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Title: Before The Storm Author: Buenaventura Durruti Date: 1935 Language: en Topics: Spain, prison, letter, CNT Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20060525063006/http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spain/durruti_prison.html Notes: Letter sent by Durruti from Valencia prison to the Model Prison in Barcelona where his comrade Mira was an inmate.Reprinted in Solidaridad Obrera, November 1990, No 213
In Valencia's Model Prison where Durruti had been an inmate since that
August, CNT and FAI prisoners drawn from Catalonia, Aragon, and Levante
proper were in the majority. This homogeneity among the prisoners
ensured that the internal affairs of the CNT and the FAI were the
especial focus of their discussions. Two years on from the split with
the CNT and now that the controversy surrounding it had become less
impassioned, the notion of a return to the bosom of the CNT, as
advocated by J. Pedro and J. Lopez, was beginning to make some headway;
precisely how this return to the fold was to be negotiated, no-one yet
knew. All such issues and points were passionately debated in the cells
and on the landings of the Model Prison.
Durruti who was more preoccupied with other matters spent his time in
prison keeping somewhat aloof from these debates and to judge by one
letter written at about this time one might say that he was at daggers
drawn with the committees of the CNT.
The letter in question is dated 11.9.35 and was addressed to J. Mira,
and was by way of a reply to a letter from Mira. The document he refers
to in the course of the letter is one where he outlines his position
with regard to the current actions of the CNT. In "Durruti: the people
armed" by Abel Paz, Free Life Editions, 1977, this position is summed up
as follows- "ammunition shouldn't be wasted uselessly; it was necessary
first to put the finishing touches on a social revolutionary
organisation, economizing scarce resources for the struggle. The
militant cadres who were free, should not expose themselves, nor weaken
the movement with useless strikes" [extracts from Durruti's document]
The letter begins like this:
"Got your letter to which I am now going to reply - naturally!-
especially as it has to do with matters of some interest to me. From
this end I have no news to bring you, except that two comrades were
released yesterday. We hope that these releases will continue and that
soon we shall all be out.
First of all, let me make this prefatory comment: what any comrades
imprisoned with you may think of me matters very little to me. I am true
to myself, adhering to the course that I marked out for myself some time
ago.
If by chance you have followed my record as an anarchist and
revolutionary through the press or in conversations with comrades you
will have noticed that the mentality of the vulgar hold-up man or gunman
is no part of my make-up. I came to the ideas and continue to profess
them because I believed, and still do, that the anarchist ideal is above
all pettiness and base resentments.
I have always thought, and think still, that the struggles enjoined by
the Confederation in defence of one more peseta and one hour less were
skirmishing that the organisation needed, but never advances towards
confederal and anarchist goals. The Confederation has well-defined
principles: it aims directly at transforming the capitalist system so as
to introduce libertarian communism. But for a revolution of this sort,
Mira my friend, one needs anarchist ideas and a revolutionary education
rather than the education of a hoodlum: much less believe that the CNT
should squander all of its vitality on one or two conflicts so that
those concerned may have a scrap more cod on the Sunday dinner table.
The CNT which is the most powerful organisation in Spain must take up
its rightful place in the collective order. Its battles must be in tune
with its greatness. It would be laughable to find a lion in the middle
of the jungle squatting for hours on end at the entrance to a rat hole,
waiting for some little rat to emerge so that he might gobble it up. The
CNT is in the same position at the moment. There are those who argue
that the organisation's fight in Barcelona represents a manly,
revolutionary stance. I, Mira my friend, think the contrary. Sabotage
anybody can indulge in, even the faintest of hearts. On the other hand,
it takes men of courage to make a revolution, whether on the committees
or among the cadres of militants who are to operate on the streets.
After the stance of the comrades and of the organisation in the October
rising there can be no talk of confederal dignity just because a tram
was set alight, or twenty trams. Is it not deplorable to have to
recognise in these straightened times through which we are passing that
the organisation in Barcelona represents not the slightest boon to the
revolution? Can it be that in these times when the chance of revolution
may present itself to us at the most unexpected moment, the organisation
is incapable of taking up its post as a body? Is it not shameful that
the collective interests should be abandoned for two undistinguished
disputes from which a handful of people are going to emerge the
beneficiaries? I am one of the chosen ones and I am ashamed that the CNT
should be jeopardising its revolutionary trajectory over my weekly pay.
