General Secretary of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo explained

Post:	General Secretary
Body:	the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
Insignia:	CNT Emblem.svg
Insigniacaption:	CNT emblem
Insigniaalt:	CNT emblem depicting Hercules wrestling the Nemean lion
Flag:	Flag of the CNT.svg
Flagcaption:	CNT flag
Incumbent:	Erika Conrado
Incumbentsince:	27 January 2024
Type:	General secretary
Member Of:	Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
Precursor:	General Secretary of Solidaridad Obrera
Formation:	1 November 1910
First:	Josep Negre

The General Secretary or Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is the head of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour; CNT), a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions. The position is elected by a congress or plenary session of the confederation. The position's powers are limited to technical and administrative affairs.

Since the confederation does not have fixed headquarters, the elected General Secretary's local federation becomes the confederation's central operations and a local plenary session of the local federation chooses the secretariats for other leadership positions. Together they are known as the Secretariado Permanente del Comité Confederal (Permanent Secretariat of the Confederal Committee, or SPCC). They, together with other regional federation's secretaries general, form the full Confederal Committee. The first general secretary of the CNT, chosen at its 1910 constitutional congress, was José Negre. He had been general secretary of Solidaridad Obrera, a Catalan union and precursor to the CNT. Thus Barcelona was the first headquarters.

The CNT operated clandestinely during years of repression and splintered. Sources support several timelines of CNT Secretaries General during this time.

Through the Civil War (1910–1939)

Unless specified otherwise, the Headquarters of the CNT's General General and National Committee during this period were based in Barcelona.

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Notes
1		Josep Negre (1875–1939)	November 1910	September 1911
			September 1911	1914	During this period, the CNT was banned by the government and organised clandestinely.
2		Manuel Andreu (1889–1968)	November 1915	August 1916	Legal restrictions against the CNT were lifted and it resumed public activity in 1915.
3		Francisco Jordán (1886–1921)	August 1916	February 1917 ‡
4		Francisco Miranda (1869–1950)	March 1917	August 1917 ‡
–		Manuel Buenacasa (1886–1964)	August 1917	November 1917	Interim General Secretary, while Francisco Miranda was imprisoned.
(4)		Francisco Miranda (1869–1950)	December 1917	July 1918
5		Manuel Buenacasa (1886–1964)	August 1918	December 1918
6		Evelio Boal (1884–1921)	January 1919	December 1919	As Provisional General Secretary.
			December 1919	March 1921 ‡	Murdered on 12 June 1921.
7		Andreu Nin (1892–1937)	March 1921	May 1921
8		Joaquim Maurín (1896–1950)	August 1921	February 1922 ‡
9		Joan Peiró (1887–1942)	May 1922	June 1922 <	-- Christie says until July 1923 -->
10		Salvador Seguí (1887–1923)	11 June 1922	10 March 1923 †	Assassinated by pistoleros.
11		Manuel Adame (1901–1945)	July 1923	16 August 1923 ‡
12		Paulino Díez (1892–1980)	August 1923	25 December 1923 ‡	Headquartered in Seville.
13		José Gracia Galán	April 1924		Headquartered in Zaragoza.
–		Unknown	June 1924	September 1925	During this period, the CNT was outlawed by the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and carried out its activities clandestinely. The identity of the general secretary at this time is unknown. <	-- Speculated to have been Ángel Pestaña.-->
14		Avelino González (1894–1938)	September 1925	June 1926	Headquartered in Gijón.
15		Segundo Blanco (1899–1957)	July 1926	November 1926	Headquartered in Gijón.
16 (9)		Joan Peiró (1887–1942)	January 1927	May 1929
17		Ángel Pestaña (1886–1937)	June 1929	June 1930
18		Progreso Alfarache (1888–1964)	27 June 1930	27 September 1930 ‡
19		Francesc Arín	October 1930	December 1930	Serving as Interim General Secretary.
			December 1930	December 1931	The Second Spanish Republic was established during this period.
20 (17)		Ángel Pestaña (1886–1937)	December 1931	March 1932
21		Manuel Rivas	March 1932	January 1933 ‡	Imprisoned following the anarchist insurrection of January 1933.
22		Miguel Yoldi (1903–1961)	December 1933	February 1935
23		Horacio Prieto (1902–1985)	March 1935	May 1936	Headquartered in Zaragoza. Provisionally replaced at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
–		(1904–1945)	18 July 1936	September 1936	Provisional General Secretary during the early months of the Spanish Civil War.
(23)		Horacio Prieto (1902–1985)	September 1936	18 November 1936	Re-election confirmed by national plenum on 4 August 1936.
24		Mariano Vázquez (1909–1939)	18 November 1936	February 1939 <	--Bolloten 1991, p. xxxii says 1939; Christie 2000, 7n7 says February 1939; Paz 2006, p. 748n82 says April 1939-->	Headquarters transferred from Barcelona, to Madrid and then Valencia. Term ended by the conclusion of the Catalonia Offensive. Died in Paris in June 1939.

