Original subtitles

In 1992 in Spain the Barcelona Olympic Games and the Seville Expo were held,

linked to the celebration of the 5th Centenary of the Discovery of America.

After the death of the dictator Franco in 1975 and the Transition to democracy,

the country had been governed for ten years by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party.

Spain is presented to the international community as a modern, developed and dynamic country.

That same year, the industrial crisis that swept the country fell on the city of Cartagena,

placing up to 15,000 jobs in danger.

The growing tension among citizens and the union response caused a chain of mobilizations

that would result in a mass uprising against police on February 3rd.

The pitched battle would culminate in the throwing of incendiary bombs

that would burn the parliament of the Autonomous Community.

It was a dream I've had a number of times...

Maybe at least three or four.

I'm the protagonist, in the present day,

the way I am now.

I see myself, not really knowing why,

walking to my school,

here in Cartagena: Quitapellejos.

It's a pretty school, amid the mountains.

A very old school,

surrounded by a kind of forest.

I'm walking the path I walked to school as a boy.

But it's all foggy, a very low fog,

almost like a Scottish landscape or...

I'm walking, walking, and as I get to the school gate

already as I'm climbing the hill

I see a huge German Shepherd barking at the gate.

But when I reach the gate, the German Shepherd stops barking,

and almost invites me in.

The gate is half open.

Out of curiosity I go inside and I see it's still foggy,

the German Shepherd comes too, there's no one there...

I keep going...

and I get to a courtyard,

the yard we played in as kids.

and I start to see people around me:

relatives, a dead friend...

Their faces had aged.

With wrinkles, white hair...

and I see a very old man, down the end.

And I go over to talk to him.

I have a strange conversation, I say to him:

'It's weird, isn't it? The people here...

look like they're really...

Kind of annoyed, right? Why is everyone like this?'

He says: "Don't you know why you're here?"

I say: "No, I don't. I see everyone here,

some I know, but they've aged..."

Just then, I realize that they're all dead,

I run to the gate, which was half open, to get out,

and gate is closed.

Then I wake up.

THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY

ALTHOUGH I DON'T REMEMBER IT, I EXPERIENCED IT

You laugh, but your laugh is like "shit", you know?

-Fake. -Shit.

You know you'll stay out your parents will get mad,

but we're too far gone for you say no to us.

Give me that!

You've reached a point

where in your own bar they're pulling beers for you.

Hey, get wasted!

But I like Zentral, and Zentral...

Where'd Raúl get to?

He went for cigarettes.

And now he'll never come home.

He's gone for cigarettes and left us here with this shit!

I'll tell him to roll a joint.

Pablo, make yourself a joint!

Raúl!

Come here, handsome!

You bastards, you fuckers...

You got friends for that,

it's your bar and they're pulling beers for you.

Raúl, have you got vermouth?

-You had it and you said nothing! -No, no. Mixed drinks.

I said you could get highballs,

a barrel of beer and that's it.

You're treating us?

Is it your birthday?

I have to work tomorrow,

so at some point we have to go.

Seriously?

Fucking hell, fuck...! Fucking hell!

You want a drink?

Yeah, man. Pablo, listen to this song.

It's S.A., man.

Soziedad Alkohólica, I know them, I've seen them live twice.

Right, man, but I mean...

My mum smoked these cigarettes.

I started smoking on Ducados...

And I threw hers down the drain.

No, no, no, no!

No, it's my mum's.

My mum smoked these, I threw them down the drain,

and she beat the shit out of me.

Because she smoked loads and I hated it.

8 years old, I smoked Ducados dark tobacco.

My mum always smoked dark...

In my house there was only Ducados dark tobacco.

If you wanted to be a adult...

You saw adults smoking...

The first cigarette I smoked was this.

It was like this.

Of course, alcohol. And what's alcohol?

It's necessary for us.

But I try not to drink alone.

I always try to drink with someone.

I don't drink alone, I try not to overdo it.

Some people drink alone.

I'm an alcoholic but I don't want to cross that line.

But I think that crossing the line can lead you to other things, you know?

It doesn't have to. I love getting home from work

and having a beer or a little wine.

-That's normal. -I do it alone, eh?

Sure, but I don't have highballs alone at home.

That's different, it's like snorting a line, getting wasted alone.

When you get home and have a beer it's just breaking the routine...

Why? You relate beer with leisure.

I have a beer and I relax

because I'm having a beer, right?

I don't care, pour it.

You need anything?

You're shitty friends.

Sure we are, man!

Have you seen where the skip is today?

Good morning, Regino!

It's there in...

-Good morning. -Hi, good morning.

-Good morning. -Hi, buddy. Good morning.

Here, the tomato tongs.

With butter.

María, good morning.

Here, young man.

Here.

Thanks. See you later.

A glass of water? One? Two? How many?

-For her, just one. -A little one.

Half a roll with butter and jam

for the boy...

and half with tomato.

The usual, right?

Two whole ones? With butter?

Now the weekly column of José Ibarra,

when you wish.

It was discovered years ago by the historian from Cartagena

Alfonso Grandal, he brought to light

a surprising linguistic fact

that in Cartagena they spoke Catalan for 300 years.

From 1300 to 1600.

Although the reconquest of our lands was claimed

by the Castilian King Alfonso X in the late 13th century,

in fact our region was repopulated

with people under the crown of Aragón,

that is, Catalans, Aragonese, Mallorcans and Valencians

who left us their language, and with it, beautiful words

that we in Cartagena inherited and still have 400 years later,

not knowing that in fact they're Catalan words.

So the Cartagena natives don't eat peas, green beans or capers,

but pésoles, bajocas and tápenas.

The southwest wind is the lebeche,

the southeast wind, the jaloque,

and thunder is a llampo.

This person has certainly bathed at some time in Calarreona,

in Calblanque, has seen Grosa Island...

And we all know if we say "leja" outside of Cartagena

to refer to shelves, they don't understand us,

for they don't know in Castile that it comes from the Catalan "lleixa".

Thus, old Catalan appears everywhere.

Work's a mess because of an order of metal plates,

and now we have to work today and tomorrow until midnight.

I've got two guys there going at it.

Fuck, what a bummer. What are you doing now?

Now we're cutting joins.

I got a metal plate to cut too, for the moulds.

They're about 30 metres.

Imagine it, half the workshop with these huge plates.

Some packages like this.

But who's working now? You, those guys...

Me, my co-worker, who's permanent, and one other kid.

But is the kid casual?

With this I'm pretty happy.

So, Mum, will they call you?

About your sight?

They couldn't take out the stitches.

It has to be in an operating theatre.

They took out stitches inside your eye?

They took out three, but the others are very deep...

It's swollen.

It burst.

My eye busted open.

Her eyeball burst.

Can you see alright?

No, because she hasn't...

Out of the other, yes.

She lost the iris...

She wore lenses because she had a cataracts operation,

and the lens was like a guillotine.

It burst the eye.

So she doesn't wear the lens.

They have to put it in again.

But to take out the stitches,

an eye burst, the stitches were behind.

What could it have been?

She fell on the night table, she got 9 stitches on her eyebrow.

I went to get out of bed.

You're in the wars!

If you only saw...

She was covered in blood.

With him? No.

I've been calling him, but...

He says things are tight.

He's waiting to see if something comes up, but no.

I'm looking other places,

tomorrow I'll see about a job in the industrial estate

a friend told me about, in scaffolding,...

I'll take a CV and see.

You told me you were working in Alhama

but most of the staff had left for Lo Pagán...

Yes, Lo Pagán.

They left me alone there, to make a living.

Exactly, I get up at 5 or 6 in the morning...

The women work, get paid, the normal thing...

is to get paid.

You were good to them...

Me? Not good, very good.

So, look, girl,

things go only one way:

You have to pay up, otherwise...

Everyone who works wants to get paid.

Or do you go there for the love of it?

I'll tell you one thing.

If I have no money, I don't go to a bar for breakfast.

Hey, in some circumstances...

someone might tell you they're light on cash.

It's cheaper for me to buy a litre of milk.

And bread, and you make toast at home.

But look, I don't want to hear stories.

No, but on the subject,

your mother said "then you criticize..."

I don't put anyone down,

but it pisses me off

to see people laughing at me to top it off.

No bastard laughs at me.

I could rip their eyes out...

Amazing...

What I saw there was indescribable.

What happened?

What didn't happen? Nothing good.

These kids...

The first day...

The last to arrive are given the hardest classes.

My profession's not like surgeons.

Hard operations are given to the most experienced.

In my job, it's the least experienced,

the new one gets the worst of it.

My first-grade class was tough.

The youngest, the liveliest,

and the biggest group in the school, 16 of them.

Normally there were groups of 6.

You could be shaking when you went to this class.

And the first day,

one little girl, with the face of an old lady, but 6 years old...

I gave her the scissors to put up their names.

I was told they couldn't write.

You usually can at 6.

I gave them out their names.

This girl took out a sandwich...

and started making circles with the sandwich bag.

I'm from La Unión

so I know what those bags are for.

They're for selling drugs.

They're bags they give out,

with whatever kind of drugs,

I know there could be cocaine.

The girl gave me a defiant look... 6 years old.

Provoking me.

I said to her... I took a breath.

I'm not kicking up a fuss because there's no point.

I said to her:

"Do that if you want,

but you'll lose your hanger and your table."

This little thug

was taller than the others

and when she was about to lose her hanger,

she cut out her name, pushed through

and took the hanger and table she wanted.

That was the respect she got.

There's this hierarchy they see in their parents...

Because it's not the same selling drugs by kilos

as small-time dealing and the consumer.

Their parents' hierarchy

is reflected in the school.

It worked that way between them, it was hard to resolve...

A conflict there was...

...impossible.

Conflicts were never resolved, they'd stop fighting, but little else.

In that neighbourhood,

they don't respect Mum, Dad,

Grandma, nothing.

Why wouldn't they hit me

if they kick grandma in the line outside school.

At least I had some resources

that they didn't use much in that neighbourhood,

which was affection, looking them in the eyes, caressing, hugging.

And that got me into trouble too.

Hugging a boy because he was furious...

because his mum had said to him: "I hope you die, that a truck hits you."

How else would he be?

The first boy he ran across, they laid into each other.

I grabbed the boy, hugged him: "Come on, honey..."

And the boy elbowed me so hard I doubled over...

Horrible.

Horrible.

He was like: Who are you to be affectionate with me?

I understand the boy. "Who are you?"

Just another teacher... I get it.

They come and go, no teacher stays here.

They feel neglected because the teachers don't last.

Here the teachers come and go, come and go.

I can respect that. I left too.

If I'm working, that's great.

I'm working and I'm distracted.

Otherwise I'm anxious and bored.

Then there are the bills.

You have to work, otherwise...

If you're not, you have it rough,

you're bored to death, you feel bad, you get sick.

That's happened to me.

You agonize over things, get sick, depressed.

It happened to me,

last year or round then,

and it had never happened to me,

because of the crisis, you're out of work,

and being alone and all that,

you think: "Fuck, if I don't work,

who's going to help me?"

So you have no support, so like it or not...

you worry yourself sick and you get sick.

I got this anxiety.

I went to the doctor

because I couldn't sleep for over a month.

Night would come and I was afraid of it.

I was scared.

I'd go to bed and fret over things,

I'd have to get up and watch TV.

After a while I'd go to bed and the same thing.

Then I'd have to get up, almost crying,

so I went to Emergencies and told the woman on duty

what was going on with me,

almost in tears.

I told her and she said:

"You've got anxiety..."

So she prescribed me some sleeping pills.

Was it alright with the pills?

Yes. It was hard because they did strange things to me.

I'd take the pill

and then during the night I'd jump up in bed.

Scared, dazed, you get that with the pills.

Your body's not used to it,

I reacted strangely for a couple of weeks.

I was kind of surprised.

Later I got over it.

I said: "I don't want to take pills,

I'll stop them gradually."

I asked a guy who was taking pills and he said:

"They're addictive.

If you don't stop, it's really rough."

I'd take my car,

pay for the gas,

go in at 8 a.m.,

I'd leave at 3 p.m.,

and then I found out I was only hired for 5 hours.

I told the Post Office to piss off.

Do you know that?

They asked me for money

and I said "no".

I got someone from the union and said: "Look,

this, this and this..." He said: "Don't worry about it".

I said: "Hand them out yourself",

to the head of the Post Office.

He's the head of Traffic or something now.

They pour liquid down the sewers to kill the cockroaches.

-They've stopped that. -Have they?

To kill the cockroaches in the sewers,

and when it rains, the poison goes into the sea,

it comes out at La Algameca and other places...

They stopped it because we reported the Council

to the Autonomous Community.

-It was killing everything. -Dead fish...

Yes, you'd see dead fish.

The shrimp came to the surface to die.

They looked singed, came up to the surface,

the crabs, the clams, the cockles...

It killed everything.

Four years ago it was

when they put that in and it killed everything.

The water the first day was green.

You know? Green.

Then it turned white.

But white, white. You couldn't see the bottom.

-As if they'd put milk in the water. -The chemical reaction...

Three days later, when it began to clear,

everything on the seabed was...

the mantis shrimp...

Mantis shrimp, clams...

Those worms? Buckets.

I got whole buckets: worms,

the ones for fishing,

I got buckets out.

It's acidic, it's poison.

There's always been a lot of clams there.

Clam fishermen lived off that.

In the neighbourhood, right?

Yes, "One Arm."

There was Paco the clam fisherman

and Enrique Sánchez Vázquez, who left Bazán...

...to avoid paying his wife.

He caught his wife sleeping with another man

and when they split up, he had to pay alimony,

so he left Bazán in order not to pay.

It's kind of nasty, huh?

You go out at night, you want to get home,

and there are girls taking drugs everywhere.

-Okay. -I think: "Are they going to kill me?"

People are scared that I'll kill them

and I'm scared to get killed.

That's the main problem in my neighbourhood.

You have to go inside there, and depending on the time, something could happen?

Does it happen or is it more of a legend?

You feel creeped out about these girls

taking drugs and prostituting themselves...

The girls aren't the main problem,

it's the men looking for them.

What if they mistake you, stop you, then get mad at you?

It happens, they stop you.

What? Cars stop you thinking that you're a prostitute?

Me and anyone there.

No matter how you're dressed, if you're a woman, they stop you.

It's really uncomfortable.

-Uncomfortable? -Scary.

You say 'uncomfortable'. I wouldn't,

It's more than uncomfortable...

It's terrible.

Gambling is the biggest problem all over Spain today.

Bigger than drugs or anything.

It gets 15-year-olds

to gamble away all the money they have from working.

The other day I was going down Calle Mayor,

walking around El Vinagrero,

and I saw a group of lads 13 or 14 years old

going up the old De Colores.

They look at me, I keep walking and a Moorish kid

comes up and says "Will you place a bet for me?"

I was going to rehabilitation, from the accident I had,

and I said "Sorry, man.

I'm not placing a bet for you."

He said "No?"