Some look upon the organisation as just a body that looks to their
ordinary economic interests others as the organisation that works
alongside the anarchists to transform society. On these grounds, friend
Mira, it is very hard for an, understanding to be arrived at between
syndicalists short and simple and the' anarchists.
Now to the document in question. Of itself, I paid no more attention
than it deserved: a suggestion to the National Committee regarding the
current situation and nothing more. How this commotion that you speak to
me about ever came about I do not understand. It was a personal action:
an exercise of the right that any militant enjoys to spell out his
views, even to the National Committee. Delegates from the CNT came here
and once certain ideas that they claimed needed clarification had been
clarified, we came to an understanding. What is more, after I swapped
views with the delegate from the CNT, he agreed with me on the basis of
the document.
The document of itself is merely the expression of the opinion that I
have ventilated on No5 landing in Barcelona and then, when we were
there, nobody raised any objections and it was only when I was
transferred to Valencia that any opposition was voiced.
The Regional Committee of Catalonia also came to see us. And after we
had had a full discussion, they could not come up with any objection.
There was only a complaint about a few words that offended the
sensibilities of the Regional Committee. We had no difficulty in
removing those because they did not in any way alter the substance of
the document.
Once the explanations from one and all ( the National and Regional
Committees and the signatories to the document) were over, we all agreed
upon the need to publish, in 'Soli', a note of clarification so as to
enlighten the whole membership . We drafted the note and sent it to the
Regional Committee for publication, as agreed. The note contained no
retraction of any sort of the document since that was the agreement with
the organisation's delegate: why, then, was our note not published? And
why did the Regional Committee of Catalonia, and the National Committee
which had undertaken to publish another one so as to set minds at ease
and ensure that our document would not be misinterpreted, not do so?
This stance by the Committees is suspicious. What have they to gain by
this affair's not being clarified?
I have letters from the comrades in Burgos penitentiary where the
document was given a reading at a meeting and, so they tell me, nobody
voiced any objection which is not to say that they all agree with it.
But before they had sight of it all sorts of nonsense was being said and
now that they have seen it, thoughts are more sensible.
There is much that can be said of the results of the Barcelona tactics
but one must be wary in a letter. All I can tell you is that after so
much sabotage they have been obliged to step a little outside of
confederal principles - so as to talk with the water industry employers
and the bosses of the Urban Transport Company. I do not criticise them
given the exceptional times we are in. But I do think of the great
damage that systematic sabotage has done and is doing us. As a system it
is something that the organisation cannot countenance. As a tactic it is
highly questionable. Collectively speaking, I reckon that it has done us
terrible harm, costing us much more than anything there was in the way
of gains. Every time we enter into a struggle it is right to consider
the benefit and the drawbacks. I have never been one to advocate
abandoning strike disputes, but not abandoning them is one thing: it is
quite another to ensure that all our activities revolve around a
dispute. That would be to limit the CNT's theatre of action. To confine
it to a wage struggle is to demean its ultimate aims.
Luckily the political situation is beginning to resolve itself for us
and comrades should be asking themselves how well-equipped we are going
to be to bring all our weight to bear in it. On the landings of the
jails and prisons the talk now is not of the CNT, and now there are
expectations of those whom we have always fought against. At the moment
the CNT is no reassurance. In the minds of all the prisoners, these are
the only words: "let them open parliament, lift the state of emergency,
and get on with the elections". Not a word about the CNT. This is what
has been gained by the organisation's stance: confidence in our own
strength has been done to death.
The CNT which is the organisation with the most prisoners will not be
able to play any significant role either before or after the elections.
The CNT's prisoners will have to thank the politicians for their
release, and that to me who am an anarchist, has enormous implications.
I would like to walk free thanks to the efforts of my comrades and not
due to the philanthropy of someone whom I have to fight tooth and nail
as soon as I am out."