Revolutionary Catalonia

RevolutionaryCatalonia (July 21, 1936 – 1939) was thepart of Catalonia (a region in northeast Spain) controlledby the anarchist and socialist trade unions, parties, andmilitias during the Spanish Civil War. These includedthe Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT, NationalConfederation of Labor) which was the dominant laborunion at the time and the closely associated FederaciónAnarquista Ibérica (FAI, Iberian Anarchist Federation).The Unión General de Trabajadores (General Worker’sUnion), the POUMand theUnified Socialist Party of Cat-alonia (which included the Communist Party of Catalo-nia) were also involved. Although the Catalonian Gener-alitat was nominally in power, the trade unions were defacto in command of most of the economy and militaryforces.Socialist rule of the region began with the Spanish Revo-lution of 1936, resulting in workers’ control of businessesand factories, collective farming in the countryside and at-tacks against Spanish nationalists and the Catholic clergy.The growing influence of the Communist Party of Spain's(PCE) Popular Front government and their desire to na-tionalize revolutionary committees and militias broughtit into conflict with the CNT and POUM, resulting in theMay Days and the eventual replacement of the CNT bythe PCE as the major political force in Catalonia until thearrival of the fascists.

1 Background

Main article: Anarchism in SpainIn the early 20th century, socialism and anarchism grew

Flag of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo-FederaciónAnarquista Ibérica

throughout Spain. There was widespread discontent in

Catalonia, which was heavily industrialized and was astronghold of the anarcho-syndicalist trade unions. A se-ries of strikes due to wage cuts and in response to mili-tary conscription for the Rif War in Morocco culminatedin the Setmana Tràgica (Tragic week, July 25 – August2, 1909), in which workers rose up in revolt and weresuppressed by the army. The anarcho-syndicalist CNTwas formed in October 1910 and immediately calledfor a general strike, which was suppressed by the mili-tary. The Great Depression worsened conditions. Furtherstrikes followed in 1917 and 1919 amidst growing vio-lence between the police and trade unions. With the CNToutlawed, the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) wasformed in 1927 as a clandestine alliance of affinity groupsduring the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. Itsradical members, who were also part of the CNT, exertedconsiderable influence on the other members of the tradeunion.[1] During the Second Spanish Republic, anarchistscontinued to lead uprisings such as the Casas Viejas revoltin 1933 and the Asturian miners’ strike of 1934 whichwas brutally put down by Francisco Franco with the aidof Moorish troops.

2 Beginning of the war

During the Spanish coup of July 1936, anarchist andsocialist militias, along with Republican forces includ-ing the Assault and Civil Guards, defeated the forcescontrolled by Nationalist army officers in Catalonia andparts of eastern Aragon. The Confederación Nacional delTrabajo-Federación Anarquista Ibérica now came to theforefront as the most powerful organization in Barcelona,seizing many arms and strategic buildings such as thetelephone exchange and post offices. Through the var-ious factory and transport committees, they dominatedthe economy of Catalonia.[2] In spite of their militantanti-statism, they decided not to overthrow the Catalangovernment. The president of the Generalitat of Catalo-nia and head of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC),Lluís Companys, was generally accommodating with theCNT but was wary of their appropriation of the meansof production.[3] The CNT and Companys worked to-gether to set up the Central Anti-Fascist Militia Commit-tee, which became the main governing body in the region.

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2 4 ANARCHISTS ENTER THE GOVERNMENT

3 Crimes

See also: Red Terror (Spain)

During the first weeks of the war, courts of law were re-placed by revolutionary tribunals. Extrajudicial killingsby militants and vigilantes soon followed.

“Everybody created his own justice andadministered it himself...Some used to callthis 'taking a person for a ride' [paseo] butI maintain that it was justice administereddirectly by the people in the complete absenceof the regular judicial bodies.”—Juan García Oliver, Anarchist minister ofjustice, 1936[4]

During the initial fighting several thousand individualswere executed by anarchist and socialist militants basedon their assumed political allegiance and social class.

“We do not wish to deny that the nine-teenth of July brought with it an overflowingof passions and abuses, a natural phenomenonof the transfer of power from the hands ofprivileged to the hands of the people. It is pos-sible that our victory resulted in the death byviolence of four or five thousand inhabitants ofCatalonia who were listed as rightists and werelinked to political or ecclesiastical reaction.”—Diego Abad de Santillán, editor ofSolidaridad Obrera[5]

Because of its role as a leading supporter of fascism,[6]the Catholic Church came under attack throughout the re-gion. Church buildings were burned or taken over by theCNT or by supporters of the Republican government[7]and turned into warehouses or put to other secular uses.Thousands of members of the Catholic clergy were killedand tortured and many more fled the country or soughtrefuge in foreign embassies.[8]

Antony Beevor estimates the total number of peoplekilled in Catalonia in the summer and autumn of 1936 at8,352 (out of a total of 38,000 victims of the Red Terrorin all of Spain).[9]

4 Anarchists enter the government

In spite of the fact that anarchist philosophy was againstcentralized government of any form and that the CNT-FAI had always shunned parliamentary politics while at-tacking the Socialists for collaborating with the state, bySeptember 1936 they had decided to join the Generalitat

Caballero government ministers (November 1936). From leftto right: Jaume Aigudé i Miró (Republican Left of Catalonia),Federica Montseny (CNT-FAI), Juan García Oliver (CNT-FAI)and Anastasio de Gracia (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party)

of Catalonia. The CNT feared that arms would be with-held and that they would be isolated if the Generalitatunder Lluís Companys formed a government with theUnified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC).[10] CNTmembers filled the Ministries of Health, Supplies andEconomy and the Central Anti-Fascist Militia Commit-tee was dissolved.Soon after, the CNT also joined the national govern-ment. On October 18 a CNT plenary session of the re-gional federations granted the national committee sec-retary Horacio Martínez Prieto full powers to conductnegotiations with prime minister Francisco Largo Ca-ballero. CNT representatives Juan García Oliver, JoanPeiró, Federica Montseny and Juan López filled seatsin Caballero’s cabinet. They took control of the na-tional ministry of justice, industry, health and commerce,respectively.[11] The CNT saw this “maximum conces-sion compatible with its antiauthoritarian spirit” as cru-cial to winning the war.[12] There was widespread frictionand debate between the “collaborationist” and “absten-tionist” anarchists in the CNT.Many anarchists outside ofSpain (such as Alexander Schapiro) criticized CNT-FAIfor entering into the government.[13] There was also con-cern among anarchists with the growing power ofMarxistcommunists within the government. Anarchist Ministerof Health Federica Montseny later explained: “At thattime we only saw the reality of the situation created forus: the communists in the government and ourselves out-side, the manifold possibilities, and all our achievementsendangered.”[14]

