People :
Author : Augustin Souchy
Author : Paul Folgare
Text :
Hispano-Suiza—The optical industry, born from the Revolution—The collectivized C.A.M.P.S.A. of Catalonia
The workshops of this important enterprise are working most intensely and with the greatest variety for the supply of the working class militias. The trade union organizations proceeded from the very beginning to confiscate the factory, and the workers have been entirely reorganized under the direction of the institutions created by the proletariat for that purpose, adapting the factory to the needs imposed by the civil war. Never before has a factory’s production been so completely transformed from peacetime to war production. All war production in the factories of the metal industry is subject to the control of the Committee of Militias, which acts through a direct delegate specially appointed for this task. The comrade who performs such a complicated and sensitive function is one of the most outstanding members of the Metal Workers Trade Union (CNT), whose offices are located in Hispano-Suiza. In this factory the direction of the war-related metal production is concentrated.
1,400 workers are employed in what has become a collectivized enterprise. The weekly payroll amounts to approximately 110,000 pesetas.
The internal direction of the factory is under the control of an Enterprise Committee, composed of a representative of each section, and one each for the technical staff, the clerks, engineers, etc.
The following special projects have been undertaken:
Armored trucks.
The manufacture of hand grenades.
Ambulances.
Machine gun tripods.
Belts and rucksacks.
Planning is underway for the manufacture of tanks and artillery.
Among the things that were previously made at Hispano-Suiza, the manufacture of automobiles and airplane engines continues, some of which have been delivered to the airport at Prat and to the Madrid Government.
The spirit of the workers is admirable. All do their best to complete these projects, which are veritable front line outposts in the war against fascism. In the first seven days 15 trucks were armored with double layers of steel plate and cork padding, which is a true “record”. All these trucks have already been sent to the front in Aragon.
The production of hand grenades amounts to 500 per day, which, completely finished, are delivered for shipment. We need only add that they are well made and powerful.
At the present time it is not possible to compare current production figures with those of the past, due to the fact that the production process has been transformed and the complex situation created by the civil war renders all such calculations idle. We present below, however, an account of the progress of this factory, which will make its financial situation all the more interesting, since it is one of the most genuine expressions of the capabilities of the proletariat and of the new form of organization, which is born already concealing the seed of promise for the future.
It seems impossible, but it is true. Prior to July 19, there was no optical industry in Spain, if by that term you understand one of the accepted meanings of the term, according to which industry is the sum and whole of the industries of one single industry or of various kinds of industries of a country or a region or part of a region.
The domestic bourgeoisie should have been capable of carrying out the work needed to raise the Spanish optical industry to the level of that of the other countries in which the faltering capitalist regime still prevails. This was not the case, however. Prior to July 19 the optical glass sector was distributed among sixty-five workshops, with the same number of owners, in which the very idea of consolidation had never even arisen.
Life therefore painfully evolved in this imitation of an industry, dominated by imported products. Nothing or almost nothing was manufactured in Spain, and only the grinding and polishing was done here, a simple enough activity if you take into account the numerous steps involved in the manufacture of optical glass.
Everyone is familiar with them. A photograph has made the rounds of the world of the proletariat and made them famous. Those binoculars that hang from the noble breast of our great Durruti were his most distinctive emblem. The glorious fighter, who still lives in our hearts, did not need to flaunt stars, epaulets or medals to convince himself and his subordinates that he was not only a leader, but one of the strongest pillars of the Revolution. His only distinguishing hallmark, the one that he was most fond of, were those binoculars hanging around his neck that were captured by the photographer and which, covering his generous and noble heart, extended the radius of his vision to the infinite.
These binoculars, together with more or less all of the optical equipment provided to the entire Durruti Column when it formed and left for the front, in the first days of the movement, were the products of the efforts of all the workers of the optical industry of Barcelona, who, taking over the most important workshops of the profession, worked tirelessly day and night to attend to the needs of their brothers who were marching to the front.
When the struggle in the streets of Barcelona came to an end, a struggle in which all the workers of the industry took an active part, the latter met for the purpose of making some decisions about their industry. One of their first resolutions was to do everything necessary to carry out the collectivization of the industry and, as collectivization proceeded, to establish in each workshop a Control Committee that would prevent the employers from absconding with funds and goods.
Immediately thereafter a study was undertaken to determine how to reduce the expenses of the industry that was being born at that moment, and the standard family wage was established, in the hope that the Organization would issue general directives to that effect.
Today, the women who work in the optical glass workshops make the same salary as the men; that is, there are no separate categories or pay scales based on gender. Everyone earns the same amount. At the age of twenty-four the workers earn the four hundred pesetas per month that was established in the accord; but if, before reaching this age—at the age of eighteen, for example—they get married, they automatically become eligible to receive the four hundred pesetas, plus fifty pesetas for each dependent person who relies on their incomes. These dependents include their parents and anyone who lives under the worker’s roof, even if they are not members of his family.
Despite the obvious increase in the cost of living after the beginning of the movement, the comrades of the collectivized Optical section, affiliated with the Trade Union of the Glass Industry, did not increase the salaries that they chose to pay themselves at the beginning of the movement. All their efforts and all their desires converged on one idea: collectivization and with it the creation of a factory that embraces all the specialties of the industry.
The goals of the workers were achieved. The factory is in operation and the industry that did not exist before has been born there.
