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Title: The Confederal Concept of Libertarian Communism
Author: CNT (Spain)
Date: 1936
Language: en
Topics: libertarian communism, anarchist communism, anarcho-communism, CNT, Spain, 1936, Spanish revolution
Source: El Congreso Confederal de Zaragoza 1936 (Madrid, Spain: CNT, 1978), pp. 226–242.
Notes: Translated by X363823, a San Antonio, Texas (USA) member of the Industrial Workers of the World, who can be reached through X363823@gmail.com.

CNT (Spain)

The Confederal Concept of Libertarian Communism

Preliminary Remarks to This Translation

TEXT SOURCE, THE TERM “SINDICATO”, ETC.

The original text is by the Spanish CNT in El Congreso Confederal de

Zaragoza 1936 (Madrid, Spain: CNT, 1978), pp. 200–207, 226–242.

I have chosen to translate the term sindicato as “syndicate”, instead of

(workers’) “union”.

Sindicato refers to several things in Spanish,

a workers’ union at a workplace,

a workers’ union based on a similar trade (what we in the Industrial

Workers of the World call an “Industrial Union [Branch]”),

a workers’ union based on geography, such as a town (similar to what we

in the IWW call a “General Membership Branch”).

In addition to other meanings, it also refers to a worker-run workplace

once the bosses are kicked out and the workers’ take control of

production—an alternative term revolutionary Spaniards use for sindicato

in this last sense is colectivo (“collective”).

Throughout the text, syndicate does not refer to sindicato in just one

of these senses, but in different ones at different times.

Fully italicized sentences indicate that the stenographer is summarizing

what was said, not transcribing verbatim.

REGARDING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS TEXT

This document, which guided the anarchist experiments of the 1936

Spanish Revolution, has multiple precepts that many of us anarchists

would disagree with today.

Aside from those flaws, I personally regard this document as an

important text in the history of freedom ideas and a text that should be

seriously considered by people, newcomers and seasoned, who have fallen

in love with the anarchist ideal.

I think still provides indispensable opinions as to what the immediate

post-capitalist, post-contemporary Statist anarchist society will look

like when we muster enough numbers and voluntary self-discipline to

finally take over the administration of our own lives from the Coercers

and the State.

Please contact me if you believe more translations of this nature are

needed in the interest of creating anarchy in the English-speaking

world.

For the Anarchist Commune of Communes!

Death to Patriarchy, the State, Authority, and Our Submissive, Lazy

Slave Mentality!

Contact me fellow Texas workers and anarchists!

August 5^(th), 2016

X363823

X363823@gmail.com

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Eighteenth Session

The session begins at 3:00 in the afternoon.

New affiliated members are read.

The resolution over the “Confederal Concept of Libertarian Communism”

has been distributed.

The Draft Committee takes the floor.

Draft Committee: We have tried to establish broad outlines to give form

to the idea of libertarian communism.

The resolution is read immediately after. The reading lasts fifty

minutes, during which the most absolute silence is observed. All

delegates follow along with the reading using the copies they have.[1]

Metallurgy (Valencia): We are opposed to the structure of the future

society, even though we recognize the liberatory contents of the

resolution.

Port of Sagunto: The delegation reads a series of considerations

justifying its thesis opposed to the structure of libertarian communism.

Graphic Crafts (Gijón): They subscribe to the resolution in spirit. As

representatives of an organization that is not anarchist, I cannot

endorse it, also because the organization isn’t anarchist.[2]

Draft Committee: We feel compelled to clear up two aspects.

First, we completely believe in carrying out the mandate of the

syndicates. Second, we have limited ourselves to clearing up the

syndicates’ agreements and fitting them together.

It would be a good idea to recall that we are not dealing with a

program, but a resolution. A program is a closed circle—a thing that we

cannot accept.

We are limiting our work to three guides: organization of the working

class; a revolutionary outlook; and securing that that revolution is

libertarian.

We live in the capitalist system, and we have to start from the

syndicate, but without forgetting that the commune—profoundly rooted in

the Spanish people—lies adjacently. And of those who try to organize

themselves like that, nobody will be able to deprive them of what they

live off of.

In conclusion, we say that we are respecting the opinion of the majority

of syndicates.

Water, Gas, and Electricity (Valencia): We must object to the resolution

because, apart from the spirit that animates it, we find vagaries in the

Draft Committee’s statements that refer to the organization of work. It

is necessary that the resolution contains clarity, above all, in

problems that refer to the economy and to exchange.

A Draft Committee member has said that the syndicate is Marxism and that

it renounces individuality. But then why do we organize ourselves and

accept the principles of revolutionary unionism? Because the negation of

individuality disappears upon accepting contracts freely agreed to.

Within the syndicate, individuality will find refuge. Here the

individual will constitute a being who will be able to think with

absolute independence, realize the significance of those opinions, and

the syndicate will defend them.

Neither the Draft Committee, nor the delegates can forget that this is

not an anarchist congress. It is a CNT congress. In our hands lies the

difficult task of organizing all of the elements of life, and we have to

lay the foundations of the future—without putting the future at risk,

without enclosing ourselves in an iron circle.

