In a general statement, the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union has called for yesterday’s general strike to be just the start of a moment where the working class asserts itself against Stats and capital, and goes beyond the question of which ruling class gets to be in charge

After the 3-O strike, CNT calls for extending the social response

Facing Tuesday’s general strike in Catalonia, CNT wants to show its satisfaction with the response which thousands of workers have given throughout the day and across trades. Popular mobilization responds again against the severe repression which Catalan society is living. Worker’s solidarity shows once again that it can do anything.

This isn’t just another call to action. We stand before an attack on rights and freedoms which deepens the breach between the ruling class and us, the working class. State and Capital show their teeth and they do it with a clear goal: shoring up their corrupt and totalitarian system. A system which today we know can be made to stagger thanks to the great combative mobilization.

This Tuesday’s general strike in Catalonia is a giant’s step towards the social struggle to demolish this political and economic system. It’s a transcending conflict for anarcho-syndicalism: we don’t fight to switch up flags but for a Social Change in capital letters which allows us to recover the reins of our lives and everything they’re taking away from us.

From CNT we show our absolute rejection towards the bureaucratic apparatuses which call themselves unions and, once again, align themselves with the government and employers in order to torpedo the general strike in Catalonia. This is nothing new. It reaffirms us in our organizational model based on direct action and mutual aid. While CCOO and UGT sabotage the worker’s movement, thousands of people will take part in the numerous calls to solidarity beyond any borders. For them is our recognition. For them is our fight in workplaces and in the streets. For them is the CNT.

Against all States. For freedom. For social revolution!

Permanent Secretariats of the Regional Committee of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands and of the Confederal Committee

National Confederation of Labor

In Britain, anarcho-syndicalist group SolFed has responded similarly:

While, as anarchosyndicalists, we don’t support the creation of a new state, which reflects mainly the interests of the Catalan bourgeoisie, we do condemn all police violence and intimidation against men, women and children. Instead of the creation of new states with warring police and capitalist factions pitted against one another, we favour the deeply embedded solution of libertarian federalism — free, self-managed communities that are plural, open and tolerant.