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ABSTRACT
During the 1930s, the Catalan cooperative movement finally became a movement of the masses, but Franco’s victory in the Civil War put an end to its expansion and to almost the whole movement. This article charts the consumer cooperatives’ fortunes in the Barcelona Province during the first 20 years of the new regime. It covers Francoist policies towards consumer cooperatives and the obstacles these and the bleak economic situation presented, focusing on the work of the organization created by the new National Syndicalist state apparatus: the Barcelona Territorial Union of Consumer Cooperatives (UTECO).
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Notes
1. Garner, “História del movement cooperatiu.”
2. Navarro Catalán, “Cooperativismo en el Nacional Sindicalismo”; and Miguel Gavin Sagardia, jefe de la UTECO quoted in Cooperación, June–July 1944.
3. Perez Baró, Història de les cooperatives, 132.
4. Specific decisions or arguments in meetings are sourced in the text as UTECO GB with a specific date. However, many situations and policies were developed in numerous different meetings, making sourcing these problematic beyond clarifying that all information, unless otherwise stated, is based on the archives.
5. Medina-Albaladejo, “Consumer Co-operatives in Spain,” 326.
6. See Ventosa i Roig, “El moviment Cooperatiu”; Pérez Barò, Història de les cooperatives; Medina-Albadalejo, “Consumer Co-operatives in Spain”; and Reventós Carner, El movimiento Cooperativo.
7. See Duch i Plana, La Cooperativa Obrera Tarraconense; Casanovas i Prat, El Cooperativisme a Osona; Dalmau and Miró, Les cooperatives obreres de Sants;and Plana i Gabernet, El Cooperativisme Cátalat.
8. Garau Rolandi, “Cooperativismo en la historiografía española”; and Medina-Albadalejo and Pujol-Andreu, “Cooperativas de consumo y niveles de vida.”
9. Perez Baro, Història de les cooperatives;and Joaniquet, “Movimiento Cooperativo en Cataluña.”
10. Bernal Garcia, “El sindicalismo vertical,” 594.
11. For Agrarian cooperatives see Piñana Edo, Joan Mestre i Mestre.
12. For the ERC see Plana i Gabernet, El Cooperativisme Cátala and for the USC see Garner, “En defensa de la pura doctrina cooperative.”
13. Gómez Bravo, “Venganza tras la victoria”; and Di Febo and Santos, El Franquismo, 14.
14. Di Febo and Santos, El Franquismo, 26.
15. Ibid., 29.
16. García Delgado, “Estancamiento Industrial,” 173.
17. Barciela, “El mercado negro”; and “Autarquía y Mercado Negro.”
18. Barciela, “Autarquía y Mercado Negro.”
19. Viñas, “El Plan de Estabilización”; and Garcia Delgado, “Estancamiento Industrial,” 189.
20. Plana, “La Guerra i la dictadura.”
21. Marín, Història del franquisme.
22. Letter from the Management Commission of the Federation of Cooperatives of Catalonia, Barcelona, March 1939, Archive of the Cooperativa La Rubinenca.
23. Circulars 28, 30 and 35 of the Cooperativea La Rubinenca, 1946.
24. Delegación Provincial de Sindicatos de Barcelona, Ley de Cooperación, Article 3; Bengoechea, “The bourgeoisie and Francoist corporation”; Molinero and Ysas, “Workers under Franco”; and Gimenez Martinez, “El sindicalismo vertical.”
25. Gimenez Martinez, “El sindicalismo vertical.”
26. Bernal Garcia, “El sindicalismo vertical,” 590–1.
27. Perfecto García, “El Nacional-Sindicalismo.”
28. Bernal García, “El sindicalismo vertical,” 591–4.
29. Rousell y Albóniga, Historia de las cooperativas, 16.
30. Fernández Crehuet, ‘Las Cooperativas de Consumo y la política de regularización de precios,’ Cooperación April 1954, and Giménez Torres (Head of the Catalan OSC), ‘Reunión del Consejo Superior de la OSC’, Cooperación, April–May 1953.
31. Delegación Provincial de Sindicatos de Barcelona, Ley de Cooperación, Article 50 and Reglamento, Articles 51 and 54.
32. UTECO GB, May 28, 1945.
33. The initial Board members might have been required to join the Party, but there is no evidence to prove this.
34. Relación de Cooperativas de Consumo constituidas hasta la fecha, Cooperación, April 1944.
35. Jefatura provincial de la OSC, Estudio resumen.
36. La Unió de Cooperadors de Barcelona, en el seu segon aniversari, Acció Cooperatista, September 23, 1938.
37. UTECO GB, March 23, 1942.
38. Marin, Història del franquisme, 96.
39. The subject is dealt with by the UTECO GB throughout 1946.
40. UTECO GB, June 1, 1942.
41. UTECO GB, October 9, 1944.
42. UTECO GB, September 17, 1951.
43. UTECO Circular, October 19, 1942.
44. Jefatura provincial de la OSC, Estudio resumen; and Brazda and Schedlwy, “Esbozo histórico.”
45. Marín, De 1939 a 1975.
46. UTECO GB, November 27 and December 16, 1946.
47. Ciurana Fernández, “La posibilidad de desarrollo de las cooperativas.”
48. Rousell and Alboniga, Historia de las cooperativas, 16.
49. UTECO GB, August 11, 1952.
50. “Lo que fue el Centro de Estudios Cooperativos de Barcelona”, article written for the journal, Arco Iris, by Albert Perez Baró (who was a member of the Centre) available in the Manuel Serra i Moret Archives.
51. UTECO GB, April 11, 1953.
52. UTECO GB, September 16, 1953 and January 14, 1954.
53. UTECO GB, May 6, 1954.
54. UTECO GB, March 11, 1954.
55. Perez Baró, “Cooperación de ayer y de hoy,” Revista de Cooperacion (Buenos Aires), May/June 1956.
56. Perez Baró, “Cooperación de ayer.”
57. UTECO GB, March 21, 1958.
58. UTECO GB, November 4 and 25, 1958.
59. UTECO GB, December 22 and 29 1958.
60. UTECO GB, February 5, 1959.
61. Jefatura provincial de la OSC, Estudio resumen.
62. Perez Baró, “Cooperación de ayer.”
63. Jefatura provincial de la OSC, Estudio resumen.
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Jason Garner
Jason Garner received his doctorate in Contemporary History from the University of Kent in Canterbury (UK). He is currently working on a postdoctoral project for CONICET (Argentina) and is working at the National University of Río Negro. He previously worked as a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Westminster and the Metropolitan in London. He has published numerous works on the libertarian movement in Spain, focusing especially on the internal political struggles of the movement in the years prior to the Second Republic. He is now focusing on the relationship between this and the cooperative movement, specifically in Cataluña. His publications include: Goals and Means: anarchism, syndicalism and internationalism in the origins of the Federacion Anarquista Iberica (Oakland: AK Press, 2016). His recent publications include ‘Entre la reproducción del capitalismo y la preparación de la revolución: el anarcosindicalismo catalán ante el cooperativismo (1900–1939)’, Archivos De Historia Del Movimiento Obrero Y La Izquierda, (19), 157–177.