Poster - Sindicato Unico de Barberos

Sindicato Unico De Barberos De Barcelona - Al Fin Somos Libres! Unique Union of Barbers of Barcelona - At Last we are Free! by Ricard Obiols, 1936.

Produced by the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), the Spanish anarchist trade union - National Confederation of Labour.  

Ricard Obiols was born in 1894 and worked for the CNT and UGT in both Madrid and Barcelona. He produced many posters including several titled Por Las Milicias and a poster for the transport union titled ‘Sindicato Único Ramo Transporte – Industrias Colectivizadas’, showing the whole public transport system: buses, trams, railways, underground railways and taxis, collectivised by the CNT. He died in 1967.

In Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell wrote: "In the barbers' shops were Anarchist notices (the barbers were mostly Anarchists) solemnly explaining that barbers were no longer slaves."

The CNT was founded in November 1910, with a membership of 26,000 at a conference of workers societies in Barcelona and had its first national congress the following year. A general strike was immediately called in Barcelona and the CNT was declared illegal. By 1919 there were 700,000 members. As the CNT grew, employers became more worried and hired armed thugs (pistoleros) to intimidate or assassinate union members. The CNT took part in revolutionary strikes and uprisings throughout the period leading up to the 1936 Revolution and Civil War, including uprisings in Catalonia, Asturias and Andalusia. By 1937 the CNT had 1.5 million members.

From the start of the attempted coup in 1936, the CNT had a decisive role in events, but by May 1937 the Republican Government, under the influence of the PCE, was reversing its achievements, suppressing the collectives, forcing militias to join the regular army or be disbanded and arresting militants.

This print is a recreation of an original poster. The size is A3 (approx. 11.7" x 16.5") and is printed on good quality 170gm poster paper.

Printed by the Radical Poster Collective, UK

The Radical Poster Collective is dedicated to making good quality classic radical posters available at an affordable price. Posters are either digitally cleaned up to remove tears, stains, etc., or completely recreated to be as close as possible to the original.