full image - Repost: Socialism that worked: The Barcelona tram network under CNT control (from Reddit.com, Socialism that worked: The Barcelona tram network under CNT control)
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tl;dr anarchist/libertarian socialists took over the tramway of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War for 10 months, during that time they:Increased the amount of trams operating from 600 at a time to 700.Eliminated 3,000 metal poles across Barcelona holding up electrical wires and replaced it with aerial suspension to decrease accidents.Fares were changed, originally they costed 10-40 pesetas based on difference, but this was changed to a flat 20 peseta fare.The amount of track increased from 21.7 million kilometres to 23.3 million.Ridership increased from 183 million per year to 233 million per year, although this also happened during fuel shortages reducing people's abilities to use cars.New models of tram were developed that were 21 tons heavy, compared to the previous models that were 35 tons.Wages were increased for the tramworkers. Nearly doubling for labourers from 8-9 pesetas a day to 15.Medical services and hygiene was expanded among tramworkers, with This information is taken from the book Collectives in the Spanish Revolution by Gaston Leval, which you can read for free at theanarchistlibrary.org (link). If you have any sympathy for the idea that workers should control their workplaces, this book is a must read. And if you're a libertarian capitalist, I want the state to hold a gun to your head to force you to read this book. (Jokes)Some notes:This is a defense of socialism as the concept of workers control rather than state control.This is reporting on actions taken during the Spanish Revolution of 1936, a 10-month experiment into anarchist/libertarian socialism during the Spanish Civil War.The CNT (National Confederation of Labor) is a libertarian socialist trade union that was and is still active in Spain. The FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation) often worked alongside it.Syndicate just refers to the worker-run organisation that owned and run the tramways.In summary, Barcelona had a large tram/cablecar network around 1936. The majority of workers in it were members of the CNT and collectivised it. According to Gaston Leval, this was a success. To quote the positives mentioned by him at length:The tramways were the most important means of transport in Barcelona. Sixty routes criss-crossed the city and served the suburbs and the surrounding localities. The General Tramways Company was a private company mainly with Belgian capital and employed 7,000 workers, not only as drivers and conductors but also in the eight tram depots and in the repair workshops. Out of the 7,000, about 6,500 were paid up members of the C.N.T. where they made up the section of the industrial transport Syndicate corresponding to their occupation. The street battles had brought all traffic to a standstill, obstructed the roadways by barricades that had been set up all over the city and for which buses and trams often were the main materials used. The roads had to be cleared, and public transport so indispensable for this large city had to be got moving again. So the syndical section of the tramways appointed a commission of seven comrades to occupy the administrative offices whilst others inspected the tracks and drew up a plan of clearing work that; needed to be done. The Comite of seven immediately called together the delegates from the different syndical sections: electric power station, cables, repairs, traffic, conductors, stores, accounts, offices and administration, etc. Yet once more the synchronisation of the industrial Syndicate was working perfectly. It was unanimously agreed to get the tramways moving without delay. Five days after fighting had stopped seven hundred tramcars instead of the usual six hundred, all painted in the colours of the C.N.T.-F.A.I., in red and black diagonally across the sides, were operating in Barcelona. The number had been increased in order to do away with the trailer-cars which were the cause of many accidents. To do this work had gone on night and day repairing and putting back into service a hundred tramcars which had been discarded as being beyond repair. Each section had at its head an engineer nominated by agreement with the Syndicates, and a representative of the workers and this was how the work and the workers were dealt with. At the top the assembled delegates constituted the local general Comite. The sections met separately when it was a question of their specific activities which could be considered independently; when it was a question of general problems, all the workers of all the trades held a general assembly. From the bottom to the top the organisation was federalist, and in this way they maintained not only a permanent material solidarity but also a moral solidarity which linked everyone to the general task, with a nobler vision of things. Agreement was therefore also permanent between engineers and workers. No engineer could take an important decision without consulting the local Comite, not only because he agreed that responsibility should be shared but also because often, where practical problems are involved, manual workers have the experience which technicians lack [Hayek's knowledge problem anyone?]