Workers Power and the Spanish Revolution In Spain’s national elections in February Each sindicato unico had “sections” that of 1936, a repressive right-wing government had their own assemblies and elected shop was swept out of office and replaced by a stewards (delegados). In manufacturing coalition of liberals and socialists. Taking industries like textile or metalworking, advantage of a less repressive environment, there was a “section” for each firm or plant. Spain’s workers propelled the largest strike In the construction industry, the “sections” wave in Spanish history, with dozens of corresponded to the various crafts. All of the citywide general strikes and hundreds of autonomous industrial unions in a city or partial strikes. By the end of June a million county (comarca) were grouped together into workers were out on strike. a local labor council (federación local). Barely a month after the election, the Land The unions were part of a larger context of Workers Federation led 80,000 landless laborers movement institutions. The libertarian Left in Spain into a seizure of three thousand farms in the also organized alternative schools and an extensive “Spanish Siberia” — the poverty-stricken region of network of ateneos — storefront community Estremadura1. With the country at a high pitch of centers. The ateneos were centers for debates, debate over its future, political polarization was cultural events, literacy classes (between 30 and 50 punctuated by tit-for-tat killings of Right and Left percent of the population was illiterate in the ‘30s), activists. With right-wing politicians openly calling and so on. A characteristic idea of Spanish for an army takeover, the widely anticipated army anarchism was the empowerment of ordinary coup began in Spain on July 19th. people, preparing them for effective participation in For the first time in Spanish history, the people the struggle for social transformation. aggressively resisted an army takeover attempt. The libertarian syndicalism of the CNT The coup was defeated in two-thirds of the was a form of “prefigurative” politics. In country. The unions moved to confiscate vast developing a union based on participation in amounts of capitalist assets, putting most of decision-making through the assemblies and Spain’s economy under worker management. unpaid, elected delegados, CNT militants believed they were practicing a form of Unions built their own revolutionary labor army to organization that was a foretaste of a society fight the Spanish military. The military’s attempt where workers ran industry and the society to crush the country’s labor movement propelled was self-managed through the participatory the working class revolution that the Spanish elite democracy of assemblies. had long feared. The civil war itself was class The region of Spain along the struggle in its most extreme form. Mediterranean coast from Murcia north to Two of the key players in this drama Catalonia and Aragon corresponds roughly were the country’s main labor federations. to the territory of the medieval Kingdom of The National Confederation of Labor Aragon-Catalonia, which was merged with (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo — Castille in the 15th century to form the CNT) had 1.6 million members in early 1936 modern Spanish nation-state. This region (according to government statistics). The was the main stronghold of the CNT in the CNT was the result of nearly seven decades 1930s. In Aragon and Murcia 80 percent of of anarchist labor organizing in Spain. Since union members belonged to the CNT; in 1919 the CNT had been based on the Valencia it was 70 percent. In industrial sindicato unico (“single union”) — Catalonia 60 percent of the union members autonomous local industrial unions. In were in the CNT. “Union density” in Barcelona in 1936 the CNT construction and Catalonia in 1936 was quite high — 60 metallurgical sindicatos unicos each had percent of the region’s 900,000 wage-earners more than 30,000 members. belonged to a union. The second major labor organization in To deal with the growing threat of the Spain was the General Union of Workers CNT in Catalonia, the head of the police, (Union General de Trabajadores — UGT), Severiano Martinez Anido, began recruiting with 1.4 million members in early 1936. The gunmen to assassinate CNT officials and UGT was aligned with the Spanish Socialist activists, with the assistance of the police. Workers Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Employers and officials of the Roman Español — PSOE) although the Communist Catholic Church provided funding for the Party was also active within it. The UGT was death squads. During this period there were the majority union organization in the 440 attempted murders of workers in Castillian central regions of Spain, including Catalonia2. Workers were being forced to join Madrid, and in the coal-mining region of “yellow” trade unions, the Sindicatos Libres Asturias on the north Atlantic coast. The (“Free Unions”), at the point of a gun. A UGT Land Workers Federation (Federación small core of religious, Carlist skilled Nacional de Trabajadores de la Tierra — workers had formed the Sindicatos Libres. FNTT) had a half million members in the Carlism was a form of right-wing Catholic spring of 1936. With its campaign for politics in Spain. In response, some young agrarian reform through land seizures, the anarchists formed armed action groups, FNTT was a mass revolutionary movement which retaliated by assassinating employers in the countryside. and church leaders who were believed to be funding the death squads. The Boom and the Death Squads For years Spain had been trying to hold The mass mobilizations and the social onto its last scrap of empire in Morocco. In polarization leading up to the civil war were 1923 a military campaign in Morocco, the culmination of a social crisis that had promoted by King Alfonso, led to a disaster been brewing in Spain for decades. The crisis in which 10,000 Spanish soldiers were killed. began to manifest itself during the World The army clamped a dictatorship on Spain, War I era. Spain was neutral during the war headed by General Miguel Primo de Rivera, and was able to trade with both sides. A partly as a means to suppress outrage over massive industrialization and urbanization this incident. The CNT was banned boom got underway in Catalonia. This would throughout the country. Primo de Rivera continue during the world boom of the 1920s. introduced a scheme of incorporating the Barcelona was the fastest growing city in unions into the state via Arbitration Boards; western Europe in this period. Industrial he encouraged participation by the UGT as a suburbs grew up rapidly around new “responsible” alternative to the CNT. The factories. Barcelona had been a major Catholic “Free Unions,” preaching the trading center on the Mediterranean since harmony of labor and capital and a form of the middle ages, and was home to an proletarian clerical-fascism, competed with entrepreneurial business class. the UGT for representation on the The economic boom of the World War I Arbitration Boards. With state and employer years also led to growth for Spain’s two backing, the Free Unions had formed a major labor organizations. The Russian national organization by 1925 (Federación revolution of February 1917 also encouraged Nacional de Sindicatos Libres — FNSL) with a growing radical trend. The high point of 200,000 members3, nearly as large as the labor struggle during the war was a national UGT. general strike in 1917, supported by both the UGT and CNT. In Barcelona the CNT were Mass Rent Strike masters of the city until the army moved in In 1930 the king fled the country as the to suppress the strike. (Victor Serge’s novel dictatorship collapsed. Elections brought a Birth of Our Power is an impressionistic coalition of liberals and socialists to power, account of the 1917 Barcelona general to govern the new Republic. The CNT unions strike.) regained the legal right to organize. Faced with growing unemployment, and During the boom of the ‘20s, rents had a desire to rebuild their organization, the risen by 150 percent in Barcelona. Crowding, CNT sindicato unico of construction workers construction of shanties by unscrupulous in Barcelona began a campaign of invading landlords and housing without basic construction sites to sign up members and to amenities like running water had become demand that contractors hire 15 percent common. In early 1931 activists in the CNT more workers. The construction union began to discuss the possibility of a struggle argued that the housing sector in Catalonia around rents, and articles about the housing had made super-profits during the boom of crisis began appearing in the big daily paper the ‘20s — profits that were tied down in operated by the CNT in Barcelona, unproductive investments. Increasing the Solidaridad Obrera. number of people employed by the industry The rent struggle began with a mass would put more money into circulation, meeting of the CNT construction union in helping to counter the depression. With April of 1931. At that meeting Arturo Parera workers pouring into the CNT sindicato and Santiago Bilbao proposed the formation unico, the Catholic FNSL construction craft of an Economic Defense Commission, with unions collapsed. the participation of other unions. Parera and In the late ‘20s a broad debate had begun Bilbao were both prominent members of the in the CNT about the union’s future Iberian Anarchist Federation (Federación direction. One aspect of this debate was the Anarquista Iberica — FAI). The FAI was a proposal to group local unions into national loose amalgam of anarchist groups that industry unions for coordinated action worked mainly as caucuses within the CNT against employers in an industry throughout unions. the country. Joan Peiró — a self-educated After a series of neighborhood meetings, glass worker and an influential syndicalist the rent campaign settled on a demand for a theoretician — was able to persuade a CNT 40 percent rent rollback at a mass meeting at congress to allow national industry unions in the Palace of Fine Arts on July 5th. The 1931. However, some anarchists opposed meeting decided that the rent deposits paid this proposal on the grounds that it could by tenants should be used to pay the next lead to the development of a new month’s rent and after that renters would bureaucracy of paid officials beyond the refuse to pay rent if their landlord didn’t control of the local unions. Due to this agree to the rent reduction. The Chamber of opposition, national industrial unions were Urban Property — the landlords’ created in only a few industries in the CNT organization — denounced the campaign as a before 1936. A national industrial union was criminal violation of their rights. They created among workers at the Spanish demanded police action to suppress the rent National Telephone Co. In 1931 the CNT campaign. By the end of August, the launched a nation-wide strike against the Economic Defense Commission claimed that phone company. This was an initiation into 100,000 people were not paying their rent. union struggle for the largely female workforce of telephone operators. The ability of the rent struggle to reach out beyond the existing CNT union members Another aspect of the debate in the CNT was illustrated by the large numbers of was how to break out of the box of industrial women who were active in the struggle. On struggles that focus only on issues of wages one occasion a group of asaltos (Assault and working conditions. There was a feeling Guards — a paramilitary national police that the CNT needed to extend its influence force created by Republican politicians in the beyond a purely labor context to other areas early ‘30s) sent to evict a tenant backed down of society. Joan Peiró argued for the when confronted by a large crowd of women formation of neighborhood-based and children. Because the city employees committees to organize around broad issues charged with carrying out evictions were of concern to the working class, not just either intimidated by the crowds or were work-related questions. sympathetic to the rent strike, the landlords The Land and the Church began recruiting their own militia to carry Spain in the ‘30s was a country with very out evictions. uneven economic development. Wealthy, The landlords’ organization appealed to industrialized Catalonia might look like the national government to take action to developed areas in other western European suppress the strike. Largo Caballero, the countries, but other areas of Spain were UGT executive secretary and a leader of the rather different. Spain was still a PSOE, was a member of the cabinet in the predominantly agrarian country, with 45.5 liberal/socialist coalition government. percent of the “economically active” Caballero was unsympathetic to the rent population engaged in agriculture. In an strike, calling it “absurd.” At the same time, agrarian country a large part of the wealth is Caballero’s UGT was providing scabs to tied up in land ownership. South of the break the CNT telephone strike in Madrid. Guadarrama mountains was the latifundia zone, the region that had been conquered In the midst of the rent strike in from the Moors by a Castilian army in the Barcelona, a large explosion went off. No one middle ages. Capitalist investors bought up was injured, but there was severe damage to latifundias — huge estates — after feudal telephone equipment. Even though there restrictions on sale of land were broken in was no connection to the rent strike, the the 19th century. In this region two thousand government used this as a pretext to ban families owned 90 percent of the land. meetings of the Economic Defense Meanwhile, 750,000 landless laborers were Commission. The government also banned employed at starvation wages. meetings of the CNT telephone union. North of the Guadarramas were areas The national government appointed a where campesinos owned small- to conservative lawyer as civil governor for medium-sized farms. In some areas of the Catalonia and he announced that he would north, the plots were often too small to simply not allow the rent strike to continue. support a family. The campesinos had to hire The authorities began using preventive themselves out for wages, or work as detention to hold Santiago Bilbao and 52 sharecroppers. other CNT activists. Preventive detention The main social base of the far-right meant that a person could be held political parties were the religious, indefinitely without any charges being filed. land-owning farmers in areas of the north This had been one of the hated methods of like Old Castile and Navarre, and the the military dictatorship. People had religious middle strata — small business thought that these methods would become a owners, lawyers, officials, etc. — of the thing of the past under the new Republic. provincial towns. In the big cities and along Eventually, police were able to suppress the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts these the rent strike by arresting tenants who had middle classes were the social base of the been put back into apartments by their liberal Republican parties. neighbors after an eviction. Nonetheless, in The elite classes in Spain regarded the many areas of the city individual landlords Spanish Roman Catholic Church as an had entered into rent reduction deals with essential ideological prop of the social order. their tenants. Many tenants thus felt they But the church was widely hated in working had won something. For a younger class circles for preaching the acceptance of generation of CNT activists, this was the poverty while amassing vast assets and first time they had been involved in a catering to the more affluent sectors of large-scale direct action campaign. For society. In 1930 there were more clergy in working class participants it was a direct Spain than in any country other than Italy. lesson in the way a broad range of groups, There were 35,000 priests and 80,000 monks from landlords to police to politicians, were and nuns. Yet regular attendance at mass 4 aligned against them . was not very high. South of the Guadarramas, it was as low as 5 percent of the population5. Church opposition to science In the syndicalist view, social meant that many teachers and doctors were transformation required the prior anti-clerical. Anti-clericalism was organization and education of the working widespread among the Spanish Left, from class, the development of its skills and working class anarchists to middle-class self-confidence, and working out a coherent liberal Republicans. revolutionary strategy, not a reliance on The first liberal/socialist Republican pure “spontaneity.” Joan Peiró, in his 1933 government in 1931 attacked the power of book Sindicalismo, put it this way: the church by disallowing any church role in “For us the social revolution is not just a education other than religious instruction. matter of rising violently against the The powerful Jesuit order was dissolved. organized forces of the state…The social Civil marriage and divorce were established. revolution consists in taking over factories and mines, the land and the railways. It is Uprisings and Factional Struggles not sufficient to take over social wealth, it is The liberal/socialist coalition also necessary to know how to use it — and to use 7 engaged in various acts of repression it immediately, without any discontinuity.” directed against CNT unions. Caballero was “Continuity” would be assured by the fact willing to take advantage of these measures that the social transformation is carried out to build the UGT