Anarchism, the Republic and Civil War in Spain: 1931–1939
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Anarchism, the Republic and Civil War in Spain: 1931–1939 This groundbreaking new study, translated for the first time into English, is the first synthesis to relate and interpret the main evolutionary milestones of anar- chism in Spain, and is crucial to understanding the social conflict of 1930s Spain. Casanova explores the concept of anarchism as both a political ideology and a social movement during the Second Republic and the Civil War (1931–1939). Dividing the work into two parts, the author first explores anarchism’s strained relation with the republican regime. He then goes on to analyse the revolu- tionary process that broke out in the summer of 1936. This complete new study also examines possible reasons why anarcho-syndicalism did not resurface after the death of the Spanish dictator Franco, and offers a commentary on other writings on anarchism in contemporary Spain. Casanova’s work will interest historians across a range of disciplines as well as readers with a general interest in Spain. Julián Casanova is currently Professor of Modern History at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. Routledge/Cañada Blanch Studies on Contemporary Spain Series editors Paul Preston and Sebastian Balfour, Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, London 1 Spain 1914–1918 Between war and revolution Francisco J. Romero Salvadó 2 Spaniards in the Holocaust Mauthausen, horror on the Danube David Wingeate Pike 3 Conspiracy and the Spanish Civil War The brainwashing of Francisco Franco Herbert R. Southworth 4 Red Barcelona Social protest and labour mobilisation in the twentieth century Edited by Angel Smith 5 British Women and the Spanish Civil War Angela Jackson 6 Women and Spanish Fascism The women’s section of the Falange 1934–59 Kathleen Richmond 7 Class, Culture and Conflict in Barcelona, 1898–1937 Chris Ealham 8 Anarchism, the Republic and Civil War in Spain, 1931–1939 Julián Casanova 9 Catalan Nationalism Francoism, transition and democracy Montserrat Guibernau 10 British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War The British battalion in the International Brigades, 1936–1939 Richard Baxell 11 The Catholic Church and the Spanish Civil War Hilari Raguer 12 Nazi Germany and Francoist Spain Christian Leitz 13 Churchill and Spain The Survival of the Franco Regime, 1940–45 Richard Wigg 14 Spain and the Great Powers Edited by Sebastian Balfour and Paul Preston 15 The Politics of Contemporary Spain Edited by Sebastian Balfour Anarchism, the Republic and Civil War in Spain: 1931–1939 Julián Casanova Translated from Spanish by Andrew Dowling and Graham Pollok, fully revised by Paul Preston London and New York First published 2004 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Taylor & Francis Inc 270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Originally published in Spanish as De La Calle Al Frente by Critica, Barcelona, 1997 © Julián Casanova 1997 Translation © 2005 Routledge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Every effort has been made to ensure that the advice and information in this book is true and accurate at the time of going to press. However, neither the publisher nor the authors can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. In the case of drug administration, any medical procedure or the use of technical equipment mentioned within this book, you are strongly advised to consult the manufacturer’s guidelines. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data ISBN 0-203-02280-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-67059-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–32095–X (Print Edition) Contents Acknowledgements viii Note to the English edition x Part I Power in the street 1 1 History accelerates 3 2 The seeds of confrontation 17 3 The symbols of identity 36 A union movement without a party 36 A divided union movement 53 4 On the road to insurrection 64 5Correcting the route taken 84 Part II The people in arms 99 6 The summer of 1936 101 7 War and revolution 116 Power 116 The limits of the earthly paradise 130 8 Decline and fall 146 Epilogue: The uprooting 158 Notes 164 Appendix: Anarchism in Spanish contemporary history 215 Works cited in the appendix 219 Index 223 Acknowledgements The preparation and writing of this book took place over a long period of time and there are many people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. Anna Monjo, Mary Nash, Susanna Tavera, Eulàlia Vega and Mercedes Vilanova were kind enough to send me some of their work which I had been unable to consult. Arantxa Sarría and Emilio Blasco sought out and photocopied documents from the Internationaal Institut voor Sociale Geschiedenis in Amsterdam. In that archive I was always