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commanding machinery was lost by the workers organizations andit fell into the hands of the State.

e labor militants, the creators of the militia, who a er the mili-tarization were supposed to merely transfer their title from delega-tions to army ranks, are now obliged to ask the Minister of Warfor conrmation of such transfers and the Minister conrms those of whom he thinkshe has nothingto fear, while postponing indenitelythe conrmation of those he doubts, thus eliminating the ones andplacing the others in the position of being under obligation. By thistwofold scheme the entire hierarchy of the army passes under thedirect control of the State.

us, the workers police and army has been done away with. Tobe sure, there are still men on the police force, especially among theassault guards, who are at heart with the working class and withthe C.N.T.; certainly the soldiers of the Aragon front and a goodnumber of conrmed army officers have not forgo en their originand when the day comes they will be on the side of the people and

not with the State. And certain it is that besides the visible arms,there are plenty of hidden arms, for the Catalonian proletariat, itseems, has conserved its hidden arms. But, all that does not alterthe fact that today there are no longer any regularly and publiclyfunctioning workers armed institutions. e working class still hasmeans of ghting the power, but it no longer possesses organs of power.

Removed from the police f orce and from the a rmy, the workingclass is just as naturally removed from a ll auxiliary i nstitutions of powe r. e represen tatives of the F.A.I. (Iberian Ana rchist Federa-tion) have been excluded from the popular courts of law, where the

representation of the workers have been reduced to a feeble minority.e C.N.T. representatives likewise have been excluded from a large

number of municipal councils that have replaced the former munici-pal revolutionary commi ees (but which were nothing in reality butcommi ees, since they had been composed of representatives of allthe anti-fascist organizations, in a determined proportion) under thepretext that the C.N.T. has not repudiated their protest movementin the days of May. e district workers commi ees can no longerfunction and there hardly passes a week without some new decree

Various Authors

News of theSpanish Revolution

Anti-authoritarianPerspectives on the Events

1937 2012


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French syndicalist magazine La Revolution Proletarienne . e articleappeared in the second July issue of the magazine mentioned.

Fellow Worker Louzon is one of the old guard of the pre-warFrench General Confederation of Labor. He is still a French syndical-ist with the old revolutionary, non-political meaning of the term. Hewas personally acquainted with Haywood; has closely followed thedevelopment of our own I.W.W. with great sympathy ever since theI.W.W. was founded. In spite of his multiple activity in the Frenchlabor movement, he has been closely watching our own GeneralDefense Commi ee cases and at times has made nancial contribu-tions towards them. At the outbreak of the Civil War in Spain, whereLouzon is well acquainted in the revolutionary world, he went overimmediately to Catalonia, to secure rst hand information and to beable to write understandingly in his magazine. He has visited Spaino en in the last year, and made faithful and objective reports of hisndings to his readers. e following article is one of his latest.

Notes on Spainby R. LouzonWhen I wrote in this magazine nearly a year ago my Notes on

Barcelona they were notes on Revolutionary Spain, as the subheadindicated. My notes of today, however, are on the Counterrevolu-tionary Spain.

I le Spain by the end of May; I returned there at the beginning of July. One month is a tremendously long time in revolutionary . . . orcounterrevolutionary times. During that month of June the eventshave succeeded themselves with great rapidity. ings that could bedimly outlined as possible hypothesis in the May days, have sincebeen realized in an accelerated rhythm.

e present situation in Spain can be summed up in two facts:

First: total loss of power by the working class;

Second: transfer of power into the hands of the Spanish fascists,by the intermediary of the communist party.

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Contents

About this collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

A Li le Background on the Spanish AnarchistMovement before the Republic of the 1930s . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

e Spanish Republic of 1931 through 1939 . . . . . . . . . . . . 9e Beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the

Flowering of the Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12e Nation-States between the Two World Wars . . . . . . 14e Russian Revolution and the Soviet State . . . . . . . . . . 19e International Fighters who Went to Spain . . . . . . . . 27

Workers War To Stop Fascism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31e Development of Anti-Fascist Spain a er July

19, 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31e Road Followed by the C.N.T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Counter-Revolution Makes Its Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . 35All power to the government! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Terroristic Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

e Conicts in Catalonia: at the Frontiers of thePyrenees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

e Death of Roldan Cortada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38e Workers Sections with the C.N.T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Calm is Re-established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Documents of the Fighting Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43And the manifesto concludes: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44An Appeal to the Policemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

e C.N.T. and F.A.I. and Trotskyism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Statements of the Militants Concerning the C.N.T.and F.A.I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

e Present Situation in Catalonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47e C.N.T. Vital Nerve of Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Class Collaboration Old and New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Open Le er to the C.N.T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

A Soldier Returns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Marseilles, France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58


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Counter-Revolution in Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Notes on Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Working Class Loses Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63What the Spanish Communist Party Is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Republican Spain Passes into the Hands of Fascism . . . . 66Government of Defeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Causes for the Defeats of Russian Imperialism . . . . . . . . 68

e C.N.T. Continues to Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Hi-Jacking the Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72In the Spanish Mix-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Difficulties of the Governmentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

e Work of the Cheka in Barcelona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Shipped to Russia by the G.P.U. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

e Retort of the C.N.T.-F.A.I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Failure of the Workers Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

e Opinion of the Le Socialists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90e Uncontrollables in Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100ey take Over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Libertarian in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103On the Ba leelds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Humanitarian Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Union Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Position on the State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

e Spanish Revolution Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114You Experienced the War, I Experienced the Revolution! . 121

Suggestions for Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Some Suggested Short Readings about theSpanish Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123For those interested in more detailed and longerreadings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

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e news abou t theups anddowns , of victoriesanddef eats, on thevarious fronts of ghting Spain areabundantly covered by thepapersof all shades and creeds. Each of them colors the news according tothe interests or the principles of the writer writing them up or of thepublicationprinting them. e lessons drawnfromthe developmentsof the events differ from writer to writer and from publication topublication. at canno t be helped, and perhaps it should not. equestions involved in the Spanish struggles are much too complexto be lightly disposed of.

Neither was the intent of these articles to pass judgment overwhat is being done in Spain by the anti-fascists, nor to take sideswith one or another of the various contending parties and groupsthat grim circumstances brought together in a common ght againstthe gory beast of fascism.

But even though we are not so situated as to take a direct handin the great struggle on the Iberian Peninsula, we are greatly inter-ested in it, because as workers and as revolutionists we feel that thestruggle going on in Spain is our struggle as well.

Different political parties, radical groups with varying philoso-phies are thrown together to form the anti-fascist front. And al-though they have one common aim, these component groups areseparated by class interests and by philosophical and political views.In the course of the war in Spain, the political supremacy of what iscalled loyalist Spain has shi ed more than once , and bef ore the endcomes there will be very likely more shi s taking place. With theseshi ings, tactics of struggle also change . e ones a t the he lm at agiven momen t are prone to claim credit f or every victory t hat takesplace while they are holding the reigns of governmen t, blaming the

opposition for the reverses taking place. e opposition looks uponit in just the opposite way.

Because of the complexity of the question, I intended to placebefore the readers of the O.B.U.M. the views of serious workingclass observers, and who, moreover, had rst hand knowledge of thesituation, and speak not by hearsay, but from actual observation.

In this issue I present an article by R. Louzon, one of the foundersand present editors of that admirable and well-known semi-monthly


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e CNT- FAI seems to have lost all the powe r they had in thearmy. ere is a good fort on the top of a hill overlooking Barcelonawh ich the ana rchists captured from the f ascists. When I le f or thefront it was still in the hands of the F AI but when I came back thecommunists had it. e workers of Spain areagainst the communists,but the la er dont care. ey are making a play for the supportof the bourgeoisie and other racketeers. As far as the industriesare concerned the CNT has a lot of power, far more than any otherorganization.

Well, Fellow Worker, one day has elapsed since I wrote the above.Last night I had a head ache and I had to postpone nishing the le er.I am eating good since coming to France.

I believe the British consul is going to send me to England or toCanada. If I wasnt such a wreck I would ship on a British ship forSpain. Wages are double on the Spanish run, and ships are tied upbecause of a shortage of men. I have been on English ships and noneof the crew would speak English.

I met two more men from the International Brigade this morning.ey say many Canadians are in prison in Spain.

With best wished for the I.W.W., I remainBill Wood

Counter-Revolution in Spainby R. Louzon

in the Paris La Revolution Proletarienne , under the title Noteson SpainIntroduction and translation by Joseph WagnerOne Big Union Monthly , October, 1937

Introduction

e articles on Spain prepared by me for the One Big UnionMont h ly , consisting largely of trans lations appea ring in the currentand two previous issues of this magazine, were not meant to serveas news articles of the Spanish War Front.

