Umberto Marzocchi Remembering Spain Italian Anarchist Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

8/11/2019 Umberto Marzocchi Remembering Spain Italian Anarchist Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

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Umberto Marzocchi

Remembering Spain : Italiananarchist Volunteers in

the Spanish Civil War

2005, Updated in 2014


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Contents

Umberto Marzocchi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Italian Anarchist Volunteers in Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

July 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6August 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8September 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10October 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11November 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13December 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15January, February, March 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18April 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19May 1937 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Epilogue: the death of Berneri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

UMBERTO MARZOCCHI Notes on his life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Note on the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30


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Umberto Marzocchi

He was bornin Florence on10October 1900. A shipyard worker inLa Spezia,

he became an anarchist at a very earlyage and by 1917was secretary of themetalworkersunion affiliatedtothe USI (Italian SyndicalistUnion), thankstohis youth which precluded his being mobilised for front-line service as a reprisal.DuringtheRed Bienniumhetook part inthe struggles alongsidetherenownedLa Spezia anarchist, Pasquale Binazzi, the director ofIl Libertarionewspaper.In1920he was partofa gang ofanarchiststhataackedtheLa Spezia arsenal,overpowering the security guards and carrying off two machine guns and severalrifles, inthe,alas disappointed,hope of triggering arevolutionaryuprisinginthecity. In 1921, visiting Rome to reach an agreement withArgo Secondari, he tookoveras organiserof theArditi del Popolo(Peoples Commandos) intheregion;this organisation was to give good account of itself during the Sarzana incidents.

Moving to Savona, he organised the meeting between Malatesta and the pro-Bolshevik Russian anarchist Sandomirsky who arrived in Rapallo in the wake ofthe Chicherin delegation as its PressOfficer. By 1922, wanted by the fascists, hele the country,playing an active part inthe activities of the anarchistexilesinFrance and Belgium.

In1936 he was in Spain withtheItalian Column andtheretook part inthebale ofAlmudevar.AerCamillo Berneriwas murdered,hereturnedto Francewhere hehandled aid to Spanish refugees.Aer the Nazi occupation,hejoined theMaquis in the Pyrenees, part of a mixed unit made up of anarchists, socialists andFrench and Spanish communists (Group 31, Area 5). In 1945 aer the Liberationhe returned to Italy where he became one of the most active publicists, speakersandlecturers of the newly formedItalian AnarchistFederation(FAI),which atthat time was an umbrellafor the whole of theItalian anarchistmovement. In1971he was appointed secretaryof theInternationalofAnarchistFederationsLiaison Commiee,a posthe filledfor 12years. In1977,by then almosteighty,he was arrested in Spain during an international anarchist gathering. He died inSavona on 4 June 1986.

What followsistakenfrom alongvideo-tapedinterviewthatPaoloGobeifromthe Turin-based NationalFilm Archive of the Resistance made with Ugoduring the 70s.


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Introduction

It was then (aer he had successfully escaped the fascist goons in Savona who

were aerhim editors note) that Idecidedto clearout, toleavethe country.Aera numberofadventures I arrived in Paris. Ihad no identitypapers andIobtained a set,becoming Buonaventura Della Manica and under thatnameIopened a bookshop in Lille in northern France. I worked hard but I was regardedas a bourgeois,althoughI carried on with myactivities. But,obviously,notsoopenly as before, although I had my uses, Lille being on the border with Belgium.I used to cross the border nearly every week, so the customs officials knew me. Asa result they were not so vigilant and I was able to smuggle across Bonomini, justas I did Durruti, and Ascaso. en came Ernesto Bonominis aentat. He killedthe secretaryof thefascists abroad, Nicola Bonservizi. Bonominigotan eightyear jailsentence. When he gotouthe turnedtothe Political VictimsSupport

Commiee forhelp and they sent himto me. I managed to secure a militarypassbookforhim and onthe strength of thatdocument,Bonomini,who couldnot venture outside of the Paris area,was ableto stay in myhouse. Ihad himthereforover twoyears beforetheydiscovered him,arresting him and arrestingme as well. In 1933, my residence permit was cancelled completely. So I was lewithout any identity and in 1935 I assumed a new identity, as Gaston Bouillon, aFrenchman.

(at year) we held a get-together near Paris, in the suburbs. is get-togetherset out the tasks that each of us had to perform in the event of a social upheaval.Berneri,Rivoluzio Giglioliand othercomrades andI worked on maers of thissort. So that when the rebel generals aempted their coup dtat in 1936 inSpain,we alreadyhad ourplans drawn up and we had ourcommiee. We met

in Paris and then we decided that Berneri should leave right away for Barcelona,along with Renato Castagnoli and Rivoluzio Giglioli. Istayed behindin Lille.Why Lille? BecauseLille borders Belgium. And Belgium hasthe mostmodernarms factories. rough a comrade, a businessman, I managed to get from somefactories some arms that cost me more to smuggle across the border than they didto buy. I managed to make two deliveries through Spanish comrades who cameto make the pick-up themselves, but aer the second one, the police showed upand arrested me, not over the arms but for breaching the expulsion order. I wassentenced to a month in prison. As soon as I was freed, I was off to Spain.

Icaughtatrainfrom Perpignan and crossedthe borderatPortBou,arrivingin Barcelona on schedule. Stepping outof the station, I sawred and blacktaxis.

All vehicles displayed black andred banners. Iwent to a hotel,booked aroom,grabbed some sleep and then it was off to a restaurant for a bite to eat. Nothing


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had changed except that there were no bosses around andthat the union wasrunning things.


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Italian Anarchist Volunteers in Spain

July 1936By the evening of 19July radio broadcasts were announcing that an army revolt

had erupted all across Spain and that Barcelona had risen to counter-aack andfrustrate it.

By20 July the press carriedlengthybutas yetconfusedreportsfrom whichitappearedthat invarious parts ofSpainthe populace wasresistingtherebelgenerals who had mutinied against the Republic. In everyone of thosereportsthe role of the anarchists of the FAI and the unions of the CNT was so played upas to lead one (and especially those of us who were anxious for further news) tobelieve that these were the only ones encouraging and urging the people to standup to the rebels.

On 21 and 22 July, the reports noted the capture of the Atarazanas barracks bythe people, the surrender of General Goded and other officers commanding theBarcelona garrison, the heroic death of Francisco Ascaso well known in Francefor having organised a plot against the life of King Alfonso XIII in Paris in 1927,a plot thwarted by French police when they arrestedAscaso himself andDurruti the capture of the Montaa barracks in Madrid, the seizure of the factories, theburning of churches, the spontaneous direct organisation of the citys essentialservices by the people. e coup aempt had drawn a reply in the form of popularinsurrection: this was revolution!

Amongthe anarchistsin Paris and elsewherein France allwas excitement,com-ing and going, enthusiasm. Even some of the leading balers of Italian antifascism,

like Angeloni, Rosselli and others were siing up and asking questions.We had our first direct news from French comrades in Toulouse and from com-rade Pasoi in Perpignan: throughout the war he was to be a splendid go-betweenkeeping us in touch with Spain. We discovered that the Spanish comrades werefighting with makeshi weapons and that death was cuing swathes through theranks of the people and among the anarchists who were the most daring.

e rebel generals, who made use of the garrisons under their command, hadthe bourgeoisie and the clergy on their side: from the outset the would-be couphadtaken on an anti-Republican andfascistcharacter. Everybourgeois house,every club premises or premises of known capitalist bodies, every church andthere were lots of these in Barcelona and throughout Spain was converted into afascist redoubt, from where machine-gun and rifle fire mowed down the populacein their hundreds.