And because we consider that the syndicate’s purpose is something more

than the conquest of a few dollars, it must be given the commission that

it must have in the future—the syndicate being the basis of the

organization of work.

Construction (Barcelona): The amendment to the resolution could fill the

mistakes that are observed in it, which result simply from a lack of

precision.

We deem the CNT to be the embryo of the future, and it is suitable that

it be the starting point of the structure of libertarian communism.

The Draft Committee has believed that the CNT should complete

libertarian communism with the communes. This is fine and well. But

there is the deficiency of appointing the mission that the syndicates

are responsible for—which is as important or more important than that of

the communes—, and in the resolution there is much detail over the

operation of the communes, but that of the syndicates is left in the

air.

The confederal concept of libertarian communism must be explained

comprehensively, so that those who talk about it at the tribune or write

about it in the press do not have to make up anything; so that everyone

carries out their duty without any excess, since propaganda over this

aspect is not possible when it is intrinsically subject to the caprice

and whim of the private interpretation that each wants to give it.

In regards to the committee that has been charged with adding details

upon completion of the resolution, it is recommended that the committee

includes statistics so that it is known of each sector of industry which

are poor and what each needs. This will be data that we must of

necessity provide to propagandists, which they will be able to make

excellent use of, giving a sense of the powerful and constructive

capacity that must distinguish us.

Lumber (Alicante): Anarchism is not a narrow conception. Programs should

not be attacked because what we are proposing is the same as how we use

clocks in the railway industry.

The clock is a function in the railway as the sea compass is to the

boat. The CNT studies its problems and shapes them into a line in order

to proceed, and if it is necessary to deviate, the CNT will deviate.

We have the right to function with the communes as we see fit, but the

syndicate will also be useful in the beginning moments of

reconstruction, since there will still not be other organs capable of

regulating economic reconstruction.

The enlarged section of the resolution should be accepted because, as

Construction (Barcelona) put well, the appointed committee should

improve it.

We know what libertarian communism must be, but there is a great number

who believe in the necessity of Authority. With those specific details

we will show others our constructive capacity and the superfluity of

Authority.

Draft Committee: You should recognize our delicate situation in the

defense and approval of the resolution.

Different conceptions had to be adjusted to be able to skirt around the

obstacles that will be presented. Right now we will limit ourselves to

clearing up that which appears vague.

The resolution is not a bylaw, and this is why it does not articulate

all functions that compete with organs of production or with the

politics of libertarian communism. This is why we are accepting the

amendment that is not ours, which will establish the proper function of

each organ.

When we present the completed resolution, it will be apparent that we

have known how to draw out the conception of libertarian communism,

which establishes:

1^(st). Individual sovereignty that conforms with everybody.

2^(nd). The syndicate as an association, an organ of production, will

point out the fundamental principles of the organs of production, and

3^(rd). In the economy and in administration, the commune, where the

organs of production converge.

All of these aspects are summarized in this resolution. In addition,

common agreement between the Local, Regional, and National Federations

of Communes and the Industrial Federations are summarized.

This is what is fundamental. The rest is details because we understand

that the CNT should agglutinate all conceptions that establish the

relational nexus between the syndicate and the commune.

Glass (Seville): There is a basis in the resolution from which to

present an effective propaganda over what libertarian communism will be.

Thus the discussion, whose trajectory we are unaware of, has drawn

itself to a close. So without losing time, let us approve the

resolution.

Hospitalet de Llobregat: We have understood that there has not been any

need to make programs. Workers must study the problems of life on their

own.

On the other hand, upon presenting a program, workers avoid thinking on

their own, and that is grave.

We confess, nevertheless, that the Draft Committee has known how to get

around the obstacles presented in order to draw up the resolution.

But on our part, we state that the CNT, a revolutionary unionist

organization, completes its mission at the precise moment that the State

is overthrown.

We want workers to fortify themselves in study. Every program in an

organization becomes a singular, closed dogma.

Revolution cannot be based on improvisation, but it is necessary that we

make all the contributions we can.

Let there be as many programs as there are individuals, and let us not

submit to the authority of majorities.

Federica Montseny of the Draft Committee: Within the Draft Committee, I

represent the classical anarchist conception that the Hospitalet

comrades are expressing. Nevertheless, I am signing the resolution, and

it is because events are precipitating and revolution is hovering above

us. In the face of this, we must evoke the sense that we know what we

want and where we are going.

We have accepted the amendment in principle because we recognize that

some more details should be specified with visible materials. But this

does not mean that they—the appointed committee—must draw from the

general lines traced by the Draft Committee, nor must they specify all

that must be done because that would diminish individual liberty.

Put it on the record, then, and I say, in the words of the Construction

(Barcelona) delegation, that I would withdraw the Draft Committee’s

signature if with the amendment we tried to turn libertarian communism

into a closed dogma.

Various Trades (Bentasán): We think it is necessary to put on the record

that the producer’s card will be used to confirm the individual’s

identity.

Construction (Gijón): We are thankful for the Draft Committee’s interest

in presenting the rough outline of the future society.

