Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Towards A Fresh Revolution by Amigos de Durruti Friends of Durruti. Audiobook version of the pamphlet Towards a Fresh Revolution, published by the during the . A revolutionary theory (with an introduction by Agustín Guillamón) An article published in July 1937 by The Friends of Durruti, large portions of which appeared in the pamphlet “The Revolutionary Message of the ‘Friends of Durruti’” (PDF) that was translated into English via French. Here it is translated in full directly from Spanish for the first time. Views and Comments No. 44 (April 1963) The No. 44 (April 1963) issue of Views and Comments , an anarcho-syndicalist leaning publication produced out of New York by the Libertarian League from 1955 until 1966. A look at the past: the revolutionary career of Joaquín Pérez – Miguel Amorós. A vivid biographical sketch of Joaquín Pérez (1907-2006), based on a manuscript he wrote during the last few years of his life, who joined the CNT at the age of sixteen in the early 1920s, and was, successively, a specialist in the CNT’s Defense Committees in Barcelona during the 1930s, a militiaman in the Durruti Column during the first months of the Civil War, one of the original members of The Friends of Durruti, a fugitive, a prisoner in Montjuich, and then, after escaping from Montjuich as Franco’s forces closed in on the citadel, an exile, first in labor camps in , and then, after stowing away on a British warship during the evacuation of Brest, in London. The revolutionary message of the Friends of Durruti. Georges Fontenis' analysis of the Friends of Durruti from a pamphlet translated by the Workers' Solidarity Movement. Theses on the Spanish Civil War and the revolutionary situation created on July 19, 1936 - BALANCE (Agustín Guillamón) A 2001 text summarizing the results of the research carried out by Agustín Guillamón for the Spanish journal, BALANCE , concerning the lessons of the Spanish Civil War in Catalonia, denying the existence of “” in Catalonia in 1936, discussing the struggles of the CNT rank and file against militarization and in favor of socialization, emphasizing the revolutionary potential of the ubiquitous committees and their neutralization and eventual destruction due to a lack of coordination and centralization, and claiming that the proletarian revolution requires the destruction of the capitalist state and the creation of a centralized workers power based on workers councils. Towards A Fresh Revolution by Amigos de Durruti. The Friends of Durruti were an anarchist affinity group founded in . Its members were militians with the Durruti Column opposed to militarization and/or anarchists critical of the CNT's entry into the Republican government and the Generalidad government. The historical and political importance of the Friends of Durruti Group lies in its attempt, emanating from within the ranks of the libertarian movement itself (in 1937) to constitute a revolutionary vanguard that would put paid to departures from revolutionary principles and to collaboration with the capitalist State: leaving the CNT to defend and press home the "gains" of July 1936, instead of surrendering them little by little to the . This edition of Balance examines the process whereby the Friends of Durruti emerged, their ideological characteristics and the evolution of their political thinking, their dealings with the Trotskyists, and the reasons behind the failure of their fight to recover anarcho-syndicalism's doctrinal purity and salvage the Spanish revolution of 1936. There follows a chronology which, though selective rather than exhaustive, contains heretofore unpublished information. This chronology is intended to afford familiarity with the essential historical events, so that the arguments spelled out in this study may be more readily and strictly comprehensible. CHRONOLOGY. July 17-21, 1936: Servicemen and fascists rebel against the government of the Republic. Where the workers offer armed resistance, the rebels fail, securing victory only where there are attempts at conciliation or no armed confrontation. Civil war erupts. July 21, 1936: Establishment in Catalonia of the Central Anti-Fascist Militias Committee (CAMC). No workers' organization takes power. August 19-25, 1936: Trial of the Sixteen in Moscow. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Smirnov executed. Radek placed under arrest. September 26, 1936: Three anarchists - Doménech, Fábregas and Garcia Birlan - join the Generalidad government in Catalonia. October 2, 1936: the CAMC is wound up. October 12, 1936: A Generalidad decree dissolves the (revolutionary) Local Committees. These are shortly to be replaced by new, -style town councils. October 27, 1936: A Generalidad decree orders militarization of the People's Militias. November 4, 1936: Four anarchist ministers - Garcia Oliver, Frederica Montseny, Joan Peiró and Juan López - join the Republic's government. November 5, 1936: Durruti makes a radio broadcast from the front, in which he opposes the decree issued by the Generalidad militarizing the militias, and calls for greater commitment and sacrifice from the rearguard if the war is to be won. November 6, 1936: The Republic's government (along with the four new anarcho-syndicalist ministers) flees Madrid for the safety of . The populace of Madrid's response is the cry of "Long live Madrid without government!" November 7, 1936: the intervene on the Madrid front. November 9, 1936: Formation of the Madrid Defense Junta. November 20, 1936: Durruti loses his life on the Madrid front. December 6, 1936: In Solidaridad Obrera, Balius publishes an article entitled "Durruti's Testament" in which he states: "Durruti bluntly asserted that we anarchists require that the Revolution be totalitarian in character." December 16, 1936: the POUM is excluded from the Generalidad government. December 21, 1936: Stalin offers advice to Largo Caballero. December 29, 1936: Publication of issue No. 1 of Ideas. January 26, 1937: Balius appointed director of La Noche. February 5-8, 1937: Plenary assembly of the confederal and anarchist militias meeting in Valencia to consider the militarization issue. March 4, 1937: the newspaper La Noche carries an announcement introducing the aims, characteristics and membership conditions of the Friends of Durruti Group. March 4, 1937: the Generalidad issues a decree winding up the Control Patrols. In La Batalla , Nin passes favorable and hopeful comment on an article by Balius carried in the March 2nd edition of La Noche. March 11, 1937: Ideas calls for the dismissal of Aiguadé. March 17, 1937: the Friends of Durruti Group is formally established. Balius is appointed vice-secretary. Ruiz and Carreño are on its steering committee. March 21, 1937: the meets in assembly to vote on militarization or disbandment: it agrees to militarization. Late March-early April 1937: A flyer bearing the endorsement of the Friends of Durruti Group is issued. April 8, 1937: In Ideas, Balius has an article published entitled "Let's make revolution," in which he says: "if [Companys] had a larger contingent of armed forces at his disposal, he would have the working class back in the capitalist harness." April 14, 1937: the Friends of Durruti issue a manifesto opposing the commemoration of the anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic. (Sunday) April 18, 1937: The Friends of Durruti hold a rally in the Poliorama Theater. Chaired by Romero, it hears contributions from Francisco Pellicer, Pablo Ruiz, Jaime Balius, Francisco Carreño and V. Pérez Combina. April 25, 1937: the UGT leader Roldán Cortada is murdered in Molins del Llobregat. April 27 and 28, 1937: Armed conflict between anarchists and Generalidad forces in Bellver de Cerdaña. Antonio Martin, the anarchist mayor of Puigcerdá, is shot dead. Late April 1937: A poster from the Group is pinned up on trees and walls throughout the city of Barcelona. In it, the Friends of Durruti set out their program: "All power to the working class. All economic power to the unions. Instead of the Generalidad, the Revolutionary Junta." (Saturday) May 1, 1937: An ordinary working day, for the Generalidad has banned commemoration of the First of May, in an effort to avert disturbances and confrontations. The Generalidad government meets in session, congratulating its Commissar for Public Order on the successes achieved. A panel is made up of Tarradellas (Prime Councilor), Rodriguez Salas (Commissar for Public Order) and Artemi Aiguadé (Councilor for Internal Security): it promptly holds a meeting behind closed doors to tackle urgent business relating to public order and security. The Bolshevik- Leninist Section issues a leaflet. (Sunday) May 2, 1937: Friends of Durruti rally in the Goya Theater, at which the film "19 de julio" is screened to comments from Balius: there are speeches by Liberto Callejas and Francisco Carreño as well. CNT militants interrupt a telephone conversation between Companys and Azana. (Monday) May 3, 1937: A little before 3:00 P.M. three truckloads of Guards commanded by Rodriguez Salas attempt to seize the Telephone Exchange, on the orders of Artemi Aiguadé. Armed resistance from the CNT workers on the upper floors thwarts this. Within a few hours, a host of armed bands has been formed and the first barricades erected. The mobilization resolves into two sides: one made up of the CNT and the POUM, the other of the Generalidad, the PSUC, the ERC and Estat Català. Businesses close down. The train service stops at 7:00 P.M. At that hour, in the Casa CNT-FAI in the Via Durruti, the CNI Regional Committee and the POUM Executive Committee meet. The maximum demand is that Rodriguez Salas and Artemi Aiguadé resign. Companys doggedly opposes this. (Tuesday) May 4, l937: Gun-battles throughout the night. Many barricades and violent clashes throughout the city. In the Sants barrio 400 Guards are stripped of their weapons. Companys asks the Valencia government for aircraft to bomb the CNT's premises and barracks. 