In the 1930’s Europe was experiencing one of its’ worst everslumps. The Wall Street crash came in 1929 and its repercus-sions were felt far and wide. Spain was no exception

By 1936 unemployment had gone over 30% in many of the towns andcities Out of a total workforce of three million, one million were out ofwork. There was no dole and as prices rose by 80% in the five years upto 1936, many encountered severe hardship.

Land

By European standards Spain was a particularly backward country.There had been little industrial development and 70% of the peoplestill lived on the land. 52% of the workforce was employed in agricul-ture which accounted for between one half and two thirds of Spain’s

Anarchism in ActionThe Spanish Civil War

Workers SolidarityMovement

June 2001PDF edition

www.struggle.ws/wsm

1st published 19862nd edition 1993e-mail addition 1994HTML Markup 1995PDF version June 2001

by Eddie Conlon

Much has been written about theSpanish Civil War but the contribu-tion of the Anarchists has been eithertotally ignored or reduced to a fewfootnotes which were often composedof blatant lies or generalised slanderreferring to 'wreckers'. To set therecord straight this pamphlet was pro-duced. It is not a history of the CivilWar, that would require many hun-dreds of pages to do justice to the sub-ject. It is an uncovering of the "hiddenhistory" of the Anarchist participationin Spain's anti-fascist struggle.

It has not been written because of some aca-demic interest but because Anarchism isstill as relevant now as then. We have seenthe results of social democracy and it's La-bour Parties, we have seen what theStalinists have done in Russia, China, Al-bania and their satellites, we have seenhow their left critics in the Trotskyist move-ment have been unable to come to gripswith the real problem. And that real prob-lem is the authoritarian idea that the worldcan be changed over the heads of the work-ers. It can, but it won't be much better.

Only Anarchism with its concept 'of social-ism based on individual freedom and thepower of workers' councils stands apartfrom all this. That is why, despite four dec-ades of repression, the CNT reappeared asa real union after the death of Franco. Webelieve that Anarchism is not just anotherchoice for those who want a better world,the history of all other ‘left’ movementsshows that Anarchism is a necessity.

Glossary and Chronology at end

Chapter 1 - Rebellion and Resistance

exports.

The division of land was the worst inEurope. A massive 67% was in the handsof just 2% of all landowners. In 1936,10,000 proprietors owned half of the na-tional territory. The remaining land wasowned by “middle owners” and peasants.The “middle owners” were more numer-ous than the big landowners but they alsohad large estates worked by sharecrop-pers and landless labourers.

The rest of the land was owned by peas-ants, of whom there were five millionBecause most of them had insufficientland they hired themselves out as daylabourers. Others took to sharecropping.

Boom

Spain’s boom period had been duringWorld War I when it had remained neu-tral. Agriculture thrived due to the largeforeign markets for its exports. At thesame time some industrialisation tookplace. After the war, though, this boomcame to an end, especially when tariffbarriers were thrown up by Britain andFrance against Spanish exports.

While the boom lasted the landownersreaped the benefits but when the slumparrived it was the peasants who suffered.conditions in the Spain of the 1930’s werecomparable with the Orient. Starvationwas _normal_ between the harvests. Thepress of the time carried reports of wholedistricts living on roots and boiled greens.The industrialisation that had takenplace was mainly confined to one area-Catalonia. Situated in the Northeast bor-dering on France, Catalonia, especiallyits capital Barcelona, became the indus-trial centre of Spain, with 70% of all in-dustry and 50% of industrial workers.Many peasants left the land to seek workin Barcelona, which added to the alreadyexisting unemployment.

Other forces at the time were the Catho-lic church and the army. While there were25,000 parish priests there were a fur-ther 70,000 in religious orders. The Jesu-its alone owned 30% of the country’swealth. The numbers in the orders actu-ally outnumbered the total of secondaryschool students. While millions were keptilliterate (40% could neither read norwrite) the church preached superstitiousreports of incredible incidents such asstatues seen weeping and crucifixes ex-uding blood.

The Church was renowned for siding withthe bosses and while the priests were liv-ing in luxury the peasants around themoften starved. It is little wonder theChurch was hated.

The army was famous for its number ofofficers. There was one for every six sol-diers! This officer caste had been devel-oped under the monarchy (which wasended in 1931) and was responsible for

the whole colonial administration alongwith much of that in the country itself.Drawn from the upper classes they weretied by kinship, friendship and social po-sition to the industrialists and reaction-ary landowners.

The Republic

The Spanish Republic was born in 1931.The workers and peasants, having gonethrough years of dictatorship, believedthat maybe now the country would bemodernised and their living standardswould begin to improve.

It was not to be so. One example will suf-fice. The republican government set upthe Institute for Agrarian Reform to lookinto the redistribution of land. By its ownadmission its programme would havetaken a whole century to implement.

The republican/social-democratic coali-tion which came to power in 1931 did lit-tle to improve living conditions for thevast majority of workers. Unemploymentremained high and the working class or-ganisations, especially the CNT, sufferedrepression with many members beingimprisoned. By June 1933 there were9,000 political prisoners.

The government refused to take on theindustrialists, landowners, army officersand bishops. It would not stand up to thatminority which owned all the wealth andhad all the real power. In the election of1933 they fell and a right-wing coalitioncame to power.

This marked the beginning of what be-came known as the “bienno negro” thetwo black years. The right went on theoffensive. The coalition of the wealthyand powerful now had state power andwere determined to use it to smash work-ing class and peasant resistance. Theirprivileges were to be maintained at theexpense of the workers.

Asturia

Of course this was not taken lightly. TheCNT organised as best it could againstthe government. A rising took place inCatalonia in December, shortly after thechange of government. It was crushedafter ten days. The following year theworkers of the CNT joined with their fel-low workers in the UGT (General Unionof Workers, controlled by the SocialistParty) in a revolt in the Asturias region.The workplaces were taken over and theunion members took up arms against thestate. Unfortunately they were isolatedfrom the rest of the country. The massa-cre that followed their defeat was unprec-edented with at least 3,000 being ex-ecuted.

By the time this government was forcedto resign and call elections for FebruaryI 936 there were 30,000 political prison-ers. The election was won by the Popular

Front, a coalition of republicans, social-democrats and the Stalinists of the Com-munist Party. Their victory was mainlydue to the CNT not running a campaigncalling on the workers to abstain fromvoting. In previous elections they haddone so because they believed that theballot box was a con as you could onlychoose who would rule over you, notwhether you wanted to be ruled or not.Instead they said workers should rely ontheir industrial muscle to change things.

This time the CNT took no position, leav-ing it to individual members to decide Theresults made it obvious they had voted,mainly because the Popular Front hadpromised an amnesty for the prisoners.

The workers, though, did not wait for thegovernment to act. They opened the pris-ons themselves and released their com-rades. It did not stop there. The electionresult was seen as an impetus to go onthe offensive. They had voted for changeand if the government was not going todeliver they would get results them-selves.

Strikes

Between the election in February and thefascist revolt in July there were 113 gen-eral strikes, 228 partial general strikes,145 bomb explosions, 269 deaths, 1287wounded, 215 assaults and 160 churchesburned. Of course all this was not part ofthe Popular Front programme which waswatery and essentially aimed at main-taining anti-fascist unity. It was notaimed at smashing capitalism and thepower of the Spanish elite. Sections of theSocialist Party, however, went beyond thePopular Front programme and many ofthem in the UGT again joined with theircomrades in the CNT to fight the passiv-ity of the government.

On June 13th, 30,000 Asturian minersstruck; on June 19th 90,000 minersthroughout the country were on strike.Every city of importance had at least onegeneral strike. Over one million were outin the first days of July. Strikers werenot only fighting for economic demands,political demands were also made. OnJuly 14th there was a large demonstra-tion outside a ball at the Brazilian em-bassy. The workers carried placards say-ing “Republican Ministers amuse them-selves while workers die”.

While the Republican government did allit could to get the situation under con-trol, the Communist Party condemnedthe strikes for bringing workers into col-lision with the government. The govern-ment duly filled the jails and closed downthe offices of the CNT.

Coup

As with all ruling classes that becomedesperate, they decided that parliamen-tary democracy was to be disposed of and

the workers’ organisation smashed.Bosses don’t always oppose fascism be-cause they know they sometimes have toresort to it. Their wealth and privilegescome before all other considerations. Asin Germany and Italy they decided theorganised working class had to be putdown so they could hang onto theirwealth and continue to make profits.While some will initially oppose fascism,and in Spain some did, it is neverthelessa call of last resort and they will go alongwith it if they see it as necessary to main-tain their power. In the Basque Countrythe nationalists initially opposed the fas-cists. But when the choice of fascism orsocial revolution became clear, they of-fered little resistance to Franco.

The coup was to be launched on July I7th. The initial step was taken whenFranco seized Morocco and issued a “radi-cal manifesto”. This was picked up by aloyal radio operator who passed it on tothe Minister for the Navy. The news ofthe coup was kept secret until 7pm onthe 18th. The government assured thecountry it was in control. By this it meantit was trying to come to terms with thefascists. The cabinet resigned on the 18thand Borrios, a right wing republican, wasmade prime minister.