I left, but the kid was waiting for any adult,

simply to...

to place a bet.

Yes.

There are loads like that.

I don't know, it's like...

Different mentalities too,

different from before.

Like it's another time.

Bastarreche teaches lots of trades, hairdressing, beauty courses...

I knew I didn't want to work in depilation.

I wanted to work in makeup,

and I wanted to get 1st and 2nd in beauty,

to get into film makeup...

Right.

For that I had to go to Murcia.

Okay.

I thought Murcia had that.

For that I have to go to Murcia, it isn't here.

And from Murcia to Madrid.

-It isn't anywhere else. -Right.

I got in and I didn't finish,

I kind of gave up, like "I'll stay here and work,

because I'm not good at what I like to do."

Well, you don't know that.

Sure, now you think about it,

but I'm saying what I thought at the time.

Just turned 18.

Having left school too.

My father's always said "You want it? You earn it."

The time I was at Vocational Training

all I did was study,

stuck at home,

and I'd spend time on the street

with a friend.

Right.

I was broke and he'd want to do stuff

and I'd say "I'm broke.

I'm broke."

"You must have enough for a drink" and I'd say...

"No, I've got nothing.

-Bring a bottle and we'll..." -Totally.

"If you come see me, great, otherwise I can't."

You feel a bit suffocated.

"I want to go out and do stuff...

Just turned 18 and I want to..."

So I got a job as a waitress.

I worked in the mornings for my father

and at night in a bar.

Fuck, what a grind. You worked for your dad?

Yes, until after lunch.

What time did you get up?

In the morning? At 5.

5 a.m., you got off after lunch and then served drinks?

I'd start at 6 and get out at 4 a.m.

Fuck...

When did you sleep? The hours don't add up.

Not much.

How long were like that?

-A year and a half. -Fuck...

After the definitive closing of the mines

the main industrial companies in Cartagena and La Unión in 1991 were:

Empresa Nacional Bazán (shipyard)

Repsol (refinery)

Fesa, Enfersa and Asur (fertilizers)

Fundición Santa Lucía-Peñarroya (lead)

Española del zinc (zinc)

Depending on these factories were dozens of other auxiliary companies

that carry out the work of repair, maintenance, supply and transport.

The column of protesters,

no less than 3000 people,

began a march that lasted almost 3 hours.

As it passed the government building,

the first incidents occurred,

reaching their height at San Esteban Palace,

seat of the Presidency of the Regional Government.

Already in Murcia, at 11:20 a.m.,

the demonstration began down the streets of the city.

The traffic gridlock in the city of the Segura,

has been striking,

the motorway around Murcia blocked for three hours.

The protesters criticized in words I cannot repeat here

the Mayor of Cartagena, the Treasurer,

the Minister for the Economy and the President.

But the President of the Regional Government, Carlos Collado,

was the target of most of what was said.

Sir, what do you think of the demonstration?

-First, are you from Murcia? -Yes, I'm from here.

What do you think of the protest? How does it affect you?

We accept it, it's justice...

it's fair what these people a protesting about.

After so many years in the company,

and suddenly they're on the street...

we think it's not right.

The government should look at it

and take precautionary measures so that this doesn't happen.

At 12 sharp, the march entered the Floridablanca roundabout.

At 12:20 it stopped in front of the main government building,

where the first incidents occurred,

a large group of demonstrators trying to force open

the door leading onto the street.

After a struggle with those defending the building from inside,

member of the National Police

let in some 7 persons,

among them the head of the Bazán committee,

Antonio Sáez.

In the 15 minutes of the meeting of the protesters

with the government delegate,

bags were thrown at the building with paint, oranges, lemons,

fireworks, bottles of ammonia, rocks, screws, etc.

As the meeting went on, there was singing outside too...

When the representatives of the demonstrators came out,

the demonstration was renewed

and we approached the head of the Bazán committee.

Antonio Sáez, what happened here in the government building?

We went up to see the government delegate.

We told her that you can't say on the radio,

that violence breeds violence,

and receiving us with chains on the building and police cordon

breeds violence and what breeds violence

are the attempts to put people out on the street without work,

on which their families depend.

Did something happen? You looked upset coming out.

No, nothing. You just get worked up.

You stacked it with ice and now it's just water.

Yes, at least you're hydrated.

Check it out, he's already got a "12 volts".

He's got "6 volts", yeah.

What a gambling bug, eh?

A coke habit would be cheaper.

It's not a gambling bug.

He's popping coins into the machine all day.

-No, no. -When he's not broke.

You don't get it, today he knows he's going to win.

Oh, he knows...

He knows, man.

He knows where the wheel is, everything.

I've worked as a baker, a builder, a hairdresser, confectioner, baker...

Perfect, perfect.

Guys, how's work?

-Eh? -How's work?

No work talk. I'm drinking.

Pepi earns less than your brother Dani.

Some things make us no money at all.

That's what they say, but I don't get it.

When you sign a contract

it doesn't specify if you're a man or a woman.

No.

But...

You and I were painters.

We have to sign a contract by number.

She makes less!

-It's 532... -But it doesn't specify...

We both sign the same contract. She makes less than me?

It doesn't specify if you're a man or a woman.

It specifies working hours. How much will you make?

You make more than I do.

On the same contract.

In the jobs with more women,

there's a different contract and they get paid less.

Raúl!

Two beers!

-Make it three, please. -Four!

Five, five!

You're having two?

I saw that coming.

The waiter's already...

What can you do?

I can work and I like to keep moving.

That's good. You like to move?

Do you mind loading?

Not at all. Still, it depends on the wages.

Depends on the weight and the wages.

Okay.

But I'm one of those people

-who prefers to work. -To keep moving.

Instead of being unemployed.

Being unemployed makes me sick.

It makes me sick, man. Being idle here...

I'd love to join your company.

I was talking to him and...

I'm thinking about it too.

She has a company?

No, I mean working...

-In the industry. -Exactly.

You don't know what it is.

It's not that I don't know, but there are no openings...

-If you're not educated... -Do you work in the industry?

I work in metal structures.

I was never asked what I wanted to be.

That's in Hollywood movies.

A family in Cartagena doesn't ask you what to want to be.

You worked in Bazán like your father and grandfather.

It was crystal clear.

You couldn't do anything else.

I got A's in junior high.

They didn't say: "This kid could be a doctor, an engineer,

a teacher, or..." No, no.

This kid's going into Bazán, full stop.

At 14 I told my dad I wanted to do high school

and he didn't let me.

-He didn't let you? -He didn't let me.

He was determined that I had to work in that company.

I didn't want to study, I wasn't a good student,

I didn't like it, I finished junior high and left school.

I started working. My father said to me:

"Don't be silly, you're the youngest, we're doing better, study..."

I didn't want to.

I started working in a biscuit factory in Miranda and I lasted 5 days.

I came back: "Dad, 8 hours a day putting biscuits in a box..."

"I told you. Go and study."

I went to an academy, I didn't like that,

I went back to work...

I wanted to work, to leave home.

The only way to leave home...

was to work.

And the first chance I got

at 18...

A friend had a hotel in Ribadesella and I said "I'm going there".

Was there trouble with your family?

With my mother, yes.

Days before I left I had my bag packed.

I put things in and my mother took them out.

I put in something in and my mother took it out.

The last memory of my mother when I left was her screaming.

"Don't come back! Bad daughter!"

"You were to be the joy of my old age and now you leave!"

-She hoped you'd look after her. -Exactly, exactly.

In fact, she didn't speak to me for a year.

One week I was on afternoon shift

and they were telling the groups going to frames,

to the tanks and such...

In one of those groups they were a lad short.

I went to the storeroom, asked for a mask and said:

"You guys keep quiet."

I had an excellent relationship with all my co-workers.

I got into the tank.

We were working there...

They had to help me in and out,

but it was no problem.

-You got in there? -Yes, all the way.

With the group.

You were curious about getting in there.

I wanted to be like anyone else.

They weren't sending me into the tank because I was a woman.

I spoke to the foreman and he said to me:

"Mari Carmen, women in the tank, no.

It's a very tight space..."

"I don't want women in the tank." It was like that.

So, I've always been kind of above the law, right?

One afternoon they were one worker short

and I saw my chance and said...

"Here goes."

I was backed by my co-workers, who knew me,

I'd worked with them for a while and they knew

it wasn't a problem.

"Go, we'll help you in and out, don't worry."

And that's how it was.

I did the job, but the foreman wanted me for another job...

"Where's Mari Carmen?"

Some co-workers said:

"In the tank."

When I came out, soaked in sweat

because it's damp in there,

a specific damp,

we'd wear paper overalls over our other overalls,

which didn't breathe so you didn't drip sweat

because it stained the fabric and the resin, it lowered the quality,

and the masks for the tanks

were really heavy...

When I came out, I'd go along the bulwark

and the whole scaffolding

set up around the ship.

Paco García Bayona was...

Down below, right?

He looked at me and I thought: "He's going to give me hell..."

He said: "You've got more balls than all of them together"

From that day on, I worked in the tanks...

but with no grief, no problems.

Tank, tank, tank...

The urea plant needs on CO2,

which produces the ammonia unit,

it's like an umbilical cord.

The ammonia plant has to work for the urea plant to work,

then you have the spheres

that are physically here in Escombreras.

Spheres of ammonia.

Then combine it in a compressor and raise the pressure.

You put it at 20 or 25,

at 0.25 kilos, no more.

Then the compressor compresses the air

and it comes to 200Kg.

When you have it at 200 Kg and the ammonia at 200 Kg,

with alternate pumps,

you put it all in a reactor, the reactors are...

Imagine a storage tank,

it has to take 200 Kg of pressure,

the reactor being rustproof.

It can be 10-15 cm thick,

so the reaction it causes

is the first step to making urea.

It comes out in a small percentage,

I don't remember exactly if it's 30 or 35,

and those 200 Kg expand again,

it goes to 20 Kg, when you expand again.

So the molecules gather,

and the richness of the carbamate becomes ammonia,

in 3 or 4 phases, until just over 3 Kg comes out

and urea at 90-95%.

That urea goes into tanks and...

because it's a liquid and it has to be hot.

When urea is under 105, it solidifies and you have nothing,

so it was sold in granules, the grading...

Just imagine,

little balls, like anise balls,

I don't know if they still make those.

Then you spin it in

a "prilado" basket, it's called, and after the spinning,

the grading is bigger or smaller

and that's 500 tons a day.

In winter I did everything.

I made the beds, served breakfast... Winter was very slow.

Then in the evening my bosses would leave

and I'd stay at reception in case a guest came.

Just watching TV, but it was all day.

From 8 a.m. when you got up until 11 at night.

At 11 I could go out for a walk if I wanted.

I wasn't so keen to go... I did get out some days, but...

the hours were long for 14,000 pesetas a month.

-In '81? -'80.

14,000 pesetas a month

and in summer...

24,000 pesetas.

We'd get up, serve breakfast and...

do the ironing.

Then we'd serve lunch, clean up,

a few hours of rest, then dinners, so we did all the services.

From Tuesday to Sunday?

Every day.

We only got off Thursday and Sunday evenings.

That's it, no holidays there.

I only went back to Miranda because I broke my arm.

In a dryer.

The slowing device worked badly

and we'd put in a towel to stop the dryer.

It was one of those old dryers. My arm got caught.

I broke my ulna and my radius.

He said to me: "No sick leave.

Make the most of it now to go see your family..."

And I left with no sick leave. That's how it worked.

You had no choice.

Fucking shit,

the "American shift" is fucking shit.

It's a non-stop shift,

you're on duty 24 hours a day.

Grinding at night is cheaper because...

the electricity fees are...

The weekends are cheaper,

the fees are off-peak.

The power is cheaper, so you make cheaper cement.

The "American shift" means working 7 days straight.

You get the rest of that day off and the next.

Another 7 days straight, that day off and the next.

Another 7 days straight, the same thing, then 9 days.

You never have holidays, but...

every 21 days you have 10 days holiday,

so to speak, or 10 days off.

And does it change...?

Each of the 7 days varies,

mornings, afternoons and nights.

So, at most you have straight shifts of 3 days

that coincide with the weekend.

So the first shift was:

two mornings, Monday, Tuesday; two afternoons, Wednesday, Thursday;

Friday, Saturday and Sunday at night.

Then you got off night shift

and you had a day off.

Then you'd start mornings on Wednesday and Thursday,

Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons,

and Monday and Tuesday nights.

The rest of the day and the next.

And you'd start Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings,

Monday and Tuesday afternoons,

and Wednesday and Thursday nights, then you're off.

-Didn't that do your head in? -It kills you.

It kills you...

You have to organize it really well.

You get paid more for nights.

They cough up more cash,

so it can't be good.

If you get paid more it's for some reason.

They take advantage, I mean,

I know that in the valley of Escombreras

the companies there are going to keep polluting,

so I'd rather benefit from it.

I want to build a football field?

I go and ask them for money.

I want to fix a medical clinic? I ask them for money.

So you might say I take advantage of this situation.

So I'm not going on strike or demonstrating,

telling the companies to go, because in the end...

I benefit from them.

Then there's the other group, which would rather,

maybe, not have this money,

but to have better air quality.

When there's a "bout" of pollution,

to not have to say:

"I have to stay at home and shut the windows",

or "My kids are at school and they're shut inside."

-Does that happen? -Yes, sure it happens.

There was a small fire.

No warning, the alarms didn't go off, and people were worried:

"I'm going to get my kids from school", when really

the safety protocol says that the child must stay in the school

because they're safer there. If you take them out on the street,

they're exposed to the pollution.

People were taking their kids out

and the principal told them they couldn't go out.

They shut the windows,

and word went out on the streets.

But in the town, no one came...

from the refinery from Escombreras, to say...

that they'd exceeded the levels of contamination

and you couldn't go outside,

because when there's a lot, you can do this,

brush it off like it was ash.

I integrated very well with them,

with no problems, to the point where if the group was short,

they'd tell the foreman: "Get Mari Carmen."

They'd say: "Get Mari Carmen." I was accepted.

-Always in lamination? -Always.

My time in the factory was in lamination with them.

Since there were morning and afternoon shifts,

I had time to meet and spend time with everyone, you know?

I couldn't say goodbye to some of them.

It's strange, because...

if the factory's here, the main offices are here,

so we were just metres away.

But you know it's a change,

you don't spend those 8 hours with this guy,

more time than you spend at home, you know?

And in cramped spaces.

You end up telling personal things,

and they end up being my friends, because they were.

I couldn't say goodbye to a lot of them.

I never said goodbye.

I still see them, obviously.

But I felt really bad.

And I'll tell you,

my adaptation to the office was hard too.

I felt bad. I remember the first month

I came out with terrible headaches.

I'd say: "These headaches? I've never had headaches.

Why do I have such a headache?"

The head of medical services at the time was Carmen Parrilla.

I went to see her and said: "Carmen, it's awful, I can't take it."

She said: "You went from the factory

to the offices." The "gilded cage", they called it.

I didn't understand until later. The "gilded cage", sure.