The study and the perseverance of the workers in this factory have resulted in the fabrication of scientific lenses and quality color crystal lenses that are as good as those produced in other countries, and among the most important sectors of the industry is the celluloid production sector, where every variety of film is produced; stamped aluminum cases; containers made of celluloid, leather and cardboard; assembly lines for the production of metal shielding and protective goggles for automobile drivers, aviators, and welders and other occupations.
As a complement to all these sectors, there is a mechanical sector that supplies the others with all their equipment and fabricates the small machines for independent optical firms.
Just as the industry has organized itself by accumulating in one place all the equipment of the various small workshops, always inspired by collectivization and determined in their desire to reduce costs, the workers have concentrated all the warehouses into one warehouse. From this new warehouse the industry supplies all the retail outlets in Barcelona as well as the export trade.
There are sections for special orders, such as those for lenses, frames, film and cases.
In both the factory and the warehouse, the needs of modern life and the comforts that the workers deserve have been taken into account, and showers and all the other fixtures have been installed that are necessary for this purpose. Finally, an almost complete concentration has been achieved in the economy with regard to the optical glass industry, and we say “almost” because there is still as small fraction of unabsorbed workshops, which will eventually recognize the importance of the achievements of the workers.
The Optical Glass Sector is incubating many projects. Thanks to the hard work it has devoted to planning, very soon this Sector will be prepared to supply to the Council of War as many scientific instruments as it needs, besides binoculars, such as goniometers, goggles, rangefinders and, in short, everything required by war. Currently, despite the fact that the equipment for the construction of such instruments has not yet been adapted to the new system, all the damaged equipment that has been sent back from the front is being repaired.
But the most important project is that of the creation of the Technical School for the Industry. The intricate specialties of this industry do not allow for the easy training of operatives. The School will train workers by giving them hands-on experience in all manual and scientific aspects of the trade. This systematic approach is the product of the constructive spirit that animates the workers of the Optical Industry who are members of the CNT.
The overall impression one gets from the work carried out by the comrades of the Optical Glass industry is that they have created an industry where none existed before, and which can today offer for the consideration of their brothers the fact that they have achieved total independence of foreign supplies in this industry. Previously, forty or fifty million pesetas in optical commodities were imported, and today this contribution to the capitalist enemies outside of Spain has been abolished and something even more important has also been abolished: the fifty and sometimes even sixty percent commission made on the sales price that previously went into the pockets of some unscrupulous capitalists who recommended certain products.
This is the extreme to which bourgeois immorality has come. These imports were especially intolerable. It reached the point where small industrialists, although all of them were entirely bourgeois, felt ashamed of these imports and attempted to carry out the cutting and polishing operations on a larger scale; but their own bourgeois colleagues suppressed them, utilizing every trick in the book; including the imposition of wholesale prices, which, once they saw that it was impossible for them to function under these circumstances, satisfied their desire for wealth by smuggling large quantities of lenses as contraband. Due to this criminal procedure, the lenses that arrived in Spain were much cheaper than any that could be produced here.
And this is, in conclusion, the work of a few determined men whose organization was weak before July 19 and who can today present themselves as a model of discipline and effort for the achievement of the ends sought by the collective.
This oil company, which up until now constituted a state monopoly, directed by an administrative council in which the government was directly represented by one delegate and four or five advisers, has been reorganized as a collectivized enterprise, run by the workers.
Of the previous council of bankers not one remains.
The personnel, meeting in a general assembly after the enterprise was confiscated, elected a Central Managerial Committee, composed of six comrades. This Committee operates with the advice and consultation of the Section Committees and assumes the responsibility for enterprise operations on behalf of the workers.
The Section Committees are each composed of two comrades, who share responsibility for the following tasks:
Shipping Section: loading, unloading and supply of ships.
Filling Section: fueling trucks, filling barrels and tanks.
Workshop Section: general repair of gas pumps and other operating equipment.
Supply Section: control and distribution of material.
Mobile Section: mobile brigade.
Technical and Administrative Section.
The Regional Trade Union of Oil Workers simultaneously confiscated the refineries in Barcelona, Badalona, Manresa and Vich. In all of these refineries Committees of Administration have been formed, which are responsible to the Barcelona Committee and which operate in a similar way.
The Barcelona refinery employs 180 men. Of the previous technical staff, the director has been excluded. All the other services work for the collectivized enterprise.
A six-hour working day has been established, with two shifts.
Wages have been increased as follows:
Skilled workers, 17.50; master workers, 18; assistants, 15.50. The previous pay scales were: 11.50, 12.65 14.95, 16.10 and 17.25.
Women’s wages were increased by six pesetas to 11.50.
These wages are established based on experience and are thus subject to modification.
With regard to shipments, permanent relations have been established with Madrid, where the Administrative Council of CAMPSA is located, for the purpose of coordinating this activity.
Motor fuel has been declared a strategic war material, and with regard to this product the Committee of Militias exercises control over CAMPSA.
As of August 3, motor fuel supplies, measured in Liters, were recorded as follows:
Automobile Gasoline 28,343,846
Binary Gasoline 1,987,000
Ternary Gasoline 43,777
Diesel 2,954,000
Military Aviation Gasoline 88,386
Aviation Gasoline 75/77 427,291
Aviation Benzene 10,000
Automobile Benzene 7,000
Lubricating Oils 4,108,234
No. 1 Fuel Oil 300,000
No. 2 Fuel Oil 15,083,285
Alcohol 760,037
(Comparative data is lacking for average rates of consumption before and immediately following the July 19 and for the present.)
From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.
Chronology :
January 11, 2021 : Part 2, Chapter 3 -- Added.
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