Masses

This plan to come to a deal was onlysmashed by the activity of the organisedworking class. The fascists made someheadway in parts of the country wherelittle opposition was offered as a resultof government hesitation. But in Catalo-nia, and especially in Barcelona, theworkers of the CNT showed how to fight.They declared a general strike and tookto the streets looking for arms which thegovernment refused to give them. In theend they stormed the barracks, and tookwhat they needed. They were aided bysoldiers who had remained loyal, someof whom turned their guns on their offic-ers.

The workers immediately set up barri-cades and within hours the rising hadbeen defeated. Arms were siezed andgiven to groups of workers who were dis-patched to other areas to prevent risingsoccurring. Madrid was also saved becauseof the heroism and initiative of the work-ers. Hearing of what had happened inBarcelona they had stormed the MontanaBarracks, the main army base in the city.

In Valencia they surrounded the bar-racks, a situation which lasted for twoweeks. Still the government refused toarm the workers and it was only afterarms were sent from Barcelona and Ma-drid that the barracks was successfullytaken. In Asturias the rebels were beatenafter prolonged fighting leading to manydeaths. Then the miners outfitted a col-umn of 5,000 dynamiters who marchedto Madrid.

Throughout the country the initiativetaken by workers and peasants was stop-ping the fascists in their tracks. This wasthe story in three quarters of the coun-try. Elsewhere valuable time was lost dueto the indecision of government officials.In Saragossa the workers failed to putdown the rising. Juan Iopez, a leadingCNT militant, put this down to the factthat they “lost too much time having in-terviews with the civil governor, we evenbelieved in his promises”.

Thus by the action of the rank and file

was “the Spanish Republic saved’. Notjust the CNT but members of the UGTand the POUM (Workers Party of Marx-ist Unity) joined in the fighting. For theseworkers this was not just a war to defeatthe fascists but the beginning of a revo-lution. Workers militias were establishedindependently of the state. Workplaceswhich had been abandoned by the formerbosses were taken over and in the ruralareas the peasants seized the land. Forthe anarchists this was the chance to puttheir ideas into practice.

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 misunderstood set of ideas. It is constantly portrayed as mean-ing chaos and violence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anarchists believein creating a classless society. They oppose capitalism as a system that puts theprofits of a small minority of bosses before the needs of the vast majority. It is asystem based on the exploitation of workers, a system that inevitably causes povertystarvation and war. Anarchists oppose authority in the sense of opposing the ‘right’of any small minority to have power over everyone else. They oppose the State (mean-ing government, army, police, courts) as an institution whose purpose is to enforcethe will of a minority on the majority.

Chapter 2 - Anarchism in Action

Anarchists believe in class struggle, thatthe bosses and workers have no commoninterest and that the workers must or-ganise to take over the running of soci-ety Ordinary workers are quite capableof running society. It would be donethrough a system of workers’ councilswith mass democracy which would be farmore rational democratic and efficientthan the existing set-up. Anarchistsstand up for the freedom of the individualand oppose all oppression on the basis ofrace, sex or sexual orientation. The onlylimit on individual freedom should bethat it does not interfere with the free-dom of others.

From early on the anarchists opposed thebuilding of bureaucratic State Capitalismin Russia. Initially they supported therevolution but were against the attemptsof the Bolsheviks to take power into theirown hands and create the seeds of the“dictatorship of the party”. Anarchistshold that how you organise will reflectthe type of society you want. Small mi-norities can not liberate the workingclass, the working class will have toemancipate itself. Democracy and ac-countability are the cornerstone of anar-chist organisation. Direct action is the

method. Rather than relying on smallgroups they say workers do have thepower and strength to change society.That strength lies in their ability to or-ganise at the place of work, a strengththat should be used not only to win im-mediate reforms from the bosses buteventually to overthrow the whole sys-tem of capitalism. This belief is centralto anarchism Anarchists do not only wantworkers’ control of industry, they want asociety where all relationships of author-ity are abolished and people do not lookto others to run their lives.

Bakunin

Anarchism had, and still has, a long tra-dition in Spain. In the middle of the lastcentury anarchist ideas were brought toSpain by Fanelli, an Italian supporter ofMichael Bakunin who was one of thefounders of modern anarchism. A Span-ish section of the First International wasset up and the majority within it took theside of the anarchists in the Interna-tional.

Anarchism developed rapidly due to theharsh economic conditions that workersand peasants had to suffer. Workers in-creasingly took up the ideas of syndical-

ism or anarcho- syndicalism, which weredeveloped at the turn of the century. 1911saw the formation of the CNT. Syndical-ism developed as a response to thereformism of the existing trade unionsand to the growing isolation of anarchistrevolutionaries from the mass of work-ers. This had happened as a result of asmall number of anarchists turning toterrorism and ‘propaganda by the deed’,the belief that they could incite themasses to revolution by committing out-rages.

Syndicalism was an attempt to provide alink between the anarchist movementand the workers on the shopfloor. Its ba-sic ideas revolved around all the work-ers being in one big union. All the em-ployees in a workplace would join. Theywould link up with those in other jobs inthe same area and an area federationwould be formed. Delegates from thesewould go forward to regional federationswho were united in a national federation.All the delegates were elected andrecallable. They were given a clear man-date and if they broke it they could bereplaced with new delegates.

Bureaucracy

Every effort was made to prevent thegrowth of a bureaucracy of unaccountablefull-time officials. There was only one full-time official in all of the CNT. Union workwas done during working hours wherepossible, otherwise after work. This en-sured the officials of the union stayed incontact with the shopfloor. The fear ofbureaucracy was such that IndustrialFederations that would have linked to-gether all the workplaces of particularindustries were hotly opposed. They wereeventually conceded in 1931 but neverfully built.

Syndicalists distinguished themselvesfrom the other unions by their belief thatthe unions could be used not only to gainreforms from the bosses but also to over-throw the capitalist system. They be-lieved the Syndicalist union would be-come the battering ram that would bringcapitalism to its knees. They believedthat the reason most workers were notrevolutionaries was that their unionswere reformist and dominated by a bu-reaucracy that took the initiative awayfrom the rank and file members. Theiralternative was to organise all workersinto one union in preparation for the revo-lutionary general strike.

The CNT experienced rapid growth fromthe time of its formation and by the out-break of the civil war it had almost twomillion members. Its strongholds were inCatalonia and Andulucia. It also hadlarge followings in Galicia, Asturias, Le-vant, Saragossa and Madrid. Its mainstrength was among textile, building andwood workers as well as amongst agri-cultural labourers. As it preached social

revolution it was subject to vicious repres-sion not only under the semi- dictator-ship which ruled until 1931 but also the‘reforming’ governments which followed.The Popular Front, with its social demo-cratic and Stalinist supporters, joinedthis list by showing it no mercy.

A-Politicism

The CNT was not a revolutionary politi-cal organisation. It was an industrialunion. Indeed it constantly played up itsa-politicism and argued that all that wasnecessary to make a revolution was forthe workers to seize the factories andland. After that the State and all otherpolitical institutions would come topplingdown. It did not believe the working classmust take political power for them allpower had to be immediately abolished.

Because it was a union it organised allworkers regardless of their politics. Manyjoined, not because they were anarchists,but because it was the most militant un-ion and actually got results. In fact dur-ing the civil war its membership morethan doubled (this happened to the UGTtoo) at least partly due to workers beingobliged to join one or other union.

So obviously the CNT was open to thosewho were not anarchists. There weremany internal disputes, and tendenciesdid arise that were reformist. Because ofthis the Federation of Iberian Anarchists(FAI) was set up in 1927. It was based onlocal affinity groups and was not a politi-cal organisation as such. It was there toensure that the CNT remained ‘pure’ inanarchist (FAI) terms. It succeeded inthis and many of its members became theleading lights of tile CNT. Other anar-chist organisations that existed when thecivil war broke out were the Iberian Fed-eration of Libertarian Youth (FIJL) andMujeres Libres (Free Women).

There is absolutely no doubt that the ini-tial response to Franco’s coup was deter-mined by the fact that the CNT and itsanarchist ideas held sway among largesections of the working class. There wasno waiting around for government min-isters to act, the workers took control.Anarchist influence could be seen in theformation of the militias, the expropria-tion and reorganisation of the land, andthe seizures in industry.

Militias

The government found itself in a pecu-liar situation when the dust had settledafter July I 9th. While it remained thegovernment it had no way of exercisingits authority. Most of the army hadopenly rebelled against it. Where the re-bellion had been defeated the army wasdisbanded and the workers now had thearms. The trade unions and left-wing or-ganisations immediately set about organ-ising these armed workers. Militias were

formed and these became the units of therevolutionary army. Ten days after thecoup there were I 8,000 workers organ-ised in the militias of Catalonia. The vastmajority of these were members of theCNT. Overall there were 150,000 volun-teers willing to fight whenever they wereneeded.

This was no ordinary army. There wereno uniforms (neck scarves usually indi-cated what organisation a militia mem-ber belonged to) or officers who enjoyedprivileges over the ordinary soldiers. Thiswas a revolutionary army and reflectedthe revolutionary principles of those inits ranks. Democracy was control. Thebasic unit was the group, composed gen-erally of ten, which elected a delegate.Ten groups formed a century which alsoelected a delegate. Any number of centu-ries formed a column, which had a warcommittee responsible for the overall ac-tivities of the column. This was electedand accountable to the workers. Columnsgenerally had ex-officers and artilleryexperts to advise them - but these werenot given any power.

