No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Women's Subversive Individualism in Barcelona during the 1930s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
Summary
Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
A focus on politically uncommitted working-class women alters the traditional historiographical emphasis on collective militancy in the Spanish Revolution. A large number of females acted ambivalently towards the cause, and revolutionaries were forced to confront women's individualism. In the search for the collective identities of class and gender, this individualism has been ignored. Instead of neglecting or condemning the personal, historians should try to understand how an exploration of the varieties of subversive individualism – resistance to workplace discipline, opportunism, and petty fraud – can expand the boundaries of social history and help to contribute to a theory of the state.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1992
References
1 Nash, Mary, Mujer y Movimiento obrero en Espańa (Barcelona, 1981);Google ScholarAckelsberg, Martha A., Free Women of Spain (Bloomington and Indianapolis 1991).Google Scholar
2 Lüdtke, Alf, “Le domaine réservé: Affirmation de l'autonomie ouvrière et politique chez les ouvriers d'usine en Allemagne à la fin du XIXe siècle”, Le mouvement social, 126 (01ü03 1984), pp. 29–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 The following information is from Rider, Nick, “Anarquisme i lluita popular: La vaga de lloguers de 1931”, L'Avenç, 89 (01 1986), pp. 6–17.Google Scholar
4 Fomento del Trabajo nacional [hereafter known as Fomento], Memoria (Barcelona, 1929).Google Scholar
5 Federacón de Fabricantes, Memoria (Barcelona, 1930); women were not alone in fighting schedule changes. Laborers resisted a change of schedule which management tried to impose because of an electrical shortage due to drought.Google Scholar
6 Gobernador, a Ministros, 10 08 1931, Leg. 7A, n. 1, Archivo Histórico Nacional [hereafter known as AHN].Google Scholar
7 Madrid, Francisco, Ocho Meses y un día en el gobierno civil de Barcelona: Confesiones y testimonios (Barcelona and Madrid, 1932), p. 194.Google Scholar
8 Fomento, , Memoria (Barcelona, 1932).Google Scholar
9 Gobemador Civil a Ministro Gobernación, 13 November 1931, Leg. 7A, n. 1, AHN; Balcells, Albert, Trabajo industrial y organización obrera en la Cataluńa contemporánea, 1900ü1936 (Barcelona, 1974), p. 45.Google Scholar
10 Civil, Gobernador a Ministro Gobernación, 13 11 1931, Leg. 7A, n. 1, AHN.Google Scholar
11 Balcells, , Trabajo Industrial, p. 45;Google ScholarMartínez, Rosa María Capel (ed.), Mujer y Sociedad en Espańa, 1700ü1975 (Madrid, 1982), p. 227.Google Scholar
12 The following paragraphs are based on telegrams, October 1930, Leg. 40A, n. 2, AHN.
13 In another, simultaneous metal workers' strike, Civil Guards injured several women by hitting them with their rifles. See Gobernador, a Ministros, 18 10 1930, Leg. 40A, n. 2, AHN.Google Scholar
14 Statistics from Muńoz, Rosa María Capel, La Mujer espańola en el mundo del trabajo, 1900ü1930 (Madrid, 1980).Google Scholar
15 Fomento, , actas, 2 06 1922.Google Scholar
16 Mondejar, Cristina Borderías, “Evolución de la división sexual de trabajo en Barcelona, 1924ü1980: Aproximación desde una empresa del sector servicios” (Ph.D., University of Barcelona, 1984), p. 458.Google Scholar
17 Alaiz, Felipe, “Hacia el Estajanovismo espańol”, Tiempos Nuevos (10–11 1938);Google ScholarRider, , “Anarquisme”, p. 12.Google Scholar
18 Balcells, , Trabajo Industrial, p. 81.Google Scholar
19 6 July 1931, Leg. 7A, n. 1, AHN; 4,300 female workers were employed in the communications sectors ü telephone, telegram, and post office ü in 1930. See Capel, , La Mujer espańola, p. 48;Google Scholar in 1933 almost 40 percent of telephone workers were women. See Borderías, , Evolución, p. 166.Google Scholar
20 9 and 15 July, 1931, Leg. 7A, n. 1, AHN.