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Yet theresponsefromthe people andthe anarchists wasimprovised,sponta-neous and powerfulenoughto mop up those alliedforcesinthe citywithin afew days and to drive them out, with the anarchists formed into centurias of theCatalan Militias free corpsin hotpursuit,as faras Lerida and Sietamo,where

there wasfiercefighting,andtotheverygates ofHuesca and Zaragoza. Insidetheselast two citiesthe cowardice of therepublican governors who negotiatedwiththerebelsinstead ofurgingthe people against them as had been done inBarcelona, led to the slaughter of anarchists and revolutionaries and allowed theFrancoists to ensconce themselves and fortify their positions.

In Paris we devoured all these reports. We decided that Berneri should set offwith another comrade, whilst we would stay behind to see to the urgent businessofarrangingthe arms, medicines and othermaterials essential tothe Spanishfighters.

Berneri wrote back. In Perpignan he had found himself surrounded by lots ofother comrades who were flooding in from all over France. ey had been drawn

towards Spain byan irresistible magnet. e presencethere ofanarchism, thearchitect and driving force behind the revolutionary thrust, the feeling of solidarity,the realisation that the involvement of the whole population in the social conflictmight well trigger the decisive revolutionary backlash, so long yearned for, againstinternational fascism at that time the last word in tyranny and an ongoing threatof world war moved all anarchists without distinction. Michele Centrone, Giroi,Bifolchi, Perrone, Bonomini, Fantozziand Berneri arrived at the borderalongwith manyanother.Organisationists and anti-organisationists,pure anarchistswithout adjectives and anarchists who had always campaigned inside the unionsall turned up, drawn together by a serious intent that smoothed over differencesof tendencyand healed disagreements. Dauntless, impatientand in solidaritywith one another and with the Spanish comrades, every one of them searched forwaysto deployhis owntalents and gis ofspiritandintellect,withoutneed ofleaders,guides,orders orplans, revellingin a commoninheritance ofsplendidgood sense, courage, resolute determination, ready, if need be, to offer up his ownlife so asto afford anarchism,which was being put tothetest in Spain, the chanceto become a bright beacon of concrete experiences in a dumbfounded world thatwas looking on, partly cursing it and partly in admiration.

During the last fortnight in July our activity was intense. We had establishedcontactbetween Rivoluzio Giglioli in Paris,myselfwho wasliving undergroundin Lille (having been the subject of a deportation order) near the Belgian border,and Mantovani in Brussels on the Belgian side. e French comrade Trucheauxfrom Toulouse was our liaison with the Spanish comrades. With the help of

Hoche Meurant, a French anarchist livingin Warelos on the Franco-Belgian


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border,we managedto make afew purchases of riflesfromvarious armsfactoriesin Belgium and ship them out to our Spanish comrades.

In Barcelona, meanwhile, Berneri along with Bifolchi, Rosselli, Angeloni,Calosso and a few others came to an agreement with the FAI and CNT com-

rades, throughthe good offices ofDiego Abad de Santillan ontheformation ofanItalian Column made up of volunteer antifascist fighters: this was to be aachedto the Francisco Ascaso formation of the Catalan Antifascist Militias operatingon the front in Aragon.

Camillo Berneri had beenone of the speakers at the huge, solemn anarchist rallyof more than one hundred thousand people in the arena of the bullring, bringingthe greetings and effective solidarityof Italian anarchismtotherevolutionarystruggle being waged bySpanish anarchism. Comrades who had alreadybeenliving in Spain Fosco Falaschi, Virgilio Ghozzoli, Nicola Turcinovich and others-joined the new arrivals whose numbers were growing by the day.

August 1936

And sothe column was setup. e groupthathad formed around Berneri,tireless in its efforts, its requests and its organising activity, managed to procureweapons, munitions, clothing and mules. In the Pedralbes barracks(renamedthe Mikhail Bakunin barracks), in the redoubt which Pio Turroni and Giustifrom Bologna were to occupy and through which we all passed to be issuedwith our equipment prior to seing off for the front, the preparations of the firstInternational Column made up of anarchists and revolutionary antifascists whohad voluntarily arrived to take on fascism on Iberian soil, were completed.

On the evening of 19August the Column set off for the front. Along the

route from the barracks to the railway station itmarched through the streetsofBarcelonaflanked bya cheering populace. It lookedthe partwithitsrifles,machine-guns,mules, field kitchen andfirstaidteams withthe doctorRicciulliand the car with Umberto Calosso at the steering wheel.

At the station,men and equipmentwereloaded aboardthetrooptrain.All thatnight the delighted crowds hovered around these men, offering them wine, ciga-rees and food whenever they pulled into the stations along the route, in Manresa,Terrasa, Tarragona and Lerida where they arrived the next day at daybreak.

Angeloniwas in command of the Column and he was regarded asthe mostexpertandtechnicallycompetent, because he displayed extraordinary organi-sational talents andthere was alsothe maer ofhis cheerfulmanner and the

absence ofallswagger.Everybodyhad absorbed alile anarchism andtheyall


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triedto avoid positions ofcommand bystayinginvisible and backwardintheranks.

On 21 August the Column arrived in Vicien, a lile country village whichwasto be ourheadquarters andthereDomingoAscaso(Franciscos brother, a

pugnacious, zealous, level-headed anarchist militant killed during the May 1937events in Barcelona) paid it a visit as the then commissar of war. It was he whosuggested tothe Columnthat itoccupy the Galocha plateau, hill 521 a vastoutcrop rising from the plain, watered by the Isuela and stretching flat and regularintothe Huesca-Sariena-Tardientatriangle,extremely importantstrategically inthat it overlooked the front and flanked Zaragoza-Huesca-Jaca highway. Angelonihad the bright idea of nicknaming it Monte Pelado (Bald Mountain).

On 25August the active service element of the Column: the riflemen withBifolchi and machine-gunners with Angeloni (the rest of the men making upthe clerical, kitchen and first aid sections had stayed behind in Castillo San Juan,renamed Castillo Michele Angeliolillo) bivouacked on Monte Pelado and quickly

set about digging trenches, from where they could kill without being killed andcounter-aack only if there were indications of enemy confusion.At 4.00 am, on 28 August the fascists launched a frontal assault with increasing

intensity against Monte Pelado. e first freedom fighter to collapse when arifle bullet smashed his forehead was the old and well known anarchist militant,Michele Centrone, Well into his sixties, a small, thin southerner,Michele hadbeen one of thefirst to setout from Paris,where he had beenlivingin exileforyears, to rush to lend a hand in the fight for a peoples survival and the freedomof the world. Intransigentbutnotsectarian,he showed byexamplethe admirableintegrityofa life spent inthe service of idealsthat radiatedfrom his everyact,his everyexpressionregardless ofplace orcircumstance. He was one of thosemodest, obscure militants who make ideas strong with the doggedness, rectitudeand sturdiness of their thinking, their unchanging display of feelings, and theirconstant presence in every action where lives are risked and death scorned.

e frontalonslaught was repulsed but it was followed by savageflankingaacks. On the right flank a bullet mortally wounded Fosco Falaschi who died afew hours later. His was another life devoted since boyhood to the anarchist idealand now gone forever. Fosco Falaschi was a well known figure in world anarchism.Aself-educated worker,he hadturned himselfbydintofsacrifices and doggedapplication to his studies, into a tremendously learned figure and that madehim one of thefinestcolumnistsinLa Protesta Umanato which he contributedregularly. WeinItalyknowlile about this writer whose contributions wentmainly to the Spanish language press. Articles of his had appeared inLAdunata

deiRefraarisharing with the Italian anarchist immigrants in the United Statesthe demands ofanarchist activityand protest campaigns. Withthe deaths of


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Michele Centrone and Fosco Falaschi, Italian anarchism had suffereditsfirst rudelosses and paid its first bloody levy to international solidarity.

