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8/14/2019 Anarchism in Action: The Spanish Civil War
1/14
In the 1930s Europe w as expe riencing on e of i ts worst eve r
s lumps. The Wall Street crash came in 1929 and its repercus-
s ions we re fe lt far and w ide . Spain was no ex ception
By 1936 un employment ha d gone over 30% in ma ny of the t owns a nd
cities Out of a t otal workforce of thr ee million, one m illion were out of
work. Ther e was n o dole and as pr ices rose by 80% in th e five years up
to 1936, many encountered severe ha rdship.
Land
By European standards Spain was a particularly backward country.
There had been little industrial development and 70% of the people
still lived on the land. 52% of the workforce was employed in agricul-
tu re wh ich accounted for between one h alf and two thirds of Spains
Anarchism in ActionThe Spanish Civil War
Workers SolidarityMovement
June 2001PDF edition
www.struggle.ws/wsm
1st published 1986
2nd edition 1993
e-m ail add ition 1994
HTM L Markup 1995
PDF version June 2001
by Eddie Conlon
M u c h h a s b e e n w r i t t e n a b o u t t h e
Spanish Civi l War but the contribu-
t ion of the Anarchis ts has bee n e i ther
to ta l l y i gn or e d or r e d u c e d to a f e w
footnotes wh ich were often composed
of blatant l ies or general ised slander
r e f e r r i n g t o ' w r e c k e r s ' . T o s e t t h e
record straight this pamphlet was pro-
duce d. It is not a history of the Civi l
War , that would require many hun-
dreds of pages to do just ice to the sub-
ject. It is an un cov erin g of the "hidd en
history"of the Anarch ist participation
in Sp ain's an ti-fascist strug gle.
It has n ot been written becau se of some aca-
demic interest but because Anar chism is
still as relevant n ow as th en. We ha ve seen
th e resu lts of social democra cy an d it's La-
bour Pa r t i e s , we have seen wha t t he
Sta linists ha ve done in Russia , China , Al-
bania and their satellites, we have seenhow their left critics in t he Trotsk yist move-
ment have been unable to come to grips
with th e real problem. And t ha t r eal prob-
lem is the a uth oritarian idea tha t t he world
can be cha nged over t he h eads of th e work -
ers. It can, but it won't be much better.
Only Anar chism wit h it s concept 'of social-
ism based on individual freedom a nd t he
power of workers' councils stands apart
from a ll this. Tha t is wh y, despite four dec-
ades of repr ession, th e CNT rea ppear ed as
a r eal union after th e death of Fran co. We
believe tha t Anar chism is not just another
choice for th ose who wan t a bett er world,
th e his tory of all oth er left movemen ts
shows t hat Ana rchism is a n ecessity.
Glossary a nd Chronology at end
Chapter 1 -Rebellion and Resistance
8/14/2019 Anarchism in Action: The Spanish Civil War
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exports.
The division of land was the worst in
Eur ope. A ma ssive 67% was in t he ha nds
of just 2% of all landowners. In 1936,
10,000 proprietors owned half of the na-
tional territory. The rema ining land was
owned by middle owners and pea sant s.
The middle owners were more nu mer-
ous th an the big landowners but th ey also
had large estates worked by sharecrop-
pers and landless labourer s.
The rest of th e land wa s owned by peas-
ants, of whom there were five million
Because most of them had insufficient
land they hired themselves out as day
labourer s. Others took t o sharecropping.
Boom
Spains boom per iod ha d been du ring
World War I when it had rem ained neu-
tra l. Agriculture th rived due to the large
foreign markets for its exports. At the
same time some industrialisation took
place. After the war, though, this boomcame to an end, especially when tariff
barriers were thrown u p by Britain a nd
France against Spanish exports.
While the boom lasted the landowners
reaped the benefits but when the slump
arr ived it was th e peasan ts who suffered.
conditions in th e Spa in of the 1930s were
comparable with the Orient. Starvation
was _norma l_ between the h arvests. The
press of th e time car ried rep orts of whole
districts living on r oots a nd boiled greens.
The indus t r i a li s a t ion t ha t had t aken
place was ma inly confined to one a rea-Catalonia. Situat ed in the Northeast bor-
dering on F ran ce, Cata lonia, especially
its capital Barcelona , becam e the indu s-
trial centre of Spain, with 70% of all in-
dustry and 50% of industrial workers.
Many peasan ts left th e land to seek work
in Barcelona, which added t o the alrea dy
existing un employment .
Other forces at t he time were th e Catho-
lic church an d the a rmy. While ther e were
25,000 parish priests there were a fur-
ther 70,000 in r eligious orders. The J esu-
its alone owned 30% of the countryswealth. The number s in the orders actu-
ally outn umber ed the t otal of seconda ry
school studen ts. While millions were k ept
il l i terate (40% could neither read nor
write) the chur ch preached superstitious
reports of incredible incidents such as
stat ues seen weeping and cru cifixes ex-
udin g blood.
The Chur ch was ren owned for siding with
the bosses and wh ile the priests were liv-
ing in luxury the peasant s around them
often s tarved. I t i s l i t t le wonder the
Church was hated.
The ar my was famous for its n um ber of
officers. Th ere was one for every six sol-
diers! This officer caste had been devel-
oped under the monarchy (which was
ended in 1931) and was responsible for
the whole colonial a dministra tion along
with much of that in the country itself.
Drawn from the u pper classes th ey were
tied by kinsh ip, frien dship a nd social po-
sition to the indu strialists an d reaction-
ary landowners.
The Republic
The Span ish Republic was born in 1931.
The workers and peasants, having gone
through years of dictatorship, believedthat maybe now the country would be
modernised and their l iving standards
would begin to impr ove.
It wa s not to be so. One exa mple will suf-
fice. The repu blican governm ent set u p
the Institu te for Agraria n Reform to look
into th e redistr ibution of land . By its own
admission its programme would have
tak en a whole centu ry to implement .
The republican/social-democratic coali-
tion which came t o power in 1931 did lit-
tle to improve living conditions for the
vast m ajority of workers. Un employmentrema ined high an d the working class or-
ganisa tions, especially the CNT, suffered
repression with many members being
imprisoned. By June 1933 there were
9,000 political prisoner s.
The government refused to take on the
industrialists, landowners, army officers
and bishops. It would not stand up to tha t
minority which owned all the wealth an d
had all the r eal power. In t he election of
1933 th ey fell and a r ight-wing coalition
came to power.
This marked the beginning of what be-
came known as the bienno negro the
two black years. The right went on the
offensive. The coalition of the wealthy
and powerful now had state power and
were determined to use it to smash work-
ing class and peasant resistance. Their
privileges were to be maintained at the
expense of the workers.
Asturia
Of course th is was not t aken lightly. The
CNT organised as best it could against
the government. A rising took place inCata lonia in December, shortly after t he
change of government. It was crushed
after ten days. The following year the
workers of th e CNT joined with th eir fel-
low workers in t he U GT (General U nion
of Workers, controlled by the Socialist
Par ty) in a revolt in th e Asturias region.
The workplaces were taken over and t he
union members took up arm s against the
state. Unfortunately they were isolated
from th e rest of the count ry. The massa -
cre tha t followed their d efeat was u npr ec-
edented with at least 3,000 being ex-
ecuted.
By the t ime th is governmen t wa s forced
to resign an d call elections for Februa ry
I 936 there were 30,000 political prison-
ers. The election was won by t he P opular
Front, a coalition of republicans, social-
democrat s and the St alinists of the Com-
munist Party. Their victory was mainly
due to the CNT not runn ing a camp aign
calling on the workers to abstain from
voting. In previous elections they had
done so because they believed that the
ballot box was a con as you could only
choose who would rule over you, not
whether you wanted to be ruled or not.
Instea d th ey said workers should rely ontheir indu strial mu scle to chan ge things.
This tim e th e CNT took no position, leav-
ing it to individual mem bers to decide The
results m ade it obvious they ha d voted,
mainly because the Popular Front had
promised an am nesty for th e prisoners.
The workers, though, did not wait for the
governmen t t o act. They opened t he pr is-
ons themselves and released their com-
rades. It did not st op there. The election
result was seen as an impetus to go on
th e offensive. They h ad voted for cha nge
and if the government was not going todel iver they would get resul ts them-
selves.
Strikes
Between th e election in F ebruary a nd t he
fascist revolt in J uly ther e were 113 gen-
eral strikes, 228 partial general str ikes,
145 bomb explosions, 269 deaths, 1287
wounded, 215 assau lts an d 160 chu rches
burn ed. Of course a ll this was not pa rt of
the Popular Fr ont pr ogram me which was
watery and essentially aimed at main-
taining ant i - fascis t uni ty . I t was not
aimed at smashing capitalism and the
power of th e Span ish elite. Sections of the
Socialist Pa rty, however, went beyond t he
Popular F ront programm e and many of
them in the UGT aga in joined with th eir
comra des in th e CNT to fight th e passiv-
ity of the governmen t.
