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Title: Slippery Slopes Author: Manuel Azaretto Date: 1939 Language: en Topics: Spanish Civil War, Spanish Revolution, Spain, CNT, FAI, government, anti-state, anarcho-syndicalism, bureaucracy, Uruguay Source: Retrieved on 30th August 2020 from https://libcom.org/history/slippery-slopes-anarchists-spain-manuel-azaretto Notes: Translated in May-June 2014 from the Spanish original by Manuel Azaretto, Las Pendientes Resbaladizas (Los anarquistas en España), Editorial Germinal, Montevideo, 1939.
In our view, none of the great social-political events of the last
twenty-five years has given rise to as much hope or caused as much
disappointment as the Spanish conflict. And we also believe that no
single event that has taken place in this same quarter century has given
rise to such profound or such opposed and passionate opinions as this
conflict, whose sorrowful conclusion, unfortunately, still inflicts such
pain in the hearts of those of us who, despite our distance from the
events, have suffered from the defeat and the pain of the Iberian
people.
But if the hopes and opinions that arose as a result of the events in
Spain have been amply justified in all the so-called popular sectors,
this awakening of hopes and clash of opinions has encountered no greater
echo or more logical justification than on the terrain of the anarchist
workers movement. For it must not be forgotten that while it is true
that in the struggle against fascism other numerically strong fractions
with significant influence over the multitudes also played a role, it is
no less true that one of the forces with the greatest influence among
the Spanish proletariat, was precisely the one that was represented in
the institutions that in Spain advocated the same principles and
aspirations as the anarchist workers movement. And it was precisely this
community of principles and final goals that existed among all the
organizations that were enrolled in the ranks of the International
Workingmenâs Association, which explains the profound impact that the
Spanish conflict has had on the international movement and especially on
the Federaciones Obreras Regionales Uruguaya y Argentina.[1] And we say
especially on the Federaciones Obreras Regionales Uruguaya y Argentina
because these two Federationsâboth with deep roots in the proletariat on
both banks of the RĂo Plataâhave been the most outstanding organizations
on the international plane due to the zeal with which they pursued the
historical continuity of their daily struggles and activities, which
were always oriented towards anarchists ideals and principles, and it
was logical that the Spanish events would produce in every sense a
greater reaction among the militants of these two movements. This was to
be expected because the anarchists of Spain on more than one occasion
spoke to us of the social revolution, meaning to say that they not only
fought to defeat fascism but also to establish a new order of things in
harmony with the ideals they claimed to uphold.
However, this reaction that has been expressed on the basis of the
unqualified support for all the actions and positions of Spanish
anarchism, including spirited but sincere criticism of the orientation
and conduct of the FAI and CNT during the conflict, has led to
unfortunate results among our ranks. For under the pretext that it was
not a question of criticizing but rather of giving immediate and
complete solidarity to the anarchists who were fighting fascism in Spain
with arms in hand, the exercise of criticism was set aside until after
the struggle and the voices of those who, as the events unfolded and
when it was necessary, dared to break the code of silence imposed by
those who only wanted to hear applause and praiseâeven for the most
humiliating attitudes of the anarchism of that countryâwere treated as
expressions of unmitigated heresy.
But if the circumstances mentioned above justified the fact that the
clash of opinions, as a result of the events in Spain, resulted in
serious friction between the militants of the revolutionary workers
movement, the attempts by enemies of all stripes and without any
revolutionary morality, on the other hand, who have tried to subject
anarchism to judgment by presenting it as having failed, are not at all
justified. And even less justification can be adduced for those
anarchists who, deaf and blind to all experience, are now attempting to
teach lessons based on all the errors of Spanish anarchism, a schooling
that is currently taking place at this moment in Argentina, Uruguay and
other neighboring countries.
