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2 articles
2nd is 'The Friends of Durruti' [WS 38]
- ******** The Spanish Revolution of 1936 **********
from Workers Solidarity No 36
Many people would agree that the anarchist
principle "from each according to their ability,
to each according to their needs" is a nice idea.
A self managed society with everyone having a
real say in how things were run is a lovely
ideal. They might nod along to the lyrics of
"Imagine" by John Lennon but then equally
shake their heads and tell you that such a thing
could never work "in the real world". You would
probably be told that people are just naturally
greedy and self-centred and such a thing would
end in chaos.
However throughout the history of the 20th century
ordinary working people have succeeded in taking things
into their own hands and making a go of it. Nowhere,
however, has come closer to a fully self-managed
anarchist society then large areas of "republican" Spain
during the Spanish Civil War.
Here, for a short space of a few years, both on the land
and in the factories workers and peasants demonstrated
that far from chaos anarchism was an efficient, desirable
and realisable method of running society.
This account of the enormous social revolution in Spain
is mainly taken from Gaston Leval's "Collectives in the
Spanish Civil War". Leval was a French anarchist
exiled for resisting the World War I draft who spent
many years in exile in Spain and Latin America.
He returned in 1936 just in time to document the
revolution in economic and social organisation as it
occurred. Rather then take off for the front he saw the
importance of these changes and attempted to make a
record of some sort for the future.
The extent of collectivisation on the land was
unprecedented. Estimates of the numbers in collectives
range as high as 5-7 million directly or indirectly
involved (from Leval himself). Certainly millions took
part to some degree from periods of weeks to as long as
three years as fortunes fluctuated in the war. At the
height of collectivisation there were 400 collectives in
Aragon, 700 in the Levant and 300 in Castile. Of course
many just refuse to believe that so many people
(whether landless or with fairly large holdings) would
voluntarily collectivise.
FORCED COLLECTIVISATION?
One accusation which is repeated by almost all historians
of the Spanish civil war is that the columns of the
anarcho-syndicalist CNT union enforced collectivisation
at the point of a gun. Ironically enough this was first
put about by no less an authority the Spanish
Communist Party but it is still accepted as gospel by the
majority of historians of the civil war.
Of course this doesn't stand up to even a glance at the
facts. The CNT was a mainly industrial union based in
Barcelona and Madrid. In many areas such as Castile
and Aragon their numbers were extremely low. For
example there were only 34,000 members of the CNT in
Aragon, Navarre and Rioja all areas where most of the
land was collectivised.
The military columns of the CNT moved immediately to
the front and mostly took no further part in the
collectives. As Leval puts it, they "lived on the
fringes of the task of social transformation being
carried out". Some far sighted militants such as
Durutti realising their importance sent some members
back to the collectives. But these were skilled
organisers not armed troops.
Finally in all the collectivsed areas there were many
"individualists" who were allowed to hang on to their
land. Far from been harassed to join they were often
allowed to avail of the many free services of the
collectives. Though their numbers declined with time in
many cases they remained a significant minority. This
couldn't have happened if collectivisation was forced.
ARAGON
Let's take a closer look at one region- Leval's first
example: Aragon. An estimated 69.5 % of Aragon's
430,000 inhabitants in the revolutionary zone took part
in collectives in total, with up to 400 collectives
established. When Leval arrived in February 1937
there were 275 collective villages with 141,430 families
organised into 24 cantonal federations holding their
first conference in Caspe. Obviously over the seven
months since the Fascist coup in July this was a major
achievement .
He visited the main collectives of seven of these
federations. Collectivisation occurred in a similar way in
most of them. After the major landowners had fled the
land an assembly was held. It was decided to seize all
land and machinery hold it in common . Teams were
formed to various jobs, each electing recallable delegates
to a village assembly.
A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL
To distribute the common stock of goods rationing or a
family wage was brought in. Given the low level of
Spanish agriculture and the demands of the war it
wasn't possible to jump immediately to communist
distribution (i.e. free goods for all) in Aragon (or most
other areas) . However there was a major increase in
living standards along with a greater say for everyone
and a huge range of free social services.
In the village of Graus, for example, the family (which
persisted as the main social form) wage meant a 15%
increase in money going into households. All services
such as electricity and gas were free as well as free and
hugely improved medical, educational and entertainment
facilities. Overall this meant an increase in living
standards of 50-100%.