On the le flank, Giuseppe Zuddas, a lile Sardinian from Monserrato in theprovince of Cagliari and a member of the Giustizia eLibertagroup met his death;

and whilst intrepidly crossing some open ground to hurl grenades at the fascistarmoured car that was preparing to resist and open fire, so did Mario Angeloni. Itwas in pursuit of the fascists who had been put to flight that Ailio Papperoo andAndrea Colliva, raising their heads above the parapet, met their deaths recklessly.Among the wounded was Mario Giroi, our dear comrade from Bologna, Cavanifrom Modena, as well as Maeuzzi and others who made it to the hospitals in therear.

Michele Centrone,Fosco Falaschi,Giuseppe Zuddas,Ailio Papperoo andAndrea Colliva were buried in the lile cemetery in Vicien and their graves weresoon joined by those of Vincenzo Perrone and Bruno Gualandi who perished inthefightingin Septemberand October.Mario Angelonidiedin hospital far from

the front lines, in BarbastroI believe it was, and his body was transported toBarcelona where it received a moving demonstration of condolences, which theSpanish comrades also extended to include the others who had also died a herosdeathinthat encounter which wentdownin historyas the most importantbale on the Aragon front.

September 1936

roughout the month of September the activities of the Italian anarchists onthe Huesca front and in respect of the French connection remained intense.

e securing of Monte Pelado made a whole series of operations against Huer-

rio,Casa Blanca and Huesca cemetery feasible. Inthefightingthataendedthoseoperations the object was to throw a cordon around Huesca and the vulnerableZaragoza-Huesca-Jacaroad two splendidyoungItalians ofgreatpromiseforItalian anarchism perished: Vincenzo Perrone who was, I believe, born in Salernoand Bruno Gualandi from Bologna. In a daring armoured car sortie the Piedmon-tese Guiseppe Barberis meta tragic end,whilst inthe mostexposed positionsonthe entirefront,during Septemberand October,Amedeo Giannoi,RomeoPontoni and Cosmo Pirozzo met their ends. Among the wounded were comradesGuiseppe Raffalli from Montignoso, Giovannardi from Parma and others whosenames I cannot call to mind.

It was thanks to these comrades heroic sacrifice that the positions were held

and strengthened. e trench works stretching from Huesca cemetery tothefiringline ontheright flank of the city rightup totrenches manned bySwiss


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machine-gunnersandbeyond them by POUM units,were solid. e more exposedentrenchments on the le flank, which took in the Castillo Malatesta observationpost from where comrades Dino Paini and Ailio Scarsi were to keep a patientand depressing watch for months on end extended as far as Casa Blanca, opening

ontothelines of resistance atCimilla,Huerrio and, furtherback,Castillo Figuerasand Tardienta, the Communists command post required constant vigilance and,giventhelack ofautomatic weaponsit was only the anarchists fighting spiritand daring that made it effective.

Meanwhilein Paristhe anarchists Cieri,Giglioliand afew others were havingto contend with the communists who were dismissive of the anarchists efforts inSpain and playing downthe significance of the bale ofMonte Peladowhichdrew praise from the world press and inspired antifascists to make for Spain (lotscame fromAmerica, among them Libero Baistelli as well as many anarchists) dismissingit as aninconsequentialskirmish,whilst Jesus Hernandez, the Com-munistMinisterofeducationinthe governmentof 4 September 1936 delivered

a speech hostileto anarchists and anarchism,a speech widely reprintedintheCommunist press around the world.Tension was thus high when Italian communists and socialists summoned

representatives of all antifascist currents, including the anarchists, to a meetingin Paris to considerand decide upon possible collectiveintervention in Spainby armed units under the control of the parties and the aegis of the PopularFront. e communists intended to set up an International Brigade to fight underthe colours of the republican government in Madrid and in their own particularinterest, with a rigidly hierarchical command structure and even then dancing tothe tune of a Moscow-prescribed foreign policy that was as yet vague but in theprocess of being fleshed out within the Communist Party.

Itprovedimpossibleforagreement to be achieved. Cianca andVenturi,onbehalf of the Giustizia e Libertagrouping, rejected the suggestion;Antonio Cieriand Rivoluzio Giglioli, on the anarchists behalf, vehemently objected to it, arguingthat the meeting had heard the Catalan revolution and its dead being insulted andthat the intention was to humiliate the anarchists. ey stormed out, slammingthe door behind them.

October 1936

Unlike Carlo Rosselli and Mario Angeloni, Randolfo Pacciardi had not thrownin his lot with the expedition to Spain. He was in Metz, perhaps waitingforsomeone to arrive to invite him to join in with the venture. at person turnedup in the form of Romano Cocchi, who was at that time a real bigwig among the


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Italian communists abroad,and Cocchimanagedtotalk Pacciardi into assumingcommand of the planned unit that would later be known as the Garibaldi Baalion.

Pacciardi had no problems with abiding by the policy of a republican govern-ment, but for the communists, having a republican in command ofa fighting

unit made up mainlyofcommunists signified theirabsolute obedienceto theprescriptions of the Comintern which had changed its line, switching from a wait-and-see aitude to events in Spain to a policy of direct intervention, under coverof the formula of Popular Front, devised for the defence of the Spanish Republicand its government.

us communists and socialists converged on Albacete where the first baal-ions of the International Brigades were organised, but it was only around 28October that the Garibaldi Baalion was formed, by which time the Italian anar-chists and their friends had already suffered dozens of fatalities and wounded, andSpanish anarchism had been horriblydecimatedin combatdue totheirhavingunselfishly and courageously taken the lead in the fighting.

eInternationalBrigades werethefirstdeployed onthe Madridfront towardsthe end of November, three months aer the bale of Monte Pelado, and we woulddo well to take note of this fact so that comrades may enlighten the ignorant andrefutethe nonsense of those who,seekingto slander the anarchists,wouldliketo brag about theirhaving beenthefirst torally tothe defence of the Spanishpeople.

But it was notonly inthe action onthefront that theItalian anarchiststookpart. ey were also employed in more delicate tasks and were especiallyen-trusted with special missions requiring particular temperament, talent, courageand a sense of responsibility. In all such important and delicate tasks the Italiananarchists distinguishedthemselves and on occasion the success ofa militaryoperation, an arms deal, or the organisation of a branch of production, etc., wasdependentuponthem. e moving spiritbehind all thisjointactivitywiththeSpanish comrades was Camillo Berneri; he was everywhere, tireless, courageous,thoughtful, living through and for the revolution. To those of us who knew himalready,he revealed a new side, being transfigured and moving nonchalantlyand dynamically throughthose unstable, complicated surroundings, listening,probing and answering everybodyprecisely,clearaboutwhathe knew,havinglong mulled overeveryproblem asif itwere and old acquaintance ofhis,whenothers were encountering it for the very first time.

Camillo Berneri was a born revolutionary who matched a practicality seekingto make optimum use of the movements strengths and intelligence with thepatience of a teacher drawing friendship and agreement from those all about him,

and with the delicate sensibilities of a consistent, fair-minded anarchist of deepconvictions; a rock of granite unscathed by the passage of muddy waters.


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For us, Berneri was anarchism incarnate. We could see in him the poetry of aPietro Gori, the intransigence of a Luigi Galleani, the perspicacity and action ofan Errico Malatesta. is philosopher was an anthology of forty years of militantanarchism and he offereditall the Spanishrevolution with such simplicityand

clear-sightednessthateveryone,anarchists and non-anarchists alike,could notbutbe dumbfounded. He wasthe safe guide and everbloomingflowers ofouractivities on the front and in the rear alike. He would be a priceless mentor to ustoday. We do not mourn for ourselves but for his untimely demise.

