Members of Catholic Trade Unionism

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Members of Catholic Trade Unionism

• Pedro Gerard José Gafo

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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

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José Gafo

• Tiós 1881-1936 Madrid
• Met Gerard while in high school
• Christian democrat politics, following Maura
• Initially supported Riveras 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

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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 Ruttens Belgian Catholic Unions
  known in Spain,
• became a reference point for free RC TUs
  1911-1919

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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
  Gafos suggestion
• 1935 joined CESO Spanish Catholic Confederation
  of Unions all RC TUs finally brought together

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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 Francos dictatorship

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Class Identity

• Other unions accused Gerard Gafos unions of
  betraying their class identity
• financed by conservative employers? No
• Only Gerards 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

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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

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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 todays social
  movements?

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