On June 13th, 30,000 Asturian miners
s t ruck ; on June 19 th 90 ,000 miner s
throughout the country were on strike.
Every city of importan ce had a t least one
genera l strike. Over one million were out
in the first days of July. Strikers were
not only fightin g for economic dema nds ,political demands were also made. On
Ju ly 14th th ere was a large demonstra-
tion outside a ball at the Brazilian em-
bassy. The workers carried placards say-
ing Republican Ministers a muse t hem-
selves while worker s die.
While th e Republican governm ent did all
it could to get the situation under con-
trol, the Communist Party condemned
th e strik es for brin ging work ers int o col-
lision with the governmen t. The govern-
men t du ly filled th e jails and closed down
th e offices of th e CNT.
Coup
As with all ruling classes that become
desperate, they decided that parliamen-
ta ry democracy was to be disposed of and
8/14/2019 Anarchism in Action: The Spanish Civil War
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t h e worker s o rgan i sa t ion sma shed .
Bosses dont alwa ys oppose fascism be-
cause they know they sometimes ha ve to
resort to it. Their wealth a nd pr ivileges
come before all oth er considera tions. As
in Germany and Italy they decided the
organised working class had to be put
down so they cou ld hang on to the i r
weal th and cont inue to make prof i ts .
While some will initia lly oppose fascism,
and in Spain some did, it is neverthelessa call of last resort an d th ey will go along
with it if they see it as n ecessary to ma in-
tain t heir power. In the Basque Country
the nat ionalists initially opposed th e fas-
cists. But when the choice of fascism or
social revolution became clear, they of-
fered little r esistance to Fr an co.
The coup was to be launched on July I
7th. The ini t ial s tep was taken when
Fr an co seized Morocco an d issued a rad i-
cal manifesto. This was picked up by a
loyal ra dio operat or who passed it on to
the Minister for the Navy. The news ofthe coup was kept secret until 7pm on
the 18th. The government assured the
coun try it was in control. By this it mean t
it was trying to come to terms with the
fascists. The cabinet r esigned on the 18th
an d Borr ios, a right wing repu blican , was
made prime m inister.
Masses
This plan to come to a deal was only
smash ed by th e activity of the organised
working class. The fascists made some
headway in parts of the country where
little opposition was offered as a resultof governmen t h esitation. But in Cata lo-
nia, and especial ly in Barcelona, the
workers of the CNT sh owed how to fight.
They declared a general str ike and took
to the st reets looking for a rms which t he
governmen t refused to give them. In t he
end they stormed th e barra cks, an d took
what they needed. They were aided by
soldiers who had remained loyal, some
of whom tu rned th eir guns on th eir offic-
ers.
The workers immediately set up barri-
cades and within hours the ris ing hadbeen defeated. Arms were siezed and
given to groups of worker s who were dis-
patched to other a reas to prevent risings
occurring. Madrid was a lso saved becau se
of the heroism an d initiat ive of the work-
ers. Hearing of what had happened in
Barcelona they had stormed the Montana
Barra cks, the ma in army base in the city.
In Valencia they surrounded the bar-
racks, a situation which lasted for two
weeks. Still the government refused to
arm the workers and it was only after
arm s were sent from Barcelona and Ma-
drid that the barracks was successfully
taken . In Asturias t he rebels were beaten
after pr olonged fighting leading to ma ny
death s. Then the m iners outfitted a col-
umn of 5,000 dynamiters who marched
to Madrid.
Throughout the country the initiative
tak en by workers and peasan ts was stop-
ping the fascists in t heir tr acks. This was
the story in three quarters of the coun-
try. Elsewhere valuable time was lost due
to th e indecision of govern men t officials.
In Saragossa the workers failed to put
down the rising. Juan Iopez, a leading
CNT militan t, put t his down t o the fact
tha t t hey lost t oo mu ch time ha ving in-
ter views with t he civil govern or, we evenbelieved in his p romises.
Thus by the action of the rank and file
was the Spa nish Republic saved. Not
just the CNT but members of the UGT
and the P OUM (Workers Par ty of Marx-
ist Un ity) joined in t he fighting. For th ese
workers t his was not just a wa r to defeat
the fascists but the beginnin g of a r evo-
lution. Worker s militias were esta blished
independently of the state. Workplaces
which h ad been a bandoned by the former
bosses were taken over and in the rural
areas t he peasant s seized the land. Forthe an archists this was the chance to put
their ideas into pra ctice.
More information on anarchism and the Spanish revolutionhttp://struggle.ws/spaindx.html
This web page includes hundreds of documents and imagesincluding translations of many Spanish anarchist articles
from the period
Anarchism is a most m isunderst ood set of ideas. It is constant ly portr ayed as m ean-
ing chaos and violence. Nothing could be furt her from t he t rut h. Anarchists believe
in creating a classless society. They oppose capitalism as a system that puts the
profits of a small minority of bosses before the needs of the vast majority. It is a
system based on the exploitat ion of workers, a system t ha t inevitably causes poverty
star vation an d war. Anar chists oppose auth ority in t he sense of opposing th e right
of an y small minority to ha ve power over everyone else. They oppose the St at e (mea n-
ing government, army, police, courts) as an institution whose purpose is to enforce
the will of a minority on th e ma jority.
Chapter 2 - Anarchism in Action
Anarchists believe in class str uggle, tha t
the bosses an d workers h ave no comm on
interest and that the workers must or-
ganise to ta ke over the r unn ing of soci-
ety Ordinary workers are quite capable
of running society. I t would be done
th rough a system of workers coun cils
with m ass dem ocra cy which would be far
more rational democratic and efficient
than the ex i s t ing s e t -up . Anarch i s t s
sta nd u p for th e freedom of th e individual
an d oppose all oppression on the ba sis of
race, sex or sexua l orientat ion. The only
limit on individual freedom should be
that it does not interfere with the free-
dom of other s.
From early on the a nar chists opposed the
building of burea ucrat ic Sta te Capita lism
in Russia. Initially they supported the
revolution but were against t he att empts
of th e Bolsheviks to tak e power into their
own hands and create the seeds of the
dictatorship of the party. Anarchists
hold that how you organise will reflect
the type of society you want. Small mi-
nor i t ies can not l iberate the working
class , the working class wi l l have to
emancipate i tself . Democracy and ac-
coun tability are th e corner stone of anar -
chist organisation. Direct action is the
method. Rather than relying on small
groups they say workers do have the
power and strength to change society.
That strength lies in their ability to or-
ganise at the place of work, a strength
tha t sh ould be used not only to win im-
mediate reforms f rom the bosses but
eventually to overthrow the whole sys-
tem of capitalism. This belief is central
to ana rchism Anarchists do not only want
workers cont rol of indu str y, they wan t a
society wher e a ll relationships of auth or-
ity are abolished and people do not look
to oth ers to run their lives.
Bakunin
Anarchism had, an d still has, a long tra -
dition in Spa in. In th e middle of the last
centu ry ana rchist ideas were brought to
Spain by Fan elli, an It alian supp orter of
Michael Bakunin who was one of the
founders of modern ana rchism. A Span-
ish section of the First In tern ational was
set up an d the ma jority within it took thes ide of the anarchis ts in the Interna-
tional.
Anarchism developed ra pidly due to the
har sh economic conditions t ha t workers
and peasants had to suffer. Workers in-
creasingly took up the ideas of syndical-
8/14/2019 Anarchism in Action: The Spanish Civil War
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ism or ana rcho- syndicalism, which were
developed at the t ur n of th e cent ur y. 1911
saw t he formation of the CNT. Syndical-
i sm deve loped as a r esponse to the
reformism of the existing trade unions
and to the growing isolation of an archist
revolutionaries from th e ma ss of work-
ers. This had happened as a result of a
small number of anarchists turning to
terr orism and propaganda by the deed,
the be l i e f tha t they cou ld inc i t e themasses to revolution by committ ing out-
rages.
Syndicalism was an at tempt to provide a
link between the anarchist movement
and the workers on the sh opfloor. Its ba-
sic ideas revolved around all the work-
ers being in one big union. All the em-
ployees in a workplace would join. Th ey
would link u p with those in other jobs in
the same area and an area federat ion
would be formed. Delegates from these
would go forwa rd t o regiona l federa tions
who were united in a nat ional federation.A l l t h e d e l e g a t e s w e r e e l e c t e d a n d
recallable. They were given a clear man -
date and if they broke it they could be
replaced with new delegates.
Bureaucracy
Every effort was made to prevent the
growth of a bu reau cracy of unaccoun table
full-tim e officials. Th ere was only one full-
tim e official in all of th e CNT. Un ion work
was done during working hours where
possible, otherwise after work. This en-
sur ed th e officials of th e un ion stayed in
contact with the shopfloor. The fear ofbureaucracy was such that Indus tr ial
Federations that would have linked to-
gether all the workplaces of particular
indust ries were h otly opposed. They were
eventually conceded in 1931 but never
fully built.