union at the expense of the by the workers themselves, who have the CNT. In this repressive environment, which skills to continue the running of industry. forced the CNT into direct confrontations The factional struggle inside the CNT in with the authorities, a number of anarchist the early ‘30s became quite heated after a groups in the CNT pushed the union into group of thirty union officials and activists attempted revolutionary general strikes and sent to the capitalist press a document insurrectionary adventures. In a typical criticizing an alleged “dictatorship” over the scenario, a group of anarchists would seize CNT by the FAI. These thirty activists and the local town hall, run up the red and black their followers became known as the flag, burn property records and declare treintista (“thirty-ist”) tendency. It wasn’t “libertarian communism” in the town. only the treintistas who opposed the Advocates of these methods called this insurrectionary adventures being propelled “revolutionary gymnastics.” These by FAI groups in Catalonia. FAI groups attempted insurrections were a throwback to outside Catalonia were also critical. With the the 19th century anarchist concept of advent of the Republic, one of the leading “propaganda by the deed” — the idea that an treintistas — Angel Pestaña — began exemplary action by a small group of advocating the formation of a labor political revolutionaries can spark off a spontaneous party, and soon established the Unionist popular uprising. In the most infamous of Party (Partido Sindicalista) to compete in these attempts — a failed national general parliamentary elections. Although most strike in January 1933 — paramilitary treintistas did not follow Pestaña into asaltos carried out a massacre in the village electoral politics, various anarchists worried of Casas Viejas in Andalusia. A whole family that this was the direction the treintistas was burned in their hut and the police shot were headed. people who had surrendered. FAI groups in Catalonia were also The worst fears of many syndicalists worried about a Leninist group organizing in were realized in the January 1933 uprising: the CNT unions. In 1930 the Workers “the national confederation and the Federation of Catalonia and the Balearic regionals [were] manipulated by a small Islands had merged with the majority from group of militants who had committed the the Catalan Communist Party (Partit entire membership to precipitous and Comunista Catala — PCC) to form the dangerous action,” writes Jerome Mintz. Workers and Peasants Bloc (Bloc Obrer i “The membership had been badly mauled in Camperol — BOC). The BOC was an street fighting, the leaders arrested and anti-Stalinist group that identified, beaten, and the [unions] closed.”6 nonetheless, with the Leninist model of a “vanguard party.” The BOC was especially Spain. The situation was different in strong in Lleida. A leading figure in the CNT Asturias where the UGT and CNT had in Lleida was Joaquin Maurin, a popular worked for some months to develop a teacher. Maurin was the leader of the BOC. “Workers Alliance.” Thus in October the two The BOC also tried to gain control of unions seized control of the region for two libertarian ateneos in Catalonia. The main weeks, in a joint uprising. But they were decision-making body in an ateneo would be isolated. When the army was sent in to crush the periodic assemblies that elected the the rebellion, thousands were killed and administrative committee of the ateneo. The many thousands sent to prison. Wives and BOC would show up in force to these daughters of the rebels were raped and assemblies to gain control of the mutilated by the Foreign Legion — an army administrative committee. unit made up of thugs and criminals from various countries. The uprising frightened By 1932 the FAI had gained sufficient the elite classes while the violent repression hegemony in the CNT that it was able to get alienated the working class. the treintista- and BOC-dominated unions expelled. As a result, the CNT lost most of its Left-Libertarian Vision union organization in Lleida. In 1934 the By early 1936 the membership of the BOC-controlled unions formed a new labor UGT and CNT union organizations was at federation, the Workers Federation of Union an all-time high. With the country gripped Unity (Federación Obrera de Unidad by intense debate about its future, a wave of Sindical — FOUS). In 1935 the BOC merged strikes spread throughout the country, with a smaller Leninist group and changed including numerous community-wide its name to Workers Party of Marxist general strikes. With the victory of the Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificación liberal/socialist coalition in the elections in Marxista — POUM)8. February, workers could anticipate a In 1933 right-wing parties won the breathing space in which to organize strikes elections, and Spain entered a period of and press for change. The farm worker repressive government, known as the unions were carrying out their land reform biennio negro (“two black years”). At this through mass land seizures. The treintista time Largo Caballero and much of the theoretician Joan Peiró told a journalist in Socialist Party began to move to the left. May: “The masses are moving towards Caballero began talking about the need for revolution.” “proletarian revolution” and “a workers’ With right-wing activists calling for the government.” army to take power, many people were A number of events led to the PSOE’s anticipating a military coup d’etat. In the turn to the left: the rise to power of Hitler in midst of this atmosphere of mobilization and Germany and of the clerical-fascist crisis, the CNT held a national congress at Christian Social Party in Austria, rising Zaragoza. By 1935 the Catalan anarchist unemployment, the popular outrage at the groups had moved away from their earlier Casas Viejas massacre, the intransigence of insurrectionary phase and towards Spanish employers. The small amounts of reconciliation with the treintistas. To have money made available to provide land for the maximum unity for the battles ahead, landless laborers by the government were the FAIstas invited the treintistas back into totally inadequate to deal with the the CNT. magnitude of land reform needed. There was Among the issues taken up at the very little to show from the PSOE’s coalition congress was the CNT’s vision for what kind with the liberal Republicans in 1931-33. of society it wanted to create, which it called One sign of the Socialist move to the left “libertarian communism.” The vision was an attempt at a national general strike document adopted by the Zaragoza congress in October 1934. Relations with the CNT attempted to synthesize the communalist were still not patched up and poor coordination doomed the strike in most of anarchist and libertarian syndicalist national legislatures. The document also influences on Spanish Left-libertarian envisions a “People’s Militia” — in other words, thinking about post-capitalist society. an army — as a means of defense of the new A dual structure of governance for the social order 11. A structure that can make society was envisioned, based on both rules for a society and defend its rule-making workplace assemblies and assemblies of authority with military force is in fact a residents in villages or neighborhoods. The polity, a form of government. If a workplace assemblies would elect workplace Left-libertarian polity isn’t a state, then a councils and be linked into national distinction is needed between a polity (or industrial federations, to manage the structure of governance) and a state. various industries. Traditional anarchist writing on this subject was not very clear. Strong emphasis was placed on the “free municipality” and its autonomy, reflecting Peter Kropotkin’s attempt to make this the communalist anarchist influence. This distinction leads towards the emphasis on would be an institution rooted in assemblies local autonomy and decentralization of the residents in villages or urban characteristic of Spanish communalist neighborhoods. In a large city, such as anarchism: Because “the State was Barcelona, the assemblies would elect the established for the precise purpose of Municipal Council. The members of the imposing the rule of” dominating classes, a council would continue to work a regular job move towards socialization of the economy in social production, and important issues and “liberating labor” requires “a new form would be referred back to the base of political organization” that is “more assemblies for decision. popular, more decentralized, and nearer to the folk-mote self-government” than In the version of social planning proposed “representative government,” the type of by Diego Abad de Santillan9, the various state characteristic of capitalism, for self-managing national industrial Kropotkin12. federations would be linked into an Economics Council, as a coordinating body. Although the Zaragoza congress But the actual plans were to be developed by endorsed a proposal for a “revolutionary regional and national congresses of workers’ alliance” with the UGT union delegates from the industrial federations, federation, the congress failed to discuss with the help of support staff. This is, in actual strategy or a program for the effect, a democratic, syndicalist version of immediate situation that the CNT faced. As central planning. a result, the CNT would be forced to “improvise in total incoherence” (in the The Zaragoza congress vision document differs words of Cesar M. Lorenzo)13 two months from Abad de Santillan’s proposal by adding the later, in the aftermath of the military coup structure of residential assemblies and geographic d’etat. federations of these as the expression of political self-rule but also as the channel for consumer input, Coup with responsibility for articulating proposals for The army takeover began in Spain in the early public goods such as health care, media, town th beautification, and housing. But how exactly morning hours of July 19 . At 5 AM factory sirens would consumer input be plugged into the began going off in Barcelona. The CNT had system of social planning? In fact the arranged the sirens as a signal to its defense Zaragoza document doesn’t say. Traditional organization that the army was moving out anarchism lacked a concept of participatory of its bases. The CNT had organized about 200 planning10 — interactive development of a social neighborhood defense groups throughout the plan through consumer/worker negotiation. Barcelona area, with about two thousand armed activists, and had set up a regional workers defense The Zaragoza document provided for the committee to coordinate them. The night before the linking of the free municipalities into coup they had seized a cache of arms from a ship in regional and national People’s Congresses. Barcelona harbor. In effect, this provided for local, regional and When the CNT concentrated its forces at At the end of two weeks, the fascist one of the army bases in the morning, a generals had lost about half the personnel of corporal in the Spanish army shot his fascist the army in Spain, 40 percent of the police officer and persuaded his fellow soldiers to personnel, two-thirds of the navy and most of surrender. Thus the CNT gained access to a the air force. The army coup had been large supply of arms. Employees of the defeated in two-thirds of Spain, including streetcar company seized the armored car the industrialized areas and the big cities. used by the company for the movement of The most important force available to the cash and used it as an armored vehicle in the fascist generals was the 25,000-man Army of fight. Once the CNT had gone into action Africa, a battle-hardened colonial force of against the army, rank-and-file asaltos mercenaries and thugs. With the Spanish joined the fight. In Barceloneta, a working sailors in control of the country’s warships in class neighborhood around the docks, a July, and these ships prowling the straights police major began handing out weapons to of Gibraltar, the water-borne transit of the anyone who could show a union card. Pilots Army of Africa to Spain from Morocco was of the Spanish air force began bombing and blocked momentarily. At this point, Nazi strafing positions of the army around Germany came to the aid of the fascist Barcelona. Spanish generals by providing German Nowhere in Spain did rank-and-file aircraft and pilots to ferry the Army of Africa members of the police take the initiative to to Spain — the first airlift of an entire army fight the army on their own. Where workers into action in military history. With oil failed to take aggressive, armed action and refineries and gasoline stocks seized by the trusted to liberal government officials, the workers in Spain, the fascist army was in police played a waiting game. In the CNT danger of running out of gas. Texaco then stronghold of Zaragoza, in Aragon, a local provided another form of international aid. CNT leader trusted a local liberal The CEO of that company ordered tankers at Republican official. When the army revolted, sea to put into ports controlled by the fascist the result was a terrible slaughter. In 1979 a army. The company provided $5 million of mass grave was uncovered outside Zaragoza gasoline on credit. with 7,000 bodies. Meanwhile, officers in the British navy Almost everywhere in Spain where union in Gibraltar were horrified at the sight of activists moved aggressively against the Spanish warships run by lower-rank sailors military uprising and were joined by the showing casual disregard for traditional police, the army coup was defeated. In rules of dress and exchanging clenched-fist Madrid many members of the Assault Guard salutes. The British naval officers directly were socialists. There were not many places aided the Spanish fascists. When the where the people defeated the army without Spanish army was besieging the coastal the aid of the police. Nowhere in Spain did town of Algeciras from the landside, sailors army soldiers rebel against their officers of the Spanish fleet attempted to protect the unless they were being besieged by angry town by firing their ships’ guns at the army. workers and police. The British navy blocked this by moving The officers in the Spanish navy were British ships in front of the town. mostly blue-blood sons of the land-owning In towns that were taken by the army, a oligarchy. They had a low opinion of the purge committee was set up. Typically this lower ranks of sailors. Many Spanish sailors would consist of a police official, a priest, a had previously worked in the Spanish representative of the fascist Falange, and a commercial shipping industry where they local landowner. Lists were drawn up of had often been members of the CNT or UGT known leftists and executions were carried unions. They had a low opinion of their out systematically. According to a member of officers. The night before July 19th sailors in the Falange: “Eighty percent of those being the Spanish fleet held secret meetings, executed in the rearguard were workers. The elected ship committees, and proceeded to repression was aimed at decimating the arrest or shoot their fascist officers. working class, destroying its power…It was a class war.”14 It is estimated that CNT had set up 24 metalworking and authorities executed between 100,000 and chemical factories making shells, explosives 200,000 people in the fascist zone during the and armored vehicles for the revolutionary civil war. labor army. After the defeat of the army in Barcelona The Debate in the CNT Over Political on July 20th, hundreds of thousands of Power people poured out into the streets, to According to his associates, Lluis Companys celebrate the victory. The chief of police, th Frederic Escofet, worried about growing was anxious and nervous on July 20 . His police CNT power, sent police to the military arms chief, Escofet, had just warned him that the police depot at Sant Andreu where 30,000 rifles could no longer ensure a re-assertion of government 16 were stored. They arrived too late. The CNT authority . The CNT now held de facto armed had already confiscated the weapons15. The power in Catalonia. Companys was the president of CNT also seized the fortifications on the Generalitat de Catalunya (Commonwealth of Montjuich, overlooking Barcelona. Catalonia — an autonomous regional parliamentary government) and head of the populist, Catalan In addition to distributing arms to its nationalist Esquerra (Partit Esquerra Republicana neighborhood defense groups, the CNT de Catalunya — Left Republican Party of moved immediately to create an army of its Catalonia). The Esquerra had defeated the Catalan own. Thousands of men and women from the League (Lliga Catalana), the party of Catalan big CNT unions were recruited. The CNT business, in the elections of February 1936. The defense committee requisitioned motor Catalan middle strata — owners of small mercantile vehicles — taxis, cars of the well-to-do, and industrial businesses, small landlords, lawyers buses, and trucks. Motorized militia units and professionals, managers, family farmers — called columns were organized for the were the main social base of the Esquerra. purpose of mounting an offensive to drive the army out of Catalonia and nearby regions. A Companys was the former lawyer of the typical column was about the size of a CNT, and knew many of the anarchists. He military division. The ultimate needed to figure out an appeal to them that decision-making authority in each column would prevent the overthrow of his was the assembly of the militia members. government. The assembly elected