It is certainly true that many things happened in Spain, for which the
anarchists of that country were responsible in whole or in part, which
have cast a great deal of discredit on the idea of anarchism held by
many people, who considered anarchism to be the only movement that was
incapable of deviating from its old and committed position against the
state, refusing all collaboration with its traditional enemies. This
circumstance, however, which already constitutes a serious blow against
anarchism, is much more serious still if we take account of the fact
that our enemies, by pointing to the conversion of Spanish anarchism in
practical terms on all terrains, also proclaim the failure of this
movement. Of course, it is clear that this latter claim is absolutely
untrue and even contrary to common sense. But the falsifications of our
adversaries do not prevent confusion among the workers, nor do they
lessen the danger of our movement being entangled in the web of
discredit that threatens to have serious consequences for us in the
future.
The lie is always a dangerous weapon, but if it is deployed at the right
time and with intelligence it can yield results, even if transitory
ones, that are favorable for those who wield it. But if the lie and the
distortion of the truth provide easy although ephemeral victories, the
greater and more noble task, so fruitful despite the frequent
ingratitude of those who are at the receiving end of it, is to speak the
truth, even if it injures us; the noble and fruitful task for our ideals
is to clear away the confusion to which the defeat of a people gave
rise, a confusion which entails the concealment of the history of a
movement whose moral grandeur is based on ideals that cannot be
tarnished by the calumny of its adversaries nor by defeatist desertion
on the part of its defenders. And it is precisely this kind of task that
is served by the work that is carried out by comrade Azaretto in this
book.
For anarchism did not fail in Spain. The men who represented it, those
who spoke and worked in its name, may have made mistakes; the Spanish
anarchists may have delivered over to wrack and ruin all that up until
now has constituted the best and most precious moral patrimony of the
international anarchist movement, but we must ask whether all the
mistakes they made, or might have made, authorize and justify the
malevolence of the detractors of anarchism when they seek to present our
movement as having failed and its ideals as plainly finished? And to
attempt to transplant to America, or to the rest of Europe, invoking all
kinds of reasons, practical modes of action and tactics that are clearly
inspired by the Spanish events and by the practical experience of the
anarchism of the Iberian Peninsula, does this not mean to justify,
without any valid reasons, since the serious errors of Spanish anarchism
are easily demonstrated, the arguments of our enemies with regard to
this alleged failure? No. Neither the one nor the other is justified.
Our enemies do not have the moral authority to attack us; nor do we have
to tolerate, in the name of ideas, or other reasons, the introduction
into the anarchist workers movement of practices and vices that, over a
short period of time, would destroy it as a living and active expression
of militant anarchism. It is instead a question of putting everything in
its proper place, attempting to shed light on the intervention of
Spanish anarchism in the recent unfortunate events of that country, and
to do good work for anarchists ideas and the institutions that represent
them on the terrain of the everyday struggle for freedom and a more
comprehensive and effective social justice.
But just what is it that comrade M. Azaretto intends to accomplish with
the publication of his book, Slippery Slopes? Precisely what we have
just described: to point out the errors and the serious deviations
brought to light by the events and the observed conduct of Iberian
anarchism; to show that there was no general failure of anarchism but a
pure and simple failure of men, and that the institutions that many
people considered to be the most representative institutions of the
anarchist revolution were too weak to realize the ideas they claimed to
represent.
It remains to be said that in this book there is no over-abundance of
eloquence. Its author knows nothing of the literary nuances and the
sensationalist phraseology that are so fashionable these days. Slippery
Slopes is thus not a book that one can read for pleasure, nor is it a
book aimed at a broad public audience. This is a book meant for
independent minds, for minds open to study and the serene analysis of
the deeds and ideas that, it must be admitted, have burdened the history
of international anarchism with disagreeable pages. A man of the people,
a worker who is also a militant of the anarchist workers movement,
Azaretto has sacrificed his leisure time to write this book and his
goal, as he expressed it in a letter, is âto make a modest contribution
to clearing the air of the international environment of an entire
propaganda plagued with inconsistencies and denials and which has made a
cult of the heroism of a people who were used as cannon fodder and who
fought like lions but for a cause that was not their own.â As a result,
in these pages you will not find meticulous and orderly arguments of the
experiences of leaders. The book has been written for the purpose of
âconfronting those ruinous currents of the emancipatory movementsâ. And
that is already a great deal.