During Franco (1939–1976)

During this period, the CNT worked clandestinely both inside Spain and in French exile. A schism among the exiles created two confederal committees with their own corresponding secretaries general.

In Spain

Name	Took office	Left office
	April 1939	November 1939
	January 1940	July 1940
	July 1940	February 1941
	December 1942	August 1943
	September 1943	September 1944
	September 1944	March 1945
		April 1945	July 1945
	July 1945	October 1945
	November 1945	March 1946
	March 1946	April 1946
	May 1946	April 1947
	May 1947	August 1947
	August 1947	November 1947
	April 1948	July 1949
	July 1949	June 1951
	June 1951	June 1953
	October 1960	October 1961
	April 1962	February 1964
	April 1964	April 1965
	May 1965	September 1968

In exile

Name	Election date	Agency	Town
Mariano Rodríguez Vázquez ^1	25 February 1939		Paris
	June 1943	National Plenary (confederal)	Mauriac
	September 1943	National Plenary (confederal)	Tourniac
	March 1944	National Plenary (confederal)	Muret
	October 1944	National Plenary (confederal)	Toulouse
	May 1945	Paris Congress	Paris

1. After his death, Germinal Esgleas Jaume took over.

Orthodox faction

Name	Election date	Agency	Town
	-	-	-
	August 1946	National Plenary (confederal) of Regionals	Toulouse
	October 1947	Congress of Local Federations	Toulouse
	April 1947	I Intercontinental Conference	-
	October 1948 ^1	Congress of Local Federations	-
	February 1949	II Intercontinental Conference	Toulouse
	May 1950	I National Plenary (confederal)	Toulouse
	April 1951	II Intercontinental Plenary	Toulouse
	July 1952	III Intercontinental Plenary	Aymare
	July 1953	IV Intercontinental Plenary Session	Toulouse
	August 1954	5th Intercontinental Plenary	Toulouse
	August 1955	VI Intercontinental Plenary Session	Toulouse
	July 1956	VII Intercontinental Plenary Session	Toulouse
	August 1957	VIII Intercontinental Plenary Session	Toulouse
	August 1958	IX Intercontinental Plenary	Toulouse
	September 1959	X Intercontinental Plenary	Vierzon
	August 1960	Congress of Local Federations	Limoges

1.He resigned in December 1948.

Possibilist faction

Name	Election date	Agency	Town
	November 1945	Plenary of Regionals of Origin	Toulouse
	August 1946	Plenary	Toulouse
	December 1947	I National Plenary (confederal) of Regionals	Toulouse
	May 1948	Plenary	-
	February 1949	II National Plenary (confederal)	-
	June 1950	III National Plenary (confederal)	-
	June 1952	IV National Plenary (confederal)	-
	March 1954	V National Plenary (confederal)	-
	November 1955	VI National Plenary (confederal)	-
	August 1957	VII National Plenary (confederal)	-
	October 1958	VIII National Plenary (confederal)	-
	March 1960	IX National Plenary (confederal)	Clermont Ferrand

Reunification of exiled factions

The reunification of the CNT was ratified by a congress in Caracas, Venezuela, on 18 December 1960.

