“Here the red flag has flown in several factories occupied by the workers for months, while they were in the comb, accompanied by their wife and children. What was heard at the time had a much harder base than the demands of the unions. While the trade unions were engaged in the sad sokatira with the government, 5 per cent here and 8 per cent there, handwritten petitions on the walls of factories are surprising given the current complex tax system:

‘We are not so stupid. Participate in benefits? By relieving taxes on masters and increasing our contribution to social security, they take away from us with one hand what they give us with the other. Freedom of conscience, yes; respect for religion, too; financial assistance to clerical private schools as our public schools become a tingle of 70 boys and girls per teacher, no. We are strong, colleagues, but this will not last, we will not be rich if we increase wages by 10%, the devaluation of the pound will soon come. We ask for what we owe, for our taxes to be used to pay our hospitals for our patients, to pay for children's schools, to improve public means of transport and not to build motorways and car parks for the privileged, to subsidize construction companies and for the collectivity of the employees to take over the school and the security to pay the salaries of 400 pounds. And they also serve to pay for their homes for official protection. The State is the one that lends money to its employers at 45 years of age at an interest of 2%, so that they get profits of 8% at the expense of everyone else. Do you leave us the money in 45 years and 2% interest to build the house? The classes of freedom of association have ended with the usury benefits of capital on the pretext of social policy. The school does, charity does not.’”

* Letter from Núria Salles to Josep Fontana.