2 The CNT- controlled artillery on Montjuich and Tibidabo is trained on the Generalidad Palace. 3 Abad de Santillán, Isgleas and Molina manage to halt in Lerida, "en route to Barcelona," the divisions despatched by the CNT's Máximo Franco (a Friends of Durruti member) and the POUM's José Rovira. At 7:00 P.M. in the Principal Palace in the Ramblas, which has been commandeered by the POUM, Jaime Balius, Pablo Ruiz, Eleuterio Roig and Martin, representing the Friends of Durruti, meet Gorkin, Nin and Andrade, representing the POUM's Executive Committee. Following an analysis of the situation, and in view of the stance adopted by the CNT, they come to an agreement to suggest an orderly armed withdrawal of combatants from the barricades. At 9:00 P.M. the Generalidad radio station issues an appeal from the leaders of the various organizations (Garcia Oliver representing the CNT) for an end to fighting. The POUM Executive Committee releases a manifesto. The Bolshevik-Leninist Section issues a handbill. On the night of May 4-5, the Friends of Durruti Group drafts and prints up a handbill. (Wednesday) May 5, 1937: A handbill is distributed by the Friends of Durruti. Over the radio, the CNT disowns the Friends of Durruti Group. Fighting is now confined to the city center: the rest of the city being in the hands of the confederal Defense Committees. At 1:00 P.M. the UGT leader Sesé, a recently appointed Generalidad councilor perishes in gunfire emanating from the premises of the CNT's Entertainments Union. At 3:00 P.M. the Generalidad transmitter issues a fresh appeal for calm from the leaders of the various organizations ( for the CNT). A brother of Ascaso is killed. Berneri and Barbieri are arrested by Guards and UGT militants from the Water Union. Their corpses show up later. (Thursday) May 6, 1937: La Batalla reprints the Friends of Durruti handbill. In the same edition, La Batalla appeals for workers to back down. Solidaridad Obrera disowns the Friends of Durruti handbill . (Friday) May 7, 1937: La Batalla reiterates its appeal, making it conditional upon withdrawal of the security forces and retention of weapons. Transport services are restored and a degree of normality returns. Assault Guards sent by the Valencia government reach Barcelona around 9:00 P.M. Companys surrenders control of public order. The Control Patrols place themselves at the disposal of the special delegate in charge of public order sent down by the Republican government. (Saturday) May 8, 1937: Barricades are dismantled, except for the PSUC barricades, which persist into June. The Friends of Durruti distribute a manifesto reviewing the events of May. In that manifesto there is talk of "treachery" by the CNT leadership. (Sunday) May 9, 1937: Solidaridad Obrera dismisses the manifesto as demagoguery and the Group's members as provocateurs. May 17, 1937: Negrin takes over from Largo Caballero as premier. The UGT Regional Committee for Catalonia demands that all POUM militants be expelled from its ranks and presses the CNT to mete out the same treatment to the Friends of Durruti. May 19, 1937: Issue No. 1 of El Amigo del Pueblo appears. May 22, 1937: A plenary session of the CNT's Local and Comarcal Federations hears a proposal that the Friends of Durruti be expelled. A session of the Sabadell city council agrees that councilor Bruno Lladó Roca (also the Generalidad's comarcal delegate for Economy) be stood down for having displayed a Friends of Durruti poster in his office. May 26, 1937: Issue No. 2 of El Amigo del Pueblo appears, having evaded the censor. Balius is jailed a few days later as the director of a clandestine publication, following a complaint from the PSUC. May 28, 1937: La Batalla is shut down as is the POUM's radio station. The Friends of Durruti's social premises in the Ramblas are shut down. June 6, 1937: The Control Patrols are disbanded. June 12, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 3. June 16, 1937: The members of the POUM Executive Committee are rounded up. The POUM is proscribed and its militants persecuted. June 22, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 4. June 22-24, 1937: Andrés Nin is kidnapped and murdered by the Soviet secret police. June 26, 1937: Showing solidarity with the POUM militants persecuted by the Stalinists and the Republic's police, the Bolshevik-Leninist Section calls for concerted action by the Section, the left of the POUM and the Friends of Durruti. July 2, 1937: A handbill from the Bolshevik-Leninist Section of (on behalf of the Fourth International) expresses solidarity with the POUM militants persecuted by the Stalinists. July 20, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 5. August 10, 1937: The Council of Aragon is forcibly disbanded by the government. August 12, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 6. August 31, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 7. September 21, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 8. October 20, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 9. November 8, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 10. November 20, 1937: El Amigo del Pueblo No. 11. January 1938: Towards a Fresh Revolution pamphlet drafted by Balius and published by the Friends of Durruti. February 1, 1938: El Amigo del Pueble No. 12. July to September 1939: L'Espagne Nouvelle Nos. 7 to 9. NOTES TO CHAPTER 1. 