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THE ANARCHIST COLLECTIVES Edited by Sa M Dolgoff THE ANARCHIST COLLECTIVES Edited by Sa m Dolgoff W o rk e rs ’ Self-management in t h e Sp a n ish Revolution 1936-1939 Introductory Essay by Murray ßookchin THE ANARCHIST COLLECTIVES: Workers’ Self-management in the Spanish Revolution (1936-1939) Copyright © 1974 by Sam Dolgoff Introductory Essay © 1974 by Murray Bookchin All rights reserved, Free Life Editions, Inc. First Edition Published 1974 by Free Life Editions, Inc. 41 Union Square West New York, N.Y. 10003 Canadian edition published by Black Rose Books by arrangement with Free Life Editions, Inc. Black Rose Books 3934 St. Urbain Montreal 1 31, Quebec Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-88239 ISBN: 0-914156-02-0 paperback ISBN: 0-914156-03-9 hardcover Manufactured in the United States of America Faculty Press, Inc. Brooklyn, N.Y. To the heroic workers and peasants o f Spain! To my comrades, the Spanish Anarchists, who perished fighting for freedom! To the militants who continue the struggle! Contents PREFACE by Sam Dolgoff—ix INTRODUCTORY ESSAY by Murray Bookchin-x/ PART ONE: BACKGROUND 1. THE SPA NISH RE VOL UTION 5 The Two Revolutions (S.D.)—5 The Trend Towards Workers’ Self-Management (S.D.)—14 2. THE LIBERTARIAN TRADITION 19 The Rural Collectivist Tradition (S.D.)—20 The Anarchist Influence (S.D.)— 23 The Political and Economic Organization of Society (Isaac Puente)— 28 3. HISTORICAL NOTES 35 The Prologue to Revolution (S.D.)—35 The Counter-Revolution and the Destruction of the Collectives (S.D.)—40 4. THE LIMITATIONS OF THE REVOLUTION (Gaston Leval) 49 PART TWO: THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 5. THE ECONOMICS OF RE VOL UTION 65 Economic Structure and Coordination (Augustin Souchy)-66 A Note on the Difficult Problems of Reconstruction (Diego Abad de Santillan)—69 Money and Exchange (S.D.)—70 6. WORKERS’ SELF-MANAGEMENT IN INDUSTRY (Augustin Souchy) 77 7. URBAN COLLECTIVIZATION 85 Collectivizations in Catalonia (Augustin Souchy)— 86 The Collectivization of the Metal and Munitions Industry (Augustin Souchy)—96 The Collectivization of the Optical I ndustry (Collectivizations)—99 The Socialization of Health Services (Gaston Leval)—99 Industrial Collectivization in Alcoy (Gaston Leval)—102 Control of Industries in the North (Jose Pierats)—107 8. THE REVOLUTION OF THE LAND (Jose Pierats) 7 7 7 9. THE COORDINATION OF COLLECTIVES 121 The Peasant Federation of Levant (Gaston Leval)—722 The Aragon Federation of Collectives: The First Congress (Jose Pierats)—726 70. THE RURA L COLLECTIVES 129 A Journey Through Aragon (Augustin Souchy)—130 The Collectivization in Graus (Gaston Leval and Alardo Prats)—135 Libertarian Communism in Alcora (H.E. Kaminski)—143 The Collective in Binefar (Gaston Leval)—146 Miralcampo and Azuqueca (Cahiers de L 'Humanisme Libertaire)— 150 Collectivization in Carcagente (Gaston Leval)—757 Collectivization in Magdalena de Pulpis (Gaston Leval)—755 The Collective in Mas de Las Matas (Gaston Leval)—760 7 7. A N EVALUATION OF THE ANARCHIST COLLECTIVES 165 The Characteristics of the Libertarian Collectives (Gaston Leval)—766 In Conclusion (S.D.)—770 BIBLIOGRAPHY 7 77 INDEX 183 Appendices appear on pages 1 1,29, 30, 71, and 81. Photographs and posters appear on pages 4, 15, 25, 34, 45, 64, 72, 97, 103, 104, 110, 117, 141, 142, 157, 158, 173, and 197. Preface The Spanish Social Revolution has been long neglected in English language works. Its importance as a revolutionary event and model, and as a concrete example of workers’ self-management by the people is just not recognized. My purpose in this collection is to provide an introduction to this unique experience. In my first chapter and friend Bookchin’s introductory essay, a general overview and context is presented. Most important, of course, is that this was a real experience for the people who took part. Through their words and deeds and the observations of the authors used in this collection, it is hoped that the reader will gain a meaningful understanding of the aims and organization of the anarchist collectives. The material has been divided into two main sections. The first provides essential background information: the nature of the Spanish Revolution, the collectivist tradition, the development of the libertarian labor movement in Spain, and the historical events leading up to and then culminating in the destruction of the collectives. The second, and main, section deals with the actual social revolution—the overall characteristics of agrarian collectivization and industrial socialization. It begins with a discussion about economic coordination, the place and nature of money in the collectives, and includes statistics on the number of collectives. It then deals with actual descriptions of life in the collectives, first under industrial socialization, and then in the rural collectives: how the new institutions were established, how they functioned, how production and distribution were handled; about coordination, exchange, relations between collectives, and between collectivized and non-collectivized areas. The book ends with a short