able to count on the help and advice of Mieke Ijzermans. I also received professional help from Carlos Gil, who provided me with documen- tation concerning conflicts and uprisings in La Rioja; from Pilar Maluenda, who gave me data on the insurrection of December 1933 in Huesca; and from Julita Cifuentes, who has helped in the correction of the manuscript. In my time in Salamanca, I recall the hospitality and generosity of Manolo Redero and Gloria García, as well as the help given by María José Turrión García, librarian of the Archivo Histórico Nacional in that city. José Álvarez Junco read the first two chapters, and as has always been the case during our long friendship, his sincere comments and criticisms have improved the final version. I have also benefited from the help of institutions, particularly the DGICYT., which has provided financial support for my projects in recent years and allowed me to enjoy a stay during the academic year 1991–2 in the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. During those twelve months, I met colleagues who honoured me with both their friendship and professional experience. I would also like to mention Robert Fishman, Abby Collins, Jürgen Wilzewski, Jos de Beus, Tom Koelble, Jeff Richter and Charles Maier. It was thanks to Charles Tilly that I was able to debate and discuss many of the questions that emerged in the seminar series which he organised in the Center for Studies of Social Change of the New School for Social Research in New York. To José Casanova, I owe many things, not only as a brother, but also the intellectual help that he always gave me when it came to using sociological approaches to historical anal- ysis. For the confidence that they showed in my work, I would also like to thank Mari Paz Ortuño and Josep Fontana, of the publishing house Crítica, who made the publication of the original Spanish version of this book such an easy task. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to Professor Paul Preston, both a teacher and friend, with whom I have shared so many things in the past twenty Acknowledgements ix years and for the interest that he has consistently shown in bringing this book before an English-speaking audience. Julián Casanova Zaragoza, 1996 and 2004 Note to the English edition Eighty years. That is how long it took for anarchism to take root, bloom and die, from the arrival in November 1868 of Giuseppe Fanelli, sent to Spain by Bakunin, until the forced exile of thousands of activists in the spring of 1939. Eighty years characterised by a frenetic propagandistic, cultural and educational activity; by terrorism and violence; by strikes and insurrections; by aborted revo- lutions and egalitarian dreams. This anarchist presence has not passed by unnoticed. Its followers cultivated for decades a reputation for honesty, sacrifice and combat. Its enemies, on the right and on the left, highlighted in contrast the anarchists’ enthusiasm for bomb-throwing and their easy recourse to the revolver. These are, without doubt, exaggerated, black-and-white images which have influenced historians using them as sources. From the arrival of Fanelli to the post-Civil War exile, anarchism’s red and black flag was followed by varied and wide sections of the population. Hobsbawm and others have suggested that there was something rather abnormal, exceptional, atypical, in all of this because the ‘normal’ thing would have been socialism, the ‘scientific doctrine’ that the proletariat needed. It was abnormal precisely because anarchism had put down roots in Barcelona, the most industrial and modern city of Spain, where, in consequence, organised socialism had never advanced successfully. In reality, there were many other peculiarities to be found in the contempo- rary history of Spain, such as republicanism, anti-clericalism, regional nationalisms, civil wars and numerous coup d’états. On the other hand, in other countries, socialism did not achieve striking success. In Western Europe, the comparative context in which Spain is placed, until the First World War, only a small proportion of the working class belonged to socialist political organisations or trade unions and, in electoral terms, it was only in Germany that an influen- tial mass socialist party had been consolidated. It would be then useful to recall something indicated by the most recent research: anarchism was not an ‘exceptional’ and ‘extraordinary’ phenomenon in the history of Spain, if by ‘normal’ and ‘ordinary’ we mean the experience of the other countries of Western Europe well into the twentieth century, until the point at which the transition from anarchism to anarcho-syndicalism took place, Note to the English edition xi from forms of organisation based on ideological affinity groups to the emergence of more formal and disciplined union structures.