Some anarchists outside of Spain viewed their conces-sions as necessary considering the possibility of the Na-tionalists winning the war. Emma Goldman said, “WithFranco at the gate of Madrid, I could hardly blamethe CNT-FAI for choosing a lesser evil: participationin government rather than dictatorship, the most deadlyevil.”[15]

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5 1936 Revolution and worker’sself management

Main article: Spanish Revolution of 1936Throughout Catalonia many sectors of the economy fell

Cinema ticket from a venue run by the CNT.

under the control of the anarchist CNT and the social-ist UGT trade unions, where workers’ self-managementwas implemented. These included Railways, street-cars, buses, taxicabs, shipping, electric light and powercompanies, gasworks and waterworks, engineering andautomobile assembly plants, mines, mills, factories,food-processing plants, theaters, newspapers, bars, ho-tels, restaurants, department stores, and thousands ofdwellings previously owned by the upper classes.[16]While the CNT was the leading organization in Catalo-nia, it often shared power with the UGT. For example,control of the Spanish National telephone company, wasput under a joint CNT-UGT committee.[16]

George Orwell describes the scene as he arrived inBarcelona.

It was the first time I had ever been ina town where the working class was in thesaddle. Practically every building of anysize had been seized by the workers and wasdraped with red flags or with the red andblack flag of the Anarchists; every wall wasscrawled with the hammer and sickle andwith the initials of the revolutionary parties;almost every church had been gutted and itsimages burnt. Churches here and there werebeing systematically demolished by gangs ofworkmen. Every shop and café had an in-scription saying that it had been collectivised;even the bootblacks had been collectivisedand their boxes painted red and black. Waitersand shop-walkers looked you in the face andtreated you as an equal.—George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, ch.I[17]

CNT poster promoting collectivized Textiles

Trade union control also spread to small businesses ofthe middle class handicraft men and tradesmen. InBarcelona, the CNT collectivized the sale of fish and eggs,slaughterhouses, milk processing and the fruit and veg-etable markets, suppressing all dealers and sellers thatwere not part of the collective. Many retailers joined thecollectives but others refused, wanting higher wages thanthe workers.[18] Throughout the region, the CNT com-mittees replaced the middle class distributors and tradersin many businesses including retailers and wholesalers,hotel, café, and bar owners, opticians and doctors, bar-bers and bakers.[18] Though the CNT tried to persuadethe members of the middle class and small bourgeoisie tojoin the revolution, they were generally unwelcoming tothe revolutionary changes wanting more than just expro-priation of their businesses under force or threat of forceand a worker’s wage.[19]

Initially, the newly collectivized factories encounteredvarious problems. CNT member Albert Pérez-Baró de-scribes the initial economic confusion:

After the first few days of euphoria, theworkers returned to work and found them-selves without responsible management. Thisresulted in the creation of workers’ commit-tees in factories, workshops and warehouses,which tried to resume production with all theproblems that a transformation of this kind en-tailed. Owing to inadequate training and the

4 5 1936 REVOLUTION AND WORKER’S SELF MANAGEMENT

sabotage of some of the technicians who re-mained many others had fled with the ownersthe workers’ committees and other bodies thatwere improvised had to rely on the guidanceof the unions.... Lacking training in economicmatters, the union leaders, with more goodwill than success, began to issue directives thatspread confusion in the factory committees andenormous chaos in production. This was aggra-vated by the fact that each union... gave differ-ent and often contradictory instruction.[20]

In response to these problems, the Generalitat of Catalo-nia, backed by the CNT approved a decree on “Collec-tivization and Workers’ Control” on 24 October 1936.Under this decree all firms with more than 100 workerswere to be collectivized and those with 100 or less couldbe collectivized if a majority of workers agreed.[21][22][23]All collectivized enterprises were to join general indus-trial councils, which would be represented in a centralplanning agency, the Economic Council of Catalonia.Representatives of the Generalitat would be appointed bythe CNT to these regional councils.[24] The goal of thisnew form of organization would be to allow central plan-ning for civilian and military needs and stop the selfish-ness of more prosperous industries by using their profitsto help others. However these plans for libertarian so-cialism based on trade unions was opposed by the social-ists and communists who wanted a nationalized industry,as well as by unions which did not want to give up theirprofits to other businesses.[25] Another problem faced bythe CNT was that while many collectivized firms werebankrupt, they refused to use the banks because the fi-nancial institutions were under the control of the socialistUGT. As a result of this, many were forced to seek gov-ernment aid, appealing to Juan Peiró, the CNT ministerof industry. Socialists and Communists in the govern-ment however, prevented Peiró from making any movewhich promoted collectivization.[26]

After the initial disruption, the unions soon began anoverall reorganization of all trades, closing down hun-dreds of smaller plants and focusing on those few bet-ter equipped ones, improving working conditions. In theregion of Catalonia, more than seventy foundries wereclosed down, and production concentrated around twentyfour larger foundries.[27] TheCNT argued that the smallerplants were less efficient and secure. In Barcelona, 905smaller beauty shops and barbershops were closed down,their equipment and workers being focused on 212 largershops.[27]

Although there were early issues with production incertain instances, however, numerous sources attestthat industrial productivity doubled almost everywhereacross the country and agricultural yields being “30-50%" larger, demonstrated by EmmaGoldman, AugustinSouchy, Chris Ealham, Eddie Conlon, Daniel Guerin andothers.