Workers joined the columns because theywanted to. They understood the need tofight and the necessity of creating a“popular army”. They accepted disciplinenot because they were told to but becausethey understood the need to act in a co-ordinated manner. Members acceptedorders because they trusted those whogave them. They had been elected fromtheir own ranks. Militias were alignedwith different organisations and oftenhad their own newspapers. These werepolitical organisations that understoodthe link between revolutionary politicsand the war. The militias formed in Bar-celona lost no time in marching onAragon where the capital, Saragossa, hadbeen taken by the fascists. The DurrutiColumn, named after one of the leadingCNT militants, led this march and gradu-ally liberated village after village. Theaim was to free Saragossa which linkedCatalonia with the second industrial re-gion - the Basque Country, which as wellas being a source of raw materials hadheavy industries and arms manufactur-ing plants.

The Durruti column showed how to fightfascism. They understood that a civil waris a political battle, not just a militaryconflict. As they gained victory after vic-tory they encouraged peasants to takeover the land and collectivise. The Col-umn provided the defence that allowedthis to be done. The peasants rallied tothem. They fed the worker- soldiers andmany of them joined. Indeed Durutti hadto plead with some of them not to join sothat the land would not be depopulatedand the task of collectivisation could becarried through.

As the anarchist militias achieved suc-

cess after success ground was being loston other fronts. Saragossa, though, wasnot taken and a long front developed. Themilitia system was blamed for this. TheStalinists said the workers were undis-ciplined and would not obey orders. Theyaccused the anarchists of being unwill-ing to work with others to defeat the fas-cists.

Of course this was nonsense. The anar-chists continually called for a united wareffort and even for a single command.What they did demand, though, was thatcontrol of the army stayed with the work-ing class. They did not believe that es-tablishing a united command necessi-tated re-establishing the old militaristregime the officer caste.

The major problem facing the militiaswas a lack of arms. The munitions indus-try been cut off and the workers in Bar-celona went to great lengths to improvise.Arms were made and transported to thefront but there were still not enough ofthem. George Orwell (who fought in oneof the POUM militias) described the armssituation on the Aragon front. The infan-try “were far worse armed than an Eng-lish public school Officers Training Corps,with worn out Mauser rifles which usu-ally jammed after five shots; approxi-mately one machine gun to fifty men (sic)and one pistol or revolver to about thirtymen (sic). These weapons, so necessaryin trench warfare, were not issued by thegovernment.... A government whichsends boys of fifteen to the front with ri-fles forty years old and keeps its biggestmen and newest weapons In the rear ismanifestly more afraid of the revolutionthe fascists”.

And how right he was. An arms embargowas imposed by Britain preventing thesale of arms to either side, but not untilmid-August. The government which had600,000,000 dollars in gold, could havebrought arms. Eventually this gold wassent to Moscow in exchange for arms butwhen they arrived there was a system-atic refusal to supply the anarchist-con-trolled Aragon front. The arms that didarrive were sent only to Stalinist-control-led centres. A member of the war minis-try referring to the arms which arrivedin September commented “I noticed thatthese were not being given out in equalquantities, but there was a marked pref-erence for the units which made up theFifth Regiment”. This was controlled bythe Stalinists. The Catalan munitionsplants, which depended on the centralgovernment for finance were compelledto surrender their product to such desti-nations as the government chose. Thiswithholding of arms was fundamental tothe strategy of the Stalinists and theirallies in government for breaking downthe power and prestige of the CNT. Thecommunists wanted to undermine themilitias in their efforts to have the regu-

lar army restarted. But more of this later.

This lack of arms did not only affect theAragon front. Irun fell because of theshortage of weapons. One reporter de-scribed it. “They fought to the last car-tridge (the workers of Irun. When theyhad no more ammunition they hurledpacks of dynamite. When the dynamitewas gone they rushed forward bare-handed while the sixty times strongerenemy butchered them with their bayo-nets’. In Asturia the workers were boggeddown trying to take Oviedo armed withlittle more than rifles and crude dyna-mite bombs. Although a few planes andartillery pieces were begged for, the work-ers were turned down. Again the govern-ment’s fear of revolutionary workers tookprecedence over defeating the fascists.

It is a common lie that the militias, sup-posedly undisciplined and uncontrollable,were responsible for Franco’s advance.All who saw the militias in action hadnothing but praise for the heroism theywitnessed. The government made a de-liberate choice. It chose to starve the revo-lutionary workers of arms, it decided thatdefeating the revolution was more impor-tant than defeating fascism.

The Land

The peasants did not have to be told byDurruti to take over the land. They hadbeen attempting to do so since the foun-dation of the Republic. Indeed the firstgovernment of the Republic had senttroops to murder peasants who had takenland. In the Republic’s first two years, 109peasants were murdered. It was in thecountryside that the Spanish revolutionwas most far reaching. The anarchistphilosophy had been absorbed by largelayers of the downtrodden peasants. In-deed at its 1936 Congress the CNT hadgone into great detail as to how the an-archist society of the future would look.The peasantry took the opportunity to putthese ideas into practice. Their effortsshowed what could be done by workingpeople (many of whom were illiterate)given the right conditions. They made anonsense of the argument that anarchismis not possible because society would col-lapse without bosses ,government andauthority.

Collectivisation of the land was extensive.Close on two thirds of all land in the Re-

publican zone (that area controlled by theanti-fascist forces) was taken over. In allbetween five and seven million peasantswere involved. The major areas wereAragon where there were 450 collectives,the Levant (the area around Valencia)with 900 collectives and Castille (the areasurrounding Madrid) with 300 collectives.Not only was the land collectivised butin the villages workshops were set upwhere the local tradespeople could pro-duce tools, furniture, etc. Bakers, butch-ers, barbers and so on also decided to col-lectivise.

Collectivisation was voluntary and thusquite different from the forced “collectivi-sation presided over by Stalin in Russia.Usually a meeting was called in the vil-lage, most collectives were centred on aparticular village, and all present wouldagree to pool together whatever land,tools and animals they had. This wouldbe added to what had already been takenfrom the big landowners. The land wasdivided into rational units and groups ofworkers were assigned to work them.Each group had its delegate who repre-sented their views at meetings of the col-lective. A management committee wasalso elected and was responsible for theoverall running of the collective. Theywould look after the buying of materials,exchanges with other areas, distributingthe produce and necessary public workssuch as the building of schools. Each col-lective held regular general meetings ofall its participants.

If you didn’t want to join the collectiveyou were given some land but only asmuch as you could work yourself. Youwere not allowed to employ workers. Notonly production was affected, distributionwas on the basis of what people needed.In many areas money was abolished. Peo-ple come to the collective store (oftenchurches which had been turned intowarehouses) and got what was available.If there were shortages rationing wouldbe introduced to ensure that everyone gottheir fair share. But it was usually thecase that increased production under thenew system eliminated shortages.

In agricultural terms the revolution oc-curred at a good time. Harvests that weregathered in and being sold off to makebig profits for a few landowners were in-stead distributed to those in need. Doc-tors, bakers, barbers, etc. were givenwhat they needed in return for their serv-ices. Where money was not abolished a‘family wage’ was introduced so that pay-ment was on the basis of need and notthe number of hours worked.

Production greatly increased. Techni-cians and agronomists helped the peas-ants to make better use of the land. Mod-ern scientific methods were introducedand in some areas yields increased by asmuch as 50%. There was enough to feed

the collectivists and the militias in theirareas. Often there was enough for ex-change with other collectives in the cit-ies for machinery. In addition food washanded over to the supply committeeswho looked after distribution in the ur-ban areas.

As with the militias, slander was alsothrown at the collectives. It was claimedthat each one only looked after itself anddid not care about the others. This wasrubbish as in many areas equalisationfunds were set up to redistribute wealthfrom the better off areas to the poorerones. It was ensured that machinery andexpertise were shifted to the areas mostin need of it. Indeed one indicator of thefeeling of solidarity is the fact that 1,000collectivists from the Levant, which wasquite advanced, moved to Castille to helpout.

Federations of collectives were estab-lished, the most successful being inAragon. In June 1937 a plenum of Re-gional Federations of Peasants was held.Its aim was the formation of a nationalfederation “for the co-ordination and ex-tension of the collectivist movement andalso to ensure an equitable distributionof the produce of the land, not only be-tween the collectives but for the wholecountry”. Unfortunately many collectiveswere smashed, not be Franco’s army butby the soldiers of the Stalinist GeneralLister, before this could be done.

The collectivists were not only concernedwith their material well being. They hada deep commitment to education and asa result of their efforts many childrenreceived an education for the first time.This was not the usual schooling either.The methods of Francisco Ferrer, theworld famous anarchist educationalist,were employed. Children were given ba-sic literacy skills and after that inquisi-tive skills were encouraged. Old peoplewere also looked after and where neces-sary special homes for them were built.Refugees from the fascist controlled ar-eas were looked after too.

Industry

Although the revolution didn’t go as farin the cities as it did in the country, manyachievements are worth noting. It was inCatalonia, the industrial heartland andstronghold of the CNT, that most wasgained. In Barcelona over 3,000 enter-prises were collectivised. All the publicservices, not only in Catalonia butthroughout the Republican zone, weretaken over and run by committees ofworkers.

