Pistolerismo

Pistolerismo
Part of Spanish liberal state crisis
Date1917-1923
Location
Spain, mainly in industrial areas and especially in Barcelona
GoalsAchievement of social rights for the working class (CNT and UGT) Repression of all union trade initiatives (counter-revolutionary front)
MethodsMurders, bombing attacks, strike repressions
Resulted inDictatorship of Primo de Rivera
Parties
Sindicatos Libres
Paramilitary militia
Somatén
Spanish army
Spanish police
Employers
Lead figures

Pistolerismo refers both to a specific period of Spanish history, between the general strike of August 1917 and Primo de Rivera's coup in September 1923, and to the social phenomenon spread in many areas of Spain[1] during which Spanish employers hired thugs to face and often kill trade unionists and notable workers – and vice versa.[2] It was characterized by the birth and proliferation of several armed groups composed of pistoleros, specialized men in the use of violence.[1]

It reached its most tragic consequences in the region of Catalonia and especially in the city of Barcelona, where hundreds of people were killed or injured as consequence of political violence and social attacks. Above all, social clashes of these years played a fundamental role in the crisis of the Spanish Liberal State, whose existence definitely finished with de Rivera's coup.[3]

  1. ^ a b Bonnefoy, Juan Cristobal Marinello (2020). "Pistolerismo y violencia sindical en Barcelona (1917-1923)". Barcelona Quaderns d'Història (26): 134–135.
  2. ^ Balcells 2009, p. 9.
  3. ^ Andrews, Nathaniel (2019). "Repression, solidariety and legacy of violence: Spanish anarcho-syndacalism and the years of pistolerismo, 1919-1923". International Journal of Iberian Studies. 32 (3): 175. doi:10.1386/ijis_00004_1. S2CID 213843688.

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