Towards a Fresh The Friends of Revolution Durruti (1938) arm the people. This was to be repeated throughout the course of the “civil war”. War & Revolution The workers confronted fascism with An introduction to The Friends of Durruti revolution the government proved more afraid of revolution then fascism (which The war in Spain (1936-1939) has of- tarisation. “Towards a fresh revolution” is not to knock the many genuine anti-fas- ten been portrayed as a simple strug- was published in 1938 as “a message of cists in some of the government parties.). gle between Fascism and democracy. In hope and a determination to renew the fact it was anything but. A military coup fight against an internationalism.” Itʼs a The July events triggered a massive so- launched in July 1936 was defeated by short and relatively easy read. It is obvi- cial revolution throughout Spain. Workers workerʼs action in most parts of Spain. ously aimed at activists in the CNT and took over in the factories and on the lands it pulls no punches in itʼs attacks on the and began the creation of a self-man- There then followed a wide ranging social Spanish bourgeoisie and “colaboration- aged communist society. Millions were revolution. As many as 5-7 million were ists” in the CNT. However be warned it involved in agricultural communes and involved in the collectivisation of agricul- does assume a certain amount of back- workerʼs self management in the facto- ture and thousands in workerʼs control of ground knowledge of the history of the ries. industry. About 2 million of these were CNT and the Spanish revolution. It would also members of the oldest union in Spain The pamphlet however poses the central be useful to read in conjunction with Ver- the anarcho-syndicalist; CNT. question. Why, when a clear majority non Richardʼs “Lessons of the Spanish supported and took part in the building As with all revolutions a counter-revolu- Revolution” of a social revolution, wasnʼt this tion followed quickly on the Span- “We are not interested in medals or in gen- pushed forward by the CNT; the ish revolution. This was spear- eralʼs sashes, we want neither committees massive anarcho-syndicalist union. headed by the Spanish Communist or ministers” Their answer is brief: “what hap- party. These were faithful adherents pened had to happen” to Stalinʼs foreign policy of suck- Bueneventura Durruti ing up to France and England in the - Solidaridad Obrera Sept 12 1936 Why was this sellout inevitable as hope of military and economic alli- the FOD maintain? Why did lead- ances. They resisted the revolution ing anarchists move on to become “The government has posthumously grant- leading ministers in the Spanish at all stages and found willing allies ed the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to the il- in the Spanish republican and so- government? lustrious Libertarian leader Buenaventura cialist forces. All took pains to con- In explaining their apparently fatal- vey to the world a struggle between Durruti on the anniversary of his death” istic view of the CNT the FOD go fascism and democracy. - Solidaridad Obrera April 30 1938 on to show how the CNT was de- They also took steps to try and make void of any revolutionary theory or it such a struggle by smashing collectives JULY 19th 1936 programme. They had “Lyricism aplenty” and factory committees and sabotaging the and detailed plans had been laid down as The pamphlet begins by recalling the efforts of revolutionary forces at the front. to how an anarchist Spain would operate massive gains made by Spanish work- However even more worrying is the fact at their national conference in Saragosa in ers in areas where they had succeeded in that the “anarchists” of the CNT made lit- May 1936. But they couldnʼt get from A beating the fascist coup. The coup had tle attempt to combat these forces. In fact to B, from bread and butter struggle to a been defeated by workers facing down the four became government ministers. future libertarian society. military often with their bare hands. It had One tendency within the CNT; the Friends been defeated without any help from the For this reason they handed the revolution of Durruti resisted the growing reformism popular front government who refused to to the tender mercies of the Socialists, re- within the CNT. In this review of their pamphlet; “Towards a Fresh Revolution” Conor Mc Loughlin outlines their impor- PDF pamphlet prepared for tance to modern anarchists. The full text Anarkismo.net of the pamphlet itself follows. The friends of Durutti were setup in 1937 by rank and file members of the CNT and members of CNT columns resisting mili- The photo is assembled from framegrabs from CNT newsreel of the Durruti Column, International section

publicans and Communists. These forces off the workers were finally persuaded to 1. That the war should have been a which emerged without a shred of sup- lay down arms by the CNT “leadership”. continuation of the revolution with a port from the July events were not slow democratic workerʼs army. to rebuild. Instead of destroying it they The FOD strongly urged workers to re- propped up the Spanish state in itʼs hour main put and were in the thick of the 2. All available arms and money of need. As the FOD put it: “It breathed a fighting. They pointed out that the work- should have been seized by the lungfull of Oxygen into an anemic, terror ers had won and now controlled Barcelo- workers. (The CNT spent most of the stricken bourgeoisie.” na (after a steady erosion of their position war guarding the governmentʼs 2,259 since July 1936). They insisted that work- pesatas in gold! This money which Garcia Oliver one of the “leading mili- ers stayed put. They issued a manifesto could have aided the revolution was tants” who was shortly to enter the gov- calling for the disbanding of the army and exported to Russia to buy the arms ernment claimed he had avoided “an anar- parties which had supported the coup and that helped destroy it.) chist dictatorship”. This shows a complete the establishment of a revolutionary Junta and crass lack of understanding of the to continue the war. 3. No collaboration with the Spanish essential tasks of an anarchist organisa- bourgeois It is worth explaining exactly what they tion i.e. the smashing of the state and the 4. Real workerʼs unity transfer of power to workerʼs and peas- meant by this Junta since the word has ants. The CNT and Spanish workers were very bad associations. They wanted the 5. Total socialisation of the economy to pay in blood for this collaboration. Junta to control only the war effort. It and food distribution was to be made up of elected, recallable 6. Equalisation of pay rates We acknowledge the great work of the delegates. The economy was to be under CNT in propagandising anarchism and the control of workers through their syn- 7. No armistice with Foreign the struggle against Franco. But we must dicates. imperialist powers. stand with the FOD in absolute condem- nation of the deferring of revolutionary For issuing these demands they were at- To this we could only add the immediate politics to class collaboration. tacked as traitors and agent provocateurs. granting of independence to remaining The CNT brokered peace was an aban- Spanish colonies. The FOD had a programme which could donment of the revolutionary Barcelona The FOD were armed with a revolution- have won the support of the Spanish workers. Several thousand troops arrived ary programme that could have brought masses and led them to anarchism and from Valencia. There were mass arrests, Spain towards anarchism and crushed the the destruction of Fascism. However they executions and immediate press censor- Fascists. But they were too small and to were too small and too late. The need for ship. The destruction of the POUM and late to hope to win workers to itʼs imple- such a programme has never been more CNT by Stalinʼs CHEKA agents began. pressing mentation The need for anarchists organ- The May events were a vital turning point ised with such a programme has never MAY 3rd 1937 in the Spanish revolution. The collectives been more pressing. We are attempting to By this stage the counter-revolutionaries were crushed throughout republican areas build one. soon afterwards. Workerʼs control was in the “republican” camp felt confident Conor McLoughlin enough to provoke a fight with the Bar- smashed and militarisation completed. celona working class. Police under the The “peoples army” then suffered mas- Based on an article published in Workers command of Rodriguez Salas, the public sive and bloody defeats at the hands of Solidarity No34, 1992 order commissar, attacked the telephone the fascists. exchange. They were strongly resisted by We would agree with almost all the FODʼs CNT organised workers inside. positions summarised at the end of the Barricades soon sprang up all over the pamphlet. These include; city. Fighting broke out with the CNT and POUM (non-Stalinist Marxists) quickly gaining the upper hand over government and PSUC (Stalinist controlled Catalan “Socialist” party). After an armed stand militants were the targets of savage re- Introduction written by Jaime Balius in 1978 pression under the monarchy of Alfonso He had been secretary of the Friends of Durruti and director of its paper Xlll, the grandfather of Juan Carlos, the present monarch imposed upon the Span- ish people by international capitalism. Forty Years Ago This imposition can be accounted for by The Friends of Durruti Group was formed State. The time was 1938 (40 years ago), the terror that the revolutionary Spain in- in early 1937. Its members and supporters at a point when the war was a lost cause, spires in all the inter connected capitalist were prominent comrades from the Gelsa and when war fronts were collapsing one forces, on account of its sublime gesture battle-front. Remaining true to their an- after another as a result of the treachery of three years of rebellion in the 30s. archist beliefs, they refused to submit to of Stalinists in key positions in the deci- Hence the fear felt by the Washington- the militarisation and, as a result, moved sion-making process, obeying Stalinʼs or- Moscow axis and the