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Seven articles published in One Big Union Monthly ,A Journal of the Industrial Workers of the World, July 1937 to Febru-ary 1938Plus two later pieces on the experiences of participants

About this collectionIn June, 1905 about two hundred anarchists, socialists and radical

trade unionists held a convention in Chicago, Illinois, where theyformed the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). e I.W.W. wasand still is dedicated to creating a revolutionary industrial union,organized on the basis of industries rather than cra s, in which allworkers come together in solidarity, including workers of all races,ethnicities and genders.

e Industrial Workers of the World was a major part of thesocial insurgency during the rst decades of the twentieth century.

roughoutits history,the organizationhas taken stances for interna-tional solidarity between all exploited people and against exploiters,borders and nationalisms. It has also opposed political parties andothers who have sought to speak for and lead the working class,while endeavoring to create and cultivate the beginnings of a newand be er society in the shell of the old.

As an organization centered around theprinciples of rank-and-leunion democratic decision-making, the I.W.W. took an independentcritical stance toward the Soviet Union and Communist Parties.

In 1936, when the Spanish Revolution began, the I.W.W. was in-spired by the part played by the anarchist-led Spanish labor unionconfederation, the CNT, and the endeavor to create a self-governingegalitarian society. From the I.W.W.s critical understanding of thedanger posed by the authoritarian le , including the Communistparties of the world and the government of the Soviet Union, theywere on their guard against the behavior of these groups in Spain.

e I.W.W. press, including publications such as the One Bi g Uni onMonthly , published articles about the Spanish situation, offeringalternative perspectives not available in either the Communist orliberal press. is collection contains some of these articles, offering


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a sample of wha t English-speak ing an ti-authoritarians cou ld readabout the Spanish Revolution in the late 1930s.

In addition, the collection contains two articles published laterabout participants experiences. One is by Russell Blackwell, whobecame an anarcho-syndicalist as a result of his experiences in Spain.

e nal article is about Federico Arcos, a Spanish anarchist veteranof the revolution. It provides a glimpse into what the anarchistsof Spain experienced, and how it differed from the authoritarianinterpretation of the events.

As we compare and contrast conditions and social movements inthe 1930s with those of today, the choices between authoritarian/hierarchical and anti-authoritarian/anti-hierarchical political-socialaction still remain relevant. We hope that the insights offered inthese articles can help us in our own projects of creating a new andbe er social world.

Introductionby Charlatan Stew

e articles reprinted herecover someimportant history generallynot discussed by le ist ideologues with loyalties to progressive polit-ical party agendas, or to authoritarian Marxist, Leninist, Trotskyistor Stalinist groups. e rst seven articles were originally publishedduring the late 1930s in O ne Big Union Monthly , a publication of the Indus trial Workers of the Wo rld (the I.W.W., also known as theWobblies). ese articles offer a sample of an alternative radicalperspective on the events in Spain available to anarchists and otherindependent anti-authoritarians in North America and other placeswhere English was spoken during that period.

e One Bi g Uni on Mont h ly articles (published in the 1930s), alongwith the article by Russell Blackwell (published in 1968), togethergive us a glimpse of what many sincere freedom ghters learnedwhen they joined the struggle in Spain. What they found was apeople in arms ready to ght for a free society, and organized groupsresisting a military coup, groups that were split between those thatwere ghting for an anti-hierarchical social transformation and for

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explained to them that I was from Canada and had no friends inBarcelona, then they tried to make me a prisoner in the hospital. Icalled them all the lousy I could think of. Anyway, I ran awayfrom the hospital one day to the English section of the CNT-FAI andthe people there insisted that I see the British consul for a permit toleave Spain, which I did, though I hated to leave.

Spain is a wonderful country. At present it reminds me of thestories I have read of the O.G.P.U. in Russia. e jails of loyalistSpain are full of volunteers who have more than a single-track mind.I know one of them from Toronto, a member of the L.R.W.P. I wonderif they will bump him off. e Stalinists do not hesitate to kill any of those who do not blindly accept Stalin as a second Christ. One of therefugees who came over with me from Spain was a member of theO.G.P.U. in Spain, which, by the way, is controlled by Russia. Everyvolunteer in the Communist International Brigade is considered apotential enemy of Stalin. He is checked and double- checked, everydamn one. If he u ers a word other than commy phrases he is takenfor a ride. is chap (ex-O.G.P.U.) is like all the other commiescoming out of Spain, absolutely anti-Stalin and anti-communist. Heskipped the country by ashing his O.G.P.U. badge on the trains etc.

I believe that the I.W.W. has lost some members here, as I doubt if they would keep quiet at the front in view of what is taking place.

It was only through sabotage that the government succeeded indisbanding the International Ba alion of Anarchists. Four of ourbunch d ied of starvation in one da y. Our arms were ro en, eventhough the Valencia governmen t hasplenty of armsandp lanes. eyknow enough no t to give arms to the thousands o f anarchists on theAragon front. We could have driven the fascists out of Huesca and

Saragossa had we had the aid of the aviation. But the Anarchistsform collectives where ever they advance, and these comrades wouldrather let Franco have those cities that the CNT-FAI.

Fenner Brockway, prominent labor leader in England, exposedthe way the communists were treating those boys (volunteers) inthe International Brigade. ey will not let any of them come backunless they are racketeers of the Sam Scarle type who will sayanything they are told as long as the pork chops are coming in.


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A Soldier Returnsby Bill Wood

One Big Union Monthly , September 1937Reprinted in Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 15, June1998.

e One Big Union Monthly and the Industrial Workers of theWorld are heart and soul for the success of the anti-fascist ghtgoing on in Spain but we see no reason why we should stick ourheads in the sand and pretend not to be aware of the capitalist classelement within the Spanish United Front government that is tryingto rob the Spanish revolutionary unionists of victory.

No ma er what our opinion may be as to the wisdom of thesyndicalists policy of co-operation w ith po litical governmen t, theinformation and arguments contained in this le er from a rank andle ghter in the cause of working class freedom, and in other arti-cles appearing in this magazine, cannot but be valuable reminders

that there are still working class enemies among those who favordemocracy as opposed to fascism EDITOR.

Marseilles, France.

Fellow Worker:-Received your le er the other day in Barcelona. I typed three

pages in reply but could not smuggle it out of the country, so I toreit up.

I am out of Spain. e reasons are numerous. I was not wanted by

the government as I was in the Durruti International Shock Ba alion.e government sabotaged us since we were formed in May and

made it impossible for us to stay at the front. No tobacco unless youhad money. All of the time I was in the militia I received no money.I had to beg mone y f or postage stamps , etc. I was sen t back fromthe front slightly shell-shocked and pu t in a hosp ital in Barcelona .When we registered at the hosp ital I told them I was from theDurrutiInternational Ba alion and they wouldnt register me. In f act theytold me to go and ask my friends for money for a place to sleep. I

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the creation of an egalitarian society, and those that were dedicatedto preserving a Spanish Republic dominated by the privileged.

e nal article is about Federico Arcos, a Spanish anarchist vet-eran of the revolution (wri en in 1996). is article provides aglimpse into what the anarchists of Spain experienced, and howit differed from the authoritarian interpretation of the events.

By way of offering some historical context, this introduction

briey reviews the social and political background to the revolu-tion and civil war inside Spain, as well as the backgrounds to thepositions taken by the western democratic, Fascist/Nazi and Com-munist led nation-states of the 1930s.

We hope that the history presented in these articles can help usto reect on how the various leaders of the major nation states havetreated social insurgents in the past. is can further our under-standing of what we can expect or hope for from governments in thepresent and the future. e debates between the power holders andpower servers and those who aspire to power regarding the mostadvantageous ways to deal with social dislocations and insurgen-cies have never been and are not now based on concern for anti-authoritarian and egalitarian goals.

Although the political, economic, social, and personal situationsof the revolutionaries of the 1930s were not exactly the same as whatwe experience or witness today in North America or elsewhere,unfortunately, the structures of power, hierarchy and dominationcontinue to have strong similarities. Struggles f or individual libertyand social solidarity, human dignity, egalitarian sociability and social justice continue to be of the g reatest relevance to the ma jority of the worlds people. e choices between au thoritarian/hierarchical

and anti-authoritarian/anti-hierarchical political-social action stillremain relevant.

