Casa del pueblo
Encyclopedia
In Spain, a Casa del Pueblo refers to a typical local branch office of both the PSOE
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...

 and the Unión General de Trabajadores
Unión General de Trabajadores
The Unión General de Trabajadores is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party .-History:...

. Historically, the term has been used to describe clearing houses of information for Spanish employees and workers.

A large number of societies and labor organizations were often housed in casas del pueblo.

Madrid

The first casa del pueblo was founded by Pablo Iglesias
Pablo Iglesias
Paulino Iglesias Posse , better known as Pablo Iglesias, was a Spanish socialist and labour leader...

 in 1908 in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

; the office was created in a former ducal palace on Calle del Piamonte. Inside, Arturo Barea
Arturo Barea
Arturo Barea Ogazón was a Spanish broadcaster and writer.-Biography:Of humble origins, his father died when he was four months old. His mother, with four young children to support, worked as a laundress, washing clothes in the River Manzanares, while the family lived in a garret in the poor...

 records offices, a hall for cinema, theater and rallies, a library and the site of the first health insurance managed by the workers of Madrid, the Mutualidad, which protects the worker and his family at a time without Social Security and has a clinic that provides free medicine to the affiliate.

The example of the Casa del Pueblo in Madrid was rife throughout Spain, particularly in the industrial areas of Asturias and the Basque Country. The workers are taught to read and write, but can also get more advanced education befitting a people's university.

Currently, the term has disappeared from most of the PSOE headquarters, except in the Basque country where it is preserved.

The name is also used for some cultural sites managed by anarchists and the union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...

 (CNT-AIT), although in these cases the general term was Ateneo libertario. The casa del pueblo in Alcoy
Alcoy
Alcoy may stand for:* Alcoy, Spain , a municipality in the province of Alicante, Spain* Alcoy, Cebu, province of Cebu, Philippines....

 is the cultural home of UCE (Communist Unification of Spain
Communist Unification of Spain
Communist Unification of Spain is a political party in Spain. The group emerged around the publication Tribuna Obrera in 1968. It was constituted as UCE in 1973...

).
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