To give some idea of the extent of the col-lectivisation here is a list provided by oneobserver (Burnett Bolloten, The GrandCamouflage by no means an anarchistbook). He says “railways, traincars andbuses, taxicabs and shipping, electric

light and power companies, gasworks andwaterworks, engineering and automobileassembly plants, mines and cementworks, textile mills and paper factories,electrical and chemical concerns, glassbottle factories and perfumeries, foodprocessing plants and breweries wereconfiscated and controlled by workmens’s(sic) committees, either term possessingfor the owners almost equal significance”.He goes on “motion picture theatres andlegitimate theatres, newspapers andprinting, shops, department stores andhotels, de-lux restaurants and bars werelikewise sequestered”.

This shows clearly that the portrayal ofanarchism as being something to do withquaint small workshops is untrue. Largefactories, some of them employing thou-sands of workers, were taken over andrun by workers’ committees.

Often the workplaces were siezed becausethe owners had fled or had stopped pro-duction to sabotage the revolution. Butthe workers did not stop with theseworkplaces all major places of work weretaken over. Some were run and control-led by the workers. In others “controlcommittees” were established to ensurethat production was maintained (theseexisted to exercise a power of veto on thedecisions of the boss in cases where theworkers had not taken over the power ofmanagement).

In each workplace the assembly of all theworkers was the basic unit. Within thefactory workers would elect delegates torepresent them on day-to-day issues.Anything of overall importance had to goto the assembly. This would elect a com-mittee of between five and fifteen worker,which would elect a manager to overseethe day-to-day running of the workplace- Within each industry there was an In-dustrial Council which had representa-tives of the two main unions (CNT andUGT) and representatives from the com-mittees. Technicians were also on thesecommittees to provide technical advice.The job of the Industrial Council was toset out an overall plan for the industry.

Within workplaces wages were equalisedand conditions greatly improved. Let ussee how collectivisation actually madethings better. Take for example the tram-ways. Out of the 7,000 workers, 6,500were members of the CNT. Because of thestreet battles all transport had beenbrought to a halt. The transport syndi-cate (as unions of the CNT were known)appointed a commission of seven to oc-cupy the administrative offices while oth-ers inspected the tracks and drew up aplan of repair work that needed to bedone. Five days after the fighting stopped700 tramcars, instead of the usual 600,all painted in the black and red coloursof the CNT, were operating on the streetsof Barcelona.

With the profit motive gone, safety be-came more important and the number ofaccidents was reduced. Fares were low-ered and services improved. In I 936,183,543, 516 passengers were carried. In1937 this had gone up by 50 million. Thetrams were running so efficiently that theworkers were able to give money to othersections of urban transport. Wages wereequalised for all workers and increasedover the previous rates. For the first timefree medical care was provided for thework force.

As well as giving a more efficient servicethe workers found time to produce rock-ets and howitzers for the war effort. Theyworked overtime and Sundays to do theirshare for the anti-fascist struggle. To fur-ther underline the fact that getting ridof the bosses and rulers would not leadto a breakdown of order it can be pointedout that in the two years of collectivisa-tion there were only six cases of workersstealing from the workshops.

Extensive reorganisation took place tomake industry more efficient. Many un-economic small plants, which were usu-ally unhealthy, were closed down andproduction was concentrated in thoseplants with the best equipment. In Cata-lonia 70 foundries were closed down. Thenumber of tanning plants was reducedfrom 71 to 40 and the 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 than the rest ofSpanish industry put together and thatthis output could have been quadrupledif Catalonia had the access to necessarymeans of purchasing raw materials.

It was not only production that was takenover. Many parasitic ‘middlemen’ werecut out of distribution. The wholesalebusiness in fish and eggs was taken overas were the principal fruit and vegetablemarkets. The milk trade in Barcelonawas collectivised which saw over 70 un-hygienic pasteurising plants closed down.Every where supply committees were setup. All of this made the middle classesvery unhappy. To them, with their no-tions of becoming bigger bosses, the revo-lution was a step back.

Again equalisation funds were estab-lished to help out the poorer collectivesIndeed there were many problems. Manymarkets were cut off in the fascist zoneand some foreign markets were also tem-porarily lost. Raw materials were shortas sources of supply were cut off. andwhen they could be obtained funds wereheld back by the central government.This was one short-coming of the collec-tivisation.

The banks had not been seized and thegold reserve already referred to stayed

in the hands of the government. (TheCNT did hatch a plan to seize it butbacked down at the last moment).

Despite all this production was increasedand living standards for many workingclass people improved. In October 1936the government was forced to recognisethe collectivisation by passing a decreethat recognised the fait accompli. It wasalso an attempt to control future collec-tivisation.

Social Revolution

This is only a very brief look at the col-lectivisation that happened. In keepingwith anarchist beliefs the revolution didnot stop there. For the first time in Spainmany workers had the benefit of a healthservice - organised by the CNT Federa-tion of Health Workers. The Federationconsisted of 40,000 health workers -nurses, doctors, administrators and or-derlies. Once again the major success wasin Catalonia where it ensured that all ofthe 2.5 million inhabitants had adequatehealth care.

Not only were traditional services pro-vided but victims of the Civil War werealso treated. A programme of preventivemedicine was also established based onlocal community health centres. At their1937 Congress these workers developeda health plan for a future anarchist Spainwhich could have been implemented if therevolution had been successful.

The role of women also changed. Manygains were made by them. In relation totheir role during the Civil war observershave pointed out that they played a fullpart in the anti- fascist resistance. Theywere present everywhere - on commit-tees, in the militias, in the front line. Inthe early battles of the war women foughtalongside the men as a matter of course.It was not merely a case of women fillingin for men who were away at the front.(Which is usually the case in wartime.When the war is over and women are nolonger needed in the labour force, theyare pushed back into the home).

They were in the militias and foughtalongside the men as equals. They wereorganising the collectives and taking upthe fight against the sexist attitudes ofthe past which have no place in any realrevolution.

The Anarchist women’s organisation,Mujeres Libres (Free Women), had30,000 members. It had been active be-fore the Civil War organising womenworkers and distributing information oncontraception. During the war abortionwas legalised in the ‘republican zone’.Centres were opened for women, includ-ing unmarried mothers and prostitutes.

From all accounts there truly werechanges in attitudes to women. Onewoman participant in the Civil War has

said “it was like being brothers and sis-ters. It had always annoyed me that menin this country didn’t consider women asbeings with human rights. But now therewas this big change. I believe it arosespontaneously out of the revolutionarymovement...” Margorita Balaguer quotedin Blood of Spain ed. Ronald Fraser, page287.

Everywhere change was apparent. Thewhole character of Barcelona changed.Posh restaurants no longer existed. Col-lective eating houses took their place. Aspirit of comradeship was in the air.

Everywhere councils of workers and peas-ants had taken over administration. TheDefence Council of Aragon was one of thehighest expressions of this. It ran theprovince and co-ordinated the work of thecollectives and militias. All the anti-fas-cist forces were represented on it but theanarchists were in the majority. In Cata-lonia a Central Committee of Anti-Fas-cist Militias was set up on July 21st. Ofits fifteen members five were anarchists,three were UGT, POUM had one, theCommunist Party had one and the repub-licans had four. Although the anarchistswere supreme in this province they hopedby sharing power that similar commit-tees would be formed where the CNT wasweaker.

This was the situation in 1936. Althoughthe Popular Front government still ex-isted it had no power. It was shorn of therepressive organs of the state. Power wassplit into countless fragments and scat-tered in a thousand towns and villagesamong the revolutionary committees thathad taken control of the land and facto-

ries, means of transport and communi-cation, the police and the army. The mili-tary, economic and political struggle wasproceeding independently of the govern-ment, and, indeed, in spite of it.

Such a situation is known as one of “dualpower”. The power of the government wastoo weak to challenge the power of theworkers and peasants. And that powerwas not conscious enough of the need todispense with the existence of the gov-ernment. Failure to do this allowed it torestore its authority and become masterof the situation. In trying to understandhow this happened it is necessary to lookat the role of the Communist Party andthat of the CNT leadership.

Chapter 3 - The Counter RevolutionThe behaviour of the Spanish Communist Party and the United SocialistParty of a Catalonia (PSUC) had more to do with what was in the bestinterests of Stalin than what was in the best interests of the Spanish work-ing class. They went out of their way to deny that a revolution had takenplace. Then they did all they could to repress this revolution they pretendedhad not happened. As far as they were concerned the Civil War was onlyabout restoring democracy to Spain. To see why they took this attitude wehave to look outside Spain.

Stalin

Stalin believed that above all else “social-ism” in the USSR had to be defended. Theinterests of the European (and indeed theworld) working class had to take secondplace to the strategic interests of the rul-ing bureaucracy in Russia. And they feltvery threatened in the 1930s. Hitler hadcome to power in 1933 and despite thefact that Stalin was seeking no quarrelwith Germany (three months after thenazi take-over Stalin had signed an ex-tension to the 1926 German-Soviet Pact)relations between the two countries soon

cooled.

Stalin’s fear was that the British andFrench would do a deal with Hitler andthus leave Russia open to attack. He be-lieved they would be content to sit backand watch Germany and Russia slog itout. When both had exhausted them-selves Britain and France would move inas masters of Europe.

Because of this Stalin signed a MutualAssistance Pact with France in 1935.There was no commitment to mutualmilitary assistance in this. For the

French it was a way of removing any re-maining links between Germany andRussia while at the same time getting theFrench Communist Party to drop its op-position to their government’s defenceprogramme.