Bonn-Paris-London to the capital of Catalonia (Barcelona) ders to undermine the Spanish proletariat triangle. where, along with other Barcelona com- in arms. Such was the tragic hour when rades, they set up the group. They took we of the Friends of Durruti Group at Forty years later, the importance of what as their symbol the figure of Buenaven- the groupʼs last session, after prolonged we wrote in those hours, fraught with pas- tura Durruti, an idealist who had devoted examination of the disaster which the sion and grief, is revealed. If, in the 30s, his whole life to his anarchist beliefs. He counter revolution had plunged us, and the Spanish proletariat threw itself into was a man of action as his heroic death regardless of the scale of disaster, refused the prodigious fray, though outgunned on the Madrid front testifies . . . that he- to accept the finality of such defeat. The and with its battlefronts and its rearguard roic and timeless Madrid which lives on infamous policy pursued by Largo Cabal- undermined by the hybrid, murderous in the spontaneous catchphrase which the lero, whose government contained several policy of the communists today the Span- Republicʼs governmentʼs fight from their anarchist militsnts, had eroded the revo- ish proletariat once again launches itself city drew from the capitalʼs inhabitants . . . lutionary morale of the rearguard; and into the great adventure of revolution. Viva Madrid sin gobierno! (Long live Ma- the Negrin government, the government There are hopeful signs in the form of a drid without government!). This indomi- of defeat or capitulation, gave the defeat magnificent younger generation forged table spirit of the people of Madrid lasted hecatomb proportions. For this reason in the jails, who have equipped them- throughout the entire siege of the capital, we decided to publish Hacia una nueva selves through reference to books, par- and it was this spirit that the Group adopt- revolucion which was, as we said, a mes- ticularly those written by revolutionaries ed as its own. Thus it was that the fight- sage of hope and a determination to renew who stood firm against the tidal wave of ing men from Gelsa (with the Durruti counter-revolution . . . and in matters Column on the Aragon front) became of theory, they may be better equipped the heralds of the message “Stand than the men of July 1936 who were fast and fight to the last!” These were awestruck by the grandeur of a social virtues which no one can deny that revolution that dawned so gloriously Durruti, the anarchist from Leon, did over Iberian soil, and which, had it but have. At his funeral Barcelona paid been given proper expression, would him the tribute of one of the largest have become the first stage of Europe- popular demonstrations ever, as the an and thence, world wide revolution. Catalan proletariat took to the streets as a body to pay homage to the man In that booklet back in 1938 we said who had given his life for the cause that all revolutions are totalitarian. of the disinherited the world over. They must be interpreted and must express themselves in the sense that Having given a rough outline of all revolutions are integral. That is to the nature of our Group I shall now the fight against an international capital- say, they cannot be made by halves nor proceed to a short introduction to our ism which had mobilised its gendarmes tackled side-on without the great edifice pamphlet: Hacia una nueva revolucion of the 30s (in other words, its blackshirts of revolution coming face-to-face with (Towards a fresh revolution). First of all, and brownshirts), to put down the Span- destruction. It is terrible when one thinks when was it written? Around mid-1938. ish working class at whose head marched of the way in which revolutions come to But it must be emphasised that for us to the anarchists and the revolutionary rank grief. The Spanish revolution was doomed write a booklet of this sort, with the ti- and file of the National Confederation of to perish from the instant the revolution- tle we gave it, at that tragic hour for the Labour. ary spirit and the war were divorced. Spanish proletariat, was a highly sugges- Take, for example, the decree on the mili- tive action, amounting to a cry of hope In the prelude to July we can discern the tarisation of the militias. With regard to for the fighters of Spain. Notwithstand- Spain the Spanish proletariat tried to de- the state structure there was no way the ing their heroism and tenacity, they found stroy, the theocratic Black Spain ruled by Spanish revolution could survive. The themselves surrounded by the most fearful large landowners who had surrendered the defence committees, control patrols and defeat on account of their failure to crush economy of the country to foreign powers. the collectives were dissolved. This was the counter-revolution led by the Stalin- This age-old battle was constantly con- the build-up to the sudden assault by the ists, who were backed by the camouflaged tested from the 15th century up to 1936, Catalan proletariat in May 1937, when the reformists inside the National Confedera- setting liberty against tyranny, progress workers tried to win back the gains they tion of Labour (CNT) and Iberian Anar- against obscurantism, ever present in this had made in July. chist Federation (FAI) and all who were age-old contest were anarchism and the established in the upper echelons of the National Confederation of Labour, whose The May events are described in our pam- phlet. The lesson of May is unmistakable. imposed upon the Spanish people by in- ment. Let our one hope and hesitation be Revolutions can not restrict themselves to ternational capitalism is to be overthrown. that the libertarian spirit of the young Eu- the confines of their native land. A new Once again proletarian Spain will serve as ropeans of this Europe, which is only a Spanish revolution must, if it is to suc- the catalyst for proletarian Europe if we step away from fascism, does not come ceed, assume European proportions. To- establish a close alliance with the Spanish to naught. The new Spanish revolution is dayʼs Europe is sitting on the edge of a revolutionary workers to counteract the taking shape: all that remains to be done volcano. Faithful to our message of 1938, capitalist siege which has the collusion of is to organise the mobilisation of all Euro- we shall go on fighting for a new and Eu- both socialists and communists. pean revolutionaries around Spain, which ropean revolution just as the Spanish rev- has not, even for an instant, and in spite olution of 1936 and the Portuguese revo- The transcendent impact of the Spanish of the terrible bloodbath which interna- lution of 1974 must be labelled European. revolution of 1936, which would have tional capitalism inflicted on it during the Both suffered from the same short-com- begun a cycle of European revolutions of 30s and the years of terror in the 40s and ing-they left the State intact and in both necessity, terrified the capitalist magnates under the present monarchy, failed to de- case pseudo-revolutionaries repaired the who saw in it the overture to extension clare itself. state structures when they were coming throught the continent-and thus massa- apart on all sides. cred the Spanish people! The monarchy is the creature of the lack- eys of the Bonn-Paris axis and of the hire- Europeʼs workers must help out the Span- We have indicated the causes of the defeat, lings of the US gendarme, not forgetting ish proletariat with the fight against in- but we want to stress the need to prepare the tacit acquiescence of the USSR. ternational capitalism which has already an authentic proletarian internationalism been launched on our soil. Europeʼs soli- which must show itself in the creation of a Jaime Balius, 1978. darity is indispensable if the monarchy powerful and European libertarian move- [The Friends of Durruti] The historical text - Towards a Fresh Revolution A history and interpretation of events in Spain up till 1938 Overture to the Spanish Revolution Political rotation, which in Spain took military were deprived of the spoils they the tragedies of Baranco del Lobo and the form of Constitutionalists and Ab- craved. They had no option but to return Anual. solutionists alternating in power (the to the peninsula, braid saturated in blood, The military have ever been a millstone clasico turno), collapsed beyond repair bearing the shame of beings inept even about the neck of the working people. with a coup dʼetat mounted in the capital in their own profession-that of bearing Look at the Defence Juntas, of evil mem- of Catalonia by a drunken, cantankerous arms. ory. The moving spirit behind them, Colo- general, in the year 1923. From that moment forward, the Spanish nel Marquez, tried to infuse them with a The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera is the people have been confronted by a prob- liberal outlook, but La Ciervaʼs patronage direct outcome of politics pursued amid lem fraught with difficulties. Thousands intrigues far outweighed the transitory maladministration, monopolies, bureau- of these proteges of a syphilitic king re- good will of a colonel who ended up per- cratic perks, rake-offs, concessions and a turned to devour the natives of the mother secuted and imprisoned in Monyuich. whole mass of profiteering operated with country, since they no longer had the op- General Primo de Rivera was the incarna- the blessing of officialdom. portunity to go on impoverishing the peo- tion of this whole past we have mentioned. The military reaction of 1923 was a direct ples of the colonies, who cursed Spainʼs Thanks to the strength of Lopez Ochoa- result of one of the reasons why our coun- representatives as thieves and assassins in and with the passive help of the bourge- try is impoverished, one which has ab- generalʼs sashes and chevrons. osie, the latifundists, the clergy, and the sorbed nearly the whole national budget. The public exchequer stood in need of an financiers-he brandished his sword from Spainʼs colonial power spawned a rogueʼs immediate outlet. The Algeciras confer- the lofty heights of power. gallery of adventurers, mercenaries, pro- ence