Syndicalists distinguished themselves
from th e other u nions by their belief that
th e un ions could be used not only to gain
reforms from th e bosses but also to over-
throw the capitalis t system. They be-
lieved the Syndicalist union would be-
come the battering ram that would bringcapitalism to its knees. They believed
that the reason most workers were not
revolut ionar ies was that their unions
were reformist and dominated by a bu-
reaucracy that took the initiative away
from the rank and file members. Their
alternative was to organise all workers
into one u nion in prepar ation for t he revo-
lutionary general strike.
The CNT experienced rapid growth from
the t ime of its forma tion and by th e out -
break of the civil war it ha d almost two
million mem bers. Its str ongholds were in
Catalonia and Andulucia. I t a lso had
large followings in Galicia, Astur ias, Le-
vant, Saragossa and Madrid. I ts main
strength was am ong textile, building an d
wood workers as well as amongst agri-
cultural labourer s. As it pr eached social
revolution it was su bject to vicious repr es-
sion not only under the semi- dictator-
ship which ru led until 1931 but also the
re form ing govern me nt s which followed.
The Popular Front, with its social demo-
cratic and Stalinist supporters, joined
th is list by showing it n o mercy.
A-Politicism
The CNT wa s not a revolutionar y politi-
cal organisation. I t was an industrialunion. Indeed it consta ntly played up its
a-politicism and ar gued tha t all that wa s
necessary to ma ke a revolution was for
the workers to seize the factories and
land. After th at the Sta te and all other
political institu tions would come t oppling
down. It did n ot believe th e working class
must take political power for them all
power h ad to be immediat ely abolished.
Because it was a union it organised all
worker s regar dless of th eir politics. Many
joined, not becau se they were an ar chists,
but because it was t he most militant un-ion a nd a ctually got results. In fact dur-
ing the civil war its membership more
tha n doubled (this ha ppened to the UGT
too) at least p art ly due to workers being
obliged to join one or oth er u nion.
So obviously th e CNT was open t o those
who were not anarchis ts . There were
many internal disputes, and tendencies
did arise th at were reformist. Because of
this th e Federat ion of Iberian Anarchists
(FAI) was set up in 1927. It was based on
local affinity groups a nd wa s not a politi-
cal organ isation as such. It was ther e to
ensur e tha t t he CNT rem ained pure in
anarchist (FAI) terms. It succeeded in
this and man y of its members became the
leading lights of tile CNT. Other anar-
chist organisations th at existed when t he
civil war broke out were th e Iberian Fed-
erat ion of Liberta rian Youth (FIJ L) an d
Mujeres Libres (Free Women).
There is absolutely no doubt t ha t t he ini-
tial res ponse to Fra ncos coup wa s deter -
mined by the fact that the CNT and its
anarchist ideas held sway among large
sections of th e working class. There wa s
no waiting around for governm ent m in-isters to act, the workers took control.
Anarchist influence could be seen in the
format ion of the militias, the expropria-
tion and r eorgan isation of the land, and
the seizures in indust ry.
Militias
The government found itself in a pecu-
liar s ituation when the dust had settled
after July I 9th. While it remained the
governmen t it h ad no way of exercising
i t s au thor i ty . Mos t o f the a rmy had
openly rebelled against it. Where the r e-
bellion ha d been defeated t he ar my was
disbanded and the workers now had the
arm s. The tra de unions an d left-wing or-
ganisat ions immediat ely set about organ-
ising th ese arm ed workers. Militias were
formed and t hese became t he un its of the
revolutionary army. Ten days after the
coup t here were I 8,000 workers organ-
ised in the m ilitias of Cat alonia. The vast
majority of these were members of the
CNT. Overall there were 150,000 volun-
teers willing t o fight when ever th ey were
needed.
This was no ordinar y arm y. There were
no uniforms (neck scarves usually indi-
cated what organisation a militia mem-
ber belonged to) or officers who enjoyed
privileges over t he ordinary soldiers. This
was a revolutionary army and reflected
the revolutionary principles of those in
its ranks. Democracy was control. The
basic unit wa s th e group, composed gen-
erally of ten, which elected a delegate.
Ten groups formed a centu ry which also
elected a delegate. Any nu mber of centu -
ries formed a column, which had a war
comm itt ee responsible for th e overa ll ac-
tivities of the column. This was elected
an d accounta ble to the workers. Column sgenerally had ex-officers and artillery
experts to advise them - but th ese were
not given an y power.
Worker s joined th e colum ns because th ey
want ed to. They underst ood the need to
f ight and the necess i ty of creat ing a
popular ar my. They a ccepted discipline
not because th ey were told to but because
they un derstood th e need to act in a co-
ordinated manner. Members accepted
orders because they trusted those who
gave them . They ha d been elected from
their own ranks. Militias were aligned
with different organisations and often
had their own newspapers. These were
political organisations that understood
the link between revolutionary politics
and t he war . The militias formed in Ba r-
ce lona los t no t ime in march ing on
Aragon wher e the capital, Sara gossa, had
been taken by the fascists. The Durruti
Column, n am ed after one of the leading
CNT militants, led this march an d gradu-
ally liberated village after village. The
aim wa s to free Saragossa which linked
Cata lonia with t he second indust rial re-
gion - th e Basque Count ry, which a s wellas being a source of raw materials had
heavy industries and ar ms man ufactur-
ing plants.
The Dur rut i column showed how to fight
fascism. They un derst ood th at a civil war
is a political battle, not just a military
conflict. As t hey ga ined victory a fter vic-
tory they encouraged peasants to take
over the land and collectivise. The Col-
umn provided the defence that allowed
this to be done. The peasants rallied to
them . They fed th e worker- soldiers and
man y of them joined. Indeed Duru tti ha d
to plead with some of th em n ot to join so
that the land would not be depopulated
and the task of collectivisation could be
carried through.
As the anarchist militias achieved suc-
8/14/2019 Anarchism in Action: The Spanish Civil War
5/14
cess after success ground was being lost
on oth er fronts. Sara gossa, th ough, was
not ta ken a nd a long front developed. The
militia system was blam ed for t his. The
Stalinists said the workers were undis-
ciplined a nd would n ot obey order s. They
accused the anarchists of being unwill-
ing to work with others to defeat th e fas-
cists.
Of course this was nonsense. The anar-
chists continu ally called for a un ited war
effort and even for a single command.
What th ey did demand, though, was that
contr ol of the a rmy st ayed with t he work-
ing class. They did not believe that es-
tablishing a united command necessi-
tated re-establishing the old militarist
regime t he officer cast e.
The major problem facing the militias
was a lack of arms. The mu nitions indus-
try been cut off and th e workers in Ba r-
celona went to great len gths t o impr ovise.
Arms were made an d tra nsported to the
front but there were still not enough ofth em. George Orwell (who fough t in one
of the P OUM militias) described the a rms
situat ion on t he Aragon front. The infan-
try were far worse armed th an a n En g-
lish pu blic school Officers Tr ain ing Corps,
with worn out Mau ser rifles which u su-
ally jammed after five shots; approxi-
ma tely one ma chine gun to fifty men (sic)
and one pistol or revolver to about t hirty
men (sic). These weapons, so necessary
in tren ch warfare, were not issued by the
government . . . . A government which
sends boys of fifteen t o the front wit h r i-
fles fort y years old an d keeps it s biggest
men an d newest weapons In the rear is
manifestly more afraid of the revolution
th e fascists.
And how right he was. An arms emba rgo
was imposed by Britain preventing the
sale of arms t o either side, but n ot unt il
mid-August. The government which had
600,000,000 dollars in gold, could have
brought ar ms. Eventu ally this gold was
sent to Moscow in excha nge for a rm s but
when they arr ived there was a system-
atic refusal to supply th e an ar chist-con-
trolled Aragon front. The arm s tha t didar rive were sent only to Stalinist-cont rol-
led centr es. A member of the war minis-
try referring to the arms which arrived
in September commen ted I noticed th at
these were n ot being given out in equa l
quantit ies, but th ere was a m arked pref-
erence for the units which made up the
Fifth Regiment. This was controlled by
the Stalinists . The Catalan munitions
plants, which depended on the central
government for finance were compelled
to surrend er th eir product to such desti-
nations as the government chose. This
withholding of arm s was funda ment al to
the strategy of the Stalinists and their
allies in governmen t for br eaking down
the power an d prestige of th e CNT. The
communists wanted to undermine the
militias in their efforts to have th e regu-
lar ar my restart ed. But more of this later.
