Intersindical-CSC is a Catalonia-based labour union that claims to be both independent and class-based, with a presence throughout the Paisos Catalans, defined on its website as “the Catalan-speaking territories under French and Spanish administration”. The union does not give membership numbers, but says it is currently the fifth largest labour organization in Catalonia.
Founded in 1990 and formally constituted three years later, Intersindical-CSC assumes the mantle of two previous Catalan nationalist labour organizations: Solidaritat d’Obrers de Catalunya (SOC, Workers Solidarity of Catalonia), a movement dating from 1958 that was incorporated in 1983 into the Confederació Sindical de Treballadors de Catalunya (CST, Syndicated Confederation of Workers of Catalonia). Plagued from the outset by dissent and schisms, the CSTC was formally dissolved in 1987, with the majority of its membership affiliating with the Marxist-oriented Coordinadora Obrera Sindical (Syndicated Workers Coordinating Council, COS) and others joining the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO, Workers’ Commissions) national trade union federation.
Internationally, Intersindical-CSC has been affiliated since 2002 with the Platform of Stateless Trade Unions (PSCNSE) and since 2009 with the Athens-based World Federation of Trade Unions, comprised of labour unions primarily affiliated or aligned with Marxist-Leninist parties worldwide.
Intersindical-CSC unabashedly favours Catalonia’s independence from Spain, stating on its website that “the inalienable and unequivocal right to self-determination as a people and national liberation is fully linked to the social transformation we deserve, as citizens and as workers”.
The union’s current secretary general (since 2013) is Carles Sastre, a former member of the Exèrcit Popular Català (EPOCA, Catalan People’s Army) and the Terra Lliure (Free Homeland) armed separatist movements. Sastre spent 11 years in prison for his role in the 1977 execution of Catalan industrialist José María Bultó, kidnapped by EPOCA and held for a ransom of 500 million pesos before dying when a bomb strapped to his chest by his captors exploded. Sastre was also implicated in the 1978 assassination of former Barcelona mayor Joaquín Viola and his wife, but charges against him were later dropped for lack of evidence.
► Learn more about Intersindical-CSC at the following links online:
Updated as of 04/2018
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