So to prevent the British and French set-tling their differences with Hitler at theexpense of the Soviets, in order to guar-antee that the Franco-Soviet Pact wouldnot fall by the wayside and in order toconclude similar pacts with the govern-ments of other countries, notably Britain,it was essential that governments hos-tile to German aims in Eastern Europeshould be brought to power. It was to thisend that the Popular Front line wasadopted at the 7th World Congress of theComintern in August 1935. This body,also known as the Third International,collected together all the CommunistParties under Russian leadership.

Popular Fronts

The immediate aim of this policy was tobring the middle classes and sections ofthe bosses into a wide anti-fascist peo-ples front. To do this Communist Partieswere to play down revolutionary politics.This was to be a struggle to preservebourgeois democracy; and to attract mid-dle class republican and liberal partiesextreme positions were never adopted.

The Popular Front policy was quite suc-cessful. Early in 1936 Popular Front gov-ernments were elected in France andSpain. The programmes of these govern-ments were very moderate. In Spain asocialist proposal that the land be nation-alised was dropped because of republicanopposition. There the Popular Front con-sisted of the Republican Party, the Re-publican Union, the Socialist Party, thePOUM, the Syndicalist Party, Basqueand Catalan nationalists (who saw theirautonomy under threat from the right)and of course the Communist Party.

When the Civil War broke out Stalin’sinstructions were clear. All of the Com-munists’ efforts were to be directed to oneend - winning the support of Britain andFrance and persuading them to drop theirneutrality. A non-intervention agreementhad been signed in August 1936 with thehope of preventing the extension of theconflict. Stalin believed that if Britainand France were to drop this policy theCivil War could ultimately develop intoa much larger conflict (Germany andItaly were already giving military aid tothe fascists). This conflict, from whichRussia would remain aloof would bringthe warring parties to the point of mu-tual exhaustion and the Russian bosseswould then emerge as the new mastersof Europe. Thus the revolutionary aspectsof the Civil War were to be denied and,the struggle was to be portrayed (and wasto become), a struggle that- went no fur-ther than basic democratic demands. Ini-

tially the Stalinists had felt a need to talkof making a revolution after the fascistswere defeated. Even this empty talk soonstopped.

Of course the Stalinist (and Leninist)Conception of socialism, is quite differ-ent from that of the anarchists. It is cen-tral to anarchism that the masses takecontrol and run society through a systemof councils. For the Stalinists socialismentails nationalising everything andturning over the running of society to theState, which will be dominated by theParty. Control passes into the hands ofprofessionals, technicians and bureau-crats who begin to develop their own classinterests. Even if the Stalinists had de-cided to fight for ‘socialism’ they wouldstill have had to undermine the anar-chists.

This policy of wooing the British andFrench ruling classes was from the be-ginning doomed to failure - not only be-cause of their military unpreparednessbut because of their belief that if theybecame involved at this stage in a warwith Hitler, both they and the Naziswould be weakened and thus the positionof Russia would be enhanced. At all timesright up to the outbreak of W.W.II theBritish sought to come to terms with Hit-ler which would leave him free to attackRussia in the East.

Navy

The activities of the Navy, which had re-mained loyal to the Republic, were se-verely curtailed so as not to upset Anglo-French interests in the Straight of Gibral-tar. The navy had been very successfulin harassing Franco’s base in Morocco buttheir activities were halted to keep thetwo foreign powers happy. In line withthis the Republican government refusedto give Morocco its independence andthus deprive Franco of his base - To dothis would have upset British and Frenchcolonial interests in North Africa. Theexample of Spanish Morocco could havegiven other subject nations ideas. Indeedat one stage the government offered togive Britain and France interests inSpanish Morocco in exchange for theirintervention.

The revolution that had broken out wasof supreme embarrassment to the Com-munists. Whatever chance they had ofwinning over Britain and France waslessened by the fact that a social revolu-tion had started. There was no way theBritish and French governments wouldintervene on the side of revolutionaries.Thus the revolution was to be hidden andeventually suppressed. The power of thecollectives and militias was to besmashed.

At the outbreak of the Civil War therewere 40,000 members of the SpanishCommunist Party. The question natu-

rally arises as to how such a small or-ganisation could so decisively influencethe course of events and in time becomethe dominant group in the Popular Frontcamp.

In building their Party the Communistsplaced a lot of emphasis on Catalonia asthis was the heartland of the revolution.The collectivisation movement seriouslyupset the middle classes. Small busi-nesses were closed and everywhere ‘mid-dle-men’ found their role abolished as theworkers committees took over distribu-tion. The middle classes would haveturned to their traditional parties butviewed them as incapable of stemmingthe collectivisation movement. The Com-munist Party seemed the only party se-rious about protecting their property orgetting it back from the workers. Oneformer Communist commented “InMurcia and elsewhere I saw that our plac-ards and leaflets appealed for shopkeep-ers’ membership with the promise of ab-solute support for private property”.

Leaps and Bounds

Membership of the Communist Partygrew in leaps and bounds. Within a fewmonths of the outbreak of the war 76,700peasant proprietors and tenant farmersalong with 15,485 members of the urbanmiddle classes had joined up. Its influ-ence among these layers went far beyondthese figures as thousands of membersof the intermediate classes, without ac-tually joining the Party, placed them-selves under its wing. As a means of pro-tecting the interests of the urban middleclasses in Catalonia the Communists or-ganised 18,000 tradesmen,handicraftmen and small manufacturersinto an organisation called the C.E.P.C.ISolidaridad Obrero (Workers Solidarity)the paper of the CNT commented thatsome of those in this body were “intran-sigent employers, ferociously anti- la-bour”. By March 1937 the CommunistParty had 250,000 members.

Other measures were also taken to ex-tend its influence - Only four days afterthe military uprising, the Communistsmerged with the Catalan Socialists toform the PSUC. The local UGT cameunder PSUC dominion. Leading mem-bers of both the Socialist Party and theUGT in other areas defected to the Com-munists, some secretly. Many membersof the Socialist Party could see little dif-ference between their line and that of theCommunists winning the war came be-fore the revolution, conciliatory attitudestowards foreign powers, etc. - But becausethe Communists had the stronger Partyapparatus (reinforced as it was by Mos-cow) it was able to recruit at the expenseof the Socialists. Many joined because ofits “proselytising zeal, immensely skillfulpropaganda, its vigour, its organisingcapacity and the prestige it derived from

Soviet arms”.

The Communists gained control of theJSU (United Socialist Youth). This group-ing resulted from a merger of the Com-munists and Socialist youth organisa-tions. It had 50,000 members and wasformed shortly before the war began.Most of the leading members of the So-cialist Youth defected to the Communistswith the merger and thus ensured Com-munist control of the new organisation.

It would be wrong to suggest that thecounter- revolution that came was onlyas a result of the line and activities ofthe Communists. The Republicans andSocialists agreed with them. The Repub-licans, who lacked any real base amongthe masses, retired to the backgroundand ceded to the Communists the deli-cate job of opposing the social revolutionand defending the middle classes. EvenLargo Caballero, who became Prime Min-ister in August, the one time left wingSocialist and leader of the UGT, declaredon forming the government that it was“necessary to sacrifice revolutionary lan-guage to win the friendship of the demo-cratic powers” and the “Spanish govern-ment is not fighting for socialism but fordemocracy and constitutional rule”. Al-though Caballero did not go all the waywith the Communists there were manyin his party, even his closest allies, whoworked for the Communist line againstthe social revolution.

It must also be stated that the participa-tion of members of the CNT in the gov-ernment helped the growing counter-revolution. They entered the Catalan gov-ernment in September (it must be re-membered that Catalonia was semi- au-tonomous) and the national governmentin November 1936. This will be dealt within more detail in the final chapter, suf-fice to say their participation lent thegovernment a certain credibility with themasses. The key element in proving tothe world that the fight in Spain was sim-ply to restore democracy, to rebuild theshattered state machine and return to thegovernment the authority and power thatwas in the hands of the armed workers.CNT participation served to put a checkon the masses and make them believethey had a stake in the government andshould defend it.

Russian Arms

The point about the Communist Party isthat they directed the counter-revolution.They called the shots. They were the onlypeople who were clear about the ‘neces-sity’ for the counter-revolution and hadthe determination to carry it through.Their ability to do this was derived fromthe prestige that came with the fact thatRussia was the only country supplyingmajor quantities of arms to the Repub-lic. (Mexico was the only other countryto help, supplying a small quantity). The

Russians not only supplied arms but alsomilitary advisors and technicians whogradually took over the running of thewar.

Stalinists will tell you that Russia pro-vided arms right from the beginning. Thisis a lie - Stalin at first agreed to the non-intervention pact for fear of antagonis-ing the West. The first arms did not ar-rive until October and then it was out offear that German and Italian arms wouldgive a decisive edge to the fascists. Aidwas given “covertly and in order to limitthe possibility of involving Russia in awar” (Krivitsky In Stalin’s Secret Serv-ice p. 81 - Krivitsky was Stalin’s Chief ofIntelligence in Western Europe). Becauseof this fear of involvement in war withGermany and Italy, aid was limited tobolstering the resistance until such timeas Britain and France might intervene.This aid had to be paid for - the Spanishgold reserve was moved to Moscow.

