The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo or CNT is an
anarcho-syndicalist organization which had a great historical importance before and during the
Spanish Civil War. In 1936-1937, around 1 million workers were affiliated to the CNT. This had a dramatic effect after the rebel uprising of the
fascists, as the workers were well organized and prepared to take the weapons and
resist. More than that, they viewed that moment as an opportunity to do the
libertarian revolution, and for a short time -before being crushed by fascists in the front and communists from within-
anarchy worked quite well as a political system. The song
A las barricadas, the hymn of the CNT is also related to this war, and an important figure from those times was
Buenaventura Durruti.
The CNT is still somewhat active today, and still functions as a confederation of local syndicates. The main syndicates in Spain are CCOO and UGT; the CNT suffered from the split of the CGT with the death of Franco and the return of democracy, as part of the militants did not accept the integration into the system, with syndicate elections and state subventions, considered contrary to the anarchist ideology of the CNT.