Despite the critics clamoring for maximum efficiency, an-archic communes often produced more than before thecollectivization. The newly liberated zones worked on en-tirely libertarian principles; decisions were made throughcouncils of ordinary citizens without any sort of bureau-cracy. (The CNT-FAI leadership was at this time notnearly as radical as the rank and file members responsiblefor these sweeping changes.)As Eddie Conlon wrote:

If you didn't want to join the collective youwere given some land but only as much as youcould work yourself. You were not allowed toemploy workers. Not only production was af-fected, distribution was on the basis of whatpeople needed. In many areas money was abol-ished. People come to the collective store (of-ten churches which had been turned into ware-houses) and got what was available. If therewere shortages rationing would be introducedto ensure that everyone got their fair share. Butit was usually the case that increased produc-tion under the new system eliminated short-ages.

In agricultural terms the revolution oc-curred at a good time. Harvests that were gath-ered in and being sold off to make big profitsfor a few landowners were instead distributedto those in need. Doctors, bakers, barbers, etc.were given what they needed in return for theirservices. Where money was not abolished a'family wage' was introduced so that paymentwas on the basis of need and not the number ofhours worked.

Production greatly increased. Techniciansand agronomists helped the peasants to makebetter use of the land. Modern scientific meth-ods were introduced and in some areas yieldsincreased by as much as 50%. There wasenough to feed the collectivists and the mili-tias in their areas. Often there was enough forexchange with other collectives in the cities formachinery. In addition food was handed overto the supply committees who looked after dis-tribution in the urban areas.[28]

Another aspect of the revolution was the rise of ananarcha-feminist women’s movement, the Mujeres Li-bres. The organization, with 30,000 members at its dis-posal, set up schools to educate women and worked topersuade prostitutes to give up their way of life.[29] Theanarcho-feminists argued that overthrow of patriarchalsociety was just as necessary for personal freedom, asthe creation of a classless society. To demonstrate thisnew sexual equality, some women even fought at the front(no more than one thousand) and several more joinedwomen’s battalions in the rear.[29]

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6 Rural collectivization

Just as in the cities, peasant revolutionaries seized land inthe countryside and organized collective farms. Accord-ing to professor Edward E. Malefakis, between half andtwo-thirds of all cultivated land in Republican Spain wasseized. The targets were mainly small and medium land-holders, since most of the large landholdings had fallen tothe nationalists.[30]

Collectivization in the countryside generally began withthe establishment of CNT-FAI committees. These com-mittees collectivized the soil of the rich and in some casesthe soil of the poor as well. Farm buildings, machin-ery, transport and livestock were also collectivized. Foodreserves and other amenities were stored in a commu-nal depot under committee control.[31] In many localities,money was abolished and wages paid by coupons issuedby the committee, the size of which was determined thesize of the family. Locally produced goods were free ifabundant, or bought with coupons at the communal stor-age. Money was only used in trade with regions that hadnot adopted this system, and trade with other anarchistregions was done by barter.[32] Since the committee con-trolled all the money supply, travel to another region re-quired getting permission and money from the commit-tee.For the CNT, collectivization was a key component of therevolution, they feared that the small holders and tenantfarmers would form the core of a new landholding classand act as an obstacle to the revolution. The Anarchistsalso believed that private ownership of land created abourgeois mentality and led to exploitation.[33] While theofficial policy of the CNT was that of peaceful voluntarycollectivization and many small farmers and peasant pro-prietors voluntarily joined the collectives, a larger pro-portion of them opposed collectivization or joined onlyafter extreme duress.[34] The presence of armed CNTmilitiamen also had the effect of imposing fear on thosewho opposed collectivization. Those smallholders whorefused collectivization were prevented from hiring anylaborers and usually were forced to sell their crops di-rectly to the committees, on their terms. They were alsooften denied the services of the collectivized businessessuch as the barbershops and bakeries, use of communaltransport, farm equipment and food supplies from com-munal warehouses.[34] All of these economic pressurescombined caused many tenant farmers and smallholdersto give up their land and join the collectives.While some joined voluntarily, others, especially in thebeginning of the revolution, were forced to join the col-lectives by anarchist militias. The anarcho-syndicalistperiodical Solidaridad Obrera reported that: “Certainabuses have been committed that we consider counter-productive. We know that certain irresponsible elementshave frightened the small peasants and that up to now acertain apathy has been noted in their daily labors.”[35]

The voluntary nature of the rural collectivization var-ied from region to region. According to Ralph Bates:“While there were plenty of abuses, forced collectiviza-tion, etc., there were plenty of good collectives, i.e., vol-untary ones.”[36]

A number of scholars and writers on the subject of theSpanish Civil War counter that the presence of a “coer-cive climate” was an unavoidable aspect of the war thatthe anarchists cannot be fairly blamed for, and that thepresence of deliberate coercion or direct force was mini-mal, as evidenced by a generally peaceful mixture of col-lectivists and individualist dissenters who had opted notto participate in collective organization. The latter senti-ment is expressed by historianAntony Beevor in hisBattlefor Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.[37]

“The justification for this operation (whose‘very harsh measures’ shocked even some Partymembers) was that since all the collectives hadbeen established by force, Líster was merelyliberating the peasants. There had undoubtedlybeen pressure, and no doubt force was used onsome occasions in the fervor after the rising.But the very fact that every village was a mix-ture of collectivists and individualists showsthat the peasants had not been forced into com-munal farming at the point of a gun.”

Historian Graham Kelsey also maintains that the anar-chist collectives were primarily maintained through lib-ertarian principles of voluntary association and organi-zation, and that the decision to join and participate wasgenerally based on a rational and balanced choice madeafter the destabilization and effective absence of capital-ism as a powerful factor in the region.[38]

Libertarian communism and agrarian col-lectivization were not economic terms or socialprinciples enforced upon a hostile populationby special teams of urban anarchosyndicalists,but a pattern of existence and a means of ruralorganization adopted from agricultural experi-ence by rural anarchists and adopted by localcommittees as the single most sensible alterna-tive to the part-feudal, part-capitalist mode oforganization that had just collapsed.

There is also focus placed by pro-anarchist analysts on themany decades of organization and shorter period of CNT-FAI agitation that was to serve as a foundation for highmembership levels throughout anarchist Spain, which isoften referred to as a basis for the popularity of the an-archist collectives, rather than any presence of force orcoercion that allegedly compelled unwilling persons to in-voluntarily participate.The disillusioned middle classes soon found allies in theCommunist party which was quite moderate in compar-

6 7 REVOLUTIONARY MILITIAS AND THE REGULAR ARMY

ison to the CNT, was generally against the mass collec-tivization of the revolution and called for the property ofsmallholders and tradesmen to be respected. They de-fended the right of the small proprietor to hire laborersand to control the sale of his crops without interferencefrom the local committees.[39] This moderate Communistappeal to the middle classes was in line with the Com-intern strategy for a popular front alliance with the liberaland republican center parties.