laid the borders of Morocco open There is written proof that this former fessional politicians, and a cohort of deal- to attack. The mines of the Rif, coveted Captain General of Catalonia entered the ers in cheap flesh. by the Count of Romanones, became an fray for the purpose of cancelling out the abyss demanding the blood and the mon- Picasso inquiryʼs findings-in which Alfon- As long as the bureaucracy of the sabre ey of the Spanish people. and the captains of industry had plenty of so Xlll and his man of straw, Silvestre the scope to plunder and loot in the overseas 1,000,000,000 pesetas the Moroccan ven- the general, were directly implicated. This possessions, then Spain as such could go ture has cost the nationʼs exchequer, plus interpretation of the facts is undoubtedly on her way more or less unaffected. But many thousands of lives sacrificed to the well-founded; but what precipitated the colonial disaster held the key to the col- financial cartel represented by the farmer militaryʼs move was unquestionably the lapse of this situation, which was main- Count of Romanones. disquiet among the working class. Hav- ing had its fill of outrage and systematic tained by an unscrupulous, ruthless mi- The most startling points in this Spanish thievery, the working class was preparing nority. slaughter, revolving around the iron de- to banish those responsible for its misfor- posits in the tribal territory of Beni-Bu- At the close of the XlXth century the tune from Spanish soil. The financial and Ifrur, near the mountain of Af-Laten, are industrial bourgeoisie placed all their re- of the line. Alfonso Xlllʼs family shook Nor was the problem of the statutes any sources at the disposal of the army. They hands warmly with General Sanjurjo. more satisfactorily resolved. There may restricted credit, sabotaged the economy, In August 1932, and again in July 1936. be talk in one of the articles of the Consti- applied the lock-out and provoked strikes. The general unleashed attacks on a peo- tution, of a federal or federative Republic, Great displays of rejoicing from the Cata- ple betrayed by politicians who had given but for all the talk, centralism still pre- lan bourgeoisie greeted the armyʼs Polish the general a free hand. He was an assas- vails. style dictatorship. sin with a royalist background. Accord- The agrarian problem ended in fiasco. The Primo de Rivera era must be catego- ing to reports, the Count of Romanones The Institute for Agrarian Reform was a rised as an effort by the ruling class to said in the station at El Escorial: “Hasta hotbed of nepotism. 5000 peasants were weaken the working class, who actions muy pronto” (Until we meet again, very to be settled each year. Some 5,000,000 were to take on a more positive form at soon). needed land. With this laughably optimis- a later date. This reprisal was an updated, The Republic prattled on in endless ex- tic policy of reform the end might have more comprehensive re-enactment of the changes of views. The Constituent Cortes been in sight after a thousand years! past, with the same moral turpitude and came up with no solution to any problem. They came to the labour question armed eternal arrogance that have martyrised the The question of the army, which only with a horrendous jargon. Workers control corpse of a Spain that is ever noble in its execution pickets could resolve, turned consisted of such delegation of power as rags. into farce. Azana allowed the military to friendship and favouritism might allow. This philandering general was replaced retire under such exceptional terms that Spainʼs colonial status became an issue by Berenguer who was himself sup- the effect was an enormous upsurge in the with the Telefonica affair. So, in spite of planted by Aznar. And, to top it all, it was non-productive population whilst the bar- all Prietoʼs bravado and the fact that he the Count of Romanones-an agent of the racks were handed over to the monarchist labelled the Telefonica contract one-sided intelligence service-who supervised the officer class. in a debate in the Ateneo in Madrid and transfer of power from the Monarchy to Likewise, the religious issue was side- it was better the Telefonica workers be his former secretary, Don Niceto Alcala stepped. The Church should have been machine-gunned whenever they took to Zamora. He along with the son of Maura expropriated without compensation, not the streets to demand to a just wage-rise and with the assistance of Maranon, the to mention the provision for religion and rather than North American capital be palace physician (and also of the intelli- clerics being eliminated from the nationʼs shored up. gence service), laid the foundations for a budget. This was not done. Instead the We have lived through two biennia. The Republic which was bound to end in the religious orders were legalised, and the most frightful stench. Red and the Black. During both the work- droves who seek refuge in 300 religious ing class were persecuted in darstardly The new Republic was completely un- orders and 6000 conventos (male and fashion. popular. Instead of following socialist female convents) were given citizenship guidelines, forged in the clamour of the rights. There was no attempt to eradicate The socialists operated as the lackeys of streets, the same parasites as in the days this cancer that has eaten away at the capitalism. The laws for the Defence of of the Bourbons, hold sway. Power is in Spanish soul for so many centuries. The the Republic for Public Order, and the the hands of politicians who were good Mendizabal administration achieved more Law of April 8th, are wholly repressive servants of the monarchy. Alcala Zamora than this Republic even though the latter in their nature. The Right uses them as was a recalcitrant monarchist, a represent- had the benefit of an extra hundred yearsʼ it chooses. The workers reaction can be ative of the clergy and latifundists. Azana experience. And they failed to confiscate seen in the burning of the conventos, in once belonged to the party of Melquiades the 5,000,000,000 pesetasʼ worth of Jesuit the events in Barcelona and Figols on Jan- Alvarez: Miguel Maura, another royalist; investment in the nationʼs economy. Not uary 8th and December 3rd. Deportations Alejandro Lerroux, a man without honour was a solution found to the problem of to Bata and Villa Cisneros were still more . . . finances. The debts and commitments of steps towards surrendering the Republic to the proletariatʼs etemal enemies. Disconsolate Spain took the path of be- the monarchy were acknowledged. The trayals, of useless secret meetings. Aprilʼs budget rocketed. Non-productive classes Both biennia were filled with tragedy. Re- comedy was to be paid for with torrents expanded and the bureaucracy under- sponsibility for the Rightʼs occupying a of blood. went tremendous growth. The public dominant position must be borne by the debt, standing at 3,000,000,000 pesetas in social democracy. And it is their fault if What the April Republic was to bring 1814, grew phenomenally with the colo- the revolution has not been able to es- forth was catastrophe. Son of Ferrerʼs nial losses and the Moroccan disaster- ex- cape foreign intervention. In April 1931 murderer, author of 108 deaths, the min- periencing a slight deflation at the time of the Italian fascists had not extricated ister who gave the order to fire “at will” Villaverde-reaching the astronomical sum themselves from the thorn of Adona and turned our countryside into a network of of 22,000,000,000 in the time of the April the Hitlerites not yet managed to erect a funeral crosses. Republic. nationalistic, totalitarian state. Circum- Seeing their hopes violently crushed, the April 14 brought protection to the rentier stances were favourable. But treachery by working masses turned angrily against the and oppression to the consumer. The tax the socialists and reformism from Pestana April fiasco. Miguel Maura mobilised the on rent was quite merciless. The policy and his acolytes prevented the moment of armed forces of his brand-new Republic being applied was plainly a bourgeois truth, (which was later to cost even more to crush and destroy the workers. Pasajes one, even if the Socialists were in power. dearly), from arriving. Arnedo, Castilblanco, Seville, Catalonia . Monopolies remained the order of the Out of this ill-assorted hotchpotch of situ- . . all describe the true nature of the Re- day, with the smuggler, March, evading ations surged October. public that exiles the monarch but with his jail as and when he pleased. monies intact, and conveys him in a ship The overture to July was born in the Astu- rias. There the struggle was pursued with was in control of the situation. The Cortes something. The talk was persistently of courage and ferocity. Inside Catalonia, was dissolved. Franco, Goded, Cabanel- army mutiny. Dencas set himself the task of alienating las, Queipa de Llano, Mola-these were There was no doubt. The proletariat was the working class from that revolt, which Zamoraʼs puppets. He chose a financier- setting out along the road to July. The could have been crucial. bandit, one Portela Valladares, to carry his government took a back seat. Faced with All the Socialists wanted to do in October plan into effect. a choice between fascism and the prole- was to prevent Alcala Zamora from hand- The resources of the State failed the tariat, they opted for the former. To cover ing over to the Right -in the same way as Galician cacique. In spite of electoral his tracks, Number One traitor, Casares they had frightened him before with their malpractice and the ministryʼs list of ap- Quiroga would threaten the Rightists from strikes. Had they desired revolution they proved candidates, the results of the Feb- the government benches, inciting them to would have exploited the peasant revolt of ruary elections failed to set the Holy Seeʼs take to the streets. June 1934 or even timed it to co-ordinate mind at rest. Calvo Soteloʼs murderer brought things city with countryside. But the socialists Finding his plans frustrated, Alcala to a head. When rumour had it that the were swept aside by the working class. Zamora urged Portela to