But we think that the Draft Committee members have borne in mind the

philosophical concept of libertarian communism and have forgotten the

practical concept.

Whoever declares that there was never agreement between anarchist

theories over the specificity of the future is mistaken—there has been,

and we could point out an infinite number of demonstrative quotations.

It has always been agreed that the economic basis of the future society

would be equality in that which relates to the economic and absolute

liberty in that which relates to the sociopolitical.

But with this argument, other things cannot be taken into consideration.

A solution must be given to this problem because workers are asking us

to specifically formulate what equality must be—what the CNT must be—by

interpreting on a practical, not a philosophical basis. The revolution

must be made first and then controlled afterwards.

It has been said that that it cannot be thus because revolutionary

unionism is Marxist. It has also been said that syndicates have to

disappear after the revolution has been made, but that is untrue because

neither revolutionary unionism nor the CNT have Marxism as their sources

since revolutionary unionism and the CNT declare that the economy must

be worked out at the workplace today and tomorrow. Marxism takes into

consideration neither the individual nor society.

The CNT must insist upon the responsibility of preparing and

consolidating the economy. That does not mean that the CNT is creating a

closed shop, nor does it mean that the CNT will be opposed to any

actions that arise in response to violent acts.

Railways (Alicante): We observe that this subject has been included in

the agenda with the expectation that it is germane. The law of

majorities will be necessary although it is not considered an

untouchable rule. Before putting majoritarian decisions into practice,

all suggestions that are offered should be observed.

National Committee: The inclusion of this subject in the agenda is being

praised and criticized. Let it be understood that it was not us, but the

Regionals Plenum of January 26^(th) that decided it would be inserted.

Awakened Maritime (La Coruña): We disapprove of the amendment because

the committee that will be appointed would be able to assert dogmas. We

accept the resolution. It is necessary to study that which relates to

the economy and geographic conditions.

Liberal Professionals (Barcelona): This delegation argues for the

following amendment,

The Syndicate of Liberal Professionals of Barcelona moves that Congress

agrees that the ‘Education’ section of the topic ‘Concept of Libertarian

Communism’ is drawn up in the following form:

Education will be free, scientific, and equal for both sexes, and

endowed with all the elements necessary for its indiscriminate exercise

in productive application or in the realm of human knowledge.

Education will help in the formation of individuals with their own

opinions, and for this it is necessary that the teacher cultivates all

of the child’s faculties and that they achieve the complete pinnacle of

all possibilities that are latent in the infant; that an integral

education makes the individual their own master, certain of their

feelings, their ideas, responsible, and, in short, by them having their

own character and nature.

For us, the child—and man—is a precious treasure brimming with potential

that we can never limit nor deform with the stamp of any mold that

simply upon existing negates the quintessence of our ideals that are

based on the respect and integral cultivation of human individuality.

After the social revolution, the National Federation of Education will

also be commissioned with educating adults, not simply in elementary

instruction but in all necessary scientific knowledge for extirpating

ancient prejudices that have resulted in the enslavement of men and

women.

The National Federation of Education will establish the general rules

for our schools and that which facilitates the teaching profession and

control its scholarly activities.

Immediately after proclaiming libertarian communism, the National

Federation of Education will be created by all teaching centers. Having

already-existing knowledge of the teaching profession’s purpose, the

federation will select those who are intellectually and, above all,

morally capable of adapting to the requirements of free education. The

same applies to the election of teaching staff in primary and secondary

education. Elections will only look for demonstrated capacities through

practical exams.

Cinema, radio, and educational missions will be excellent and

efficacious auxiliaries for a rapid intellectual and moral

transformation of current generations and for developing the

individualities of children and adolescents who are born in a

libertarian communist environment.

Draft Committee: We agree with the spirit of the motion, but we must

explain the impossibility of allowing you room to make changes because

that would mean allowing room for all details that all syndicates

present to us. That is the task entrusted to the committee that is being

proposed in the resolution’s amendment.

Because it is 8:00 at night, Manufacturing (Barcelona) moves that the

session is extended an hour in order to allow the resolution’s approval

to take place. The motion carries.

Metallurgy (Barcelona): Equal rights must be granted, which means

accepting Liberal Professions’ (Barcelona) expansion. The expansions

that we other syndicates present in professional and technical aspects

will also need to be accepted.

Glass (Zaragoza): This problem should be exclusively dealt with by a

National Congress of Teachers.

San Feliu de Guixols: An explanation is asked for in regards to the

resolution. The resolution implies a danger, and I propose as a last

resort that the expansion is submitted to a referendum of the

syndicates.

Draft Committee: We do not object to the matter being passed onto the

syndicates.

We are interested in explaining the amendment’s purpose. Bear in mind

that there are 150 motions and each one contains things accepted in

general terms but they must have a more complete articulation. There is

not room to give too many turns and that should be accepted in order to

prevent the general outline of our resolution from metamorphosing into

something else.

The committee will have to consult technical elements, and once they

present the complete resolution, all of the current Draft Committee

members will revise it, and it will be definitively approved without the

general spirit of the present resolution being distorted.