7 Revolutionary militias and theregular army

Women training for a Republican militia outside Barcelona, Au-gust 1936.

After the military rebellion, the Republic was left with adecimated officer corps and a severely weakened army inthe regions it still controlled. Since the army was unableto resist the rebellion, the fightingmainly fell to the militiaunits organized by the various labor unions. While armyofficers joined these columns, they were under the con-trol of whichever organization had formed them.[40] Themilitias suffered from a wide variety of problems. Theywere inexperienced and lacked discipline and unity of ac-tion. Rivalry between the various organizations exacer-bated the lack of any centralized command and generalstaff. The appointed professional officers were not alwaysrespected. They also lacked heavy weapons.[41] Militia-men would often leave the front whenever they wished.Republican officer Major Aberri said of the militiamenhe encountered at the Aragon front: “It was the most nat-ural thing in the world for them to leave the front whenit was quiet. They knew nothing of discipline, and it wasclear that nobody had bothered to instruct them on thesubject. After a forty-hour week at the front they got

bored and left it....”[42]

In the initial months the ministry of war had little author-ity over transport and was forced to rely on the NationalCommittee of Road Transport controlled by the CNT andUGT. The committees, unions and parties widely disre-garded demands from the ministry of war and retainedequipment and vehicles for themselves and their ownmilitia forces.[43] In the CNT militias especially, therewas no hierarchy, no saluting, no titles, uniforms or dis-tinction in pay and quartering. They were organized intocenturies with democratically elected leaders that had nopermanent authority.[44]

While the militias had their defects, they were instrumen-tal in holding the line at the front and their disciplineslowly improved over time, George Orwell who servedin the POUM explains:

Later it became the fashion to decry themilitias, and therefore to pretend that thefaults which were due to lack of training andweapons were the result of the equalitariansystem. Actually, a newly raised draft 'ofmilitia was an undisciplined mob not becausethe officers called the private 'Comrade' butbecause raw troops are always an undis-ciplined mob. In practice the democratic'revolutionary' type of discipline is morereliable than might be expected. In a workers’army discipline is theoretically voluntary. Itis based on class-loyalty, whereas the disci-pline of a bourgeois conscript army is basedultimately on fear. (The Popular Army thatreplaced the militias was midway between thetwo types.) In the militias the bullying andabuse that go on in an ordinary army wouldnever have been tolerated for a moment. Thenormal military punishments existed, but theywere only invoked for very serious offences.When a man refused to obey an order you didnot immediately get him punished; you firstappealed to him in the name of comradeship.Cynical people with no experience of handlingmen will say instantly that this would never'work', but as a matter of fact it does 'work'in the long run. The discipline of even theworst drafts of militia visibly improved astime went on. In January the job of keepinga dozen raw recruits up to the mark almostturned my hair grey. In May for a short whileI was acting-lieutenant in command of aboutthirty men, English and Spanish. We had allbeen under fire for months, and I never had theslightest difficulty in getting an order obeyedor in getting men to volunteer for a dangerousjob. 'Revolutionary' discipline depends onpolitical consciousness--on an understandingof why orders must be obeyed; it takes time to

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diffuse this, but it also takes time to drill a maninto an automaton on the barrack-square. Thejournalists who sneered at the militia-systemseldom remembered that the militias had tohold the line while the Popular Army wastraining in the rear. And it is a tribute to thestrength of 'revolutionary' discipline that themilitias stayed in the field-at all.—George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, ch. 3

The most effective Anarchist unit in Catalonia was theDurruti Column, led by the militant Buenaventura Dur-ruti, it fought mainly in the Aragon front. It was the onlyanarchist unit which managed to gain respect from oth-erwise fiercely hostile political opponents. In a sectionof her memoirs which otherwise lambasts the anarchists,Communist militant Dolores Ibárruri states, “The [Span-ish Civil] war developed with minimal participation fromthe anarchists in its fundamental operations. One excep-tion was Durruti....”[45]

The column began with 3,000 troops but at its peak, wasmade up of about 8,000 people. They had a difficulttime getting arms from a suspicious Republican govern-ment, so Durruti and his men compensated by seizing un-used arms from government stockpiles. Durruti’s deathon November 20, 1936, weakened the Column in spiritand tactical ability; they were eventually incorporated, bydecree, into the regular army. Over a quarter of the pop-ulation of Barcelona attended Durruti’s funeral.[46] It isstill uncertain how Durruti died. Modern historians tendto agree that it was an accident, perhaps a malfunctionwith his own gun. Widespread rumors at the time claimedtreachery by his men. Anarchists tended to claim that hedied heroically and was shot by a fascist sniper.Because of the need to create a centralized military, theCommunist party was in favor of establishing a regu-lar army and integrating the militias into this new force.They were the first party to dissolve their militia forces,including the fifth regiment, one of the most effectiveunits in the war, and create mixed brigades, forming thecore of the new Popular Army.[47] These units were firmlyunder the oversight of Communist party commissars andunder the command of experienced army officers. TheCommunist party eventually came to dominate the lead-ership of the new army through their commissars, whoused any means at their disposal, including violence anddeath threats, to increase party membership. Soviet armyadvisers and NKVD agents also exercised considerableinfluence within the new armed forces.[48]

The CNT, POUM and other socialist militias initially re-sisted the integration. The CNT saw the militias as rep-resenting the will of the people while a centralized armywas against its anti-authoritarian principles. They alsofeared the army as an organ of the Communist party,and these fears were backed up by the historical suppres-sion of Russian anarchists by the Bolsheviks during the

Map of the Aragon front.

