José Peirats FREEDOM PRESS José Peirats (1908-1989) ANARCHISTS in the SPANISH REVOLUTION . by JOSE PEIRATS FREEDOM PRESS London 1998 This edition first published by FREEDOM PRESS 84b Whitechapel H igh street London El 7QX Reprinted 1990, 1998 4 # KæeryMÎ ISBN 0 900384 53 0 PRINIF.D IM GKHA'!' ΒκΠ'ΑίΝ BY Αΐ.ίΧίΑΤί PHHSS. LONDON E t 7 0 X ACKNOWLEDG EMENTS The firsi Engtish (American) transition was the work of Mary Ann Slocombe and Pau! Hollow. A number of comrades were invoked in the actuai production of the book, Special mention was made in the original edition to Federico Atcos "whose idea it was and whose energy and single mindedness saw it through", and to Art BarteH "whose generosity made it financially possibie". For this FREEDOM PRESS edition we a!so have to thank the )ast two named (and the transiators, of course) for the same reasons. !n order to produce this voktme ascheaply as possible the origina) negatives have been used, and consequent^ one or two factuai errors, as we!t as some infeticities in transiation, have not been corrected. The American edition gives no date of publication (probabiy 1977) nor publisher though it was 'avaiiable' from Solidarity Books (Toronto). Ccrrfci/on: Page 371 Glossary. Matcn Pedro was not killed in the attack on the President of the Council of Ministers in 1921. NOTE The )'o!towing abbreviations have been used in the text to identify tlHmntsations and political parties: CNT (Con/Meraci'df! Nac/ofM?/ Je/ 7raàayo — National Confedera­ tion of Labour). The revolutionary syndicaiist organisation influ­ enced by the anarchists. FAI (Federac/on — Anarchist Federation of !beria). MLE (Moyinwnfo i:i?eriario E^pano/ — Spanish Libertarian Movement). The combined CNT-FAI and FIJL. UGT (ί/πίοπ Genera/ Je Tra^a/aJore^ — Genera! Workers' Union). Reformist Trade Union controited by the sociatists. PSO (PitrfMo O&wo — Workers' Sociatist Party). PCE (ParfM? Espa/ioi — Spanish Communist Party). PSUC i/MÎ/Îcai Caia^MHya — Catalan Unified Soc)a)tnt Party). The combined Sociatist and Communist Parties of Catatonia. POUM (Par/M f & i/Mi/tcac/of) M a r ^ a ). Dissident revotuttonary Communist Party. TABLE OF CONTENTS P reface................................................................................................. 11 1 From the Beginnings to the First Great Struggie....................... 21 2 Repression and Martyrs................................................................... 35 3 Conspiracies Against the Dictatorship......................................... 49 4 The Anti-Monarchist O ffensive.....................................................59 5 The Republic and its Fata) C an cer................................................ 73 6 The Cycie of Insurrections............................................................... 87 7 Spain in Fiâmes ......................................................... ...................... 105 8 The Tide of Revolution ................................................................ 117 9 The Tragedy of the Spanish Country sid e .................................. 127 10 The Revolution in the Countryside............................................ 137 11 From the Army ofAfrica to the Army of the People ............. 155 12 The Main Stages of Apolitical Syndicalism ............................. 167 13 The Ministerial Collaboration of the C N T ............................... 177 14 The Growth of the Spanish Communist Party......................... 191 15 Prelude to the Great D ram a......................................................... 201 16 Events of M a y ............................................................................... 213 17TheNewIberianInquisition ................................................ 225 18 The Iberian Anarchist Federation ............................................. 237 19 The Council of A ra g o n .................................................................. 249 20 The Iberian Federation of Young Anarchists ......................... 261 21 T h eC N T -U G T P a ct...................................................................... 275 22 The Crisis in the Libertarian M ovem ent................................... 289 23 Communists and Anarchists in the War ................................... 303 24T h eL a stB a stio n ............................................................................. 3!^ N o te s .................................................................................................. 33^ Giossaryot Names ......................................................................... 