Understanding and growing from the experiences of participantsin the Arab Spring, or in Greece, or Spain, or in the Occupy move-ments of 2011, does not simplyinvolveevaluating tacticsor strategiesof anarchists or authoritarians of the le or right. We need to delveinto the fundamental character of the conicts between those whoresist total domination and those who only pretend to in the current


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cycle of struggles. Being inf ormed abou t wha t happened to insu r-gents in the past can contribute to our current understanding of thepossible consequences of our and other peoples decisions and thechoices of groups today. And precisely because the struggles fora new social world have not yet been denitively lost or won any-where, questions abou t how to most eff ectively go f orward are stillbeing debated. We still need to critically consider what constitutes

the most just and egalitarian forms of solidarity in specic situations,locally or in other parts of the world.

As we compare and contrast conditions and social movements inthe 1930s with those of today, we can gain a lot from nding outas much as possible about the positive achievements, the problemsfaced and mistakes made by those ordinary people in those paststruggles. So, we are offering this pamphlet as a contribution to theendeavor of refreshing and reclaiming our anarchist heritage.

A Little Background on the Spanish AnarchistMovement before the Republic of the 1930s

In many ways, the Spanish revolution of 1936 through 1939 is avery inspiring event. It provides a multitude of real-life examplesof how ordinary people can begin to realize a classless and statelesssociety. During that revolution, at least briey, literally millionsof women and men took control of their own lives and organizedthemselves in neighborhood and work place collectives, both ur-ban and rural. is tremendously creative insurgency gained itsstrength from the previous seventy years of anarchist social and ed-ucational activiti es and organization building, in combination w ithrural agricultural communal traditions, all made more potent by thespontaneous creativity of ordinary people.

Well before the events of July 1936, a variety of Spanish anarchistgroups, from anarcho-syndicalists to anarcho-commun ists and oth-ers, were playing a large part in movements for social justice. Forthree generations, they had been dreaming about, advocating andstruggling to lay the groundwork for a new and more just socialorder, based on equality, mutuality, and reciprocity, in which each

57

is an anti-r evolutiona ry pro ject since it legalizes something that acoming revolution will have to abolish, since the municipalities are,a er all, but cogs in the whee l of the State as long as the State willexist.

Naturally, the elaboration of an economic program f or the transi-tion period presupposes a nal aim. Does the C.N.T. consider thatlibertarian communism is an una ainable Utopia that should be

relegated to the museum?If you still think (as you did before July 19) that libertarian com-

munism forms part of the program of the C.N.T. it is your duty itwas really your duty since July 1936 to elaborate your economicprogram of transition, without regard to the bourgeois and marxistblocks, who can but sabotage any program of libertarian tendencyand inspiration.

To be sure, such a program will place you in conict with theseblocks,but on theother hand, it will unite with youthe largemajorityof theworkers,who want but onething, thevictory of theRevolution.It is necessary, therefore to choose between these two eventualities.

Such a program will, naturally, nullify your war program whichis nothing but the expression of a true desire for a permanentcabinet collaboration. But this proposition, this war program of yours is diametrically contrary to the traditionally revolutionarya itude of the C.N.T., which this organization has not denied yet. Itis therefore necessary to choose.

e C.N.T. should not allow as it has unfortunately done since July 19 the acceptance of the tactics of the line of least resistance,which cannot but lead to a slow but sure liquidation of the libertarianrevolution.

e ministerial collaboration policy has certainly pushed backto the rear the program of revolutionary economy. You are on thewrong track and you can see that yourselves.

Do you not think that you should stop following this road, thatleads you to certain downfall?


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You see, therefore, that even your minimal program is beset withagrant contradictions; its realization is dependent on the aid of thevery sectors against which that program is aimed. Even the freedomwith which you state these two mutually excluding programs: col-laboration with the bourgeoisie and marxism on the one hand andght to nish against this same bourgeoisie and marxism on theother, situates your minimal program as the aim, and your declara-

tion of June 14 becomes a mere verbiage. We wou ld have, naturally,liked to see things the other way.

e problem of Spains economic reconstruction does not f orm apart of your program. And yet, you cannot help but know that a civilwar, like the one you are going through, cannot bring the people toits aid unless the victories on the fronts will assure at the same timetheir own victories in the rear.

It is true and many of us outside of Spain have known it longbefore July 19 the Social Revolution cannot be a ained in 24 hours,and that a libertarian regime cannot be erected by the turn of thehand . Nevertheless, neither the C.N.T. nor the F.A.I. cared anythingabout pre-revolutionary organization and about preparing in ad-vance the framework for the social and economic reconstruction.We claim that there is a bridge leading from the downfall of the oldregime to the erection of the new regime erected on the ashes andthe ruins of the old regime. is bridge is all the more full of danger-ous traps and pitfalls as the new regime differs from the old. And itwas precisely this period of transition that you have misunderstoodin the past and that you continue to misunderstand today. For if youhad recognized that the social and economic reconstruction on a lib-ertarian basis is the indispensable condition to victory over f ascism,

you would have elaborated (having in view the aim to be a ained) aminimal revolutionary program that would have given the city andcountry proletariat of Spain the necessary will and enthusiasm tocontinue the war to its logical conclusion.

Butsuch a program youfailed to proclaim. e fewtimidallusionscontained in your war program are far from having a revolutionarycharacter: the elaboration of a plan for the economic reconstructionthat would be accepted by the three blocks could only be a naiveillusion, if it would not be so dangerous; the municipalization of land

9

person could be valued and respected as an individual and a memberof an authentic community. Although there were some differencesbetween groups and between individuals, in general, the kind of society they all envisioned and were striving to bring to birth wasone built on voluntary, non-hierarchical, self-organized collectiviza-tion in every phase of lif e, and , most especially, workers control inindustry, agriculture, and various community services.

Spanish anarchists generally believed that the old social orderwould not be defeated without armed insurrection. But, they alsorecognized that the means used to build the new society wouldhave to be consistent with the ends sought, so as to contribute to,rather than undermine, the goals for which they were striving. Withthis in mind, they came to understand that a socially just worldcould not simply be won through acts of arms. ey recognized thatarmed might cannot convince anyone of the value of any idea orway of living, and it cannot promote or nurture respectful egalitarianrelationships between people. ey thereforededicated some of theireffortsto creating newformsof socialorganization that could replacethe established institutions and functions exercised in authoritarianways by the state and private capitalists.

ey developed networks of anti-authoritarian economic, politi-cal, and cultural organizations and activities, to create communitiesthat respected the individuality of their members, while enablingthe development of individuality as a part of community. rougha variety of organ izations , they combined ghts f or immed iate im-provemen ts in wages and wo rking and living cond itions w ith thedevelopment of the structures and habits they deemed vital for thefoundation of a free society. On a day-to-day basis, against the tide

of the authoritarian order, they created voluntary egalitarian asso-ciations in which people could learn to cultivate new traditions of solidarity, cooperation and self-realization.

e Spanish Republic of 1931 through 1939

e rst Spanish Republic had a very brief life, being establishedin 1873 and overthrown in 1874. It was very weak and was endedby a military coup. For the next 47 years a series of dictatorships


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ruled the coun try and repressed a ll a empts at social insu rgenc y.But the Spanish people did not submit passively. ey developeda wide variety of opposition groups, ranging from liberal republi-can to social democratic to anarchist. e military dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera, which commenced in 1923, was willing tooffer a minor governmental role to the Spanish Socialist Party andsome recognition of their labor unions in exchange for their coopera-

tion, while continuing the repression of anarchist groups, includinganarcho-syndicalist labor unions. (See M. Dashar, pseudonym of Helmut Rdiger, e Revolutionary Movement in Spain, LibertarianPublishing Society, New York, 1934; accessed November 8, 2009 fromInternet Archive, at www.archive.org .)

By 1931 the Primo de Rivera dictatorship was too weak to holdon to power. is opened up the opportunity for republicans and so-cial-democrats to cooperate in creating the second Spanish republic,which took the form of a parliamentary democracy.

But, the new Republic faced enormous challenges. A worldwideeconomic depression was underway. And in Spain many peoplewere unemployed and impoverished.

e Republics rst elections were held in 1931, but none of the po-litical parties were able to gain a majority of seats in the parliament(the Cortes). So the liberal-republican and social-democratic parties the parties with the largest numbers of elected representatives formed a coalition cabinet. e previous dictatorial governmentshad brutally repressed dissent. Many hoped that the new republicangovernmen t would allow more freedom of expression f or individualsand freedom f or labor un ions and o ther grassroots organ izationsto act. However, the coalition government proved unable to sig-

nicantly improve the conditions of life for the vast majority of ordinary people in the cities or countryside. Moreover, it continuedthe previous dictatorships policy of repression and imprisonment of social activists belonging to the anarchist and other working-classorganizations.