In the factory, like it or not, you have times outside,

in the fresh air, leave early to have a shower...

But in the office if your hours are up to 2:30,

you stay there until 2:30.

I found it hard to adapt.

Then, the atmosphere's different.

Totally different. The atmosphere in the factory is...

You have loads more fun. Loads.

Why?

I think the office is more...

How can I say this?

I don't want to say classist, though it is.

A lot of people

go straight there without passing through the factory,

and I think people should pass through the factory and find out.

Whoever makes the blueprint has to know what it takes to build it,

to level the floor,

and get the heating in. Do you know what I mean?

And the atmosphere.

The atmosphere's much...

friendlier in factories.

In offices it's always like a race, a race to get...

the boss to look at you, it's about promotions...

It's different.

It's noticeably different. For the worse, eh?

-Like there was no camaraderie? -Not as much.

Not as much, none.

My father didn't work 8 hours, he worked 10 or 12 hours a day.

And it was hard work. Shipbuilding...

is hard work.

Not bad in wages and conditions, but it's hard.

Working on and in a ship, welding a ship,

it's no easy job. It's hard work.

There are occupational hazards.

I started work at 14, at the apprentice school,

and my first accident was at 14. I always tell people that.

When someone bugs me I say: "Hold on,

when did you start working? I did at 14.

And your first work accident?

Mine was at 14. Hard to believe, right?

I was first injured before I was15.

I had a serious work accident.

I began work at 14.

You pass your entrance exam to the apprentice school,

and do 4 hours of class and 3 hours in the workshop.

At 14 you do 3 hours, in your overalls, at your machine,

doing the same as a worker 40 or 50 years old.

He'd do a large piece and you did a small one, but it was the same.

He had a huge machine and I had a small one.

At the school conditions were worse, there was no OHS.

The beautiful term "occupational health and safety" is modern.

At the school there were no hoists,

no gloves, no safety boots

and no trolleys to move the pieces.

So a guy in 3rd year...

was like a god, and you, in first, were a nobody.

The 3rd-year guy would say: "Kid, bring me some iron."

"But what iron?" "Just go get it from stores."

To make a piece like this ashtray,

a bar 2 metres long and 70 cm in diameter had to be shifted,

weighing 200 kilos, by three 14-year-old boys,

No hoist, no gloves,

no boots or trolley.

The three of us moving that iron, we couldn't do it.

In was in the middle and the boys on either end couldn't carry it.

200 kilos of iron fell on my toes.

I still feel the aftereffects. My nails were ripped out.

I bled and screamed like you wouldn't believe

and said "What is this?

Why have I had an accident? I'm only 14!"

The ambulance came, the medic saw my feet and said:

"To Emergencies. Siren on." And I went.

At Emergencies they were shocked to have to deal with a 14-year-old

with a work accident. But that was our life.

You learned a trade, and at 14 that also meant

working in the trade.

And if the conditions were bad, so be it.

You can't complain much, it's a living for life

I earned a living and I'm not playing the martyr here.

You have to accept the risk that at 14

you're living a man's life.

At 14, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I was pre-pubescent,

I had no hair on my balls, and I already had a man's job.

I had no hair on my balls, but I already had a man's job.

You know work before sex, before money,

you know work before love, before anything.

That was a worker's life in the 80s.

We're the last generation of child labourers in this country.

You know work before everything else.

Now you know everything before work. Life has changed, eh?

You know everything before work and before it was the opposite.

It was hard. For a teenager it was hard.

Also that year, this is very personal, but...

When I turned 14, my father got sick,

and I realized he was going to die.

I realized for sure

that his conditions were going to kill him.

My father went deaf, also because of work.

Due to his sicknesses, plus the lack of safety or hygiene.

"Where do we put the deafest?" Where it was noisiest, the compressors.

The poor man spent 40 years there with hearing trouble

and ear operations... In the end he went deaf

and, unfortunately, he became an alcoholic.

My father was an upright man,

I have a good memory of him, an upright man, churchgoing,

a man of traditional customs.

And he went off the rails badly.

There were no psychologists then, no treatment, nothing,

he really went off the rails...

sadness, depression, deafness, sadness, depression, alcohol.

Cigarettes, alcohol, cigarettes, alcohol, cigarettes, alcohol...

And I understood that my father was going to die.

My father smoked three packs of cigarettes a day,

he drank three bottles of wine every day and he didn't eat...

At 14 you discover your father's going to die

because it'll hit his stomach, his heart, his kidneys,

or his liver, but it will. He couldn't survive like this.

Those were three horrible years,

from when he got sick until I was 17.

When I was 17, my father died.

So I knew I'd have to work in the company my whole life,

because my mother's widowed with a pension of 300 euros.

Today it'd be 300 euros.

My mother's not paying for my degree...

I have to fend for myself.

I have no father for support, he's dead,

and my mother can't do it.

My father's family

was what they called "leftist".

I don't know if they all were, but my father was.

If your father was a leftist, you were too,

if your father was a Falangist, you were too.

My dad's family was leftist.

They came looking for my uncle,

who's older than my father,

and since he'd fled to Madrid, they took my father.

At 17 they took him to Madrid. To Guadarrama, I think.

And there he did military service.

It was two or three years of military service.

The war began and he went.

When the war was over,

they took him to Larache, to Africa,

to what they called... It was a concentration camp.

They called them "disciplinary battalions".

They had them building roads,

chipping rocks, the classic movie thing,

they were poorly fed...

I remember my father telling us

the water they used to soak the chick peas...

was their food.

And for them that was... a "Sunday treat."

Poorly fed, malnourished, poorly dressed,

a lot of hardships...

I think that really affects a person,

because my father was never

a spendthrift, he was always watching his pennies.

He had five children too. That's a factor.

"The hunger years", he'd say. When we refused to eat something:

"If only you'd been in the hunger years..."

With one tin or sardines the whole family had to eat.

My mother bought milk... They'd put water in it.

She'd add more water to it.

He came home after 6 years.

And he went back to farming.

That's what his family did then, farming.

He had some olive trees,

some wheat, barley...

And with that... we all got by.

He was very much an atheist. Priests for my father

and the Guardia Civil, no way.

-So that experience... -Yes, it affected him.

It affected him a lot.

I remember that...

when democracy came in Spain,

is one of the few times I've seen my father cry. Cry.

When Franco died,

that was...

It wasn't a party,

but my father breathed out, saying "Finally!"

He had a bad time. Very, very bad.

He didn't tell us much, he didn't tell "war stories", but...

all of them packed in there, if a rat went by he'd catch it.

Catch it and eat it. A rat!

I mean, hunger... and then some.

He had a tough time.

But he recovered.

My father died of a heart attack,

but in the final years

he'd really deteriorated.

My father didn't drink or smoke. He never had,

but he was burnt out,

really worn out, really worn out.

I spoke to a doctor, six years before my father died,

he was in a bad patch.

In two months he'd had four heart attacks and two thromboses.

I said: "Damn it, he doesn't smoke or drink. All he does is work."

He said: "He went through a war, and it leaves a mark on your heart.

It's not just that his heart that is taking a beating,

it's emotional as well."

And the mark it left on him

dragged him down all the time,

and his heart killed him.

Life in Bazán was...

His end there was hard because...

when there was this "reconversion" of the company,

some left, others stayed,

and he was one of those that left.

They gave him compensation,

and he and some co-workers

decided to start a business.

In the end,

the crisis hit them hard.

They ended up closing the company

and he and his co-workers

lost everything

because you don't expect it

to go that way, the company,

the financial situation, the social situation...

What sort of company was it?

I think it was something similar,

but I don't remember exactly.

They set it up around Pacheco.

But was it machinery? Or hardware?

Something like that.

And they had to go into debt

-with their own houses to... -Sure,

he put his house up as collateral.

Then, when the crisis came,

he lost everything.

He lost his company, his house,

and he and his family, with three kids,

had to move back into his father-in-law's house,

my mother's father.

And...

it's not the same living with your family in your house

and then going back,

in this case, my mother to her parents' house,

to start again, to get through it,

when you've lost everything, you have nothing left,

because of a crisis.

Do you have clear memories of this period?

I was very young. In fact,...

at a demonstration

over the diversion of the track, for the rights of Alumbres,

-my father died. -What's that?

Yes, it got him there.

He was going to a demonstration,

I can't recall if it was about the diversion of the track,

but it affected Alumbres and...

he had a heart attack. It was very sudden.

He died there. I was only 8 years old,

so I don't remember much...

of that period.

But when it happened,

the eviction and losing everything,

I would've been

4, 5 or 6 years old.

I was very little, I don't remember clearly

certain things that happened,

but sure, in the end,

although I don't remember it, I experienced it.

In fact, I'm still in the house

that my parents went to, my grandparents' place.

I still suffer the consequences.

Now you can hand in your film when you enter Continente,

do your shopping and pick up your photos on the way out.

All in one trip.

Fotorapid. On the ground floor of Continente.

RAPID DEVELOPING IN 40 MINUTES

Something big is happening in Europe today:

the largest European project on beach recovery,

the largest European project on sporting facilities.

OVER 75 NEW SPORTING FACILITIES

The largest European project on town planning and services.

The largest European project on communication routes.

The largest European project on quality of life.

Here, in this country, it's becoming a reality.

The largest economic and social European project of the time

for the benefit of everyone: Barcelona '92.

The largest European project today is for you.

-It's big, I'm telling you. -Do you like squid too?

He does. Belén too.

Alright, fish.

TV NEWS

It's different to meat.

FEBRUARY 2, '92

Boris Yeltsin returns to Russia after reaching a compromise with Bush

to reduce the nuclear arsenals.

The Salvadoran army and the guerrillas withdraw to agreed-on zones

in the plan signed at the UN.

The Catalan bishops begin a conference

to study the calling of a Council in the region.

Spain was eliminated today from the Davis Cup

when Emilio Sánchez-Vicario lost to Italian Omar Camporese.

News on TVE-1...

Is your head so heavy you have to hold it up?

-Sure. -Good God... Listen.

-Wait. -Careful.

Cut it up.

Sure. You didn't tell me. I cut the other one up.

-Do you want some lean meat? -Cut off that piece.

-This piece? -Yes.

Give that lean meat to Salva, he'll like it.

See? This lean piece.

You like it, eh?

No? Like this? Or more?

Careful with the bone.

Look. Look.

Pass me Salva's plate, I'll put this lean piece on it.

No, no.

-When he's finished this. -Why?

If he sees too much, he'll worry.

-He doesn't have much. -He's like Grandpa.

He's like me.

Aren't you like Grandpa? Eh, Salva?

Sure.

-That's why he has the same name. -Sure.

-Grandpa doesn't like paella much. -He's eating it.

...at yesterday's meeting

supported by all the parties and the leading unions

of the Basque Country and Navarra.

It's an act against those supporting the right to the self-determination

of the Basque people.

Then you...?

Did you tell her your marks?

The EEC ratified in Maastricht the treaty on the future Europe.

-9.5. -The Dutch city...

will be the scene of the signing of this treaty...

What's that? 9.5?

My school's going on a trip to England,

but I don't want to go, it's really far away.

You don't want to go? You told me you did.

Well, I'll try. I don't know.

Encarni is going, Carmen is going, your teacher's going.

-Where? -To England.

England. The school's going.

-My godmother doesn't want me to go. -When is it?

We don't know yet, the meeting's on the 21st.

You could go, some mothers can go.

Only teachers are going.

If Mum wants to go, she pays separately.

...irreversible signature: entrance to the future EU...

How long?

-I don't know, at the meeting... -And the 22nd is

to discuss the school graduation trip.

The 21st is the meeting for England. And the 22nd...?

For the school study trip.

How was Geography on Friday

-on the map of Spain? -The exam.

-Oh, true. -And the map of Europe.

I only didn't know one thing and on Monday they're letting us...

Almost nobody finished, so they're giving us 15 minutes the next day.

-Was it on Spain or Europe? -What you didn't know.

What didn't you know?

-Where the Balkans were. -Well, that's...

-Right, but I didn't know it. -We mentioned that,

-loads of times. -But there were so many things.

-We had Language that day too. -Grandpa knows almost all the capitals.

Sure. I don't, but Grandpa does.

We've been doing the capitals,

-the ranges, the mountains... -The depressions.

The seas of Europe.

The depression of the Guadalquivir and the Ebro.

...the presidents of the two historic rival powers...

-You're not eating salad? -Yes, I will now.

-I'll take this off, it's fat. -The exam was Social Studies.

-It was the same day as Language. -Careful, don't get dirty.

-That's it, Language. -No need to study for Maths.

-How was Language? -Good.

-Leave it here. -Okay.

-If the teacher wasn't so lazy... -Do you want a little?

-No, this is plenty. -...to end the remnants

of the Cold War and reduce strategic weapons,

as well as collaborating to consolidate relations

founded on friendship and cooperation.

Meanwhile, the main Russians in opposition

criticized Yeltsin today at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

You're eating everything, eh?

-I don't like rice? There you go. -A whole plate.

-It turned out great today. -Oh, yes?

-I was very inspired. -Sure.

-When you do it fast, it's good. -Sure.

Sure.

Do you want a drink? A beer or something?

-Yes, a beer, Raúl. -Do you want a Fanta Orange?

-Okay. -A Fanta Orange, Raúl.

-Thank you. -Please.

-For the boy no. -No.

For Belén.

...due to instability of the old Soviet Union.

Germany' Finance Minister announced an urgent trip...

AND THE WORLD EATS YOU UP

-Was it the three of golds? -Someone start bluffing.

Who has the three of golds?

That's typical.

-Do you have the three of golds? -No.

-Who has the three of golds? -I do.

-Ole! -Thanks!

Fuck, I was about to tell you.

I'll start on water... What a lie.

-Cheers. -Ole!

I always say "I'll wait a bit before drinking"

-and it's a lie. -Don't make excuses. 'Fess up.

-So you start Monday, right? -On Monday, yes.

You don't know for how long?

They're making submarines, I hope to stay...

He said there was work for 3 or 4 years.

-Whatever he says... -Believe half of it.

Sure.

-You saw it, you came with me. -Right.

He said there was work for 3 or 4 years.

That's what I thought too.

There's no work for 3 or 4 years there?

I don't know, you tell me. I'm not in that section.

-We hope so. -Yes, I think so.

As well as the way he spoke, he seems like a solid guy.

Yes, but they're all "hot air", because then they say:

"Yes, I'll hire you, I will."

It'll be for 3 or 4 years at least, I swear.

Drop everything,

-you've got 3 or 4 years' work." -Do you think I'm like him?

Well, you're a bit dumber,

but maybe...

You think they'll trick me?

Fuck, I trick you.

-You do? -Don't shit me.

He said to them: "Mercenary! Son of a bitch!"

And I said: "Shut up..."

Reinaldo his name was.

I said: "Shut up, they're coming this way."

We were there in that hut.

We saw them attacked...

three thousand of them...