proclaim a state army would be invading the streets at any The Lerroux-Gil Robles government last- of emergency. Portela did not dare. He moment the rumours seemed probably ed two years; two black years of repres- realised that the people of Spain were on true. But did those in government take sion and imprisonment culminating in the the streets and recommended that Azana any preventive measures? Franco was in “free the prisoners” elections (elecciones be sent for. He was right. The politician command in the Canaries, Goded in the pro-presos) which bore fruit in the events from the red biennium was to be a tempo- Balearics, Mola in Navarre . . . Why was of July. rary sedative. That was precisely what the the whole bunch not dismissed? The fas- July 19th reactionaries were after at that point. . . a cists could also rely on powerful allies in breathing space during which to put the government circles! The tragedy of Spain knows no end. The final touches to preparations for the revolt most vivid pens fail to describe the trag- On July 17th, that nemesis we had been by the generals who frequented the Plaza warding off for some time unmasked it- edy of a people whose bodies and minds de Oriente. are scarred by past and present horrors. self. In the Balearics, in Morocco, in the The successful elections of February Canaries, the officers were in open re- Our writers cannot accurately reflect the failed to open the eyes of the Socialists. volt. calvary of a race that appears to have been The monster rallies to protest against the born to suffer. What was done to bring the rebellion to numbers imprisoned, the enthusiasm for an abrupt halt? What did the government In February, 1936, the sad picture of this the release of the prisoners taken during of that scum, Casares Quiroga do? Shut it- Spanish scene was at its blackest. On that the great drama of October . . . all this sug- self up in complete inertia. Concealed the date Spain was one vast detention camp. gested nothing new to them. They stuck gravity of the situation from the people. Thousands of workers were behind bars. to their old ways. A new Cortes. A fresh Imposed a rigorous censorship. Refused election for the presidency of the Repub- We stand on the eve of July. We must call weapons to the proletariat. lic. They kept Alcala Zamoraʼs plans and to mind the events that paved the way for his scheme for handing control over to the There was still time, between July 17th the army rebellion. military and not to the people. and July 19th, to compel the militarists The policies of the black biennium were to capitulate. But a highly suspect, sui- But the proletariat had learned the harsh bankrupt. Gil Robles had not slaked the cidal attitude prevailed. Casares Quiroga lesson of the two biennia, they had lived appetites of his followers. A conflict had is Molaʼs accomplice. He kept him on in through. They dashed headlong into the arisen between Alcala Zamora and the Pamplona, even after he had proclaimed streets. Firebrands set religious centres Chief of Popular Action. The Jesuits were himself openly in revolt against the results ablaze. The clamour from the imprisoned supporting the president of the Republic. of the February elections, and regardless defied their walls. City and country were He was their new hope: not for nothing of the protection he was extending to all equally aroused. had he raised the banner for constitutional the conspirators on the Right. reform and religion. How long the Cortes The ignorance of the social democrats The treachery by the Left is obvious. No would last was uncertain. The Radicals postponed the outburst by the people. For- arms were given to the people, because had broken away from the Rightist bloc, tunately, after five months, the Rightistsʼ the bourgeois democrats were afraid of feeling quite estranged from the heart of lack of sophistication and their failure to the proletariat. In Zaragoza the attitude of the nation. Stormy sittings matched a pol- appreciate the truly counter-revolutionary governor Vera Coronel, who prevaricated icy that was base, repugnant and criminal roles of Azana and Prieto, brought the is- with the workersʼ representatives in ne- in its crudity. sue on to the streets. gotiations, helped the fascists to victory. The proletariat was beginning to make There was sporadic violence from Febru- And in Valencia, when all of Spain was itself felt in a more befitting manner. ary to July. Yet again workersʼ blood was already plunged into fighting, the rebels Monster rallies held in the Stadium in spilled. The strike by the building unions were allowed to remain in their barracks. Madrid, in Barcelona and in Valencia in Madrid-and a clash in Malaga exposed At this historic, blood-soaked hour, it is commanded huge crowds. That these ex- the cretinism of the February politicians. not with mealy mouths that we charge hibitions of determination and the spirit of Boldly the Right mobilised for an attack those Republican politicians who acted revolt served to renew the credibility of on the situation emerging from the emo- openly in favour of fascism out of their an old reactionary figure such as Azana is tion-filled elections. Fascists killed the fear of the working class. We accuse something to be regretted. It was an error cowardʼs way, arousing hatred by their Azana, Casares, Quiroga, Companys, and which would have to be paid for later on surprise attacks. There was a vague feel- the Socialists, all the farceurs from the with interest. Alcala Zamora thought he ing that the black Spain was planning Republic which, built on a one act sketch in April, has laid waste the homes of the conceived. If this treachery was never im- April-brought about have been shattered. working class. And this is happening be- plemented, it was only for lack of time. After February the only type of revolu- cause of the failure to make the revolution The politicians, beginning with Azana tion possible in Spain was social revolu- at the correct time. must pay for this vile manoeuvre with tion- such as that which blazed with such The people had to go and look for weap- their heads. This initially pessimistic out- splendour in July. ons. They took them by right of conquest. look and the suggestion of surrender cir- April was decisive. It was enough to Gained them by their own exertions. They culating in official circles, were cancelled prevent our falling into the same error. were given nothing; not by the Govern- out by the ferocity of the proletariat. Giral By which we do not mean only the re- ment of the Republic, not by the Gener- replaced Martinez Barrio. pression of which we were the targets. alitat-not one rifle ! We have presented an anecdotal outline We shall confine ourselves solely to the On July 19, as on other great occasions of how events developed. But it behoves nonsensical argument put forward by the before the proletariat took up its positions us to dwell a little longer on July and marxists. in the streets. For some days it had been to examine what sort of revolution was How do we account for the fact that in keeping a close vigil on the streets of eve- achieved in those days of glory. the July revolution we saw a repetition ry settlement in Spain. In the capital city There has been a lot of theorising about of the errors we have criticised hundreds of Catalonia, memories of glorious past July. The bourgeois democrats and marx- and hundreds of times? How come we did struggles were being conjured up. ists insist that the popular explosion in not hold out for social revolution in July? The first weapons were seized by workers July must be classifled as a legitimate act How come workersʼ organisations failed from some supply ships Iying at anchor of self-defence by a proletariat which saw to assume maximum control of the coun- in the port of Barcelona, the “Manuel Ar- itself under attack from its worst enemy. try? nus” and the “Marques de Comillas.” Taking this as their basic thesis, the argu- The vast majority of the working popula- ment then is that July cannot be deemed As dawn broke on luly 19, the militarists tion stood by the CNT. Inside Catalonia, a typically revolutionary, class phenom- the CNT was the majority organisation. surged on to the streets facing an attack enon. from the Catalan people, who stormed What happened, that the CNT did not barracks and fought on until the last fas- This thesis from our opponents is a fal- makes its revolution, the peopleʼs revolu- cist redoubt had been taken. lacy. Revolutions do break out unfore- tion, the revolution of the majority of the seen, but they are always preceded by a population? The Catalan proletariat saved the prole- long period of gestation. April opened tariat of Spain from fascism. Proletarian What happened was what had to happen. one era, closed another. And right in the The CNT was utterly devoid of revolu- Catalonia became a beacon shedding its foreground of the April era, and still there light over all of Spain. No matter that the tionary theory. We did not have a concrete today the working class continues to oc- programme. We had no idea where we agrarian regions of Spain are in fascist cupy the advance positions of the revolu- hands we, the workers of the industrial were going. We had lyricism aplenty; but tion. Had it not surged head long on to the when all is said and done, we did not know zones, will redeem our comrades from the streets in July, the proletariat would have captivity which has befallen them. what to do with our masses of workers or done so at some other point, but it would how to give substance to the popular ef- In Madrid, the pattern was the same. No not have desisted from its noble undertak- fusion which erupted inside our organi- arms were distributed there, either. They ing-to free itself of the bourgeois yoke. sations. By not knowing what to do, we were won in the streets. The proletariat From the petit bourgeoisie comes an al- handed the revolution on a platter to the fought and stormed the Montana bar- legation that we were-all of us, all shades bourgeoisie and the marxists who support racks, overwhelming the soldiery. And of opinion-out in the streets. But we must the farce of yesteryear. What