Spanish State - October 22, 2022

Conference organized by the Coordination of Resistance Funds and Solidarity Committees

"Resistance Funds of the Working Class"

On Sunday, October 16, a conference on the resistance funds and their importance for the workers' movement was held at the facilities of Union Platform EMT. Comrades from different Resistance Funds of the State, militant unions and collectives met to discuss the importance of the resistance funds for the working class, both for the strikes and for the repressed who after these struggles, are prosecuted or fined by the government.

The conference was initiated by the representative of the Solidarity Committee of the workers of Valladolid, who since 1972 have a resistance fund that helped the reprisals of Franco's regime as well as the huge strikes that took place in Valladolid as the Fasa Renault. This Committee has a long and impeccable trajectory and has always been managed with democracy in its interior, with rotating delegates, etc. It participates in a Coordinating Committee of Resistance and Solidarity Committees, but at the same time all of them are independent from the rest, always having worker solidarity as their north. The comrade raised several points about the resistance funds:

• It is an instrument created, directed and controlled by the workers, to combat the crackdown on them. It mainly directs its support to those who directly fight against the system.
• It is a tool for the struggle of all workers to directly stand in solidarity and mutual support, regardless of ideology, militancy or membership in a political party, union, collective, neighborhood association, etc.
• Its fundamental purpose is to help morally and economically any worker who was repressed in the struggle for the defense of the interests of the working class.

From Cadiz, the comrades of the CTM (Metalworkers Coordination Body), told of their enormous struggle and the solidarity they received from all over the state and from other countries, and how the resistance fund they had plus the contributions and solidarity of different collectives and unions helped a lot in the fight and in the aftermath. Many workers who were part of the strike, received very little or almost no wage at all due to the discount of the strike days. From the CTM and together with CGT of Cadiz, a public statement was issued so that the affected workers could be present and thus receive a percentage of the resistance fund.
A passionate debate took place during the talk about the importance of having a good resistance fund when going out on strike. Without being a condition for carrying out the struggle, the comrades from Cadiz commented on the enormous importance that, for the auxiliary metal working class, this has. Their work situation is that they work two months in one place, then three months in another, then unemployment, and so on all their lives. They told of the terrible example of the comrade who died a few months ago while working in Puerto Real, 62 years old and with two days of seniority. And that is why it is fundamental to have a resistance fund to hold out and be able to resist in strikes. Comrade Diego commented: "To convince the workers of the Bay of Cadiz we have to see and know our labor reality. That is why it is fundamental to create these funds. We do not want to swim against the current. The workers have to be given mechanisms so that they feel secure."

From the militant union Solidaridad Obrera (workers solidarity), they remarked the importance of the unions having their funds and that the coordinators of the funds help each other. And also how important is the contribution of each comrade in the moments of struggle of the working class.
From Argentina, comrade Paula Medrano, daughter of disappeared and militant of Democracia Obrera also told her experience about the Fund for the Disappeared and how the state wanted to buy and corrupt the relatives of the disappeared by means of compensations of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even the Human Rights movement in Argentina was divided on this point. Paula told us that she did not touch a single penny of that money, that she collected it and that together with her organization they proposed that this money belonged to the working class and that it should return to them and that therefore a Strike Fund should be made with it for all the struggles that the workers would carry out against the bosses and the union bureaucracy, so that they would not be bankrupted by hunger.
We ended this debate talk, dedicated to the resistance and solidarity funds, raising the fight to deepen the bonds of solidarity and workers' coordination, against the government and the treacherous trade union bureaucracy of CCOO and UGT.
"We workers must build the instruments that allow us to fight our enemies."
Long live workers' struggle and solidarity!

Workers Democracy - Spanish State