From the bridge at Quitapellejos

to Puerta de la Cortadura, it's called,

it was all full of people.

The cops beat up a friend of mine,

a union man.

Garay, he's from La Unión.

And I went quiet

because I couldn't say anything.

Well, I could, but I couldn't say

"son of a bitch", "fascist" or "dickhead"

because I was...

Well, I liked Franco. Excuse me.

I liked Franco. Excuse me.

I liked Franco.

-No, anyone here can... -No, but...

-don't get me wrong. -Sure, sure.

With Franco I lived much better than now.

Just look at Calle Mayor.

The streets further back

are completely neglected, even just the cleaning.

The street sweeping machines do Calle Mayor and little else

-and the streets in back, nothing. -In my area it's once a week.

-Once? Well... -Thursdays.

In mine not even once a week,

maybe once a fortnight the machine goes by.

I have to go out and tell them to go down my street.

Even if we do say it, they don't.

They don't do it.

-It looks clean, yeah, sure. -And bins? They don't exist.

-Half of them are broken. -There are a few on Calle Real

and loads on Calle Mayor.

Just the poles are left in almost all cases.

And a bench disappears and they don't replace it.

And the mirrors? It's not just the Council, it's vandalism.

But the Council should replace them.

The concave mirrors at the top of streets

to see around corners, to see the cars coming.

In my street we come out like...

The mirror there was up for only a fortnight.

20 days later they put it up again

and it lasted under a fortnight.

And they stopped. Even the pole was taken.

-They don't put up any now. -In my area they took a bench.

A bench? The ones that are anchored to the ground?

Two Gypsies carrying away the bench.

I don't know where they'd take it.

What's the reason behind this situation?

-The Council you mean? -Why this kind of vandalism?

We were already told

by a resident of La Unión about this problem.

There's a lot of vandalism. A lot.

Firstly, there's no work.

Some may do it because they feel like it.

Not being racist, but the Gypsies do it because they feel like it.

But there's no work, there's really no work.

They say it's the town...

...with the highest unemployment in all of Murcia.

-Maybe, but... -What work is there in La Unión?

Nothing. We all work outside La Unión.

-There's no work. -It's almost a "dormitory city"

because we work outside and only come home to sleep.

People in hostelry can go to La Manga to work in summer...

But in La Manga, the luckiest ones

have six months work, no more.

Then everyone's on the dole. If they give it to you.

What happens in the fields?

Before, people in hostelry especially

worked in winter in the fields.

But now you've got foreign labour that's cheap,

then they say "Spaniards don't want to work there."

I think they do,

but if a Spaniard costs the owner 15

and the foreigner 10, he naturally chooses the foreigner.

-The cheaper one, of course. -They keep them in bunkhouses

living rough, but it pays off for them.

Lots of Murcian crops, and what do we Murcians eat?

It all goes abroad.

The famous tomatoes. I still haven't eaten any.

They're not in the store, they all go abroad.

-It's true. -It's true.

If you eat the ones from here, how much do they cost?

That's another thing.

You eat tomatoes from Morocco

at 1.20 euros,

and the good tomatoes here are 3.40 a kilo.

You say: "No,

I'll put the cheaper one in the salad."

You have to export the others if we don't use them here.

That's how it is.

We eat the ones from abroad and ours are eaten abroad.

That's the way it is.

When I go from La Unión to La Manga to work,...

My God, the fields of melons.

I say: "These freshly cut melons

to the greengrocer's here in town." I don't see them.

-No. -Nowhere.

My grandma was given a plaque

for the years my granddad was in the mine.

My granddad wasn't a unionist, he just joined

a strike where they locked themselves in the shaft.

For 8 hours in a mineshaft

-he got 8 years in jail. -Jeez.

Yes, 8 years in jail. First here in the jail of San Antón,

here in Cartagena,

then they took him to a jail in Palma de Mallorca.

He was condemned to death twice

and returned after 8 years a complete wreck.

My mother... I was little, I don't remember well, but...

but he was a wreck after 8 years in jails.

A shadow of his former self.

Look at what my granddad went through,

and all the men of that period.

My mother, 82 years old, I've heard her say...

"I can't believe you say that."

I've heard her say:

"We complained so much before... Is it better now?"

I say: "Mum, your father in jail for 8 years with two death penalties,

you were so hungry,

you'd eat anything..."

My mother and aunt got fevers because

they sucked on a goat's teat

because there was no milk.

-They got Malta fever. -My sister got Malta fever.

She and her sister almost died. And I still hear her say,

which I can hardly believe,

"We complained so much then, but listen to me,

is it really better now with all these crooks?"

She still exalts

that period they went through.

I'm astounded.

Yes, it's the same with the Franco period.

People yearn for it and you say: "How can you yearn for Francoism?"

-It's crazy. -My mother's one of them.

"They arrested your father,

your mother took in washing to get you some food."

That's all they could do.

My grandma said: "They humiliated me

when I went to wash the clothes of the ladies in town."

"And you're in favour of all that? It's incredible."

"We lived more at ease. You could leave your door open,

now you have to put on the latch,

a padlock, a metal shutter...

-In those days..." -The doors always open.

"Houses were always open."

I say: "Sure, because thieves were..."

"Off to jail."

I say: "Now it's a revolving door,

-they're not so scared of jail." -That's true too.

-That's the way it is. -It is.

They go in one door... And if they're minors...!

-They're out with an allowance. -Exactly.

Yes, I know two

who spent two years in jail,

-and now they're out... -On the dole.

...with 600, almost 700 euros,

every month for two years.

-I was amazed. -It's true.

That how it is for us.

Military service? That'd do you good...

I think at 18 you leave your parents,

you leave home and wake up to yourself.

Your mentality changes. If you're a lout, 16 or 17,

and at 18 they tell you "Listen, get going",

and you'll be with people who give you hell if you misbehave.

It kind of changes everything.

They had it in France too. For two months, not like before.

We don't do it in Spain because I guess there's no budget for it.

I guess, or they just don't want to do it.

-I wouldn't do it. -Yes, I think...

I spoke to my father, to my uncles.

It was rough, but they say it's the best thing they've done.

And they made real friends there.

It's like... it changes your mentality,

you're not a spoilt brat when you're 20.

At 20 you've left home and say:

-"I went away and made a living." -So?

I don't have my parents telling me

what to do and what I need.

I think that...

Yes, I'm totally in favour of it coming back.

Yes.

And I hope they get me if it does come back.

-I like the army. -You'd do military service?

-Yes, I like the army. -You wouldn't last two days.

No way. No, Miguel.

Not even two days.

No, I think that once you're in, your mentality changes.

A bit, but not you. They'd throw you out.

Me too, they'd throw me out on the first day.

-Thanks, Raúl. -I can't even peel potatoes.

You know there was a movement in Spain, especially in the 90s,

of people who opposed military service?

I have one leg longer than the other, I can't go in.

They ended up in jail for refusing to do military service.

They said that the army,

the discipline, the authority, went against their ideals

and were jailed for up to 18 months, as long a military service.

-You're going against me. -How about that?

Instead of going to jail for 18 months,

I'd leave Spain.

-To avoid military service? -To avoid military service.

It's a mentality you have to have since you were a kid.

You have to go. It's just a duty.

You come of age and at 18,

you have to leave your parents, they're not obliged to look after you.

If your parents don't want you at home, you just go.

If you have to, you do it.

I think it's an obligation. And people who stay at home...

You wouldn't last two days away from home.

It's not that, you're forced to do it

or you go to jail. And if you blow it, off to jail.

Would you rather be in jail? That's what I think.

I think your mentality would change completely,

there wouldn't be so many louts.

There wouldn't be so many fools that never had any hard knocks.

I'm telling you, Miguel. That's what I think.

What if there's a real war?

-Sure. -I go because I want to.

You go because they tell you to.

You wouldn't go.

I don't know.

I consider myself a patriot in the sense that I love Spain.

I'm not in favour of the King, in general,

but I know we have a good king.

Not like his father, got me?

And they won't let me in.

Because I don't have the "Capacitació", the qualification they ask for.

It's absurd, as if in the United States

they didn't let you work...

You're from Oregon

and you want to work in California

and you can't because you don't speak "Californian."

It's not absurd, it's wonderful what we have in this country:

-the multicultural aspect. -Hold on, I'll defend

to my last breath

the survival and conservation of the languages.

I've no doubt about that.

-Language, folklore, music... -I love it,

but let it not be a barrier for Spaniards.

If I want to go to Alicante, 90 Km north of here, I can't work.

If I go to a bilingual school, I'll be speaking English all day.

-But I can't. -Yes.

On one hand, obviously,

I defend the languages of the country to the hilt,

but don't make it a barrier for people's mobility.

There are families separated...

I know two co-workers

whose partners are in different autonomous communities

because they don't speak Catalan or Valencian.

They don't ask you for the "Mitjà", the intermediate,

they want the "Capacitació", which is C1.

-And in Mallorca, Majorcan. -Catalan.

-No, in Mallorca it's not Catalan. -I know they speak Majorcan,

but to get in, I've tried it, they ask you for Catalan.

I'm in favour of it because I wouldn't go to the Basque Country

and weaken their education system with my Murcian blather.

Are you saying your teaching would be inferior to the Basques?

Yes. In a big way...

Folklore, music, dance,

-instruments... -Are you a professional?

I'm a professional, but...

I wouldn't be able to provide a solid cultural base, which is the language.

No, the culture isn't their language.

But language determines culture to a great degree.

Some words don't exist in Spanish.

Yes. But if you want to go to Castellón to teach,

you can't, being an English teacher.

-To Gandía... -You're an English teacher

and you can't teach in Castellón.

But people from Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Girona...

-can go anywhere. -You said it well, Pilar.

-"Girona"? -Yes.

-Okay, thanks. -You clearly respect the culture.

I love languages, it's what I respect most.

I devote myself to this.

I'm studying German now, I love it.

I think that people who feel themselves to be middle class

may think that the cuts don't affect them,

when in fact they do. In the end, they contribute

to the right to public health, public education,

for their children, etc.

They think it doesn't affect them the same,

but when we touch on the subject of the nation,

the nation in Spain is something deep inside us.

So you can't say to Catalans:

"You have the right to decide...

on your own

about your nation, your small population."

-"Self-determination." -Exactly.

But in contrast, we Spaniards living outside that area say:

"They're altering our Spain",

because Spain is a part of us.

But as for the cuts...

As for the cuts, I'm middle class, you know?

I'm middle class, it doesn't harm me.

How many working class people have instability?

Many people are affected by this and still vote for the PP.

-They're not aware. -Working class people

who have these economic problems

have other worries on their minds, as Naroa said,

which is maybe exactly that, feeding their family.

But on the Catalonia issue they get mad. And the Basque issue.

But that's when the media circus comes in,

you've got the media,

each channel telling a version,

fake news to the max, fuck it.

-And the TV news... -And companies

devoted precisely, right now,

to creating fake news,

with algorithms and bullshit like on Facebook,

finding news related to your tastes

and cramming you full of propaganda.

Check out how lots of working class people think...

They're humble, they consider the businessman's side.

They say: "Who gives me work? The businessman.

So I'm going to back what the businessman wants

because the businessman gives me work.

I can't go against him because he's feeding me".

Lots think that way.

The person working

for a baker or someone with a bar,

they depend on their boss, that's who pays them.

You don't have the luxury of going against someone who pays you.

Necessity comes first.

I've noticed in recent years

an incredible rise in tourism in Cartagena,

I don't recognize it anymore,

as the city we know, I don't.

Maybe we've lost identity.

It's all very fake to me.

Very fake, man.

I've kind of gone blank.

But anyway, what I see is young people who finished school

and: "Now what?

They look lost to me.

And all they see are ads:

"Waiters wanted", whatever.

-You get a 3-month contract,... -Precarious.

-Maybe even... -...you get no training.

...contracts by hours. -And the rest...

-3-month contract or by events. -...paid under the table.

Then you get fired.

They fire you if they don't like you

or you don't do the job the way they like,

which is fast and well.

-Or fast or well. -One of the two, exactly.

Both of those things,

it's not impossible, but it's not easy.

-There's huge pressure. -In any business,

it's three things: good, pretty and cheap.

Yes. But anyway,

it seems like there's no way out,

we're pigeonholed here

into certain roles,

certain jobs, certain sectors, and it's all evolving.

-While we're here thinking... -Of course.

Everything is evolving.

I wouldn't leave Cartagena or Spain

because the situation's terrible,

I'd try to fight to change things.

-To improve the situation. -I'd try.

Exactly.

I've got no patriotic feeling,

I've never felt like that.

I think it's dumb.

-My country is the people I know. -A flag doesn't represent me.

The concept...

of a nation emerges

after absolutism.

Religion isn't as bound to the State now,

here in the West.

-It isn't? -No.

Here in Spain it is.

Is Spain sorting out my life?

These two hands are doing it.

You want to live in Ethiopia with those two hands?

-Maybe I'd be happier. -Maybe not.

-Maybe yes. What do you know? -With your face, you'd be dead.

Take that.

Let's see if you get it...

What's going on now?

Stupid toff blowing his nose on the flag and everyone's....

-They're stealing from us... -Not anymore.

...and it's fine: "With the PP there's work."

With Felipe González.

They're taking away all the rights we've gained,

what all our comrades fought for and now...

it's nothing but shit, damn it.

Shit, shit, shit. And it gets worse and worse.

Now we pay to get work?

-What's that shit? -We should do something,

-and we just complain. -I agree.

You say "Let's go on strike"

and they say to you: "No, I lose 100 bucks."

"You lose 200 every month

because you didn't strike, you've put no pressure on,

so fuck you and your bullshit."

-They should be neutered. -Why doesn't it explode?

What does it do you?

-What good? Your rights! -I mean the money we get.

Now they give you shit, I used to earn more.

-And life's more expensive. -You're an idiot.

Really, the ones who have

all the responsibility in the company are the workers, not the boss.

No, the boss has to be on top of things

and worry and tell the worker:

"Do it right or hit the road."

But you have this level

of professionalism, and say: "Fuck me,

I'll call these guys, they do a great fucking job."

If not: "I'll find some other guys."

What if at the end of the month the boss doesn't get paid?

-Exactly. -That's not your problem.

-Whose problem is it? -The boss' problem.

The boss has the least worries.

-The boss? -Yes, because the boss...

I've been working... I started a construction firm

and the one who really worries is the boss,

in the sense that the worker just expects a salary,

and if he doesn't get it, he hassles him.

The one who has to talk to everyone is the boss, got me?

The boss makes sure that the work comes out right, not the worker.

If worker works badly, it's the boss' fault for hiring him.

But who gets fired first, the boss or you?

You first, then the boss.

-But the boss is in debt. -The boss finds someone else!

Here in Cartagena

we virtually live off the service sector.

But there's been repercussions in everything else.

My sister studied Teaching

and got caught by the crisis.

The poor girl had high marks

and couldn't find a job in what she'd studied,

like basically everyone.