Russian Revolution.[49] However, the CNT were eventu-ally forced to yield to militarization, since the governmentrefused to supply and arm its militias unless they joinedthe regular army. The experiences of CNT leaders inthe front with the badly organized militias and the exam-ples of better structured units such as the InternationalBrigades also made them change their minds and sup-port the creation of a regular army.[50] The CNT con-ducted its own militarization. Helmut Ruediger of theInternational Workers’ Association (AIT) reported onMay 1937: “There is now in the central zone a CNTarmy of thirty-three thousand men perfectly armed, well-organized, and with membership cards of the CNT fromthe first to the last man, under the control of officers alsobelonging to the CNT.”[51]Militarization was still resistedby the most radical Anarchists within the CNT-FAI whowere extremely passionate about their libertarian ideals.More than any other unit, the famous and notorious IronColumn fiercely resisted militarization. Composed of an-archists from Valencia and freed convicts, the Iron Col-umn was critical of the CNT-FAI for joining the nationalgovernment and defended the militia system in their pe-riodical Linea de Fuego.[52] The CNT refused to supplythem with arms and in March 1937 they were incorpo-rated into the regular army.After the fall of the government of Francisco Largo Ca-ballero and the rise of the Communist party to dominancein the armed forces, the integration of the militias wasaccelerated and most units were coerced into joining theregular army.[53]

8 The May Events

During the Civil War, the Spanish Communist Partygained considerable influence due to the Republicanforce’s reliance on weapons, supplies and military advis-ers from the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the Commu-nist party (now working as the dominant force withinthe PSUC) constantly proclaimed that it was promoting

8 8 THE MAY EVENTS

“bourgeois democracy” and was fighting in defense ofthe Republic, not for proletarian revolution. Oppositionto collectivization and the camouflaging of the true na-ture of the Spanish revolution by the Communist partywas mainly due to the fear that the establishment of arevolutionary socialist state would antagonize WesternDemocracies.[54] The PSUC had also become the ma-jor defender of the Catalan middle classes against collec-tivization, organizing 18,000 tradesmen and artisans intothe Catalan Federation of Small Businessmen and Man-ufacturers (GEPCI).[55]

The party’s attacks on the revolution, particularly the re-placement of revolutionary committees with regular or-gans of state power brought it into conflict with the CNT-FAI, a major supporter of the revolutionary committeesand the most powerful working class organization in Cat-alonia. The revolutionary Boletín de Información de-clared that: “The thousands of proletarian combatants atthe battle fronts are not fighting for the 'democratic Re-public.' They are proletarian revolutionaries, who havetaken up arms in order to make the Revolution. To post-pone the triumph of the latter until after we win thewar would weaken considerably the fighting spirit of theworking class.... The Revolution and the war are in-separable. Everything that is said to the contrary is re-formist counterrevolution.”[56] In spite of this, CNT min-isters in the government also acquiesced to decrees whichdissolved revolutionary committees, largely because theybelieved this would lead to closer ties with Britain andFrance.[57]

In the Catalan Generalitat, power was divided betweenthe CNT, PSUC and Republican Left of Catalonia(ERC). Another influential party in Barcelona was thePOUM (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification) whichespoused an anti-Stalinist far left ideology, and was thusdenounced by the PSUC as Trotskyist and Fascist. Inturn, the POUM newspaper La Batalla accused the Com-munists of being counterrevolutionary.[58] On Decem-ber 1936 the CNT and PSUC agreed to remove thePOUM from the Catalan government. This was possi-bly influenced by Soviet consul Vladimir A. Antonov-Ovseenko who threatened to withdraw arm shipments.[59]The PSUC now sought to weaken the CNT committeesthrough an alliance with the urban middle classes and therural tenant farmers in the Unió de Rabassaires. Theypassed a decree banning the committees, but could noteffectively enforce it. This was because police power inBarcelona was divided between the CNT controlled pa-trols under the Junta de seguridad and the Assault andNational Republican guards, under police commissionerRodríguez Salas, a PSUC member.[60] The PSUC andERC then passed a set of decrees to dissolve the pa-trols and create a single unified security corps. CNTrepresentatives in the Generalitat did not object, butthere was widespread discontent among Anarchists andthe POUM.[61] Further decrees by the Generalitat whichcalled up conscripts, dissolved military committees and

provided for the integration of the militias into a regu-lar army caused a crisis in which CNT ministers walkedout of the government in protest.[62] The POUM also op-posed the decrees. Tensions where only exacerbated fol-lowing the well publicized murders of PSUC secretaryRoldán Cortada and Anarchist committee president An-tonio Martín. Armed raids and attempts by the Repub-lican guards to disarm the Anarchists and the seizure oftowns along the French border from revolutionary com-mittees led the CNT to mobilize and arm its workers.[63]

George Orwell.

In what became known as the Barcelona May Days of1937, fighting broke out after civil guards attempted totake over a CNT-run telephone building in Barcelona’sPlaça de Catalunya. George Orwell who was in thePOUM militia at the time described the events leadingup to the fighting:

The immediate cause offriction was the Government’sorder to surrender all privateweapons, coinciding with the de-cision to build up a heavily-armed'non-political' police-force fromwhich trade union members wereto be excluded. The meaning ofthis was obvious to everyone; and itwas also obvious that the next movewould be the taking over of someof the key industries controlled bythe C.N.T. In addition there was

9

a certain amount of resentmentamong the working classes becauseof the growing contrast of wealthand poverty and a general vaguefeeling that the revolution had beensabotaged. Many people wereagreeably surprised when therewas no rioting on I May. On 3May the Government decided totake over the Telephone Exchange,which had been operated since thebeginning of the war mainly byC.N.T. workers; it was alleged thatit was badly run and that officialcalls were being tapped. Salas,the Chief of Police (who may ormay not have been exceeding hisorders), sent three lorry-loads ofarmed Civil Guards to seize thebuilding, while the streets outsidewere cleared by armed policein civilian clothes. At about thesame time bands of Civil Guardsseized various other buildings instrategic spots. Whatever the realintention may have been, there wasa widespread belief that this wasthe signal for a general attack onthe C.N.T. by the Civil Guardsand the P.S.U.C. (Communistsand Socialists). The word flewround the town that the workers’buildings were being attacked,armed Anarchists appeared on thestreets, work ceased, and fightingbroke out immediately.