This lack of arms did not only affect the
Aragon front. Irun fell because of the
shortage of weapons. One reporter de-
scribed it. They fought to the last car-
tridge (the workers of Irun. When they
had no more am munit ion t hey hur led
packs of dynamite. When the dynamite
was gone they rushed fo rward bare-
handed while the sixty times stronger
enemy butchered them with their bayo-
nets. In Astur ia th e workers were bogged
down t rying to take Oviedo arm ed with
little more than rifles and crude dyna-
mite bombs. Although a few planes a nd
art illery pieces were begged for, the work-
ers were tu rned down. Again th e govern-
men ts fear of revolut iona ry worker s t ook
precedence over defeating the fascists.
It is a common lie tha t th e militias, sup-
posedly un disciplined an d un cont rollable,
were r esponsible for Fr an cos adva nce.
All who saw the militias in action had
nothing but praise for the heroism theywitnessed. The government made a de-
liberat e choice. It chose to star ve the r evo-
lutionar y worker s of ar ms, it decided th at
defeating th e revolution was more impor-
tant than defeating fascism.
The Land
The peasan ts did not ha ve to be told by
Durruti t o take over the land. They had
been at tempt ing to do so since the foun-
dation of the Republic. Indeed the first
government of the Republic had sent
troops to murder peasant s who had taken
lan d. In t he Repu blics first two years , 109peasants were murdered. I t was in the
coun tryside that the Spa nish revolution
was most far reaching. The anarchist
philosophy had been absorbed by large
layers of the downtr odden peasa nt s. In-
deed at its 1936 Congress th e CNT had
gone into great det ail as to how the an -
archist society of the future would look.
The peasan try took the opportun ity to put
these ideas into practice. Their efforts
showed what could be done by working
people (many of whom were illiterate)
given t he r ight conditions. They made a
nonsense of the a rgument t hat ana rchismis not possible because s ociety would col-
lapse without bosses ,government and
authority.
Collectivisation of th e land wa s extensive.
Close on two third s of all lan d in th e Re-
publican zone (tha t a rea controlled by th e
an ti-fascist forces) was t ak en over. In all
between five and seven million peasan ts
were involved. The major areas were
Aragon wher e th ere wer e 450 collectives,
the Levant ( the area around Valencia)
with 900 collectives an d Cast ille (the a rea
sur roun ding Madr id) with 300 collectives.
Not only was the land collectivised but
in the villages workshops were set up
where the local tradespeople could pro-duce tools, furn iture, et c. Baker s, butch-
ers, bar bers a nd so on also decided to col-
lectivise.
Collectivisation was volun tar y an d th us
quit e differe nt from th e forced collectivi-
sation presided over by Sta lin in Russia.
Usua lly a m eeting was called in t he vil-
lage, most collectives were centred on a
part icular village, and a ll present would
agree to pool together whatever land,
tools and a nima ls they had . This would
be added to what h ad already been taken
from the big landowners. The land wasdivided into rat iona l units a nd groups of
workers were assigned to work them.
Each group had its delegate who repre-
sented t heir views at meetings of the col-
lective. A management committee was
also elected and was responsible for the
overall running of the collective. They
would look a fter th e buying of mater ials,
exchan ges with other ar eas, distributing
the produce and n ecessary pu blic works
such a s th e building of schools. Ea ch col-
lective held regular general m eetings of
all its par ticipant s.
If you d idnt wa nt to join th e collective
you were given some land but only as
much as you could work yourself. You
were n ot allowed to employ worker s. Not
only production was affected, distr ibut ion
was on t he ba sis of what people needed.
In ma ny area s money was abolished. Peo-
ple come to the collective store (often
churches which had been turned into
warehouses) and got wha t was available.
If there were sh ortages rat ioning would
be introduced to ensure th at everyone got
their fair share. But it was usually the
case that increased production un der th enew system eliminat ed shortages.
In agricultural terms the revolution oc-
curr ed at a good time. Harvests tha t were
gathered in and being sold off to make
big profits for a few lan downers wer e in-
stead distributed t o those in need. Doc-
tors, bakers, barbers, etc. were given
what t hey needed in ret urn for their serv-
ices. Where money was not abolished a
family wage was intr oduced so tha t p ay-
ment was on the basis of need and not
the n umber of hours worked.
Production greatly increased. Techni-cians and agronomists helped the peas-
ant s to make bett er use of the lan d. Mod-
ern scientific methods were introduced
and in some area s yields increased by as
much a s 50%. There was en ough to feed
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the collectivists an d th e militias in t heir
areas. Often there was enough for ex-
change with other collectives in the cit-
ies for machinery. In addition food was
handed over to the supply committees
who looked after distribution in the ur-
ban areas.
As with the militias, slander was also
thr own at the collectives. It wa s claimed
tha t ea ch one only looked a fter itself and
did not care about the others. This was
rubbish as in many areas equalisation
fun ds were set up to redistribute wealth
from the better off areas to the poorer
ones. I t was ensured that machinery and
expertise were shifted to th e area s most
in need of it. Indeed one indicator of the
feeling of solidar ity is the fact t ha t 1,000
collectivists from th e Levant , which was
quite a dvan ced, moved to Castille to help
out.
Federations of collectives were estab-
l ished, the most successful being in
Aragon. In June 1937 a plenum of Re-gional F ederat ions of Peasa nts was held.
Its aim was the formation of a national
federat ion for t he co-ordina tion an d ex-
ten sion of th e collectivist movemen t a nd
also to ensur e an equitable distribution
of the produce of the land, not only be-
tween the collectives but for the whole
coun tr y. Un fort un at ely man y collectives
were smash ed, not be Fran cos ar my but
by the soldiers of the Stalinist General
Lister, before this could be done.
The collectivists were not only concern ed
with th eir mat erial well being. They hada deep commitment to education and as
a result of their efforts many children
received an education for t he first t ime.
This was not th e usua l schooling either .
The methods of Francisco Ferrer, the
world famous anarchist educationalist,
were employed. Children were given ba -
sic literacy skills and after th at inquisi-
tive skills were encouraged. Old people
were also looked after an d where neces-
sary special homes for them were built.
Refugees from the fascist controlled ar-
eas wer e looked after t oo.
Industry
Alth ough t he r evolut ion didnt go as far
in the cities as it did in the country, man y
achievements are worth noting. It was in
Catalonia, the industrial heartland a nd
stronghold of the CNT, that most was
gained. In Barcelona over 3,000 enter-
prises were collectivised. All the public
s e r v i c e s , n o t o n l y i n C a t a l o n i a b u t
throughout the Republican zone, were
taken over and run by commit tees of
workers.
To give some idea of the exten t of the col-lectivisation h ere is a list provided by one
observer (Burnett Bolloten, The Grand
Camouflage by no means an anarchist
book). He sa ys railways, tra incars a nd
buses, taxicabs and shipping, electric
light an d power compa nies, gasworks a nd
waterworks, engineering and aut omobile
as sembly p lan t s , mines and cement
works, t extile m ills an d pa per factories,
electrical and chemical concerns, glass
bottle factories and perfumeries, food
processing plants and breweries were
confiscated a nd contr olled by work men ss
(sic) committees, either term possessing
for th e owners almost equal significan ce.
He goes on motion pictur e th eatr es an dleg i t imate thea t r es , newspaper s and
printing, shops, department stores and
hotels, de-lux restaur ant s and bars were
likewise sequestered.
This shows clearly tha t t he portra yal of
ana rchism as being someth ing to do with
quaint sm all worksh ops is untr ue. Large
factories, some of them employing thou-
sands of workers, were taken over and
ru n by workers comm itt ees.
Often the workplaces were siezed because
the owners ha d fled or had st opped pro-
duction to sabotage t he r evolution. Butthe worker s d id no t s top wi th these
workplaces all m ajor places of work were
tak en over. Some were run an d contr ol-
led by the workers. In others control
committ ees were esta blished t o ensure
that production was maintained (these
existed t o exercise a p ower of veto on th e
decisions of the boss in cases where the
workers h ad n ot taken over th e power of
management).
In each workpla ce th e assem bly of all the
workers was the basic unit. Within the
factory workers would elect delegates torepresent them on day- to-day issues .
Anythin g of overa ll import an ce had to go
to the a ssembly. This would elect a com-
mitt ee of between five and fifteen worker,
which would elect a m ana ger to oversee
the day-to-day run ning of the workplace
- Within each industry there was an In-
dustrial Council which had representa-
tives of the two main unions (CNT and
UGT) and represent atives from th e com-
mittees. Technicians were also on these
committees to provide technical advice.
The job of the Indust rial Council was t o
set out an overall plan for th e industr y.
Within workplaces wages were equalised
and conditions great ly improved. Let us
see how collectivisation actually made
things better. Take for example the t ram -
ways. Out of the 7,000 workers, 6,500
were mem bers of the CNT. Becau se of th e
s t r ee t ba t t l es a l l t r anspor t had been
brought to a halt. The transport syndi-
cate (as un ions of the CNT were kn own)
appointed a commission of seven to oc-
cupy the adm inistra tive offices while oth -
ers inspected the tracks and drew up a
plan of repair work that needed to bedone. Five days after t he fight ing stopped
700 tramcars, instead of the usual 600,
all painted in t he black and red colours
of the CNT, were operating on th e streets
of Bar celona .