is worse, then, with shotguns and whatever else remind them that, but for the CNT and the we allowed the bourgeoisie a breathing they could get their hands on, the work- FAI rushing to where danger was greatest, space; to return, to re-form and to behave ers set out for the Sierra de Guadarrama there would have been a repeat perform- as would a conqueror. to cut of the advance of General Mola. ance of the comic opera in Barcelona in The CNT did not know how to live up to With the Navarre brigades behind him, he October. was preparing to conquer the capital city its role. It did not want to push ahead with of Castille. In Catalonia, the organised workers in the the revolution with all its consequences. CNT predominate. If there are any who They were frightened by the foreign fleets, Fascism was routed in the North, in deny that, it is through ignorance or an at- claiming that Barcelona would come un- Levante and in a number of places in tempt to ignore the history of the CNT on der fire from ships of the English fleet. Aragon, Andalusia and Extremadura. But Catalan soil. elsewhere in the peninsula the workers Has any revolution ever been made with- were disarmed and had to contend with The July revolution drew its impetus from out having to overcome countless difficul- leftist governors who eased the way for the workers and, as such, was a class rev- ties? Is there any revolution in the world, the Spanish fascists. olution. On the streets and at a theoretical of the advanced type, that has been able to level, all the petit bourgeoisie did was to avert foreign intervention? Casares Quiroga made way for a govern- act as an after thought, nothing more. ment under Martinez Barrio. This politi- Using fear as a springboard and letting cian, who torpedoed the April Constituent But there are other equally important con- oneself be swayed by timidity, one never Cortes, was coming into power in order to siderations, perhaps more so. The memo- succeeds. Only the bold, the resolute, men reach an understanding with the fascists ry of the political conditions which capi- of courage may attain great victories. The and hand power over to them. Swift reflex talism caused in the XVllth XVlllth and timid have no right to lead the masses. action by the working class aborted one of XlXth centuries has grown vague. What When an organisationʼs whole existence the most infamous acts of treachery ever is more petit bourgeois democratic illu- has been spent preaching revolution it has sions on what earlier bids-like 1873, or an obligation to act whenever a favour- May 3 has an interest in control of Public Order able set of circumstances arises. And in It has been inside the barracks of Catalo- passing under the supervision of the Va- July the occasion did present itself. The nia that counter-revolution has made its lencia Government. They succeeded in CNT ought to have leapt into the driverʼs greatest efforts to crush the essentials of that, thanks to Largo Caballero. It is worth seat in the country, delivering a severe the July revolution. noting that at this time the CNT had four coup de grace to all that is outmoded and ministers in the cabinet. The economic structure of Catalonia al- archaic. In this way we would have won It has also been pointed out that the petit the war and saved the revolution. lowed for great masses of workers, edu- cated to class consciousness in the at- bourgeoisie had hatched a scheme provid- But it did the opposite. It collaborated mosphere of factory and workshop, to be ing for foreign intervention on the pretext with the bourgeoisie in the affairs of state, concentrated. This peculiar feature of the of disorder breaking out. That foreign precisely when the State was crumbling centres of manufacture is extremely fa- flotilla would sail for Barcelona was a away on all sides. It bolstered up Com- vourable to the attainment of the end of the certainty. And there has been talk of mo- panys and company. It breathed a lungful revolution. In July, Cataloniaʼs working torised divisions of the French army on of oxygen into an anaemic, terror-stricken people placed social life on a fresh basis. the verge of intervening in frontier posts. bourgeoisie. There was a resurgence by an indomitable To which we might add the conspiratorial One of the most direct reasons why the proletariat with the critical equipment of work of politicians meeting in the French revolution has been asphyxiated and the long years of struggle within the ranks of capital. CNT displaced, is that it behaved like a the confederation. Social revolution could The atmosphere had become very tense. minority group, even though it had a ma- have been a fact in Catalonia. Further CNT membership cards were being torn jority in the streets. more, this revolutionary proletariat could up. CNT and FAI militants were being With this minority outlook the CNT has have served as a counter-weight to a bu- disarmed. There were continuous clashes not been able to make its plans prevail; it reaucratic, reformist Madrid and the influ- which only by the merest chance did not has found itself continually sabotaged and ence of the Catholic Basque country. turn out to have more serious consequenc- trapped in the web of a confused, deceit- But the events took a different turn. The es. The provocations that we workers had ful policy. Inside the Generalitat, as well revolution was not made in Catalonia. Re- to put up with were manifold. The threats as the Town Council, we had fewer votes alising that once again the proletariat was from the desk-ocracy came out into the than other groups, even though we had saddled with a leadership of quibblers, open, naked and unashamed. far more members. And, whatʼs more, we the petit bourgeoisie, which had gone into The death of a socialist militant-Roldan- were the ones who conquered the streets. hiding in its backrooms in July, hastened was exploited as the pretext for a monster Why have we given them up so crassly? to join battle. display of strength in which all the coun- On the other hand, we would assert that The shocking feature of when we speak ter-revolutionary crew took part. revolutions are totalitarian, no matter who of the middle class is that we have to refer Everything that went wrong was blamed says otherwise. What happens is that the to marxists, who have been inundated by on the CNT. Anarchists were blamed for various aspects of revolution are progres- shppkeepers and the Lligaʼs 120,000 vot- every misfortune. Food shortages were sively dealt with, but with the proviso that ers. laid at the door of the supply committees. the class which represents the new order In Catalonia, socialism has been a pitiful The explosion came on the 3rd May. With of things is the one with most responsibil- creature. Its ranks have been swelled by the cognizance of Ayguade, Rodriguez ity. And when things are done by halves, members opposed to revolution. It has Salas, Commissar for Public Order, head- we have what presently concerns us, the captained the counter-revolution. It has ed a unit of Assault Guards and burst into disaster of July. spawned a UGT which has been turned the Telephone Exchange. They tried to In July a Committee of Antifascist Militias into an appendage of the GEPCI. Marxist disarm the CNT comrades, even though was set up. It was not a class organ. Bour- leaders have sung the praises of counter- the Exchange was under joint control of geois and counter-revolutionary factions revolution. They have sculpted slogans the CNT and UGT. had their representatives on it. It looked about the issue of a united front whilst This move by Rodriguez Salas-who be- as if this Committee had been set up as first eliminating the POUM, then trying to longs to the PSUC-was a call to arms. a counter-balance to the Generalitat. But repeat the operation with the CNT. Within a few hours barricades had gone it was all sham. Control patrols were or- The manoeuvres of the petite bourgeoisie, up in all the streets in Barcelona city. The ganised. They were men of the barricades, in alliance with the socialists and commu- crackle of rifle-fire and the rattle of ma- men of the streets. Factories, work shops nists, culminated in the events of May. chine guns could be heard and the air was and businesses were taken over and the There have been conflicting versions of filled with the sounds of cannon salvoes latifundists tackled. Defence committees and the reports of bombs. and supply committees were established just what happened in May. But the truth in each locality and municipality. of the matter is that the counter-revolution At the end of a few hours, the tide had wanted the working class on the streets in turned in the favour of the proletarians Sixteen months have rolled past. What re- a disorganised manner so that they might enrolled in the CNT who as they had in mains? Of the spirit of July, only a memo- be crushed. They partially attained their July, defended their rights with guns in ry. Of the organisms of July, a yesterday. objectives, thanks to the stupidity of some hand. We took the streets. They were But the machinery of politics and the petit leaders who gave the ceasefire order and ours. There was no power on earth that bourgeoisie lingers on, intact. The under- dubbed the ʻFriends of Durrutiʼ agents could have wrested them from us. Work- growth of some sectors, maintained solely provocateurs just when the streets had ing class areas fell to us quickly. Then the by the backs of the workers, lingers on in been won and the enemy eliminated. enemyʼs territory was eaten away, little by the Plaza de la Republica in the Catalan Self evidently, the counter-revolution little, to a redoubt in a section of the resi- capital. dential area- the city centre-which would have fallen soon, but for the defection of than half a year has elapsed now and the Spainʼs independence has always been a the CNT comittees. Government has yet to clear up the so- fiction. The Foreign Office and the Quai Realising the indecision that showed itself called mystery surrounding Ninʼs murder. dʼOrsay have played a most important in the fighting, and the lack of leadership Shall we one day know who killed him? role in