There were many increases in productivity and
efficiency. In several areas huge new projects were made
possible by collectivisation. In Esplus there were four
new piggeries producing hundreds of animals and the
sheep herd increased from 600 to 2,000. In Mas de Las
Mantas a huge collective bakery handled all the baking
previously the exclusive task of women in the home. In
Alcorisa there had been a 50% increase in cultivated
land and centralisation of tailor's shops brought a 66%
increase in production.
These are just a few examples where the landlord system
had held back the efficient use of land while peasants
and labours had faced starvation every year.
At the February meeting of the cantonal federations
measures were been taken to set aside areas of land for
research into better seed production in each canton. It
had been suggested, for example, that virus free potatoes
could be raised in the mountains of upper Aragon These
type of innovations could never have been dreamed up
by the landlords who relied entirely on cheap labour
(without "wasting" money on machines) to keep them
well heeled while the majority starved.
The Federation was also attempting to promote
exchanges between collectives with richer ones
distributing food and machinery to those in less well off
areas. The collectives also supplied the major cities
voluntarily (unlike the case in the Russian civil
war(1921) where forced grain seizures by the Bolsheviks
killed off any fellow feeling between rural and urban
workers). They also sent spare supplies to columns at
the front.
INDIVIDUALISTS
The conference also took an interesting attitude towards
'individualist' farmers which contrasted with Stalin's
murderous forced collectivisation in the 1930s. The
individualists were left to their own devices though the
collectives were under no obligation to give them any aid
(in practice most did). However they were totally
forbidden from employing workers and they lost
automatic inheritance rights. Many individualists did
eventually go over to the collectives and they were
usually won over by example and not forced.
Aragon is only one of the regions covered. In some
other areas there was almost a fully communist system in
operation. For example in the Naval collective in
Huesca a system operated were you just went to the
collective store and took what you needed.
Contributions and withdrawals were recorded and all
was reduced to simple accounting.
In most areas this just wasn't possible and rationing was
the order of the day. However the achievements are sill
impressive given the miserable state of Spanish
agriculture in the first place.
INDUSTRIAL COLLECTIVES
The CNT was a mainly urban anarcho-syndicalist union
drawing much of its support from workers in Barcelona
and Madrid. For this reason it may seem surprising that
industrial collectivisation did not go as far as that on the
land. However it must be remembered that many of
these industries depended almost totally on countries
outside Spain for both markets and raw materials.
These were almost immediately cutoff by the European
governments on the grounds of "non-interference" in
Spain's internal affairs. Also most factories had to
retool for the war effort which made huge demands on
labour time.
Even allowing for this, however, as Leval points out
there was not true socialisation in many cases "but a
worker's Neo-Capitalism". By this he meant that the
framework of capitalism was maintained with workers
running factories, selling goods and sharing the profits.
CNT
His loyalty to the CNT prevents him from pointing the
finger here. Their refusal to drive the revolution
through to it's logical conclusion, abolishing capitalism
and refusing to share power with the bourgeois in
government must be singled out as the decisive reason
why industry wasn't entirely self-managed. The CNT's
syndicalism left them uninterested in politics and
political power. They left the parliament and state
structure intact which gave the bourgeois a base from
which to rebuild. They should have destroyed the
government's political power entirely and used the arms
and gold reserves seized to further the revolution.
BARCELONA
All things considered, the achievements in industrial
collectivisation were still amazing and surprised foreign
observers like George Orwell. 3000 enterprises in
Barcelona were collectivised. A council was elected by
an assembly of all the workers to run each workplace.
Each section elected to delegates to liaise with the
council on day to day matters. The council sent
recallable representatives to a council for each industry
which drew up general plans for that industry.
All the major services were greatly improved. Equal
wages were paid to all grades and the general wage level
was increased for most workers.
For example all the small electricity generators in
private hands were linked together and new dams and
generators built to give a more efficient system. The
water supply which had been erratic was improved with
supply going up to 150,000 cubic metres fairly quickly
(Leval explains, however that it couldn't be increased
much further as most existing natural catchments were
been used and, presumably, there wasn't time to build
reservoirs).