With the profit motive gone, safety be-
came more importan t an d the n umber of
accidents wa s redu ced. Far es were low-
ered and services improved. In I 936,
183,543, 516 passen gers were carr ied. In
1937 th is had gone u p by 50 million. The
tra ms were run ning so efficiently tha t th e
workers wer e able to give money to oth er
sections of urban tra nsport. Wages were
equalised for all workers an d increased
over the previous r ates. For th e first t imefree medical care was provided for the
work force.
As well as giving a more efficient ser vice
the workers found time t o produce rock-
ets an d howitzers for th e war effort . They
worked overtime an d Sun days to do their
sha re for t he a nt i-fascist st ru ggle. To fur-
ther u nderline th e fact t hat getting rid
of th e bosses an d ru lers would not lead
to a br eakdown of order it can be pointed
out that in the two years of collectivisa-
tion th ere wer e only six cases of work ers
stealing from the worksh ops.Extensive reorganisation took place to
mak e industr y more efficient. Man y un-
economic small plant s, which were usu -
ally unhealthy, were closed down and
production was concentrated in those
plants with the best equipment. In Cata-
lonia 70 foun dries wer e closed down. The
number of tanning plants was reduced
from 71 to 40 an d th e whole wood indus-
try was reorganised by the CNT Wood-
workers Union.
In 1937 the central government admit-
ted that the war industry of Cataloniaproduced ten times more tha n th e rest of
Spanish industry put together and t hat
this output could have been quadr upled
if Cata lonia h ad t he a ccess to necessar y
mean s of purcha sing raw mat erials.
It was n ot only production t hat was ta ken
over. Ma ny pa ra sitic middlem en were
cut out of distribution. The wholesale
business in fish a nd eggs was ta ken over
as were th e principal fruit and vegetable
markets. The milk trade in Barcelona
was collectivised which saw over 70 u n-
hygienic past eurising plan ts closed down.Every where supply committ ees were set
up. All of this made the middle classes
very unhappy. To them, with their no-
tions of becoming bigger bosses , th e revo-
lution was a step ba ck.
Again equalisation funds were estab-
lished to help out the poorer collectives
Indeed there were m any problems. Many
mar kets were cut off in t he fascist zone
and some foreign mar kets were a lso tem-
porarily lost. Raw m ater ials were short
as sources of supply were cut off. and
when t hey could be obtained funds were
held back by the central government.
This wa s one sh ort-comin g of th e collec-
tivisation.
The banks ha d not been seized and the
gold reserve already referred to stayed
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in the hands of the government. (The
CNT did hatch a plan to seize i t but
backed down at t he last moment ).
Despite all this production was increased
and living standards for many working
class people improved. In October 1936
the government was forced to recognise
the collectivisation by passing a decree
tha t r ecognised th e fait accompli. It was
also an at tempt to cont rol futu re collec-
tivisation.
Social Revolut ion
This is only a very brief look at the col-
lectivisation that happened. In keeping
with a nar chist beliefs th e revolution did
not stop there. For th e first t ime in Spain
man y workers h ad th e benefit of a h ealth
service - organ ised by the CNT Federa -
tion of Health Workers. Th e Federa tion
cons is ted of 40,000 heal th workers -
nurses, doctors, administrators and or-
derlies. Once again t he m ajor success was
in Catalonia where it ensur ed tha t all ofthe 2.5 million inha bitant s had adequa te
health care.
Not only were traditional services pro-
vided but victims of the Civil War were
also treat ed. A program me of preventive
medicine was also established based on
local community h ealth cent res. At their
1937 Congress these workers developed
a hea lth plan for a futu re ana rchist Spain
which could have been implement ed if th e
revolution had been successful.
The role of women also changed. Many
gains were made by them. In relat ion totheir role during th e Civil war observers
have pointed out that they played a full
part in th e ant i- fascist resistance. They
were present everywhere - on commit-
tees, in the m ilitias, in th e front line. In
th e early batt les of th e war women fought
alongside the m en as a mat ter of course.
It wa s not m erely a case of women filling
in for men who were away at the front.
(Which is usually the case in wartime.
When the wa r is over and women ar e no
longer needed in the labour force, they
are pu shed back into the home).
They were in the milit ias and fought
alongside the m en as equ als. They were
organising the collectives and ta king up
the fight against the sexist attitudes of
the pa st which have no place in an y real
revolution.
The Anar chist womens organ isation,
Mujeres L ibres (F ree Women) , had
30,000 members. It had been active be-
fore the Civil War organising women
workers and distributing informa tion on
contraception. During the war abortion
was legalised in the republican zone.
Centres were opened for women, includ-
ing unmar ried mothers a nd prostitutes.
F r o m a l l a c c o u n t s t h e r e t r u l y w e r e
changes in a t t i tudes to women. One
woma n par ticipan t in the Civil War h as
said it was like being brothers a nd sis-
ters . I t had a lways annoyed me th at m en
in th is count ry didnt consider women a s
beings with h uma n rights. But now there
was this big change. I believe it arose
spontaneously out of the revolutionary
movement ... Margorita Ba laguer qu oted
in Blood of Spain ed. Ronald Fr aser , page
287.
Everywhere change was apparent. The
whole character of Barcelona changed.
Posh resta ura nts no longer existed. Col-
lective eating houses took their place. A
spirit of comra deship was in t he air.
Everywhere councils of worker s an d pea s-
ants had t aken over a dministrat ion. The
Defence Council of Aragon wa s one of th e
highest expressions of this . I t ran the
province an d co-ordina ted t he work of the
collectives an d militia s. All th e an ti-fas-
cist forces were represent ed on it but th e
ana rchists were in th e majority. In Cata -
lonia a Cent ra l Committ ee of Anti-Fas-
cist Militias wa s set u p on J uly 21st. Ofits fifteen members five were an ar chists,
three were UGT, POUM had one, the
Commu nist Part y had one and the repub-
lican s had four. Although the an ar chists
were supr eme in th is province they hoped
by sharing power that similar commit-
tees would be formed wher e the CNT wa s
weaker.
This was th e situa tion in 1936. Although
the Popular Front government still ex-
isted it ha d no power. It was shorn of the
repressive organs of the stat e. Power was
split int o countless fragmen ts a nd scat-tered in a thousand towns and villages
am ong th e revolutionary commit tees tha t
had tak en contr ol of the lan d an d facto-
ries, means of transport and communi-cation, th e police an d th e ar my. The mili-
ta ry, economic an d political str uggle was
proceeding independently of the govern-
ment , and, indeed, in spite of it.
Such a situa tion is known as one of dua l
power. The power of th e govern men t was
too weak to challenge the power of the
workers and peasants. And that power
was not conscious enough of the need to
dispense with the existence of the gov-
ernm ent. Fa ilure to do this a llowed it to
restore its auth ority and become ma ster
of th e situ ation. In trying to under stan d
how this h appened it is n ecessary t o look
at the role of the Communist Party and
tha t of the CNT leadership.
Chapter 3 - The Counter RevolutionThe behaviour of the Spanish Communist Pa rty and the United Social is t
Party of a Catalonia (PSUC) had more to do with what was in the best
interests of Stal in than w hat was in the best interests of the Spanish w ork-
ing c lass . They w ent out of their way to deny that a revolut ion had taken
place . Then they did al l they could to repress this revolut ion they pretended
had no t happen ed. As far as they w ere concerned the Civi l War was on ly
about restor ing democracy to Spain. To see why they took this att i tude w e
have to look outs ide Spain.
Stalin
Sta lin believed t ha t a bove all else social-
ism in th e USSR ha d to be defended. The
interests of the E uropean (and indeed the
world) working class had to take second
place to the stra tegic interests of the r ul-
ing burea ucracy in Russia. And they felt
very threat ened in the 1930s. Hitler ha d
come to power in 1933 and despite thefact that Stalin was seeking no quarrel
with Germany (three months after the
nazi take-over Stalin had signed an ex-
tension to the 1926 Germa n-Soviet P act)
relations between the two count ries soon
cooled.
Stalins fear was t hat the British an d
Fren ch would do a deal with H itler and
thu s leave Russia open to atta ck. He be-
lieved they would be content to sit back
and watch Germany and Russia slog it
out . When both had exhaus ted them-
selves Britain a nd F ran ce would move in
as ma sters of Eur ope.
Because of this Stalin signed a Mutual
Assistance Pact with France in 1935.
There was no commitment to mutual
m i l i t a r y a s s i s t a n c e i n t h i s . F o r t h e
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Fren ch it was a way of removing any re-
maining l inks between Germany and
Russia while at the sa me time getting the
Fren ch Comm unist P art y to drop its op-
position t o their governm ent s defence
programme.
