International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Salvador Seguí i Rubinat was the leading moderate figure in the earliest years of the Spanish anarchosyndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Labor Confederation, CNT), especially in Catalonia. While a firm believer in anarchism , Seguí viewed it as a distant dream and promoted moderate and peaceful progress within the unions. As a CNT leader, Seguí often sought alliances with the socialist Unión General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers, UGT), including joining with them in the failed 1917 national general strike. The success of this approach was almost always thwarted by aggressive tactics by the state and employers. Despite his moderate positions, he was well regarded and respected as a true representative of the working class by even the more radical members of the CNT. Born in a working-class family in Catalonia, Seguí i Rubinat's first language was Catalan and he spoke Castilian with a marked accent. Widely read, like many of the autodidacts in the Spanish movement, he wrote numerous articles and essays, adopting the pseudonym Noi del sucre (“Sugar Boy”) for many of his earliest publications, as well as at least one novella. Arrested in 1919, he was initially imprisoned when the La Canadiense strike began in Barcelona, which precipitated a general strike in Barcelona . Though Seguí convinced the strikers to accept a settlement and return to ... log in or subscribe to read full text