Oral history and historical memory. These two elements are intertwined and require historians to be equipped with new analytical tools in order to convert oral accounts into historical knowledge. The information provided to the historian goes beyond the walls of the archives, exceeds the official, administrative, written documents and enters the mists of memory. This is not something new, as many twentieth-century authors have had eye-witness testimonies of the events which formed part of the immediate past to construct their accounts. Starting from the 1960s with the rise of social history, we have witnessed a renaissance in the value granted to oral testimonies in the construction of historical knowledge. The bottom-up perspective of history and, to a certain extent, the accompanying de-professionalization (or maybe we should say de-academization) has encouraged oral history. The History Workshops revitalized the historiographic panorama and constructed a new framework of methodological references and documentary resources in the work of the historian.

The ten chapters which make up the book El sindicalismo socialista español combine the testimonies of UGT activists with the historians’ own accounts over the period between the Second Republic and the end of General Franco's dictatorship. Alicia Alted, who forms part of the work's coordinating team, has been one of the pioneering specialists in Spanish historiography most concerned with the use and the value of oral sources. This task of granting historiographic value to the memories of the main characters in the events to be analysed is reflected throughout the work.

Memory therefore occupies an important place in its pages. It often reflects on the past from the perspective of the present, shaping something similar to what others have called “nostalgia for the present”, in an exercise which combines individual histories and collective narratives. The work of memory helps to shape a shared identity, in this case that of Spanish socialist trade unionism, to grant it that identity, and to assert a value which appears to have been diluted following the collapse of eastern Europe in the 1990s, and to project, by that same measure, past experience into the present.

The memories of the activists provide a dual aspect in this work. First, the task of contributing valuable information, not so much on the events themselves as on the meanings assigned to them. The perspective of cultural studies could thus be useful in the historical analysis, although the work does not follow this path. Second, the recognition demanded by these same characters in relation to their experiences, so that memory becomes a place to shape an identity which is endowed with collective coherence.

The first two chapters of the book, by Sara Fernández and Adrián Pinar respectively, concern the General Workers’ Union (UGT) at the time of the Spanish Second Republic. Both chapters end with the triumph of the Popular Front in the legislative election of February 1936. The third chapter, by Juan Carlos Collado – also a coordinator of the work – refers to the Spanish Civil War. The use of eyewitness accounts is obviously much more sporadic in these first three chapters than in subsequent ones, and the testimonies are conditioned much more plausibly by factors of memory.

The other seven chapters focus on different aspects of the years of the Franco dictatorship. Alicia Alted writes the chapter dealing with the first postwar exiles, internment in the camps in the south of France, and trade-union life during the years of World War II. Bruno Vargas continues with the issue of the exiled UGT activists in a period which stretches from the end of the conflict in Europe in 1945 to 1968. Diego Herrera analyses repression and the underground movement until the beginning of the 1950s. Manuela Aroca – another of the coordinators of the work – takes on the participation of the UGT activists in the first workers’ protests during the Franco regime. The account of the economic emigration of the 1960s and 1970s, by Bruno Vargas, perhaps one of the most interesting chapters, centres on the activists who sought a better livelihood in other European countries (France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland) while at the same time trying to organize other emigrés. Juan Carlos Collado sets out the main direction of the renaissance of trade unionism, especially as it concerns the UGT, in the context of the economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s, and under the pressure of the dictatorship which imposed, in addition to a repressive iron grip, an organizational formula for labour relations based on corporatism.

Finally, Manuela Aroca is entrusted with the account of the renewal of the leading groups within socialist trade unionism, the internal struggles, the leadership disputes, the disagreements concerning union strategies, and the tension between the exiles and the organizations within Spain. In relation to this last aspect, and avoiding what could have been a collective hagiography, it should be stressed that internal disputes are shown between the different tendencies, in addition to the conflicts between the internal leaders and those of the exiles, and as well as the attitudes regarding other anti-Franco organizations and the leadership struggles.

However, beyond the value granted to eyewitness accounts in the preparation of this book, it should be emphasized that its pages do not contain elements which would satisfy the avid curiosity of those interested in the discovery of unpublished documents, in the details of passions set against each other in the struggle for leadership, or similar matters. The work contributes scarcely any additional information on the historical evolution of UGT, both as regards the general panorama of Spanish trade unionism and what is known of the internal evolution of the organization.

The book starts with a broader project, promoted officially by the socialist trade-union organization, to create an archive of oral sources of UGT activists. Also, we cannot isolate it from a parallel product which saw the light in 2008, two years before this book was published. This is a documentary video with the same title as the work that we are discussing here – with the difference that in this case the chronological framework covers the whole history of the union (Historia oral del sindicalismo socialista, 1888–1975). Although, as indicated earlier, this book offers few original aspects in relation to a classical study of the historical evolution of the UGT, the documentary does provide an interesting and suggestive perspective in its treatment of the testimonies. Maybe it is because of the freshness of the audio-visual medium, but as Vicente Sánchez Biosca (2009) indicated, the “extremely high level in treatment of oral history” demonstrated throughout the hour-long documentary represents an example of the role that history and the historian should play in society. The book is still, however, an interesting exercise in attempting to insert oral accounts into the historical discourse.