— George Orwell, 'Homage toCatalonia, ch. 11'

Plaça de Catalunya (Catalonia square)

The Civil guards took the ground floor of the telephonebuilding, but were prevented from taking the upper lev-

els. Soon, trucks carrying armed anarchists arrived. CNTcouncilors demanded the removal of police commissionerRodríguez Salas, but Lluís Companys refused.[64] ThePOUM stood by the CNT and advised them to take con-trol of the city, but the CNT appealed to the workersto cease fighting.[65] With the situation deteriorating, ameeting of CNT delegates from Valencia and the Gener-alitat under Companys agreed on a ceasefire and a newprovisional government, but despite of this, the fightingcontinued. Dissenting anarchists such as the “Friends ofDurruti” and radical members of the POUM along withBolshevik Leninists spread propaganda to continue to thefighting.[66] OnWednesday, May 5, prime minister LargoCaballero, under constant pressure from the PSUC to takecontrol of public order in Catalonia, appointed ColonelAntonio Escobar of the Republican Guard as delegateof public order, but on his arrival in Barcelona, Escobarwas shot and seriously wounded.[67] After constant ap-peals by the CNT, POUM and UGT for a ceasefire, thefighting abated on the morning of May 6. In the evening,news reached Barcelona that 1,500 assault guards wereapproaching the city. The CNT agreed on a truce afternegotiations with the minister of interior back in Valen-cia. They agreed that the assault guards would not be at-tacked as long as they refrained from violence and that theCNT would order its members to abandon the barricadesand go back to work.[68] OnMay 7, the assault guards en-tered Barcelona unopposed, and soon there were twelvethousand government troops in the city.[69]

9 Repression of the CNT andPOUM

In the days following the fighting in Barcelona, variousCommunist newspapers engaged in amassive propagandacampaign against the anarchists and the POUM. Pravdaand the American communist Daily Worker claimed thatTrotskyists and Fascists were behind the uprising.[70] TheSpanish Communist party newspapers also viciously at-tacked the POUM, denouncing them as traitors and fas-cists. The Communists, supported by the centrist fac-tion of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) un-der Indalecio Prieto now called for the POUM to be dis-solved, but PM Largo Caballero resisted this move andthe Communists along with their allies in the PSOE thenleft the government in protest.[71] The following crisis ledto the removal of Largo Caballero by President ManuelAzaña. Azaña then appointed Juan Negrín (a centrist so-cialist and ally of the Communists and the Kremlin) asthe new premier.[72] The new cabinet was dominated bythe Communists, center socialists and republicans, theCNT and left wing of the PSOE were not represented.The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) had now come tothe fore as the most influential force in the Republicangovernment.[73]

In Catalonia, now controlled by troops under the Com-

10 10 DIVISIONS IN THE GOVERNMENT AND ANARCHIST MOVEMENT

mand of Communist General Sebastián Pozas and newlyappointed Barcelona chief of Police Ricardo Burillo,the CNT independent police patrols were dissolved anddisarmed. Furthermore, the CNT were completely re-moved from their positions at the Franco-Spanish borderposts.[74] Another major blow to the CNT was the disso-lution of countless revolutionary committees throughoutCatalonia by the army and assault guards. When a newcabinet was formed by President Companys, the CNT de-cided not to participate.[75] In the months that followed,the Communists carried out a campaign of arrests, tor-tures and assassinations against the CNT. The imprison-ment of many Anarchists caused a wave of dissent inworking class quarters.[76] Meanwhile, the Communistsworking with Soviet agents seized most the POUM lead-ership along with many of its members. The POUMsecretary Andrés Nin was also arrested, send to a secretprison in Alcalá de Henares and eventually murdered.[77]Nin’s disappearance and the repression of the POUMcaused an international outcry from various left wing or-ganizations and further deepened the divisions within theRepublic.By the end of May 1937, the Communists were conduct-ing a campaign to destroy the rural collectives. The PCEused the Popular army and the National Guard to dissolveCNT committees and aid tenant farmers and sharecrop-pers recover land lost in the revolution.[78] On 11 Au-gust, the Eleventh popular army division dissolved theCNT dominated Regional Defense Council of Aragonby force.[79] With the aid of the army and the assaultguards, the tenant farmers and small owners who hadlost their land in the beginning of the revolution now di-vided up the land confiscated from the collectives. Eventhose collectives that had been created voluntarily wereraided.[80] This caused widespread discontent amongstthe peasants, the situation became so dire that the Com-munist party agrarian commission admitted that “agricul-tural work was paralyzed” and was forced to restore someof the collectives.[81]

10 Divisions in the Governmentand anarchist movement

In spite of the continued attacks by the PCE, the CNTeventually agreed to sign a pact of cooperation with thenow Communist dominated UGT (the PCE had infil-trated theUGT and ousted Largo Caballero from his posi-tion in its executive). The pact was supposed to guaranteethe legality of the remaining collectives and of worker’scontrol, while at the same time recognizing the authorityof the state on matters such as nationalization of indus-try and the armed forces. In reality, the collectives werenever granted legal status, while the agreement served thefurther divide the anarchist movement between the anti-statist and collaborationist camps.[82]

Spain, July 1938

OnMarch 7, 1938, the Nationalist forces launched amas-sive offensive in Aragon. They succeeded in smashingthe Republican defenses so thoroughly that their forceshad reached the Mediterranean coast by 15 April, split-ting the Republican territory in two. Catalonia was nowcut off from the rest of the Republican territory.By 1938 the Communist party was also in control of thenewly created Military Investigation Service. The SIMwas virtually dominated by Communist party members,allies and Soviet agents such as Aleksandr MikhailovichOrlov and used as a tool of political repression.[83] Ac-cording to Basque nationalist Manuel de Irujo, “hundredsand thousands of citizens” were prosecuted by SIM tri-bunals and tortured in the SIM’s secret prisons.[84] Re-pression by the SIM as well as decrees which erodedCatalan autonomy by nationalizing the Catalan war in-dustry, ports and courts caused widespread discontent inCatalonia amongst all social classes. Relations worsenedbetween the Generalitat and the central government ofNegrín, now based in Barcelona with the resignation ofJaime Aiguadé, representative of the Republican Left ofCatalonia (ERC) party in the government and Manuelde Irujo, the Basque Nationalist minister.[85] There wasnow widespread hostility amongst Republicans, Catalans,Basques and Socialists towards the Negrin government.As the Communists were forced to rely more and moreon their dominance of the military and police, morale de-clined at the front as countless dissenting anarchists, re-publicans and socialists were arrested or shot by commis-sars and SIM agents.[86]