November 1936

From France, from America and elsewhere, freshrecruits arrived. RivoluzioGiglioli andAntonio Cieri joined our ranks. Giglioli, precise, cultivated, used towork on building sites,did notstaywith usinthe Column butmade directcontactwith the Spanish command and successfully put together a company of sappers,

made up almost entirely of Spaniards and vital in that rough terrain. Just as soonasthe had beentrainedinfortification work,Giglioliand his magnificentmenusedtofollowinthe wake of thefighting,and as soon as thefighting men hadtaken a position, they quickly rendered it virtually impregnable.

Cieri did join our column. Daring, dauntless, lively, he was soon in charge of acompanyof grenadierswhosefunctionresembledthose of the commandosinarmy units.

Madrid was under threat from the fascist noose. Durruti had set off with a fewthousand anarchists and did much to put steel into the resistance of the populationof Madrid. Everybody was flat out in pursuit of the same goal; Madrid had to befreed from the coils of death; the fascists must not pass. We too wanted to do our

bit for the martyred city.eAragon front extended over a distance of 140 kilometres. Our plan was to

shorten and take the pressure off that front by means of an operation that wouldenable ustofocus allourstrength upon the liberation ofZaragoza. Once ourforces had mustered around Zaragoza andrecapturedthe city,we intendedtopress on with the aack against Navarre and link up with the militias in Bilbaoand Santander fighting on the Northern front. Having commied his best troopsagainstMadrid, the enemyhad leAragonto weakened and secondrate units.Our offensive, if mounted quickly and with the element of surprise, would haveforcedthefasciststo dispatchreinforcementsto Aragon and withdrawtroopsfrom other fronts or from the main army besieging Madrid.


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On 18 November we captured someone coming from Almudevar. Under ques-tioning he stated that the troops concentrated in the town did not number morethan 3000.

In additionto beingAscasos birthplace andthus something ofa symbol for

ourColumn which borethe Ascaso name,Almudevarwas animportantstrategicpoint,a centre of road andrailconnections of thefirst importance. Its capturewould have allowed us to break the fascists connections between Zaragoza andHuesca, both of which were besieged by militias. e push involved a rapid flurryofbalesin Huesca,Zaragoza andJaca,with Almudevarasthe umbilicalcord andit would have stamped out any focus of resistance and freed that front completely.We had a hard time geing a decision out of the Spanish command who only gavein to the insistence ofDomingoAscaso, abeed by Bifolchi and Rosselli. But theywanted the operation to be confined to Almudevar alone.

e aack on Almudevar was planned as follows: Bifolchi was to aack alongthe right flank of thetown with support from one baery,whichthen moved

around all over the place thus deserving its nickname of the ghost baery:Rosselliwho had been entrusted withthe overallcommand,along with Canzi,Cieri and Baistelli (who was in charge of a second baery) were to press forwardthroughthe centre: CristobalGarcia,a Spanish anarchist,wasto pushforwardalong the le flankvia Granja delCuervotowards Tardienta, from where weexpectedreinforcementsinthe shape ofa thousand menfrom theKarlMarxDivision, as promised by the communist Del Barrio.

e men on the right flank made a lightning assaultand soon reached theoutlying houses ofAlmudevar,whilst theforcesinthe centre,moving upin awave formation in support of progress made on the flanks, snatched six kilometresof territory lying beyond Monte FAIand Monte Capri. We awaitedthe signalthatwouldletus knowthatSanta Citeria,a fortoverlookingTardienta andinpossession of thefascists,had beentaken,before moving up alongthele flank,but that signal never came and Del Barrios men never arrived. We later learnedthat the communists had misled us withtheirpromise ofathousand men,whothey had decided not to send, since such reinforcement would have assuredsuccess and boosted the anarchists prestige, when they really wanted to see themdiscredited.

Batistellis baery, having loosed off a few shells at the start of the aack, thenfellsilent fora while,havingrun outofshells and explosive charges. efightingdragged on for three hours which were spent vainly waiting for reinforcementsthat never came, and during this time the fascists had time to muster in Almudevarsubstantial reinforcements of theirown brought infrom Huesca and Zaragoza.

efascistssuperioritywas due primarily tothefact that theyoutgunned us,and to our being obliged to fight on two flanks only, with our le flank wide open


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tothe dangerofa sudden outflanking manoeuvre. We had no choice but tofallback and the operation, which had cost us only two wounded in the aack phase,cost us thirty dead and lots of wounded in the retreat phase.

e dead included our anarchist comrades Natale Cozzucoli, Luigi Crisai, Vio-

rio Golinelli,GuiseppeLivolsi,Filippo Pagani,Corrado Silvestriniandthe FrenchanarchistAndre Couderay.Amongthe manywounded was comradeVincenzoMazzone from Messina.

Guiseppe Bifolchihad provedthathe was possessed ofundeniabletechnicalexpertise, sangfroid and splendid courage. Antonio Cieri, who had rashly riskedhis neck a lot in the fighting with sorties alongside his grenadiers in the directionof Alcala de Gubierre, found himself surrounded by Moorish troops but managedto extricate himself and make his way back to our lines.

e positions captured on Monte FAI and Monte Capri proved excellent as theybrought the highway within range of our machine-guns. But the hostility of thecommunists who had not shrunk from treachery, and the short-sightedness of the

Catalan militarycommand,angerat the aborting of the operation merelybecauseof inadequate armaments, disgusted everybody.

December 1936

e nerve-fraying days ofpositionalwarfare now began. Oursectorof thefront looked like it had been completely abandoned. Whilst courage is requiredin bale, we revolutionaries, raring to go, needed even greater psychologicalcourage to endure trench life without moan or complaint, through the mud andtheice ofmid-winter, intemperatures sometimestwentydegrees below zero, indugouts awash with rainwater. By night we did sentry duty numbed by the cold

and snatched somereston straw beddinginfoxholesin Casa Blanca, in gravesinHuesca cemetery and beneath taered canvas. A dogs life!

We endured it with patient stoicism because, realising where our duty lay, weknew that for the first time anarchism had a chance to demonstrate its constructivepotential and we felt in one sense as if we were the forward sentries of the socialadvances being made through the Spanish revolution.

e aermath of thefailuretotake Almudevarmade deep inroadsinto ourmorale and into the very life ofour Column. Wefound ourselves consignedtoidleness, isolation,sacrifices. ose comrades who stillhad hugereserves ofenthusiasm andtheyoungerones chafed at the prospectofprotractedinactivityalongthefront. Cieri, the Perissino brothers, Tommaso Serra, Vindice Rabii,

Gigi Evangelisti and lots of others burned with a sacred thirst for action and, morethan anything else, cursed the higher ups.


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I remember one very heated meeting held in the Castillo Malatesta in thepresence ofBerneri. Itwenton fornearly24hours andinthe course of ita lotof things were made clear, lightwas shed on where alotof the blamelay,andthe situation was weighed upin a dispassionate and practicalway. Amongthe

comrades assembled there, there were some who had been in the trenches sinceAugust, living amid rats, hardships and lice, careless of the sores afflicting theirbodies (oen the products of dysentery, blood poisoning and other commonplacetrench ailments). ey had fought in every one of the bales along that front andhad absolutely no intention of kicking their heels and roing in the trenches.

eGiustizia e Libertapersonnelhad virtuallyallgone backto Barcelona orto France. e column hadturnedinto an anarchistunit for the mostpart. Adecision had to be made regardingthe command of the Columnvis a vis theCatalan government and the army command.