353 PUBLISHERS' NOTE Our pÎeasure in being given the opportunity to pubtish this impor­ tant work has been marred hy the death of its gifted and dedictttcd author ]ast August. He was HI and though he had been unwetl for some time, his death, while out watking by the sea shore in Vatetl- cia, was unexpected and came as a great shock to his many com­ rades and friends throughout the world. This history of the Spanish struggle is unlike most in that its author, who got his first job at the tender age of eight, actualty joined the CNT when he was 14 and was intimately involved in the Spanish workers' struggle for more than 60 years. His tack of formal education was more than compensated for by his thirst for knowledge. His first writings, according to Victor Garcia, date from 1927, and he was contributing to the anarchist and syndicalist press (such as 71'errH y Li'&erMj and kSb/ii/ar/dni? both before the military uprising in 1936 and during the revolutionary struggle that followed. He also participated in the militias and later joined the 25th Division. With the final defeat in 1939 he managed to escape via France to South America — San Domingo, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, returning to France in 1947 as delegate for the CNT comrades in Venezuela at the first Intercontinental Congress of the CNT hetd in Toulouse. At that Congress he was nominated General Secretary which involved him, among other things, in making contact m person with comrades in Franco's Spain. A year tater he also became editor of the anarchist youth journal At this time too he was appointed historiographer of the CNT. Between 1951 and 1953 three votumes of La CVT 6/! /a Εφα/ίο/α were published in Toulouse by the CNT in exile — 1,100 pages of documents, invaluable source material for the student, but in which Peirats' opinions were muted. Only some eight years later Giovanna Berneri, who was then editing the monthly anarchist magazine Vo/anfc (first in Naples and then in Genoa) as well as publishing books and pamphlets (Edizioni RL), suggested to Peirats that he should produce a volume based on his history of the CNT and at the same time seek to draw the lessons from the experience of 1936-39. And in 1962 the ßreve .S'fona r?ic Li&erfaWo came out and the author dedicated it to the memory of Giovanna Berneri who had not lived to see it in print. In 1964 a Spanish edition was published in Argentina with a different title — Lo.? en /a CwM Po/tHca And only in 1977 did an American edition appear. It inctuded a preface dated September 1974 which has been retained in this edition, but a short postscript dated September 1976 which is no longer relevant has been omitted, and also the five-page epilogue 9 for the same reason. It was written in )%() and Pcintts wtts speculat­ ing about possible developments in Spain. But so mud) happened in the following years which Pci rats recognises in the 1974 preface, which has been retained, so wc feel confident that the author would have approved of our decisions. For the reader who has also been following events in the countries of the Eastern htoc — even as presented by the capitalist press — the Spanish struggle and the way it developed and degenerated is surely lull of lessons for today's struggles. And Peirats who, as he got older became if anything more critical of the 'leaders' of the CN ! -FAI, offers many observations the relevance of which brave demonstrators of Leipzig and Prague and Bucharest can already appreciate as the professional politicians seek to worm their way back into power. Relevant to today's events are the mistakes of the Spanish Popular Front politicians in leaving the career officer class in their positions of power, of the revolutionaries who soon allowed the Patrullas de Control to be replaced by the professional and the secret political police (which the communists took over with disastrous results). And it would appear that this is aiready happening. "East German opposition parties broke off their talks with the Communist leadership yesterday in protest at the government's intention to reconsti­ tute a secret police force soon . The opposition demanded that the Prime Minister attend and give a detailed explanation of government thinking on the security servies." (/wJppfni/fn; 9 January 1990) One is also reading that "Fire goes out of the Romanian revolu­ tion". "Gone is the exhitiarating, hypnotic, infectious, unstoppable enthusiasm of the early days of the revolution, the days when thousands braved the guns to celebrate and bring about change." (Peter HiHmore in 77te yer 7 January 1990) Is this the fate of revolutions' which are no more am&itious than in wanting to replace one government by another, compared with Spain in 1936 where a significant politically conscious minority wanted to get rid of a!l governments and to run their own lives? For a short lime at least this was true in Spain and the achievements and the lessons for future generations are still to be learned. Peirats is a good