our decisions. Remember the par- and organisation evident in the street, our After May, the counter-revolution felt doning of Sanjurjo after his rebellion in Grouping issued a leaflet followed by a stronger than ever. Foreign powers lent August 1932, granted only after pressure manifesto. assistance to this reaction by the desk-oc- from the French government? They labelled us agents provocateurs be- racy. Within a few days the Negrin Gov- The Spanish economy, a pre-eminently cause we demanded that provocateurs be ernment had been formed, with two ends agrarian one, has kept us tied to the apron shot, that the armed forces be disbanded, behind its establishment; the annihilation strings of the big industrial powers. In or- that political parties who had armed the of the revolutionary section of the pro- der to export our produce we have been provocation be suppressed, and also that letariat and preparation for an abrazo de obliged to buy machinery we could have a revolutionary Junta be established, Vergara. Meanwhile in Catalonia a gov- made at home. And in return for London to press on with the socialisation of the ernment composed of secretaries from the taking our oranges, we are urged to buy economy and to claim all economic pow- political parties and union organisations English coal, with the inevitable result er for the unions. was set up, until Luis Companys ousted that the working day in our coal mines is the CNT representatives from the Gener- reduced because of the slump in produc- Our analysis, as set out in those moments alitat. tion at home. of tension in both leaflet and manifesto, insisted that the barricades should not What took place in May was quite differ- We export iron, copper and other miner- be abandoned unconditioally, since that ent from what happened in July. In May als in order to buy the finished machinery, would be the first time in history when a the proletariat fought with what was self- built by the very country that bought its victorious army had yielded ground to the evidently a class spirit. There could be no raw materials from us. enemy. doubt that the working class wanted to Our sub-soil is extremely rich, but foreign radicalise the revolution. Guarantees were needed that we would capital owns it. Our country is gripped not be persecuted. But the chieftains of However much the reactionary press by the tentacles of international finance the CNT gave assurances that the organi- may try to obscure the nature of May, it which devours the peopleʼs wealth. Span- sationʼs representatives in the Generali- will go down in history as a sudden and ish workers have always sweated in order tat would look out for the working class. well-timed blow aimed by the proletariat. to satisfy the dividends and substantial Nonetheless, the second part of what had Feeling that the revolution was threatened profits of foreign stock-holders and fin- come to pass hours earlier in Valencia they came on to the streets to save and re- anciers. emerged. vitalise it. From the dawn of our history, a spirit of The barricades were abandoned with- In May we were in time to save the revo- independence has been evident in Span- out our having good reason to do so. As lution. Many perhaps regret having heed- iards. Invasions have been numerous, but the Catalan scene was returning to calm, ed the call for a ceaseflre in those historic they never managed to extinguish the sa- the excesses perpetrated by the marxists moments. And are pained at the sight of cred flame of independence. and the public forces came to light. We jails crammed with workers. When we come to the current invasion, it had been right. Comrade Berneri was The Friends of Durruti Group did its duty. is clearly of a nature that contrasts with snatched from his home and shot to death We were the only ones equal to the chal- the earlier ones in that in the case of the in the middle of the street: thirty com- lenge of the circumstances. We could Iberians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Ro- rades were discovered, horribly mutilated foresee the outcome. mans, Arabs or French, there was no so- in Sardanola; Comrade Martinez of the May can never be forgotten. It was the cial dimension. Libertarian Youth lost his life in a manner loudest knock the working class has de- During the Napoleonic invasion, liberals unknown, in the private dungeons of the livered on the portals of the bourgeoi- and absolutists stood shoulder to shoulder Cheka, and a large number of comrades sie. Whenever they come to speak of the in the fray. El Empecinado found Father from the CNT and FAI were brutally mur- events in May, historians will have to Merino at his side, though only through dered. pay homage to the Catalan proletariat, force of circumstance. We must remember that Professor Berneri who laid down the yard stick for the new During the expedition of the Duke of was a learned Italian comrade from that era, which must be one hundred per cent Angouleme, authorised by the Holy Alli- anti-fascist Italy filling the deportation proleatarian.ʼ ance from Vienna, opinion in the Peninsu- islands, the cemeteries and the concentra- Spainʼs Independence la was noticeably divided. Father Merino tion camps. Like his anti-fascist comrades, sided with the invaders. El Empecinado, he could not stay in Mussoliniʼs Italy. Intervention by foreign powers in the Spanish scene has brought into focus the for his part, resisted the entry of the for- The murders were followed by a wave eternal dilemma in which our country has eign forces. of intense repression. Comrades were ar- always found itself. What is happenimg today is a re-enact- rested in connection with the events in Since the XVIth century Spainʼs politi- ment of what happened in the reign of July and May: there were attacks on un- Ferdinand Vll. Once again in Vienna there ions, collectives and offices of the Friends cal life has been a lien of foreign powers. Two dynasties - one Austrian the other has been a conference of fascist dictators of Durruti, the Libertarian Youth and the for the purpose of organising their inva- POUM. Bourbon, not to mention the short reign of Amadeo of Savoy - kept the people of sion of Spain. And the workers in arms One event we cannot pass over. The disap- Spain in subjection up to April 14, 1931. have taken up the mantle of El Empeci- pearance and death of Andres Nin. More nado. Germany and Italy need raw materials. thor of the massacres in India. relegate the unions to a secondary posi- They need iron, copper, lead and mercury. There can be only one question for us; tion, it follows naturally that the interests But these Spanish mineral deposits are will France be ready to place in the bal- of the proletariat will be prejudiced. the preserve of France and England. Yet ance not only her maritime, but also her Collaborationism is to be deplored at all even though Spain faces subjection, Eng- territorial security? Will France keep to times. There must be no collaboration land does not protest. On the contrary-in the non-intervention policy hammered with capitalism whether outside the bour- a vile manoeuvre, she tries to negotiate out by Leon Blum? Is she prepared to re- geois state or from within the government with Franco. nounce her colonial army? itself. As producers our place is in the Since the war began, she has helped Let us trust no-one. Salvation lies in our unions, reinforcing the only bodies that blockade ports held by us. Fascist ship- own hands. Foreign powers incline to the ought to survive a revolution headed by ping unload war materials at fascist-con- lesser evil, to the cabal. And the working the workers. trolled ports . . . and take on ore, livestock class will find a way to prevent Spain be- Class struggle is no obstacle to workers oil.... International fascism needs food for ing made subject to an intemational ar- continuing at present to fight on in the its machine. Hitlerʼs slogan - more guns, rangement, like Tangiers, Danzig or the battlefields and working in the war in- less butlers - and Mussoliniʼs autarchy Saar. dustries. But it is imperative to keep it in lead them to sack the agricultural regions mind that we proceed to each new initia- under the iron rule of the rebel generals. Victory or death, comrades. That is the choice at the present moment. tive with a class sense, giving the unions In economic matters, we have always the priority that is their due. Collaboration and class struggle been dependent on other countries. Com- There must be no other economic body mercial treaties and the balance of pay- In Spain, as has generally been the case in outside the unions to restrict their powers. ments have never operated in our favour. every country, the workersʼ movement has And the State cannot be retained in the This trend has been a nightmare for our shown two tendencies. One, the collabo- face of the unions-let alone bolstered up economy. rationist one, and the other that admits no by our own forces. The fight against capi- Spainʼs problem is a colonial one. Capi- truck whatsoever with the enemy. talism goes on. Inside our own territory talism, having extinguished feudalism In this country of ours, it has been social- there is still a bourgeoisie connected with in its own territory, finds itself in the in- ism with its trade-union offshoot, the UGT the international bourgeosie. The problem congruous position of having to bolster that has played the classic role of reform- is now what it has been for years. feudal regimes in the countries it seeks ists. It is a refuge for renegade workers, Let us keep the unions true to themselves. to exploit. This goes for Spain as it does even of infiltrators into workersʼ organi- Let us keep to the line mapped out by the likewise for China. sations whose sole purpose is to yoke the CNT in its particular confrontation with It is up to the working dass to ensure proletariat to the cart of the bourgeoisie. our native bourgeoisie, as was always the Spainʼs independence. Native capitalism The statements made by Indalecio Prieta norm up to 19 July. will not do it, since international capital during the Red biennium, on the occasion Collaborationists are allies of the bour- crosses all