidarity with Spanish workers of Arvato-Qualytel. This company provides the telecommunications services to Orange.

Arvato-Qualytel has a call centre in Salamanca in which comrades from CNT, our sister section in Spain, have decided to stand up against the abuses that they are suffering.

This company is covering the workforce through agencies like Adecco or Randstad. Hundreds of workers have to renew their contracts each ten, fifteen or thirty days and are sacked each two years for six month. In this way, the company is able to not give the workers fixed contacts.

SolFed have been out in force in response to a sacked union organiser from our sister union in Spain, the CNT. Pickets were held in Brighton, Bristol, Newcastle and Middlesborough (see below). Santander have outsourced thousands of jobs in Spain, making it easier to control employees working in oppressive conditions - union organisers are targetted by the notoriously crooked family cartel run bank.

All pickets were well received, Santander having an already shoddy reputation in Britain, it was no suprise to those asking what the row was about to find that the bank is targetting union activists.

A fourth International Day of Action saw Westcountry members of the Solidarity Federation take to the streets of Bristol, Dorchester and Swindon in support of a Spanish worker sacked for organising a union branch in his workplace. The worker, a member of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union was fired during a campaign by his colleagues for decent contracts and against illegal outsourcing by ISBAN, a subsidiary of Santander. Solidarity actions took place in 13 countries around the world.

This year Bristol SF are participating in two workshops.

At 1.00pm, in Marquee Z, we will introduce "State Repression in Spain". This talk will be hosted by a Spanish comrade. Below is an short introductory text to set the background of this talk.

During the last four years Spanish society has witnessed a period of intense social protests against austerity, corruption, evictions, unemployment and so on. The greater and more radicalised the protest the bigger the state repression. The intensification of demonstrations and actions has resulted in an escalation of detentions and absurd fines. Every form of protest is now a new article in the criminal code.

A warm, sunny day in Newcastle seemed appropriate weather to turn the heat up on Santander & shine a light on their slave labour policies and Union repression. We were joined by two comrades from USI as our banner was unfurled outside the Northumberland Street branch.

There was lots of interest from workers on their lunch-break for whom solidarity with our CNT comrades in Spain needed little explanation. Most people on Tyneside have friends or family who have suffered from outsourced labour practices & our presence today was well recieved.

An appearance by a flustered branch manager, who took some photos to 'pass on' our condemnation of Santander's abuse of workers' topped off an effective picket of this corrupt & criminal bank.

Following on from the successful protest in Bristol against the sacking of a CNT delegate at Isban, the subsidiary of Santander. The Bristol Local moved the message to the streets of Bath. Around 15 members of SF and other activists from around the region, continued the message of solidarity that has been demonstrated around the world.

The message of the rejection of agency work and the reinstatement of the fired worker has been spread by sections of the IWA-AIT. In Spain CNT members held demonstrations in Salamanca, Ciudad Rodrigo, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Villaverde, Zaragoza, Malaga and Leon. In working class area of Madrid Santander banks and ATMs were targeted. With message of solidarity sprayed on windows and the ATMs put out of action.

Multinational banking group Santander was targeted for union busting across the breadth of their empire on Tuesday 1st October 2013 by the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers Association (IWA). A number of actions were held in Britain by the Solidarity Federation (SF-IWA). In Bristol, the local SF-IWA section was joined by members of Bristol Anarchist Federation, BARF & migrant Spanish workers to deliver a message of resistance to the company and solidarity with the sacked union organiser of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT-IWA) union. The CNT has been organising within Isban, a computer services company owned by the Santander Group into which thousands of workers have been transferred. Workers at Isban are controlled and dismissed through the use of employment agencies. Pay and conditions have deteriorated at the same time that the banking group’s profits have soared.

Members of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union and CGT union have gone on indefinite strike and occupied their workplace at the IMESAPI lighting plant in Granollers, Catalunya, Spain, demanding an end to the redundancy package which would see four of the 21 workers let go.

The workers – now 23 days into their strike – are responsible for maintaining the street lights throughout the small Catalan town, and therefore are of critical importance to the town council. IMESAPI itself is a part of the huge ACS conglomerate owned by Florentino Pérez, the multibillionaire engineering tycoon known internationally as the owner of Real Madrid FC.

Crucially, all of the workers at the Granollers plant belong to either the CNT or CGT unions, who have vowed to back the strike as long as it continues, unlike the mainstream Comisiones Obreras union,who signed off on similar redundancy packages at IMESAPI plants in Barcelona (which saw a failed strike) and Tenerife.

Liverpool SolFed held a social night to commemorate the anniversary of the Spanish revolution in 1936. Performers, including local musician Dominic Dunn, entertained those who were gathered, while films from the civil war and the current miners' struggle in the Asturias were shown on the projector.