the commanding Ricardo Sanz, Buenaventura Durruti, officer (“chief delegate”) of the column. The and Joan Garcia Oliver were leading sub-units each elected a delegate to a “war activists on the CNT regional defense committee” — the administrative committee committee, and members of Nosotros (“Us”) of the column. A sympathetic non-com or — a FAI group. Companys invited them to officer from the Spanish army was attached his office on July 20th. Companys told them: to each column as a technical advisor. The “First of all I must say that the CNT and the overall direction of the columns was the FAI have never been treated with the proper work of the CNT union defense committee. importance which they deserve. You have During the summer of 1936, the labor always been harshly prosecuted. And I, who militia columns from Valencia and Catalonia used to be with you, was forced by political drove the fascist army out of Catalonia and realities to oppose you and hound you. You 100 kilometers west across the region of are now in control of the city and Catalonia Aragon — the largest amount of territory because you alone routed the fascist gained and held by the anti-fascist forces in militarists. But let me remind you that you the civil war. didn’t lack help today from men of my party, as well as from the Assault and Presidential Barcelona was the center of the Spanish Guards….You have won and the power is in motor vehicle industry. After July 19th the your hands. If you don’t need me and if you CNT metallurgical union moved to don’t want me as President of Catalonia, tell immediately confiscate the assets of this me now and I will be only one more soldier in industry, to convert it to war production for the struggle…You can count on my loyalty as the union militia. In a matter of weeks, the a man and a party leader who believes that a shameful past came to an end today and I sincerely hope that Catalonia will be in the view. Bajo Llobregat was an area of vanguard of the countries who are the most industrial suburbs on the south edge of progressive in social matters.”17 Barcelona, an area that had been built up Companys then proposed the CNT’s during the industrial boom of the 1920s. The participation on an Anti-fascist Militia Bajo Llobregat delegation asked Garcia Committee, controlled by the Popular Front Oliver to articulate their position in the parties, to run the armed effort against the debate. A charismatic speaker, Garcia Oliver fascist military. This was a clever gambit had worked most of his life as a waiter, when because its nominal independence of the he wasn’t in jail. His life-long experience of state would allow anarchists to say they class struggle left him with a strong sense weren’t participating in a government body that the working class would have to impose but would draw them into a course of action its will on society if it was ever to free itself. controlled by the Popular Front party Garcia Oliver emphasized that a revolutionary leaders, and would leave the government process must be governed, it cannot be left with a intact. power vacuum, which “would allow the various It was the personal opinion of Sanz, Marxist tendencies to take control and obliterate Durruti and Garcia Oliver that the CNT us.” The regional secretary, Mariano Vazquez -— a should overthrow the Generalitat18, but they construction worker of gypsy origin — maintained didn’t express that opinion to Companys. that they should accept Companys’ offer of They told him that the CNT had to decide participation in an Anti-fascist Militia Committee what to do. That night, the CNT local labor provisionally while “governing from the streets.” council in Barcelona had a meeting to decide The main speakers against Garcia Oliver its stance on this question. At that meeting, were Federica Montseny and Diego Abad de Garcia Oliver argued that “the movement Santillan. Montseny was an anarchist should take power.” Felix Carrasquer, a novelist and charismatic speaker. Montseny schoolteacher, and Diego Abad de Santillan, and Abad de Santillan were both members of both representing the FAI, argued against. Nervio — a FAI group. Both worked for the The debate, however, was framed in terms of anarchist publishing cooperative that had the question: “Should we impose our vision of been founded by Montseny’s parents. libertarian communism? Should the CNT Montseny was a member of the Peninsular rule alone?” Carrasquer and Abad de Committee of the FAI and both her and de Santillan argued that this would be a Santillan were at this meeting as dictatorship imposed by a minority. After a representatives of the FAI. heated debate, the Barcelona labor council Montseny argued that Garcia Oliver’s voted against the option of taking power19. proposal to carry out the CNT’s “libertarian However, this didn’t settle the question. communist” program would mean the The actual decision would be made by a imposition of an “anarchist dictatorship” regional plenary of all the CNT local labor over the population. Abad de Santillan councils in Catalonia. The regional secretary focused on the danger of foreign called this meeting for July 23rd. The intervention, pointing to the presence off the regional plenary was a meeting of over 500 coast of British warships. CNT local labor council delegates. The In reply, Garcia Oliver pointed out that meeting was held in the Casa de Cambó, the he had never spoken of a “dictatorship” of former employers’ association headquarters. anarchists or of the CNT. He objected to This large building had just been seized as a calling the rule of the workers’ unions a revolutionary act, to provide space for the “dictatorship.” He argued that, as the CNT, FAI and Mujeres Libres (Free Women majority labor organization, the CNT had an — the anarchist women’s organization). obligation to lead the way forward in the The delegation from the labor council of revolution and he believed that the Bajo Llobregat proposed that the unions libertarian, democratic practices and should take power and overthrow the ideology of the CNT unions would be a Generlitat; now was the moment to carry out guarantee that union governance of the the CNT’s revolutionary program, in their society would not degenerate into an authoritarian regime. He tagged Abad de from the union itself. The Zaragoza vision Santillan’s comments as just an appeal to document included a proposal for regional fear. In response to Vazquez, he said that at and national worker congresses, as part of least the regional secretary acknowledged the economic planning process. These that a revolution must be governed. But he congresses would be made up of delegates insisted that the CNT must be in charge of elected by the union or workplace making the revolution. assemblies. A regional worker congress While Garcia Oliver was speaking, he could have been a means to unite the CNT, noticed that Fidel Miró — another member of UGT and FOUS unions in Catalonia. The the Nervio group and an activist in the 350,000-member CNT was the majority Libertarian Youth — was moving from labor organization in Catalonia. It would delegation to delegation in the hall, lining up have a great influence over the direction votes. When the vote was taken, the proposal taken by a structure of political power in for collaboration with the Popular Front which the FOUS and UGT unions also parties on the Anti-fascist Militia Committee participated, as minorities. got the majority20. Montseny’s talk of “CNT dictatorship” In his memoir, Garcia Oliver points out was tailored to appeal to anarchist that the delegates had been gathered in prejudices. But this did not properly frame haste, without the opportunity to consult the situation facing the CNT at this time. In activists in the unions or discuss the the coming months, the CNT would insist implications of what was being decided. that its aim was “the triumph of the Garcia Oliver believed that the meeting had proletarian revolution.” Victory in this been unduly influenced by “petty bourgeois endeavor would require that the working anarchist intellectuals” like Montseny and class dissolve the institutional basis of the Abad de Santillan, who had a certain power of classes that dominate and exploit influence through the anarchist press in the working class. Catalonia. The social base of the Republican But why were the labor council delegates political parties in Spain was the small swayed by the remarks of Montseny and de business and professional/managerial Santillan? Conceiving of union political classes. These social classes would inevitably power as a “CNT dictatorship” may be the oppose the proletarian revolution, as it result of an ambiguity in the syndicalist would dissolve their class privilege and concept of “prefigurative” politics. The idea power. Any power retained by the that the libertarian unions “prefigure” a Republican and Basque Nationalist party society of self-management could be leaders in governance would be used to interpreted to mean that the union itself obstruct the process of working class takes over economic and political empowerment. Moreover, the Communist management of the society — and Party, since the adoption of its “Popular syndicalists have sometimes talked in that Front” orientation, and the social-democratic way. This might lead to the conclusion that wing of the PSOE, were allied with these the CNT itself would be the governing anti-fascist middle strata. structure for the economy and polity. Hence On the other hand, it was equally clear a “CNT dictatorship.” that a working class victory would require But the syndicalist concept of the maximum of working class unity. The prefigurative politics, of “building the new CNT could not ignore the 1.4 million workers society in the shell of the old,” doesn’t have to in the UGT. And in Catalonia, there were be interpreted that way. It could be also the 70,000 workers in the understood to mean that practices and POUM-controlled FOUS unions. In a life or habits of participatory democracy are built death struggle against the army, the masses up through the mass union organizations of CNT members would insist that the CNT and then this is reflected in new structures of work out an alliance with the other working worker management of the economy and class organizations. The CNT had already structures of political governance, separate committed itself to a “revolutionary workers’ alliance” with the UGT at its congress in union had one seat. The middle-class May. The CNT-UGT unity in the uprising in Republican political parties had four Asturias in October 1934 was an example representatives. that everyone was familiar with. Within days of the military coup, a new If the CNT could not come up with a political organization was formed in practical program for a unified working class Catalonia — the Unified Socialist Party of political power, this would mean that the Catalonia (Partit Socialista Unificat de only alternative would be the strategy being Catalunya — PSUC). This was formed from promoted by the Communists and the other the merger of four small parties: the section Popular Front parties: a top-down unity of of the PSOE in Catalonia, the Catalan leaders of the Popular Front parties through Communist Party (PCC), the Proletarian a rebuilt Republican state. No other option Party (a Catalan nationalist worker group), was realistic. Either the CNT took political and the Socialist Union (a social democratic power jointly with the other unions, or the group). The PSUC, with 6,000 members, need for unity in the struggle against the became the affiliate of the Moscow-line fascist army would lead to the Popular Front Spanish Communist Party (PCE) in solution. In that case, the Spanish state Catalonia. The PSUC had two seats on the would be rebuilt — a hierarchical apparatus Anti-fascist Militia Committee, even though that would be used to defend the interests of the larger POUM had only one21. classes that dominate the working class. The 70,000-member FOUS had no Although the Republican state representatives. In August the CNT regional apparatus was temporarily disarmed, due to leaders in Catalonia would enter into a deal the revolt of the old army and police, and the with the UGT to allow only UGT and CNT construction of a revolutionary labor militia, union cards for participation in the food the state apparatus still had considerable rationing systems set up in the wake of the resources as long as it was left intact. It had fascist coup. This forced the dissolution of social legitimacy in the eyes of the the FOUS. This was a sectarian error on the Republican middle classes, and it had part of the leading anarcho-syndicalists. The control over the country’s financial system, POUM’s politics were closer to those of the gold reserves and foreign currency and trade CNT than the Moscow-line Communists. relationships. Almost immediately after the The Communists would soon cement their coup the Communist Party began its control over the UGT in Catalonia. Leaving campaign to rebuild the Republican state. the FOUS intact would have provided the This means that the real question the CNT with an important ally. CNT faced was how to create a joint The Anti-fascist Militia Committee governing structure for the country with the proved to be ineffective. There was no unified other unions, wiping away the old state policy or real coordination. Each apparatus and institutionalizing working organization used its posts as it wanted. The class power. Esquerra, PSUC and POUM each had their The CNT actually did come around to own separate militia divisions, apart from this conclusion. But it would take another the much larger union militia of the CNT. six weeks of debate in the union. Each of these four organizations ran its own militia command and provided its own The Anti-fascist Militia Committee was supply system for its militia. This was the not an organ of working class “dual power.” pattern throughout Spain. This was not an The Popular Front leaders in fact controlled effective way to run the armed struggle the committee, just like the government. The against the fascist army. There was a 350,000-member CNT held only three out of general failure at coordination. 15 seats on the committee, with another two representatives for the FAI. The UGT, which CNT Proposes Labor Government had only 100,000 members in Catalonia, also The leading CNT activists and militia had three seats. The Esquerra’s farmers’ leaders saw that there was clearly a need for a unified command and unified training and supply systems. If they couldn’t do this for Caballero as president25. The national the militia, there would inevitably be council would be part of a federalist system pressure to re-create a conventional army with regional Councils of Defense. The run by the Republican state. Within days of authority of the councils would be limited to the military coup, the Communist Party the social self-defense function — “people’s started beating the drum for the re-creation courts,” police, a unified People’s Militia. The of a conventional, top-down military. Defense Councils would have no authority to The revolutionary militia system could intervene in the management of industry; only be saved if the CNT could find a way to industries would be managed by the create a unified militia. The only way to do workers. A Russian agent in Spain wrote to this would be to create a unified labor the Soviet authorities: “The thought of governance structure for Spain. The unions creating such a council finds a wide response needed to take power. even among the masses that are not under the anarchists’ influence.”26 The CNT To counter the drive to rebuild the old proposed that the unified People’s Militia be hierarchical army, Garcia Oliver gave a th controlled by “joint CNT-UGT commissions.” speech on August 10 , calling for a Organized labor would have a monopoly of revolutionary people’s army: armed power in Spain. “A people’s army growing out of the The CNT’s timing was off, however. For militia should be organized on new the first six weeks after the military coup, principles. We will organize a revolutionary ineffective liberals presided over the military school where we will train technical government in Madrid. By early September, officers who will not be carbon copies of the however, Largo Caballero, executive old officers, but rather simply technicians secretary of the UGT, had just been made who will follow the instructions of officers prime minister. He had said publicly that the who have proven their loyalty to the people revolution had to be put on hold to defeat the 22 and the proletariat.” fascist army. Marcel Rosenberg, the Soviet At another regional plenary of the CNT ambassador, warned Caballero that the CNT in Catalonia in the last days of August, proposal would destroy the “international Garcia Oliver, frustrated with the legitimacy” of the Spanish Republic. Manuel ineffectiveness of the Anti-fascist Militia Azaña, President of the Republic, threatened Committee, once again proposed that the to resign. To placate the Communists, CNT CNT take power, abolishing the Generalitat, representatives met with the Central removing the political party leaders from Committee of the PCE and assured them any role, and reducing the role of the UGT to that they would still be represented via their a minority, in keeping with its size in trade union cadres in the UGT. 23 Catalonia . Largo Caballero and the Left Socialists On August 31st, José Giral, the had a history of wavering. They would talk Republican prime minister in Madrid, told a about “proletarian revolution” one moment, member of the CNT national committee: then scurry back to a