Put to the congressists’s consideration, the resolution is unanimously

approved with the following amendment:

Amendment Approved by Congress That Is Attached to the Resolution over

the Confederal Concept of Libertarian Communism

This amendment is relegated to a referendum of syndicates for its

approval or rejection:

In view of the little time that this Draft Committee has for writing the

resolution, we move that a committee of five comrades is appointed, who,

complying with the outline and principles pointed out in this

resolution, will make a properly articulated and more elaborated

resolution that is more complete in form and which integrates proper

technical advice.

If Congress agrees to this, this work should be completed at the end of

two months from the approval of this amendment.

Draft Committee. Zaragoza, May 9^(th), 1936.

It is 9:00 at night. The session adjourns.

Resolution over the Confederal Concept of Libertarian Communism

(Approved by the 1936 CNT Congress)

It is known by all delegations attending this congress that within the

CNT there are two ways of interpreting the direction of life and the

structural basis of the post-revolutionary economy.

These multiple conceptual tendencies are due doubtless to doctrinal and

philosophical reasons that originate in our militants’ psychologies and

that create two incontrovertible forms of thought whose potent energies

today are being strengthened by propaganda that provide an outlet for

these two channels.

Well, if it could be guaranteed that in this double movement of

confederal energies the natural desire for hegemony would not manifest,

there would be no problem. But that spiritual aspiration, tenacious and

constant, could manifest with new force in our localities, opening up in

disputes serious dangers to the unity that we have just obtained in this

Draft Committee with the serenity and conscience necessary for examining

and accepting the historical and transcendental responsibility of these

times.

The Draft Committee has needed to find the formula that gathers the

spirit and thought of the two currents and articulates the foundations

of our new life. So we declare:

First. Putting the cornerstone to the architecture of this resolution,

we have managed to construct it on these pillars with an austere sense

of harmony: the Individual and the Syndicate, giving equal articulation

to these two currents and conceptions.

Second. We put in writing the implicit recognition of individual

sovereignty, confirming this as the precise guarantee of social harmony.

With this overarching principle, which defends liberty against all

threatening norms, we must articulate the distinct institutions that are

essential for determining what we need, providing connections to those

needs.

Thus, when the heap of the social wealth is socialized, when the

possession of the instruments of work are guaranteed to all and all

mental work is made equal and a responsibility for all in order to be

able to consume, the instinct for natural law will assert itself in all

imperatives for the conservation of life.

The anarchist principle of free agreement will arise in order to arrange

the scope, transaction, and duration of pacts between people. The

federation’s liberty and power will have to guarantee and conceive the

individual as a cell with a lawful identity and the key entity of

successive articulations. The Federation must constitute the connections

and nomenclature of the new society to come.

We must all consider that structuring the society of the future with

mathematical precision would be absurd because there is often a real

abyss between theory and practice.

Because of this, we will not fall into the error of politicians who

present definitive solutions for all problems, solutions that

sensationally fail in practice. And this is because they try to impose a

method for all times without bearing in mind the evolution of human life

itself. We, who have a vision more elevated than our social problems,

will not do that.

By outlining the principles of libertarian communism, we do not present

it as a single program that does not permit transformations. These

transformations will come, logically, and particular needs and

experiences will indicate them.

Although it perhaps seems that it is a bit outside the mandate Congress

has charged us with, we believe it is necessary to clarify some of our

concept on revolution and the most pronounced premises that in our

opinion can and must govern the revolution.

The topic according to which revolution is none other than the violent

episode by which the capitalist system is destroyed has been tolerated

too much. Revolution, in reality, is none other than the phenomenon that

is in fact a step toward a state of things that has for long previously

taken shape in the collective conscious.

Therefore, revolution has its origins in the same moment in which,

comparing the difference existing between social conditions and

individual awareness, the latter, by instinct or analysis, sees himself

forced to react against social conditions.

Because of this, we conceptualize in a few words that revolution begins:

First. As a psychological phenomenon against a state of things, that

struggles for individual aspirations and needs.

Second. As a social manifestation when its organized shape in society

clashes with the capitalist system’s strata.

Third. Organizationally, when the need is felt to create a force capable

of imposing the realization of its biological purpose.

On the other hand, these factors deserve to be highlighted as

revolutionary catalysts:

a) Downfall of the moral doctrine that serves as the basis of the

capitalist system.

b) Bankruptcy of this moral doctrine in its economic aspect.

c) Failure of its political expression—the democratic system as much as

its ultimate expression, state capitalism, which is nothing other than

authoritarian communism.

The whole of these factors converging at a given point and moment is the

call for determining the appearance of the violent act that must proceed

in order to enter the truly evolutionary period of revolution.

Considering that we live in the precise moment in which the convergence

of all these factors are giving rise to this promising possibility, we

have believed it necessary to draw up a resolution that, in its general

lines, sets the primary pillars of the social edifice that will shelter

us in the future.

The Constructive Concept of Revolution

We understand that our revolution must organize itself on the basis of

strict fairness.

The revolution cannot be founded upon mutual aid, nor solidarity, nor on

that archaic topic of ‘charity’.