In 1932, there was an a empted military coup, which was stymied.Nevertheless, the capitalist, military and Catholic church elites con-tinued to hold on to their monopoly on wealth and power. And, theliberal republican/social-democratic coalition government continued

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were far from helping this organization of the revolution, it helpedrather to disorganize it.

July 19 opened your eyes. It made you realize the mistake youhad commi ed in the past, when, in a revolutionary period, youneglected Seriously organizing the necessary frame-work for thestruggle that you knew would be inevitable on the day of the se le-ment of accounts. Yet, today you are shu ing your eyes on another

important fact. You seem to think that a civil war brought about bythe circumstance of a fascist putsch does not necessarily obligate youto examine the possibilities of modifying and altering the characterof that civil war.

A minimal program is not something to startle us; but a particu-lar minimal program (such as yours) cannot have any value unless itcreates the opportunity for the preparation of a maximal program.

But, your real war policy, a er all, is nothing but a programfor entering the Council of Ministry (government); with it you actmerely as a political party desirous of participation in an existinggovernment; se ing forth your conditions of participation, and theseconditions are so bureaucratic in character that they are far fromweakening in the least the bourgeois capitalist regime, on the con-trary they are tending to strengthen capitalism and stabilize it.

e surprising part of your program is that you do not consider itas a means for the a ainment of some well dened goal, but consideryour real war policy program as an aim in itself. at is the maindanger in your program. It presupposes a permanent participationin the governmen t not merely circumstantial which is to extendover a number of years, even if the war itself, with its brutal, dailymanifestations would cease in the meanwhile. A monopoly of the

Foreign Commerce (have the communists whispered this to you?),customs policy, new legislations, a new penal code all of this takesa long time. In order to realize these tasks, your program proposes avery close collaboration on all elds with the bourgeoisie (republicanblock) and with the communists (marxist block), while almost at thesame time you state in your appeal of June 14 that you are sureof triumphing not only against Franco, but also against a stupidlybackward bourgeoisie (the republican block) and against the trickyand dishonest politicians (marxist block).


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up of all things in this anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist move-men t, in the time of the acu test crisis that ever confronted not onlythese two Spanish movements (that are really one), but the anarchistfraternity the world over.

Perseus, of mythological fame, wore a magic cap so that the mon-sters he hunted down might not see him. I would like to have pulledsuch a magic cap over my own ears so that I may not see the in-

ternal ght in the revolutionary forces of the present Spanish ght.Unfortunately, I can read many languages and am in touch with revo-lutionary literature of many lands, and no magic cap can prevent mefrom seeing things I would not like to see. I am giving below a trans-lation of an open le er of A. Shapiro to the C.N.T. I read similar openle ers months ago, whose au thors have f allen since, either ghtingon the bloody ba leelds, or through cowardly assassination by theSpanish Branch of the Russian Cheka. Shapiro is not dead yet, heis one of the outstanding gures of the anarchist movement of theworld. He was for a number of years one of the Secretariat of theInternational Workingmens Association. erefore, whatever thereaders of the One Big Union may think of his statements, I assurethem that Shapiro is sincere and means what he says.

Open Letter to the C.N.T.

We read with more surprise than interest the minimal programof the C.N.T. for the realization of a real war policy. e reading of the program raised an entire series of questions and problems, someof which should be called to your a ention.

Certainly none of us was simple enough to believe that a warcan be carried on with resolutions and by anti-militarist theories.Many of us believed, long beforeJuly 19 (1936) that theanti-militaristpropaganda, so dear to our Dutch comrades of the International Anti-militarist Bureau and which found, in thepast, a sympathetic enoughecho in the columns of your press in Spain, was in contradictionwith the organization of the revolution.

Many of us knew that the putsches, that were so dear to ourSpanish comrades, such as those of December 8 and Janua ry 8, 1934,

11

to be extremely caref ul not to truly challenge them in any signicantway.

Disappointed hopes inspired continuing social insurgency. In1932 and 1933 urban and rural working-class people throughout Cat-alonia, Andalusia and Levant engaged in armed revolts, hoping toinspire other revolts throughout the country. But they were repeat-edly crushed by the republican governments police and military

forces with great brutality. By June 1933 there were 9,000 anarchistsand other working-class insurgents in prison.

In late 1932, the liberal republican/social-democratic coalitiongovernment lost political support in the Cortes, and in Novemberan election was called. In this election, right-wing parties gained amajority and a right-wing coalition took control of the government.

is began the Bienno Negro, the two black years of intensiedrepression against all those ghting for social change.

In October, 1934 the workers of the anarchist National Confeder-ation of Labor (Confederacin Nacional del Trabajo, C.N.T.) joinedwith their fellow workers in the Socialist Party-led General Unionof Workers (Union General de Trabajadores, U.G.T.) in a massiverevolt in the Asturias region. Workplaces were occupied and theunion members began an armed insurrection. is revolt was alsocrushed quite brutally and at least 3,000 people were executed. Forthe next few years, the right-wing coalition government unsuccess-fully a empted to quell the mounting unrest. But, it was not able tomaintain its support in the Cortes, and was nally forced to call anelection for February, 1936.

In that election, candidates from social-democratic, Commun istand le -liberal parties joined together to promote a Popular Front

anti-fascist slate against the more right-wing parties. is coalitionwon a small majority of the seats in the Cortes, and was able to formanother le coalition government.

However, only minor reshuffling of government posts took place,and the governing coalition could not agree on how to go forwardwith social reforms. So, the needs and hopes of the majority of thepeople who had voted for the le liberal, socialist and Communistpoliticians were generally disregarded.


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As this became obvious, from February 1936 on, many agriculturalworkers and sma ll landho lders in the coun try side took things intotheir own hands , initiating w idesp read land occupa tions. Wo rkersin the industrial and service sectors in cities and towns also engagedin large numbers of strikes. Between the election in February and July there were 113 general strikes and 228 partial general strikes.

ere were on average ten to twenty each day by June and July.

At the beginning of 1936 there were 30,000 political prisoners.Even a er the election of the le liberal-social democratic coali-tion governmen t, most of the political prisoners remained incarcer-ated, despite demands for their freedom. Only a er massive popu-lar demonstrations were they released. At the same time, the newgovernment continued to arrest anarchists and socialists and otheractivists. By July, 1936 the prisons were once again crowded withpolitical prisoners.

Directly a er the February 1936 elections, General FranciscoFranco headed the formation of a coalition of anti-democratic mil-itary elites, who joined with civilian fascists to plan yet anothermilitary coup dtat. ey made no secret of the fact that they in-tended to overthrow the republican government and replace it withan authoritarian state system, modeled on the regimes in FascistItaly and Nazi Germany. Despite the openness of these plo ers, theelected politicians ref used to take any concrete measures to counterthem. Instead, they tried to negotiate with these military rebels.

e Beginning of the Spanish Civil War and theFlowering of the Revolution

Disregarding the liberal republican and social-democratic politi-cians a empts at negotiations, on July 17 th the right-wing militaryrebels began their coup with Francos forces seizing control of Span-ish Morocco and Franco broadcasting a radical manifesto announc-ing the impending military takeover of Spain proper. But, manyordinary people refused to stand passively by, especially those in-volved directly or indirectly in anarchist and socialist groups. Atthis time, the anarcho-syndicalist C.N.T. union confederation and the

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approved policy as the acme of Marxism. Yet, this was not alwaysso.

Before the end of the last century, socialists of all shades wereviolently and unalterably opposed to the very idea of party membersparticipating in bourgeois (capitalist) governments, thereby makingthe socialist movement at least indirectly respons ible f or the acts of their respective capitalist governments. Even the acceptance by a

party member of a minor, non-elective government job, was frownedupon as not kosher from a social-democratic standpoint.

When, in 1900, Alexander Millerand, who with Jean Jaures, washeading oneof thefour or vesocialist parties existing then in France,entered into the Waldeck-Rousseau cabinet, a storm of protests wasraised in the socialist world. National and World Congresses debatedand argued the propriety of the action and in all instances the actwas condemned as treason to the international socialist movement.Millerandism and Ministerialism was synonymous with treason.

e arguments lasted for fourteen years, until the outbreak of theWorld War, when the entire socialist world suddenly became min-isterialists and governmentalists. And so it has remained to thisday.

eforegoing isall old history, but it doesno harmto recall it oncein a while, the more so as in our days we are suddenly confrontedwith a new ministerialism from an unexpected source. is timethe anarchist world is stirred with that same old question in the anti-fascist war now going on in Spain.