Meanwhile, there was now a growing schism within theCNT and the FAI. Leading figures such as Horacio Pri-eto and minister of education Segundo Blanco arguedfor collaboration with the national government. Dis-senting anarchists such as Jacinto Toryho, the directorof Solidaridad Obrera and FAI delegate Pedro Herrerawere harshly critical of this policy. Toryho was removedfrom his position by the CNT national committee onMay7, 1938.[87] Two months before the fall of Catalonia,a national plenum of the libertarian socialists was held

11

in Barcelona between 16 and 30 October 1938. EmmaGoldman was in attendance and she defended the FAI in“opposition to the growing encroachment of the Negríngovernment on the libertarian achievements”.[88] Accord-ing to José Peirats, Horacio Prieto argued for an “undis-guised reformism bordering on Marxism,” and that “trulyeffective action” was only possible through “organs ofpower.”[89] He also criticized the naivete of the anarchistsand its “lack of concrete plans.”

11 Fall of Catalonia

Main article: Catalonia Offensive

Between July and November 1938 the Republican forceslaunched their largest offensive yet which was designed toreconnect their divided territory with Catalonia. Lack-ing in air support, armor and heavy artillery, the Pop-ular army was soundly defeated in the disastrous Battleof the Ebro. According to Beevor, losses were as highas 30,000 in the Republican side.[90] The Popular armywas practically destroyed. It was the last action of theInternational Brigades and the Republican air force. OnDecember 23, Nationalist forces launched their assault onCatalonia. By now, most Catalans were demoralized andtired of the fighting. Alienated by the Negrin governmentand the Communist party’s nationalization of industry,the CNT was filled with defeatism and internal division.Pi Sunyer, mayor of Barcelona and a leader of the ERC,told President Azaña that “the Catalans no longer knewwhy they were fighting, because of Negrín’s anti-Catalanpolicy.”[91] Catalonia was swiftly conquered by Nation-alist troops. After 4 days of aerial bombardment (be-tween 21 and 25 January),[92] Barcelona fell on January26. Afterwards there followed five days of looting andextrajudicial killings by the Nationalist troops. Between400,000[93] and 500,000[94] refugees including the de-feated Army of Catalonia crossed the border into France.With the Nationalists now in control, Catalonian auton-omy was abolished. The Catalan language, the Sardanaand Catalan Christian names were forbidden. All theCatalan newspapers were requisitioned and the forbiddenbooks retired and burned.[95]

12 Criticism

The Austrian author, Franz Borkenau, was sharply criti-cal of the anarchists in Catalonia. In a book which wasalso very critical of the USSR-backed Communists, hedescribed the terror which they had inflicted on Barcelonaresidents and their environment.[96]

13 Film

• Libertarias, a Spanish film directed by VicenteAranda about the Mujeres Libres, an anarcha-feminist group closely affiliated with the CNT-FAI.

• Land and Freedom, based loosely on Homage toCatalonia.

14 See also

• Anarchism in Spain

15 References[1] Bolloten, Burnett (1991). The Spanish Civil war: Revolu-

tion and counter-revolution. University of North CarolinaPress. p. 192.

[2] Bolloten 1991, p. 388

[3] Bolloten 1991, pp. 388–389

[4] Bolloten 1991, p. 388-50

[5] Bolloten 1991, p. 53

[6] Stephen D. Mumford. The Life and Death of NSSM 200,pages 263-266.

[7] Blake, John & Hart, David (directors); Ascherson, Neal& Cameron, James (writers). “The Spanish Civil War –Part II: Revolution, Counter-revolution and Terror.” (film)Britain: Granada Television Productions, 1983

[8] Bolloten 1991, pp. 50–51

[9] Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain, the SpanishCivil War, 1936-1939. Penguin. p. 87.

[10] Bolloten & 1991 p202-203

[11] Bolloten & 1991 p203

[12] Bolloten 1991, p. 203

[13] Bolloten 1991, p. 201

[14] Bolloten 1991, p. 210

[15] Address to the International Working Men’s AssociationCongress by Emma Goldman.

[16] Bolloten 1991, p. 55.

[17] Orwell 2012.

[18] Bolloten 1991, p. 57.

[19] Bolloten 1991, p. 60.

[20] Bolloten 1991, pp. 223–224.

[21] Bolloten 1991, p. 224.

12 15 REFERENCES

[22] Fabregas, Joan P; Tarradellas, Josep (24 October 1936).“Col·lectivitzacions i Control Obrer”.

[23] Tarradellas, Josep; Fabregas, Joan P (28 October 1936).“Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya” (PDF). pp.373–376.

[24] Bolloten & 1991 223-224.

[25] Bolloten 1991, p. 225.

[26] Bolloten 1991, p. 227.

[27] Bolloten 1991, p. 58.

[28] http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/scw/anarchist.htm

[29] Beevor 2006, p. 107.

[30] Bolloten & 1991 p62.

[31] Bolloten & 1991 p65-66.

[32] Bolloten & 1991 p66.

[33] Bolloten & 1991 p63-64.

[34] Bolloten & 1991 p75.

[35] Bolloten & 1991 p76.

[36] Bolloten 1991, p. 242.

[37] Beevor, Antony (2006). Battle for Spain the Spanish CivilWar, 1936-1939. New York: Penguin Books. p. 295.ISBN 0-14-303765-X.

[38] Kelsey, Graham (1991). Anarchosyndicalism, Libertar-ian Communism, and the State: The CNT in Zaragoza andAragon, 1930-1937. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, In-ternational Institute of Social History. p. 161. ISBN 0-7923-0275-3.

[39] Bolloten & 1991 p83-84.

[40] Bolloten 1991, p. 250.

[41] Bolloten 1991, p. 254.

[42] Bolloten 1991, p. 256.

[43] Bolloten 1991, p. 259.

[44] Bolloten 1991, p. 261.

[45] Ibárruri 1984, p. 382.

[46] About Buenaventura Durruti by Peter E. Newell

[47] Bolloten 1991, pp. 273–275.

[48] Bolloten 1991, p. 277.