In any case, these three formulas—which throughout time have appeared to

try to fill the deficiencies of rudimentary types of societies in which

the individual appears abandoned in the face of arbitrary laws and

taxes—, should be merged and clarified in new forms of social

co-existence that find their clearest interpretation in libertarian

communism:

giving to every human being that which he needs, without the

satisfaction of such needs having other limits than the necessities

demanded by the newly created economy.

If all roads that point to Rome lead to the Eternal City, all forms of

work and distribution that steer towards the conception of an

egalitarian society lead to the realization of justice and social

harmony.

Consequentially, we believe that the revolution should cement itself

upon the social principles and ethics of libertarian communism, which

are:

First. Giving to every human being that which he needs, without the

satisfaction of such needs having other limits than the necessities

demanded by the newly created economy.

Second. Soliciting from every human being the maximum contribution of

his efforts in accordance with society’s necessities, taking into

account the physical and moral conditions of each individual.

Organization of the New Society after the Revolutionary Act and the

First Measures of Revolution

The violent aspect of the revolution finished, the following are

declared abolished:

private property, the State, the principle of Authority, and,

consequentially, the classes that divide men between exploiters and

exploited, oppressed and oppressors.

The wealth being socialized, the producers’ organizations now freed,

these will oversee the direct administration of production and

consumption.

Established in every locality, the Libertarian Commune will put into

operation the new social mechanism. The producers of each branch or

section, gathered in their Syndicates and in their workplaces, shall

freely determine the way in which this will have to be organized.

The Free Commune shall seize as much of what the bourgeoisie formerly

held illegitimately, such as provisions, clothes, metal casts, raw

materials, work tools, etc. These work tools and raw materials will pass

into the producers’ authority, so that they can immediately administer

them for the direct benefit of the collective[3].

As their first purpose, the Communes shall take care to lodge with

maximum accommodations all the inhabitants of each locality, ensuring

assistance to the sick and education for children.

In accordance with the fundamental principle of libertarian communism,

as we have said before, all shall prepare to fulfill voluntary

duties—which will turn into a real duty when man works freely—to provide

their aid to the collective, in relation to their strengths and

capacities, and the Commune shall fulfill its obligation to take of

their needs.

Certainly, it is already necessary from now on to establish the idea

that the early period of the revolution shall not be easy and that it

shall be necessary that every person contribute the maximum of their

strengths and consume only that which the possibilities of production

permit. Every constructive period requires sacrifice and individual and

collective acceptance, as well as not creating difficulties to the work

of societal reconstruction that we shall all realize in common

agreement.

The Producers’s Organization Plan

The economic plan of organization, in whatever manifestation national

production takes, will be adjusted to the strictest principles of social

economy, administered by the producers through their different organs of

production, designated in general assemblies of the various

organizations and controlled through them at all times.

At the grassroots (at the workplace, in the Syndicate, in the Commune,

in every regulatory organ of the new society), the producer—the

individual—is the cell, the cornerstone of all social, economic, and

moral creations.

As a connective organ inside the Commune and in the workplace, the

Workshop and Factory Council comes to agreements with all other work

centers.

As a connective organ from Syndicate to Syndicate (the association of

producers), the Statistics and Production Councils shall continue to

federate with one another until they form a constant and tight network

among all the producers of the Iberian Confederation.

In the countryside the producer is the foundation and will act through

the Commune.

The Commune will manage all natural wealth of a political and

geographical demarcation.

As a connective body, the Council of Cultivation—formed partly from

technical elements and workers integrated from the associations of

agricultural producers—will be responsible for guiding the

intensification of production, deciding the lands most appropriate for

intensive production, according to their chemical composition.

These Councils of Cultivation will establish the same network of

relations that the Workplace Councils, Factory Councils, and Statistics

and Production Councils establish. They will complement the free

federation that represents the commune as a political territory and

geographical subdivision.

While Spain is the only country that has realized her social

transformation, Industrial Producers’ Associations and Agricultural

Producers’ Associations will federate nationally if dilemmas and

experience indicate that such large-scale federation is appropriate for

the most fruitful development of the economy.

Large-scale federation will take place for those services whose

characteristics are inclined toward it, facilitating the necessary and

logical relations between all Libertarian Communes of the Peninsula.

We think that as time passes the new society will manage to endow each

commune with all agricultural and industrial elements that are necessary

for their autonomy, in agreement with the biological principle that

declares that the freest man—in this case, the commune—is he who needs

least from others.

Libertarian Communes and Their Functions

Our revolution’s political expression must be laid upon this trilogy:

the individual, the commune, and the federation.

Within a plan of activities structured in all orders from a peninsular

point-of-view, the mode of administration will be of an absolute

Communal character. The basis of this administration will be, therefore,

the Commune.

These Communes will be autonomous and regionally and nationally

federated for the realization of objectives of a general character.

The right of autonomy will not exclude the duty of fulfilling agreements

of collective coexistence, these agreements being made in full awareness

and accepted in depth.

So, therefore, a Commune of consumers, without limits on voluntarism,

will commit itself to obey those norms of a general character that have

been agreed upon by the majority after free discussion.