So to prevent the British an d Fren ch set-
tling their differences with Hitler at the
expense of the Soviets, in order to guar-
ant ee tha t th e Fra nco-Soviet Pa ct would
not fall by the wayside and in order to
conclude similar pacts with the govern-
ment s of other coun tries, notably Britain,
it was essential that governments hos-
ti le to German aims in Eastern Europe
should be brought t o power. It was t o this
end tha t the Popular F ron t l ine was
adopted at the 7t h World Congress of the
Comintern in August 1935. This body,
also known as the Third International,
collected together all the Communist
Part ies un der Russian leadership.
Popu lar Fronts
The immediat e aim of this p olicy was t o
bring th e middle classes a nd sections of
the bosses into a wide anti-fascist peo-
ples front. To do this Commu nist P art ies
were to play down revolutiona ry politics.
This was to be a struggle to preserve
bourgeois democracy; an d to attr act mid-
dle class republican and liberal parties
extreme positions were never a dopted.
The Popular Front policy was quite su c-
cessful. Ear ly in 1936 Popular Fr ont gov-
ernments were elected in France and
Spain. The pr ogram mes of these govern-
ments were very moderate. In Spain a
socialist proposal tha t th e land be nat ion-
alised was dr opped becau se of repu blican
opposition. There the Popular Front con-
sisted of the Republican Party, the Re-
publican Union, the Socialist Par ty, the
POUM, the Syndicalist Party, Basque
and Cat alan n ationalists (who saw their
autonomy under threat from the right)
and of course t he Commu nist Pa rty.
When t he Civil War broke out St alins
instructions were clear. All of the Com-
mu nists effort s were to be directed to one
end - winnin g the support of Britain a ndFran ce and persuading them to drop their
neut rality. A non-int ervention agreement
had been signed in August 1936 with t he
hope of preventing t he exten sion of the
conflict. Stalin believed that if Britain
and Fra nce were to drop this policy the
Civil War could ultimately develop into
a much larger conflict (Germany and
Italy were already giving military aid t o
the fascists). This conflict, from which
Russia would remain aloof would bring
the warring parties to the point of mu-
tual exhaustion and the Russian bosses
would then emerge as th e new masters
of Eur ope. Thus t he revolutiona ry aspects
of the Civil War were to be denied and,
the str uggle was to be portrayed (and was
to become), a st ruggle tha t- went n o fur-
ther tha n basic democratic deman ds. Ini-
tially the St alinists had felt a need to talk
of mak ing a revolution after t he fascists
were defeated. Even this empt y talk soon
stopped.
Of course the Stalinist (and Leninist)
Conception of socialism, is quite differ-
ent from tha t of the a nar chists. It is cen-
tral to anarchism that the masses take
contr ol and run society through a system
of councils. For the Stalinists socialism
enta i l s na t iona l i s ing every th ing a nd
tur ning over t he ru nning of society to the
State, which will be dominated by the
Party. Control passes into the hands of
professionals, technicians and bureau-
crats who begin t o develop their own class
interests. Even if the Stalinists had de-
cided to fight for socialism they would
stil l have had to undermine the anar-
chists.
This policy of wooing the British and
French ruling classes was from the be-
ginning doomed to failure - not only be-
cause of their military unpreparednessbut because of their belief that if they
became involved at this stage in a war
with Hit ler , both they and the Nazis
would be weakened a nd t hus the position
of Russia would be enh an ced. At all times
right up to the outbreak of W.W.II the
British sought to come t o terms with Hit-
ler which would leave him free t o atta ck
Russia in the E ast.
Navy
The activities of the Navy, which h ad r e-
mained loyal to the Republic, were se-
verely curt ailed so as n ot to upset Anglo-
Fren ch inter ests in the Str aight of Gibral-
tar. The navy had been very successful
in ha ra ssing Fr an cos base in Morocco but
their activities were halted to keep the
two foreign powers happy. In line with
this th e Republican governmen t refused
to give Morocco its independence and
thus deprive Franco of his base - To do
this would have upset British an d Fren ch
colonial interests in North Africa. The
exam ple of Spanish Morocco could ha ve
given other subject n ations ideas. Indeed
at one stage the government offered tog ive Br i t a in and France in te res t s in
Spanish Morocco in exchange for their
intervention.
The revolution that had broken out was
of supreme embarrassment to the Com-
munists. Whatever chance they had of
winning over Britain and France was
lessened by th e fact t hat a social revolu-
tion h ad sta rted. There was no way the
British and French governments would
intervene on th e side of revolutionaries.
Thus th e revolution was to be hidden and
eventua lly suppressed. The power of the
c o l l e c t i v e s a n d m i l i t i a s w a s t o b e
smashed.
At the outbreak of the Civil War there
were 40,000 members of the Spanish
Communist Party. The question natu-
rally arises as to how such a small or-
ganisation could so decisively influence
the course of events an d in t ime become
the dominant group in the Popular Front
camp.
In building their P arty t he Communists
placed a lot of emphasis on Cata lonia a s
this was th e hear tland of the r evolution.
The collectivisat ion m ovemen t ser iously
upset the middle classes. Small busi-
nesses wer e closed and ever ywher e mid-
dle-men foun d th eir role abolished a s th e
workers committ ees took over distribu-
t ion. The middle classes would have
turned to their traditional parties but
viewed them as incapable of stemming
th e collectivisat ion m ovement. The Com-
munist P arty seemed the only party se-
rious about protecting their pr operty or
getting it back from the workers. One
f o r m e r C o m m u n i s t c o m m e n t e d I n
Murcia and elsewhere I saw th at our plac-
ards and leaflets appealed for shopkeep-
ers membersh ip with the promise of ab-solute support for private property.
Leaps and Bounds
Membership of the Communis t Par ty
grew in leaps an d bounds. Within a few
months of the outbreak of the war 76,700
peasant proprietors and tenan t farmers
along with 15,485 members of the ur ban
middle classes h ad joined u p. Its influ-
ence among these layers went far beyond
these figures as thousands of members
of th e interm ediate classes, without ac-
tually joining the Party, placed them-
selves un der its wing. As a mean s of pro-tecting the interests of the u rban middle
classes in Cat alonia the Commun ists or-
g a n i s e d 1 8 , 0 0 0 t r a d e s m e n ,
handicraftmen an d sma ll manufacturers
into an organisation called th e C.E.P.C.I
Solidaridad Obrero (Workers Solidarity)
the paper of the CNT commented that
some of those in this body were intran-
sigent employers, ferociously anti- la-
bour. By March 1937 the Communist
Par ty had 250,000 members.
Other measures were also taken to ex-
tend its influence - Only four days afterthe military uprising, the Communists
merged with the Catalan Socialists to
form the PSUC. The local UGT came
under PSUC dominion. Leading mem-
bers of both the Socialist Party and the
UGT in other a reas defected to th e Com-
mun ists, some secretly. Many mem bers
of th e Socialist P ar ty could see little dif-
ference between th eir line an d th at of the
Communists winning the war came be-
fore t he r evolution, conciliat ory att itud es
towar ds foreign powers , etc. - But beca use
the Commun ists had the stronger Party
appa rat us (reinforced as it was by Mos-cow) it wa s able to recruit a t t he expense
of th e Socialists. Ma ny joined because of
its proselytising zeal, imm ensely sk illful
propaganda, i ts vigour, i ts organising
capacity an d th e prestige it derived from
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Soviet arms.
The Communists gained control of the
J SU (Unit ed Socialist Yout h). This group-
ing resulted from a m erger of the Com-
munists and Socialist youth organisa-
tions. It had 50,000 members and was
formed shortly before the war began.
Most of the leading members of the So-
cialist Yout h defected to th e Comm un ists
with t he merger and t hus ensured Com-
mun ist contr ol of the n ew organisation.
It would be wrong to suggest that the
counter- revolution that came was only
as a result of the line and activities of
the Communists. The Republicans and
Socialists agreed with t hem. The Repub-
lican s, who lacked any r eal base a mong
the masses, retired to the background
and ceded to the Communists the deli-
cate job of opposing the social revolution
and defending th e middle classes. Even
Largo Caballero, who became Pr ime Min-
ister in August, the one time left wing
Socialist an d leader of the UGT, declaredon forming the government that it was
necessar y to sacrifice revolut iona ry lan -
guage to win t he friendship of the demo-
cratic powers and the Span ish govern-
men t is n ot fightin g for socialism bu t for
democracy and constitutional rule. Al-
though Ca ballero did not go all the way
with t he Commun ists there were many
in his party, even his closest allies, who
worked for the Communist line against
th e social revolution.