1. The most important studies of the Friends of Durruti Group are: Francisco Manuel Aranda: "Les amis de Durruti" in Cahiers Leon Trotsky No. 10 (1982); Jordi Arquer: Història de la fundació i actuació de la "Agrupación Amigos de Durruti" Unpublished; Georges Fontenis: Le message révolutionnaire des "Amis de Durruti" (Editions L, , 1983); Frank Mintz and Manuel Peciña: Los Amigos de Durruti, los trotsquistas y los sucesos de mayo (Campo Abierto, Madrid, 1978); Paul Sharkey: The Friends of Durruti: A Chronology (Editorial Crisol, Tokyo, May 1984) 2. According to an affidavit by Jaume Anton Aiguadér, nephew of Artemi Aiguadér, signed in the presence of witnesses in Mexico City on August 9, 1946: "At the time of the May events, the Generalidad government asked for aircraft from Spain in order to bomb the CNT buildings and the latter refused the request." This statement is borne out by the teletype messages exchanged between Companys and the central government. In those messages, on Tuesday, May 4, 1937, the Generalidad President informed the cabinet under-secretary that the rebels had brought artillery out on to the streets, and he asked that Lieutenant-Colonel Felipe Diaz Sandino, commander of the Prat de Lllobregat military air base, be instructed to place himself at the disposal of the Generalidad government: "Generalidad President informs cabinet under-secretary that rebels have brought cannons on to streets. Asks that Sandino be ordered place himself disposal of Generalidad government." [Documentation on deposit in the Hoover Institution.] Towards a Fresh Revolution - Friends of Durruti. Highly influential pamphlet of anarcho-syndicalist CNT militants during the Spanish Civil War who opposed the co-option of their organisation in the Republican government. Attachment Size Towards a Fresh Revolution - Friends of Durruti.pdf 246.02 KB. Posted By. Share. Towards a Fresh Revolution - Friends of Durruti. Attached files. Comments. 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▶ Can comment on articles and discussions ▶ Get 'recent posts' refreshed more regularly ▶ Bookmark articles to your own reading list ▶ Use the site private messaging system ▶ Start forum discussions, submit articles, and more. Towards a Fresh Revolution. The Friends of Durruti Group was formed in early 1937. Its members and supporters were prominent comrades from the Gelsa battle-front. Remaining true to their anarchist beliefs, they refused to submit to the militarisation and, as a result, moved to the capital of Catalonia (Barcelona) where, along with other Barcelona comrades, they set up the group. They took as their symbol the figure of , an idealist who had devoted his whole life to his anarchist beliefs. He was a man of action as his heroic death on the Madrid front testifies . . . that heroic and timeless Madrid which lives on in the spontaneous catchphrase which the Republic's government's fight from their city drew from the capital's inhabitants . . . Viva Madrid sin gobierno! (Long live Madrid without government!). This indomitable spirit of the people of Madrid lasted throughout the entire siege of the capital, and it was this spirit that the Group adopted as its own. Thus it was that the fighting men from Gelsa (with the Durruti Column on the Aragon front) became the heralds of the message "Stand fast and fight to the last!" These were virtues which no one can deny that Durruti, the anarchist from Leon, did have. At his funeral Barcelona paid him the tribute of one of the largest popular demonstrations ever, as the Catalan proletariat took to the streets as a body to pay homage to the man who had given his life for the cause of the disinherited the world over. Having given a rough outline of the nature of our Group I shall now proceed to a short introduction to our pamphlet: Hacia una nueva revolucion (Towards a fresh revolution). First of all, when was it written? Around mid-1938. But it must be emphasised that for us to write a booklet of this sort, with the title we gave it, at that tragic hour for the Spanish proletariat, was a highly suggestive action, amounting to a cry of hope for the fighters of Spain. Notwithstanding their heroism and tenacity, they found themselves surrounded by the most fearful defeat on account of their failure to crush the counter-revolution led by the Stalinists, who were backed by the camouflaged reformists inside the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) and Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) and all who were established in the upper echelons of the State. The time was 1938 (40 years ago), at a point when the war was a lost cause, and when war fronts were collapsing one after another as