We all had the highest regard for men like Rosselli and Baistelli and theassertion made by AldoGarosci in his book Te Life of Rosselliwhich depicts

me as hostileto Carlo Rosselli falls shortof the truth. Iwas afriend ofCarloand we had been close since Paris. Our views were not the same and we startedfrom differentbasesto arrive atwhatwere oen differentconclusions,but theactual achievements of the Spanish anarchists drew him closer to the precepts ofProudhon and Bakunin for whom he had a great affection, and strengthened thebonds ofour friendship. We had noreasontofeelhostiletowards him andthereasonsthat induced ustorequesthimto give up the command were ofa verydifferent sort.

Rosselli was a politician and as such had too many irons in the fire at thesametime: there was his newspaper in Paris,hisGiustizia e Libertamovement,his dealings with foreign personalities for the purpose of ensuring shipments ofequipment, technicians,armshe had become a plenipotentiaryof the Catalangovernment in certain maers plus the military command off the Column. Atthe front things worked out practically like this: he was the nominal commander,whilstGiuseppe Bifolchiourcomradetook effective command of the Column.e abortive aack on Almudevar had exposed this deplorable shortcoming.

We agreed at the meeting in question that the Column could not go on wagingwar against the fascists with a commander accredited to the high command andthe Catalan governmentbutcontinuallyabsent fromthetheatre ofoperations,and anothercommander who in effectdid havethe duty to see the Columnsrequirements and deployment of its equipment and manpower for manoeuvres,and who was hampered in his every move because he was not formally recognisedby the Catalan government and military command. e dilemma was this: either

Rossellistayed with the Column andthus gave up his politicalactivity, orhepassed the command over to Bifolchi.


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Delegated by the assembly for this purpose alongwith other comrades, I tackledRosselliwho wasthen convalescinginthe Swiss ambulance onthefront fromphlebitis that was causing him agonyand keeping him bedridden, to pass onthe decision we had reached. Rosselli readily understood the arguments we put

forward and, in agreement with Baistelli who stuck with us to the very end, hesubmied his resignation and expressed himself satisfied that we were replacinghim with a man of the worth and competence ofGiuseppe Bifolchi whom hehonestly considered a friend.

We hadtorefer tothe CNT-FAIRegionalCommiee andtake stepsto haveBifolchi confirmed as commander of the Column in replacement of Rosselli. Nottaking time out to rest, we set off for Castillo Angiolillo at three in the morning.Berneri,Bifolchi,Russo(who was a captain with a POUM unitwho had asked usto do himthefavourofdriving himto Barcelona)andI in Rossellis car,drivenbyEquo Giglioli,brotherofRivoluzio Giglioli (he was killed onthefronton 20May 1937). On account of acute conjunctivitis contracted during the push against

Almudevar,myeye was giving me pain and aerwe passedthroughLeridaIwassiing quietlywhilethe others dozed aer the conversation died down. Giglioliwas driving and said nothing andinevitably,worn out,he skidded off theLeridatoTarragona highwayand wefound ourselves comingtorest inthe carwhichhad shot between two trees along the side of the road, on the right hand side ofa newlyplantedfield. is came as arude shock andthefirstoneto appreciateourposition was Berneri, whose head had burst through the canvas roofandframework leaving him with head and face slightlyscratched. Bifolchi had aswollen eye and Russo was complaining abouthisrightarm: the worst injuredwas Giglioliwho had sustained along,deep gashtotheridge ofhis eyebrows,whilst Iwas unscathed. We climbed out of the car,got Giglioli to hospital inTarragona and then journeyed on to Barcelona by train.

ere we were assuredthatan offensive onthe Aragonfrontwas being pre-pared. Wele fullofhope andletourcomrades knowthatwe would beveryshortly in action ourselves.

e night of31 December found men ofevery nationality and persuasiontogether as brothers at a supper laid on by Spanish anarchists and federalists inthemessatCastillo Angiolillo and we made speechesin praise of victoryandinternational solidarity.

Meanwhilethe Spanish newspapersreportedthatourcomrades Gino Bibbi,Giovanni Fontana and Umberto Tommasini had been arrested in Valencia oncharges of having sold arms for the Aragon front.


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January, February, March 1937

e three Italian anarchists arrested in Valencia had been arrested, not bythe State police acting onthe orders of the centralgovernmentbut ratherbya

specialpartypolice who,withverydefinite collusion,handedthem over toPoliceHeadquartersas counter-revolutionaries,and as such theyspenta numberofweeksin prison. Objections from anarchiststurnedinto a widespread protestcampaign by the press, the unions and military units that their arrest was robbingthem of precious help, without which a number of military operations would ofnecessityhaveto be postponed andre-evaluated. e Defence Minister,Prieto,had to intervene in person to secure their release.

Ourcomrades had been carryingthe usualpapers plus specialsafe conductsissued by the Defence Ministryand Prieto himself, to assist themin mountingdelicate sabotage operations against the fascist enemy, plus spectacular missionsthatonlyan engineerand aviator like Bibbiand expertslike Fontana andTom-

masinicould have performedinthe port. But the Bolsheviks had gotwind ofthis and such was the influence they wielded over officials and institutions thatthe government and its ministers were powerless against them and the comradesdocuments,whose authenticitywasincontrovertible,were calledinto questionor downright invalidated.

Once freed, our comrades had to give the slip to a manhunt mounted andorganised by the Bolsheviks. is episode, together with a lot of others, providesa small taste of the tyrannical nature ofcertain methods and how mightyaninfluence the Communist Party had come to wield in the most sensitive areas ofgovernment and war policy with its interference.

e situation on the Aragon front remained one of no change.Among us there was a contingent ofSwiss fighters, machine-gunners and

medics,who deserve mention and praise. e medicsranthefield hospitalex-pertlyand unselfishly (we usedtorefer toit as the Swiss ambulance) fromitslocation midwaybetweenthe CastilloAngiolillo and Huesca cemetery,on thenational highway. Itwas overseen by a professor,a very talented and, in hisown country, rathercelebrated surgeon. Extremely likeable,modestand mildmannered, he regarded science as a calling and had rushed out to Spainto dohis humane duty.He was surrounded byconscientious physicians who made nosecret of their sympathies with Russia and the Bolshevik party.

Our beloved professor had a special fondness for us Italian anarchists and hesoon revealed the way his mind had begun to work by enthusiastically announcingthathe was an anarchist,which we made sureto celebrateinthe austere privacy

ofhis quarters. It was onthat occasion thathe overcame his fearand told usabout the pey intrigues of his colleagues, their repeated aempts to recruit him


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andthe meanness and peyhatredstheyhad cometo directathim oncetheyrealised that he was prompted by quite different feelings.

Icame across him aer the Mayevents,wanderingthe streets ofBarcelona,ofno useto himselforanybodyelse,ata time whenthere was a dire needfor

surgeons and doctorsinthe hospitals.He wantedto go backto Switzerland butacourt in his home town had sentenced him to a six month term of imprisonmentfor having le the country irregularly at a time when Switzerland was not issuingpassports to doctors it suspected might wind up in Spain. e Negrin governmenthad ostracised this scientist, who had carried out operations regarded as nothingshort of miraculous, simply because his colleagues at the Swiss Ambulance hadmade him suspect in the eyes of the Spanish Communist Party.

e watchword washang onandfor three months we held ontothe Huescafrontamid unprecedented hardship, impatience andfretfulness on the partofmen who had come there to fight, ready to accept even death provided it mighthelp the thing that had spurred them into action. e comrades found it hard to

toleratethatdaily repetition of the same old chorus, thetiresome work with pickand shovel expended on building up and knocking down again, the presence inthe besieged cityofHuesca ofan enemy thatwejustknew wasvulnerable andwithin range had we but had the wherewithal to mount an offensive. at sense ofabandonmentandisolationthatgrippedthethroat, frayedthe nerves and souredthe mind, turning men from rational beings into crotchety, overbearing ones withno sense of fairplay. e suffering we endured over thosethreelong monthson our stretch of front cannot be appreciated by anyone who did not experienceit. ere were comrades there who ploed virtual suicide missions: others whomounted coups de main of addle-minded rashness, driven by the need to stretchones legs. ree months in the depths of winter, in the foothills of the Pyrenees,at the mercy of the elements: three months with no action, defensive or offensive,were truly unbearable.

eyoungerones chafed at the bit. Amongthose mostdeterminedto breakthe monotony were Cieri, the Perissino brothers, Gigi Evangelisti, Bernardini andothers of tried and tested daring.

