The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez stressed that the La Camocha Mine “is a reference of the beginning of the workers’ struggle in the midst of Franco’s dictatorship” during the act of recognition as a Place of Democratic Memory. “Their forms of struggle, the workers’ resistance and the role of the women of the miners are important milestones of a strike with which, after the harsh repression and social control of the post-war period, the working class of Asturias responded to low wages,” he added.
Fernando Martínez has also valued that those forms of representation in commissions were supported “as a mythical reference of the birth of the Workers’ Commissions, a clandestine union promoted by the PCE and Catholic groups.” And he stressed that then “another form of organization emerged, far from the Franco vertical union, which over several decades was fundamental in the conquest of labor improvements for workers and in the conquest of freedoms and democracy in Spain.” The La Camocha Mine in Gijón hosted this Friday the institutional act of recognition as a Place of Democratic Memory, in which the commemorative plaque was discovered that identifies this enclave as a space linked to the workers’ resistance against the Franco dictatorship and the conquest of freedoms and democracy.
The tribute, organized by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Memory Democrática, in collaboration with the Government of the Principality of Asturias, has had the intervention of the Councilor for Territory, Urbanism, Housing and Citizen Rights, Ovidio Zapico, and the Secretary General of Commissions
Workers, Unai Sordo. In addition, the delegate of the Government of Spain in the Principality of Asturias, Adriana Lastra, along with representatives of mining families, trade union organizations and the memorialist movement, attended.
The program has included an evocation of the strike of 1957 through the information published by the press of the time, by Andrea Montes, great-granddaughter and granddaughter of miners, and Adrián Alonso, grandson also of miner. In addition, the plaque ‘Mina La Camocha Democratic Memory Place’ has been unveiled and a floral offering has been made.
Declaration as a Place of Democratic Memory
On June 12, 2026, the Official State Gazette (BOE) published the resolution of the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory declaring La Camocha as a Place of Democratic Memory. It emphasizes that “the mobilizations produced in La Camocha are a true example of resistance to dictatorship and the struggle for democracy.” And it stands out that “not only did they challenge the laws that impeded the free organization of workers, but they also successfully dealt a serious blow to the vertical union, one of the cornerstones of Franco’s regime.”