CNT Anarchist Congress

After the Congress of CNT, interview with Secretary General.. from ainfos with thanks.. en castellano abajo

From 4 to 8 December the latest Congress of CNT took place in Zaragoza. Given its relevance to the libertarian movement (in all aspects) and given the expectation that accompanies such events, we wanted to interview someone in the permanent secretariat of the confederal committee to explain to us firsthand his opinion on what he has seen these days and the practical effects of these decisions.

Aquest matí han estat detinguts dos companys de la CNT-AIT de Barcelona, els quals també són militants d’Acció Llibertària de Sants, per la seva participació a la campanya de boicot a El Corte Inglés que ambdues organitzacions hem promogut. Aquestes detencions estan emmarcades en un procés més ampli, donat que s’han produït, precisament quan les companyes es disposaven a donar suport a un grup de persones imputades al llarg del cap de setmana, per la mateixa causa. — 2 comrades of the CNT-AIT of Barcelona who are also militants Acció Llibertària of Sants barrio, have been arrested at the behest of management for their participation in the boicott campaign supporting strikers at the El Corte Inglés right wing chain stores . Black Friday began a series of pickets, sabotage and road blocking.

First I want to thank the colleagues from Alasbarricadas for their interest in the CNT and the celebration of our XI Congress and its important work in spreading anarchist initiatives,and their contribution to the theoretical debate.

Now that you’ve finished, how do you see the Congress in general terms ?

In general, we can speak of a particularly productive congress in several ways.

First, the quantity and quality of the papers that were submitted for debate and approval of the unions. Keep in mind that the CNT has its own rhythms and that Congress is only the end point of a long process of internal debate that began a year ago. In this congress unions have presented papers covering very serious fields of action and strategies of the CNT but we will discuss them later. Secondly, we have seen the internal cohesion of the CNT the maturity of the organization. No one is unaware that the CNT came to this conference in a very delicate and difficult internal moment, after the last de-federaciones of several inoperative small groups and the problems with the previous Secretary General. However, there has been a unity and determination to make strides. The debate in the plenary has been respectful and fluid, which has not happened in previous congresses which were more tense, and reached a depth and much higher level of analysis.

Also in the commissions the level of consensus has been very wide . This does not mean that there have been tensions and disagreements, but that resolution has not been problematic.

What points approved in Congress, do you think are the most important?

For starters, the CNT has now been defined not only as a class organization, autonomous, self-managed, federalist and internationalist but also as a feminist organization, understanding that the struggle against patriarchy is inseparable from the struggle against capitalism and against any form of domination, and indeed union action that has defined the Congress for the coming years has been impregnated with this view. Continue reading “Interview and action : Congress of CNT anarchist union”