The Communists knew that if a far reach-ing counter-revolution was to be enforcedthe State, with their support, would haveto regain control of the army and the po-lice. There was no point in telling work-ers to drop collectivisation and give uptheir arms if this order could not be im-posed. All States rest on this use of forceand that is why a successful revolutioncan only be made when the people arearmed.

Because of Soviet aid it was easy for theCommunists to gain control of the armedforces. It was not because of the amountof arms sent but the fact that the Sovietswere the major purveyors of war materi-als. The Navy and Air Minister, Prieto,often made fun of his office declaring thathe “was neither a Minister or anythingelse because he received no obediencefrom the air force. The real Air Ministerwas the Russian General Duglas”.

Militarisation

Because of this control of arms the Com-munists, supported by the others, en-forced militarisation. The militia systemwas broken up. A regular army was re-built with officers, regimentation, salut-ing and differential rates of pay. The mi-litias who refused to come under the com-mand of the War Ministry (and manyCNT and POUM militias did refuse) werestarved of arms. They were left with nochoice.

The new army was built under Commu-nist control. They knew that without con-trol of the army they could not hope tocontrol the anti-fascist camp. Because theFifth Regiment (the major Stalinist con-trolled unit) took a lead in disbanding,the Communists gained control of five ofthe six brigades of the new army. Theyalso gained control of the General Com-missariat of War which was set up forthe purpose of exercising political control

of the army through the medium of po-litical commissars. As most of these wereStalinists they controlled the flow of po-litical papers to the front. Invariably theanarchist papers were held up. All thesoldiers read were the lies of the Com-munist Party.

Not only the army was rebuilt but alsothe police, especially the hated CivilGuards who had been a bulwark of re-pression against the CNT. They were nowto be called the National RepublicanGuard. The Assault Guards were re- es-tablished and had 28,000 recruits by thebeginning of December. The Carabineros,who were the border police in charge ofcustoms and under the control of Minis-ter of Finance Negrin (a known Commu-nist sympathiser) grew to 40,000 mem-bers. Before the War there were only16000 of them and that was in the wholeof Spain. Negrin’s under- secretary madeit clear what their role was “You are theguardians of the state and those vision-aries who believe that a chaotic situationof social indiscipline and licentiousnessis permissible are utterly mistaken be-cause the army of the people, as well asyou Carabineros, will know how to pre-vent it”.

The state was giving itself a monopoly offorce. The workers’ patrols which hadsprung up in July were disbanded. Work-ers were ordered to hand in their armsand those who declined to do so were con-sidered ‘fascists’. It was said that thesearms were needed at the front. While itis true that arms were needed at the frontthis argument was only put forward as ameans of disarming revolutionary work-ers. There were plenty of arms under thecontrol of the police. George Orwell ob-served after the May Days in Barcelona“the Anarchists were well aware thateven if they surrendered their arms, thePSUC would retain theirs, and this is infact what happened after the fighting wasover. Meanwhile actually visible on the

streets, there were quantities of armswhich would have been very welcome atthe front, but which were being retainedfor the ‘non-political’ police forces in therear”. (Homage to Catalonia p.151).

The counter-revolution now movedagainst the Collectives. On January 7th1937 the dissolution of the workers sup-ply committees was declared. Distribu-tion of food was handed over to theG.E.P.C.I. This led to shortages andhoarding to inflate prices. For the firsttime in the war Barcelona experiencedhunger yet there was plenty of food. Thecollectives were blamed but it was wellknown that if you joined the PSUC youcould be guaranteed food.

Nationalisation

Credit was withheld from thoseworkplaces who refused to come undergovernment control. As said earlier thebanks had not been taken over so thegovernment had a huge lever against theworkers. Nationalisation of major indus-tries was declared thus bringing themunder government control. They claimedthis was necessary for the war effort.They claimed the collectives were ineffi-cient and that each workplace was onlyconcerned with its own profits. It cannotbe denied there were problems with somebetter off collectives. But the CNT wasaiming at co-ordination throughsocialisation under the control of theworkers. To do this all private ownershipof the means of production would have toend. Of course the Communists would notallow this as it threatened their cherishedmiddle classes.

On the land collectivisation was allowedonly for the lands of fascists, the estatesof those who supported the Republic wereto be handed back. How far the Commu-nists were prepared to go was illustratedby the invasion of Aragon. The DefenceCouncil of Aragon was declared illegal inAugust 1937. This declaration was fol-lowed by the invasion led by GeneralLister’s (a PSUC member) 11th Division.According to the CNT the land, farm im-plements, cattle and horses which hadbeen confiscated from supporters of theright wing were returned to their formerowners.

In some villages farms were deprived ofthe seed needed for sowing while 600CNT members were arrested. In all, 30%of the collectives were destroyed and thesowing of crops was disrupted. As can beimagined nothing but hatred, resentmentand disillusionment resulted from thisinvasion and the repression that followed.The peasants began to wonder what theywere fighting for. The resultant disillu-sionment no doubt contributed to the col-lapse of the front a few months later.Similar attacks were made on the collec-tives in Levant and Castille.

This showed how far the ‘socialists’ of theCommunist Party were prepared to go tofollow Stalin’s instructions. A more sin-ister aspect of this was the existence inSpain of prisons belonging to the Sovietsecret police, the GPU (forerunners of theKGB). Their existence has been estab-lished beyond all doubt. In December1936 Pravda declared “As for, Catalonia,the purging of the Trotskyists and theAnarcho-Syndicalists has begun, it willbe conducted with the same energy withwhich it was conducted in the USSR”.

Here is what Krivitsky had to say aboutthe activities of the GPU in Spain, thedecision to establish it having been takenat an emergency conference in Moscowon September 14th. “The GPU had itsown special prisons. Its units carried outassassinations and kidnappings. It killedin hidden dungeons and made flyingraids. The Ministry of Justice had noauthority over the GPU. It was a powerbefore which even some of the highestofficers in the Cabellero governmenttrembled. The Soviet Union seemed tohave a grip on loyalist Spain, as if it wasalready a Soviet possession”. (In Stalin’sSecret Service p. 102).

The aim was to eliminate revolutionar-ies. Anybody who dared to speak outagainst what they were doing could bethe next to suffer. Nin, the leader of thePOUM, was murdered by the GPU as wasCamillo Berneri, an Italian anarchistwho was critical of the CNT leadership.He published a paper, Guerra di Classe,which argued for a revolutionary waragainst fascism. He was murdered by socalled ‘socialists’ for his principled revo-lutionary position. In July 1937 60 mem-bers of the CNT `disappeared’, a termused then as now for those killed by thesecret police, though today it applies tothe dictatorships of Latin America.

Two Roads

Thus two mutually exclusive ways offighting fascism emerged. Firstly youcould view it as the Stalinists and theirsupporters did. Go out of your way to pla-cate the bosses in England and Franceand hope against hope they would inter-vene. So fight it as a Civil War a war overwho were the legitimate rulers of Spain.Relegate politics to a secondary role. Putrevolutionary politics on the back burner.Tie up thousands of arms in the rear re-pressing the workers’ movement. Smashcollectivisation and sacrifice the gains ofthe workers and peasants to the interna-tional interests of Stalin.

Opposed to this was the view that a revo-lutionary war should be fought. Makerevolutionary politics your centralweapon. Give the land and factories tothose who work them. Make propagandabehind the fascist lines. Give the peas-ants a real reason to fight Franco. Makeit clear that collectivisation would ben-

efit them. As it was many lived in fear ofthe Stalinists smashing their collectives.Giving the land to the peasants and mak-ing that a central plank of the fight wouldhave deprived Franco of many soldierswho were the sons and daughters of peas-ants.

Give freedom to Morocco. Organising anuprising there against Franco would havedeprived him of a central source of sup-plies and arms. Appeal directly to theEuropean working class (whose govern-ments had no interests in supporting -the Spanish Revolution. Appeal to theFrench workers, who in 1937 were en-tering the second year of an upsurgewhich had begun with mass strikes theprevious year. Their action could haveprevented intervention against the revo-lution by France, and indeed Britain.

Seize the gold reserves and expropriatethe banks. Use this money to buy armsand make sure arms went to the frontswhere they were needed. These were thesort of things that should have been done.They were no guarantee of victory butcould have lit a spark which could haveignited right throughout Europe and bro-ken the isolation of the Spanish Revolu-tion. It could have marked a turning pointfor the whole of Europe. Instead Spainwas to be yet another victim of fascism -and the Civil War a prelude to a bloodyworld war. The Popular Front could nothave carried out these actions because itwas based on an alliance of classes. Theworkers needed to take complete control.This was possible, especially in Catalo-nia where a regional congress of workerscouncils should have been called to es-tablish a Workers Republic. This exam-ple would have been followed throughoutSpain and a revolutionary war could thenhave been fought. Not a war to put theCommunists, Socialists and Republicansback in government but a war to liberatethe toiling masses.

But the working class did not take power.The CNT, which was in a central posi-tion to do this, refused. It opted for col-laboration and supported decree afterdecree undermining the revolution. Ob-jectively the leaders of the CNT and FATbecame counter-revolutionary. In a dualpower situation either the workers over-throw the ruling class and take power orthe ruling class regains control. There isno middle way. The CNT in collaborat-ing could go only one way. Revolutionscannot be half made. The working classmust assert itself or the revolution isdoomed. So why didn’t the anarchiststake power? We will now turn to this.