Name	Election date	Agency	Town
	August 1961	Congress of Local Federations	Limoges
	August 1962	Intercontinental Plenary	Toulouse
	October 1963	Congress of Local Federations	Toulouse
	August 1965	Congress of Local Federations	Montpellier
	August 1967	Intercontinental Plenary	Marseille
	August 1969	Intercontinental Plenary	Bordeaux
	August 1971	Intercontinental Plenary Session	Marseille
^1	August 1973	Intercontinental Plenary Session	Marseille
	August 1975	Congress of Local Federations	Marseille

1. He resigned in January 1975.

Since the transition to democracy (1976–present)

Name	Took office	Left office	Headquarters
	August 1976	April 1978	Madrid
	April 1978	December 1979	Barcelona
	December 1979	January 1983	Madrid
	January 1983	-	-
	July 1983	-	-
	1985	-	-
	March of 1986	1990	Granada
	1990	-	Valencia
	November 1992	-	Barcelona
	May 1995	December 1995	Granada
	December 1995	February 1998	Madrid
	December 1998	October 2000	Bilbao
	October 2000	March 2003	Madrid
	April 2003	July 2005	Vitoria-Gasteiz
	July 2005	August 2007	Seville
	August 2007	December 2010	Torrelavega
	December 2010	April 2013	Córdoba
	April 2013	April 2015	Valladolid
	April 2015	July 2017	Santiago de Compostela
	July 2017	2019	Bilbao
Miguel García Romero	2019	November 2021	Lebrija
Isabel Arenales	November 2021	December 2021	Valladolid
	December 2021	January 2024	Madrid
	January 2024	present	Granollers

Bibliography

• Ackelsberg. Martha A.. 1985. "Separate and Equal"? Mujeres Libres and Anarchist Strategy for Women's Emancipation. Feminist Studies. 11. 1. 63–83. 10.2307/3180133. 3180133. 2027/spo.0499697.0011.106. free.
• Andrews. Nathaniel. 2021. Anarchism in Everyday Life. PhD. University of Leeds.
• Balcells. Albert. 2017. Collectivisations in Catalonia and the Region of Valencia during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Catalan Historical Review. 10. 77–92. 10.2436/20.1000.01.133. 2013-407X.
• Book: Bolloten, Burnet. Burnett Bolloten. 1991. The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution. University of North Carolina Press. 0-8078-1906-9. 89-77911.
• Book: Brodie, Morris. 2020a. Transatlantic Anarchism during the Spanish Civil War and Revolution, 1936-1939: Fury Over Spain. Routledge. 10.4324/9780429328763. 9780429328763.
• Casado Gil. María Reyes. 2016. La Confederación Nacional del Trabajo en el Estado español: reorganización y crisis (1973-1980). PhD. National University of Distance Education. es.
• Casanova. Julián. 2005. Terror and violence: The dark face of Spanish anarchism. International Labor and Working-Class History. 67. 79–99. 10.1017/S0147547905000098.
• Book: Christie, Stuart. Stuart Christie. 2000. We, the Anarchists! A Study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) 1927-1937. Hastings. Meltzer Press. 1901172066. 803517498.
• Dunwoodie. Peter. 1993. Albert Camus and the Anarchist Alternative. Australian Journal of French Studies. 30. 1. 84–104. 10.3828/ajfs.30.1.84.
• Ealham. Chris. 2014. Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalists in Toulouse: The Red-and-Black Counter-City in Exile. Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 91. 1–2. 95–114. 10.1080/14753820.2013.868652.
• Book: Esenwein, George. 2023. Spain in Revolt: The Revolutionary Legacy of Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism. Marcel. van der Linden. Marcel van der Linden. The Cambridge History of Socialism. 1. 380–410. Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781108611022.017. 978-1-108-48134-2.
• Evans. Daniel. 2016. The Conscience of the Spanish Revolution: Anarchist Opposition to State Collaboration in 1937. PhD. University of Leeds.
• Evans. Danny. 2019. Uprooted cosmopolitans? The post-war exile of Spanish anarchists in Venezuela, 1945-1965. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies. 25. 2. 321–342. 10.1080/14701847.2019.1632037.
• Book: Íñiguez, Miguel. 2001. Esbozo de una enciclopedia histórica del anarquismo español. Madrid. Fundación de Estudios Libertarios Anselmo Lorenzo. 9788486864453. 807322760. es.
• Muñoz Encinar. Laura. Palomo Guijarro. Gonzalo. Recio Cuesta. José Antonio. 2010. Comunismo libertario y autonomía indígena. Libertarian communism and indigenous autonomy. Historia Actual Online. 1696-2060. 21. 111–121. es. 2024-08-22.
• Book: Paz, Abel. Abel Paz. Durruti in the Spanish Revolution. 2006. 1996. Chuck. Morse. Chuck W. Morse. Edinburgh. AK Press. 1-904859-50-X. 2006920974. 482919277.