21 Capel, , Mujer y Sociedad, p. 236;Google ScholarNash, Mary, Mujer, Familia, y Trabajo en Espańa, 1875ü1936 (Barcelona, 1983), p. 53.Google Scholar
22 See Balcells, Alberto, Crisis económica y agitación social en Cataluńa de 1930 a 1936 (Barcelona, 1971), p. 198.Google Scholar
23 Letters from militants in 933 and other carpetas, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Guerra Civil, Salamanca [AS].
24 Balcells, , Crisis económica y agitación social, p. 198.Google Scholar
25 Pérez-Barò, Albert, 30 Meses de colectivismo en Cataluńa 1936ü39 (Barcelona, 1974), p. 47.Google Scholar
26 Comité, , 17 10 1938, 182, AS.Google Scholar
27 Rüdiger, , “Materiales”, 8 05 1937, Rudolf Rocker Archives, International Institute of Social History [IISH].Google Scholar
28 Acta de la asamblea [n.d.], 469, AS.
29 See debates in actas de asamblea, Cargadores, , 24 07 and 22 08 1937, 1404, AS.Google Scholar
30 CNT Marítima, 7 08 1937; Boletín del Sindicato de la Industria de Edificación, Madera y Decoración, 10 10 1937; Sidero-Metalurgia. 09 1937.Google Scholar
31 Actas de Junta y los militantes de las industrias construcciones metálicas CNT, 25 February 1938, 921, AS.
32 Monjo, Anna and Vega, Carme, Els Treballadors i la guerra civil (Barcelona, 1986), pp. 91–92;Google ScholarMonjo, and Vega, , “Les colectivitzacions industrials a Barcelona durant la guerra civil”, L'Avenç, 70 (1984), p. 37.Google Scholar
33 Monjo, and Vega, , Els Treballadors, pp. 109–124.Google Scholar
34 See report, 1219, AS.
35 Asamblea, , 29 11 1936 and 13 06 1937, 1404,Google Scholar AS; Monjo, and Vega, , Els Treballadors, pp. 83 and 123.Google Scholar
36 Acta, , 21 02 1937, 469, AS.Google Scholar
37 Acta, , 21 02 1937, 469;Google ScholarAsamblea, , 13 and 31 01 1937, 140.Google Scholar
38 Fraser, Ronald, Blood of Spain (New York, 1986), p. 214.Google Scholar
39 Solidaridad Obrera, 28 and 29 08 1937.Google Scholar
40 Boletín del Sindicato de la Industria Fabril y Textil de Badalona y su Radio, 06 1937.Google Scholar
41 Hoy, 01 1938.Google Scholar
42 Comité Ejecutivo de la Federación Local UGT, 27 November 1937, 501, AS. The Federation agreed to pay half the salaries.
43 See files in Generalitat 240, AS.
44 17 May 1938, 1084, AS.
45 19 September 1936, 182, AS.
46 25 December 1936, 182, AS.
47 20 March 1937, 181, AS.
48 28 May 1937, 181, AS.
49 Reglament interior de la Casa Rabat. 10 January 1938, 1099. AS: Reunión, Rabat, 23 April 1938, 1099, AS: Assamblea ordinaria dels obrers de la casa “Artgust”, 6 September 1938, 1099, AS.
50 Comité Regional, Sección Defensa, 17 July 1938, 1049, AS. On the other hand, CNT and UGT clothing unions refused to authorize labor on Saturday afternoon. See 2 October 1937, 1219, AS.
51 Palau, Rabasso, 25 10 1938, 1219, AS.Google Scholar
52 8 July 1938, 1219, AS.
53 Letter from comité de la Fábrica No. 7, [n.d.] 1085, AS.
54 Décret instituant un “certificat du travail”, 4 March 1937, 259, Archives diplomatiques [Paris]. For the certificates themselves, Generalitat 252, no. 13, AS.
