numerous dismissed workers and inserted in blacklists, gaining strength and replacing the more moderate worker's representatives. On the other hand, a change in the government, from (the more open to negotiation) Álvaro de Figueroa's government to the more authoritarian Maura's, made repression harsher. Bravo Portillo, who had formerly been imprisoned for collaborating with Germany in World War I, returned to the Barcelona police and contributed to the harsh repression. The employers started hiring thugs to face and kill prominent syndicalists and they were supported by the government which, applying the Ley de Fugas (which allowed the police to shoot fugitives on sight), arrested syndicalists for minor offenses, only to announce them that they were free a little afterwards and kill them while walking away for "trying to escape prison". The anarchists responded by killing employers, their gunmen, police officers and members of the government. This conflict became known as pistolerismo. See also Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Salvador Seguí Pistolerismo Tragic Week References Further reading General strikes in Spain 1919 labor disputes and strikes Anarcho-syndicalism Labor in Spain 1919 in Catalonia 1910s in Barcelona February 1919 events History of Barcelona History of Catalonia Social history of Spain Labour movement in Spain Anarchism