The General Corporation of Workers or Union of Free Trade Unions was a workers' trade union organization created by Carlist militants in 1919, at the Legitimist Workers' Athenaeum of Barcelona . Ramón Sales Amenós (1893-1936), founder of the Free Unions. Their detractors accuse the members of the Free Unions of having practiced state terrorism , sponsored by the government of Eduardo Dato , the Catalan upper bourgeoisie, the Civil Governor of Barcelona, General Severiano Martínez Anido , and the subsequent dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera . The union itself claimed that it arose in opposition to the "tyranny" and "unpatriotism" of the CNT and that its gunman activities were "the response to the State's inaction after several of its members were murdered by anarchists." They carried out attacks and assassinations of prominent CNT members, such as Salvador Seguí and the lawyer Francesc Layret . History Origins Founded on October 10, 1919, at the Legitimist Workers' Athenaeum in the city of Barcelona, [ 1 ] where the editorial offices of the Carlist weekly La Trinchera , a youthful, working-class and combative publication, were located . [ 2 ] Its founders included young workers and shop assistants who were part of the Carlist circles in Barcelona. It was formed by the Catalans Ramón Sales Amenós , Juan Laguía Lliteras , Ceferino Tarragó, and Ignacio Jubert . The Carlist party initially supported it, but later concealed its origins to proclaim its apolitical nature. They carried out strikes, negotiations, boycotts, and intimidation tactics. [ 3 ] Juan Laguía Lliteras (1890-1937), director of Unión Obrera , the Union's organ. According to Feliciano Baratech , one of its founders, the Free Unions arose in opposition to the CNT, which "through coercion and terror had forced all workers to join its organization." When the CNT agreed at one of its congresses to join the "World Communist Confederation," members belonging to some 20 traditionalist workers' circles based in Barcelona felt uneasy and decided to demand their trade union freedom. To this end, they held a meeting at the Legitimist Athenaeum on Laboria Street, behind Barcelona Cathedral , and founded the "Regional Free Union," with a secretariat in all the traditionalist circles. Ramón Sales Amenós , a shop assistant who was working at the time in a textile shop on Urgel Street, was also appointed president . [ 4 ] Historian Colin M. Winston distinguishes three stages in the evolution of the union between 1919 and 1923. In the first stage, up to the beginning of 1921, its expansion was modest, with around 10,000 members from the traditionalist sphere. Until October 1922, considerable progress was made, favored by the close collaboration of General Severiano Martínez Anido , the civil governor of Barcelona , as well as by the CNT's move underground. Membership then reached 150,000. Finally, from the replacement of Severiano Martínez Anido and the 1923 coup d'état, there was a decline in the influence of the Free Unions. [ 5 ] Ideology José del Castillo and Santiago Álvarez assert that the Free Union was the first organized workers' force in the world with a markedly anti-communist character . [ 6 ] Its founders aspired to constitute a workers' struggle body independent of the anarchist CNT. Francisco Aizcorbe drafted the organization's statutes, whose ideology was inspired by traditionalist guild doctrine . [ 7 ] The association's motto was "Justice and Liberty." [ 8 ] Situated on the extreme right , [ 9 ] originating from an urban Carlist substratum [ 10 ] and described by Albert Balcells as an "anti -CNT " organization , [ 11 ] the Free Unions incorporated workerism into their discourse [ 10 ] —they reportedly declared their objective "the unity of the workers against the capitalist system, in total autonomy" [ 12 ] to the point of including the hammer and sickle in their emblem. [ 13 ] Anti-liberal [ 14 ] and with a purported transversal ideology, they distanced themselves from confessional positions [ 10 ] in order to broaden their militant base. [ 15 ] Their ideology defended the traditional values of "family, nation, and religion." [ 16 ] According to Baratech, in 1923 the Union accepted the ideology of the Christian Democratic group that existed in Madrid, presided over by Severino Aznar . [ 4 ] Álvarez Chillida defines them as a pre-fascist organization [ 13 ] and according to Winston, they could have constituted an early form of "Hispanic fascism." [ 14 ] By the beginning of the 1930s, they were already far removed from traditionalist ideology. [ 14 ] Labor Struggle Cover of Unión Obrera , official organ of the Union of Free Trade Unions (1922) The Free Union represented a reaction against the Single Union (CNT) that arose among Carlist elements in Barcelona. Carlism had about twenty circles in Barcelona, with 80% of its members being workers. Because of their ideas and their warrior tradition, the traditionalists were determined to risk everything for "the Cause". [ 7 ] The government's initiative is often cited to explain the birth of the Free Union. However, the significance and strength of Catalan Carlism and the fact that the Civil Governor of Barcelona, González Rotwos, refused to authorize the Free Union's operation do not support this hypothesis. [ 7 ] Although anarchist gun violence was commonplace in Barcelona from 1917 to 1919, the liberal government of the Count of Romanones attempted to negotiate with the anarcho-syndicalists to end the terrorism and major strikes. [ 7 ] The Free Union's situation with respect to the UGT , the Catholic unions, employers, and the government is a later development. In its early days, under the provincial authority of the Count of Salvatierra , it acted as a shock force, prepared to fight the Single Union and to employ violent methods against anarchist violence. [ 17 ] Feliciano Baratech would describe the beginnings of the free agents in this way: "Outraged, the Unified Unions tried to eliminate the Free Unions through attacks. When the Free Unions resisted such intolerable coercion, they were joined by societies of waiters, cooks, and others, as well as strong groups from various professions and trades, with which the original Free Union gradually expanded into numerous professional unions. One that achieved considerable renown was the Banking and Stock Exchange Union, which declared a strike of bank employees in Barcelona in support of an agreement adopted by the Joint Committee of the sector establishing new wages. This Free Banking and Stock Exchange