Everyone, depending on the year you finished your degree,

you were lucky to end up doing what you'd studied

or, sadly, because the crisis caught you, no.

Never mind what you've studied,

just because you were hit by a crisis.

These people made no inroads in anything: nurse, teacher,

whatever, it just hit them.

We're a part of the population

that couldn't find work in what they studied.

-That's the effect. -We have bags of culture.

It's not that we have bags of culture,

we emigrate to other countries

to be able to work.

And you're working in the same conditions.

-That's true. -And you come back worse.

More screwed up and burnt out.

Public education, good or bad,

-isn't a fallacy, it's evidence. -Yes, but...

there's public education until the end of high school.

In "public" university, as you said,

you have to pay for everything. Here in the Murcia region

I have a doctor friend who's really pissed off

because the people who studied Nursing at UCAM,

that is, a private university,

have places to be interns in public hospitals.

So it's easier...

-Because they pay more. -Are you surprised?

Are we scared?

-I'm not surprised, it fucks me off. -It's obvious.

They've paid for it.

-Yes, but it's a public hospital. -It doesn't matter what it is.

If you pay, you have more rights than others,

simply because you're paying for a service or whatever.

It's surreal.

It gives you more right than those who don't pay.

That's how opportunity works.

The thing is, before there were more mobilizations.

Yes, that's right.

People concerned themselves more about others.

Today you hear it and say:

"Yes, he's unemployed and has nothing to live on."

You give to an NGO and you've covered your back.

I remember the demonstrations of the 80s and 90s.

When are there demonstrations now?

There are, but very few. Really, fewer

The unions are just for show,

they don't do anything.

Before, any problem you had, the union made it theirs.

-They made it their problem. -Well, it depends.

My husband paid his dues for 28 years

to the labour unions

and we only needed it once,

just once did we need the union. Once.

And they solved nothing for us. I said: "Oh, really?"

I went to the bank to stop payment to them.

Four or five months later they phoned us:

"Maybe you forgot to pay." "No, we didn't forget.

We're not giving you another cent, you haven't solved anything for us."

"We'll take you to court." "Whatever, I'm not paying."

-I do recall... -28 years paying a union

and we had one simple problem and you didn't solve it.

We're not paying another cent.

-Unions aren't what they were. -Maybe.

Before, being a unionist was deep-rooted,

not now.

Now most unionists join companies

to do union hours and get other benefits.

Before you didn't get union hours. A unionist was deep-rooted,

he'd fight for the worker. Not now,

now everyone's on their own and sorts out their own problems.

Before, you went to the union... I've worked,

I've experienced it up close,

and the union really solved things for you, it helped you.

They organized strikes in construction,

in bakeries...

Incredible strikes. They went ahead,

everyone went on strike,

everyone joined those strikes.

Even unrelated sectors supported those strikes.

The demonstrations they had before... Not now,

nothing's done, no struggle.

People have stagnated, they don't fight.

No, the struggle before is nothing like today.

Kids today don't even know which party is in government.

Or who Suárez was.

They don't know anything.

My older kids do, but the younger one,

20 years old...

Don't ask him who the president is because he doesn't care.

-No, they don't care. -Not to mention foreign politics.

They don't know about Spain, let alone the outside world.

Do you think the strike as a mechanism

for the defence of worker's rights makes sense now?

Not these days. Not these days.

-Before, yes, but not now. -I don't know.

What strike now do you recall?

Do you remember a powerful strike? I don't remember any.

In the end, the problems are going to be the same.

I agree. I'm totally apolitical, I'm not with any party.

If I'm interested I'll vote for one or the other, never mind the party.

The mayors of La Unión.

I voted for them because I knew them.

I didn't care if they were PP, PSOE or CDS.

I know them, they're good people,

even if they went bad.

I voted for them because of that, not because they were from a party.

I'm totally apolitical.

We just say: "There's high unemployment, idleness...",

but we don't hit the streets.

People came out for everything, and not now.

We've gotten comfortable. We're lazier.

-We don't want to go on protests. -Especially if we have a wage at home.

When they're on TV: "Those poor people..."

"Why are they coming on these rafts?" It must be bad for them to come...

I say that a lot, when people protest about these boats coming.

Not that I agree they should be picked up.

I understand that these people must be desperate

to risk their lives crossing the sea where...

-The dead this month... -Like us in the 60s when...

we went to Germany,

to France...

My mother was at the grape harvest in France

and they asked for her papers...

I think any worker should join the union...

-because otherwise... -Yes, that's good.

There has to be union action.

But it has to be effective.

Everyone can think what they like, but...

At my age, I've never seen them act.

At your age. But thanks to them,

we got a lot of rights, a lot of things.

-If it hadn't been... -I haven't seen them act.

Because you're very young, but otherwise...

-You've seen them act? -I've seen the unions act.

If the union wasn't with Bazán,

the reform wouldn't have happened:

-from earning shit... -Reform? To earn more shit.

-No, not to earn shit,... -He's right.

...to making good wages.

Worse or the same.

-I wasn't at Bazán then. -Not worse.

-Ask Bartolo. -Bartolo?

Think about it: from earning 32,000 pesetas

to what they're making now.

All thanks to them. Thanks to the strike.

Thanks to union action. Or we would've been much worse.

We have an 8-hour day, though that's not strict these days.

-That's another thing. -That's what I was going to say.

-How are we doing right now? -Well, right now...

-There were worthy people. -No, no,

it's not about being worthy,

the people don't have union action.

The people are like: "I've got my tablet, Internet

Facebook and Instagram." And that's it.

No, it's fucking reality.

Now you tell them: "We're striking for our rights..."

You want me to thump you?

Look here,

you're making 2500 euros. You have enough for 50 tablets.

2500 because I work for it.

Stop filming, I'm going to thump him.

-Because I work for it. -Okay, like lots of people.

For just 8 hours I earn shit.

-With 8 hours you can't survive? -Yes, I can,

but thanks to the unions we have a lot of things.

You're going to make me hit you.

Don't you think the unions do their job?

I don't think they do anything.

I haven't seen them act.

Have you seen what a union does from the inside?

I've seen that you have to pay 4 or 5 euros to join.

I worked in Carrefour

and they told me to join the union

and you tell me what they do.

Tell me a law the union proposed that Parliament then passed.

It's a lie. Loads of blah-blah-blah, and little or nothing.

What do you think of strikes? Are they useful sometimes?

Strikes, yes, because you burn stuff and feel good.

You let off steam.

But, look, man...

Throughout history we've been taught that,

but when you strike...

...with willingness, not: "Let's meet, take a walk." No.

"We're striking, and until they listen, we're not moving from here."

But it's not in fashion now.

Why? Because there's no class consciousness,

no working-class consciousness.

No, you and all of us here

make 1000 or 1200 euros and we don't care.

-Where are you on May 1st? -Take it easy.

-At home. -That's the mistake.

-Why aren't you at the demonstration? -Because I make 1000 euros.

-Then fuck you. -You should be the first.

-Fuck you. -Fuck me?

If you settle for 1000 euros, fuck you.

My house costs 250 euros, my daughter 125, what do I care?

I don't give a shit.

You don't give a shit about my life? I'll bust you one.

Would you be happier with 1000 or 2000?

My work's not worth 2000.

Maybe you're not thinking about it right.

I think my work's worth 2000.

-No, it's not. -Yeah, go on like that.

And your neighbour, what? We're very selfish.

Carry on like what? Are you an idiot?

-No, you're the idiot. -You're going to fight today.

Sure we are.

If you don't value your work...

-I do value it. -...it's the worker's problem.

The employer tells you it's worth 20 euros.

What do you do with 2000 euros?

-With 2000 you can do stuff. -And with 1000. Pay rent and live.

It hurts my ears being next to the machine all day.

But now they hurt more.

-Take it easy. -Don't bust my balls!

-Fuck! -No, no.

It's not like that. You settled for 1000 euros

and it's not like that.

If you know your boss is making this much,

-why do you say: "The company..."? -But you make 2500!

You say: "Fuck, my boss is making X and..."

I don't care about the cameras, I'll bust you one. You make 2500.

Miguel, it's true, because of people like you we're like this.

Yes, but my work's not worth that.

He's doing his job, it's worth that.

He's worth it.

For what you do, I wouldn't give you...

Do you think this guy makes 1000 euros

-for holding up that mike? -Yes.

Maybe he should charge 2000, because he's educated.

-And he's got a degree. -No. Do you know why?

Because work is based on responsibility.

What responsibility?

He's educated, got a degree...

-I don't care. -That's no good to me.

-It's no good to me. -I don't care.

We're getting nowhere here.

-It depends on the responsibility. -A doctor should be making...

-100,000 euros. -More than a footballer, for example.

A footballer, like he said.

-What responsibility has he got? -Loads.

-None! None! -Just as well he's not in a union.

-Loads. -None!

I agree with him. I couldn't be a footballer.

-Could you? -How could I be a footballer

-if I can't walk with my leg straight? -With the "blow" you take,

they'd throw you in jail the first day, man.

Footballers have to be on top every day, man.

That's not the issue.

I was in the CNS.

But not in Comisiones Obreras or the UGT.

-The CNS? From before? -Sure, the Regime one.

-The vertical union, right? -The vertical.

-But later no. -Everybody was in line.

They couldn't fire you because they felt like it.

Now yes, they can fire you...

But with Franco nobody got fired.

You didn't have to do what the boss wanted,

he had to compensate you...

But later, in Bazán, for example...?

Not in Bazán, no. They gave me the money and I left.

But I had no problem there,

-they gave me the money... -I mean you weren't in the union.

No, not me. Not in the UGT or CCOO.

There was the USO too.

I wasn't in that.

No, because they looked like moochers to me.

It's the same as yesterday. I read in the paper

about an event here in the Hotel Nelva, in Murcia,

by VOX, the right wingers.

And these other fuckers come and say: "Fucking son of a bitch,

you should be kidnapped and put in a hole!"

The antifascists.

Not the fascists.

They come out with a Spanish flag...

and the others insult the flag:

"Fucking bitch!"

You can't do that. In the society we live in now,

you can't do that, my friends,

because we have to get rid of all the stigmas

of Francoism and all that.

I'm one of those people.

Though I may have liked it at the time,

I'm more liberal now, now... Hey, I am liberal.

I want people to live well,

enjoy themselves, have a house,

have food

and get an education.

There were opportunities then, but some people were lazy.

Vagrants and thugs. The Vagrancy Act...

I'm simpler and more...

It must be due to my age, I'm going to turn 54,

and due to my situation,

I have rheumatism in my whole body from working so much.

I've always been a baker.

My working day has always been 12 hours.

I made a lot of money, that's true.

I worked in a bakery here that's closed.

I've known Cartagena at night.

Cartagena at night is different from the Cartagena you know.

This was the street, excuse me, of the whores.

They'd finish work on the dock and come here, to the bakery.

That's my dream,

to get a pension,

help my youngest daughter, she needs it,

and grow old with dignity.

If I win the lottery, as he said, fucking great.

But you can't aspire to...

You have to be realistic in this life, you know?

If I got a pension of 1000 euros,

I'd sign right now, for sure.

Do you dream about that at night?

-Yes, yes. -Asleep, I mean.

Yes, yes, yes.

That'd give me peace of mind,

because right now...

I've worked like a slave, like a bastard,

and my ass is hanging out.

It's because I've been married three times too.

So... My first wife left me...

...high and dry...

and the second one paid the consequences of that,

because I was,

as they say,

once bitten twice shy.

The third just didn't work out.

Now I live with my mum.

Peace of mind,

it's all I want.

Is there any dream

you recall in particular

from when you were young or that's recurring?

Like he said. I don't think I'll die poor.

I don't deserve it, I'm not a bad person,

I don't harm anyone.

You know what I mean?

So you have to be compensated one day.

Do you understand?

Humble,

I consider myself very humble.

I don't aspire to...

Besides,

when you're 20 you think you're going to conquer the world

and the world eats you up.

BURNING A PARLIAMENT

The best of a hundred countries.

Their culture, their folklore, their natural wealth,

their works of art, their gastronomy.

In Seville for 6 months

will be the unique and unrepeatable event...

Expo '92.

Expo '92, the world's best.

My problem is that I've been here since 10 a.m.

There was no police cordon.

I'm a citizen and I'm requesting for my right

to enter a parliament.

They're trampling on the Constitution.

They won't let me enter Parliament to listen.

I'm not here to agitate but to ask... Ask no, they won't let me speak,

but to support these poor men who have lead poisoning.

Do you get it, sir?

My husband has the right, like the other 350 families,

to a job. They've been made sick,

so sick that they weren't able to donate blood.

They're left to their own devices. I want to go in and the president

won't let me in.

That's trampling on the Constitution. A place like this

should respect the Constitution

and let a person in. I came alone, not in a group.

I didn't come to agitate, I came to support those men there

asking for work, that's all. Most of them are sick.

In some way, Cartagena is always notorious.

Let's start with what you said,

that feat written in history books,

by the great Latin historians: the elephants of Hannibal.

Hannibal left the Iberian Qart Hadasht,

he left Carthage, from Cartagena, to conquer Rome.

With 50,000 infantry, 15,000 riders,

100 African elephants...

to topple the largest empire in the Mediterranean at the time.

They were in a rivalry.

Cartagena was already in the thick of it.

Then, of course, in the 18th or 19th century

Cartagena was in all the liberal revolutions.

The Glorious Revolution.

Tradition has it that it all began in apothecary

here in Cartagena, on Calle Mayor.

The First Republic, the Second Republic.

That rebel spirit...

is in Cartagena.

It's true, as we said before,

that maybe Francoism,

the sociology of Francoism,

smothered a little

that history of struggle, but...

To what point?

Was it smothered or was there real repression

in the city after the Civil War?

There was a major repression.

The repression in Cartagena was very harsh.

If you take the summary trials,

just in the province of Murcia

there were 50,000 of them.

And each wasn't just one person

there were summary trials

with 80 people accused.

The repression in Cartagena was very harsh

and the army was responsible

for the repression.

In Cartagena the repression was very tough

and Admiral Bastarreche made sure he did

a good job as the enforcer

of that repression.

In Cartagena, if a shipyard worker was to be shot,

his co-workers were sent to witness the execution,

in the sports field of the arsenal.

Plus, they'd send a musical group

and while the executions occurred, they'd play music.

They'd put all the workers there

so that they'd see their co-worker being shot.

-Until what year was the...? -Until 1945.

Until '45, the repression was harsh in the city.

But when you say 50,000 accused, or 50,000 cases,

not all were shot, sure, but there were trials...

Plus, absolutely all of them...

were charged...

under military code with a military court.

That happened all over Spain... Thanks.

It happened all over Spain, but...

in Cartagena it was very harsh, as I said. After all,

to Francoism it was a city of reds.

A city of reds and a city that defended...

The only naval base left in the Republic

defended tooth and nail by the Republican Navy.

Francoism was also unforgiving...

Just before the war ended, the Castillo de Olite was sunk...

They entered the city, thinking it had surrendered.