moderate “Everything is in the hands of the CNT! The social-democratic stance the next moment. CNT directs the war as it wants but without To give Caballero some spine, they needed to sharing in the supreme responsibilities. put him over a barrel. In Catalonia they had Govern! Take power!”24 the power to simply wipe away the Finally, at a national plenary of the CNT Generalitat government and implement on September 3rd, at the insistence of the their proposal for a joint governing council regional delegation from Catalonia, the CNT with the other unions. Doing that could have decided to propose the formation of a forced the UGT to agree to extend this revolutionary labor government to replace solution to all of Spain. the national Popular Front government: a Regional defense councils were created in National Defense Council (Junta Nacional Asturias and Aragon. The Council of de Defensa) made up of seven delegates of Asturias had 15 members, with the UGT in the UGT and seven of the CNT, with Largo the majority. The middle-class Republicans were only given two representatives. In there was no effective government in Madrid Aragon the initiative to form a at all. “A revolutionary moment of great CNT-controlled Regional Defense Council promise had been lost,” in his opinion 27. came from the CNT village unions in the De Guzmán suggests that there was a zone of Aragon that had been liberated by confusion about “apoliticism” in the CNT. In the labor militia. his view it should mean “simply not to But Catalonia was far more important participate in the farce of [parliamentary] than rural Aragon or Asturias. Catalonia elections.” This is not the same as saying had three-fourths of Spain’s industrial that a polity — a structure of popular capacity and Spain’s largest city. If the governance — is not needed to replace the Generalitat had been replaced with a state. Just as syndicalists had always working class governance structure, emphasized the continuity of social Caballero couldn’t have ignored this. But production being maintained in a process of instead, the CNT of Catalonia went in the social transformation, the same argument opposite direction. They joined the can be made for the political functions — Generalitat government on September 26th. making and enforcing the basic rules in This completely undermined the CNT’s society. These are also necessary functions. bargaining leverage with Caballero because To respond to Socialist concerns about it told him they weren’t serious about their ensuring the loyalty of the “anti-fascist petty Defense Council proposal. bourgeoisie,” the CNT, at another national While the negotiations with the UGT for plenary in mid-September, modified the a National Defense Council were going on in National Defense Council proposal so that it Madrid, Eduardo de Guzmán was editor of would be made up of five CNT delegates, five the CNT paper Castilla Libre in Madrid. In UGT delegates, and four representatives of his view, the initiative to form a the Republican Parties. With this working-class government in Madrid was modification, one of the smaller Republican hindered by the CNT’s failure to take power parties — the Federal Republicans — in Barcelona. Even if the complete endorsed the CNT proposal. But Largo implementation of “libertarian communism” Caballero still refused this “leap outside the was not possible at the moment, it was bounds of the Constitution.” With the CNT possible to create joining the Generalitat government, he knew “a proletarian government — total the CNT wasn’t serious. Caballero made a working-class democracy in which all sectors counter proposal: The CNT would join the of the proletariat — but of the proletariat existing Popular Front government. alone — would be represented….To make a Finally, at yet another national plenary revolution, power must be seized. If the CNT on September 28th, the treintista national had done so in Catalonia, it would have secretary of the CNT, Horacio Prieto, pushed helped, not hindered, our minority position for accepting Caballero’s offer. The in Madrid. But they believed that it was delegation from Catalonia was adamantly sufficient to have taken the streets, to have opposed to this. The regional organization in seized arms. They completely overlooked the importance of the state apparatus.” Catalonia was inconsistent — it opposed the CNT doing at the national level what it had According to de Guzmán, “the petty done in Catalonia. bourgeoisie was inevitably opposed to the proletariat. The Communists were Having failed to chart a coherent course recruiting in this class, and in alliance with for unifying the working class in building the petty bourgeois Republicans were bound new structures of governance, to replace the to gain strength if the Generalitat and the Republican state, the CNT finally joined the central government were reconstituted.” He national Popular Front government on believed that it was a mistake for the CNT to November 4th, receiving only four out of 18 28 have not pushed for a working class posts in the cabinet . At the first meeting of government at the very beginning when the new government, Joan Peiró proposed that the government authorize the complete collectivization of the Spanish economy. This initiative was blocked by the objections of restaurants and bars30. In addition, motor the middle class Republicans, Basque freight companies, bakeries, barber shops, Nationalists, and their social-democratic the plate glass and mirror industry, the and Communist allies. lumber industry in the Pyrenees mountains, Throughout the month of October, furniture-making, and hospitals were also Solidaridad Obrera, the CNT’s daily paper expropriated. The CNT national telephone in Barcelona, had mounted a major industrial union seized the Spanish National campaign in favor of the proposal for a joint Telephone Co, the largest subsidiary of the CNT-UGT National Defense Council. Now American multinational ITT. In Valencia, that the CNT had opted for Popular Front the CNT created an organization to manage collaboration, the CNT regional committee the purchase, packing and export of the wanted a less “intransigently revolutionary” citrus crop — Spain’s largest source of foreign line at Solidaridad Obrera. Among the staff exchange earnings in the 1930s. members who were fired due to their Thousands of houses of the wealthy were opposition to the policy of Popular Front expropriated as were large apartment collaboration was a disabled journalist, complexes. There were also at least a couple Jaime Balius29 and the paper’s managing thousand collectivized agricultural editor, Liberto Callejas. Balius and Callejas communities created throughout the would later surface in an attempt to revive anti-fascist zone. the labor defense council proposal in the Before discussing the details of workers’ spring of 1937. self-management created by the unions, it is Unions Move Towards Socialization useful to keep in mind what the CNT’s aim from Below was. Before the civil war, the CNT had never advocated that workplaces or industries There is no clearer expression of the should become the collective private revolutionary spirit of the CNT than the property of their workers. Abad Diego de massive expropriation of capitalist industry Santillan explained the rationale for the in Spain that took place during the summer CNT’s opposition to private ownership: of 1936, and the direct management of industry by the workers during the civil war. “We are an anti-capitalist, anti-proprietor In the Barcelona area alone, more than 3,000 movement. We have seen in the private ownership of the instruments of labor, of enterprises were seized by the unions. No factories, of the means of transport, in the instructions for these takeovers were issued capitalist apparatus of distribution, the by the regional or national committees of the primary cause of misery and injustice. We CNT. They were carried out on the initiative wanted the socialization of all the wealth in of the activists in the local unions. order that not a single individual should be Expropriation was especially widespread in left on the margin of the banquet of life.”31 Catalonia with the CNT holding de facto Thus, the CNT advocated social armed power. ownership. All of the workplaces in an Burnett Bolloten was an American UPI industry would be grouped together into an reporter in Spain at the time. Among the industrial federation which would be industries that Bolloten lists as “confiscated responsible for managing that industry. The by the unions and controlled by worker industrial federations would be coordinated committees” were the following: railways, by regional and national economics councils. commercial shipping, streetcars and buses, Social ownership would be reflected in the taxicabs, electric power companies, gas and development of social plans to which the water systems, glass-bottle factories and various industrial federations would be perfumeries, textile mills and paper expected to adhere in their work. The factories, mines and cement works, food industrial federations, wrote de Sqantillan processing plants and breweries, motion are not “proprietors” of the industries but are picture theaters, live theaters and grand “only administrators at the service of the opera, newspapers and print shops, entire society.” Economic councils, Abad de department stores and hotels, deluxe Santillan wrote, would “receive their directives from below, they make from the unions so that it could be an adjustments according to regional and organization in which the CNT and UGT national congresses.” shared power. According to Joan Ferrer, a bookkeeper The Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante (MZA) who was the secretary of the CNT was a large, privately owned railway that commercial workers union in Barcelona: operated the mainlines from Madrid to “It was our idea in the CNT that everything Barcelona and Valencia, and the mainline th should start from the worker, not — as with along the Mediterranean coast. On July 20 , the Communists — that everything should with street-fighting still going on in be run by the state. To this end we wanted to Barcelona, militants from the CNT railway set up industrial federations — textiles, national industrial union told the metal-working, department stores, etc. — management of the MZA they were fired. which would be represented on an overall The workers were taking over. The electric Economics Council which would direct the commuter railway operating out of economy. Everything, including economic Barcelona was also seized, and the railways planning, would thus remain in the hands of the workers.”32 were merged together into a single network. This takeover was initiated by the CNT In the variation on this theme approved union but the UGT soon came along. Each by the Zaragoza congress, there would also union had about an equal proportion of the be input to the social planning process about railway workforce. The train operating what to produce from the geographic crews, who had a more militant tradition, resident assemblies in the neighborhoods or tended to belong to the CNT. The station villages and the regional and national agents, railway clerks, and yardmasters People’s Congresses linking these resident tended to belong to the UGT. assemblies together. The new organization formed to operate In the libertarian syndicalist view, the railway network was called the socialization of the economy was to be Revolutionary Railway Federation. The constructed “from below,” through the direct coordinating committee — called the activity of the workers themselves. There Revolutionary Committee — consisted of six were two aspects or phases to syndicalist UGT members and six CNT members. socialization. The first phase was Except for a full-time executive director, expropriation of assets of the capitalists and they all continued to work at their regular creation of an industrial federation, job. For each section of the railway line and suppressing market competition between each station, a committee was formed of firms in the industry. The second phase delegados elected by a local assembly. In the would be the creation of overall social bi-weekly assemblies, the proposals of the planning. In fact, Spain never got to this committee would be either approved or second phase. disapproved by the workers. In a number of industries, the unions The railways had been operating at a loss moved quickly to create an industrial even before the civil war, due to growing federation, merging the assets of the automobile use. To improve efficiency of the businesses in that industry. Where transport network, the railway federation industrial federations were set up, these undertook to do an extensive survey of were of two types. In some cases, the CNT transport services with the assistance of the union itself became the industrial federation CNT transport unions. They mapped the running an industry. In other cases, the various bus, motor freight, and commercial industrial federation was a new structure, shipping services. They discovered that apart from the union. This second type of various poor rural areas had no public industrial federation tended to emerge transport services. Meanwhile, there was where there was a strong UGT union. The multiple duplication of services along the industrial federation was formally separate coastal corridor. As a result, the CNT transport unions agreed on a plan to eliminate some services competing with the railway such as the coastal maritime furniture factory was expropriated but shipping line, and create new bus and motor expanded by adding two new floors. Each of freight services for unserved rural areas. these factories employed about 200 people. The railway built a new branch line in a A FAI group in the wood union opposed rural area of Aragon to serve both the the drive to consolidate the entire industry villages and the nearby labor militia on the into a single union-managed industrial Aragon front33. operation. They advocated the creation of small, autonomous production centers. Their critics described this as a throwback to the pre-capitalist era of self-employed artisans. The FAI proposal was defeated. The union also seized the furniture retail stores. The lumber operations in the Pyrenees mountains were taken over. The union managed the entire industry from extracting the raw material to sale of the finished product in showrooms. The union believed that it should look after the overall well-being of its members. To this end, the union built a gym with an More than a dozen electric power, gas Olympic-size swimming pool at the Double X and water companies were expropriated by factory. In a mountain valley the union set the CNT and UGT public utility unions. up an agricultural operation to grow food for Initially the unions set up “control the families of union members. committees” after July 19th at the various “The concept that prevailed,” a wood companies, with the existing management union member recalled, “was that the still in place. The expropriation by the working class should have good furniture at unions didn’t happen until the end of cheap prices.”35 August. As with the railway industry, an industrial federation separate from the With so many of the union militants unions was formed to take over management away in the militia, there was a tendency for of this industry. The UGT and CNT public the wood union to appoint former owners or utility industrial unions were about an equal their sons as administrative heads of proportion of the workforce — each about sections. There was some danger in having 8,000 members in Catalonia. Administrative people in such positions who are in the habit councils for the gas, water and electric power of giving orders and having others obey divisions, each made up of an equal number them. At the same time, the union of CNT and UGT delegates, were responsible committees were now transformed into to periodic regional assemblies of the administrative councils for an organization workers34. running an industry. According to one union member, discontent developed because the There were also numerous industries members felt they weren’t involved in where the CNT union itself became the decision-making whereas “the CNT tradition industrial federation, the organ of workers’ was to discuss and examine everything.” One self-management of the industry. problem, in his view, was the failure to The CNT wood union in Catalonia seized produce a newsletter to keep members and shut down the small cabinet-making informed36. shops, where conditions were often cramped, As in most cases of workers’ inefficient and dangerous. These shops were self-management in Barcelona, no new shop replaced by a new factory, the Double X. The stewards committees were elected after the union imported French machinery with the wood union committees were transformed latest safety devices. An existing large into administrative councils for management of the industry. A number of the CNT veterans interviewed by Ronald Clara’s comment overlooks the efficiency Fraser for Blood of Spain believed that this gains captured as higher wages for the failure to re-create a separate union workers and the idea that socialization is not organization was a mistake. just about physical assets but changing Elimination of the class system is not social power relationships. The aim of the merely a formal process of expropriation and libertarian syndicalist movement was to do creation of a new organization. Job away with the subordination of workers definitions need to be re-thought, power inherent in being hired to work for a boss