[49] Bolloten 1991, pp. 322–4.

[50] Bolloten 1991, pp. 326-7.

[51] Bolloten 1991, p. 330.

[52] Bolloten 1991, p. 333.

[53] Bolloten 1991, p. 488.

[54] Bolloten 1991, pp. 111–112

[55] Bolloten 1991, p. 396

[56] Bolloten 1991, p. 231

[57] Bolloten 1991, p. 214

[58] Bolloten 1991, pp. 405, 409

[59] Bolloten 1991, p. 411

[60] Bolloten 1991, pp. 416–417

[61] Bolloten 1991, p. 417

[62] Bolloten 1991, pp. 419–420

[63] Bolloten 1991, pp. 426–428

[64] Bolloten 1991, p. 431

[65] Bolloten 1991, pp. 433–434

[66] Bolloten 1991, p. 441

[67] Bolloten 1991, pp. 441, 450, 453

[68] Bolloten 1991, pp. 441, 457

[69] Bolloten 1991, pp. 441, 460

[70] Bolloten 1991, p. 429

[71] Bolloten 1991, p. 465

[72] Bolloten 1991, p. 474

[73] Bolloten 1991, p. 473

[74] Bolloten 1991, pp. 490–493

[75] Bolloten 1991, p. 495

[76] Bolloten 1991, p. 498

[77] Bolloten 1991, pp. 501, 506

[78] Bolloten 1991, pp. 522–523

[79] Bolloten 1991, p. 526

[80] Bolloten 1991, p. 529

[81] Bolloten 1991, p. 530

[82] Bolloten 1991, p. 568

[83] Bolloten 1991, p. 600

[84] Bolloten 1991, pp. 605–606

[85] Bolloten 1991, pp. 614–615

[86] Bolloten 1991, pp. 633–634

[87] Bolloten 1991, p. 623

[88] Bolloten 1991, p. 625

[89] Bolloten 1991, p. 625

[90] Beevor 2006, p. 358

[91] Bolloten 1991, p. 667

16.2 Images and films 13

[92] Beevor 2006, p. 376 and 484

[93] Bolloten 1991, p. 681

[94] Beevor 2006, p. 382

[95] Beevor 2006, pp. 378–379

[96] Borkenau, Franz (1974). The Spanish Cockpit. Universityof Michigan Press. p. 178.

15.1 Bibliography

• Bolloten, Burnett (1991). The Spanish Civil War:revolution and counterrevolution. University ofNorth Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1906-7.

• Beevor, Antony (2006) [1982]. The Battle for Spain:The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. London: Wei-denfield and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-84832-1. Firstpublished as The Spanish Civil War.

• Orwell, George (2012). Homage to Catalonia.HarperCollins Canada. ISBN 978-1-4434-1676-4.

16 External links

16.1 Primary documents

• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, writer andofficer in the POUM militia. First hand account ofthe Aragon front and Revolutionary Barcelona.

• MILITANT ANARCHISM and the REALITY inSPAIN by Federica Montseny.

• The Tragic Week in May by Augustin Souchy.

• Writings on the Spanish Anarchists by CamilloBerneri.

• The Collectives in Aragon Excerpt from GastonLeval's Social Reconstruction in Spain (London1938).

• A day Mournful and Overcast... by an “uncontrol-lable” from the Iron Column. Article in “Nosotros”,the daily newspaper of the Iron Column in Valencia,March 1937.

• The revolutionary movement in Spain by HelmutRuediger (under Pen name M. Dashar).

16.2 Images and films

• Vivir la Utopia. Anarquismo en España (LivingUtopia, Anarchism in Spain) documentary by JuanGamero, Spanish with English subtitles.

• Roig I Negre (Red and Black), a documentary onAnarchism in Catalonia by TV3 (Catalonia) (InCatalan).

• Gallery of CNT political posters

14 17 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

17 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

17.1 Text• Revolutionary Catalonia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Catalonia?oldid=678536569 Contributors: Edward, Lif-

tarn, Lquilter, Bogdangiusca, Owen, Fifelfoo, Baxajaun, Psychonaut, Varlaam, Sesel, Gyrofrog, Pinnerup, Rich Farmbrough, Giraffedata,Ogress, Sligocki, Woohookitty, Tabletop, Lapsed Pacifist, Rjwilmsi, Koavf, Taboo Tongue, Ground Zero, RussBot, BillMasen, Welsh,PanchoS, Rwxrwxrwx, Sardanaphalus, SmackBot, Full Shunyata, Shicoco, EdGl, Ohconfucius, Byelf2007, Cast, Gobonobo, A. Parrot,Gdeyoe, Mr Stephen, Andrwsc, Iridescent, Wolfdog, Bobfrombrockley, WeggeBot, Cydebot, Youzwan, Inkington, Philippe, MarshBot,Mountolive, Isilanes, Manu bcn, Skomorokh, KuwarOnline, Doctorhawkes, AHAPXICT, Fang 23, R'n'B, CommonsDelinker, Johnpack-lambert, Prhartcom, Remember the dot, Funandtrvl, Ottershrew, Murderbike, Aymatth2, Jackfork, Javierfv1212, Spotty11222, ImageR-emovalBot, TheOldJacobite, P. S. Burton, Cirt, Mustang19, BOTarate, Cnoguera, TFOWR, WikHead, Kbdankbot, VanishedUser ewr-fgdg3df3, Addbot, Lightbot, Yobot, KamikazeBot, Eduen, AnomieBOT, Eumolpo, ArthurBot, LilHelpa, Venice85, Estlandia~enwiki,TechBot, GrouchoBot, Libertario1984, Omnipaedista, Drama-kun,WilliamTheaker, Kikodawgzzz, Dalyup!, HCPUNXKID, DrilBot, Full-date unlinking bot, Litawor, Jonkerz, Commissarusa, RjwilmsiBot, Zujine, EmausBot, GoingBatty, Clairó, Kaimakides, Unused000705,Wildsoi5, Δ, Zoupan, Helpsome, Mesoderm, Helpful Pixie Bot, Gob Lofa, Azuizo, BattyBot, Davidgumberg, Filedelinkerbot, LukasMatt,Je.est.un.autre, Hewhoeditsthings and Anonymous: 62

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