The actors' strike that it put in check to the Franco period

In February, 1975, the actors led a historical mobilization that it put against the ropes to the vertical trade union of the diet, until some strikers were deposited in prison, accused of belonging falsely to the FRAP and ETA

«The actors have got up against a social mechanism that was condemning them to the double daily function, to the political passivity, to the submission of the company and to the eternal fear to remain without work». This declaration of the leading article of February, 1975 of the magazine «the First plane» was summing up very well the actors' strike that, only nine months before Franco's death, it put against the ropes to a diet and the vertical trade union that was governing, by force, the life of all the workers.
That strike, of which now 35 years are fulfilled, was something more than the first mobilization of the world of the spectacle in 40 years of dictatorship. It turned into the whole social modality of last years of the dictatorship, since it agglutinated many workers out of the union: ballet dancers, painters, the directors, film makers, producers, singers or personnel of the circus, of the rooms of art, of the tablaos and, especially, of Spanish Television, the only television of then, controlled by the Government.

When channel TVE had to replace of urgency his habitual programming, the Government began worrying. That one was already a serious problem. «The Spanish Television – was telling ABC – had to be suspended the recording of a work of Diego Fabri, before the attitude of the actors, and the shooting of “A black's gentleman”, of Haberdasher, was, apparently, interrupted by a producers' Commission that they invited to the presents so that they were joining the unemployment».

In 15 of the theaters of Madrid, to midday of February 4, there could be read: "For non-attendance of the actors, it complains to inform that the today meeting remains pendent». In the meeting of the night there were already 21, the practical totality of the cultural offer of Madrid. Blurred all of them because the Labor Ordinance of Theater, Circus and Varieties of 1972, «an incomplete Ordinance and, in certain way, archaic – was telling actor Juan Diego, one of the ringleaders of that mobilization – that there was broken for almost totality of the managerial part».

The actors were asking, between other things, for a better salary, for the payment on the part of the businessmen of the diets and the traveling expenses, the cashing of the essays, the only daily function, extraordinary pays or the enclosed cashing of salaries when the spectacle should suspend.

The actors chose for the negotiations a group of representatives, the famous «Commission of the eleven», formed by Juan Margallo, Vicente Cuesta, Jesus Sastre, Luis Prendes, Pedro del Río, Alberto Alonso, Jaime Blanch, José Maria Escuer, José Maria Rodero or Gloria Berrocal, who reflected perfectly, for ABC, the indignation of his union: "The oppressive situation of unemployment in which our sector is, together with the nonperformance of the Labor Rules on the part of the companies, as well as the violation of the agreements taken in previous assemblies on the part of the same ones, takes us to an untenable situation».

This commission had the value to there skip the forced intermediation and official representation of the National Trade union of the Spectacle – presided in that moment by the ABC ex-columnist, Jaime Campmany – so that the actors in strike only were recognizing the above mentioned commission.

The act of major tension took place on February 8, when the Police popped in in the Fine arts theater, in the middle of an assembly, taking arrested several members of the profession, as Tina Sanz, José Carlos Plaza, Antonio Malonda y Yolanda Monreal, who joined prison accused of belonging to the Antifascist Revolutionary Front and Patriot (FRAP) and of being related to ETA and committing an outrage of the street of the Mail.

In that group of arrested also there were figures like Dew Durcal, Enriqueta Carballeira, Pedro Mari Sánchez, Flora Maria Álvaro, for whom there helped to go out of the cell a Lola Flores who also had suspended his performance under the excuse of an aphonia.

Finally, the actors had to stop the strike in exchange for the liberation of the imprisoned ones, since they were going to be processed by terrorism. Also, there they fell down considerable economic fines – from the half million pesetas up to the 200.000 for Roció Durcal – that paid, jointly, between all. The actors had to accept finally that the «Commission of the eleven» was not present in the negociones, although there was gained the option to break them if they were thinking that the trade union was not just. The whole achievement for an epoch that was coming to his end.

Route: abc.es

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