Perhaps the most dramatic improvement was on the
trams, the major method of transport in Barcelona. Five
days after the fascists were beaten off the streets the
trams were running under workers' control. The fleet
had been increased from 600 to 700 by the repair of 100
trams previously discarded as un-fixable. A new safety
and signal system was built. Track and roadway repaired
and improved, an automatic breakdown warning system
installed and many lines re-routed. Passengers carried
increase from 183,543,516 to 233,557,506 at a standard
class cheap fare. Tell that to anyone who maintains
workers are too ignorant to run things themselves!
The Spanish revolution proved conclusively, if only
briefly, that given a chance workers and peasants can
run things themselves a lot better then the bosses. The
elimination of the profit motive and the undistorted
application of technology improved life greatly for those
involved.
Workers' self-management and the agricultural
collectives didn't collapse due to some flaw in human
nature. They were smashed by fascist attacks from the
front and Communist tanks in the rear (for example a
division of tanks under the command of the Communist
general Lister was used to destroy most of the Aragon
collectives). Anarchism as a method of organising
society faced the test of history and passed with flying
colours.
Des McCarron
- ********* The Friends of Durruti ***************
from Workers Solidarity No 34
THE WAR in Spain (1936-1939) has often been
portrayed as a simple struggle between Fascism
and democracy. In fact it was anything but. A
military coup launched in July 1936 was defeated
by worker's action in most parts of Spain.
There then followed a wide ranging social
revolution (see Worker's Solidarity 33). As many
as 5-7 million were involved in the collectivisation
of agriculture and thousands in worker's control
of industry. About 2 million of these were also
members of the oldest union in Spain the anarcho-
syndicalist; CNT.
As with all revolutions a counter-revolution
followed quickly on the Spanish revolution. This
was spearheaded by the Spanish Communist party.
These were faithful adherents to Stalin's foreign
policy of sucking up to France and England in the
hope of military and economic alliances. They
resisted the revolution at all stages and found
willing allies in the Spanish republican and
socialist forces. All took pains to convey to the
world a struggle between fascism and democracy.
They also took steps to try and make it such a
struggle by smashing collectives and factory
committees and sabotaging the efforts of
revolutionary forces at the front. However even
more worrying is the fact that the "anarchists" of
the CNT made little attempt to combat these forces.
In fact four became government ministers.
One tendency within the CNT; the Friends of
Durruti resisted the growing reformism within the
CNT. In this review of their pamphlet; "Towards a
Fresh Revolution" Conor Mc Loughlin outlines their
importance to modern anarchists.
"We are not interested in medals or in general's
sashes, we want neither committees or ministers"
Bueneventura Durruti - Solidaridad Obrera Sept 12 1936
"The government has posthumously granted the
rank of Lieutenant Colonel to the illustrious
Libertarian leader Buenaventura Durruti on the
anniversary of his death"- Solidaridad Obrera April
30 1938
The friends of Durutti were setup in 1937 by rank and
file members of the CNT and memders of CNT columns
resisting militarisation. "Towards a fresh revolution"
was published in 1938 as "a message of hope and a
determination to renew the fight against an
internationalism." It's a short and relatively easy read
at 43 pages. It is obviously aimed at activists in the
CNT and it pulls no punches in it's attacks on the
Spanish bourgeoisie and "colaborationists" in the CNT.
However be warned it does assume a certain amount of
background knowledge of the history of the CNT and the
Spanish revolution. It would be useful to read in
conjunction with Vernon Richard's "Lessons of the
Spanish Revolution"
JULY 19th 1936
The pamphlet begins by recalling the massive gains
made by Spanish workers in areas where they had
succeeded in beating the fascist coup. The coup had been
defeated by workers facing down the military often with
their bare hands. It had been defeated without any help
from the popular front government who refused to arm
the people. This was to be repeated throughout the
course of the "civil war". The workers confronted fascism
with revolution the government proved more afraid of
revolution then fascism (which is not to knock the many
genuine anti-fascists in some of the government parties.).
The July events triggered a massive social revolution
throughout Spain. (see Workers Solidarity no. 33).
Workers took over in the factories and on the lands and
began the creation of a self-managed communist society.
Millions were involved in agricultural communes and
worker's self management in the factories.
The pamphlet however poses the central question. Why,
when a clear majority supported and took part in the
building of a social revolution, wasn't this pushed
forward by the CNT; the massive anarcho-syndicalist
union. Their answer is brief: "what happened had to
happen"
Why was this sellout inevitable as the FOD maintain?
