ABSTRACT
The study of national identity in early twentieth-century Barcelona is both complex and potentially rewarding for there were two antagonistic nationalist discourses in circulation together with a strong internationalist current within labour movement. This chapter intends to focus on a key aspect of this problematic, the relationship between labour, nationalism and national identity. Worse from a Catalanist perspective, as the Paralelo and adjacent streets expanded in the early years of the century flamenco and then the zarzuela and cuple dominated the dancing and music scene. The growth of conservative, middle-class Catalanism was given a great boost by Spain’s defeat in the Spanish—American War of 1898 and the resulting loss of her remaining colonies in the Pacific and the Americas. Repression eased from 1898 and subsequent years were to witness a rapid escalation of industrial strife and the emergence of an aggressive anarcho-syndicalist labour movement. This culminated in 1910 within the foundation in Barcelona of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo.