On the other hand, those communes that are resistant to

industrialization, that agree to other types of coexistence, for example

the naturists and nudists, will have the right to an autonomous

administration, free from general compromises.

Since these naturist-nudist Communes and other types of Communes will

not be able to satisfy all of their necessities, limited that these

Communes will be, their delegates to the Congresses of the Iberian

Confederation of Autonomous Libertarian Communes will be able to arrange

economic agreements with the other Agricultural and Industrial Communes.

In conclusion we propose:

-The creation of the Commune as a political and administrative entity.

-That the Commune will be autonomous and confederated with all other

Communes.

-That the communes will be federated county-wise and regionally, fixing

by free will their geographical limits. Creating single Communes from

small towns, small villages, and places when it is convenient to do so.

The whole of these Communes will constitute an Iberian Confederation of

Autonomous Libertarian Communes.

For the distributive function of production and so that the Communes can

better nourish themselves, they will be able to create those

supplementary directing organs to achieve this, for example, a

Confederal Council of Production and Distribution with direct

representations from the National Federations of Production and from the

Annual Congress of Communes.

Internal Mission and Functions of the Commune

The Commune must tend to that which is of interest to the individual.

It must oversee all the work of coordination, maintenance, and

beautification for its population, from its inhabitants’ accommodations

to the articles and products that the Syndicates or Producers’

Associations put at their service.

It will also occupy itself with hygiene, communal statistics, collective

necessities; with teaching; with health establishments; and with the

conservation and improvement of local means of communication.

It will organize relations with the other Communes, and it will take

care to stimulate all artistic and cultural activities.

For the good fulfillment of this mission, a Communal Council will be

appointed to which representatives of the Councils of Farming, Health,

Culture, Distribution, Production, and Statistics will be aggregated.

The election procedures of the Communal Councils will be determined in

accordance with a system that is established in consideration of the

differences that population density warrants, taking into account that

it will take time to politically decentralize the metropolis,

constituted with its own Federations of Communes.

All of these posts will not have any executive or bureaucratic

character, apart from performing technical or simple statistical

functions. People elected to these posts will carry out their productive

missions, meeting together in sessions at the end of the workday to

discuss questions of detail that will not need the endorsement of the

Communal assemblies.

Assemblies shall be held as often as the commune’s interests deem

necessary, by request of the members of the Communal Council, or by the

will of the inhabitants of each one.

Relations and Exchange of Products

As we have already mentioned, our organization is of the federalist type

and secures the individual’s liberty within the group and the Commune.

The Communes’ liberty is secured within the Federations. And the liberty

of the Federations of Communes is secured within the Confederations.

Therefore, we proceed from the individual to the collective, securing

his rights in order to preserve the inviolable principle of liberty.

The Commune’s inhabitants shall discuss among themselves their internal

problems: production, consumption, instruction, hygiene, and, when

necessary, moral development and economy.

When encountering problems that affect a whole region of Communes or a

province, the Federations will have to deliberate such matters using

meetings and assemblies that have gathered with representation from all

Communes. The delegates to these meetings will provide the viewpoints

previously approved by their Communes.

For example, if it is necessary to build roads, linking together the

peoples of a region or transportation and product exchange between

agricultural and industrial regions, it is natural that all Communes

explain their opinions, since it will also be necessary to offer their

cooperation.

In matters of a regional character, it will be the Regional Federation

that puts into practice agreements, and these agreements shall represent

the sovereign will of all of the inhabitants of the region.

Therefore, it all begins in the individual, passes to the Commune, from

the Commune it moves to the Federation, and finally, to the

Confederation.

We shall approach problems of a national type in the same way, since our

organizational bodies shall complement one another.

National organization shall regulate relations of an international

character, being in direct contact with the proletariat of other

countries, using their respective organized bodies as intermediaries,

linking one another as in our International Workers’ Association

[IWA-AIT].

For the exchange of products from Commune to Commune, Communal Councils

will be fixed in relation to the Regional Federations of Communes and

the Confederal Council of Production and Distribution.

Communes will acquire what they need from one another and offer

surpluses to one another.

By the network of relations established between the Communes and the

Statistics and Production Councils—created by the National Federations

of Producers—, the problem of exchange is resolved and simplified.

In reference to the Commune’s internal exchange of products, the

production card shall be enough. The production card shall be made by

the Workshop and Factory Councils, giving one the right to purchase

everything he can to cover his needs.

The production card constitutes the principle of an exchange symbol that

remains bound to these two regulatory elements:

First, the production card is not transferable;

Second, that a procedure is adopted whereby the production card contains

a record of the value of the day’s work that the holder has performed,

and this value is only valid for the acquisition of products within a

maximum of one year.

In regards to the non-working parts of the population, the Communal

Councils will provide consumption cards.

Of course, we cannot settle on an absolute standard. It is necessary to

respect the autonomy of the Communes, which, if they see fit, can

establish another system of internal exchange, provided that these new

systems are not able to harm the interests of other Communes in any way.