frontiers. This is Spainʼs cur- of the railwaymensʼ strike, encapsulate geoisie. Individuals who advocate such rent predicament. It is up to us workers to the essence of collaborationism. They are relations have no feeling for the class root out the foreign capitalists. Patriotism notorious; struggle, nor have they the slightest re- does not enter into it. It is a matter of class “I am a minister first, and then a socialist” gard for the unions. interests. don Inda stated then. Never must we accept the consolidation As the international intrigues go on, it is The Spanish revolution has suffered be- of our enemyʼs positions. safe to assume that England will man- cause of the reformistsʼ pernicious influ- age to settle the Spanish question on the The enemy must be restricted. If ever ence on its direction. There has been no basis of an ignominious status quo. Will faced with a hiatus we must never allow willingness to interpret the social, class she make economic concessions to Ger- that social deviation to develop into a po- meaning of the July happenings. many and Italy? Will partial rights to our sition of open assistance to capital. sub-soil resources be hived off to foreign The class struggle that the CNT has al- There can be absolutely no common powers? Will Spain be partitioned? ways preached has been relegated to a sec- ground between exploiters and exploited. ondary position by a series of issues that England is interested in our mineral Which shall prevail, only battle can de- have proved enormously prejudicial to wealth. Such is the colossal pressure of a cide. Bourgeoisie or workers. Certainly the course of the revolutions. Noting this fascism spread throughout the world and not both of them at once. relegation we must not only deplore this party to the famous Anti-Comintem Pact, disfiguration of the revolution, but also in The working class holds the future in its that, at best, perfidious Albion will yield; organic terms the ground lost through the hands. We pariahs have nothing to lose always provided that there is no threat to failure to keep strictly to line of revolu- and, on the contrary, we can win our the free passage of her shipping through tion on a class terrain and through having emancipation which is the destiny of the the Mare Nostrum. trampled Revolutionary Syndicalism into family of workers. It is hard to guess what will happen. We the groumd. Let us break the shackles. Let us strength- must put no trust in the League of Nations, The unions are the organs that genuinely en our unions. Let us keep the spirit of nor in the host of committees and sub- articulate the workersʼ class feeling in class struggle alive. committees, nor in Conferences whose their eternal battle with capitalism. If we only purpose, like the Nyon Conference, is to waste time on the matter. But it is worth noting that the English Conserva- tives have recalled Lord Halifax, the au- The ideas put forward to win the revolution and the war bution of goods. That workers should go hungry while hoarders find food in res- taurants controlled by the working class Our position is intolerable. Distribution must be socialised and ac- It is time to be specific. We shall be so, the ministries. For as long as the war lasts, companied by rationing. with respect to each of the problems collaboration is permissible - on the bat- posed by the present situation. tlefield, in the trenches, on the parapets Bureaucracy must go. The thousands of and in productive labour in the rearguard. bureaucrats who have descended on Bar- With regard to the problem of the war, celona are one of the worst plagues ever we back the idea of the army being under Our place is in the unions, in the work visited on us. In place of a bureaucrat, the absolute control of the working class. place, keeping alive that spirit of rebellion there ought to be a worker. And by bu- Officers with their origins in the capital- which will bloom on the earliest occasion reaucrat we mean any cafe layabout. ist regime do not deserve the slightest that presents itself. trust from us. Desertions have been nu- ************************* We must have no part of combinations merous and most of the disasters we have Absolute suppression of the bureaucracy. encountered can be laid down to obvious devised by bourgeois politicians acting in betrayals by officers. As to the army, we concert with foreign chancellories. That ************************* want a revolutionary one led exclusively would be tantamount to strengthening our by workers, and, should any officer be enemies and tightening the noose of capi- Fabulous rates of pay must go immediate- retained, it must be under the strictest su- talism. No more portfolios. No more min- ly. It is scandalous that where militiamen pervision. istries. Letʼs get back to the unions and are earning ten pesetas a day, the bureau- the nitty-gritty of work tools. crats are taking home such huge wages. We insist that the war be directed by the Azana and Companys are still drawing workers. We have grounds aplenty for ******************** the same salary as before. this. The defeats at Toledo, Talavera, Let us campaign for unity among the pro- the loss of the North and Malaga point We want to see the introduction of the letariat. But on the understanding that this to incompetence and lack of integrity in family wage. And an end, once and for unity must be between workers, and not the government circles, for the following all, to this galling inequality. with bureaucrats or sinecurists. reasons: It must be the people who administer At present, an agreement with the revolu- The North of Spain could have been saved justice. We cannot countenance the false tionary wing of the UGT by the CNT is a if the war materials needed for resistance practice that has grown up in this regard. feasible prospect. But we do not believe to the enemy had been obtained. The There has been a drift away from the early that an understanding is possible with the means were there. The Bank of Spain had class tribunals to courts made up of career UGT of Catalonia, or with Prietoʼs fol- enough gold to flood Spanish soil with magistrates. And we are going back to the lowers. weaponry. Why was it not done? There way things used to be. Now they are do- was time. We must remember that the ************************ ing away with the juries. non-intervention controls did not begin Proletarian justice belongs to the workers to make their presence felt until the war Socialisation of the economy is crucial alone. in Spain was already some months old. to victory in the war and progress in the revolution. The present drift cannot con- ************************ Leadership in the conduct of the war tinue. Nor should anyone believe there is has been disastrous. Largo Caballeroʼs any advantage in the various centres of There must be progress towards socialisa- record is lamentable. That the Aragon production operating to no co-ordinated tion of the farming industry in Spain. The Front has not been given the arms its pattem. sabotaging of the collectives has harmed so needs is his fault. His reluctance to agriculture enormously and has favoured arm the Aragonese sector has prevented But it has to be the workers who see that speculation. Contact between town and Aragon from assuring her own redemp- this is done. countryside will bring the peasants closer tion from the clutches of the fascists. At *********************** to the proletarian class. And the mentality the same time this could have taken the of the farm worker used to tilling his own pressure off the fronts around Madrid and Nor should the business about religion particular plot will be changed. the North. And it was Largo Caballero come up for further discussion. The people who expressed the sentiment that sending have already delivered its final verdict on *********************** arms to the Aragon Front was like hand- that issue. Nonetheless, a tendency aimed ing them over to the CNT. Like any other activity in the country that at re-opening the churches, has emerged. falls under the headings social, cultural or Implementation of the law of freedom of *************** economic, cultural problems are the in- worship and celebration of masses lead disputable province of the workers. It was We are opposed to collaboration with us to the conclusion that those in Govern- they who set the pattern of this new era. bourgeois groups. We do not believe that ment have forgotten the days of the great the class approach can be abandoned. burnings. ************************

Revolutionary workers must not shoulder *************************** Revolutionary order will be enforced by official posts, nor establish themselves in the workers. We insist that the uniformed There must be strict rationing in the distri- corps, which are no guarantee of revolu- the lesson of experience is enough to in- proletariat looks forward to, the charter of tion, be dissolved. The unions must sup- duce us to stop pussy-footing. freedoms that went under at Villalar shall ply the men whose task it is to guard the rise again. And the so-called Catalan and new order we wish to implant. Unless we want a repetition of what is Basque problems . . . will be resolved. happening with the present revolution, ********************** we must proceed with the utmost energy The Municipality shall take charge of against those who are not identified with those functions of society that fall out- As to foreign policy, we shall accept no the working class. side the preserve of the unions. And since armistice; and, when it comes to propa- the society we are going to build shall be gandising our revolution, we are of the After this brief preamble, we shall now composed exclusively of producers, it will view that that work must be done among proceed to set out the items of our pro- be the unions, no less, that will provide the production centres abroad; not in any gramme. sustenance for the municipalities. And, as chancellories, let alone any cabals. I-Establishment of a Revolutionary there is no disparity of interests, there can be no conflict. We must speak to the workers abroad Junta or National Defence Council. in the language of revolution. So