The city hadn't surrendered.

In the end, from La Parajola,

bombardment and 1500 dead.

My grandmother told me...

It was grotesque. In the harbour you'd see people floating,

corpses floating in the sea.

It's a tough story.

I think that did some damage.

And we all know that after the Civil War the silence was long.

For the repressed families the silence of 40 years of Francoism

was very long, with things left undiscussed.

I think that also happens with the city's world view.

One of my mother's grandfathers,

a Communist Party leader in Spain,

in the Civil War had to leave Cartagena by ship

and he died of hunger in France.

That was kind of like...

a reference point in my family

to not get into trouble.

When my granddad, a baker, put on Pirenaica,

my grandmother would say "Turn down the radio,

they'll hear you!" It was fear

coming from that family event,

my great-grandfather who'd died in France

escaping from the Civil War, from Franco,

at the end of the War.

And at school, at 12 years of age,

you're in class,

you look out of the window and see your father

and all the workers at Bazán

running down a riverbed

with the cops behind beating them.

When my father got home

his back would be all bruised.

He'd ask me: "Kid, how's my back?"

"It's all purple-coloured."

It's what stays with you

from when you were a kid.

Our school was very close to Bazán.

It was 100 metres from the school to Bazán.

When there was trouble, riots, the Bazán workers that came out

were our fathers and we watched them.

We were raised on that conflict since we were kids.

In '71 there was

a fall of the Party in Cartagena, there were no leaders left,

and I chose a political option:

I became a militant in the Communist Party.

I was a militant of the people

and I've never felt sidelined

because I'm a woman.

I later saw that I was

when I looked at other aspects of feminism,

but at the start I was unaware of it.

I took responsibility for...

that section of the Party,...

a female comrade from Murcia, who worked in the Rosell,

and me.

There was a need to create the Democratic Movement of Women

and open up that gap.

And, well, we took it on.

From then on, I began to get interested

and to realize

that there were things I didn't perceive.

When you become a militant in a party

where 90% are men,

99.9% are men,

and you're accepted, you don't realize that

some think of certain things

while others carry them out

that there are feelings and situations

that are hard to debate about

because the momentum carried us along.

So, for me, the discovery of feminism

is about becoming aware that a society

or any revolution

will never be brought about

unless it includes the values,

the particular character

that 52% of the population can contribute.

In September '76, with the first legal demonstration.

We brought out the women of Cartagena.

The Democratic Movement of Women,

the feminist collective,

asked permission to hold the first demonstration

of some 1500 people.

I remember one of the signs said: "Water and power all day."

There were power and water restrictions

during certain hours of the day.

And if the sign said that, a local feeling had been detected.

In those neighbourhoods there was

more marginalization and poverty

and no asphalt on the streets yet, in almost no neighbourhood.

In Concepción, my neighbourhood,

the streets weren't paved.

When it rained, the hills being nearby,

furrows formed in the streets and you could even see the pipes.

The residents had to fill them in.

It was the 70s,

but we still hadn't come out

of a situation

of poverty in the country.

The 70s, despite this,

were years of economic recovery in Cartagena,

we were beginning to...

The industry of Cartagena was still obsolete

and autarchic, because the Regime didn't allow any other kind.

But it's not much more advanced now than it was then,

because the same parameters are there

in terms of the problem

of the environment and...

I mean, the basic parameter

is the gross domestic product that they take away

and little else. But anyway,

there were some years of recovery.

From 1986, when we entered the EEC,

what was progress for Spain

was a step back for me.

Entering the Community...

underscored Spain's economic problems,

which dragged itself from Francoism's autarchy,

and the contradictions began about competing in the markets.

At the time they introduced the idea

that we had to have a single currency.

We didn't have to have a single justice system in Europe,

or compensation for the dismissal of European workers,

but we had to have a single currency

where every country that joined this club

had to meet a set of requisites.

It was what was called in '92 and '93

the Maastricht Agreements.

That belonging to Europe

from the perspective of being in line with

the European countries in rights

was also an aspiration

of the Communist Party of Spain.

It's not that the Communist Party and Comisiones Obreras

rejected Europe, but we wanted a Europe that was...

homogenous.

We wanted a Europe in which Spain enjoyed

the same labour conditions as Germany, France,

Belgium or Great Britain,

to make progress in rights.

But what we saw was that

investment came from Europe for infrastructure,

for example, for road building.

The EU's regional development funds

were used for that,

while all the industry was dismantled.

And we didn't agree with that.

That narrative was offensive, that narrative of modernity,

of the Olympic Games,

the Seville Expo.

It was demonstrating to the world

that Spain was making a big show.

It was flaunting an economy

that allowed us...

certain luxuries,

when here it was painful.

It's the following:

They say that

they have a security zone and this is it.

-Where we are. -The commission's going up.

-The commission's going up. -Some bastard...

They're going to meet with the president and the spokesmen.

So...

what they propose is that our comrades

wait for us here, where those placards are.

-No! -We're not leaving here!

I'm telling you... Comrades...

-We want negotiation! -Comrades...

-We want negotiation. -Hey, just a moment!

Just a moment, damn it!

-Please! -Hey!

Please, comrades.

-Barrabas! -Negotiation!

-Will you shut up a moment? -Shut up for a moment!

-Hey! -Don't shout.

I say that if they let us go,

we'll meet with the Bazán people. We're not leaving.

They let us meet the Bazán people or we're not leaving here.

-It's an alternative. -We came in peace, guys!

Sons of bitches!

They will not close... the foundry!

They will not close... the foundry!

They will not close... the foundry!

They will not close... the foundry!

Fuck, they got me!

Sons of bitches!

-Look, look! -Sons of bitches!

We came in peace, man!

Lies!

Throw it at him, at him! Go on, throw it!

Don't just stand there, throw it!

AGAINST THE CRISIS, WORKER UNITY AND STRUGGLE

Sheep!

REFUSE MILTARY SERVICE

Sons of bitches!

Sons of bitches!

Sons of bitches!

HERE THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL WAS BORN FOR SPAIN

The oil crises of 1973 and 1978 caused a change

in the industrial productive model of the Western countries.

The policies of deindustrialization would be applied later in Spain

because the country was in the middle of the transition process

from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a parliamentary monarchy.

The conversion measures of the vast Spanish industrial sector

were carried out in the decade of the 80s by the Socialist Party.

The application of these measures was, in addition, a requisite

of the European Economic Community, which Spain would enter in 1986.

The conversion affected hundreds of thousands of jobs all over Spain.

The restructuring would take place

through the modernization of installations, privatization or closure.

At the end of 1991 the city of Cartagena faced a systemic crisis

due to the threat of a chain of shutdowns of various factories.

Santa Lucía Lead Smelter.

Belonging to the Sociedad Minero Metalúrgica Peñarroya, founded in 1881

with French capital and with work centres all over Spain.

It had been sold to the French-German multinational Metaleurop,

which decided on proceedings for the total termination of jobs.

Fesa, Enfersa and Asur, fertilizer producers.

They had been sold by the Ministry of Industry to the Ercros/Kio group,

which had ceased to pay its suppliers and planned on eliminating several work centres.

Empresa Nacional Bazán.

A shipyard of the Spanish Navy present in Ferrol, Cádiz and Cartagena since 1751.

The Cartagena factory faced alone Employment Regulation Proceedings

that foresaw the dismantling of the factory and affected half of the staff.

LEAD FOUNDRY SANTA LUCÍA-PEÑARROYA

We never wanted to believe it would happen.

Sure.

We did all the actions,

all the demonstrations, all the mobilizations.

We did everything imaginable

to avoid the chaos and catastrophe

that it meant for all of us.

When did you see that the company was in danger?

-When did you think...? -I never saw it.

It was closed, I never saw it or believed it.

When Peñarroya merged with the Germans,

who created Metaleurop, we started to...

What year was it? '88? '89?

-'89-90. Around there. -Yes, '89-90.

Imagine: We were working in a place

that gave us our daily bread,

where we did our jobs,

where we understood, at a technical level,

that with certain measures air pollution could be avoided.

And at a social level, because we all have worker

and citizen consciousness,

we were fighting against the same air pollution.

So, working in the foundry...

I don't know if you recall, I wasn't on the committee,

Rebollo called me in just to "rattle" me

in front of the company committee.

You guys weren't on the committee yet,

but it was to scare us, saying: "You're going to lose your jobs

because the Council wants to watch us closely."

There was even the contradiction that I was on duty

in the foundry

and my wife and two children

were in the other part accusing us of poisoning them.

You had to swallow these contradictions...

...and I did.

But one issue that you always conveyed to us was that

it was implausible

to think that the company was in danger

while it was investing a lot of money.

What were the improvements the company was introducing?

Technology, for instance.

Even on the day of closure, we switched...

from fuel oil,

with a high sulphur content, to natural gas.

That was another multi-million investment.

We put in gas burners and automation

a fortnight before

in the last two boilers down the end.

So, up to the last moment they were investing

and looking to fight pollution too.

I don't know if it was confidentially or not,

but they continued to present studies to the Council

and the Autonomous Community, asking for subsidies

to carry on fighting pollution.

Though you were anxious inside,

you always held out hope.

We fought so hard because

we didn't believe it was going to close,

or we would've accepted defeat. And we weren't defeated.

We told them to keep the dismissal compensation so we could keep working,

starting from scratch,

that the money was for that purpose.

They never agreed to that,

they wanted to destroy the foundry.

There couldn't be a competing foundry.

Their studies were certain, their decision had been taken.

Lead, at the time, had to be made in Germany

and not in Spain. This had to be crushed no matter what.

We held 186 or 187 demonstrations

from January to June,

June 10th, when it closed.

We held 186 demonstrations around the city,

some in Murcia and one in Madrid.

And one in Madrid.

Of these, 117 were continuous, not a day was missed.

We'd walked so often down the road,

telling the cars to turn around,

that there was a demonstration and who we were that,

when it all closed

and we were "normal" people, I'd still walk

down the middle of the road and my kids would grab me:

"Get on the pavement, you'll get run over."

-That was the road we took... -That was the route.

...we set out on for the mobilization.

We were the company

that held the most mobilizations.

Among these lies, fallacies, deceit and the whole story,

the conflict emerged,

the desire to set fire to what was in the way.

Our job was at stake and the bread for our children.

And this kidding around

and this playing with us

by the company, the politicians, by everybody,

raised, increased the...

There was trouble with Renfe, with cutting off the streets,

-with the burning of the parliament. -Everything.

It all came together: the regulation proceedings of Bazán, Ercros,

CAMISA, who fired all the workers...

It all came together. And it was all unleashed.

And the escalation was suicidal,

because after the parliament burning, other things weren't covered.

This guy was going to get 20 years in jail

because we set fire to Renfe

and for 3 or 4 days no trains came into Cartagena.

We burnt the whole station. Subsequent to that,

we cut off the soldiers... In Cartagena,

we stopped people from boarding three ships,

because we cut off the road to the port

and they didn't want to take them on boats.

Not one soldier got past there.

The Guardia Civil had to kill us if they wanted them to cross.

They were watching the escalation.

We set tyres on fire in the tunnel...

If we'd carried on like that...

I feel bad about that and later regretted it.

We were becoming true terrorists,

we did whatever we had to.

I was 25 at the time

and saw that all my co-workers were very nervous.

As I was the youngest, I didn't have the fear

that I saw in the men of 40 or 50 years old

who until this time were relaxed, comfortable, happy

and secure.

I began to see insecurity, unhappiness and nervousness.

I began to see a lot of sickness, social unrest,

nervous, restless people.

All conversation revolved around that.

Joy had gone, now there was fear.

There was constant unrest and it showed in everything,

even at the football. Signs appeared at the football

that they'd closed some company or other.

You'd walk around Cartagena and see guys

who'd held up signs because another company was closed.

There were 127 demonstrations in 180 days.

Check it out. That's a ton.

127 mobilizations

in 180 days, no less.

There was something every day. In the morning or evening,

on one street or another, one group or another, or together.

People didn't jump at the first scare.

We endured one set of proceedings, than another...

They weren't as traumatic,

people were retiring

or you were put on the dole a few months, certain you'd be back.

They'd put you on the dole for 3 or 4 months,

you were the famous "regulated ones", on work regulation,

and they'd say: "You, in January, February and March don't come."

You were paid the dole, you'd lose out a little...

but you could take it. The problem wasn't the first, second...

but the sixth proceedings,

when you'd used up all the unemployment benefits.

There was a risk of even losing unemployment benefits

and the next step was the abyss, complete loss of employment,

that they'd fire you, having used up your benefits.

The Ferrol, Cartagena and San Fernando shipyards began to fight each other,

the three factories where the old Bazán is set up,

for the little work there was.

That's when politics came in.

In Galicia they had Manuel Fraga Iribarne,

the president of the Galician Government,

a heavyweight in the Partido Popular that Moncloa was afraid of.

In Cádiz they had Carmen Romero, the wife of the President.

She was untouchable too. That left Cartagena. Who did we have?

The President of Murcia, Carlos Collado Mena,

who had no clout in Madrid.

He simply had no clout in Madrid.

Murcia had no clout among the autonomous communities

in the Spanish state and our interests weren't a priority.

There had to be Employment Regulation Proceedings? For whom?

Exclusively, the Cartagena factory,

while the factories of Ferrol and Cádiz were saved.

All this built up rage and frustration in you,

in the final months of '91, where not only the worker

but the Cartagena citizen, was watching their city getting fucked.

They're ruining the city, the whole city was under attack.

It's important to understand this because it explains what happened later.

It wasn't just one workers' group, the entire citizenry

felt under attack. The businesses and bars saw

that if the city's salaries were lost, they'd lose their income too.

So there was a real solidarity, it wasn't a tall tale.

The bars and small businesses said:

"There can't be one closing after another."

There was a collective feeling of being crushed,

which worsened because it was '92.

'92 was the lavish, wonderful year of Spain:

the Barcelona Olympics

and the Seville Expo.

All very pretty, a country all rosy, a wonderland.

And your city was fucked and they were ruining your life.

You'd turn on the TV and it was a wonderland.

Barcelona 92, Seville 92 and you say "What about Cartagena?

And Huelva? And Vigo? And Sagunto, what?"

They say nothing unites people like adversity. That's true.

Since we were fucked, we got together.

You'll have seen the videos, the songs in the demonstrations.

There was always some kidding, some humour.

The first weeks that prevailed,

but as the conflict got harsher,

that humour turned to fear,

and fear turns to anger, anger turns to violence.

You end up in a ball of violence you don't want to be in.

You don't want to be in it, but you're in a mob

that's throwing rocks at the police, breaking glass

or setting fire to skips and you're in it saying:

"Fuck, where am I?" It can't be any other way,

the people setting fire to a skip are right,

the people breaking glass are right,

as are the people throwing rocks at that poor cop,

because he's as unfortunate as we are, damn it.

But the guy hitting the cop is right, that's the way it is.

You justify things that in normal circumstances, you wouldn't.

