Members of Catholic Trade Unionism

1. Members of Catholic Trade Unionism Pedro Gerard & José Gafo

2. 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

3. 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

5. 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

7. 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

9. ‘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

11. 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

13. 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

15. 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?