for equalized through learning new skills and wages. workers taking over tasks formerly done by Health care was another industry “professionals.” Ingrained habits of giving transformed by the revolution. A new and obeying orders need to be broken down. 7000-member CNT sindicato unico for the Because the new system inherits differences health industry in Barcelona — including in skills, education and habits from 3,200 male nurses — was created in hierarchical systems of power, there is a September, 1936. The various professions danger of expertise and decision-making were organized as “sections” of the health being re-consolidated into some new union. This union expropriated the hospitals hierarchy. Perhaps the union organization — and created and managed a new socialized separate from the structure of health care system in Catalonia. self-management of the industry — was Before July, medical practices were needed to look out for the interests of the typically owned by a senior physician, and workers in the course of this process of the younger doctors were hired as assistants. transition. Medical services were focused on wealthier Another industry that was totally neighborhoods. Poor villages often had no re-organized was hair-cutting. Before July doctor. The new system was intended to 19th, there had been 1,100 hairdressing provide a more equitable distribution of parlors in Barcelona, most of them extremely health resources. If a poor village didn’t have marginal. The 5,000 assistant hairdressers a doctor, the health union would find one. were among the lowest-paid workers in The health union tried to do away with Barcelona. The Generalitat had decreed a private practices but was not able to get the 40-hour week and 15 percent wage increase majority of doctors to agree to this. All of the after July 19th — one of the Esquerra’s doctors were required to work three hours a attempts to woo worker support. This spelled day for the health union, which left them ruin for many hairdressing shops. A general with enough time in the day to see private assembly was held and it was agreed to shut patients. When working for the union, all down all the unprofitable shops. The 1,100 doctors were paid the same pay rate — but shops were replaced by a network of 235 their hourly rate was about four times a neighborhood haircutting centers, with typical worker’s wage. better equipment and lighting than the old The government provided some funds to shops. Due to the efficiencies gained, it was help pay for the socialized health care possible to raise wages by 40 percent. The system in Catalonia, but this was not entire network was run through assemblies sufficient to cover all costs. Although visits to of the CNT barber’s union. The former the new network of outpatient clinics were owners became members of the union37. free, the health union charged fees for office To some critics, the socialization of the visits to doctors and for surgery. As a result, haircutting industry was a mistake: “What many unions, collectivized industries and in reality was being collectivized?,” asked village collectives entered into special Sebastia Clara, a treintista government agreements with the health union to provide employee in Catalonia; “A pair of scissors, a free health care for their members and their razor, a couple of barber’s chairs. And what families. The health union ran dental clinics was the result? All those small owners…now and also took over research and manufacture turned against us.”38 of pharmaceuticals. This socialized health care system was an overall assembly for decisions that expanded throughout the anti-fascist zone affected the transit-system as a whole. There through the work of the 40,000-member CNT was no top manager or executive director. national industrial federation for health Barcelona Tramways had operated with care, consisting of 40 local unions39. a fare zone system which meant that it cost The main part of the public transit more for people in the outer working class system in Barcelona was the streetcar suburbs to get into the city center. The system, which operated 60 routes worker-run transit operation switched to a throughout the metropolitan area. This flat fare throughout the metropolitan area, system was operated by Barcelona to equalize fare costs to riders. Despite this Tramways, owned mainly by Belgian lowering of the fare, the worker-run transit investors. Of the 7,000 employees of this system operated at a profit. A large amount company, 6,500 belonged to the CNT of French and American machine tools were transport sindicato unico. purchased, to make the transit operation On July 20th an armed group from the largely self-sufficient in spare parts. The CNT transport union discovered that the top CNT transport union entered into an management of Barcelona Tramways had arrangement with the new health union to fled. A mass meeting of the transit workers ensure free medical care for transit workers was held the following day and the assembly and their families. voted overwhelmingly to expropriate the Due to war-time restrictions on transit companies in the name of the people. automobile travel, ridership increased by 62 Three private bus companies, two percent the first year on the funiculars, and the subway were taken over worker-managed transit network. It was not along with the streetcar company. possible to obtain new streetcars. To The streetcar system had been badly accommodate the increased ridership, the mauled in the street fighting — tracks had workers redesigned the layout of the been damaged, overhead wires were knocked maintenance facility, to reduce the down in places, equipment boxes were shot downtime for streetcars during routine up, and streetcar tracks were blocked by maintenance. A number of junked streetcars barricades. Working night and day, the were rebuilt and put back into service. New, transit workers got the streetcar network light-weight cars were built for the two working within five days. Over time the funiculars. streetcars were repainted in the diagonally After the passage of the Generalitat divided red and black paint scheme of the collectivization decree in October, 1936, the CNT. Prior to July 19th, equipment boxes of transit network, which was being managed the electric power company in the middle of by the union, was re-organized as the United streets made it necessary for Barcelona Public Service Collective, formally separate streetcars to negotiate tight curves around from the CNT union. In some sections of the them; this had been a source of derailments. collective where there was a UGT union — as After the union takeover, the workers on the subway — the UGT had delegates on arranged with the worker-run public utility the administrative committees. Before July federation to relocate the electric power 19th, the peones (track laborers) were the equipment so that the tracks could be lowest paid workers and the skilled workers straightened out. made 50 percent more. After the seizure of The various modes — buses, subway, the industry, all workers other than the streetcars — were separate union "sections", skilled workers received the same pay, and as were the repair depots. These all were the skilled workers (such as machinists) managed through elected committees, received only 6 percent more. The workers answerable to assemblies of the workers. An volunteered on Sundays in workshops set up engineer was elected to each administrative by the transit union to build war materials committee, to facilitate consultation between for the labor militia.40 manual workers and engineers. There was In September, a conference was held in union “didn’t know how to talk.” They let a Barcelona to work out a general solution for handful of CNT activists deal with the expropriated workplaces in the economy management for them. But this changed as a whole. How far could the CNT proceed with collectivization: towards socialization? What should the CNT “It was amazing. Everyone turned into a do with the expropriated firms? Typically, parrot. Everyone wanted to say what he or facilities were managed by the union when she thought and felt. They obviously felt they were expropriated.The idea of themselves in charge now, with the right to converting expropriated enterprises into speak for themselves.”43 cooperatives, operating in a market Nonetheless, the incompleteness of the economy, had never been advocated by the revolution — the continued existence of the CNT before the war. For the first time, this market and the state, the failure to create a idea was proposed at this conference as a system of popular social planning — created temporary stop-gap solution, until full problems. socialization could be implemented. The use One problem that emerged was the of the word “collective” to describe this inequality between collectives due to stop-gap solution was proposed at this differences in the inherited equipment, conference by Joan Fábregas, a Catalan access to markets, or other differences in nationalist accountant who joined the CNT after their situation. For example, first-phase July of ’36. socialization was not carried out initially in “Up to that moment, I had never heard of the textile industry in Barcelona. Each firm collectivization as a solution for industry — the continued as a separate collective. According department stores were being run by the to Josep Costa, secretary of the CNT textile union,” recalled Joan Ferrer, the CNT union in the nearby suburb of Badalona: commercial union secretary. “What the new system meant was that each collectivized “We didn’t see the Barcelona textile firm would retain its individual character, collectives as models for our experience. but with the ultimate objective of federating Individual collectivized mills acted there all enterprises within the same industry.”41 from the beginning as though they were At that conference, the more powerful completely autonomous units, marketing their own products as they could and paying unions, such as transportation, public little heed to the general situation. It caused utilities, woodworkers, and public a horrific problem. It was a sort of popular entertainment, which had already proceeded capitalism.”44 to the first phase of socialization — In Badalona, the CNT union coordinated consolidation of an entire industry into an all the mills throughout the town. industrial federation — wanted to continue on this path. The smaller, weaker unions The textile industry, like other wanted to convert the expropriated manufacturing industries in Catalonia, had enterprises into cooperatives. produced mainly for the Spanish market. With a third of the country in the hands of The self-managed collectives were a the fascist army, industry in Catalonia lost great affirmation of the capacity of the much of its market. Catalonia’s industrial working class to manage production. output fell by 30 percent during the first year According to Victor Alba — a member of the of collectivization. POUM during the revolution: Finally, in February, 1937 a joint “The collectives of 1936 not only didn’t fail, CNT-UGT textile industry congress was but they were a success. Given the held in Catalonia to establish a Textile circumstances, they demonstrated the Industry Council — an industrial federation principle that workers can administer enterprises with equal or more efficiency that would introduce coordination and end than their employers.”42 competition between workplaces. The congress agreed that collectivization of Andreu Capdevila, a CNT textile individual plants had been a mistake and militant in Barcelona, said that before collectivization, the rank-and-file of the that it was necessary to proceed rapidly Llobregat, a working class suburb on the towards complete socialization of the south edge of Barelona. Textiles were the industry. largest industry but there were also blast Often collectives dealt with the loss of furnaces, foundries and metal-working markets by working shorter hours or paying plants. The CNT unions in Hospitalet were people who weren’t working. According to part of the labor council of Bajo Llobregat Abad de Santillan, more than 15,000 people which had advocated overthrowing the were still being paid for non-work in Generalitat government in July of ’36. In the Catalonia in December, 1936. As he noted, it city of Hospitalet the CNT did sweep away was socially inefficient to have a large the old city government, replacing it with a number of people under-employed or revolutionary committee. The CNT unemployed; the society was losing the work revolutionary committee held various they could do45. A system of social planning neighborhood assemblies to get feedback. would have allowed them to re-allocate jobs This did not quite equal the pre-war CNT in accordance with demand and need for idea of a “free municipality” because the output. geographic assemblies did not elect the new municipal council; it was controlled by the The CNT’s failure to consolidate political unions. power was itself a reason for the incompleteness of the economic revolution. Due to differences in the economic The Generalitat government controlled situation of collectives, the Hospitalet CNT foreign credits and the financial system. decided to implement the sueldo unico by Over time, the collectivized industry became proceeding to socialization of the town’s heavily indebted to the government. This economy, with the more well-off collectives was eventually used to secure ever more cross-subsidizing the less well-off47. state control in the later years of the civil The Revolutionary Railway Federation war, as the Communist Party gained also initially equalized the wages of all the increasing power and moved towards a railway workers. At that time, the guards at nationalized economy. railway grade crossings in Spain were The CNT’s wage aim in the revolution usually women. They were the lowest paid was the sueldo unico (“single wage”). If railway workers. These female workers implemented, this would have meant that gained the most from the wage equalization everyone would be paid at the same hourly on the railways. Later on, however, the rate. A CNT textile union activist explained railway federation needed to hire several the rationale for the sueldo unico: engineers. They were forced to pay these engineers about 2.5 times the wage paid to “We libertarians have a maxim which is the other workers. binding: each shall produce according to his abilities, each shall consume according to his Under a market economy, educated needs. Production is like a clock — each part professionals could use their scarce expertise is interdependent. If one part fails the clock to demand higher wages and other will no longer show the hour. It’s very privileges. This could be dealt with over time difficult to determine which of the workers in a socialized economy with a system of free fulfilling so many different tasks is the most education for workers and a systematic important. The miner digging out the coal, campaign to upgrade workers’ skills. But it the worker transporting it to the factory, the would take time to do that, and a socialized stoker shoveling it into the factory furnace. economy hadn’t yet been consolidated. Without any of them the process would stop. All should be paid the same wage; the only Mujeres Libres difference should depend on whether a man is single or is married and has a family; in Wage equality between men and women the latter case, he should get so much extra doing the same work was only achieved per dependent.”46 sporadically and was most likely in The sueldo unico was implemented in industries where Mujeres Libres had some industries and localities. One such organized women’s groups. Mujeres Libres location was the city of Hospitalet de had been formed as a national organization in the spring of 1936. In Catalonia, Mujeres One area of change in gender relations in Libres came out of a women’s caucus in the Spain during the war was the big increase in CNT unions. women working in industry. As men went off In 1935 the CNT metallurgical sindicato to fight in the anti-fascist people’s army, unico in Barcelona was paying Soledad women were recruited to take their place. Estorach a small stipend as an organizer. The Anti-fascist Women’s Association Estorach was a factory worker and activist in (Asociación de Mujeres Anti-fascistas — the Libertarian Youth. The metallurgical AMA) was organizing among the women union was worried about the lack of working in industry. The AMA was a involvement of women workers in the union. “transmission belt” of the Communist Party. Estorach discovered that if women tried to With the AMA gaining influence in speak at CNT union meetings, they’d be industries, the CNT activists feared that laughed at by the men. The problem wasn’t women would be recruited to the UGT just the male chauvinist attitudes of the unions. The CNT unions could be pushed men. aside. To counter this, the local unions of the Estorach came to believe that it was CNT opened their union halls to Mujeres necessary for women to have their own Libres. The unions provided space for child autonomous organization — a safe space care centers, women’s study groups, and where they could study social issues, learn literacy classes and apprenticeship public speaking, and become prepared to be programs for women. In collectivized activists. Only then would women be able to factories, work would be stopped to allow hold their own with the men in union activists from Mujeres Libres to give meetings. The result was a women’s caucus presentations. in the CNT in Catalonia. The women’s An industry where Mujeres Libres had a