a result of the treachery of Stalinists in key positions in the decision-making process, obeying Stalin's orders to undermine the Spanish proletariat in arms. Such was the tragic hour when we of the Friends of Durruti Group at the group's last session, after prolonged examination of the disaster which the counter revolution had plunged us, and regardless of the scale of disaster, refused to accept the finality of such defeat. The infamous policy pursued by Largo Caballero, whose government contained several anarchist militsnts, had eroded the revolutionary morale of the rearguard; and the Negrin government, the government of defeat or capitulation, gave the defeat hecatomb proportions. For this reason we decided to publish Hacia una nueva revolucion which was, as we said, a message of hope and a determination to renew the fight against an international capitalism which had mobilised its gendarmes of the 30s (in other words, its blackshirts and brownshirts), to put down the Spanish working class at whose head marched the anarchists and the revolutionary rank and file of the National Confederation of Labour. In the prelude to July we can discern the Spain the Spanish proletariat tried to destroy, the theocratic Black Spain ruled by large landowners who had surrendered the economy of the country to foreign powers. This age-old battle was constantly contested from the 15th century up to 1936, setting liberty against tyranny, progress against obscurantism, ever present in this age-old contest were anarchism and the National Confederation of Labour, whose militants were the targets of savage repression under the monarchy of Alfonso Xlll, the grandfather of Juan Carlos, the present monarch imposed upon the Spanish people by international capitalism. This imposition can be accounted for by the terror that the revolutionary Spain inspires in all the inter connected capitalist forces, on account of its sublime gesture of three years of rebellion in the 30s. Hence the fear felt by the Washington-Moscow axis and the Bonn-Paris-London triangle. Forty years later, the importance of what we wrote in those hours, fraught with passion and grief, is revealed. If, in the 30s, the Spanish proletariat threw itself into the prodigious fray, though outgunned and with its battlefronts and its rearguard undermined by the hybrid, murderous policy of the communists today the Spanish proletariat once again launches itself into the great adventure of revolution. There are hopeful signs in the form of a magnificent younger generation forged in the jails, who have equipped themselves through reference to books, particularly those written by revolutionaries who stood firm against the tidal wave of counter-revolution . . . and in matters of theory, they may be better equipped than the men of July 1936 who were awestruck by the grandeur of a social revolution that dawned so gloriously over Iberian soil, and which, had it but been given proper expression, would have become the first stage of European and thence, world wide revolution. In that booklet back in 1938 we said that all revolutions are totalitarian. They must be interpreted and must express themselves in the sense that all revolutions are integral. That is to say, they cannot be made by halves nor tackled side-on without the great edifice of revolution coming face-to- face with destruction. It is terrible when one thinks of the way in which revolutions come to grief. The Spanish revolution was doomed to perish from the instant the revolutionary spirit and the war were divorced. Take, for example, the decree on the militarisation of the militias. With regard to the state structure there was no way the Spanish revolution could survive. The defence committees, control patrols and the collectives were dissolved. This was the build-up to the sudden assault by the Catalan proletariat in May 1937, when the workers tried to win back the gains they had made in July. The May events are described in our pamphlet. The lesson of May is unmistakable. Revolutions can not restrict themselves to the confines of their native land. A new Spanish revolution must, if it is to succeed, assume European proportions. Today's Europe is sitting on the edge of a volcano. Faithful to our message of 1938, we shall go on fighting for a new and European revolution just as the Spanish revolution of 1936 and the Portuguese revolution of 1974 must be labelled European. Both suffered from the same short-coming-they left the State intact and in both case pseudo-revolutionaries repaired the state structures when they were coming apart on all sides. Europe's workers must help out the Spanish proletariat with the fight against international capitalism which has already been launched on our soil. Europe's solidarity is indispensable if the monarchy imposed upon the Spanish people by international capitalism is to be overthrown. Once again proletarian Spain will serve as the catalyst for proletarian Europe if we establish a close alliance with the Spanish revolutionary workers