It would appear that with the post-war experiences, with the ex-periences of Bolshevism, Fascism, Nazism, we have learned enoughto avoid the old and se led disputes. But we must have been mis-

taken, for it seems that we have to overcome the same difficultiesand misunderstandings at every instance of serious ght that we,the working class, are confronted with.

e old forgo en Millerandism or Ministerialism is and hasbeen a burning issue in Spain ever since the present war was precipi-tated by the uniformed bandits of Spain. e only real revolutionaryforce in the present Spanish war was the C.N.T. and its ideologicalreex, the F.A.I. It would have appeared an absurdity for anyonea year ago to state that the old issue of ministerialism could bob


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A. Shapiros Open Letter to the C.N.T.One Big Union Monthly , August 1937

Alone, or in coalition with more or less liberal bourgeois po-litical parties, the socialists today are in control of the governmentmachinery in a number of countries while yet in other countriesthey stand in line awaiting in their turn the call of the economicmasters to take over the government and to carry on and administer

the collective affairs of the capitalists in the respective countries.e conclusion of the long and destructive World War brought

capitalism to bankruptcy, the bourgeois regime stood everywherediscredited physically and morally and in a state of collapse; every-where theworking class wasin open revolt. e only organizedforcethat yet retained some moral prestige was the socialist movementand its trade unions, who, in one country a er another gallantlyrushed to the rescue of the moribund regime, until recently theirprofessed enemy.

Naturally, the capitalists very graciously allowed the socialists toresurrect and reconstruct the capitalist regime. ey were allowedand even invited to form socialist governments. Times withoutnumber these socialist governments proved to the master class thatthey arein thebest of positions to save capitalism and to safeguardalltheir interests not only by the use of brutal military and police forces,but also by their moral prestige over the working class acquired bynearly a century of socialist party and trade union connection withinthe working class.

To be sure the master class never was conspicuous by its gratitude,as soon as it imagined itself strong enough to rule without the aid of socialists these were discarded, and their governments turned over

to the underworld characters, to gangsters parading in differentlycolored shirts. A few years of experience with the gangsterdom has,however, taught world capitalism the lesson that the socialists makethe more efficient and loyal servants of capitalism a er all, and at thepresent time the pendulum is rapidly swinging away from fascismto socialist or Popular Front governments.

Socialists the world over are proud of the role their parties areplaying nowadays, and they look upon their present, internationally

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socialist U.G.T. union conf ederation each had over one million mem-bers. ey clearly understood that right-wing dictatorship wouldmean brutal repression for all of them. (See Workers Solidarity Move-ment, e Spanish Civil War: Anarchism in Action ; accessed January21, 2012 at struggle.ws .)

Unfortunately, the Socialist Party and the Socialist U.G.T. werebureaucratically organized hierarchical organizations, with leaders

who had strong loyalties to the social-democratic politicians in theRepublican governmen t the very politicians who had been go ingalong with the strategy of trying to negotiate with the military coupplo ers. is posed a challenge for those members who wished tobegin resisting the military coup. Many grassroots socialists never-theless did participate in this resistance.

e anarcho-syndicalist union confederation and the other anar-chist groups, on the other hand, were more decentralized organiza-tions, in which initiatives for action did not necessarily originatewith a small group of leaders at the top. Because grassroots democ-racy was a much greater reality among the anarchists than amongthe socialists, there was more motivation and more possibilities forthose who felt the urgency of the situation to begin planning forresistance. In addition, the anarchist organizations had no govern-ment links. So, the anarchists had no reason to wait for directionfrom the Republican government compromisers and negotiators.

Consequently, anarchists in many parts of the country were readyand ab le to immed iately begin resistance. And thanks to their ini-tiative, many other freedom loving peop le in Spain also joined theresistance in gene ral strikes and a rmed oppos ition on July 19, andtogether they were able to temporarily defeat the military coup in

half of the coun try. ey rapidly organized popu lar militias wh ichcontinued the tradition of embodying their desired goals in theirchosen means. e popular militias, as part of their resistance tothe authoritarian military, replaced the officers with absolute powerover lower ranks with elected delegates who were recallable if theylost the condence of the ranks. Plans and policies were also agreedupon by all in each unit through open discussion. Moreover, differ-ences in rank and pay were non-existent. e egalitarian characterof the militias is documented in numerous books and articles; for


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example, see Abel Paz, Durruti: e People Armed , trans . NancyMacdonald (Black Rose; Montreal, 1976).

e resisters surprised the military coup plo ers with a civil war,which lasted for nearly three grueling years, from July 1936 to March1939. Moreover, the initial defeat of Francos forces enabled and in-spired widespread popular self-governing activities, involving muchmore than a civil war between opposing ghters. Millions of women,

men and children living and working in the Spanish cities and coun-tryside not taken by the Franco forces actually began to experimentwith the creation of more egalitarian, decent and just lives for them-selvesand those around them. e temporary victory over the fascistrebels enabled a full scale social revolution to begin, with land andfactory occupations and collectivization in agriculture, a numberof industries and various community services. So in Spain in thesummer of 1936 both a revolution f or a new and be er social worldand a civil war against the military rebels led by Franco began. iswas an inspiring and very important ght and perhaps not asoutdated or different from some of the struggles of today as somepeople might think.

For a good text on the positive anarchist role in the Spanish Revo-lution and civil war by the Ireland-based Workers Solidarity Move-ment, see e Spanish Civil War: Anarchism in Action , a detailedintroduction to the role anarchism played in the Spanish Civil Warand the anarchist revolution within the republican zone. (Accessed June 3, 2011 at www.wsm.ie .)

e Nation-States between the Two World Wars

To gain a good grasp of the situation of Spain during the 1930s, itis helpful to understand what was going on inside and between theother nation-states during that period.

e nation-states and empires of the rst half of the twentieth cen-tury, including the western democratic states, were based on theexploitation of their locally created working-classes and colonizedsubject peoples. Despite the democratic rhetorical idealizations thatbecame f ashionab le among wes tern elites at the end o f World Wa rI, there was li le real respect or consideration for the millions they

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e Spanish bourgeoisie has thrown off its mask of liberal-ism. e counter-revolutionary examples which are presentingthemselves in Europe have given it courage. Today it endeavorsto fortify its political and economic monopoly with the aid of the totalitarian state. In order to vanquish this enemy, whichis menacingly raising its head against the proletariat, the cre-ation of a granite-hard proletariat bloc is indispensable. e

tendency which fails to recognize this truth isolates itself andassumes a heavy responsibility before history. For to defeat which inevitably will result from isolation we should, with-out hesitation, prefer a partial proletarian victory which willlead us (without there being an exclusive domination of one orthe other tendency) to the realization of a minimum programpermi ing in its turn the realization of the aspirations of allthe signatories of the pact of understanding, by the socializa-tion of the means of production and by the rst mortal blowsagainst the capitalist domination. Placing itself at the head of the movement towards unity means the opening of the roadWhich leads to the revolution!

We see the things as they are, without glasses, without doctri-nary prejudices. It is a question of a revolution and not of anacademic discussion on this or that principle. Principles shouldnot be rigid commandments, but subtle forms adapting them-selves to the exigencies of reality. Does this platform guaranteethe establishment of pure libertarian communism on the daya er the revolution?

Certainly not! But it guarantees the defeat of capitalism and thecrushing of its sustainer, f ascism. It guarantees the edicationof a democratic regime without exploitation and without classprivileges, and that will open wide the road to a libertariansociety in the best sense of the word.

Class Collaboration Old and Newby Joseph Wagner

A timely reminder of working class political experience, and


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that Catalonia is the cradle of Iberian ana rchism, and that itremained always loyal to that movement.

Basing itself on the libertarian tendenc ies of the Catalonianpeople, the General Conf ederation of Labor (C.N.T.) was able todevelop here, as it has developed itself in all the other regionsof the peninsula, in such proportions that no other organizationa empting to implant articial doctrines into our country willever a ain. And we are proud. For if we are not partisans of a narrow and sectarian Catalonianism, at the same time weare living in Catalonia, and we desire its development and itshappinessand we wish thatshe should indicate the road leadingto the social revolution which is our aim.

In a manifesto published by the C.N.T. and the F. A.I. during theconict we read the following:

e F.A.I. and the C.N.T. do not want a dictatorship, and do notseek to impose one. But as long as one of its members is living,they will not allow, and they will not submit to any dictatorship.If we are ghting fascism it is not because we like ghting, it isin order to safeguard the popular liberties and to prevent thereturn to power of those who want to massacre the militantworkers and to exploit the working people and of those who,without openly calling themselves fascists, want to institute anabsolutist regime, absolutely contrary to the traditions and thehistory of our people.