Further reading

• Andrews. Nathaniel. 2019. Repression, solidarity, and a legacy of violence: Spanish anarcho-syndicalism and the years of 'pistolerismo', 1919–23. International Journal of Iberian Studies. 32. 3. 173–193. 10.1386/ijis_00004_1. 1364-971X.
• Book: Bolloten, Burnett. Burnett Bolloten. 1961. The Grand Camouflage: The Communist Conspiracy in the Spanish Civil War. Hollis & Carter. 2476432.
• Brodie. Morris. 2020b. An Infantile Disorder? Youth, Childhood, and the British Anarchist Movement During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth. 13. 1. 80–102. 10.1353/hcy.2020.0002.
• Book: Ealham, Chris. 2015. Living Anarchism: José Peirats and the Spanish Anarcho-syndicalist Movement. AK Press. 9781849352390.
• Evans. Danny. 2022. In and Against the State: The Making and Unmaking of the Barcelona May Days (1937). European History Quarterly. 52. 3. 485–505. 10.1177/02656914221103464. free.
• Evans. Danny. Stainforth. Elizabeth. 2023. Learning to live: Anarcho-syndicalism and utopia in Spain, 1931–37. International Journal of Iberian Studies. 36. 1. 3–20. 10.1386/ijis_00078_1. 1364-971X.
• Book: Gabriel, Pere. 2002. Red Barcelona in the Europe of war and revolution, 1914–30. Angel. Smith. Red Barcelona. Routledge. 0-203-21937-6. 10.4324/9780203219379-3. 44–65. 1 November 2024 .
• Garner. Jason. 2006. Separated by an 'Ideological Chasm': The Spanish National Labour Confederation and Bolshevik Internationalism, 1917–1922. Contemporary European History. 15. 3. 293–326. 10.1017/S0960777306003341 .
• Book: Garner, Jason. 2016. Goals and Means: Anarchism, Syndicalism, and Internationalism in the Origins of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica. AK Press. 9781849352260.
• Garner. Jason. Benclowicz. José Daniel. 2021. Failure of Praxis? European Revolutionary Anarchism in Revolutionary Situations 1917-1923. Left History. 24. 1. 10–44. 1192-1927. 10.25071/1913-9632.39573. 11336/184083. free.
• Garner. Jason. 2023. The Revue International Anarchiste's World Survey (1924–1925): A Transnational Attempt at Reappraising, Revising, and Reinvigorating the Anarchist Movement. Journal for the Study of Radicalism. 17. 1. 1–26. 10.14321/jstudradi.17.1.0001.
• Getman-Eraso. Jordi Wolcott. 2001. Rethinking the revolution: Utopia and pragmatism in Catalan anarchosyndicalism, 1930–1936. PhD. University of Wisconsin. .
• Gutiérrez . José Antonio . Martí Font . Jordi . 2023 . October 2017 in Catalonia: The anarchists and the procés . 10.1111/nana.12896 . Nations and Nationalism . 29 . 1 . 209–228 . 1354-5078 . free.
• Book: Herrerín, Ángel. 2020. The Road to Anarchy: The CNT under the Spanish Second Republic (1931-1936). Liverpool University Press. 9781782846833.
• Hijma. Bouwe. 2005. Guide to the International Archives and Collections at the IISH: Supplement over 2004. International Review of Social History. 50. 2. 345–361. 10.1017/S0020859005001999 . 2 November 2024 . 44583514.
• Book: Kelsey, Graham. 1991. Anarchosyndicalism, Libertarian Communism and the State: The CNT in Zaragoza and Aragon, 1930-1937. Kluwer Academic. 0792302753.
• Book: Lines, Lisa. 2011. Milicianas: women in combat in the Spanish Civil War. Lexington Books. 9780739164945.
• Messenger. David A.. 2006. 'Our Spanish Brothers' or 'As at Plombieres'? France, The Legacy of Resistance and the Spanish Opposition to Franco, 1945-1948. French History. 20. 1. 52–74. 10.1093/fh/cri053.