far the The Municipalities will be organised at This body will be organised as follows: vocabulary of democracy has been em- the level of local, comarcal and peninsula members of the revolutionary Junta will ployed. It has to be brought home to the federations. Unions and municipalities be elected by democratic vote in the union workersʼ organisations, to everyone, that will maintain liaison at local, comarcal organisations. Account is to be taken of they must act: to sabotage fascist produc- and national levels. tion: to refuse to load raw materials or war the number of comrades away at the front; materials for the assassins of the Spanish these comrades must have the right to rep- Towards a fresh revolution people. And that they must demonstrate resentation. The Junta will steer clear of in the streets, to demand fair treatment economic affairs, which are the exclusive The demise of the July revolution has by their governments for the cause we preserve of the unions. been rapid. None of the revolutions gen- defend, which is the cause of the worldʼs erally regarded as the archetypes of social The functions of the revolutionary Junta proletariat. revolution experienced such a giddy de- are as follows: cline. Our programme a) The management of the war There can be no theorising about events Revolutions cannot succeed if they have following one another in stages, because b) The supervision of revolutionary no guiding lights, no immediate objec- revolution is not yet a fact. It is imperative order tives. That is what we find lacking in that the inexhaustive genius of proletarian the July revolution. Although it had the c) International affairs Spain be tapped once again. We must go strength, the CNT did not know how to out and make a new beginning. mould and shape the activity that arose d) Revolutionary propaganda. spontaneously in the street. The very Revolutions occur with great frequency Posts to come up regularly for re-alloca- leadership was startled by events which in our country. Sometimes they are em- tion so as to prevent anyone growing at- were, as far as they were concerned, to- barked upon with out the requisite condi- tached to them. And the trade union as- tally unexpected. tions being present and with no possibil- semblies will exercise control over the ity of success. One has to be able to divine They had no idea which course of action Juntaʼs activities. the precise moment, psychologically and to pursue. There was no theory. Year af- insurrectionally speaking. The outcome II - All economic power to the ter year we had spent speculating around hangs on the correct choice. syndicates. abstractions. What is to be done? The Making forecasts is no easy task. Who leaders were asking themselves then. And Since July the unions have supplied evi- can say when a new July or even a new they allowed the revolution to be lost. dence of the great capacity for construc- May may be possible? We may assume, tive labour. Had we not relegated them Such exalted moments leave no time for however, that in Spain the conditions will to a secondary position, they would have hesitancy. Rather, one must know where present themselves afresh. yielded a great return on the investment. one is headed. This is precisely the vacu- It will be the unions that structure the pro- um we seek to fill, since we feel that what If the war continues to take this unfavour- letarian economy. happened in July and May must never able turn all the politicians looking for a way to arrive at an armistice and a frater- happen again. An Economic Council may also be set up, nal embrace will have to be cast on to the taking into consideration the natures of We are introducing a slight variation in dung-heap. Good evidence of this is the the Industrial Unions and Industrial fed- anarchism into our programme. The es- sabotaging of the war, the war industries erations, to improve on the co-ordination tablishment of a revolutionary Junta. and the whole gamut of supplies, as well of economic activities. as the inflated prices of food - an infla- As we see it, the revolution needs organ- III - Free municipality. tion fomented by those in power with an isms to oversee it, and repress, in an or- eye to creating a favourable atmosphere ganised sense, hostile sectors. As current Prior to the coming of the foreign dynas- in which to execute their plans for stran- events have shown such sectors do not ac- ties, municipal rights were defended with gling the revolution. cept oblivion unless they are crushed. great tenacity in Spain. Such decentralisa- tion precluded the erection of a new State It may, perhaps, be that a negotiated set- There may be anarchist comrades who system. And in this new Spain which the tlement becomes a reality. Then the time feel certain ideological misgivings, but will have come to resist it by force of arms. And should we win the war those assume control of the country in a definite we shall join the comrades who are today problems that are posed in such poignant way. away fighting on the fronts, the comrades form today will be roused again on the in the jails and the comrades who, even return of our comrades from the fronts. They cannot say we are over-reacting. The now, cherish the hope of a revolution that What solutions will be found to them? present moment has nothing revolution- may bring justice to the working class; all ary about it. The counter-revolution feels in the streets together. How will the industry of war be converted quite bold enough to mount all sorts of into an industry of peace? Will there be provocations. The jails are crammed with To the success of a fresh revolution that work for the fighting men? Will all the workers. The rights of the proletariat are will bring the workers of town and coun- victims be looked after? Will the officer openly denied. We revolutionary workers try complete satisfaction. To the attain- class resign itself to the loss of its sine- are treated like underlings. The language ment of an anarchist society that will sat- cures? Can markets be won back again? of the bureaucrats, in uniform and out of isfy manʼs aspirations. uniform, is intolerable. Not to mention the The three dates we have described each attacks on the unions. Forward comrades!! correspond to different positions. We can- not say which will apply. The problem, A fresh revolution is the only course of however, hinges on the preparation of a action open. Let us set about its prepara- new rebellion so that the proletariat can tion. And at the height of a new stroke,

Some notes on the membership of the FoD 16. In Solidaridad Obrera of 28 May 1937, the Regional Committee of the The Friends of Durruti: Some of its members and/ CNT and the FAI and the local Barcelona Federation of unions said these organisa- or contributors to its paper, El Amigo del Pueblo. tions should proceed to expel members 1. Jaime Balius-a crippled journalist. A time before May 1937. Died in France in of the Friends of Durruti from their ranks former medical student of middle class February 1947. unless they publicly disowned the group. origins. Opposed the Primo de Rivera dic- Next day Solidaridad Obrera carried such tatorship and from then on was associated 7. Eleuterio Roig - one of the editors of a statement from Joaquin Aubi and Rosa with the CNT and FAI. Regular contribu ʻEl Amigo del Pueblo.ʼ Munoz, resigning from the group. tor to Solidaridad Obrera in 1935-1936. 8. Jaime Rodriguez. Balius is confident that the group had the Author of a pamphlet “Octubre catalan!”, backing of the CNT-FAI grassroots, and heavily advertised in Solidaridad Obrera 9. Juan Santana Calero - a libertarian the Friends of Durruti had groups in Sans, in 1935, dealing with the October ʻ34 youth leader from around Malaga, and a Torrasa, Gracia, Sabadell and Sallent, insurrection. Also wrote for the paper member of the Libertarian Youthʼs Cata- with sympathisers on the Aragon front. “Ideas” of the Bajo Llobregat comarca- lan Regional Committee with responsibil- a hard-line anarchist area. Secretary of ity for press, publicity and culture. The Friends of Durruti were especially the Friends of Durruti and director of its strong in the Food Syndicate. ʻEl Amigo paper. He was imprisoned in Barcelonaʼs 10. ʻFulmenʼ-who had a regular column del Puebloʼ No. 8 dated 21 September Model Prison and also held by the Politi- in the Friends of Durruti paper concen- 1937 carries a report of a police attack on cal Social Brigade under the Negrin gov- trating on analogies between the Spanish that unionʼs premises in the early hours ernment. and French revolutions. of 20 September 1937. Hundreds of Civil (Republican) Guards, with tanks, an artil- 11. ʻAtarca.ʼ 2. Pablo Ruiz-Fought at Durrutiʼs side in lery battery and machine guns descended the capture of the Atarazanas barracks in 12. Ada Marti. on.the local, arresting 23 people there. Barcelona in 1936. Prominent in the Dur- In ʻEl Amigo del Puebloʼ No. 2 (26 May ruti Column. Editor of “El Amigo del 13. Manuel Sanchez-from the mining 1937), the Friends of Durruti record cer- Pueblo.” town of Sallent whose death was recorded tain donations to their press fund. 1000 in ʻEl Amigo del Puebloʼ No. 2 dated 26 3. Domingo Paniagua-Editor of “El Ami- pesetas from the X group on the Aragon May 1937. go del Pueblo.” front, l000 pesetas from the comrades at Pina, 100 pesetas from Miguel Chueca 14. ʻArtemisaʼ-writer on El Amigo del 4. Juan Espanol. (of the council of Aragon) and 25 pese- Pueblo. tas from Gregorio Jover and 25 from the 5. ʻMingoʼ - Ponciano Alonso-a writer 15. Francisco Garcia - whose death was committee at Bellver de Cinca. of the “novelas de la ideal” so popular in reported in Solidaridad Obrera, 16 April CNT-FAI circles before 1936. [A Milita mans wages were 10 pesetas a 1937 as being “of especial interest to day at the time AF]. 6. Francisco Carreno - a close collaborator Friends of Durruti group.” of Durrutiʼs as a member of the Columnʼs War Committee. Visited Russia along with Martin Gudell in late 1936 bear- ing a message from Durruti to the Soviet workers -not their government. Attended a meeting by the Friends of Durruti in the www.anarkismo.net Poliorama Theatre in Barcelona, a short