In spite of theprovocationwhich endangered theanti-fascist unityfor several days, the C.N.T. remained loyal to the line xed by theMay 1936 Congress, which had already been worked out in 1934 byOrobon Fernandez. He formulated his ideas in the midst of hesita-tions and contradictions and of the skepticism of those who, a erhaving made for a long time common cause with the oppressors, joined the organization which was later to conclude an alliance withthe C.N.T. because such are the supreme interests of all the workers,above all special interests. Orobon Fernandez said:

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ruled over at home or abroad. (For good general background infor-mation, see e Co ll ec t ed Essa y s , J ou r na li sm and Le e r s o f Geo r ge Orwell, vol. 1: An Age Like is 19201940 edited by Sonia Orwelland Ian Angus, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1968.)

e growing power of the United States was rmly rooted inthe history of exploitation of the indigenous populations of NorthAmerica, Latin America and the Pacic islands, African American

slaves and wage-slaves, Asian, Southern and Northern European,Eastern European Jewish and non-Jewish immigrant wage-slaves.(See Howard Zinn, A Peoples History of the United States , variouseditions.)

As far back as the mid-nineteenth century, there was ongoingsocial unrest in most of the nation-states. Strikes and even insurrec-tions were frequent right up to and throughout World War I. As thewar was nearing its end, in 1917 a popular revolution began in Rus-sia. en, in 1918 revolutions started in Hungary, Austria, Bulgariaand Germany. In Russia, Hungary, Finland and parts of Germany,local workplace, neighborhood and military councils were formed.Mutinies broke out in the French army. Workers in major Italiancities seized factories. In 1919 there were also very serious and wide-spread strikes in the United States. All were brutally repressed, butvery many ordinary people and elites alike throughout the worldprepared for continuing social insurgency.

In this context, during the period between the two world wars,Italian Fascists, Japanese imperialists, German Naz is, and RussianCommunists all assumed state power and began expanding and con-solidating their brutal dictatorships. e western Democratic elitesgene rally had li le difficulty tolerating and e ven coope rating w ith

the various new authoritarian regimes that were emerging, as longas they did not appear to pose any challenge to spheres of inuencealready claimed.

e brutality used by the Fascists and Nazis to gain and maintaincontrol of the Italian and German governments and to intimidateand eliminate those who opposed them, was well known at thetime, both inside those countries and abroad. Nevertheless, manypoliticiansand business peoplein western democratic nation-stateswere primarily concerned with having political partners they could


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work with and developing promising business opportunities, ratherthan with the lives of ordinary people under repressive regimes.

e Fascist and Nazi dictatorships off ered both the political and theeconomic stability and predictability that was wanted.

roughout the 1920s and 1930s newspapers almost everywherewere reporting that the regime of Benito Mussolini was conductinga reign of terror against all opponents and dissenters. During the

rst few months of the regime, in the winter of 19221923, gangs of Fascist thugs seized or destroyed the printing plants and newspapersof the labor unions, as well as those of Italian socialist and anarchistgroups. ey also invaded union halls and cooperatives, and in manycases burned or otherwise destroyed them comp letely. At the sametime, labor union, socialist and anarchist group members and theirfamilies including children, old people and pregnant women were beaten and even murdered. rough these methods the Fascistswere able to crush the post-World War I revolutionary working classmovement in Italy.

Despite their well publicized brutalities, the Fascists were admiredby many highly placed western politicians. George Orwell noted just a few. (See Who Are the War Criminals? Tribune , October 22,1943, in e Co ll ec t ed Essa y s , J ou r na li sm and Le e r s o f Geo r ge O r we ll,vol. 2, My Country Right or Le 194043 edited by Sonia Orwell &Ian Angus, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1968, pp. 31925.)Orwell discusses Winston Churchill, who held high political posi-tions in Britain over a y year period, including Home Sec retary,First Lord of the Admiralty, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, as wellas being Prime Minister during World War II. In 1927, in the midst of hispolitical career, Churchill asserted that if he were Italian he would

be wholeheartedly with Mussolini in the struggle against bestialappe tites and the passions of Leninism, providing the necessa ryantidote to Russian poison and the cancerous growth of Bolshevism(p. 320). In 1928, Lord Rothermere agreed that Mussolini was anantidote to the deadly poison in Italy and for the rest of Europe, atonic doing incalculable good. He considered Mussolini to be thegreatest gure of the age (ibid., pp. 31920). Whether Mussolini wascrushing Italian trade unions, helping the Spanish Fascists, mustardgassing Abyssinians, or throwing Arabs out of airplanes, the British

49

regions where f ormerly it was in the minority. It is also improving itstactics. It understands today perfectly well the teaching it receivedfrom Orobon Fernandez: e two Spanish workers organizations,C.N.T.and U.G.T., shouldnever aim to devour each other, theyshouldarrive at an understanding.

e Revolutionary Labor Alliance is the sole road towards anunderstanding. It is not a question if is or at will prefer to take

another road. ere is no other road to arrive at a solution.But the understanding will be difficult. During many long years

the two organizations had cons idered each other enemies, one hav-ing been on the side of the oppressors and the other on the side of the revolutionary masses.

It was only when the Spanish socialists began to lose some of theirdemocratic illusions, a er 1933, that a rapprochement on certainquestions could take place. And there is still a long road to travelbefore a positive understanding can be a ained.

Large layers of the bourgeoisie, scared and anxious to save theirprivileges, have taken refuge in the socialistic unions. A politicalcurrent that is not rooted in Spain, oriented towards a foreign powerthat is making a show of its solidarity with the anti-fascist Spain,also prots by the political situation for inuencing the U.G.T. toprogress backwards. In spiteof all, the C.N.T.is ceaselesslyappealingto the socialist workers of the U.G.T., who since 1934, together withthe C.N.T. members, faced the same persecutions and who are todaya acked by the same hordes of Franco.

e C.N.T. Vital Nerve of Spain

A er the tragic event of May 3 to May 6, Solidaridad Obrera of Barcelona, published the following lines:

Every popular movement brings us a new lesson and the eventsthat are developing have taught us that the spirit of revolt of theCatalonian people has not been exterminated, although theywanted to demonstrate the opposite to us. e Cataloniansrevolt against all injustices, and it is perhaps for this reason


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the social revolutionary development, and by the secret agents of aforeign power.

At the end of this ght there are neither victors nor vanquished.No sanction can, should or will be taken. But the police forces shouldnally be purged and the suspected elements excluded. e policeforces sent by the Valencia government are composed of anti-fascistmilitiamen of all tendencies, who have fought on the front as volun-

teers and who are qualied to function as policemen in Catalonia.e C.N.T. and the F.A.I. expect of them and o f the presen t Catalon-

ian chief of Public Order, Torres (who was formerly an officer of the confederal militia column Tierra Liberta) an impartial a itude.

ey hope that all fresh provocations will be avoided.As before, the partisans of the social revolution are opposed by

those who also call themselves communists, but for whom the greatsacrice consented to by the Spanish people should accomplish nomore than the restoration of the political and economic conditionsthat existed prior to July 19, 1936. As before, the C.N.T. and theF.A.I. will spare no eff orts to propaga te among the masses the ideasof integral social transf ormation. e two organizations know thatwhile the struggle in common of all the antifascists against the com-mon enemy is on, that aim cannot be realized by competition or byviolent rivalry, but it has to come as the fruit of the creative policyof an intelligent, methodical, social and cultural formation.

e Spanish anarchist movement has demonstrated a thousandtimes that it cannot be destroyed, and the same is true of the C.N.T. Ithas f ought f or many decades against the regimes of exploitation anddomination. All the governmen ts that have succeeded each other inSpain wan ted to exterminate it. e prosecutions and the murders

have not stied the libertarian aspirations of the masses.e conspiracies of silence, and the campaigns of slander of the in-ternational press of all tendencies, never a ained their end. Slanders,like those propagated by the Spanish ambassador in Paris, Araquis-tan, abusing his official power, concerning an alleged absurd pactbetween the monarchists and the anarchists, turn against their au-thors.

e C.N.T. consolidates its positions and its effectives which areincreasing, but one can also observe its powerful development in

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government and its official spokesmen suppo rted his regime throughthick and thin (ibid., pp. 320321).

In F . D . R .: A Bi og r aph y, (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1985),Ted Morgan notes that even as late as the winter of 1933 through1934, nine years a er the Fascist seizure of power, President FranklinRoosevelt expressed respect for Mussolini and the Fascists in Italy,ref erring to Mussolini as the admirable Italian gentleman . On July

16, 1934, Roosevelt wrote to Breckinridge Long, U.S. Ambassador inRome, I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he hasaccomplished and by his evidenced honest purpose of restoring Italyand seeking to prevent general European trouble (p. 296). Appar-ently, what was most important to Roosevelt was that the Fascistsdemonstrated a clear commitment to protecting private property.He seems to have not been disturbed by the fact that the Fascistsdisregarded the rights of ordinary people to a voice in how theywere treated, either by employers or government.