to counteract the capitalist siege which has the collusion of both socialists and communists. The transcendent impact of the Spanish revolution of 1936, which would have begun a cycle of European revolutions of necessity, terrified the capitalist magnates who saw in it the overture to extension throught the continent-and thus massacred the Spanish people! We have indicated the causes of the defeat, but we want to stress the need to prepare an authentic proletarian internationalism which must show itself in the creation of a powerful and European libertarian movement. Let our one hope and hesitation be that the libertarian spirit of the young Europeans of this Europe, which is only a step away from , does not come to naught. The new Spanish revolution is taking shape: all that remains to be done is to organise the mobilisation of all European revolutionaries around Spain, which has not, even for an instant, and in spite of the terrible bloodbath which international capitalism inflicted on it during the 30s and the years of terror in the 40s and under the present monarchy, failed to declare itself. The monarchy is the creature of the lackeys of the Bonn-Paris axis and of the hirelings of the US gendarme, not forgetting the tacit acquiescence of the USSR. Durruti Column. The Durruti Column (Spanish: Columna Durruti ) was the largest anarchist column formed during the Spanish Civil War (its number came to about 6,000 people [1] ). During the first months of the war it came to be the most recognized and popular military organisations fighting at the republican side. It is one of the best known symbols of the anarchist movement in Spain and its struggle for creating an egalitarian society based on collectivism and individualism. The column include people from all over the world. One of the best-known Catholic philosophers of the 20th century, Simone Weil fought alongside with Buenaventura Durruti in the Durruti Column. Her memories and experiences from the war can be found in one of her books, Écrits historiques et politiques . Contents. Formation [ edit | edit source ] The column formed in Barcelona where, on 18 July 1936, the anarchists fought against the General Goded and his armies. The government had not done anything to protect the city from the uprising of the army under the command of General Franco, Barcelona was left undefended. Being aware of that, anarchist and communist organisations such as CNT-FAI along with Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) in danger of the incoming attack of the military forces organised themselves into militia units and took weapons from arsenals (they had support of the people responsible for these places, mostly non- commissioned officers). During this day some of the militarists joined the anarchist cause and aided them in the fight. The next day in the morning the anarchists attacked the Atarazanas barracks under the command of Buenaventura Durruti, one of the most popular and best recognized leader of Federación Anarquista Ibérica. [2] The headquarters of the Durruti Column was at Bujaraloz . When the force was 6000 men. Several centuries contained foreigners: la centurie Sébastien Faure, composed of French and Italians, include Saïl Mohamed, Jean Mayol, Marcel Montagut, Simone Weil and George Sossenko; la centurie Sacco and Vanzetti, composed of Americans; la centurie Erich Mühsam, composed of Germans. Advance [ edit | edit source ] A Durruti column member on the Aragón front, 1936. The anarchists started to take Catalonia back from the hands of the Franquists. They were headed towards controlled by General Emilio Mola and the Durruti column, concentrating 2,000 people at that time [3] contrary to other units did not stop too much to liberate the countryside, they were moving only towards the city, mostly because of the lack of proper maps. They fought their first battle in Caspe, a city located about 100 kilometers southeast of Zaragoza. There they encountered a small group of militiamen fighting fascists commanded by Captain Negrete from Guardia Civil. [4] While leaving Barcelona there were about 2,500 people in the column but before they got to Zaragoza their number increased to 6,000. The advance stopped near the city banks because of the Colonel Villalba, the leader of all the republican forces who convinced Durruti that if he had reclaimed Zaragoza, he may have been isolated from the rest of the fighters. Nowadays it is doubted if that was a good decision because of the superiority in numbers of the republican forces, but some state that in the event of open battle lack of weapons and supplies could have led to total disaster. [5] Durruti installed his temporary headquarters in Bujaraloz. Waiting for the more convenient moment to attack Zaragoza turned out to be a grave mistake, because in passing of time the forces of Franco became more powerful there and made it impossible to reclaim the city. [6] The offensive stopped at this point and there was no major battle. Most of the advances were small and