It must also be stated tha t th e participa-
tion of members of the CNT in the gov-ernment helped the growing counter-
revolution. They ent ered th e Cata lan gov-
ernment in September (i t must be re-
membered that Catalonia was semi- au-
tonomous) and th e nat ional governm ent
in November 1936. This will be dealt with
in more detail in the final chapter, suf-
fice to say their participation lent the
government a certa in credibility with t he
masses. The key element in proving to
the world that t he fight in Spain was sim-
ply to restore democracy, to rebuild the
shattered state ma chine and return to the
government t he au thority and power tha twas in the hands of the armed workers.
CNT part icipation served to put a check
on the masses and make them believe
they had a stake in the government an d
should defend it .
Russian Arms
The point about th e Commu nist Pa rty is
th at t hey directed th e counter -revolution.
They called the shots. They were th e only
people who were clear about th e neces-
sity for th e coun ter -revolut ion a nd h ad
the determination to carry it through.
Their a bility to do th is was der ived from
the prestige that came with th e fact that
Russia was the only country supplying
major quantities of arms to the Repub-
lic. (Mexico was the only other country
to help, supplying a sma ll quant ity). The
Russians not only supplied arm s but a lso
military advisors and technicians who
gradually took over the running of the
war.
Stalinists will tell you that Russia pro-
vided arms r ight from th e beginn ing. This
is a lie - Stalin a t first agreed to th e non-
intervention pact for fear of antagonis-
ing the West. The first ar ms did not ar-
rive until October and t hen it wa s out of
fear tha t German a nd Italian arm s would
give a decisive edge to the fascists. Aid
was given covertly an d in order to limit
the possibility of involving Russia in a
war (Krivitsk y In Sta lins Secret Ser v-
ice p. 81 - Krivitsky wa s St alins Ch ief of
Int elligence in Western Eu rope). Becau se
of this fear of involvement in war with
Germany and Italy, aid was limited to
bolstering the resistan ce unt il such time
as Britain an d Fra nce might intervene.
This aid ha d to be paid for - the Sp anish
gold r eserve wa s m oved to Moscow.
The Commun ists knew tha t if a far reach-ing coun ter -revolution wa s t o be enforced
the Sta te, with t heir support, would have
to regain cont rol of the ar my an d th e po-
lice. There was no point in telling work-
ers to drop collectivisation and give up
their a rms if this order could not be im-
posed. All Sta tes r est on t his u se of force
and that is why a successful revolution
can only be made when the people are
armed.
Because of Soviet a id it was ea sy for th e
Commu nists t o gain contr ol of the a rmed
forces. It was not because of the am ountof arm s sent but t he fact th at t he Soviets
were the m ajor pur veyors of war mat eri-
als. The Navy an d Air Minister, Pr ieto,
often ma de fun of his office declarin g th at
he was neither a Minister or anything
else because he received no obedience
from the a ir force. The rea l Air Minister
was th e Russian Genera l Duglas.
Militarisation
Because of th is contr ol of ar ms t he Com-
munists , supported by the others, en-
forced militarisation. The militia system
was broken up. A regular army was re-built with officers, regiment at ion, sa lut-
ing and different ial rat es of pay. The mi-
litias who refused to come under th e com-
mand of the War Ministry (and many
CNT and P OUM militias did refuse) were
star ved of arms. They were left with no
choice.
The new army was built under Commu-
nist cont rol. They knew th at with out con-
trol of the army they could not hope to
contr ol th e an ti-fascist camp. Becau se th e
Fifth Regiment (the ma jor St alinist con-
trolled unit) took a lead in disbanding,th e Commu nist s gained cont rol of five of
the six brigades of the new army. They
also gained control of the General Com-
missariat of War which was set up for
th e pu rpose of exercising political control
of the army through the medium of po-
litical commissar s. As most of these wer eSta linists t hey contr olled th e flow of po-
litical paper s to the front. Invar iably the
anarchist papers were held up. All the
soldiers read were the lies of the Com-
munist Party.
Not only the army was rebuilt but also
the police, especially the hated Civil
Guards who had been a bulwark of re-
pression a gainst t he CNT. They were now
to be called the National Republican
Guar d. The Assault Gu ards were r e- es-
tablished an d had 28,000 recruits by th e
beginn ing of December. Th e Car abiner os,
who were the border police in charge of
customs and un der th e contr ol of Minis-
ter of Finance Negrin (a kn own Commu-
nist sympathiser) grew to 40,000 mem-
bers. Before the War there were only
16000 of them and tha t was in t he whole
of Spa in. Negrins un der- secret ar y made
it clear wh at th eir role was You are th e
guardia ns of the st at e and t hose vision-
aries who believe that a cha otic situat ion
of social indiscipline and licentiousness
is permissible are utterly mistaken be-
cause th e ar my of the people, as well as
you Carabineros, will know how to pre-vent it .
The st at e was giving itself a monopoly of
force. The worker s pat rols which ha d
sprung u p in J uly were disbanded. Work-
ers were ordered to hand in their arm s
an d th ose who declined to do so were con-
sidered fascists. It was sa id tha t t hese
arm s were needed at t he front. While it
is true that arm s were needed at the front
this ar gument was only put forwar d as a
mean s of disarming r evolutionary work-
ers. There were plenty of ar ms un der th e
control of the police. George Orwell ob-
served after th e May Days in Bar celona
the Anarchists were well aware that
even if they surr endered their ar ms, the
PSUC would retain t heirs, and t his is in
fact what happened a fter t he fighting was
over. Meanwhile actually visible on the
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streets , there were quantit ies of arms
which would have been very welcome at
the front, but which were being reta ined
for th e non -political police forces in th e
rear. (Homage to Catalonia p.151).
T h e c o u n t e r - r e v o l u t i o n n o w m o v e d
against t he Collectives. On J an uar y 7th
1937 the d issolution of the workers sup-
ply committees wa s declared. Distribu-
t ion of food was handed over to the
G.E.P.C.I . This led to shor tages and
hoarding to inflate prices. For the first
time in the war Barcelona experienced
hun ger yet th ere was plenty of food. The
collectives were blamed but it was well
known th at if you joined th e PSUC you
could be guaranteed food.
Nationalisat ion
C r e d i t w a s w i t h h e l d f r o m t h o s e
workplaces who refused to come under
governmen t contr ol. As said earlier t he
banks had not been taken over so the
government had a h uge lever against theworkers. N at ionalisation of major indus-
tries was declared thus bringing them
under governmen t control. They claimed
this was necessary for the war effort .
They claimed th e collectives wer e ineffi-
cient a nd th at each workplace was only
concern ed with its own pr ofits. It cann ot
be denied ther e were problems with some
better off collectives. But the CNT was
a i m i n g a t c o - o r d i n a t i o n t h r o u g h
socialisation under the control of the
workers. To do this all private owner ship
of th e mea ns of produ ction would ha ve to
end. Of course th e Commun ists would notallow this as it th reat ened their cherished
middle classes.
On th e land collectivisation was a llowed
only for the lands of fascists, the estates
of th ose who supported t he Repu blic were
to be handed ba ck. How far the Commu -
nists were prepa red to go was illustrat ed
by the invasion of Aragon. The Defence
Council of Ara gon was declared illegal in
August 1937. This declaration was fol-
lowed by the invasion led by General
Listers (a PSU C mem ber) 11th Division.
According to th e CNT th e land, farm im-plements, cattle and horses which had
been confiscated from supporters of the
right wing were retur ned to their former
owners.
In some villages farms were deprived of
the seed needed for sowing while 600
CNT members were ar rested. In all, 30%
of th e collectives were dest royed an d th e
sowing of crops wa s disru pted . As can be
imagined nothing but ha tred, resentment
and disillusionment resulted from this
invasion a nd t he repr ession t hat followed.
The peasant s began t o wonder wha t they
were fighting for. The resulta nt disillu-
sionmen t n o doubt contr ibuted to t he col-
lapse of the front a few months later.
Similar at tacks were m ade on th e collec-
tives in Levant an d Castille.
This sh owed how far t he socialist s of th e
Commu nist Pa rty were prepar ed to go to
follow St alins inst ru ctions. A more sin-
ister aspect of this was t he existence in
Spa in of prisons belonging to th e Soviet
secret police, th e GPU (forerun ner s of th e
KGB). Their existence has been estab-
lished beyond all doubt. In December
1936 Pra vda declared As for, Cat alonia,
the purging of the Trotskyists and the
Anarcho-Syndicalists has begun, it willbe conducted with th e same en ergy with
which it was conducted in th e USSR.
Here is what Krivitsky ha d to say about
the activities of the GPU in Spain, the
decision to esta blish it having been t aken
at an emergency conference in Moscow
on September 14th. The GPU had its
own special prisons. Its units carried out
assassinations an d kidnappings. It killed
in hidden dungeons and made f lying
raids. The Ministry of Justice had no
aut hority over the GPU . It was a power
before which even some of the highestofficers in the Cabellero government
trembled. The Soviet Union seemed to
have a grip on loyalist Spa in, as if it was
alrea dy a Soviet possession. (In Sta lins
Secret Service p. 102).
