Solidarity happens: Corriente Sindical de Izquierdas, radical trade unionism in democratic Asturias

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the Franco dictatorship, a pole of workers’ militancy was forged in the city of Gijón around a critical current of Comisiones Obreras, the main Spanish trade union, called the Corriente de Izquierdas (Left Current). This group of workers was the driving force behind some of the most important conflicts of the new democracy, including a strike of strict solidarity that lasted almost three months. Expelled from their union in 1982, the Corriente Sindical de Izquierdas became the main reference point for radical trade unionism in Asturias. Despite its small size and limited presence, for forty years it has been at the forefront of many of the most notorious and agonising conflicts against the deindustrialisation of the city and the region, with trade union methods characterised by their radicalism, but above all, by their strong commitment to solidarity. Such has been its trade union history that the organisation has earned a notable place in Asturian and even Spanish popular culture. Here we will review its evolution as a trade union and what have been the signs of identity that have made it possible for an admittedly small organisation to accumulate such remarkable social prominence and symbolic capital.