When the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, it was no secretthat the Stormtroopers were immediately sent out to seize SocialDemocrats, Communists and anarchists; women and men we re bru-talized and tortured, sometimes to the point of death. In 1933, inhis Br own Book o f H itl e r s T e rr o r , Victor Gollancz had already begunreporting the crimes of the Nazis f or English readers, with massivenumbers of documents and photographs.

Nevertheless, as lateas 1937, William Lyon Mackenzie King, primeminister of Canada , visited Hitler and recorded in his diary thathe f ound H itler to be one who truly loves h is f ellow man and aperson who reminded h im of Joan of Arc. (See Wartime Diariesby Robert Fisk: e premier who thought Hitler was a Joan of

Arc, e I ndependen t & e I ndependen t on Sunda y , 12 June 2010;www.independent.co.uk .)Andr Francois-Poncet was a well-respected French politician and

diplomat, who, in August 1931 was named undersecretary of stateand French ambassador to Germany. He continued in that post untilOctober 1938, and witnessed rsthand the Nazi Partys rise and con-solidation of power. While being critical of the Nazis expansionism,Francois-Poncet felt that so long as there remained a chance for awealthy Frenchman to have a share in the business opportunities


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being opened up in Europe by the German s tate, he could acceptthe Nazi regime. (See Christophe r G. orne, e Approach of War 1938 1939 ; St. Martins Press, New York, 1967, p. 9. Nearly all of

ornes statements are based on official sources.)Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, Lord Halifax, British Viceroy of

India from 1926 to 1931, and Foreign Secretary from 1938 to 1940,openlyexpressed theopinion thatNazi Germanexpansion to theEast

was justiable, although he felt that it should be done by peacefulmeans. He also expressed sympathy for the Nazis, asserting that,Nationalism and Racialism is a powerful force but I cant feel thatitseitherunnatural or immoral. I cannot myselfdoubt thatthesefellowsare genuine haters of Communism, etc.! And I daresay if we were intheir position we might feel the same! (See Andrew Roberts, Holy Fox: e Life of Lord Halifax , Orion Publishing Group , London,1997, p. 67.) Halifax praised Hitler for what he characterized ashis great services to European civilization in resisting the forces of disintegration from the East (see orne, p. 15).

Some prominent American public gures who looked favorablyon the Italian Fascist and German Nazi regimes included WilliamRandolph Hearst of newspaper fame, who in the 1930s helped theNazis to promote a positive impression of their regime in U.S. media, Joseph Kennedy (President John Kennedys father and U.S. ambas-sador to Britain from 1938 through 1940) and Andrew Mellon, U.S.Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 through 1932. (See AmericanSupporters of the European Fasc ists, accessed Janua ry 6, 2012 atrationalrevolution.net .)

Even as late as 1938, some of the top career men in the U.S. StateDepartment, including Breckinridge Long (who was to become U.S.

Assistant Secretary of State in 1939), expressed willingness to coop-erate with the Nazis to combat the expansion of the inuence of theSoviet Union. (See Morgan, p. 498.)

e Nazi and Fascist governments welcomed the right-wing mili-tary coup led by Franco against the Spanish Republic, and assistedthem with modern weapons and trained specialists from early on.

e elites of the western democracies did nothing to oppose this,and when asked by the Republic for help even refused to providearms, on the grounds of so-called neutrality. ey were generally

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Mariano R. Velasquez , the secretary of the Nationa l Commi eeof the C.N.T., said among others:

Comrades, anarchists, members of the C.N.T., anti-fascistwork-ers. In this critical hour, maintain the same a itude as on July19th! Do not waste an ounce of the powder so sorely needed atthe front! If you are not capable by your own will to do wha t

you should do, Franco will impose on us his law. ere will beno other choice for us if we do not defeat fascism, which is ourduty to do. e world will spit its contempt on us if we are notmasters of the situation and we do not emerge victorious fromthe ba le.

Severino Campos , secretary of the Regiona l Commi ee of theF.A.I., wrote in Solidaridad Obrera of May 10, the following lines:

We anarchists of Catalonia did not want to a ack. We wereon the defensive as anyone could ascertain. We gured that it

was a crime to mutually slaughter ourselves in the rear, whileon the front the workers of all political and unionist tendenciessuff er and ght together. at we know and we shall not f orget.We want the unity of all workers.

All the known militants of the C.N.T. and of the F.A.I. of Barcelonadeclared themselves in the same sense. e workers of the workersquarters, in spite of their deep indignation caused b y the provo-cations wh ich are the sou rce of these tr agic events, accepted thedecision o f their commi ees and qu i ing the barricades, resumedwork.

e Present Situation in Catalonia

An open ght between the different anti-fascist sectors wasavoided. e C.N.T. and the F.A.I. have amply demonstrated thatthey are still the only workers organizations that count in the work-ers quarters. But they also have demonstrated that they are notdisposed to allow themselves to be eliminated by the enemies of


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carrying the C.N.T. in town, reminds one of the tactics used by thenazis, who made political scapegoats of the Jews making them re-sponsible for everything: for the war, the peace pact, the revolution,and the reaction . . .

We have no ties whatever with the P.O.U.M. but the C.N.T. de-manded that it be recognized as an anti-fascist organization. OnMay 9, Solidaridad O brera demanded that the police return to the

P.O.U.M. the print shop it had occupied, which was complied with.To accord the P.O.U.M. the initiative and the responsibility of

the protest movement of Barcelona is another calumny circulatedthroughout the international press.

Another version of the tragic events is the following: e positionof the C.N.T. in this affair was dictated by the Anarchists of the F.A.I.,but that the C.N.T. rebelled against the anarchists and stopped thehostilities. is version also is of the domain of pure phantasy. In thediscussions and parleys that have taken place between the third andsixth of May, all decisions taken, all proclamations that were drawnup and published, were by common consent of all the commi eesof the libertarian movements of Barcelona: the regional and localcommi ees of the C.N.T., of the F.A.I., and of the Libertarian Youth.All decisions were adopted unan imously. e protest movement of the workers did not really come from the C.N.T. and the F.A.I. butfrom what is known as the Barridas, of the workers quarters of the city, from the masses themselves. e commi ees of the C.N.T.and of the F.A.I. were in cons tant consu ltation w ith the delegatesof the workers quarters (Barridas) until the danger caused by thebloody encoun ters in the streets abated, when by a common accordthey gave out the watchword: Stop ring. In no case could there

be a question of an opposition between the C.N.T. and the F.A.I.

Statements of the Militants Concerning the C.N.T.and F.A.I.

On the night of May 4, speeches were broadcast by the differentrepresentatives of the antifascist organizations.

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susp icious of the radical social insu rgenc y going on in RepublicanSpain.

For a well-documented article carefully refuting the historicaldistortions of liberals and Communists with respect to the positivesocial activities of anarchists during the Spanish revolution and civilwar, see Noam Chomskys Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship, inthe collection of his essays American Power and the New Mandarins ,

New York 1969, pp 72 126. It is also online at question-every-thing.mahost.org .

e Russian Revolution and the Soviet StateIn the summer of 1914, the Tsarist government of the Russian

Empire joined World War I as an ally of the French and British gov-ernments. ey were later joined by others, including the Italiangovernment in 1915 and theUnitedStatesgovernment in 1917. Histo-rians generally refer to this war alliance as theEntente. e Ententesent their militaries against the German state and the Austro-Hun-garian and O oman Empires, which joined together in an allianceknown as the central powers. e troops that the Russian Empiresent into World Wa r I were generally very poorly equipped, poorlyclothed, poorly fed, o en treated brutally by their officers, and, notsurprisingly, they were o en unable to defend themselves againstthe assaults of the German military.

At the same time, the vast majority of people inside the Russ-ian Empire were experiencing ever greater austerity and suffering.Everything, and especially food, grew increasingly expensive andscarce. Over time, street demonstrations and riots became more and

more frequent. By February of 1917, many ordinary Russians hadreached the limits of their patience. A popular insurgency overthrewthe tyrannical Russian Tsarist regime; a provisionaldemocratic gov-ernment was established and a Republic was to be created. At thesame time local non -hierarchical organ izations such as wo rkplaceand neighborhood councils (also known as soviets, the Russian wordf or councils) were established. e people began the process of learn-ing how to take control of their own lives, and a social Revolutioncommenced.


