CNT

   The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Labour Confederation) is an anarchosyndicalist trade union which played a major role in Spanish politics during the first forty years of the twentieth century. It was founded in Barcelona in 1910 and, from the first, in anarchist fashion, rejected political parties of the working class and advocated the adoption of militant "direct action" tactics. Between 1910 and 1939 it vied for leadership of the Spanish labour movement with the socialist PSOE and its related trade union, the UGT. However, it entered into decline during the Civil War and, especially, under the Franco regime. At the same time, divisions within the union became increasingly bitter, leading to a split in 1945 and the foundation of two rival organizations. It is now but a pale shadow of its former self.

   ANGEL SMITH