caucus also organized child care so that strong presence was public transit. Pura women activists could attend union Pérez was a member of Mujeres Libres who meetings and get elected as delegates. was one of the first women to drive Mujeres Libres stated that its purpose streetcars in Barcelona. According to Pérez, the was to liberate women from the “triple men of the CNT transport union took women on “as enslavement” of “ignorance, enslavement as apprentices, mechanics, and drivers, and really women, and enslavement as workers.” The taught us what to do.” The CNT compañeros, Pérez women who founded Mujeres Libres did not recalled, “really got a kick out of” the amazed looks use the label “feminist.” They were as class on the faces of passengers when they realized that a conscious as their male counterparts. And to woman was at the controls of the streetcar48. them, “feminism” was a movement for Trajectory of the Spanish Communist women to gain access to elite positions in the Party professions, management, government. Mujeres Libres was oriented to working class Despite the real proletarian revolution women, recruiting nearly 30,000 women underway in Spain, the Spanish Communist during three years of revolution and war. Party (Partido Comunista de España — PCE) insisted that the immediate agenda in Despite their loyalty to the CNT Spain was a “bourgeois democratic movement, the women who formed Mujeres revolution,” and that the struggle should be Libres insisted that women’s liberation was seen as simply the defense of the “democratic distinct from working class liberation, and republic.” refused to be just a subordinate appendage — a “women’s auxiliary” — of the FAI and The PCE’s stance, and the Communist CNT. They didn’t believe that the men could International’s attempt to conceal the actual liberate women. The leaders of the FAI and worker revolution in Spain in its propaganda CNT, on the other hand, tended to view the in other countries, was designed to re-assure idea of an autonomous women’s movement the western capitalist “democracies,” it is as “divisive.” often said, especially the USA, Britain and France. The Communists and their supporters advanced the view that this was a process that, if successful, unravels the the best way of winning the war against the structures of class power of the capitalists fascist military. and coordinators so that there is no longer a Much of the historical debate on the role class that dominates and exploits the of Communism in the Spanish revolution working class. A coordinatorist revolution, and civil war has focused on Stalin’s however, is a trajectory of change that, if geopolitical designs. The Soviet Union had successful, dislodges the capitalists from only just recently begun to emerge from their dominant position but empowers the international isolation, joining the League of coordinator class as the new dominating Nations in 1934. The attempt of the group. The working class remains a Communists to assuage the fears of the subordinate and exploited group. British, American and French capitalist The PCE’s trajectory in Spain is an “democracies” was not only a tactic for example of what I call Left coordinatorism — obtaining arms shipments but also fit in with the pursuit of strategies and programs that Stalin’s fears of German militarism, and his empower the coordinator class, under desire to either enter into a military pact anti-capitalist or Left rhetoric. Left with the western “democracies” or else draw coordinatorism is the last defense of the class them into a conflict with the fascist powers. system in a social environment where a But the PCE developed its own social working class movement is threatening its base in Spain during the civil war. What was survival. The empowerment of the the real social meaning of the Spanish coordinator class was clear in the strategy of Communist Party for Spain? To answer this the PCE: the campaign to rebuild the state question, we need to look at the class apparatus; the campaign to build up a hierarchical army and police and recruit the structure of modern capitalism. In the 19th officer corps to the party; the campaign to century Marx saw in capitalism mainly a recruit, and defend the interests of, the bipolar struggle between capital and labor. middle strata of Spanish society; and the However, since the end of the 19th moves during the war towards century, the emergence of the nationalization and state control of state-regulated, corporate form of capitalism collectivized industries. brought with it the emergence of a new main The Spanish Communists had a concept 49 class, which I call the coordinator class . of revolution in Spain occurring in stages. Once capitalist ventures had become too The immediate struggle was a “bourgeois large for the entrepreneurs to manage democratic” stage. This notion of stages was themselves, the capitalists had to concede a clearly expressed by Georgi Dimitrov, realm of power to hierarchies of managers secretary of the Communist International, at and professionals, in the corporations and a meeting of the international held on July the state. The power of the coordinator class 23, 1936: is not based on ownership but on a relative monopolization of levers of decision-making “We should not, at the present stage, assign and other empowering forms of work. The the task [to the Spanish Communists] of creating soviets and try to establish a coordinator class have their own class dictatorship of the proletariat in Spain. That interests. Moreover, this class has the ability would be a fatal mistake. Therefore we must to be a ruling class. The path pioneered by say: act in the guise of defending the the Bolshevik Party in the Russian Republic; do not abandon the politics of the revolution was their use of the state to democratic regime in Spain at this construct a new economic system in which point….When our positions have been the coordinator class rules, without strengthened, we can go further.” (emphasis capitalists. added)50 Limiting our focus to the class dimension There was an international geopolitical struggle of social transformation, there are two between the Soviet coordinator elite and the different types of anti-capitalist revolution capitalist imperialist powers. Capitalist imperialism that are possible. A proletarian revolution is needs to have as much of the planet as possible open to penetration and exploitation by peripatetic The PCE in July of ’36 started from a weak private capital. Any revolution — whether position. It had less than 40,000 members in Spain, coordinatorist, nationalist, or proletarian — and very little support within the Spanish working that “takes out” areas of the world from class. The Communists used several tactics to accessibility to imperialist capital will weaken overcome this weak position. world capitalism and, for that reason, will First, they pursued a strategy of cannibalizing tend to be opposed by the capitalist the Socialist Party base. A number of the leaders of imperialist powers. For the same reason, any the socialist youth organization (including Santiago coordinatorist revolution would be in the Carillo) were taken on tours in Russia and wined interests of the Soviet coordinator elite. and dined. These secret Communists negotiated a The slogan of defending the “bourgeois merger between the Socialist and Communist youth democratic Republic” had two meanings for organizations, creating the Unified Socialist Youth the Spanish Communists. First, it was under (Juventud Socialista Unificada — JSU). The this slogan that the Communist Party in merger deal had stipulated that the politics of the Spain worked to recruit members of the JSU would be decided at a congress. The Socialist small business and coordinator classes, by youth group was larger than the Communist youth defending their interests. organization and contained many followers of the The second meaning of the PCE’s defense Caballero-oriented left-wing of the Socialist Party. of the “bourgeois republic” was their The Left Socialists were prevented from gaining campaign to rebuild the Republican state control of the JSU by simply not holding the apparatus. The Communist Party’s promised congress. The Catalan Communists had long-term revolutionary strategy was gained control of the Socialist Party section in permeationist. With the rebuilding of a Catalonia through a similar merger tactic. In the fall hierarchical army and police machine, the of 1936 Communist leaders tried to persuade Largo Communists would work to capture control Caballero to agree to a merger of the Communist of the officer positions. Their aim was to use and Socialist parties. By then he saw what the result this as the means to eventually take state of this policy had been and refused. power in Spain. Land-owning farmers, shopkeepers, At the end of September, the Popular Front owners of small- to medium-sized government began the process of creating a new businesses, managers and white collar national police force, called the National workers had been the mass social base of the Republican Guard, with 28,000 members by Esquerra in Catalonia. These middle strata December. At the same time, a huge force of 40,000 were often frightened by the expropriation of customs and border police was created under the businesses and buildings, and union direction of Dr. Juan Negrín, a social-democrat and management of industry. In other countries professor of physiology from a wealthy family. In threatened by proletarian revolution, these November, the government decided to replace the social strata have become the mass base for worker militias with a conventional top-down fascism. But in Catalonia the middle strata army. The Communist Party was able to gain were anti-fascist because they were Catalan control of the new academy created to train officers. nationalists. The party also controlled the new Commissariat of Recruitment of these Republican middle War which was set up to exercise political strata was the second tactic that propelled control over the army through a network of the growth of the PCE. The Communists political commissars. The Communists were successful at recruiting the middle controlled the flow of newspapers to the strata throughout the anti-fascist zone troops at the front. Communists put great because the Communists appeared to be a pressure on officers to take a party card. much tougher and more disciplined defender Those that didn’t were undermined. The of their class interests than the old PCE demoralized the army by “acting with Republican parties. the wildest sectarianism,” a Left Socialist The first fight between the PSUC and the member of the Unified Socialist Youth CNT in Catalonia was over a proposed law to recalled51. legalize the expropriations of businesses. This fight took place in October, after the to provide resources for the Catalan war CNT joined the Generalitat. According to industries and militias. Caballero initially Andreu Capdevila, the CNT textile worker, agreed to this, but was persuaded to change th “The PSUC and the Esquerra fought his mind by Juan Negrín. On September 13 , extremely hard to reduce the number of Caballero agreed to let Negrín send the gold firms liable for collectivization while the reserves wherever he wanted. At this time Spain CNT-FAI held out for the most radical decree had the fourth-largest gold reserves in the world, possible. The reason the CNT agreed to worth about $800 million ($11 billion in today’s collectivization was that we could not money). The Communists persuaded Negrín to socialize, as was our aim. The workers had ship 70 percent of the gold reserves to Russia. The taken over the factories…but the victory was Spanish were given verbal assurances that the gold not exclusively the CNT’s. We couldn’t take could be re-exported any time they wished. Once over and control the whole economy.”52 the gold arrived in Moscow, however, Stalin The Communists were most opposed to commented that “the Spaniards will never see their union socialization of the economy, the gold again, just as one cannot see one’s own ears.” process of linking together the entire economy independent of the state. The transfer of the gold to Russia was Preserving privately owned businesses was extremely damaging to the Spanish economy a way of blocking union socialization. The and the anti-fascist war effort. When word law that was passed only legalized got out that the Spanish peseta was no expropriation of firms with 100 or more longer backed by the huge Spanish gold workers, or firms with 50 to 100 workers if reserve, the value of the peseta fell sharply 75 percent of the workers voted to do so. In on the foreign currency market. By practice the CNT simply ignored the fact December the Spanish currency lost half its that this was inconsistent with the value. This caused a big rise in the cost of 53 expropriations of large numbers of smaller imports . businesses they had carried out. The PSUC Hitler, Mussolini, and the fascist regime in effort to block moves beyond the market Portugal all provided military support to the economy was a tactic that strengthened Spanish fascist army. In Arms for Spain British professionals and managers as well as the researcher Gerald Howson documents in great small business owners. detail the arms shipments provided to both sides in The PSUC also organized a union of small the civil war. Howson shows that the fascist business owners and shopkeepers, Gremios y military received far more arms than did the Entidades de Pequenos Comerciantes e anti-fascist side. The Russians sent far less war material to Spain than has been previously Industriales (Small Commercial and Industrial Businesses — GEPCI). By the thought. They sent very few new weapons. spring of 1937 the UGT in Catalonia had Most was old, obsolete stuff. mushroomed to 350,000 members (including It became very difficult for the Spanish 18,000 in GEPCI), nearly as large as the anti-fascists to obtain arms at any price due to an 400,000-member CNT. A lot of this growth embargo implemented by France, Britain and the was based on the PSUC organizing of the USA. An entire system of certificates for middle strata of the population. military goods was set up to track arms A third reason for growth of the shipments throughout the world. The FBI Communist Party during the war was the invaded warehouses in Mexico to capture ID prestige and influence derived from Soviet numbers of weapons as part of the American arms shipments to the Republican participation in the embargo effort. government, and the arrival of the The New Deal in the USA was initially International Brigades during the battle of inclined to allow shipments of arms to the Madrid in October-November, 1936. At the anti-fascist side in Spain. An intensive end of September, 1936, Lluis Companys lobbying campaign organized by the Catholic and Buenaventura Durruti had visited bishops led to American support for the Largo Caballero in Madrid to try to get a so-called “Non-Intervention” pact (despite commitment of part of Spain’s gold reserves the fact that the Basque Roman Catholic Church supported the anti-fascist side). In Youth had another 250,000 members56. May, 1938, Joseph Kennedy led another During this same period the FAI’s Catholic lobbying effort that successfully membership grew to about 160,000. Only stopped an attempt by liberal congressmen about 40 percent of the PCE membership to repeal American participation in the was working class. embargo54. The Communist intention to move Spanish Republican agents had to against the worker revolution was made provide huge bribes anywhere they went in clear in Pravda in December, 1936: “As for the world to get arms. The Catalonia, the purging of the Trotskyists and “Non-intervention” pact made the Spanish the Anarcho-Syndicalists has begun, it will anti-fascists even more dependent on the be conducted with the same energy with Soviet Union. which it was conducted in the USSR.” Sending the gold to Russia gave the Joan Domenech, secretary of the CNT Soviet regime control over the flow of arms in glass workers union, had been in charge of Spain. For example, late in 1937 Garcia food supply in the Generalitat government. Oliver approached Juan Negrín with a On January 7th, the CNT-controlled supply proposal to organize a guerrilla army in the organization was dissolved by orders of the mountains of Andalusia. Most of Andalusia Generalitat. Responsibility for food was had been overrun by the fascist army in the transferred from Domenech to the PSUC. early weeks of the civil war but it was The PSUC put the free market and local believed that thousands of anti-fascists were businesses in charge — a move that hiding out in the mountains. Garcia Oliver strengthened GEPCI. The result was a big wanted arms and supplies for an organizing increase in food prices, due to hoarding and group of about 200 who would filter into the shortages. In the Communist press, the mountains. This core group would then collectives were blamed. organize an army that would harass the rd fascist forces from behind their lines. Negrín On January 23 , the UGT of Catalonia, initially agreed to this. But the Soviet now controlled by the Communists, held a representatives refused to authorize the “congress” of landowning farmers in arms because they didn’t want a guerrilla Catalonia. This was basically a propaganda army controlled by the anarchists. stunt against the agricultural collectives. Agitation by the Communists led to an And sending the gold to Russia only armed uprising by farmers in Tarragona made it easier for Stalin to rob the province, resulting in a nasty clash with the Spaniards. The