. This was understood by both parties, and thereafter, very often when the Comite of the Syndicate or a delegate thought up an interesting idea, the specialist engineer would be called in for consultations; on other occasions it was the engineer who proposed the examination of a new idea and in that case manual workers were called in. There was complete collaboration. The technical organisation and the traffic operation was improved; the importance of the improvements achieved was remarkable. To start with, 3,000 metal poles holding up the electric cables supplying the current were eliminated as they were interfering with the traffic and causing many accidents and were replaced by a system of aerial suspension. Then a new safety and signalling system was introduced consisting of electric points and automatic discs. Furthermore the company for Agua, Luz y Fuerza (water, light and power) had installed in many places and right in the middle of the routes taken by the tramcars, transformer cabins or power distributors, which made all kinds of detours and bifurcations necessary, sometimes very sharp (very often a single line), and resulted in accidents. This had gone on from when the services had first been laid, arid were determined by the whims of financial or political interests. The comrades of Agua, Luz y Fuerza moved these cabins to where they would be in nobodyºs way, thus making it possible to straighten out once for all the tramway lines. Sections of track that had been damaged during the fighting were reconstructed, such as the double track for Route 60 which was completely relaid. In other cases the roadway was asphalted. These improvements took some time to complete as did some modifications of the general infrastructure. From the beginning the organisers, without for all that forgetting the interests of the workers in the vast enterprise, sought to perfect the tools being used. In less than a year a number of notable acquisitions were made; first of all there was the purchase in France of an automatic American lathe, the only one in Spain, and costing £20,000, which was able to produce seven identical parts at the same time. Thus tooled it was possible to make appreciable strides forward, and a start was even made on building tramcars, including two new models of funicular cars for the Rebasada line which climbed the Tibidabo and for the one in Montjuich. The new cars weighed 21 tons compared with 35 tons for the old type which also carried fewer passengers. It now remains to see what part of the profits went to the tramway workers. At the time of the uprising the peones (labourers) earned between 8 and 9 pesetas a day, traffic controllers received 10, lorry drivers and skilled engineering workers (lathe operators, fitters, etc.) 12. All wages were readjusted so that labourers received 15 pesetas and skilled workers 16. One was approaching a state of basic equality. But other improvements in working conditions deserve to be mentioned. Firstly washbasins were installed in the sheds and workshops, which had never been done before. Showers were installed (and one should bear in mind that this was 1936) in all undertakings employing numbers of workers. Tramcars were disinfected weekly. Then a medical service was organised from which we can draw some lessons. To conclude this aspect of things, it is worth underlining that honesty was general. Not that there were no cases of unscrupulous actions but in three years they amounted to six cases of larceny which would not even deserve to be mentioned but for the fact that we do not wish to appear to gloss over the negative aspects. The most serious case was that of a worker who from time to time took away small quantities of copper which he would sell when he had made up a kilo's worth. He was dismissed, but as his wife came to tell the undertaking's comite that she had a child which would suffer the consequences, she was given three or four weeks' wages and her husband was moved into another workshop. Leval's book is great, I'd like to also add some quotes from the sections on the town of GrausIn spite of all these expenses a number of quite ambitious public works were undertaken. Five kilometres of roads were tarred, a 700 metre irrigation channel was widened by 40 cm and deepened by 25 cm for better irrigation of the land and to increase its driving power. Another channel was extended by 600 metres.and the town of FragaMedical care was therefore virtually completely collectivised. The hospital was quickly enlarged from a capacity of 20 beds to 100. The out patients' department which was in the course of construction was rapidly completed. A service to deal with accidents and minor surgical operations was established. The two pharmacies were also integrated into the new system. All this was accompanied by a massive increase in public hygiene... And for the first time ever the hospital was provided with running water and the project in hand was to ensure that all houses were similarly provided, thus reducing the incidence of typhoid. There are still plenty of objections you can make to libertarian socialism on both moral and practical grounds, but I think the idea that it wouldn't be efficient or get anything done is strongly challenged by Leval's work. If you keep in mind something like this research into worker co-ops, then you can make a strong case for libertarian socialism being efficient and constructive in practice.Also, not everything Leval mentions is positive. He notes that a lawyer who had persecuted left-wing workers in the past was likely assassinated, despite an anarcho-syndicalist arguing against this.
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