Members of Catholic Trade Unionism

Pedro Gerard & José Gafo

Pedro Gerard• Saragossa 1871-1919 Madrid• Influence of Rutten: • role setting up TU in Jerez:

Casa del Trabajo• Promoting RC socialist TUs,

free from employer influence• Critical of RC approach to

‘social question’• 1913 Spanish bishops

reported him to Rome for views

• Supported by Rome & OP Master: told to work on Belgian model

• 1916 had to retire from social action

José Gafo

• Tiós 1881-1936 Madrid• Met Gerard while in high school• Christian democrat politics,

following Maura• Initially supported Rivera’s

dictatorship– appointed to Council of

Corporations– MP for Navarre– shift to opposition on beginnings

of fascism

• Wanted RC & non-confessional TUs to merge

• Assasinated at start of Civil War

Influences

• Neo-Thomism– teachers Juan Gonzalez Arintero & Matías García OP– Gafo edited journal La Ciencia Tomista

• Alejandro Pidal y Mon– Party Unión Católica; Christian democracy– traditionalism & corporatism

• Gerard made Rutten’s Belgian Catholic Unions known in Spain, – became a reference point for free RC TUs 1911-1919

Uniting the Catholic Unions

• Conflict between Spanish unions from 1912 – CNT (syndicalist) & UGT (socialist)– Basque, Francoist, independent unions– variety of approaches to social Catholicism

• National Federation of Free Catholic Unions – founded Pamplona 1916 – 126 members by 1920– 1923 became non-confessional, ‘professional’ unions:

joined with Free Unions of Catalunya on Gafo’s suggestion

– 1935 joined CESO Spanish Catholic Confederation of Unions: all RC TUs finally brought together

‘Integral’ Catholicism

• Aim to restore traditional social order of ‘Christian civilisation’ – to counter revolutionary syndicalism– free professional RC TUs an example of ‘integrated’ social

experience

• Gerard & Gafo approached this differently– Gerard worked to establish unions as part of society– Gafo wanted unions ‘without Catholic titles’ as part of corporatist

state– neither were ‘integrist’ enough for many contemporaries

• After their deaths, a more conservative integrist model took hold under Franco’s dictatorship

Class Identity

• Other unions accused Gerard & Gafo’s unions of betraying their class identity:

• financed by conservative employers? No– Only Gerard’s Casa de Trabajo in Jerez was

financed by local employers initially– Other unions were managed by employers: these

were not• Supported by authoritarian governments? Yes

– 1920s collaboration with civil government of Barcelona

– 1930-35 professional unions were right-wing traditionalist part of the 2nd republic

Impact

• Gerard & Gafo were not alone:– other Spanish OPs followed Arintero & García– e.g. Blessed Urbano, Colunga, Alonso Getino

• Models for workers’ rights, promoting social justice on a gospel foundation– conservative integrism clashed with their views– but their ideas found new resonance after Vatican II

• Conservative, but constructive:– pluralism into Spanish Catholic trade unionism– reaction to contemporary revolutionary processes– proposing a just, non-sectarian model of social

organisation

Faith in Society

• Gerard & Gafo raise a relevant question for today:– a model of Christian service in an advanced

industrial society– unions are non-confessional again since the

1960s– but Catholic confessional social organisations

are reappearing

• What role might Christians play in today’s social movements?