Soviets faked the prices of asaltos and the Control Patrols (militia arms by creating a special exchange rate, th favorable to themselves, for the arms deals. police formed after July 19 1936). The The Russians swindled Spain out of $50 conflict escalated when Rodriguez Salas, a million on the sale of two airplanes alone. new pro-Communist chief of police, began Writes Howson: “Of all the swindles, moves to disarm civilians in Barcelona — an cheatings, robberies and betrayals the attack on the CNT neighborhood defense Republicans had to put up with from groups. These conflicts led to a Generalitat governments, officials and arms traffickers decree dissolving the Control Patrols on all over the world, [the]…behaviour by March 4th. Stalin and the high officials of the Soviet In November, 1936, when the CNT joined nomenklatura is…the most squalid, the most the Popular Front government, Garcia treacherous and the most indefensible.”55 Oliver became minister of justice. This put him in charge of the Spanish prison system. “The Spanish Kronstadt” In October a thousand right-wing prisoners By early 1937 the Communists felt in Madrid jails had been taken by prison strong enough to make moves towards guards to the edge of town and executed, obtaining hegemony in Spain. The PCE had without authorization. To prevent abuses of 230,000 members by March, and the this sort, Garcia Oliver appointed an Communist-controlled Unified Socialist anarchist, Melchor Rodriguez, head of prisons in Madrid. Meanwhile, the armed worker groups were in control of most Communists had gained control of the of the city and the suburbs. A general strike revolutionary government in Madrid, the spread throughout the Barcelona area. The Madrid Defense Junta. On April 20th, 1937, government forces retained control only in Rodriguez revealed that a secret Communist some parts of the central area. prison had been discovered in Madrid. The This whole fight was a fairly spontaneous nephew of a high official in the PSOE was reaction of the working class against an being detained in that prison, and a number armed power play by the Communists. The of Socialists had been tortured there. This regional and national committees of the CNT scandal led the Caballero government to tried to negotiate an end to the fighting, and dissolve the Madrid Defense Junta. Not long prohibited CNT army units from after this, the PCE changed its tune about intervening. On May 4th the CNT appealed Caballero. In early 1936 the Communist via loudspeakers and the union radio for an press had touted Caballero as the “Spanish end to fighting and for everyone to return to Lenin.” By the spring of 1937 they were work. Both Federica Montseny and Garcia describing him as a senile old fool. Oliver, anarchist ministers in the national On April 25th, a PSUC activist, Roldán government, appealed over the radio for an Cortada, a former treintista, was assassinated in end to the fighting. A member of the POUM Bajo Llobregat — an anarchist stronghold. A described what happened at a barricade in leading anarchist activist in Bajo Llobregat reaction to Montseny’s radio speech: was accused but no proof was provided. The “The CNT militants were so furious they funeral of Cortada was the occasion for a pulled out their pistols and shot the radio. It massive street demonstration — a sounds incredible but it happened in front of Communist show of force. my eyes. They were absolutely furious, and In an atmosphere of increasing tension, yet they obeyed. They might be anarchists, but when it came to their own organization the conflict between the Communists and they had tremendous discipline.”58 rd CNT exploded on May 3 when a large force th of Communist-controlled police attacked the On May 6 workers began to dismantle worker-controlled telephone exchange the barricades. The PSUC immediately took building in Barcelona, with coordinated advantage of the situation to seize the assaults on telephone exchanges elsewhere. telephone exchange. The CNT leaders The telephone system in Spain was being seemed to believe that everything would run by a CNT-controlled worker federation. return to the situation that existed before CNT workers had been listening in on calls the fighting, now that “our members have of government officials in order to keep tabs shown their teeth.” It didn’t play out that on them. This was used by the Communists way. as a pretext for trying to seize the telephone A large force of heavily armed system. The PSUC was not against the paramilitary police were sent to Barcelona to practice of listening in on calls, however. As re-impose government authority. Large a close associate of PSUC leader Juan caches of weapons were seized from the Comorera later recalled: “Of course, had the CNT. On May 11th, the mutilated bodies of PSUC been in a position to listen in on twelve young anarchists were dumped at a telephone conversations, it would have done cemetery near Ripollet. On May 5th, the so also. The party always wanted to be Italian anarchist Camillo Berneri, a 57 well-informed.” It was a question of power. philosophy professor and exile from Italian Word of the attack on the telephone fascism, was murdered by Communists, exchange spread rapidly. Within hours the along with another Italian anarchist. CNT neighborhood defense committees went At a cabinet meeting of the Popular into action against the Front government on May15th, the Communist-controlled police and began Communists proposed a motion banning the building barricades. The POUM and the CNT and the POUM. Caballero responded Libertarian Youth joined the fray and soon that this could not be legally done, and that he would not allow it as long as he remained The Popular Front strategy was based on head of the government. The two Communist the idea of trying to get the capitalist ministers then walked out of the meeting. imperialist powers to allow arms shipments When Caballero said, “The Council of to the anti-fascist side in Spain. This was not Ministers continues,” the social-democrats, a very realistic strategy. The main worry of Republicans, and Basque Nationalists also the British elite was Bolshevism, not walked out, backing up the Communists. fascism. That’s why the British government Only the three Left Socialists and the four in the ‘30s made endless concessions to CNT ministers supported Caballero. Hitler. The central government and the PCE The Popular Front strategy led naturally were the main victors from the May struggle. to viewing the struggle as a conventional The CNT was ousted from both the national war. But in conventional military terms, the government and the Generalitat. fascists had the advantage. They had a Soon, the central government deprived trained army and access to more arms, via the Generalitat of control over its local police Hitler and Mussolini. The failure to organize and eventually repealed the autonomy of guerrilla war behind fascist lines derived Catalonia. Companys and the Esquerra were from this picture of the struggle as a completely marginalized. Caballero was conventional war. But guerrilla warfare replaced with Juan Negrín — a would have made use of the anti-fascist social-democrat who was sympathetic to the side’s advantage in popular support to tie Communists. The Communists moved down large portions of the fascist army. against the Left Socialists, using the police No appeal was made on a class basis to to seize the main newspapers controlled by workers in other countries because the the Caballero faction of the PSOE. Popular Front strategy did not portray the Negrín approved the repression against the fight as essentially a struggle for working POUM that Caballero refused to do. Soon, Andreu class power. As George Orwell wrote: Nin, the POUM leader, was arrested, tortured and “Once the war had been narrowed down to a assassinated by Communist agents. On August 15th, ‘war for democracy’ it became impossible to a decree was issued authorizing the Military make any large-scale appeal for working Investigation Service (Servicio Intelligencia Militar class aid abroad…The way in which the — SIM). SIM was a secret political police, working class in the democratic countries could really have helped Spanish comrades riddled with Soviet GPU (military secret was by industrial action — strikes and police) agents. There were 6,000 SIM agents boycotts. No such thing ever began to in Madrid alone. happen.”60 Bill Herrick was a member of the The main advantage the anti-fascist side American Communist Party from New York had was the revolutionary enthusiasm of the City who served in the Abraham Lincoln people. Communist maneuvers to gain battalion in Spain. In his memoir, Herrick control of the army, and curtail or destroy describes how he received angry stares as he worker management of industry, walked around Barcelona in his International contributed to demoralization. Brigades uniform in late 1937…and people spit on him. He reports that he was forced by a party Forced Collectivization? boss to witness shootings of young In August, 1937, the Negrín government revolutionaries in a SIM prison. He decreed the abolition of the CNT-controlled describes the execution of a girl who shouted Defense Council of Aragon. Army troops Viva la revolución! before a SIM thug fired a under the command of the Communist bullet through her brain. The murder of that girl general Enrique Líster broke up collectives, haunted Herrick and led to his eventual break with gave land back to landowners, and arrested the American Communist Party after his return to 600 CNT members (and killed some of them). New York City59. To justify the rampage in Aragon, the Communists accused the anarchists of operating a forced collectivization regime. They claimed they were there to liberate the The dispute about Aragon was also about campesinos. The anarchists, for their part, the extent to which small-holding portrayed the collectivization of the agrarian campesinos who did not hire wage-workers economy of Aragon as the product of local were forced to merge their small plots into initiative, a movement of emancipation from collectives. Doing this was contrary to rural employers and exploitative landlords. Kropotkin’s advice in The Conquest of Bread There is evidence to support both pictures. and was not pursued by the CNT in other According to Macario Royo, a campesino areas of the anti-fascist zone. member of the CNT regional committee in Saturnino Carod was the son of a Aragon, some element of coercion was landless farm laborer in Aragon and the inevitable in a revolution. The dominating leader of a CNT militia column. Carod was classes will inevitably oppose the liberation well aware of how the campesinos were of the working class. But how far should this attached to their little plots of land. “It’s a coercion extend? Communist policy on part of his being. He’s a slave to it. To deprive agriculture had been a source of conflict with him of it is like tearing his heart from his sectors of both the CNT and the UGT Land body. He must not be forced to give it up to Workers Federation (FNTT). join a collective,” Carod said62. But Carod’s The main dispute was over the policy advice was not always heeded in Aragon. towards the large- to medium-sized The village of Angüés is an example. In landowners who didn’t flee in reaction to the Blood of Spain, Ronald Fraser quotes a army coup. These people had enough land to couple from Angüés. Both were staunch CNT hire laborers to work for them. They were supporters: the man said he would give his the equivalent to the kulak class in the life to defend the CNT. When the collective Russian revolution of 1917. In most of the was set up, they were happy to get out from anti-fascist zone both the FNTT and CNT under the major landowners who had been usually took the position that landowning grinding them down. campesinos should only be allowed to retain But they described the town as being as much land as their own family could farm. managed by a committee of 20 men who went The aim of the CNT and FNTT was to do around with pistols on their waists and did away with the hiring of wage labor in the no work. None of the landowning campesinos countryside. were allowed to stay out of the collective. But the PCE was opposed to Farmers who tried to leave couldn’t buy expropriation of any landowners who hadn’t fertilizer or seed since money had been fled. However, the more prosperous abolished and the resources were controlled land-owning farmers were usually by the collective. The committee running the right-wingers, and were often the old town were also lining their pockets. All the right-wing caciques (political bosses) in the best food ended up in their houses, the CNT villages. The Communist policy of defending couple alleged. them — even to the point of helping them The committeemen rode around in cars take back land that had been collectivized — that had been expropriated from well-to-do strengthened the right-wing element in the families. Unlike the other women in the countryside. village, their wives were also exempt from Actual CNT practice of rural work. Village assemblies were rarely collectivization differed by area. In invoked and there was no procedure for Andalusia, the CNT’s policy was the same as recall of the committee members. The CNT that of the PCE. The CNT in Andalusia couple said there was great discontent. They expropriated no land at all. They set up believed that another revolution would have collectives on estates of owners who fled, and been needed to get rid of this new using the small plots that campesinos managerial elite63. voluntarily brought with them61. Communist propaganda portrayed all of Felix Carrasquer, a schoolteacher in Aragon as being like that village of Angüés. Catalonia and FAI member, recalled that in In fact, there were other towns where the his visits to villages in Aragon he tried to situation was very different. rein in “fanatics” who tried to force Mas de las Matas was a prosperous town of collectivization of all the land. “You have got small-holding farmers in Aragon, with about 2,500 to leave people free to decide what they want residents. Before the war, the CNT union had about to do,” he reminded them. He said that 200 members. The anarchists initiated the forcing all the smallholders into collectives collectivization of the town by calling an assembly only happened in a few cases because there of the residents. The assembly elected an were only a handful of villages in Aragon 65 Anti-fascist committee — half were CNT where “collectivization was total.” The members and half were supporters of the presence of “individualists” farming their Left Republican party. The assembly and own plots, in Mas de las Matas and most elected committee became both the new other villages in Aragon refutes the government of the town and a means of Communist claim that shall-holders were socializing the town’s economy. This is an universally coerced into collectives example of what the Spanish anarchists throughout Aragon. called a “free municipality.” This is one of the When Líster’s troops invaded Aragon in few places where the anarchists actually August, 1937, an assembly of residents was constructed this type of geographic, called in Mas de las Matas and, with police assembly-based governance structure presiding, anyone who wanted to quit the during the revolution. collective was allowed to do so. The Numerous farmers brought their small membership in the collective dropped to plots into the town collective, agreeing to 1,500. Thus 60 percent of the residents still work the lands collectively. An advantage of voluntarily supported the collective, despite this was that it made it more feasible to use the threatening presence of Communist machinery, which the town bought for use in troops. About 70 percent of the agricultural the farming operation. The secretary of the collectives in Aragon survived the collective was a 26-year old self-employed Communist putsch. anarchist cabinet-maker. He brought his The collectivization in Aragon had a dual own tools into the collective. The collective purpose. To the extent the initiative was local, the controlled all services. The political power motivation was community self-management exercised by the town collective is illustrated and equality. But the labor army in Aragon, by the fact that they banned the hiring of only a few kilometers from the villages, did anyone to work for wages. They also banned not have a very reliable line of supply to gambling and sale of alcohol.64 Catalonia and Valencia where the militias A group of 50 landowning farm families in the had been formed. The Aragon villages also village refused to join the collective. An had the role of providing food for the labor arrangement was made for the collective to market militia. the products of the “individualists”, as anarchists Often, money was abolished and a system of called them, and to provide them with services and rationing imposed. By controlling the supplies. It was necessary to have an arrangement consumption of the local population, a of this sort if small-holders were to be allowed to surplus could be generated to supply the continue to farm their own small plots because the revolutionary army. Working for the collective controlled services and money was anti-fascist militia for free was a matter of initially abolished in Mas de las Matas and other pride for the supporters of the Left in the villages, and later the federation of collectives of villages, and a source of resentment among Aragon set up a uniform rationing system the village right-wingers. throughout the region. Apparently, no such But the abolition of money