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Often these councils spring up spontane-ously or as organs of defence like the So-viets during the Russian revolution. Ini-tially they started out as strike commit-tees but quickly developed into bodies onwhich the new society could be built. Thisidea is central to anarchism. A free soci-ety cannot be built on the old structures,new ones have to be built through whichthe producers can be directly represented.Revolutions do not happen through par-liaments or governments, or trying totake over the already existing state ma-chine.

The councils and collectives that emergedduring the Civil War, were the organs onwhich the revolution could have beenbuilt. But they needed to be brought to-gether at a regional and national level sothe power of the workers and peasantscould assert itself and push the regionaland central governments aside. Thiswould have meant refusing to sharepower with the remaining elements of theruling class, it would have been a majorstep in making the revolution complete.

C.N.T.

The CNT refused to do this. After July9th its leaders in Catalonia were calledinto the office of Companys, the PrimeMinister of Catalonia. Basically he toldthem they were in control of the regionand he would be their faithful servant ifthey took over. They refused. Insteadthey called for the formation of the Cen-tral Committee of Anti- Fascist Militias.This was the first step in collaboration.All parties including Republicans wererepresented on this body. It existed sideby side with the Catalan government.The Central Committee was displaced inSeptember I 936 when the CNT enteredthat government. In November fourmembers of the CNT entered the nationalgovernment in Madrid. Two of them werealso in the FAI.

This is a far cry from what was stated inthe CNT-FAI Information Bulletin ofSeptember 1936. In an article entitledThe Futility of Government it said thatthe expropriations that were taking placewould lead ipso facto to the “liquidationof the bourgeois state which would die ofasphyxiation”. Their members were nowjoining the government of this very same

state.

A number of reasons were put forwardfor this. Essentially they amounted toswallowing the argument about Britainand France. It was said that if a socialrevolution was made it would be crushedand no arms would be forthcoming fromthe western powers (they never cameanyway!). They had decided that winningthe war and making the revolution weretwo different things and that winning thewar came first. That meant collaborat-ing in the broad anti-fascist front “... inorder to win the war and save our peopleand the world, it (the CNT) is ready tocollaborate with anyone in a directiveorgan, whether this organ be called acouncil or a government” (CNT, paper ofthe CNT in the Madrid region, October23rd 1936.)

Another reason put forward was that byentering the government they could con-solidate the gains that had been made.They could “regulate the political life ofSpain by giving legal validity to the revo-lutionary committees” (Juan Lopez, An-archist Minister of Commerce). Therewas even an argument put around thatentry into government was only for in-ternational consumption, the revolutionwould still go on under the veil of legalgovernment.

For these reasons anti-fascist unity wasmaintained and anything that threat-ened to split this unity was repressed.The government knew it was very usefulto have CNT representation, it was anadditional means of controlling themasses. However it must be pointed outthat the decision to enter the governmentwas taken by the National Committeewithout any consultation with the rankand file membership. This was a realbreak from tradition, the necessity of act-ing with a minimum of delay was the rea-son given by the leadership.

May Days

The role of the CNT played in governmentwas clearly illustrated by what becameknown as the May Days. On May 3rd1937, three lorry loads of police led by theStalinist Salas, Commissar of Public Or-der, attempted to take over the telephoneexchange in Barcelona which had beencontrolled by a joint CNT-UGT commit-

tee since the outbreak of the war. The aimof this was to wrest control of the build-ing from the workers and to remove con-trol of the telephone system from them.The telephonists had been able to keeptabs on what was going on by listeningin on the calls of government ministers.It was also the beginning of an effort bythe government to occupy strategic pointsin the city in preparation for an all-outattack.

The police captured the first floor becauseof the surprise nature of their attack butgot no further. Firing started. Wordspread like wildfire and within hours thelocal defence committees of the CNT-FAIwent into action arming themselves andbuilding barricades. The POUM sup-ported them and soon the workers werein control of most of the city. The govern-ment had control of only the central area,which could very easily have been taken.

In other areas of Catalonia action wasalso taken. Civil Guards were disarmedand offices of the PSUC were seized as a“preventive measure”. There was no fir-ing on the first night and by the secondday the workers were spreading the bar-ricades further into the suburbs. Alsoinvolved were the Libertarian Youth(FIJL). Being in control the workers couldhave taken over but an order from CasaCNT (the H.Q.) forbade all action andordered workers to leave the barricades.

The leaders of the CNT entered into ne-gotiations with the government, whichhad the effect of giving the governmentforces more time to fortify buildings andto occupy the Cathedral towers. All dayTuesday (May 4th) the Regional Commit-tee of the CNT appealed again and againover loudspeakers for the barricades tobe dismantled and for a return to work.As these appeals were made negotiationswent on and appeals came into Casa CNTfrom other workers centres who were nowcoming under attack. The CNT govern-

Chapter 4 - A Fresh RevolutionAs said earlier Anarchists are against the state - all states, whether they beliberal democratic, monarchist or totalitarian. Anarchists view the state (thestanding army, police, government, bureaucracy) as the organ through whichthe ruling class maintains its control over the majority of the population.Central to anarchism is the belief that the state must be smashed and re-placed by a system based on workers’ and community councils. Delegatesfrom each workplace and community would go to regional councils whichwould then send delegates to a national and, eventually, international coun-cil. Delegates would be clearly mandated and all major decisions would bemade at assemblies of workers.

ment ministers were recalled from Va-lencia (where the central government wasnow situated) to make further appeals tothe workers.

The negotiations which went on, led tonothing as regards control of the tel-ephone phone exchange. The workerswere ordered off the barricades and un-fortunately they went. On Thursday(May 6th) the building was vacated andthe PSUC took it over. On the same daythe railway station was taken over by thePSUC. The CNT had also controlled that.This happened throughout Catalonia.

On Friday 5,000 Assault Guards arrivedfrom Valencia. The repression that fol-lowed was severe. The May days left 500dead and 1,100 wounded. Hundreds morewere killed during the “mopping up “ ofthe next few weeks.

It was in May that control over publicorder in Catalonia passed to Valencia andin effect Catalan autonomy ceased to ex-ist. After May the CNT ministers alongwith Cabellero were disposed of. The newgovernment was clearly under Stalinistcontrol. The CNT ministers had servedtheir function and were no longer neces-sary. The counter-revolution broke out inearnest after May with decree after de-cree undermining the revolutionary com-mittees. This was now possible as thebackbone of the revolution - the Catalanworkers had been crushed.

Friends of Durruti

During the May Days an alternative tothe policies of the CNT National Commit-tee emerged in the form of the Friends ofDurruti (FoD). This group, formed inMarch 1937, consisted of CNT militantsopposed to the policy of militarising themilitias. They took the name of Durrutiwho had led the Aragon militias and haddefended the social revolution to the hilt.When it was suggested to him that theCNT should enter the government to le-galise the gains of the revolution, he re-sponded “When the workers expropriatethe bourgeoisie, when one attacks foreignproperty, when public order is in the

hands of the workers, when the militia iscontrolled by the unions, when, in fact,one is in the process of making a revolu-tion from the bottom up, how is it possi-ble to give this a legal basis?”.

In March Jaime Balius, one of the lead-ing militants of the FoD, had said that“We anarchists have arrived at the lim-its of our concessions... not another stepback. It is the hour of action. Save therevolution. If we continue to give up ourposition there is no doubt that in a shorttime we shall be overwhelmed. It is forthis fundamental reason that it is neces-sary to develop a new orientation in ourmovement”.

By this new direction was meant an endto a-political anarchism. “To beat Franco-we need to crush the bourgeoisie and itsStalinist and Socialist allies. The capital-ist state must be destroyed totally andthere must be installed workers’ powerdepending on rank and file workers’ com-mittees. A political anarchism has failed”.During the May Days they called for thesetting up of a Revolutionary Junta. Theycalled for the disarming of the police, thesocialisation of the economy, the dissolv-ing of the political parties that had turnedagainst the working class. In effect theycalled for workers’ power. They called onthe workers to stay at the barricades untilthey had control of Catalonia. On Tues-day May 6th the Regional Committee ofthe CNT issued a statement disowningthe FoD as ‘agents provocateurs’. Thesame day the FoD containing a blister-ing attack on the CNT leadership andsaying a revolutionary opportunity hadbeen wasted. The FoD were expelled fromthe CNT at the end of May. Their officeswere taken over by the police and theirorganisation was outlawed.

Junta

You may be surprised by the idea of an-archists calling for a ‘junta’, but what wasmeant by it? In their pamphlet Towardsa Fresh Revolution issued in mid-1938,the FoD explained what the junta wouldbe. They described it as a slight varia-

tion in anarchism. “The body will be or-ganised as follows: members of the revo-lutionary Junta will be elected by demo-cratic vote in the union organisations.Account is to be taken of the number ofcomrades away at the front. These com-rades must have a right to representa-tion. Posts are to come for re- election soas to prevent anyone growing attachedto them. And the trade union assemblieswill exercise control over the junta’s ac-tivities.”

These were no self-appointed group ofleaders, but a democratic organ throughwhich workers could run society and com-plete the revolution. There was no repre-sentation for non-working class organi-sations or political parties. This was a farcry from Lenin’s idea of the dictatorshipof the proletariat (read Party) which hadsuch disastrous consequences in Russia.