You had to because it was the bread of your children,

your brother, your cousin, your father, your neighbours.

How did it all start?

The city had a lot of large firms

with a national reach.

We're talking about something called the INI,

which had a load of companies.

The Instituto Nacional de Industria were public companies

where the workers were public workers

and were thus considered civil servants.

I never liked that the workers in these industries

were considered civil servants.

They felt that security.

We had Bazán, we had mining

from the period of the Romans,

we had lead smelting,

we had a factory devoted to zinc,

the Española del Zinc, which also produced sulphurs.

Then we had three major centres of fertilizers

that covered a range of fertilizer-related products.

"Fertilizers" were classified

as a strategic sector,

that is, it had special protection because in Spain

agriculture is still

a large part of the GDP.

What was the aim of making "Fertilizers" a strategic sector?

The aim was that the prices of fertilizers

for farmers were controlled

in such a way that agricultural production

didn't depend on rising or falling prices.

The time for industrial reconversion came,

we joined the European agreements,

and it was decided that sector had to be reconverted.

So a plan was made, a plan negotiated

between the Government,

businesses and unions

to restructure

or reconvert the sector in a rational way.

This sector had direct employment of over 100,000 people.

It was no joke.

What was done? There were concentrations of companies,

some closing, others opening,

the modernization of facilities, there were retirements...

An industrial plan was made

on development and employment.

The basic aim? To maintain the sector,

a strong Spanish fertilizer sector so that agriculture in Spain

was not subject to

the ups and downs of the market...

and at the same time to rationalize as much as possible.

I remember in summer 1990

I was in a camping ground,

having a quiet summer, excited because

we'd just signed the Industrial Employment and Development Plan,

the PIDE, as it was known.

I'd gone on holiday with my family to Bolnuevo, in Mazarrón.

We were camping there, with my two little ones,

and I'd get up early every morning to buy the paper.

I liked going to the beach at 8:30.

I was there at 8:30, sitting and reading,

and I see that KIO has landed in Spain...

and bought Explosivos Río Tinto.

It was the largest

chemical group in the country.

KIO was a major investment group,

but very much a speculator.

In fact, when they went to England, Thatcher...

from the English "communist" party... Remember her?

Well, Thatcher,

influenced by her "communist" ideas,

decided that they couldn't have over 25% of any place.

Here they were told they could do what they wanted,

and they took most of it.

And the Government, good old Solchaga,

decided...

"Why don't they take the whole sector?"

Just imagine what that meant for people who,

up to the day before, had been part of the INI,

who'd signed agreements as a part of the INI.

They'd signed agreements with the Ministry of Industry.

And so had we,

the private part as well.

And it was all lost. Suddenly these fellows turn up,

they keep the 60 billion pesetas,

they don't concentrate the firms,

they don't invest,

and then, by chance,

they propose early sackings in those fertilizer companies.

They're very old companies, very much inside the old section.

KIO presents work regulation

for all those with land in the cities that could be sold.

Imagine it:

the negotiating tables don't work,

the reports from Employment

are all negative for the Proceedings

because the work inspectors

knew there were commitments that had to be met.

When you buy a company, you buy workers and commitments,

just as you purchase the debts and keep the profits.

You buy everything.

The reconversion was done on paper...

and it was all proper.

Then KIO turned up

and made good old De la Rosa its boss in Spain.

I'll say it again, he's a crook.

I said he was then and I'll say it now...

He's a real crook.

I didn't feel bad at all when he asked to leave prison

because he was really sick.

I would've taken him to see all the people he hurt,

because lots of people had to go to mental hospitals,

they had to stop their kids from finishing degrees,

or if they studied abroad, they had to come back.

People get sick when they haven't made any money in 3 months,

while he's on a yacht worth millions of euros

going down the Cantabrian coast.

Imagine how little I cared that the fucker was sick.

Excuse the expression, but he deserves it.

It could've been done right.

In fact, it was set up to be done right.

The thing is, I get it,

the rush to join Europe...

And I'm not denying the importance of Spain joining Europe.

People my age

knew the Spain of '75 and how it is now.

You can't compare the infrastructure,

the hospitals, lots of services, universities and such.

We made a huge leap forward.

We started to go out and protest

about the situation.

If I'm out for 150 days

demonstrating peacefully...

and I get silence as an answer...

I go to see the person who represents me,

which was, unfortunately, a long-standing friend of mine,

José Antonio Alonso,

the Mayor of Cartagena, wasn't responsible for

the non-fulfilment of the plans.

All he's responsible for is taking the side of citizens

and saying: "I'm with you, I support you,

and any way I can I'm going to request

that the agreements are fulfilled." That's all he had to do.

If he turns his back and won't meet with you...

It's not that we won't meet you, he hides away.

One day he arranged to meet us in the Council.

The Municipal Police tell us:

"Paco, he's upstairs, but he's hiding in his office."

He lets me into the Council through a side entrance,

I go up to his office, and talk him into coming down.

It's filmed on TeleCartagena.

He comes down with me to read a statement

the we'd drafted two days before

and he couldn't because his hands were shaking.

He was a Socialist mayor

who was with friends of 20 or 30 years

to talk to the workers.

Over half of them there had voted for him...

and he was hiding because he was following superior orders.

Do you know how a guy feels when he's in that situation?

Do you know how he feels, a family man, 4 kids, 49 years old,

who fought for 20 years against Francoism,

who has a Socialist or Comisiones Obreras card,

in front of the guy who voted for him because he was left-wing,

and this mayor is hiding in his office?

Do you know how that feels? It's terrifying.

You feel like you've been deceived your whole life,

that the time you spent in jail or the beatings you took,

weren't worth a thing.

And after that, what?

Do you go home relaxed as if nothing happened here?

"Poor guy, he can't see us."

It's been...

27 years and it still pains me.

I'm still pissed off.

You'd go to the Regional Government,

paying for the bus ride with the little money...

We hadn't been paid for 3 months,

working without getting paid.

You'd go to the government and you might as well have gone...

to the lighthouse, at least you'd see the sea....

It was day after day after day.

And suddenly... everyone's surprised.

Everyone's surprised

that people say "It's come to this",

and that the PSOE headquarters is attacked,

skips and bins are burnt in the street,

that there's a hunger strike and the factories shut for 12 days.

People are surprised at that.

And so, from that point on,

they want to speak to you.

How can it work like that?

When the Proceedings were approved,

we on the committee locked ourselves in the company.

We slept on the floor for 7 days.

And sure, that was...

I think that was the fuse that...

Sleeping on the floor for a week is a bit rough.

You get up in a bad mood and it sharpens...

your wits, like hunger does.

We decided that...

we had to do things...

-Out of the ordinary. -...out of the ordinary,

-not very well known... -And striking enough

...to break the encirclement.

We had to make the mayor change his mind.

To change his mind in some way,

at least officially, the door had to be torn down.

Yes, because he wouldn't meet us.

He wouldn't meet us, they said he wasn't in,

but when the door frame came down,

-the mayor was sitting there. -In his office.

An emergency meeting was held with the municipal spokespeople

and the first proposal came out in support of the workers

against the Proceedings,

at least officially, from the Cartagena Council.

When the Autonomous Community,

unlike Andalusia and Ferrol,

the Government measure was justified...

and we demanded meetings...

Antonio sent a request for acknowledgement...

-To Carlos Collado. -...because they weren't answering us

and returned the acknowledgement, the letter...

-It had on it... -"Declined."

"The receiver has declined

to receive the dispatch."

Carlos Collado was President, and what did we do?

We put Carlos Collado's face on a target.

and we bought...

On Puerta de Murcia in Cartagena we played "shots at Collado".

We tried to...

We went to San Esteban.

After the committee lock-in, 26 busloads of us...

We left him a postcard

-that was pretty harsh. -Yes.

It was a great period of unity among the staff.

Actions were proposed and seconded...

unanimously.

We did some crazy stuff. Looking back on it now,

bursting into a military establishment,

it's amazing.

I had a period of some two or three weeks

when I got death threats every single night.

They'd call me on the phone.

It scared us a little because we'd turn off the last light at home,

go to bed, and five minutes later someone would call

in a disguised voice, saying "I'll kill you. Where's your wife?

I'm going to kill you..."

You knew it wasn't true,

but you still worried.

So someone, I can't remember who...

I told the police

and they replied:

"From what you say, it has to be someone close.

Spread the word that we've tapped your phone.

We won't, it's too complicated.

If it goes further, we'll meet again and see,

but for now, in your immediate surroundings,

spread the word that your phone is tapped."

That was a godsend

because the calls stopped.

Besides these calls, we often got calls as well

from the police:

"We know what you're up to, be careful.

Don't cross the line, we're right behind you..."

So, yes, the tension was very, very great.

Maybe I'm a bit stigmatized.

Maybe I am.

When I hear politicians in office

talk to us with scorn

and talk about violence...

"What are you on about?"

I've negotiated,

as a police inspector,

with unions, with demonstrations...

I went to meet them, in Bazán, in Comisiones Obreras,

in the UGT...

I'm a "friend"...

of Andrés of the UGT

and the Secretary of Comisiones.

Why? To what end?

To stop bad things.

That was the aim, to make pacts.

"How far can we agree?

How far can we go?" "We'll hold on here another hour."

"Alright, let's do this..."

Now we get into...

...this negotiation because it's very interesting.

And a key factor was when they set fire to parliament.

When the police face

more than 50 people they can't have a battle.

We lost the battles.

Normally the law protects us.

But in what sense? When the police pull out

their defences and hit people,

nobody remembers what they're protesting about,

that they're violating the norms, they're breaking the law,

a prohibition...

They only see the police

hitting someone on the back.

That's a reality.

So what do we have to do? Avoid it.

How?

If you push me to say: Let them do what they like.

They cut off traffic? Let them do it.

They stop the train station? Then let them go.

"They've gone to the Maritime Authority."

"They should hang in there."

That's been my job,

hang in there, hang in there...

But it got out of hand,

that was a very strange situation.

A line was broken and we shifted back.

We wanted to re-establish the line, like it was a battle.

And, of course, you can't hold back 200 men.

Why was the Parliament burnt?

It was burnt because of the police.

At the door to parliament,

at 9 or 9:15 in the morning,

were the workers of Peñarroya.

The poor guys were going to deliver

Statement 27 to the parliament president, Miguel Navarro.

At this same time, in Comisiones

there was a set of people.

José Luis Romero, the General Secretary, came to my office,

where I was working, and said to me: "Paco."

"Yes, José" "Why don't we go

and cover Juan, let's go to him,

with the ones that are alone there?

If they're going to go in, you and I will too,

and talk to Miguel."

Romero and I had a lot of contact with Miguel.

"Right then, let's go."

We gathered people who worked in the union,

the workers that were around, and we set out,

25 to 40 of us.

No more than that.

We picked up a sign we had: "For the future of Cartagena."

The avenue was closed, they were occupying it

in front of the parliament

and on one side of the avenue

we were with our sign. And when we were,

20 or 25 metres away,

at the level of Radio Juventud,

50 metres from where the lads from Peñarroya were,

the head cop came at us with an attitude

that surprised us,

the one in charge of the police.

But not only he approached us, behind were 7 or 8 guys

with rubber bullet shotguns.

We reached him and he said to us: "Where are you going?"

Romero said:

"We're going to join our comrades from Peñarroya,

to be with them so that when they go in...

I'm Romero, the general secretary, here to accompany them in."

"You can't go past!"

Romero was here and I was here.

All he did was take one step forward with the sign,

with the idea that we'd follow.

He took just one step

because this man hit him

with the end of the club on his mouth.

He busted his nose and he was bleeding.

Then he gave the order to fire.

So they shot at us,

a volley of rubber bullets at the whole first line.

They didn't get me, but Torres, for example,

a lad from Bazán next to me,

was hit by two rubber bullets.

We took him to Emergencies.

And we dispersed, of course, because...

they kept on firing,

and they suddenly turned to the people from Peñarroya

and starting shooting at them too to disperse them.

That's how it was, or may I be struck dead....

I hope it's not for 500 years, but anyway...

It was like that. And from then on the conflict got going,

that's when it got started. We started throwing...

It was all broadcast live because Cartagena,

since it was hot news,

Telecartagena, Onda Regional, SER,

they were always at these places. The word got around,

the Bazán people filed out,

and everyone came out to join us there.

It was madness, the police went mad,

like they were on methamphetamines.

They shot rubber bullets,

they launched tear gas...

There must be lots of images of that.

And we began to respond too.

The time had come in when...

you didn't hold back.

They made a show of violence that I'd never seen before.

After being there all morning...

"Let's get going! Here we come!",

all those stories,

they got into the hospital,

behind people, they got into the school.

The principal came out to say what they did in there

and they clubbed him.

They got into the faculties in front,

they went down the streets in vans

firing rubber bullets at people.

My father-in-law, who was an officer in the Marine Police,

was going home after duty,

in military clothes, insignia and all, was shot by a rubber bullet.

He put his hand on his gun,

because he was quite a character, ready to shoot the cop

if he shot him again.

Going around the streets, shooting at people...

The poor worker, if he was in blue overalls,

they put him in a van, beat the crap out of him

and let him go again.

It reminded me of my youth in Madrid,

when I was a student and vans of cops would turn up

downtown or at the university

and they'd grab you, beat you and leave you 100 metres down.

The same thing. Nutcases.

Total nutcases.

Then they scattered, they spread around the city,

and what happened? In the afternoon

they left the Assembly "exposed"

as they say.

A parliament should never be left exposed,

but must always be open to the people.

The doors to a parliament

cannot be locked to workers who ask for their help.

That's an aberration, almost more of an aberration

than people burning something they feel does not represent them.

The truly aberrant thing that morning

was a parliament,

supposedly democratic,

refusing to receive citizens who voted for them to be there.

That really is aberrant!

Then, in 12 hours of tremendous violence,

when workers ended their shift in Valle de Escombreras,

because the shifts were constant,

they'd go into Cartagena and throw rocks at the Assembly.

And as rocks were tossed inside the parliament

someone threw in a Molotov cocktail, or two or three, and it burnt.

I've never looked into, nor am I interested,

in whether it was a criminal, if it was a worker,

or the janitor's cousin, because he was underpaid.

I've never been interested in who it was,

nor does my hair stand on end because the Assembly was burnt.

It stands on end

because the police

stopped the workers,

who were there peacefully,

from going inside their parliament.

While it is not stated otherwise, that parliament belongs to the people

and it's there because of the people.

It was clear it wasn't for the people but for some politicians to live off,

who since then don't represent me.

When the Assembly was burnt and it made the cover of El País,

that's when everyone said: "What's going on here?"

"This is more than labour strife", so Spain's P.M., Felipe González

rang an economic advisor to say:

"Explain what's going on in Cartagena, I don't know."

If the parliament wasn't burnt, they would've ignored it.

It would've been just another conflict. That fact changed everything.

17 days after the burning of the Parliament,

the Bazán Proceedings were lifted.

It was impossible: no work, no ships. "No, no, no."