Why did leading anarchists move on to become leading
ministers in the Spanish government?
In explaining their apparently fatalistic view of the CNT
the FOD go on to show how the CNT was devoid of any
revolutionary theory or programme. They had "Lyricism
aplenty" and detailed plans had been laid down as to
how an anarchist Spain would operate at their national
conference in Saragosa in May 1936. But they couldn't
get from A to B, from bread and butter struggle to a
future libertarian society.
For this reason they handed the revolution to the tender
mercies of the Socialists, republicans and Communists.
These forces which emerged without a shred of support
from the July events were not slow to rebuild. Instead of
destroying it they propped up the Spanish state in it's
hour of need. As the FOD put it: "It breathed a
lungfull of Oxygen into an anemic, terror stricken
bourgeoisie."
Garcia Oliver one of the "leading militants" who was
shortly to enter the government without even consulting
the Union's members claimed he had avoided "an
anarchist dictatorship". This shows a complete and crass
lack of understanding of the essential tasks of an
anarchist organisation i.e. the smashing of the state and
the transfer of power to worker's and peasants. The
CNT and Spanish workers were to pay in blood for this
collaboration.
We acknowledge the great work of the CNT in
propagandising anarchism and the struggle against
Franco. But we must stand with the FOD in absolute
condemnation of the deferring of revolutionary politics to
class collaboration.
The FOD had a programme which could have won the
support of the Spanish masses and led them to
anarchism and the destruction of Fascism. However they
were too small and too late. The need for such a
programme as outlined in "How anarchists should
organise" in this issue has never been more pressing
MAY 3 rd 1937
By this stage the counter-revolutionaries in the
"republican" camp felt confident enough to provoke a fight
with the Barcelona working class. Police under the
command of Rodriguez Salas, the public order commissar,
attacked the telephone exchange. They were strongly
resisted by CNT organised workers inside.
Barricades soon sprang up all over the city. Fighting
broke out with the CNT and POUM (non-Stalinist
Marxists) quickly gaining the upper hand over
government and PSUC (Stalinist controlled Catalan
"Socialist" party). After an armed stand off the workers
were finally persuaded to lay down arms by the CNT
"leadership".
The FOD strongly urged workers to remain put and were
in the thick of the fighting. They pointed out that the
workers had won and now controlled Barcelona (after a
steady erosion of their position since July 1936). They
insisted that workers stayed put. They issued a
manifesto calling for the disbanding of the army and
parties which had supported the coup and the
establishment of a revolutionary Junta to continue the
war.
It is worth explaining exactly what they meant by this
Junta since the word has very bad associations. They
wanted the Junta to control only the war effort. It was to
be made up of elected, recallable delegates. The economy
was to be under the control of workers through their
syndicates.
For issuing these demands they were attacked as
traitors and agent provocateurs. The CNT brokered peace
was an abandonment of the revolutionary Barcelona
workers. Several thousand troops arrived from Valencia.
There were mass arrests, executions and immediate
press censorship. The destruction of the POUM and CNT
by Stalin's CHEKA agents began.
The May events were a vital turning point in the Spanish
revolution. The collectives were crushed throughout
republican areas soon afterwards. Worker's control was
smashed and militarisation completed. The "peoples
army" then suffered massive and bloody defeats at the
hands of the fascists.
We would agree with almost all the FOD's positions
summarised at the end of the pamphlet. These include;
1. That the war should have been a continuation of the
revolution with a democratic worker's army.
2. All available arms and money should have been seized
by the workers. (The CNT spent most of the war
guarding the government's 2,259 pesatas in gold! This
money which could have aided the revolution was
exported to Russia to buy the arms that helped destroy
it.)
3. No collaboration with the Spanish bourgeois
4. Real worker's unity
5. Total socialisation of the economy and food
distribution
6. Equalisation of pay rates
7. No armistice with Foreign imperialist powers.
To this we could only add the immediate granting of
independence to remaining Spanish colonies.
The FOD were armed with a revolutionary programme
that could have brought Spain towards anarchism and
crushed the Fascists. But they were too small and to late
to hope to win workers to it's implementation The need
for anarchists organised with such a programme has
never been more pressing. We are attempting to build
one.
Conor McLoughlin