In Barcelona, comrade Ailio Bulzamini died.

April 1937

Into the rising tide of resentment and malaise fell the commands response toour insistentand repeatedrequestsforaction. But there wastalk ofa group of

volunteers from the Column taking part in an operation on the slopes facing our


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positions asthe preludeto a push against long held and solidlyentrenched enemypositions.

e operation appeared to offer lile assurance of success and back-up, leavingBifolchi sceptical whilst the more hot-headed reckoned that the objective might

well be aainable given sufficient daring and speed: essentially, both views werecorrect.

I was to have taken part in the sortie, but I was taken into hospital in Barbastrowith an untimelydeteriorationinthe condition ofmy righteye,a bad dose ofconjunctivitis contracted in the action at Almudevar,on the very eve of thedeparture of the expeditionary group for Apies aboard twolorries, under thecommand of Antonio Cieri and Aldo Perissino.

Tommaso Serra,a splendid Sardinian comrade who was all faith and kindness,who came to look me up in hospital in Barbastro a few days aer the action,brought me up to date with the fate of that intrepid expedition with its countlessaendant acts of daring.

e action started onthe nightof 78 April.Aeralotofmishaps and setbacks,by dawn on 8 April our people had reached the woodland at Apies and had hiddenbehind the trees and shrubbery there from the eyes of the enemy who were postedon the hills opposite. e position was scarcely the best and as any moment theymight be spoed and encircled, or lose contact with the other units, the nearestof which was the P. Kropotkin baalion made up of anarchist youth, which waslater to be decimated by fascist aircra.

e Spanish command spoke up. Bernadini, a comrade from Trieste who hada marvellous command ofSpanish, translated. e position opposite hadto betaken and the machine-guns blazing away from a farmstead known as the CasaBecha located on the brow of the hill had to be taken out. Our people insisted thattheyshould waituntilnightfall,when,undercoverof the darknesstheycouldhave taken the position with a surprise flanking aack and that crossing the 500metres of open ground between the woods and the hill was certain suicide. Butthere was no listening to reason: the command gave the orders and they had toadvance.

And so our people did advance, with the automatic rifles in front and riflemenalong the flanks. ey were met by an initial burst of enemy gunfire that seriouslywoundedGigi Evangelisti (Gigi the Handsome as we used to call him) as heemerged from cover. Another brave young comrade, Luigi Trapasso (Orseo orLile Bear) died in the aempt.

Casa Becha was taken, and the operation passed off successfully with a few deadand a lot of courage: it was an action worthy of commandos and revolutionaries.

Some comrades had dropped from the roof into the farmhouse which was stilloccupied by a few fascists, and it was in the course of this that Aldo Perissino was


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woundedintheleg. Unableto stanchthe bleeding, the wounded Perissino wasevacuated to the first aid post in Apies. at was the last we ever saw of him. Wesearched for him, his brother Corrado and I some days aer calm was restored to no avail, traipsing from hospital to hospital along the route to Barcelona and

back again. e onlyplausible explanationforhis disappearance wasthat thewounded man and his stretcher bearers had been caught in a bomb explosion andbeen killed.

Aldo Perissino was the third-born of three brothers and one sister, all of themanarchists. Offspring ofa very talented and exquisitelysensitive painter, theyswitched from a comfortable existence in their unforgeable Venice home to a lifeof toil and privation in Paris, where they had been forced to flee due to harassmentby fascists who especially targetedthe second-born and mostpugnacious of thefour, Mario.

Tall,sturdyand highly intelligent,Aldo had been passionate andthoughtfulbynature.He had embraced our ideas with enthusiasm and conviction:he was

one of the besthopes ofourmovement. He had conducted himselfheroically inthe operation,with superior judgementand generosity: he was ableto exhort,comfort, reason and make decisions. He was a man of action, a born revolutionary.

atnightwhileinspectingthe captured positionto ensurethatallwas asitshould be, Antonio Cieri was struck in the temple by a rifle bullet fired from anadjacentenemy-held hilland was killedinstantly. A native of Vasto,Cierihadembraced anarchism at a very early age. By nature exuberant, daring and resolute,he had taken part in the defence ofParma against Italo Balbos fascist hordesalongsidethearditi del popolo(peoples commandos)and togetherwith GuidoPicelli made an effective contribution to the resistance offered from the fortressthat the old Parma across theriverhad become, resistancethatcompelledthefascists to beat a retreat as happened in Sarzana in July 1921. e people of Parmastill remember that fair-hairedyouth whofliedfrom groupto group offeringencouragement,and those adults whomI had occasionto meet in Parma aertheLiberation stillspoke ofhim with emotion and affection asifhe was afellowtownsman of theirs.

In Cieriand Perissino welost two priceless assetsto ourmovementand ouridea alike, as well as to the revolutionary struggle in Spain. ey belonged to thatbreed of militant who had seen it all: struggle, misery, imprisonment, exile, andyet they remained morefirmlyweddedto anarchismthan ever,makingtheirowncontributionstothe cause whose veryexistence was increasingly injeopardy,beset as it was by dangers and snares, we militants sensible to the ever growingburden they have to bear with every one of our number whose body is returned

to mother earth.


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ofGiroi (wounded on the Huesca front), some in the Calle Muntaner, somewith comrades like Gialluca and dear Maria who gave of their best in Barcelonascollectivised industries from the earliest days of the struggle right up to the exodusat the end of it. Berneri and Barbieri, Mastrodicasa and Fantozzi, Fosca Corsinovi

andToscaTantinioccupied afirst floorapartmentatNo 2,Plaza delAngel,at theintersection with the Via Layetana.

As can be seen, the comrades were scaered allover the place andthe onlyliaison pointwas the USI (Italian SyndicalistUnion)branchthatoccupiedtwosmall roomsinthe CNTs premises: Celso Persici,DomenicoLudovici fromIlRisveglioofGeneva, Virgilio Ghozzoliwho editedGuerra di Classealong withCamillo Berneri looked aer theserooms andtheyallsaw to propaganda andliaison with the international anarchist movement.

We had along and stormymeeting at the Malatesta group and avarietyofschemes and plans were ventilated by the comrades. Some would gladly have seenthe anarchists enlist with the Garibaldi baalion commanded by Pacciardi, which

was preparing an operation onthe Huescafront (thislater turned out to be thebale of Cimilla, mentioned by Fausto Nii in Te Major is a Redwhich probes thebaalion), even if for that operation only Baistelli, Canzi, Marioi and a fewothers had already transferred to it: others argued, first, that the intention was todisgrace the anarchists by mounting an operationon that front at the very momentwhen the Column had been obliged to return to Barcelona by the pigheadednessof the Spanish commandinrefusingto accedeto ourdemandforaction onthefront,and,secondly, that if the command withheld permissionfor the Columntobereorganised as a politically independent free corpsin a positionto operate withcomplete freedom of movement, engage in coups de main and marginal operationsthat would simultaneously have enabled it to retain its combat and revolutionaryvocations, thenthe best thing wasforeach ofustoreclaim his personal freedom,and make ourselves useful in some anarchistcollective orwhereverhe judgedbest.

