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The Conscience of the Spanish Revolution: Anarchist Opposition to State Collaboration in 1937

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The Conscience of the Spanish Revolution: Anarchist Opposition to State Collaboration in 1937 THE CONSCIENCE OF THE SPANISH REVOLUTION: ANARCHIST OPPOSITION TO STATE COLLABORATION IN 1937 Daniel Evans Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Languages, Cultures and Societies July 2016 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2016 The University of Leeds and Daniel Evans iii iv Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by an Arts and Humanities Research Council studentship. Research trips were partly funded by the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds and the AHRC Research Training Support Grant Funding scheme. The notion of undertaking original research into Spanish anarchism did not occur to me until I had lived in Spain for a couple of years, and my understanding of the language was sufficiently developed. I owe a great deal to the friends whose patience and generosity made that possible, and to the enormous good fortune I had in meeting Uta, Marc, Gustavo, Alfredo, Vanesa, David, Patricia, the Garcia Anguita family, Oscar, Mara, Helena, Jordi and many others, particularly the stalwarts of the Spanish soul scene. Any difficulty that might have been caused by leaving Spain was alleviated by the presence in Leeds of old friends who made me feel at home again: Carl, Mallie, Mark, Karen, Juan, Maria and others; and new friends made through political and cultural activities, in particular those I met through the Critical Cinema group and Leeds No Borders. Richard Cleminson and Angel Smith have been extremely supportive supervisors and their guidance has been enormously helpful in shaping the present work. Many other friends, colleagues and historians have provided support and advice over the past four years and I would like to thank David Goodway, Jim Yeoman, Chris Ealham, Dolors Marin, Peter Anderson, Mercè Lázaro García, Claudio Hernández, Kees Rodenburg, Gregorio Alonso, Roger De Cal Canterer, Matthew Kerry, Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco, Diana Battaglia, Josep Antoni Pozo González, Daniel Mourenza, Francisco de Paula, Christian Høgsbjerg, and in particular Agustín Guillamón. I am also grateful to Paz, Iu, Edu, Javi, Silvia, Ruth, Quinnie, Colin, Ana, Arantxa and Andy for providing a bed and/or a warm welcome on research trips to Barcelona, Madrid and London. I am very lucky to have a network of loving, intelligent and funny family and friends that I can rely on for support and encouragement. I would like to thank in particular my parents, Helen, Rach, Phil, Peter and my much-missed grandmother. Finally, I am grateful for the love and companionship of my partner Liz. Her empathy, encouragement and patience have been a constant source of reassurance and support, and her insight has helped sharpen many of the ideas contained in this work. i Abstract This thesis analyses the opposition mounted by anarchists to the policy of state collaboration, which was adopted by the principal organisations of the Spanish libertarian movement at the outset of the civil war. Collaboration is understood in broad terms as the involvement of libertarian individuals and organisations in the reconstruction of the Republican state following its near collapse in July 1936, a process that implied not only participation in the organs of governance, but also in the ideological reconstitution of the Republic as a patriarchal and national entity. Using original sources, the thesis shows that the opposition to this process was both broader and more ideologically consistent than has hitherto been assumed, and that, in spite of its heterogeneity, it united around a common revolutionary programme. Focusing on the strategies adopted by oppositional anarchists over the course of 1937, from the radical interpretation of the CNT’s socialisation campaign to the insurrectionary mobilisation of May and finally to the defence of federalism within the libertarian organisations, the thesis also sheds light on the turbulent relationship between the responsible committees of the libertarian movement and its ‘mid-level’ union and affinity group delegates. The ‘conscience’ of the Spanish revolution, like its Russian precursor, both recognised and struggled against the role that the principal revolutionary organisation in the country had assumed in the reconstruction of the state. In the Spanish case, the resistance to state reconstruction was informed by the essential insight of anarchism: that the function and purpose of the modern state cannot be transformed from within. By situating the struggles of the radical anarchists within the contested process of state reconstruction, the thesis affirms the continued relevance of this insight to the study of the Spanish revolution. ii At the beginning of my research I had the privilege of corresponding with the late Antonia Fontanillas, a former member of the Juventudes Libertarias, whose commitment to preserving the memory of her generation and its struggle for a better world belied her years and serves as an inspiration. This thesis is dedicated to her. iii Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... i Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii Contents ....................................................................................................................... iv Index of Abbreviations ................................................................................................ vi Notes .......................................................................................................................... viii Preface .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Spanish Anarchists and the State, 1931-1936 ...................................... 16 Republic or Revolution, 1931-1936 ....................................................................... 19 Revolution and State Collaboration, July – December, 1936................................. 33 The Outline of a Revolutionary Conscience........................................................... 56 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 61 Chapter Two: ‘Socialisation and the People Armed!’ Conscience and Programme, January-April 1937 ................................................................................................. 65 The anarchist programme and state reconstruction ................................................ 70 ‘Let us unite!’: Unity beyond ‘generic anti-fascism’?............................................ 82 Towards a Second July ........................................................................................... 94 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 109 Chapter Three: May 1937. From a Second July to the ‘Spanish Kronstadt’ ........... 112 The Mobilisation of the ‘Anti-State’ .................................................................... 114 The ‘comités superiores de defensa’: from a plan of attack to demoblisation ..... 128 The Experience of Defeat ..................................................................................... 141 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 156 Chapter Four: ‘Permanent Effects of a Temporary Position’, June - July 1937 ...... 161 The ‘anarchist ship back on course’? Debating collaboration outside of government ........................................................................................................... 165 Anti-militarism, anti-nationalism and the ‘war that is not for true freedom’ ....... 178 ‘Ships without honour’: the Regional Plenum of the Catalan FAI....................... 189 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 198 Chapter 5: ‘Let us be worthy of Anarchy.’ Autonomous action and the defence of federalism, July – December 1937 ....................................................................... 202 Federalism in defiance of ‘neo-anarchism’ .......................................................... 208 ‘Nothing practical can be done’: Autonomous activity and the role of the FAI .. 221 Bolshevisation Abroad: The Extraordinary Congress of the IWMA ................... 233 iv Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 243 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 249 Appendix: Recurring personages.............................................................................. 262 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 269 Archives ................................................................................................................ 269 Primary Sources ...................................................................................................
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