The Individual’s Duties toward the Collective and the Concept of

Distributive Justice

Libertarian communism is incompatible with all correctional regimens,

and this implies the disappearance of present systems of correctional

justice, and therefore, punitive instruments (jails, prison labor,

etc.).

This Draft Committee is of the opinion that social determinism is the

principal cause of the so-called crimes that occur in the present state

of things and, consequentially, when the causes of the crimes disappear,

crimes will cease to exist in most cases.

So we take into account that:

First. Man is not naturally bad and that wrongdoing is the logical

consequence of the state of social injustice which we live in today.

Second. In order for man to cover his needs, it is also necessary to

give him the chance to a rational and humane education, which will

eliminate the causes of crime.

Therefore, we understand that when the individual fails to comply with

his duties, as much in the moral capacity as in his functions as a

producer, popular assemblies will be the ones to give a just solution to

the matter with a harmonious sentiment.

Libertarian Communism, therefore, will rest upon Medicine and Education,

unique preventatives that science recognizes as a right.

When an individual is victim of a pathological phenomenon and violates

the harmony that governs relations between people, therapeutic education

will cure his disequilibrium and stimulate within him the sentiment of

ethical social responsibility that an unhealthy inheritance denied him

of in the first place.

The Family and Sexual Relations

One should not forget that the family was the first civilizing nucleus

of the human species, that it has fulfilled admirable functions related

to moral culture and solidarity; that it has survived within the

evolution of the family itself, and within that of the clan, the tribe,

the town, and the nation; and that it is fair to assume that it will

even survive a lot longer.

The revolution must not violently operate against the family, except in

those cases of dysfunctional families, in which it will recognize and

support the right of separation.

Since the first measure of the libertarian revolution consists in

securing the economic independence of individuals, without distinction

of sex, the interdependence created in the capitalist system—due to it

being an inferior economy—, between men and women will disappear with

capitalism.

It is understood, therefore, that the two sexes will be equal, in rights

just as much as in responsibilities.

Libertarian communism proclaims free love, with no regulation other than

the will of man and woman, guaranteeing children collective security and

saving them from human aberrations by the application of

biological-eugenic principles.

Likewise, from a fine sexual education beginning at school, we will tend

toward species selection in agreement with the objectives of eugenics,

so that human couples consciously procreate fine and healthy children.

In regards to problems of a moral nature that love can raise in a

libertarian communist society, such as love rejection, the community and

liberty have no more than two paths, so that sexual and human relations

develop normally.

For the person who wants love forcefully or bestially—if consent of or

respect of the individual’s rights is not enough—, separation will have

to be resorted to. A change of water and air is recommended for many

sicknesses. For love sickness—which is a sickness when it creates

stubbornness and blindness—it will be necessary to recommend a change of

Commune to remove the ill from the environment that deprives him of good

sense and drives him mad, although it is not probable that these

frustrations will be produced in an environment of sexual liberty.

The Religious Question

Religion, a purely subjective manifestation of the human being, will be

recognized as soon as it remains relegated to the shrine of individual

conscience. But in no case will it be respectfully considered when it

comes in the form of public ostentation or in the form of moral or

intellectual coercion.

Individuals will be free to conceive how many moral ideas will suit

their needs, doing away with all rituals.

Education, Art, Science, and Free Experimentation

The problem of teaching will have to be approached with radical methods.

In the first place, illiteracy will have to be energetically and

systematically combatted.

Culture will be returned to those who were dispossessed of it as a duty

of restorative social justice that the revolution must undertake, taking

into account that just as capitalism has been the hoarder and detainer

of the social wealth, cities have been the hoarders and detainers of

culture and instruction.

Returning material wealth and culture are the basic objectives of our

revolution. How? Expropriating capitalism materially and distributing

culture to those who lack it morally.

Therefore, our educational labor will have to be divided into two

periods. We have an educational labor to realize immediately after the

social revolution and a general human labor to carry out within the

newly-created society.

The immediate task will be organizing among the illiterate population an

elementary culture consisting of, for example, learning to read and

write, bookkeeping, physical culture, hygiene, the historical process of

evolution and revolution, theory of the nonexistence of god, etc.

A large number of the cultivated youth can carry this out, who, lending

a voluntary service to culture, will accomplish this during one or two

years, properly controlled and guided by the National Federation of

Education.

Immediately after the proclamation of libertarian communism, the

federation will take charge of all teaching centers and assess the value

of the professional and voluntary faculty. The National Federation of

Education will separate those who are intellectually and, above all,

morally incapable of adapting to the needs of a free education. The

election of teaching staff in primary and secondary education will only

consider a demonstrated capacity in practical exercises.

Teaching as a pedagogical mission fit to educate a new humanity will be

free, scientific, and equal for both sexes, endowed with all elements

necessary for its exercise, regardless of the branch of productive

activity or human knowledge. Hygiene and pediatrics will be accorded a

preferential place to educate women on how to be a mother from school.

Likewise, principle attention will be dedicated to sexual education for

the improvement of the species.

We deem the fundamental function of education to be the formation of men

with their own opinions—let it be understood that when speaking of men,

we speak in a general way—, and for this it is necessary that the

teacher cultivates all of the child’s faculties and that he achieves the

complete development of all of the child’s potentialities.