55 Quoted in Peirats, José, La CNT en la revolución espańola, 3 vols (Paris, 1971), 3, p. 36.Google Scholar
56 Document cited in Ibid., 39.
57 Comité, , 22 05 and 1 09 1937. 501. AS.Google Scholar
58 March 1937, Generalitat 282, AS.
59 Kaminski, H.E., Los de Barcelona, translated by Barberé, Carmen Sanz (Barcelona, 1976), p. 181.Google Scholar
60 Monjo, and Vega, , Els Treballadors, p. 87.Google Scholar
61 Acta de la asamblea, [n.d.], 469, AS.
62 Acta de la asamblea, 21 February 1937, 469, AS.
63 Reunión, , 22 12 1936, 1204, AS.Google Scholar
64 Kaminski, , Barcelona, , p. 63;Google Scholar see also Mahaim, Annik, Holt, Alix, and Heinen, Jacqueline, Femmes et mouvement ouvrier: Allemagne d'avant 1914, Révolution russe, Révolution espagnole (Paris, 1979), p. 185.Google Scholar
65 Ackelsberg, Martha, “Revolution and Community”, in Bourque, Susan and Divine, Donna Robinson (eds), Women Living Change (Philadelphia, 1985), p. 104.Google Scholar
66 Bricall, Josep Maria, Política econòmica de la Generalitat (1936ü39), 2 vols (Barcelona, 1978), 1, pp. 101–118.Google Scholar In an unconventional ü but simplistic ü economic analysis, UGT railway men asserted that the wage-price spiral was caused by the excessive salary demands of workers and criticized their “indiscipline” while calling for the “restoration of authority”. See Informe, , 5 09 1937, 467.Google Scholar
67 Solidaridad Obrera, 7 05 1937;Google Scholar Juzgado General de Contrabando, 1336, AS. On women's demonstrations, see Da Cal, Enric Ucelay, La Catalunya populista: Imatge, cultura, i politica en l'etapa republicana (1931ü1939) (Barcelona, 1982), pp. 309–323.Google Scholar
68 Estadística: Resumenes demográficos de la Ciudad de Barcelona. El período 1936 a 1938 y de1939, p. 22.Google Scholar
69 Fraser, , Blood, p. 452.Google Scholar
70 Borderías, , Evolución, p. 471.Google Scholar
71 Ackelsberg, Martha A., “‘Separate and Equal”? Mujeres Libres and Anarchist Strategy for Women's Emancipation’, Feminist Studies, 11 (Spring 1985), 1, p. 74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
72 Safón, Ramón, La educación en la Espańa revolucionaria, translated by Delgado, María Luisa and Ortega, Félix (Madrid. 1978), p. 55.Google Scholar
73 Mujeres Libres, 17 02 1938, 529,Google Scholar AS. On the integration of rural women into the urban workforce, see Ackelsberg, , Free Women, p. 119.Google Scholar
74 A todos los sindicatos, 25 04 1938, 1084, AS.Google Scholar
75 DrIbáńez, Félix Martí, Obra: Diez meses de labor en sanidad y asistencia social (Barcelona, 1937), p. 77.Google Scholar
76 Quoted in Kaminski, , Barcelona, p. 67.Google Scholar
77 Boatwright, Dorsey and Da Cal, Enric Ucelay, “La Dona del Barrio Chino”, L'Avenç, 76 (11 1984), p. 29.Google Scholar
78 On legalization of abortion, see Nash, Mary, “L'Avortament legal a Catalunya”, L'Avenç, 58 (03 1983), pp. 188–194.Google Scholar On prostitution and sex, see Ackelsberg, , Free Women, pp. 135–140.Google Scholar
79 Consejo de la Federación Local UGT, 2 and 5 October 1937, 501, AS.
80 Informe, al Ple, 7 08 1937, 1322, AS.Google Scholar
81 The idea of equal pay for equal work received support from the UGT Graphics Union. See Informe, [n.d.] 1049, AS.
82 Asamblea, , Guell, R. Pujol, 11 11 1937, 1085, AS.Google Scholar
83 Reglamento Interior, Eudaldo Perramon, 1 September 1938, 1219; Secciones Modistas UGTüCNT, 2 July 1937, 1336, AS.
84 UGT, letter from Elissa Uris and militants' responses, AugustüSeptember, 1049, AS.
85 See Kaplan, Temma, “Female Consciousness and Collective Action: The Case of Barcelona, 1910ü18”, Signs, 7 (Spring 1982) pp. 548–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
86 Perhaps for similar reasons of prudence, many females were cautious about obtaining legal abortions and preferred to practice traditional methods of abortion and birth control. See Mary Nash, “Marginalisation and Social Change: Legal Abortion in Catalonia during the Civil War”, Paper delivered at XVII Annual Conference of the Spanish and Portuguese Historical Society, University of Minnesota (April 1986).
You have
Access