The working-class Cadiz that I lived...
Let's follow the path of struggle marked by the metal working class, and let's extend it to the entire Spanish State
I arrived in Cádiz on Saturday morning, the bus dropped me off right at the port. I was coming from the Solidaridad Obrera (Workers Solidarity) Union of Madrid to bring solidarity in person to the metalworkers and to give a contribution to the resistance fund. I arrived about three hours before the assembly called by the metalworkers in front of the City Hall began, so I started walking. In the port you could see from afar large luxury cruise ships full of tourists who began to get off to walk or to take the AVE (speedy train, NT) to another place. It seemed incredible that only a few days ago these streets had been full of struggle, barricades and organization. But it was true and a poster from the dock workers that said "Not a step back in the metal fight" testified to this.
The Cadiz Bay is a small place that is known for its famous carnivals.This time,the workers and auxiliary metalworkers made their “Cadi” known all over the world for their fight. The working class, not only of the Spanish state but of many parts of the world, made that fight their own, because workers are precarious in Argentina, in Bolivia, in Brazil, in Scotland, in so many places.
When I met the comrades in the Assembly they apologized for not having answered the WhatsApp quickly: "it's that we were non-stop". They went from picket to barricade through the polygon, demonstrating together with the students and the people of Cádiz, defending themselves from the attacks of the police, etc. They gave me the honour of allowing me to speak in the assembly and bring the solidarity of the Solidaridad Obrera Union and even also the workers of the Río Santiago Shipyard in Argentina and the Huanuni mineworkers in Bolivia, among others. You could see the pride they felt for the heroic struggle they had carried out and at the same time the bitterness of seeing that they had not got what they wanted and that, once again, the union bureaucracy of CCOO and UGT had sold them out.
"We have nothing to lose," many comrades said during so many days of fighting. Cádiz is one of the cities with the most unemployment in the entire Spanish state, those who are born there either have to leave or get used to being precarious… The metal workers decided that there would be neither one nor the other; that they were going to fight for their rights.Then they downed tools for two days and then nine days of indefinite strike. It was a heroic fight.
They said and continue to tell the truth; metalworkers are not only those who work, they are those who are unemployed, those who have to go to find work in Scotland, Euskadi or Catalonia. A truth like a fist. Because workers are not only those who are unionized or have an indefinite (permanent) contract, they are the precarious, the unemployed and above all the migrants who are treated as slaves and are used by the bosses to lower the wages of those who are employed. That is why the motto of the comrades of "One class, the same fight" is concrete, it unites us all both within the Spanish State and across borders.
Going through the polygon I could see the traces of the ashes of one of the pickets near Navantia Company.There, the monarchy and the "progressive" government of PSOE-PCE-PODEMOS sent their police to repress that great struggle so that their example did not spread to the rest of the state. This was not the worst thing, though; they sent a tank that entered the working-class neighbourhood of San Pedro together with the police. The entire neighbourhood then came out to defend their children and their neighbourhood with anger and pride.
While all these was happening, Enrique Santiago from the Spanish CP (PCE) called to trust the government, the same one that was firing teargas at the workers and students and in Madrid had prohibited any demonstration of solidarity with the metal struggle, and on the other hand, the mayor of Cádiz "Kichi", a member of “Anticapitalistas”, offered himself to mediate between the traitors of CCOO and UGT and the bosses. Shame on them.
The metal working class and their families did not face a small local enemy, but the imperialist companies that build warships, light frigates, etc. for the government of Saudi Arabia that massacres in Yemen, for example. In addition, they were fighting with the Trojan horse of the CCOO and UGT union bureaucracy within, which sells out the struggle of the working class of the Spanish state every day.
Despite having so much against them, neither the imperialist companies nor the "progressive" government with its rubber bullets, or the union bureaucracy, could beat down the metal workers and their families.
For now, the metal bosses have not been able to impose their plan and the workers have not been able to conquer what belongs to them, but the ashes of the barricades are still in the streets of the industrial estate... there are burning embers... Let them keep burning...
A battle has ended, but the war in Cadiz must extend to the entire state and to the entire working class, which is unemployed, precarious, to the millions of migrants without papers, etc. The exploiters have already taken many gains from us, they have us with extremely precarious garbage contracts for weeks or hours, the police persecute us like they do to the manteros (street vendors, NT) when we want to work to be able to take a piece of bread to our families, they close the factories to take them to another country to exploit other workers as cheaper labour ... Enough!
In some part of the polygon of the Bay of Cádiz, very close to Airbus, it was written with aerosol paint, “There will be no betrayal without punishment”. So be it!
Out with the traitors of the union bureaucracy!
We have to take back what is ours!
The working class of Cadiz led the way, let us follow their example!
Paula Medrano |
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