The Parliament was burnt and in 17 days an order

for 6 ships went through.

That was 17 days after the Assembly was burnt.

How do you take that?

Do people have to set fire to a government building

for work to come to the city? Yes.

That's how it was. On February 20 the Ministry gave the order

to build 6 minesweepers that saved Bazán in Cartagena.

Reconversion doesn't explain it all, but it does in Cartagena.

Industrial reconversion took power from the Socialist Party for 25 years

and the conservative PP is the beneficiary.

Until '92, the PSOE won the elections in Cartagena:

municipal, autonomous and general.

Since '92 they haven't won any of these three.

It's the punishment the city inflicted on this party.

You haven't won the workers' struggle,

because that goes on.

But that battle in particular we did win.

The withdrawal of the Proceedings was a victory.

Yes, it was a victory.

It's true that,

to be fair,

it's a victory of which

we are not the only architects of what happened.

We were a public company and depended on political decision.

There were comrades in companies that weren't public,

in the fertilizer sector, Peñarroya,

who lost because it was private enterprise

and the Government didn't intervene.

We benefited somewhat from that situation...

and there was a bitter aftertaste

about the comrades who hadn't gained the same objective as we had.

The worst thing was and will be for me

having to give severance

to the 300 Peñarroya workers

That wrecked me psychologically.

It took me a year...

to get over it at least. It scarred me for life.

That was the worst thing that's happened to me,

having to call, one by one...

It gets to me now, and 25 years have gone by.

Calling the workers one by one

and handing them the severance from a company like Peñarroya,

that was awful. Awful.

And after that I spent 9 months,

almost a year,

making arrangements with Juan. Up and down.

Two years of dole was a lot

and then I hit the wall and fell into a depression.

I was incapable of picking up some pliers.

That trauma that you're worthless.

When I had the most money I'd ever had, from the severance.

I had no family problem

and I fell into one of those terrible depressions.

I later fell into such a deep depression

that I entered a tunnel.

I seemed to be going for miles and miles

and didn't see a way out. Later there was, because...

there's life outside the walls of the factory,

but we didn't know that.

I spent a long time,

every time I went to Escombreras working with a truck,

or wherever,

I'd always stop unconsciously at the factory gate.

I didn't know why I stopped

and it's because something of me stayed there.

Something of me stayed there in the factory

and I'd sometimes wait there.

One day my daughter saw me stop and said: "What are you doing?"

"I don't know" "Then get a move on!"

But I left something inside, I still don't know what.

And now it's rubble, ruins,

a pile of rocks,

that's it... ruins.

-And years of your life. -Exactly, something of ours.

I don't know if it's ghosts.

EPILOGUE

The crisis creates another model, in all areas.

It even creates another union model.

The implementation of unionism

in the company was broken,

which is fundamental,...

and the practical and commercial meaning

of the union, where you'd go

and they'd listen to you,

that become essential.

Insurance was created...

You can go in there as if you could in

any other commercial centre.

That is, what matters,

what the worker gets...

are other things.

The federations were alive,

all the people from the committees were there every day,

trade union hours were in place,

because they tried to make sure that it was so.

But perhaps it's also a matter that concerns the whole society.

That is, insofar as the large companies disappear,

the level of affiliation is lower,

-the type of work has changed. -Sure, the whole society.

I mean, this is a reflection of the social transformation.

Yes, consider the number of people today

who spend their working life in five or six companies.

I worked in two companies in my life and left of my own accord,

that is, if I hadn't left construction I'd still be building houses there,

and if I hadn't left Comisiones I'd still be in Consultation there.

But our children

have suffered, despite education,

in all fields, due to the lack of jobs.

And they have 40-plus years

and pitiful pension contributions

because they'd have periods of work inactivity, very often.

It didn't happen in our time and that created a model

of union membership and work...

I experienced something very, very important,

the unemployed, however militant they are,

have the syndrome of unemployment, of frustration,

and they often just hide away.

"So many unemployed and people don't come to the demonstrations."

No, it's only natural,

I've seen that there's a situation

of impotence

that leads to great frustration,

they're not even able to respond to that,

those who've been militant at another point in their lives.

They were responsible, committed men...

and they lost their jobs and stayed at home.

I've been a privileged worker. I've had all my rights.

I've been able to complain without being fired.

I've had dues paid for me,

I've gone on holidays,

I've been paid for overtime.

Seems crazy, right?

My salary was enough to keep me going,

to go out with my wife, to have a beer,

to send my kids to university,

I was really fucking lucky.

And the companies didn't go broke.

Now you have workers on 800 euros a month,

job insecurity, not being paid for the hours, the working poor...

What is this?

One foot out on the street,

with the systematic and constant violence of employers...

And what do the unions do now?

They should be in the street all fucking day.

They should turn this country upside down.

Even if they have to pick up a stake for it.

It's not right, not right...

Capitalism has never been self-regulating. Never.

Capitalism wants more and more and more, do you understand?

So you either establish laws that protect people

and cut down on abuses or we come to these situations.

A pretty city, beautiful sun, a wonderful beach...

Those of us in the large sectors and are my age live wonderfully,

but my fellow workers from Cartagena,

22, 24, 26 years old with 600, 700 euros,

have a 12-hour working day.

They can't be as happy as I am.

The unions are criticized a lot.

that's everyone's mantra, criticizing the unionists

as being crooks, right?

It's not true.

Unionists aren't crooks,

we do what we can with what we have to deal with.

I admire the unionists from the past,

they're my benchmarks.

Marcelino Camacho, fighting the dictatorship: hats off.

The next ones who fought industrial reconversion: hats off.

And who do we fight against?

Globalization? The International Monetary Fund?

The whole system? Capitalism?

Here there was a war and capitalism won.

There was a cold war here and capitalism won.

Let's not forget that.

The Berlin Wall fell here, which it had to because Communism was bad,

but we workers in the West benefited from that,

and ever since Berlin Wall fell

workers get shafted from all sides.

We celebrate the fall of the Wall and of Communism,

but we workers have had it rough.

The world is on the right and heading for the ultra-right.

It's clear.

The world's on the right

and unless we on the left balance it

it will go far-right.

There you have it.

And if you don't have unions and leftist parties regulating that,

we're in trouble.

A co-worker once said to me: "You'll never know the company

until you're on a company committee.

You'll never know the reality of the job,

until you make the leap and see what this is like."

It was true.

When you negotiate with an employer,

when you negotiate with the head of personnel,

it changes your perception.

You realize what you can get

and what you can't get.

Before, no, you think you can get everything.

But you have to sit down with the employer,

sit face to face,

he has very smart advisors,

he's well-armed ideologically and in arguments

and you go in with what you've got.

Then, to get what you want,

you have to try to get the 200 people behind you

to support you, and that doesn't always happen.

And he knows it.

The employer knows you don't have their support.

I've found that sometimes.

Still, I remain a unionist.

It's a necessary task,

a wall of resistance, stronger or weaker,

but it's a wall of resistance.

Because the future of work, I don't even want to think about it.

-What's the future of work? -I see the future of work...

I see a clear split where work is sequestered

by people between 40 and 60 years of age.

It's sequestered by this segment of the population. The good jobs.

The bad jobs are for people under 40.

It was, is and will be that way.

It's another of the things the system has achieved.

That young people have no stability.

Young people have no stability.

You only get stability at 40,

and they have to wait 20 years longer.

I see that every day in all jobs.

In my union activity I see that a young person

has it rough and can only improve if after 40 years old

he finds a job that people over 60 have left open

when they retire.

Work is compartmentalized by ages.

That's how it's been done and I don't know how to resolve it.

Because in a way, as you mentioned before,

you were able to join the union

because you were unafraid, you had a guaranteed, permanent job.

Yes, I dare to do what others can't...

Young people don't have job security, they're afraid...

How can a young person be part of union activity

-if they go from company to company? -Good question.

A very good question. They want to do away with unions,

and that's the way to do it.

Young people don't renew the union

and it dies of old age

because young people don't join.

Except when they're 40, that's what I think will happen.

When they turn 40, get that stability

and see that they're safer in the union,

it's in their best interests.

Is there a fear of reprisals for joining a union?

There are reprisals.

I've held union elections in small companies

where the lads that become candidates are fired.

-That's interesting. -Every month.

All the time, all the time.

You set up your candidature,

there are 5 or 10 guys with balls who go ahead,

and girls who go ahead...

The case of the 9 at AON, a company in Cantabria,

where 9 comrades set up a CCOO candidature

and the next day the 9 were fired.

What about that?

It's not an idle threat, people know that

if you sign up to be the CCOO candidate,

the next day your boss is on your back.

That why we're here.

Because others don't dare,

but they're not cowards.

So it's up to me.

I'll try to do it what they can't,

that's what's going on.

The people who unionize are condemned.

It happens to lots of people.

It does.

It's what our system has achieved.

Maybe there's some other experience you want to tell me about,

because we're reaching the end

of the issues we're discussing...

I don't know.

I like the first part of what I said,

because this part compromises me,

I liked the other part more.

-I don't think... -We'll see.

We'll see...

We'll see...

But I've said things here from the heart, not the head.

If I was smart, I would've shut up more.

Ibarra.

One question, Luis.

Do you think the 90s union model

or "union of concentration", as it was called,

a legacy of the anti-Franco struggle,

is repeatable today in the micro-company?

Also maybe some self-criticism?

Don't you think union strategy has to...?

It has to change, sure, but who's going to

come up with a new one?

Let's see who comes up with and directs

a new union strategy.

Because I do believe in organization.

If there's no organization, conflicts die straight away.

Without it, conflict dies very fast,

and that's what some people want,

no organization or conflict resolution.

Or even raised, right?

Or even raised. That's hard, a challenge for our union,

and yours.

Ours as an old and mature organization

and yours as younger workers.

You have a challenge ahead of you.

I have to tell you something else too, Raúl.

The solution isn't a union one now. The solution is political.

Ours is a political conflict,

we know that for sure.

It's a major political conflict

over and above the union arena,

this must be fixed politically or not at all.

It's a political problem that must be fixed politically.

With political parties that dare to take to the parliaments

the social agenda people have.

It's that simple.

What happens is that the system

is shielded from that,

and now not even politics fixes these things.

Politicians have limited power

and the "powers that be" as we called them, hinder...

In Spain the Spanish parliament doesn't rule.

It doesn't rule.

In Spain the markets rule.

The risk premium rules.

In Spain entities rule that no one voted for.

No one voted for these people

to change an article of the Constitution, and they do.

No one voted for them to stop cuts, and we get cuts.

No one voted for them. How can you castigate...

the European Union,

if the EU set the 2012 cuts?

The cuts we suffered in 2012 weren't set by the Spanish Parliament,

they're just puppets.

The Spanish Finance Minister is called Angela Merkel.

The Spanish Finance Minister isn't called Guindos

or Montoro or the socialist that's in now.

She's called Angela Merkel.

Spain's decisions aren't made in Spain,

but in arenas far away.

And in arenas that are hard to fight against.

How can you fight the Troika? Tell it to the Greeks.

The Greeks have fought, they had 14 general strikes.

They had 14 general strikes

and swallowed a cut of 200 billion euros.

They swept that country. With 14 general strikes.

They were organized.

I've been to international unionist meetings

and we all talked and the Greeks yelled.

It was odd. I've been to unionist meetings,

because I've been part of...

international unionist meetings.

I did a thing in Milan,

I was in Warsaw and once in Madrid,

at a unionist meeting and everyone spoke and the Greeks yelled.

They yelled everything, yelled absolutely everything, and what?

It came to nought.

The EU subdued the maverick,

despite their 14 general strikes, their Syriza in government.

Tsipras, the president of the government, ended up...

kneeling, he had to kneel and do as he was told.

That's another lesson for us.

Now the Italians do as they please

and no one dares to contradict them.

The Italians, the fascists in power,

will win the arm wrestle.

They'll win it.

Salvini said he's going to set a budget

with a deficit of billions,

and shove the deficit where the sun doesn't shine.

He's going to win the arm wrestle with the EU.

The EU has no balls with fascism

but it does with unionism?

The EU can kick around those of us still on the left?

But the EU, as powerful as it is,

can't confront the new far-right?

That's scary.

What's going on there?

Why don't I read that Italy's risk premium is skyrocketing?

I had to read in 2011

that it was skyrocketing in Spain

and we all endured the cuts.

Or didn't you?

All of you listening here endured it.

Everyone endured those cuts.

Because the EU said so.

You had the worst jobs and wages in those years.

Don't you remember? All of you.

Everyone.

The EU ordered it, the EU.

The EU ordered the cuts.

Europe... Europe...

fucks us over...

The Italians fight the EU, which doesn't have the balls

to say to Salvini: "No,

we're giving you fines, sanctions, we'll crush you."

You crush Greece but not Italy?

You subdue Greece with a leftist government,

but not Italy with an ultra-right government?

Will Poland and Hungary defy you?

We've only just let Poland and Hungary into the club

and now they're the local toughs?

When they reflect on why the EU is in crisis,

they should reflect on that too.

La Loma was a zone in Quitapellejos,

hills that we've always been on, our whole lives.

I did my First Communion there, my brother and sister did,

it was a family spot

and I wanted it to still be there.

In the evenings, when I'd finish work,

I'd go there with my aunts and uncles,

my uncle Manolo, my uncle Pepe, my aunt Rosita,

my aunt Paca, on all those sofas we had, a ton of them,

because my uncle was in removals,

so it was a great atmosphere,

I always loved it, the horses we had,

always as a family,

we'd go every evening to cool off in summer,

there were eucalypts there, you'd look at Cartagena

and the whole port, Bazán,

Ducks' Castle and the whole shit.

If only, if only I could live that time over again,

because it was the happiest of my life.

Right now, that would be my dream.

And something that you dream of, but at night,

tell me something, for example...

Something recurring?

Not being able to punch.

You can't punch...?

Yes, maybe we're in a fight with some Nazis or something,

and I'm in a jam, I punch away and it's like this.

That's what I dream lately.

So you get up and it's like "Fucking hell!"

I do have the strength to punch.

but in these dreams I hit like really soft.

I have that dream a lot lately.

So you say: "Hey, man,

I can hit hard... Why am I hitting like this?"

And that's loads of time. Again and again, again and again...

and then when I'm with the Nazis, I beat the shit out of them.

Maybe when I get back

my fists are all busted up, like:

"Man, I can punch hard,

so why in my dreams do I hit...?",

like this, you can't move,

like you're hitting like a...

That's happened to me loads of times, like:

"Fuck, why this dream?"

I don't get it, maybe it's the fear of being beaten up,

which I have been before... Why am I afraid of that?

It's like a rain of punches.

I've dreamt that loads of times.

I'm trying to punch, but I can't.

I'm like this...

and I can't do it.

That's recurred loads of times and I really don't know why.

I don't see any fucking explanation.

But anyway,

in a fight with Nazis, they won't forget me.

Translatión: Lindsay Moxham

Subtitles: LASERFILM