Union then spread throughout Spain, and upon leaving a rally held in Valencia by this organization, its president, Baltasar Domínguez, and its secretary, Francisco Cervera, were shot dead by the Unified Union." [ 4 ] The Free Union soon developed its own identity by confronting its rival, the CNT (National Confederation of Labor), and also, on occasion, challenging employers when they tried to subordinate it to their interests. From 1919 to 1921, the nascent union was promoted by employers in their efforts to divide the Barcelona proletariat. However, the "Free Union" declared that its policy was a strict defense of workers' professional rights, and that it would not yield to the interests of employers, as had happened with some professional and Catholic unions, which had been founded under the patronage of certain conservative figures and felt obligated to defend the established order. [ citation needed ] Presidents of the Free Trade Unions of Barcelona (1922) This differing viewpoint hindered friendly relations with the confessional unions, which were controlled by conservative magnates. Nevertheless, the Catholic-Free Unions, founded by the Dominicans, had maintained a more combative stance on workers' interests and maintained a good dialogue with the Carlists. These unions had almost their only strength in the Basque-Navarrese region, so the Carlist-union symbiosis existed in many areas, such as Azpeitia . This friendship would last so long that in 1924, at the Pamplona congress , the Federation of Free Unions of the North , led by the Dominicans José Gafo and Pedro Gerard , decided to merge with the General Corporation of Workers-Union of Free Unions of Catalonia and create the National Confederation of Free Unions of Spain , [ 18 ] whose strength lay in Catalonia and in the Basque Country and Navarre , curiously part of the same political geography of traditionalism. [ 19 ] [ questionable source ] During Primo de Rivera's military dictatorship , socialism , fostered within the official bodies of the dictatorship, prevented the Free Trade Unions from organizing nationally to create a truly unified professional force throughout Spain. Despite this, it spread to new regions, creating federations and unions in Madrid , Granada , Valencia , and Aragon . In 1925, it held a National Congress in Barcelona, and in 1927 another in Madrid. [ 20 ] Following the dismissal of General Primo de Rivera in January 1930, the Free Trade Unions were harassed by revolutionary forces through rallies and smear campaigns in the press, which did not go unanswered. The Free Trade Unionists of Catalonia, who until then had used the weekly Unión Obrera , the corporation's official organ, and several magazines, acquired ownership of the newspaper La Razón , but their sphere of influence was smaller. [ 21 ] With the proclamation of the Second Republic , the organization was banned and dissolved. [ 21 ] The first act of Lluís Companys as the Republican civil governor of Barcelona , a supporter of revolutionary syndicalism , was precisely to decree the closure of all the Free Unions. The pretext used was that the police had found explosives and dangerous devices in the union's premises, which, according to the union, had been secretly deposited by Captain García Miranda, an active communist. [ 22 ] According to Baratech, from that moment on, CNT gunmen dedicated themselves to "hunting" the free union members. [ 4 ] Following the dissolution of the Generalitat of Catalonia by the Republican government after the October 1934 uprising , the Free Unions reorganized. [ 23 ] In August 1935, Unión Obrera resumed publication under the direction of René Llanas de Niubó , [ 24 ] now very close, according to Cruz Seoane and Saiz García , to the positions of Renovación Española and the National Bloc . Several young members of the Free Unions participated in September 1935 in the founding of the Anti-Marxist Youth Group (AJA), whose organ was the weekly ¡Presente !. [ 23 ] Members of the Free Trade Unions participated in the uprising against the Republic in Barcelona on July 19, 1936. A group of three hundred volunteered to join the forces at the Pedralbes barracks. Most were arrested at the dog track, where they were gathered. Another group joined the Artillery Corps, under the command of Captain López Varela . Yet another group left the San Andrés barracks, arriving with the rebel units at Plaça Catalunya and taking a very active part in the fighting in that sector. [ 4 ] Several of its members would be cruelly tortured and murdered at the start of the Spanish Civil War . For example, its president, Ramón Sales, was chained up in the Eixample district of Barcelona in front of the offices of Solidaridad Obrera : "They chained Sales's hands and feet to four trucks. The trucks then drove off in different directions." [ 4 ] [ 25 ] Gunfighting Main article: Gunfighting Premises of the Free Unions at 7 Union Street (Barcelona), closed on April 14, 1931. The Free Unions were led by Ramón Sales Amenós , a Carlist from La Fuliola , as president. He came from the CNT's Mercantile Union . Their ideologue was Juan Laguía Lliteras , assassinated in Madrid in 1936, who also served as general secretary. Other members included José Baró , José Bru , Estanislao Rico , Domingo Farell , Feliciano Baratech , and Mariano Puyuelo . [ 26 ] The members of the Free Unions carried out the attacks and assassinations of prominent CNT members such as Salvador Seguí , and also of the lawyer Francisco Layret . Until 1923, the "Libres" (Free) unions suffered the constant threat of anarchist terrorism, which could not allow them to have divided the working class. The price was the assassination of 53 union leaders. In response, the "Libres" also created their own self-defense groups, which attacked the anarchists with their own weapons. However, the "Libres" were still in their infancy, and the loss of leaders hurt them even more. The restorationist authorities, under the premise of protecting the established liberal order, arrested both CNT (National Confederation of Labor) and "Libres" union members. The struggle between the two unions was bloody, but employers tried to manipulate it to their advantage by using "Libres" strikebreakers in anarchist strikes and vice versa in those promoted by the "Libres." [ 19 ] [ questionable source ] After the proclamation of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship , their violent activities ceased, leaving the State to apply a justice that, according to the Union, had not been applied previously.