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As the war dragged on, more and more people began to demandthat the Provisional government end Russian participation and bringthe troops home . But, the Provisiona l governmen t was unde r pres-sure from the rest of the Entente to stay in the war. General disil-lusionment with the new governments inability to withdraw fromthe war and to adequately deal with domestic problems led to moreunrest. In October the Bolshevik faction of the Russian social-de-

mocratic party (led by V.I. Lenin) took advantage of the situation toseize power in the name of the working-class and put an end to theprovisional governments tenure. e Russian state was declaredto be a Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, based on thef ederation of local popular councils (or soviets). (In December 1922,the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics U.S.S.R., also known as theSoviet Union was formed from the merger of the Russian SovietFederative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federa-tive Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and theByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.)

Once the Bolsheviks seized the state apparatus, they slipped intothe role of state rulers. e new governmen t quickly evolved into ahighly centralized authoritarian state under the dictatorship of theBolshevik party. en the Bolsheviks began to use their position asrespected successful revolutionaries to spread their interpretationsof the world situation to aspiring revolutionaries in other countrieswho wanted to follow their lead. (For more on the authoritarianideology and policies of the Marxist-Leninist rulers of the Sovietstate, see Iain McKay, Syndicalism, Marxist Myth and Ana rchistReality, Anarchist Writers blog, November 25, 2011; anarchism.page-abode.com .)

e elites of the other states in the World War I Entente perceivedthe Bolshevik state as a direct threat to their internal security be-cause the overthrow of the old regime and the beginnings of self-rule in Russia were providing inspiration for people in other partsof the world who desired the overthrow of the elites who ruled overthem. Nevertheless, the Entente powers offered the Bolshevik gov-ernment military and economic assistance if the Russian militarywere kept in the war. But the Bolsheviks realized that they couldnot keep the Russian m ilitary from disintegrating if it stayed in. To

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given the strength and the blood of its militants and members inthe struggle against fascism. Dont let them fool you, membersof the police force! You know, for you have the proof, that theC.N.T. and the F.A.I. are not ghting against you. You are, likeourselves, soldiers in the anti-fascist cause. Your place is on theside of the people as it was on July 19 th .

e C.N.T. and F.A.I. and TrotskyismIn the appeals published by the different organizations, a er calm

was reestablished in Barcelona, reference is made in a general wayto the necessity of establishing the anti-fascist unity in spite of allobstacles. A acks and accusations against organizations of the anti-f ascist front were avoided. e May 3 movemen t in Barcelona wasa spontaneous action of the workers quarters and not the work of some individuals or of an organization, and even less that of theP.O.U.M. Let us give a few facts on this ma er.

e communist party could not miss this opportunity of throwingsome accusations against its pet adversary, the so-called Trotskyites(the P.O.U.M.), a small Marxist fraction that has developed in certainCatalonian workers milieus, and which is opposed to Stalinism. Wedo not want to wrangle on thissubject as wedo not feel competent toestablish thene lines of differences betweenthe different oppositioncommunist groups. By its organic form of unionism, by its anarchistideology the C.N.T. is neatly and sharply separated from the otheranti-fascist organizations.

e elements that at present compose the P.O.U.M. belong to thatmass, that up to 1936, considered the exclusion of the anarchist

movement as an essential condition for any progress of the Spanishlabor movement. e C.N.T. and the F.A.I. have nothing in commonwith them. Since the middle of 1936 that party dri ed constantly tothe le and today it shares with us certain elementary conceptionsof the anarchists in reference to the importance of the civil war.

However, the two tendencies have not come any nearer concern-ing their essential and positive postulates.

e P.O.U.M. participated in the anarcho-syndicalist protest move-ment, but to present them as thedeterminingfactor of the movement,


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of discharge, and he allowed the f ascists to remain at their posts.At the same time he stiffened his opposition to the commi ees.On the other hand he has done e veryt hing in h is power to dis-arm the members of the C.N.T. and of the F.A.I., with the aid of the followers of certain political parties, in order to break therevolutionary power of the members of the C.N.T. and of theF.A.I., power that is the best guarantee for the working people,

who are not wishful for the return of the regime of exploitationand for state oppression . . .

And the manifesto concludes:

For the restoration of condence among the anti-fascist forces!For the victory over fascism! Against the systematic provoca-teurs, Aiguade and Rodriguez! For the purging of the high postsof the police force! Long live the social revolution!

is manifesto was signed by the regional commi ees of theC.N.T., of the F.A.I., of the Libertarian Youth and of the Barcelonalocal commi ees of the C.N.T. and of the F.A.I.

An Appeal to the Policemen

e C.N.T. had therefore serious motives to be suspicious of theCatalonian police, which, under the direction of the workers ene-mies Aiguade and Rodriguez Salas, were ruling the region. In themeantime, even while the conict was on, the two libertarian orga-nizations appealed also to the members of the police force: It is notagainst you, the appeal said that the present protest movement isdirected, but against those who are using you as a counter revolu-tionary instrument of their political schemes. Here is a passage of one of these broadcasted appeals:

ey placed bef ore us the ques tion of f orce and this has tobe now se led. e bloody encoun ters on the s treets are theoutcome of a long and painful development of facts, the aim of which is theannihilation of theC.N.T. a er this organization has

21

avoid the b reakdown o f authority and to f ormalize their status asthe rulers of the Russian state, they decided to conclude a separatef ormal peace treaty with the German state. e other Entente stateelites considered this to be proof of the untrustworthiness of the Bol-shevik elite. So, a er the Russian Soviet and German go vernmen tsconcluded their separate peace treaty, the U.S., Japanese and, mostsignicantly, the British government staged invasions of Russia in

support of the counter-revolutionary troops ghting for the returnof the old order. Although the foreign troops were relatively smallin numbers, did not stay long and failed to unseat the Bolsheviks,these states helped to f uel a brutal civil war. (For more inf ormation,see Joe Licentia, Russia: Revolution, Counter-Revolution: An Anar- cho-Communist Analysis of the Russian Revolution, Zabalaza Books,printable PDF is at www.zabalaza.net .)

Under the circumstances, the Bolshevik leaders of the Russianstate came to the conclusion that their main enemies were the gov-ernments of Britain, the U.S. and France, and those smaller statessupported by them. is perspective persisted throughout the 1920sand into the early 1930s, until 1934. Because social democrats, non-communist socialists and anarchists all became critics of Bolshevikrule, the Soviet government also judged them to be counterrevolu-tionary enemies.

Very many anarchists and other anti-authoritarians all over theworld began by greeting the Russian revolution with great joy andhope . But, all too soon man y began to f eel unease and deep con -cern abou t the authorit arian takeo ver of the state and soc iety bythe Russian Bolshevik clique. By the early 1920s, man y inside andoutside Russia began speaking out against the Bolshevik govern-

ments repression of urban and rural workers, peasants, and thosein the military. (For one of many examples, see My D isillusionment in Russia by Emma Goldman; accessible at libcom.org .)

Sylvia Pankhurst, a British advocate of womens equality and asocialist, also began by enthusiastically greeting the Russian Revo-lution, and participating in the newly formed British CommunistParty. But as she learned more about the experiences and treatmentof le dissenters, including anarchists and socialists, she becamedisillusioned with the Bolsheviks rule. In July, 1923 she wrote that


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in Russia, the term dictatorship of the p roletariat has been usedto justify the dictatorship of a party clique of officials over theirown party members and over the people at large. In May of 1924she wrote that the Bolsheviks pose now as the prophets of cen-tralised efficiency, trustication, State control, and the discipline of the proletariat in the interests of increased production . . . the Russ-ian workers remain wage s laves, and very poor ones, working, not

from free will, but under compulsion of economic need, and kept intheir subordinate position by . . . State coercion. (See Mark Shipway,Anti-Parliamentary Communism: the movement for workers councils in Britain, 19171945 , St. Martins Press: New York, 1988 and on-line at www.af-north.org# . Also see Communism And Its Tactics bySylvia Pankhurst, www.geocities.com ).)

During the rst decade and a half following the Russian Revolu-tion and the Bolshevik seizure of power, the Soviet elites generallyhoped that similar communist takeovers could be accomplishedin the richer and more industrialized western countries. To helpthem along, they created an international organization known asthe Communist International (also known as the Comintern or irdInternational). e Comintern was founded in Moscow in March1919. At its Second Congress, in the summer of 1920, twenty-onecond itions f or admission were laid down as obligatory f or all social-ist/communist groups that wanted to be part of the organization.

e Comintern was highly centralized and totally controlled by theRussian Bolshevik Party, wh ich i