The aim was to eliminate revolutionar-
ies. Anybody who dared to speak out
against what they were doing could be
the n ext to suffer. Nin, the leader of th e
POUM, was mu rdered by the GPU as was
Camillo Berneri, an Italian anarchist
who was critical of th e CNT leader ship.
He published a paper , Guerra di Classe,
which argued for a revolutionary war
against fascism. He was mur dered by so
called socialist s for h is pr incipled revo-
lutionary position. In J uly 1937 60 mem-
bers of th e CNT `disappear ed, a t erm
used th en a s now for those killed by the
secret police, though today it applies to
the dictat orships of Latin America.
Two Roads
Thus two mutually exclusive ways of
f ighting fascism emerged. Firstly you
could view it a s th e Stalinists a nd t heir
support ers did. Go out of your way to pla-cate the bosses in England and France
and h ope against hope they would inter-
vene. So fight it as a Civil War a war over
who were the legitimate r ulers of Spain.
Relegate politics to a seconda ry role. Put
revolut iona ry politics on the ba ck burn er.
Tie up t housands of arms in th e rear re-
pressing th e workers movement. Sma sh
collectivisat ion an d sa crifice th e gain s of
the workers and peasants to the interna-
tional interests of Stalin.
Opposed to this was t he view that a r evo-
lutionary war should be fought. Make
r e v o l u t i o n a r y p o l i t i c s y o u r c e n t r a l
weapon. Give the land and factories to
those who work them. Make pr opaganda
behind the fascist lines. Give the peas-
ant s a real rea son to fight Fra nco. Make
it clear that collectivisation would ben-
efit th em. As it was m any lived in fear of
the Sta linists sm ashing t heir collectives.
Giving the land to the peasan ts and ma k-
ing tha t a centr al plank of the fight would
have deprived Franco of many soldiers
who were the sons and daught ers of peas-
ants .
Give freedom to Morocco. Organ ising a n
uprising there again st Fra nco would ha ve
deprived him of a central source of sup-
plies and arms. Appeal directly to the
European working class (whose govern-
ments had no interests in supporting -
the Spanish Revolution. Appeal to the
French workers, who in 1937 were en-
ter ing the second year of an upsurge
which h ad begun with mass str ikes the
previous year. Their action could have
prevented intervent ion against t he revo-
lution by Fra nce, and indeed Britain.
Seize th e gold reserves an d expropriate
the banks. Use this money to buy arms
and ma ke sure arms went to the fronts
where th ey were needed. These were thesort of th ings tha t should ha ve been done.
They were no guarantee of victory but
could ha ve lit a spark which could have
ignited right t hroughout Eu rope and bro-
ken t he isolation of the Span ish Revolu-
tion. It could ha ve mark ed a tu rning point
for the whole of Europe. Instead Spain
was t o be yet an other victim of fascism -
and the Civil War a pr elude to a bloody
world war . The Popular F ront could not
have carr ied out th ese actions because it
was based on an alliance of classes. The
workers n eeded to tak e complet e contr ol.
This was possible, especially in Catalo-
nia wh ere a r egiona l congress of workers
councils should have been called to es-
tablish a Workers Republic. This exam-
ple would have been followed th roughout
Spain an d a revolutionar y war could then
have been fought. Not a war to put the
Commu nists, Socialists an d Republicans
back in governm ent but a war t o liberat e
the t oiling masses.
But t he working class did not ta ke power.
The CNT, which was in a central posi-
tion to do this, refused. It opted for col-
laboration and supported decree afterdecree un dermining t he r evolution. Ob-
jectively th e leader s of th e CNT an d FAT
becam e count er-revolutionary. In a dua l
power situa tion either t he workers over-
thr ow the ruling class a nd ta ke power or
the ruling class regains contr ol. There is
no middle way. The CNT in collaborat-
ing could go only one way. Revolutions
cannot be ha lf made. The working class
must assert i tself or the revolution is
doomed. So why didnt the an archists
tak e power? We will now turn to this.
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Often t hese councils spring up spontan e-
ously or a s organ s of defence like t he So-
viets du ring th e Russian revolution. Ini-
tially they start ed out a s strike commit-
tees bu t qu ickly developed into bodies on
which th e new society could be built. This
idea is centr al to an ar chism. A free soci-
ety cannot be built on th e old stru ctures,
new ones have to be built thr ough which
the pr oducers can be directly represent ed.
Revolutions do not ha ppen th rough par -liaments or governments, or trying to
take over the already existing state ma-
chine.
The councils an d collectives th at emerged
during t he Civil War, were th e organs on
which the revolution could have been
built. But th ey needed to be brought to-
gether a t a r egional and n ational level so
the power of the workers and peasants
could assert itself an d push the r egional
and central governments as ide. This
would have meant r e fus ing to share
power with th e rema ining element s of th e
ruling class, it would ha ve been a m ajor
step in m aking t he r evolution complete.
C.N.T.
The CNT refused to do this. After July
9th its leaders in Catalonia were called
into the office of Companys, the Prime
Minister of Catalonia. Basically he told
them they were in control of the region
and h e would be their faithful servant if
they took over. They refused. Instead
th ey called for th e form at ion of the Cen-
tr al Committ ee of Anti- Fascist Militias.
This was t he first step in collaborat ion.All parties including Republicans were
represent ed on this body. It existed side
by side with the Catalan government.
The Centr al Committee was displaced in
September I 936 when t he CNT entered
tha t government . In November four
members of the CNT entered the n ational
governm ent in Madr id. Two of them were
also in t he FAI.
This is a far cry from wha t was st ated in
the CNT-FAI Information Bulletin of
September 1936. In an article entitled
The Futility of Government it said that
the expropriations t hat were taking place
would lead ipso facto to th e liquidat ion
of th e bourgeois stat e which would die of
asphyxiation. Their m embers were now
joining t he governm ent of th is very same
state.
A number of reasons were put forward
for this . Essentially they amounted to
swallowing the argument about Britain
and France. It was said that if a social
revolution was ma de it would be crush ed
and no ar ms would be forthcoming from
the western powers (they never came
an yway!). They had decided tha t winn ing
the war and making the revolution were
two different t hings and t hat winning thewar came first. That meant collaborat-
ing in the broad anti-fascist front ... in
order to win t he war and save our people
and the world, it (the CNT) is ready to
collaborate with anyone in a directive
organ, whether this organ be called a
coun cil or a governm ent (CNT, paper of
the CNT in t he Madr id region, October
23rd 1936.)
Another r eason put forwar d was tha t by
enterin g the governm ent they could con-
solidate th e gains that had been ma de.
They could regula te t he political life ofSpain by giving legal validity to th e revo-
lutionary committees (Juan Lopez, An-
archist Minister of Commerce). There
was even an argument put around that
entry into government was only for in-
tern at iona l consum ption, the revolution
would still go on under the veil of legal
government.
For these rea sons anti-fascist unity was
maintained and anything that threat-
ened to split this unity was repressed.
The governmen t kn ew it was very useful
to have CNT representation, it was anaddi t iona l means o f con t ro l l ing the
masses. However it m ust be point ed out
tha t t he decision t o enter the government
was taken by the National Committee
without any consultation with the rank
and file membership. This was a real
break from tr adit ion, th e necessity of act-
ing with a m inimum of delay was the r ea-
son given by the leadership.
May Days
The role of the CNT played in governmen t
was clearly illustrated by what became
known as the May Days. On May 3rd1937, thr ee lorry loads of police led by t he
Stalinist Sa las, Comm issar of Public Or-
der, attempt ed to take over th e telephone
exchange in Barcelona which had been
cont rolled by a joint CNT-UGT comm it-
tee since the outbreak of the war. The aim
of this was to wrest control of the build-
ing from th e workers an d to rem ove con-trol of the t elephone system from t hem.
The telephonists had been able to keep
tabs on what was going on by listening
in on th e calls of governmen t m inisters.
It was also the beginning of an effort by
the governmen t t o occupy str at egic points
in the city in preparation for an all-out
attack.
The police captu red the first floor becau se
of the sur prise nat ure of their a tta ck but
got no fur ther . Fir ing s tar ted. Word
spread like wildfire an d within h ours the
local defence comm ittees of the CN T-FAIwent into action ar ming them selves and
bui lding barr icades . The POUM sup-
ported them and soon the workers were
in contr ol of most of th e city. The govern -
ment had contr ol of only the centra l area,
which could very easily have been ta ken.
In other areas of Catalonia action was
also taken. Civil Guards were disarm ed
an d offices of the PS UC were seized a s a
preventive measure. There was no fir-
ing on t he first night a nd by th e second
day the workers were spreading the bar-
ricades further into the suburbs. Alsoinvolved were the Liber tar ian Youth
(FIJ L). Being in cont rol the work ers could
have ta ken over but an order from Casa
CNT (the H.Q.) forbade all action and
ordered workers t o leave the ba rricades
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