On 3 May Camillo Berneri made a radio broadcast in commemoration of Anto-nio Gramsci, paying tribute to him in a speech in a moving spirit of brotherhoodas an antifascistwho had perishedinthe hands of the enemy,a cultivated manand a political adversary.

atwas the position andthe climate prevailingin Barcelona whentheinci-dents in Barcelona burst unexpectedly upon us.

May 1937

e aitude of the Communists had come up for consideration at the meting ofItalian anarchists in the Malatesta groups hall.Adecision had been made that we


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would keepin as close a contactwith one anotheras we could,and, inthe eventofdirect threat to ourpersons,would musterat theItalian Section of the CNTDefence Commiee and at the Spartacus barracks. But itwas hardto put thisdecisioninto practice,giventhe speed atwhichthings moved, for theycaught

everyanarchist in Barcelona unawares, Domingo Ascasoincluded, though hewas usually so well informed: he was treacherously murdered in Gracias, smackdab in the middle of Barcelona, whilst geing out of his car.

Inthe earlyhours of the aernoon of3 May, twolorry loads ofCivilGuardsdrew up outsidethe premises of theTelephone Exchangeinthe Plaza de Catalua.Simultaneously, substantial numbers of Guards on foot and armed groups from thePSUC (Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia communists) took over the buildingsadjacent to the Exchange and all the strategic points in the city.

Since 19 July 1936 the Exchange had been converted from a privately ownedcompany to a collectivisedindustry run by the CNT,with support from grass-roots members of the UGT. e government had decreed a state take-over of the

economy,at theinstigation of the communists who hopedtotakethe governmentoverpoliticallyoncethe Catalan economyhad been wrestedfrom the controlof the unions. For some time the government andthe communists alike hadbeen seekingtointroduce state capitalism, or, at leasta restoration ofprivatecapitalism: this, they reckoned, would win them the sympathy and perhaps thesupport of capitalist governments in Britain and France, luring them out of theirnon-intervention. eyhad ventedtheirspleen onthelibertarian collectives,targetedthe anarchists withtheirphysicalhatred and declared open waron theFAI and the CNT.

e storming of theTelephone Exchange wasthefirstessayata communistcoup detat, to be followed up by steps in the process of political and tactical take-over that would leave the Spanish Communist Party master of the situation andRussian Bolshevik agents the arbiters of Spanish foreign policy. We thought thatthat was the plan laid down by Stalin, and facts later confirmed that, just as wewere preparing to resist it.

e aempt to seizethe Telephone Exchange building was repulsed by theworkforce there. With the extraordinary speed of an emancipated and naturallyrevolutionary people, the populace retaliated. It was instantly able to identify theculprits and askedfor the dismissaland arraignmentbefore a peoples courtofRodriguez Salas, the commissar-generalofPublic Order,offAiguade, the Ministerof Health, Joan Comorera, the commissar in charge of Supply (provisions) . . . allthree of them known communists of the PSUC,ofwhich Comorera wasinfactthe general secretary.

Everywhere the workers threw up barricades.Our comrades stayed where theywere when events overtookthem and were unableto move around atall.Most


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of them were concentrated along with a few weapons in the Spartacus barracksand at the Defence Commiee offices, where Bifolchi was. Zambonini, the bravecomrade who wasto be shot inItalyby the Germans,was at the FoodworkersUnion along with a lot of others he sustained serious facial injuries there. Angelo

Buschiwas at the MetalworkersUnion,some others were at theTextile WorkersUnioninthe Plaza de Catalua,whilst Iwas at the Defence CommieeinthePlaza de Espaa along with Corrado Perissino, EmanueleGranata and Verde (anArgentinian).

etoll inthose days ofhorrorwhichlastedfrom 3to7Maywas500dead,andupwards of 1400 wounded, almost all of them members of the anarchist movementand the CNT-affiliated unions.

Camillo Berneri was murdered on the night of 56 May and his body wasrecovered by the Red Cross from the land between the right hand side of the Plazadel Angel (where he had been living) and the Plaza de la Generalidad, parallel tothe Calle Roland. Francesco Barbieri, arrested by the very same killers dressed as

police personnel, was found dead in the Rambla de las Flores. We Canzi, FoscaCorsinovi, Vincenzo Mazzone and I identified both bodies on the morning of 6May at the Clinical Hospital.

e murderofourcomrades bore all the hallmarks ofpoliticalassassinationand it was not hard to identify the political movement to which the perpetratorsbelonged, since they were the same people who had murdered Domingo Ascaso,

Jean Ferrand (the grandson of Francisco Ferrer), the POUM secretary Andreu Nin,the Austrian revolutionary Kurt Landau, Marc Rhein (the son of Raphael RheinAbramovich of the Executive Commission of the Second International) and HansBeimler, the one-time German communist deputy.

Other Italians had been murdered for belongingto the Italian Column andotherFAIand CNTcombatunits: Adriano Ferrari, Lorenzo Perreiand PietroMarcon,who were buriedinthe same cemeteryand alongside Camillo Berneriand Francesco Barbieri.

On 20 May Rivoluzio Giglioli died at Carascal No 2, at the position known asTorraza.Whilst his company ofSapperswas fortifying the position, he broke coverand was hit inthelowerstomach bya bullet that rippedthrough hisintestines.Rushed to hospital in Barcelona, he died under care there, content to die for thecauseforwhich he had given his all, from his childhoodin Modenathroughtohistime ofexile.Gigliolis deathin1937brought to a closethelonglistof Italiananarchists who perishedinidealistic affirmation of internationalsolidarityandfor the liberation of the Spanish people.

Lots of anarchists stayed in Spain right to the end of the hostilities, the defeat

andthe massive exodus fromthe country. Lots of Italian anarchists too werejailed, thrownin prison withouteverbeing given areasonfor theirdetention:


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manyof those who enlisted withthe Spanish anarchist formations sufferedthatfate: lots stayed withthe agriculturalor industrialcollectivesrightup totheirdismantling by violence.

eItalian anarchistscontributiontothe Spanishrevolutionaryexperiment

was wholehearted,unselfish and sincere:averitable poem ofgenerosity, fraternalsolidarity,audacity,consistencyof ideals and sublimeresolution,which haditssequel in the liberation struggle in Italy.

Umberto Marzocchi

Epilogue: the death of Berneri

On 1 May (1937) Iwas not in Barcelona but in Albero Bajo wherethe 26th

Division hadits command headquarters. (Returningto Barcelona) Iwent to Sanstothe Defence Commieerun byGiovanni Verde,anItalian comrade who hadlived in Argentina. I was his guest and quickly rushed to the phone, making calls

here and there, but no one could give me any news of Berneri, until I had a callfrom Canziaera couple ofdays. Hetold me: Ive beentoldthatBernerihadbeen killed and that the corpse can be found at the morgue at the Policlinicohospital. So we arranged to meet up and we went to the hospital, Canzi, FoscaCorsinovi (Barbieris partner), Vincenzo Mazzonefrom Messina and myself.Atthe Policlinico there were at least 400bodies. We started to sort through thedrawers . . . and I heard Corsinovi faint. She had recognised Camillos socks,because she had done his darning.

en came the funeral. Berneris funeral procession followed an itinerary setby the Generalidad. Now this was a funeral for five, not for two, because Berneriand Barbieri had been joined by Ferrari and by someone else whose name escapes

mejustat the moment (itwas De Pedrei-editors note)who had been killedbecause they were wearing black and red neckerchiefs with FAI wrien on them.We wanted our own itinerary and not the one set by the government and aboveall we wanted to march, especially past the Hotel Colon, which was the Russiansheadquarters in the Plaza de Catalua; and we did. At the head of the processionthere were a hundred flags, all the unions, all the groups, followed by five tanksand behind the tanks a hundred anarchists from the MIR, the RevolutionaryInvestigation Movement,complete withtheirMausers,and thenthe crowds. Imarched in front with the Italian flag [the Italian anarchists flag, that is editorsnote]and when we drew parallelwiththe HotelColonIwavedtheflag and allthe otherhundredflags waved,withtheir flagpoles pointedtowardsthe hotel.

is was a provocative act and our belief was, well, that they would respond tothe challenge. But no, not a thing. ey stood to aention and saluted.