The FoD was a break with the traditionala-politicism of the CNT. They recognisedthat state power would not just disappearbut would have to be smashed and re-placed with the power of workers’ coun-cils. They accepted that revolutions weretotalitarian in so far as “What happensis that the various aspects of the revolu-tion are progressively dealt with, but withthe proviso that the class which repre-sents the new order of things is the onewith the most responsibility.”

They understood the defects of syndical-ism. Nothing can be taken away from themilitancy of the CNT. The rank and fileliterally tore down capitalism and putworkers’ and peasants’ collectives in itsplace. They fought heroically in the mili-tias and the members of the CNT sur-passed all others with their bravery.

But because of the CNT’s a-politicismafter the factories and lands had beensleazed they did not know what to donext. For them the state should have dieda ‘natural death’. But it didn’t. Althoughthe CNT had great ideas of what the an-archist future would look like and on theneed for the working class itself to makethe revolution, it could not make a linkbetween the revolutionary situation andthe goal of libertarian communism. Asthe FoD stated “We (CNT) did not have aconcrete programme. We had no ideawhere we were going. We had lyricismaplenty but when all is said and done wedid not know what to do with our massesof workers or how to give effect to thepopular elffusion”. They held that theCNT ought to have “leapt into the driv-er’s seat in the country, delivering a se-vere coup de grace to all that is outmodedand archaic”.

The CNT did not understand this. Theyposed the question as one of democraticcollaboration - or an ‘anarchist dictator-ship’. Garcia Oliver, one of the CNT Min-isters and an FAI member, said “TheCNT and FAI decided on collaboration

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and democracy, renouncing revolutionarytotalitarianism which would lead to thestrangulation of the revolution by theanarchist and confederal dictatorship”.They were afraid of taking the reins. Butit was not a question of imposing an `an-archist dictatorship’ but of creating neworgans through which the revolutionarymasses could assert their power. Syndi-calism could not see this as it believesthe unions (i.e. the CNT) are the bodiesupon which the new society would bebuilt.

Because the state did not die the CNTfelt they had to participate in it to havesome control. They ended up concludingthis was the only way they could havesome say. They went even further andsome of the drivel they came out with wasa direct result of their need to justify theirparticipation. Take for example “At thepresent time, the government, as the in-strument that controls the organs of thestate no longer represents a body thatdivides society into classes. And both willoppress the people even less now thatmembers of the CNT have intervened”.(Solidaridad Obrero, November 4th1936).

Alternative

The FoD was an expression of oppositionto this kind of thought. Not only in theirpaper, The Friends of the People, but incountless local publications of the CNT,and indeed of the UGT, POUM and Lib-ertarian Youth you can find such opposi-tion. However it must be said this wasonly given a clear expression when it wastoo late. The FoD did not have enoughtime to win the masses to their position.They understood the need for aregroupment to take on the leadership ofthe CNT. “The vanguard i.e. the revolu-tionary militants and Friends of Durruti,P0UM and the Youth must regroup toelaborate a programme of proletarianrevolutionaries”.

Here we see a recognition of the need fora revolutionary minority to organise it-self to provide leadership to the masses.

Not a ‘we know it all’ leadership but aleadership of ideas. An understanding ofwhat has gone wrong and what needs tobe done. That the FoD did not set them-selves up as “all-knowing leaders’ is clearIn their proposal for a Junta.

The Spanish Revolution does not negateanarchism. If anything, long before Po-land, Czechoslovakia or Hungary itshowed the bankruptcy of Stalinism andthe State Capitalism of Russia. The ac-tivities of the Stalinists were far fromwhat real socialists would have done.

On the other hand the anarchist massesthrew themselves into a fight against fas-cism, and its cause, capitalism. Unfortu-nately the revolution was not complete,the CNT leaders held it back. Indeed

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their behaviour highlights the effect thatpower can have on even those who layclaim to anarchism. Spain provided im-portant lessons for anarchists. It showedthe inadequacy of syndicalism, the needfor political anarchism and the need foran anarchist political organisation. Wehave to understand that the state andpolitical power does not ‘die’; it has to besmashed.

Above all. Spain showed what ordinarypeople can do given the right conditions.The next time somebody says workers arestupid and could not take over the run-ning of society, point to Spain. Show themwhat the workers and peasants (most ofwhom were illiterate) did. Tell them An-archism is possible.

GlossaryCNT (Confederacion Nacional deTrabajo) - anarchist-Syndicalist tradeunion founded in 1911. The most militantand revolutionary union. Sought to or-ganise all workers into one big union.Based itself on the ideas of anarchismand revolutionary syndicalism.

FAI (Federacion Anarquista Iberica) -loose federation of anarchist groups inSpain and Portugal, formed in 1927. Pri-mary purpose was to combat reformisttendencies in the CNT and maintain it’sanarchist profile. Also acted as the ‘armedwing’ of the CNT at the time employerswere hiring pistoleros to murder leadingCNT members. In so far as the FAI hada theory about the role of a revolution-ary organisation it was a belief that aminority could, by insurrection, light aspark that would inflame the masses forrevolution. They organised risings inJanuary 1932, January 1933 and Decem-ber 1933 all of which were unsuccessful.

FIJL (Federaction Iberica de JuventudesLibertarias) - anarchist youth organisa-tion

Friends of Durruti - left opposition groupwithin the CNT, FAI and FIJL foundedin early 1937. Was against CNT entryinto government and argued for completesocial revolution as the only way to de-feat Franco. Named after the famousanarchist militia leader killed in Novem-ber 1936.

Mujeres Libres - anarchist womens’ or-ganisation.

PCE (Partido Communista de Espana) -pro- Russian Communist Party foundedin 1921.

POUM (Partido Obrero de UnificacionMarxista) - anti-Stalinist Communistparty formed in 1935 with the joiningtogether of a Trotskyist group and dissi-dents from the PCE. Contained many

revolutionaries but was essentially aparty that vacillated between reformismand revolution. The writer George Orwellfought in their militia.

PSOE (Partido Socialista ObreroEspanol) - known as the ‘Socialist Party’.A democratic party formed in 1879.

PUSC (Partilo Socialista Unificado deCataluna) - the United Catalan SocialistParty. Formed in 1936 from a merger ofSocialist and Communist groups. Affili-ated to the Commintern and effectivelythe PCE in Catalonia.

Republican Party - party of the radicalmiddle class founded in 1934.

Republican Union - a split from the gov-ernment party of 1933-35.

UGT (Union General de Trabajadores) -trade union connected with the PSOE

1931

April Republic proclaimed. Alfonso XIIIgoes into exile.

June Election of Republican/SocialDemocratic government.

1932

November Right wing electoral victory,beginning of Bienno Negro.

1934

October United but isolated workersrising in Asturias crushed by the army.

1935

June 7th Congress of the Comminternapproves tactic of Popular Fronts. For-mation of Popular Front proposed byPCE.

1936

January Popular Front pact signed bythe Republicans, Socialists, Commu-nists, UGT, POUM and the tinySyndicalist Party.

February Popular Front wins election.

April Socialist and Communist youthorganisations merge and become JSUunder Stalinist control.

May CNT Congress in Saragossa.

June Popular Front governmentelected in France. French workerslaunch mass strikes and factory occu-pations.

July 17-20 Military uprising begins inMorocco. Start of the Civil War.

July 18 Barrio (Republican Union) be-comes Prime Minister.

July 19 Barrio resigns. Jose Giral (leftrepublican) becomes Prime Minister.Uprising defeated in Barcelona.

July 20 Uprising defeated in Madrid.Committee of Anti-Fascist Militiasformed in Barcelona.

July 24 Catalan militia columns headfor Aragon.

September 4 Fall of Giral government.Largo Caballero (Socialist Party) formsnew government.

September 26 CNT joins Generalitat(Catalan government).

September 30 Decree militarising themilitias, creation of Popular Army.

October 12 Arrival of first Russian aid.

November CNT joins the central gov-ernment.

November 6 Government flees Madridfor Valencia.

November 20 Durruti dies in the de-fence of Madrid.

December Organisation of mixed bri-gades of the new Popular Army

December 17 POUM ousted fromGeneralitat government.

December 23 Popular support forcesthe government to recognise the Coun-cil of Aragon.

1937

February 5-24 Famous battle ofJarama where many Irish volunteersfall fighting against the Francoist en-circlement of Madrid.

May 3-7 The MAY DAYS in Barcelona.Anarchists and POUM confronted byCommunist and government forces.Appearance of Friends of Durruti lit-erature calling for a Revolutionary

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Junta of workers’ delegates. Invasionof Catalonia by government AssaultGuards.

May 17 New government formed un-der Dr. Juan Negrin (a Socialist mem-ber but Communist sympathiser).

June 16 POUM outlawed and its lead-ers arrested.

August 10 Invasion of Aragon by gov-ernment forces under General Lister.Council of Aragon dissolved and collec-tives smashed (This contributes to thecollapse of the Aragon Front March1938).

1938

April 3 Franco forces reach Catalanborder.

April 14 Republican zone cut in two byrebels.

July 24 Popular Army launches Ebrooffensive.

November 26 End of Ebro battle withPopular Army having to retreat.

1939

January 26 Fall of Barcelona.

February 5 Government politicians be-gin fleeing to France.

February 10 Conquest of Cataloniacompleted.

March 27 Fall of Madrid.

April 1 End of Civil War.

Chronology of Events