was itself arrangement to allow for independent small-holders another source of discontent among the was created in Angüés. campesinos. According to the CNT president of the village collective in Alcorisa, the campesinos didn’t like the idea of taking things for free from the common store the CNT to overthrow the Generalitat, replacing it because they felt it was like begging66. They with a revolutionary council (junta) in Catalonia believed they earned a right to a certain level controlled by the CNT unions. Their leaflet also of consumption through their work. called for complete socialization of the economy The anarchist secretary of the successful and disarming of the police. collective at Mas de las Matas said that the The Amigos had been organized in March abolition of money “turned out to be one of 1937 on the initiative of CNT militia our biggest mistakes.” He believed that it members who opposed the creation of the would have been better to pay people for new hierarchical Republican army. The work, and provide additional allowances for group was named for Durruti because of his the needs of dependents. last fight in the CNT in October, 1936. If able-bodied adults earn an entitlement Horacio Prieto, wanting to make use of to consume based on work, this allows each Durruti’s popularity, had tried to get him to individual to tailor their requests for be one of the CNT ministers in the Popular products to their own desires. Without that, Front government. Durruti refused. “When there is only the set of things offered to the workers expropriate the bourgeoisie, everyone by the collective. Absence of money when one attacks foreign property, when led to inefficiencies like people throwing public order is in the hands of the workers, away bread because it was free. when the militia is controlled by the unions, when, in fact, one is in the process of making Saturnino Carod believed that the a revolution from the bottom up,” said abolition of money had been based on a Durruti, this is simply incompatible with confusion of money with capital. He insisted maintaining Republican state legality68. that there was a need for a system of social accounting67. This would require a monetary The Amigos were libertarian syndicalists trying unit to encapsulate the value to us of the to revive the Defense Council program that the resources used to produce things. Capital is CNT had advocated in September-October 1936. a social relation of domination, exercised Two of the leading activists in the Amigos through market purchase of means of were Liberto Callejas and Jaime Balius. In production and hiring of workers, to make a September and October 1936 both Calletas and profit. Money need not imply the continued Balius had been staff members of existence of that capitalist economic Solidaridad Obrera during the campaign for arrangement. the Defense Council proposal. The Communists had helped to form In the actual events in May of 1937, the agricultural collectives in other areas. Their Amigos did not have sufficient weight in the real aim wasn’t the destruction of the collectives but CNT to bring about a change of direction. the destruction of CNT power. While the The Amigos had some influence among the Communist troops were attacking the CNT CNT militia units and the CNT in Aragon, the CNT leadership did not allow neighborhood defense groups. But the main CNT army units in the area to intervene. weight in the CNT in Catalonia were the The effect of this whole episode was the local union militants, the delegados on the undermining of morale. This contributed to local labor councils and the workplace the fascist army’s conquest of Aragon a few councils in the collectivized industries. If the months later. viewpoint of the Amigos had prevailed among the labor councils, they could have The Friends of Durruti gained control of a regional plenary and During the May Days fight between the ousted the Popular Front collaborationist Communist-controlled police and their regional committee. working class adversaries in Barcelona, an When people find themselves pursuing a alternative to the CNT leadership’s policy of course of action, they want to feel that they Popular Front collaboration was proposed by are justified in doing so. This means there is the Friends of Durruti Group (Agrupación Los a tendency for people to find justifications for Amigos de Durutti) — a FAI group. The Amigos their actions. By May of 1937 leading distributed a leaflet during the fighting calling for anarcho-syndicalists had been following the Popular Front strategy and occupying the old bourgeois instruments and erection positions of hierarchical authority in the in their place of a new structure based on the government and in the army for some time. committees that surfaced in July [1936].”70 This was bound to change their outlook. A From a social anarchist point of view, a good example is Joan Garcia Oliver. In July key issue about the proposed Defense and August of 1936 he had been a champion Councils would be their accountability to the of the CNT “going for broke,” overthrowing assemblies at the base. The Amigos proposed the Generalitat, and taking power in its own that the Defense Councils be elected by the hands. By March, 1937 his viewpoint had union assemblies. But what about the changed; he had become a defender of the making of policy? A possible solution here Popular Front coalition. This change was would have been to make the Defense shown dramatically by his conduct during Councils get their marching orders from the the May events, opposing any attempt to regional and national congresses proposed in broaden the struggle, to seize power for the the CNT’s Zaragoza program of May, 1936. unions.In their main pamphlet, the Amigos These would be deliberative bodies, made up criticized the CNT’s failure to take political of delegates elected by the base assemblies, power in July of 1936: and with major issues sent back to the base “What happened had to happen. The assemblies for decision. The CNT did CNT…did not have a concrete program. We actually create a regional congress in had no idea where we were going….When an Aragon, representing the collectivized organization’s whole existence has been villages and their CNT and UGT unions, to spent preaching revolution, it has an control the Defense Council set up in that obligation to act whenever a favorable set of region. circumstances arises. And in July the occasion did present itself. The CNT ought to The CNT also proposed that the Defense have leapt into the driver’s seat in the Councils be prohibited from intervening in country…In this way we would have won the management of the economy, which would be war and saved the revolution. But [the CNT] controlled by a system of worker-managed did the opposite. It collaborated with the industrial federations and a system of social bourgeoisie in the affairs of state, precisely planning. 69 when the state was crumbling away.” Thus it seems to me that the syndicalist In addition to the advocacy of the proposal for Defense Councils and a unified union-controlled national and regional and a union-controlled people's militia was a Defense Councils, the Amigos also advocated tactic at least potentially consistent with the formation of the “free municipalities” — social anarchism. governance structures based on How does the CNT Defense Council neighborhood or village assemblies of proposal differ from the Leninist concept of residents — which the CNT had advocated in “taking power”? It may help to look at the the program adopted at Zaragoza in May, debate in the Russian Communist party in 1936. Balius called the free municipalities 1921. At that time, Nicholai Bukharin, “an authentic revolutionary government.” Alexandra Kollontai and a number of other The Amigos also held to the syndicalist Bolsheviks proposed a system of program of socialization of the economy from management boards for the Russian below through union management. economy elected by the unions. Lenin According to Balius, the workers’ denounced this as an “anarcho-syndicalist initiative in the May events in Barcelona deviation” because it would give economic showed “the proletariat’s unshakeable power to the “non-party masses” who made determination to place a workers’ leadership up 90 percent of the membership of the in charge of the armed struggle, the economy unions. By the logic of Lenin’s position, he and the entire existence of the country. would have to denounce the CNT Defense Which is to say (for any anarchist not afraid Council proposal because it would give of the words) that the proletariat was economic, political and armed power to the fighting for the taking of power which would “non-party masses” in the unions. have come to pass through the destruction of For José Peirats, however the “strength of state power. By failing to pursue this path, the anarchosyndicalists” after July 19th 1936 the CNT made the Popular Front strategy lay in the dispersed pattern of power in the inevitable, and thus facilitated the anti-fascist zone, broken up into a myriad of Communists’ growing power. Given the local and regional committees71. Peirats, who fascist side’s superiority in arms supplies, was active in the Libertarian Youth in creating a working class-controlled polity in Catalonia, opposed the CNT joining the Spain was not a guarantee of victory. But it Popular Front government but also opposed would have improved the chances of success. the alternative of replacing the Republican To their credit, Balius and the Amigos central government with a CNT-UGT saw that a working-class-controlled polity national defense council. In Anarchists in the -— a structure of political self-governance — Spanish Revolution, Peirats says that the is needed to replace the state, if the working Defense Council proposal was “just a class is to be successful at liberating itself. government under another name.” But Traditional anarchism was ambiguous or couldn’t that be said of any polity that would inconsistent on the question of what replaces provide overall governance for Spain as a the state. There was a lack of clarity about whole? Peirats was editor of a journal in the need for a new type of polity to perform Catalonia called Acracia — the name means the necessary political functions — making “No power.” It seems that Peirats’ “No the basic rules, adjudicating accusations of power” anarchism was opposed to any sort of criminal conduct and disputes between overarching polity or governing structure for people, and defending the basic social Spain. arrangement against internal or external But this was simply not possible. A attack and enforcing the basic rules. The unified command was needed in the armed political functions of society cannot be done fight against the fascist military. The away with any more than social production workers of the CNT and the UGT would could be. But the political functions can be insist on unity in the struggle. There were carried on by a structure of popular only two ways this could be achieved. Either self-governance, rooted in the participatory the CNT took the initiative to replace the democracy of assemblies in the communities existing state apparatus in Catalonia and at and workplaces. the national level, uniting the workers of the — Tom Wetzel CNT and UGT into a working class-controlled governing power, or else the Notes Communists would be successful in uniting 1. Abel Paz, Durruti: The People Armed, p. 181. the population behind a rebuilding of the 2. Alberto Balcells, Cataluña contemporanea II state apparatus and a hierarchical army. (1900-1936), p. 17, cited in Ronald Fraser, Blood This was the fundamental dilemma that of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil faced the CNT after July 19th 1936. War. If the CNT had overthrown the 3. Colin M. Winston, Workers and the Right in Generalitat and brought the UGT and FOUS Spain, 1900-1936. unions into a regional workers congress to 4. Information on the Barcelona rent strike of 1931 elect a regional labor governing council for Catalonia, it would have put tremendous is from Nick Rider, “The Practice of Direct Action: pressure on Largo Caballero and the UGT The Barcelona Rent Strike of 1931” in For leadership to agree to this solution for Spain Anarchism: History, Theory, and Practice, David as a whole. If the proposed structure of Goodway, ed. national and regional CNT-UGT governing 5. Antony Beevor, The Spanish Civil War, p. 29. councils and a unified people’s militia, 6. Jerome Mintz, The Anarchists of Casas Viejas, controlled by the unions, had been created, p. 268. the CNT could have blocked the Communist 7. Quoted in Ronald Fraser, Blood of Spain: An proposals for a hierarchical army and for Oral History of the Spanish Civil War, p. 544. sending the gold to Russia. The CNT could 8. Victor Alba and Stephen Schwartz, Spanish have blocked the PCE’s strategy for gaining Marxism versus Soviet Communism: A History of 28. José Peirats, op cit, pp. 185-186. the POUM. 29. Agustin Guillamón, The Friends of Durruti 9. Diego Abad de Santillan, El organismo Group: 1937-1939, p. 24. económico de la revolución (translated into 30. Burnett Bolloten, The Grand Camouflage: The English under the title After the Revolution). Communist Conspiracy in the Spanish Civil War, 10. The idea of participatory planning was first pp. 43-44. developed in the 1970s by a number of radical 31. Diego Abad de Santillan, statement from economists. The most well-known version is the December, 1936, appended to the 1937 addition of “participatory ecoomics” model developed by After the Revolution, p. 121. Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel. An early 32. Interview in the early ‘70s, Fraser, op cit, p. version was “Participatory Planning” in Socialist 220. Visions, Steve Rosskamm Shalom, ed. 33. Gaston Leval, Collectives in the Spanish 11. Excerpts from the Zaragoza congress vision Revolution, pp. 253-264. document are translated into English in Robert 34. Gaston Leval, ibid, pp. 240-245. Alexander, The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil 35. Quoted in Fraser, op cit, 221. War, Volume One, pp. 48-67. 36. Fraser, op cit, p. 223. 12. Peter Kropotkin, “Modern Science and 37. Augustin Souchy, Nacht über Spanien, excerpt Anarchism” in Kropotkin’s Revolutionary translated in Sam Dolgoff, ed., The Anarchist Pamphlets: A Collection of Writings by Peter Collectives: Workers’ Self-Management in the Kropotkin, Roger N. Baldwin, ed., pp. 183-184. Spanish Revolution 1936-1939, pp. 93-94. 13. In the words of Cesar M. Lorenzo, Los 38. Fraser, op cit, p. 233. anarquistas y el poder, p. 92. 39. Gaston Leval, op cit, pp. 264-278. 14. Dionisius Ridruejo, interviewed in the early 40. Gaston Leval, ibid, po. 245-253. 1970s, Fraser, op cit, p. 320. 41. Fraser, op cit, p. 212. 15. Fraser, op cit, p. 71. 42. Quoted in Robert Alexander, The Anarchists in 16. Fraser, op cit, p. 110. the Spanish Civil War, Volume One, p. 487. 17. Abel Paz, op cit, p. 213. 43. Quoted in Fraser, op cit, pp. 214-215. 18. According to Ricardo Sanz, interview in the 44. Quoted in Fraser, ibid, p. 229. 1970s, quoted in Fraser, op cit, p. 110. 45. Diego Abad de Santillan, statement from 19. This debate is described in Fraser, op cit, p. December, 1936, appended to the 1937 addition of 112. After the Revolution, p. 121. 20. This account of the debate is from Juan Garcia 46. Quoted in Fraser, op cit, p. 218. Oliver, “Wrong Steps: Errors in the Spanish 47. Gaston Leval, op cit, pp. 289-295. Revolution,” Mick Parker, translator. (This 48. Information about Mujeres Libres is from pamphlet is an English translation of excerpts from Martha A. Ackelsberg, Free Women of Spain: Garcia Oliver’s memoir, Eco de los pasos.) Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation 21. On the composition of the Anti-fascist Militia of Women. Committee, Cesar M. Lorenzo, op cit, p. 86. 49. Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, “A Ticket to 22. José Peirats, Anarchists in the Spanish Ride: More Locations on the Class Map” in Revolution, p. 161. (This is a translation of Los Between Labor and Capital, Pat Walker, ed. anarquistas en la crisis española.) 50. Ronald Radosh, Mary R. Habeck, and Grigory 23. Cesar M. Lorenzo, op cit, p. 98. Sevostianov, op cit, p. 11. 24. Cesar M. Lorenzo, ibid, p. 180. 51. Sócrates Gómez, quoted in Fraser, op cit, p. 25. Cesar M. Lorenzo, op cit, pp. 180-181. 333. 26. Ronald Radosh, Mary R. Habeck, and Grigory 52. Quoted in Fraser, op cit, p. 215. Sevostianov, eds., Spain Betrayed: The Soviet 53. Antony Beevor, op cit, p. 124 Union in the Spanish Civil War, p. 48. 54. Antony Beevor, ibid, p. 174. 27. Interview with Eduardo de Guzmán, early 55. Gerald Howson, Arms for Spain: The Untold 1970s, in Fraser, op cit, p. 186 and pp. 335-336. Story of the Spanish Civil War, p. 151. 56. Report by André Marty to Soviet authorities, 363. March 1937, translated in Ronald Radosh, Mary R. 68. Quote from Durruti in The Spanish Civil War: Habeck, and Grigory Sevostianov, op cit, p. 145. Anarchism in Action, Chap 4 57. Quoted in Fraser, op cit, pp. 377-378. (). 59. Bill Herrick, Jumping the Line. 69. The Friends of Durruti Group, Towards a 60. George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, p. 69. Fresh Revolution (translation of Hacía una 61. Fraser, op cit, p. 371. revolución nueva) 62. Quoted in Fraser, ibid, p. 364. () 64. Gaston Leval, op cit, pp. 136-143. 70. Jaime Balius, quoted in Agustin Guillamón, op 65. Quoted in Fraser, op cit, p. 366. cit, p. 92. 66. CNT village committee president, quoted in 71. José Peirats, op cit, p. 183. Fraser, op cit, p. 362. 67. Saturnino Carod, quoted in Fraser, op cit, p.