Within the education system that libertarian communism puts into

practice, the system of punishments and rewards will be definitively

excluded because all inequality is fermented in these two principles.

The movie theater, radio, educational expeditions, books, cartoons,

projections—will be excellent and effective aids for a rapid

intellectual and moral transformation of the current generations and for

developing the personalities of children and adolescents who are born

and develop in a libertarian communist system.

Apart from the simple educational aspect, in the first years of life in

libertarian communist society, everyone will be assured, for as long as

they live, access and the right to science, art, and investigation of

all fields compatible with indispensable productive activities, whose

exercise will guarantee equilibrium and health to human nature.

In a libertarian communist society, producers will not be divided into

manual and intellectual workers, but all will be manual and intellectual

workers at the same time. And access to the arts and sciences will be

free because the time in which that is accessed will belong to the

individual, not the community, who will free the individual to do this,

if that is desired from him, once the work day concludes—the producer

having fulfilled the producer’s task.

There are needs of a spiritual nature, parallel to material needs, that

will manifest with more force in a society that satisfies primary needs

and that leaves man morally emancipated.

Because evolution is a continuous line, although not a straight line at

times, the individual will always have aspirations, desires to improve

on what his parents, his fellow man, or he himself has achieved.

A society based on free examination and the liberty of all human life

will not be able to drown materially or in a general nature, cravings

for improvement, for artistic, scientific, and literary creation, and

for experimentation.

Libertarian communist society will not allow these cravings to be lost

as occurs today, but, on the contrary, it will encourage and cultivate

them, bearing in mind that man does not live by bread alone, and that a

humanity that lives just by bread is disgraceful.

It is not logical to suppose that we will lack the desire for leisure in

our new society. For this purpose, in Autonomous Libertarian Communes

days will be allocated for general recreation, which assemblies will

designate, choosing and setting aside symbolic dates of history and of

nature.

In the same way daily hours will be dedicated to theatrical and

cinematic presentations and cultural conferences that will provide joy

and fun in common.

Defense of the Revolution

We admit the need to defend the conquests made by revolution because

there are more revolutionary possibilities in Spain than in the

countries surrounding her.

We must suppose that capitalism in these countries will not resign

themselves to be dispossessed of the interests that they have acquired

in Spain.

Therefore, while the social revolution has not triumphed

internationally, necessary measures for defending the new regime will be

adopted, be it against the danger of foreign capitalist invasion,

signaled beforehand, or to avoid counterrevolution within the country.

A permanent army would constitute the greatest danger to the revolution

because dictatorship would forge itself under its influence and deal the

deathblow to the revolution.

In moments of struggle, when the State’s forces, in totality or in part,

unite against the People, our organized, armed forces will lend their

cooperation in the streets to defeat the bourgeoisie. Once our forces

have defeated them, their work will be done.

The People Armed will be the best guarantee against all intentions of

restoring the destroyed regime by forces from within or without. There

are thousands of workers who have marched in the barracks and who are

acquainted with modern military technique.

Every Commune will maintain its armaments and defense elements. Until

the revolution is definitively consolidated these will not be destroyed

in order to convert them into work instruments.

We recommend the need to conserve planes, tanks, armored trucks, machine

guns, and antiaircraft canons because the true threat of foreign

invasion comes from the skies.

If this moment arrives, the People will quickly mobilize to face the

enemy head on. And the producers [workers] will return to work as soon

as they have finished their defensive mission.

This general mobilization will be composed of all people of both sexes

who are able to fight and prepared to carry out multiple, necessary

missions in combat.

Commanding officers within our confederal defense, extended to

production centers, will be the most valuable auxiliaries for

consolidating the revolution’s conquests and for training elements for

fighting in struggles that we should sustain in large territories in

defense of the revolution.

Therefore, we declare,

First. The disarmament of capitalism means delivering arms to the

Communes, which will be entrusted with their own conservation and which

will take care of—at the national level—effectively organizing defensive

methods.

Second. In the international setting, we will have to carry out an

intense propaganda among the proletariat of all countries, so that they

energetically elevate their protest, declaring movements of a solidaric

nature in the face of whatever attempt at invasion on the part of their

respective Governments.

At the same time, our Iberian Confederation of Autonomous Libertarian

Communes will help, morally and materially, all the earth’s exploited to

liberate themselves once and for all from the monstrous guardianship of

capitalism and the State.

Final Words

We have finished our work. Before arriving to our final point, we think

we must insist at this historical hour on the fact that we must not

suppose that this resolution should serve as something definitive that

becomes a closed standard before the revolutionary proletariat’s

constructive duties.

This Draft Committee’s hope is much more modest. It would be happy if

Congress saw in this resolution the general lines of the initial plan

that all the working classes must carry out,

Humanity’s point of departure toward its integral emancipation.

Let our work be improved by anyone who feels intelligent, courageous and

capable enough to do so.

[1] The resolution is below. —X363823

[2] Presumably, “the organization” refers to the CNT. —X363823

[3] “Collective” here and below is vague. It may be synonymous to

“society”.