The growing class polarisation in the Spanish state is beginning to break out into the open. During the pandemic, unrest was mostly kept under control, but the burning anger at the massive and many inequalities in society is finding expression amongst the organised working class.
The magnificent and militant indefinite strike by more than 20,000 workers of the metal sector in the province of Cádiz, reached its eighth day on Tuesday, 23 November after negotiations broke down again.
The sectoral agreement expired in December 2020 and workers are demanding a salary increase of 2% for this year, 2.5% for 2022 and 3% in 2023, in addition to four hours less work per year. The employers made an insulting offer of 0.5%.
All the various unions called an indefinite strike in the sector and the workers responded as one and as a class. Even the media are saying 98% of workers are supporting the strike.
This impressive struggle of the metalworkers of Cádiz is producing incredible solidarity from the wider working class throughout the Spanish state. The metal workers are showing the way forward for the whole of the working class.
This fact has not been lost on the leading partner in the government coalition, PSOE, who have sent in special police riot squads to act on behalf of the employers.
The strike has escalated very quickly with street barricades being used as defence against the thugs in uniforms.
Incredibly, the government authorised the use of repurposed army tanks on the streets of Cádiz!
They attempted to push the workers back into their barrios (neighbourhoods) from the main streets of Cádiz. The workers responded with more demos and a student strike was called in solidarity.
The slogans on the demos are telling:
“Less tanks, more rights!”
“We are workers, not criminals!”
“Not one step back in the metalworkers’ struggle!”
The health workers of the public hospital Puerta del Mar in Cádiz came out to applaud the striking metal workers, shouting “Public Health” and “Long live the struggle of the working class”.
Pablo Iglesias, (ex-PODEMOS leader) criticised the use of tanks in Cádiz on Twitter: “The difference in treatment of the mobilisations, depending on whether they are from the left or from the right, is a constant in IPU operations. [Unidades de Intervenciуn Policial], but using military equipment against workers in Cádiz is a qualitative leap”.
The heavy-handed attitude of PSOE towards the metal worker’s strike lays bare to all the working class, who they really represent and signifies they realise what an example to the whole of the working class the struggle is turning into.
Metalworkers interviewed in Cadiz made the point that it is the working class who have sacrificed the most during the pandemic. Soaring energy prices and inflation mean that many metal workers cannot make it to the end of the month on their paltry salaries. Household electricity prices in October were 63% higher than a year earlier, according to the National Statistics Institute. Spain is forecast to be the only EU country where economic activity will not return to pre-pandemic levels before 2023.
Small companies are also closing because of the supply chain crisis and energy price hikes.
The metalworkers’ conflict could be a sign of things to come in other sectors of the Spanish economy. Other sections of the working class are gearing up to take action and the metal workers are setting the example of how to do it. Lorry drivers, farmers, auto workers and pensioners are all staging marches against soaring production costs and inflation, which is up to levels not seen since 1992. Self-employed workers such as hairdressers have staged work sit-ins due to the increase in VAT.
A three-day lorry driver strike has been called for December 20, 21 and 22, right in the middle of the Christmas deliveries rush.
The rapid escalation of the Cádiz metal worker’s strike underlines the anger of the working class beneath the surface and shows how other struggles could develop. The militant and united answer of the working class to the violence of the police also shows an underlying working-class consciousness.
According to the opinion polls the right-wing PP are ahead with 25% of the vote, but these events show that socialists have to take capitalist elections and ‘public opinion’ with a pinch of salt. The electoral system is rigged against the working class and change. The Cádiz metal worker’s strike has the potential to be a catalyst to alter the whole political scene.