evaluation of the anarchist collectives with some comments on their relevance and lessons. The glossary, bibliography and appendices add to the overall usefulness of this volume. The photographs reproduced within begin to correct the visual bias that has left a plethora of war scenes but very little reflecting the constructive aspects of the Spanish Social Revolution. Most of the pictures are from contemporary sources held by the editor. I would like to thank Victor Berch, Special Collections Librarian at Brandeis University for permission to use the pictures on pages 104, 141, and 142. The observers speaking in these selections visited the same regions and often the same collectives at different times within the short span of approximately two years. Since each observer stressed what seemed most important to him, their accounts supplement each other, thus providing a more balanced view of-The new way of life than any single observer could have done. Under these circumstances, though, some repetition is inevitable. The translations I have made are strict to the meaning, but are not literal, for I have also been concerned with giving the spirit of the words, and with reducing repetitions. Finally I would like to express my thanks to all the farsighted and brave people whose work I have used in putting together this collection. (A short biography on each is included in the bibliography.) Their efforts have immortalized a social experience of momentous importance. My obJect has been to present them to the English reader within a context that will be useful. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is with the deepest appreciation that I acknowledge the contributions to the present work of the following persons: My friend, Chuck Hamilton, for his tireless technical and editorial labors in turning a poorly typed manuscript into the finished book. To my friend, Dr. Paul Avrich, for reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions. To my comrade, Murray Bookchin, who first encouraged me to undertake this project. Last, but by no means least, my wife Esther who scrupulously examined the manuscript as it was being written and detected many errors. Introductory Essay by Murray Bookchin In the morning hours of July 18, 1936, General Francisco Franco issued the pronunciamiento from Las Palmas in Spanish North Africa that openly launched the struggle of Spain’s reactionary military officers against the legally elected Popular Front government in Madrid. The Franco pronunciamiento left little doubt that, in the event of victory by the Spanish generals, a parliamentary republic would be replaced by a clearly authoritarian state, modelled institutionally on similar regimes in Germany and Italy. The Francista forces or “ Nationalists,” as they were to call themselves, exhibited all the trappings and ideologies of the fascist movements of the day: the raised open-palm salute, the appeals to a “ folk-soil” philosophy of “ order, duty, and obedience,” the avowed commitments to smash the labor movement and end all political dissidence. To the world, the conflict initiated by the Spanish generals seemed like another of the classic struggles waged between the “ forces of fascism” and the “ forces of democracy” that had reached such acute proportions in the thirties. What distinguished the Spanish conflict from similar struggles in Italy, Germany, and Austria was the massive resistance the “ forces of democracy” seemed to oppose to the Spanish military. Franco and his military co-conspirators, despite the wide support they enjoyed among the officer cadres in the army, had grossly miscalculated the popular opposition they would encounter. The so-called “ Spanish Civil War” lasted nearly three years—from July 1936 to March 1939—and claimed an estimated million lives. XI xii / Introductory Essay For the first time, so it seemed to many of us in the thirties, an entire people with dazzling courage had arrested the terrifying success of fascist movements in central and southern Europe. Scarcely three years earlier, Hitler had pocketed Germany without a shred of resistance from the massive Marxist-dominated German labor movement. Austria, two years before, had succumbed to an essentially authoritarian state after a week of futile street-fighting by Socialist workers in Vienna. Everywhere fascism seemed “ on the march’’ and “ democracy” in retreat. But Spain had seriously resisted—and was to resist for years despite the armaments, aircraft, and troops which Franco acquired from Italy and Germany. To radicals and liberals alike, the “ Spanish Civil War” was being waged not only on the Iberian peninsula but in every country where “ democracy” seemed threatened by the rising tide of domestic and international fascist movements. The “ Spanish Civil War,” we were led to believe, was a struggle between a liberal republic that was valiantly and with popular support trying to defend a democratic parliamentary state against authoritarian generals—an imagery that is conveyed to this very day by most books on the subject and by that shabby cinematic documentary, To Die in Madrid.
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