DOMENECH was taking time off from serving on the supplies committee which had the task of provisioning Barcelona. But as a glassworker and union secretary he was concerned about his industry ‘now that the revolution was staring us in the face’. He told the militants to call a meeting with the employers. Beforehand, he arranged to have two toughs with rifles standing behind him at the table where he would preside.

—The idea was, well, not that they should do anything but because, coño, this was the revolution!

‘Well, señores,’ I said, opening the meeting, ‘you are the employers and we, at the moment, are in the full spate of revolution. Right now, if we felt like it, we could load you all into a lorry and that would be the end of it.’ You should have seen their backsides wriggling on their chairs! ‘But no, what we have to do right now is set about protecting your interests and ours.’

‘Yes, oh yes,’ they all replied. ‘Of course.’

‘Well now, it’s clear that you employers really compete in an unfair and disloyal manner amongst yourselves. You try to undercut each other with unstated discounts, you buy large quantities of glass to get the factory discount and then often undertake work you don’t need. All this can’t continue. You should have formed an employers’ association a long time ago.’

‘Yes, yes,’ some of them said, nodding.

‘All right,’ I continued, ‘we’ll do something straight away. We’ll draw up a document creating an association: The Mirror and Plate Glass Employers’ Society.’ We drew up the document; one by one they signed it. They were silent. ‘Now we’re going to draw up another document which cedes all the Society’s rights to the union.’

‘¡Hombre, no! ¡Hombre! ’ They were all shouting now.

‘Yes, yes,’ I said very insistently; given the situation, they ended up signing. ‘Don’t get upset,’ I went on. ‘The first thing we’re going to do is to make an inventory of all stocks held in each of your workshops, and ascertain the financial balance of each. To those showing a profit, we’ll pay 10 per cent of the surplus shown every three months; for those showing a loss – bad luck! Moreover, each one of you will stay on as a union member and be employed as a technician with the corresponding wage.’

By now they were beginning to get a bit more enthusiastic. I encouraged them even more with a fantasy of the future in which I told them we would soon be building houses of glass, all the street signs would be of glass, and so on. ‘You’ve never thought of things like that, but this is what we’re going to do.’

‘Hombre, yes, yes.’ They left the meeting quite content in the end. And that’s how we collectivized the plate glass business …