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UMBERTO MARZOCCHI Notes on his

life

1900 Umberto Marzocchibornin Florence on10 October: his parents arefrom Livorno.

1917 As alabourerworkingfor Vickers-Terniat the navaldockyardinLaSpezia he aends nightclasses at the Arts and Cras School. With a numberofanarchists excused front line service he refloats the Metalworkers Union affiliatedto the USI and serves as its secretary. Along with a number of very young peoplehe was active in all of the agitation and strikes at the end of the war (in November1918).

1919 e anarchist movement in La Spezia is resurrected (ithere are 30 groupsscaered along the bay from Cinque Terre to Arcola). e newspaperIl Libertariois resurrected and run by Pasquale Binazzi on his return from internment inLipari.On 16 June there is rioting in La Speia against the cost of living: the policeopen fire, killing 2 workers and wounding 25. Marzocchi serves on the campaigncommiee. He is arrested and jailed in Sarzana but acquied in court and freedaer 54daysin custody. e court in Chiavarisentences himto sixmonthsinjail for incitement to class hatred for a speech he made to an anti-governmentprotest rally, aer some early fascists threw a bomb at a workers procession inMilan killing one and wounding a number of others.

1920 ere is an aemptat revolution in the garrison town of La Spezia.On 3Junethereis araid ontheValdi Locchiarsenal;a numberofsailors areinvolved and there is a mutiny on board the destroyer Duilio, in which Marzocchiisinvolved. Triedin his absence on 21February 1921,heis acquied. He plays

an active part in the factory seizures in La Spezia on 2 September.1921 Aer the fascists on the evening of 23 March smash the presses on which

the dailyUmanit Novais produced in Milan, Il Libertariobecomes a weekly andMarzocchi joins the editorial team. But his position becomes untenable: havingescapedrepeated provocations andthreatsfromthefascists,he fleesto Savona.ere he plays an active part in the local anarchist group. Herepresents theSavona anarchists on the Antifascist Labour Alliance Commiee that backs theantifascistgeneralstrike declared acrossthe countryon 3August. on 8August,fascists from allover Liguria and Piedmont descend on Savona to punish thecity for its antifascism. e town hall,where Marzocchi is working, is seizedandfascistsfromLa Spezia hunthim down, meaningto make him paydearly

for having organised the Arditi del Popolo and his participation alongside thesearditi in the events in Sarzana on 21 July, in connection with which hewas charged


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but acquied in court. With the help of colleagues, he manages to get away andflees to France where he spends the next 23 years, enduring expulsion orders andimprisonment, living under assumed names and up to his neck in all the anarchistand antifascist struggles.

1936 Along with Camillo Berneri, he serves in the Francisco Ascaso ItalianColumn, part of the CNT-FAI militias on the Aragon front in Spain.

1939 Aer the defeat of the Republic in March, he returns to France, fightingagainst the Nazi invasion and contactingthe French Resistance(FFI) inToulouse.He worksinthelead and zinc minesin Sentininthe Ariege department,2000metres above sealevel. He spendstwoyearsthere organising smugglinglinesacross the border.

1942 He movesto StGirons andin1944,his missioninthe citycomplete,he rejoins his partisan unit, the Bidon 5-Spanish Unit of the FFI, made up ofanarchists and socialists. On 20 August 1944 his unit takes part in the liberationofSt Girons, Rimont, Pamier andthe Le Vernet concentration camp where

German POWs replace the freed antifascist inmates.1944 at October he carries a message of support to the Iberian AnarchistFederation Congress[ere was a nationalplenum of regionals of the MLEinFrance heldinToulouse513October 1944 (maybethe FAIheld a sub-meetingat the sametime)]and sets offwith G. Levaland Mirande on alecturetouronbehalf of the SIA (International Antifascist Solidarity).

1945 Re-enters Italy (by irregular means, the National Liberation Commieegovernmenthavingrefusedto withdrawtheimmigration noticerecording Mar-zocchias ananarchist to be arrested on sight)andresumes his propaganda work,writingforIl Libertario,Umanit Novaand VolontandtouringItalywherevercalled upon to give talks and hold rallies on behalf of the Italian Anarchist Federa-tion(FAI), forwhich he handles mostly international relations, in which positionhe is conformed by every FAI congress. In accordance with the recommendationsof the Carrara Congress(1519 September)he joinsthe Trade Union DefenceGroups and up until 1955 serves as secretaryof the Savona Provincial LocalGovernment Employees Union.

1958 Aends the International Anarchist congress in London as the delegatefrom the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI).

1968 FAI delegate at the foundation congress of the International of AnarchistFederations(IFA)heldin Carrarafrom 31August to5 September. He debatedagainst Daniel Cohn-Bendit at the congress

1969 In the wake of the State massacres [e bombings in Milan and Romecarried outby fascistslinkedtotheItalian securityservice as partof theStrat-

egyof Tension],heis subjectedto searches by the police, likelots ofanarchistcomrades.


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1971 e IFA congress in Paris entrusts the Liaison Commission of thatInternational to the Italian FAI. Marzocchi serves as its secretary, a post he holdsup until 1983.

1977 He is amongthe sponsors of therefloating of theItalian Syndicalist

Union (USI) and the Italian League for Unilateral Disarmament alongside CarloCassola and other anti-militarists.

1977 He is arrested in Spain along with other comrades at an internationalanarchist gathering to reloat the Spanish FAI. Aer a few days he was freed andexpelled from that country.

1982 Addresses a rally in Livorno at the end of the National Anti-MilitaristDemonstration. e last public rally he aends is one in Pisa to mark the unveilingofa monument to Franco Serantini. [Anarchistmilitantkilledin May 1972 bypolice defending afascist demonstration. He was severelybeaten and deniedmedical treatmentwhich would have saved hislife.] He alsotakes part in a TVdebate on the War in Spain.

1983 At the Ancona Convention marking the 50th

anniversary ofErricoMalatestas death he reads a paper on e lesson of Malatesta.FromUmanit Nova(Livorno) 15 June 1986.Other credentials of his:One of thefounders with Malatesta andLuigiFabbri of the UAI (Italian

Anarchist Union) in 1920.Savona provincial president of the ANPIA (National Association of Italian

Antifascist Victims ofPolitical Persecution), provincial president of the ANPI(National Partisans Association of Italy), national vice-president of the AICVAS (Association of Italian Antifascist Volunteer Fighters in Spain).


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Note on the Text

e chronologicalaccountof theItalian Anarchistsinthe militias comesfrom

Memorie Antologica in Ricordo di Camillo Berneri(Pistoia1986)pp 5480. ebiographical note, introduction and the epilogue are taken from an article inBolleino Archivio G. PinelliNo. 10 (December 1997) pp12-15. e notes onMarzocchislife aretakenfromUmanit Nova. All translation byPaulSharkeyfor the Kate Sharpley Library


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eAnarchist LibraryAnti-Copyright

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Umberto MarzocchiRemembering Spain : Italian anarchist Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

2005,Updatedin 2014

Retrieved on August 21, 2014 from hp://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xgxf5b

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Umberto Marzocchi Remembering Spain Italian Anarchist Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War