• Molero-Mesa. Jorge. Jiménez-Lucena. Isabel. 2013. «Arm and brain»: Inclusion-exclusion dynamics related to medical professional within Spanish anarcho-syndicalism in the first third of the 20th century. Dynamis: Acta Hispanica Ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam. 33. 1. 19–41. 10.4321/S0211-95362013000100002 . 0211-9536. 10481/75866. free.
• Book: Payne, Stanley G.. Stanley Payne. 2004. The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism. Yale University Press. 0-300-10068-X.
• Book: Peirats, José. José Peirats. 2011. Chris. Ealham. The CNT in the Spanish Revolution. PM Press. Paul. Sharkey. Chris. Ealham. 978-1-60486-207-2.
• Book: Romanos, Eduardo. 2011a. Anarchism, Franco's Dictatorship, and Postwar Europe. Hara. Kouki. Eduardo. Romanos. Protest Beyond Borders: Contentious Politics in Europe since 1945. Berghahn Books. 140–157. 978-1-84545-747-1.
• Romanos. Eduardo. 2011b. Factionalism in Transition: A Comparison of Ruptures in the Spanish Anarchist Movement. Journal of Historical Sociology. 24. 3. 355–380. 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2011.01401.x.
• Romanos. Eduardo. 2014. Emotions, Moral Batteries and High-Risk Activism: Understanding the Emotional Practices of the Spanish Anarchists under Franco's Dictatorship. Contemporary European History. 23. 4. 545–564. 10.1017/S0960777314000319.
• Romero Salvadó. Francisco J.. 1996. The organized labour movement in Spain: The long road to its baptism of fire, 1868–1917. Tesserae. 2. 1. 1–27. 10.1080/13507499608569430.
• Romero Salvadó. Francisco J.. 1994. Spain and the First World War: Neutrality and Crisis. PhD. Queen Mary University of London.
• Russell. Matthew B.. 2013. Postmemory, the Holocaust, and the re-moralization of the Spanish Civil War in contemporary Spanish cultural production. PhD. University of California, Davis. .
• Book: Sennett, Alan. 2014. Revolutionary Marxists in Spain, 1930–1934. Revolutionary Marxism in Spain, 1930-1937. 121–152. Brill Publishers. 10.1163/9789004270565_005. 9789004270565.
• Sierra. María. Pro. Juan. October 2022. Gypsy Anarchism: Navigating Ethnic and Political Identities. European History Quarterly. 52. 4. 593–612 . 0265-6914. 10.1177/02656914221097011. free. 10261/280207. free.
• Téllez Solà. Antonio. 2015. Marcelino de la Parra, Anarcho-syndicalist Guerrilla from León. Paul. Sharkey. KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library. 82–83. 7–9. 1475-0309.
• Book: Yeoman, James Michael. 2019. The Spanish Civil War. Levy. Carl. Adams. Matthew S.. The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_25. 978-3-319-75619-6. 429–448.
• Zoffmann Rodriguez. Arturo. 2018. An Uncanny Honeymoon: Spanish Anarchism and the Bolshevik Dictatorship of the Proletariat, 1917–22. International Labor and Working-Class History. 94. 5–26. 10.1017/S0147547918000066.
• Book: Zoffmann Rodriguez, Arturo. 2021. Anarcho-Syndicalism and the Russian Revolution: Towards a Political Explanation of a Fleeting Romance, 1917-22. Aaron. Retish. Matthew. Rendle. The Global Impact of the Russian Revolution. 65–85 . Routledge. 9781003081418. 10.4324/9781003081418-6.
• Book: Zoffmann Rodriguez, Arturo. 2024. The Spanish Anarchists and the Russian Revolution, 1917–24: Anguish and Enthusiasm. Taylor & Francis. 9781000965315.