were mostly initiated due to the actions of guerrillas. Durruti was concentrating himself on helping the collective. Death of Durruti [ edit | edit source ] At the beginning of Buenaventura Durruti with more than 3,000 people from the column directed themselves to Madrid. At the time the capital of Spain was in grave danger of being overtaken by the fascists and Federica Montseny convinced Durruti to leave Catalonia. His arrival to Madrid strengthened the morale of the inhabitants. He was ordered to defend and then started the offensive at Casa del Campo. Efficient in street battles, the militants had neither enough power nor experience to stand a chance against the disciplined and well-armed army from Morocco. Having suffered huge casualties the Durruti column escaped the battlefield. On the 19th of November Durruti was shot and died in the hospital after some time. The origins of the bullet are unknown, some say it was an action taken by the responsibility of the Soviet special forces, other that it was failure of Durruti's gun. [7] The column was after commanded by Ricardo Sanz in Madrid and by Lucio Ruano on the Aragon Front. Colonel Romero had disagreements with anarchists, asked for the dismissal of Ricardo Sanz, [8] proposed the dissolution of Durruti Column and the distribution of their men among other units. [9] In January 1937 the new general delegate of the column José Manzana allowed the militarisation of the column which then became part of the 26th Division. After the Durruti Column [ edit | edit source ] Due to the soviet forces growing in power, the other militias were organized into regular army and the Durruti Column was transformed into the 26th infantry division. After the war many of the fighters were either put in prison or executed. Those who survived and escaped to France which right before the World War II experienced rise of nationalist sentiments, were put into concentration camps. After the German invasion of France many of the former anarchist fighters played an important part in the . Some managed to escape to different countries of Latin America and stayed there for the rest of their lives, sometimes even organising with the indigenous people mini-anarchist states in the jungle, as did Antonio García Barón. [10] After the end of the World War II the former republican fighters experienced a huge disappointment. They hoped that the democratic countries would now liberate Spain from Franco's dictatorship. But even Mexico which was one of the most active helpers of the republicans and France after so much help refused to start fighting the dictator. Some of the anarchists, many of them former members of the Durruti Column decided to organise their own resistance. They had their headquarters in France, many times collaborated with later formed ETA and did not stop fighting until the end of the regime. [11] Collectivisation [ edit | edit source ] The collectivisation [12] of the countryside started right after leaving Barcelona. Even though the column did not stop to liberate as much countries as other columns, due to its size, it created the majority of the libertarian communes. At the beginning there were some acts of violence and some people were forced to join the collectives. But it is said that Durruti himself defended the individualists who did not want to work share their land. [13] Such people were left having as much land as they could cultivate with their families without any hired labour and could always join the collective. Depending on the place, the individualists could have been put under more or less stronger economical pressure to make them join the commune. Organisation [ edit | edit source ] On 20 of July 1936 Durruti and other anarchists such as Juan García Oliver and Diego Abad de Santillán, participated in a meeting with Companys, the President of Catalonia. The next day, as the outcome of that meeting, they formed with other leftist organisations The Central Committee of the Antifascist Militias. Despite being in the majority they took only one third of the committees seats. [14] The Committee was responsible for supplying and coordination of the actions different militias. After some time, it became dominated by the communists. The Durruti Column is said to be the first anarchist military formation with discipline based on solidarity and hierarchy but not based on privileges, only the orders to attack certain places. Durruti, as happened in other columns, agreed to have his own military advisor, in this case it was captain Enrique Perez Farras. [15] Due to the lack of armaments [16] the column did not engage in open battles and moved forward mostly thanks to small guerilla actions. Also in Bujaraloz, the place of the War Committee the fighters were provided with services such as: health care, food and mechanic support. Cultural references [ edit | edit source ] The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band, who had moderate success in the late 1980s under the tuteledge of Tony Wilson's Factory label.