Compania de Trabajadores

English translation: Workers' (military)unit

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:Compania de Trabajadores
English translation:Workers' (military)unit
Entered by: Swatchka

20:48 May 15, 2007
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Military / Defense / company names
Spanish term or phrase: Compania de Trabajadores
A Spanish Civil War soldier (nationalist) is assigned to a "Compania de Trabajadores", where he does nothing but lowly physical labor, mostly digging trenches. He later moves up to a sappers company, a fortifications company, etc, so it can't be any of those. There is also a captain who expresses his outrage at having to be in command of a bunch of men who do nothing but dig like worms, when he is a Legion man. I can't find references to "Workers' Companies". My impression is that Spanish uses "compania" at times when in English it is not necessarily something we'd call a "company", and what seems the closest approximation to me at the time is simply calling it a "work camp" but I'm hoping someone can either "yeah" or "nay" this for me! Thanks
ldillma
United States
Local time: 04:30
Workers' (military)unit
Explanation:
The play was about three Spanish civil war veterans, a Welsh man, ... It was not published by any of the newspapers, except the 'Irish Workers Voice', ...
www.geocities.com/irishafa/irishvets.html - 35k - En caché - Páginas similares - Anotar esto

1936-1939: The Spanish Civil War and revolution | libcom.org- [ Traduzca esta página ]A short history of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution which broke out in response ... The land was divided into rational units and groups of workers were ...
libcom.org/history/1936-1939-the-spanish-civil-war-and-revolution - 33k - En caché - Páginas similares - Anotar esto

[PDF] The Spanish Civil WarFormato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Versión en HTML
Anarchism in Action. The Spanish Civil War. Workers Solidarity. Movement ... workers was the basic unit. Within the. factory workers would elect delegates ...
struggle.ws/pdfs/spain.pdf - Páginas similares - Anotar esto

Spanish Civil War- [ Traduzca esta página ]
Selected response from:

Swatchka
Spain
Local time: 09:30
Grading comment
Thanks! This does it (I think it also works with batallion as others have suggested below - I am just wary of changing the "size" of the unit, esp since this text differentiates quite precisely between companies, squads, batallions, regiments, etc. Much appreciate all responses! xL
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +1Workers' (military)unit
Swatchka
4see note
psicutrinius
2agrarian collectives?
Silvia Brandon-Pérez


  

Answers


14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
agrarian collectives?


Explanation:
The agrarian collectives had considerable success despite opposition and lack of resources, as Franco had already captured lands with some of the richest natural resources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War

I am not really sure if this is what you want...

Silvia Brandon-Pérez
United States
Local time: 01:30
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

16 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Workers' (military)unit


Explanation:
The play was about three Spanish civil war veterans, a Welsh man, ... It was not published by any of the newspapers, except the 'Irish Workers Voice', ...
www.geocities.com/irishafa/irishvets.html - 35k - En caché - Páginas similares - Anotar esto

1936-1939: The Spanish Civil War and revolution | libcom.org- [ Traduzca esta página ]A short history of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution which broke out in response ... The land was divided into rational units and groups of workers were ...
libcom.org/history/1936-1939-the-spanish-civil-war-and-revolution - 33k - En caché - Páginas similares - Anotar esto

[PDF] The Spanish Civil WarFormato de archivo: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Versión en HTML
Anarchism in Action. The Spanish Civil War. Workers Solidarity. Movement ... workers was the basic unit. Within the. factory workers would elect delegates ...
struggle.ws/pdfs/spain.pdf - Páginas similares - Anotar esto

Spanish Civil War- [ Traduzca esta página ]

Swatchka
Spain
Local time: 09:30
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 11
Grading comment
Thanks! This does it (I think it also works with batallion as others have suggested below - I am just wary of changing the "size" of the unit, esp since this text differentiates quite precisely between companies, squads, batallions, regiments, etc. Much appreciate all responses! xL

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Silvia Brandon-Pérez: Excelente tu respuesta, tocaya... yo no tenía ni idea...
1 day 18 hrs
  -> Gracias Silvia :)) Sabe más el diablo por viejo que....
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14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
see note


Explanation:
The idea is that this was, in effect, a "company" in the military sense, although it was composed of civilians who, in effect, had been "impressed" (or forcibly conscripted) into service, just for this: To dig, and dig, and dig... fortifications.

In fact, the "gangs" of workers were civilians, but they were commanded militarily (and by no less than a "legionario", that is, the quintessential "warrior", which meant (and this was the name of the game) that they were under military control, thus -actually at war- under military LAW. No jokes. No walking away. No idling...

As you very correctly point out, the SOLDIERS in this field are the sappers (in Spain's Spanish, the "arma de Ingenieros"), which is another kettle of fish... and who very probably were scarce enough to keep them at front (that is, under fire if required) duties, and / or for other, more specific -and requiring much more polished skills- like bridge laying, mine clearing... etc.

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Note added at 6 hrs (2007-05-16 02:58:27 GMT)
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Yes, that makes sense. Besides the commanding officer, there must have been some other soldiers (and NCOs), to make sure the minimum standards, and the paperwork, were properly carried out.

And, besides, this was a convenient place to keep somebody who came from the other side for a while, while he learnt the tricks and while he was being vetted, before sending him to a proper military unit. Not that every such case was handled this way (far from it).

psicutrinius
Spain
Local time: 09:30
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 4
Notes to answerer
Asker: Hey Psicutrinius, Not sure if this makes a difference or not, but (I should have mentioned this in my query - sorry - this soldier was actually in Jaen, conscripted into the Republicans and of his own volition went over to the Nationalists, who accepted him after her gave away info to prove himself, and then he ended up in the Cia de Trabajadores. I could be wrong, but my impression was that he simply was not "yet" a sapper because he hadn't made it that high/far...

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