In Slippery Slopes there are not many pages devoted to exposing the
actions undertaken in Spain by the traditional enemies of anarchism. The
book tends to defend our movement from the Bolshevizing inroads that
threaten it as a consequence of the forgetting of many of their ideas by
many anarchists, and for this and no other reason the basic thrust of
its critique is directed not so much at our enemies as at the men and
institutions of the movement who followed the CNT and FAI and who
participated so actively in the Spanish conflict. Nor does the author
spend much time discussing the causes of and who was responsible for the
military defeats that culminated in the total defeat of the Spanish
proletariat. For it must be admitted that it is not exactly these
aspects of the question that are of the greatest interest to anarchist
militants.
Azaretto, largely ignoring these aspects of the Spanish events, or only
mentioning them in passing, has selected a series of excerpts from texts
published by the CNT-FAI that, transcribed in the book in the order he
has chosen, document the transgressions and serious errors committed by
the responsible officials of these organizations to the prejudice of the
revolution that the Spanish people launched with so much valor during
the memorable days of July and which those same officials later
suppressed. It is, of course, inevitable that deficiencies will be noted
in this book. There are chapters, for example, that could easily be
enriched with the insertion of more extensive or more carefully selected
documentation. As we said above, Azaretto, who must divide his time
between the factory where he works and the daily activities of
propaganda, has written his book by robbing himself of his hours of
rest. And it is only the urgent need to contribute to the clarification
of the intellectual environment of the movement that led him to write
Slippery Slopes. However, the defects that we have alluded to and which
the reader will no doubt discover for himself, do not at all serve to
discredit the work that he has done or the goal that Azaretto seeks to
achieve with the publication of this book. Beyond all these factors,
however, there is something that nothing can change and no one can deny:
the sincerity of the author and the nobility of his intentions. This
sincerity and these intentions that the reader will no doubt discern in
the pages of this book are confirmed by the lack of interest in personal
profit that characterizes comrade Azaretto. For he has announced that
the small profit that the sale of the book might yield, if such a profit
is realized, will be devoted entirely to the newspapers OrganizaciĂłn
Obrera and Solidaridad, the press organs of the FORA and the FORU,
respectively. This, it seems to us, speaks eloquently enough about the
noble purpose that motivates comrade Azaretto, and spares us from having
to say anything more about this matter. It is nonetheless to be desired,
and this is our hope, that other works of this same nature will be added
to this modest contribution and help to further clarify the tumultuous
anarchist milieu.
The return to the tactics and healthy norms inspired by the anarchist
ideas that we call our own, is what must interest and be of concern to
men who really want to retain unsullied the limpid course of a movement
that cannot and must not silence those views that, even if the
overriding necessities of the struggle are invoked, as was argued in
order to justify the aberrations of the Spanish anarchists, degrade it
and discredit it at home and throughout the world.
Given the current situation of the proletariat, confused and corrupted
by a thousand currents that are opposed to freedom and progress, the
very future of humanity, which today faces the most terrible crossroads
of its history, obliges us to raise with the greatest determination the
banner of Anarchy that not even the defeatist defection of some of its
defenders or the calumnies of its enemies has succeeded, nor will they
ever succeed, in distorting or besmirching, since everything that
happened in Spain has only confirmed all that anarchism has proclaimed
and recommended. This is our conviction and that is why, because we look
forward to better days for the movement that counts us among its
militants, we have happily accepted associating our name with that of
comrade Azaretto. That the comrades and workers who read this book
should reflect on its contents, and especially those who yesterday did
not even want to delve into these problems, is what we desire and is the
very best praise that we can give to Slippery Slopes.
José A. Barrionuevo
Buenos Aires, August 1939
At this uncertain juncture in the history of the world, in which we
witness with shock the total collapse of moral and spiritual values; in
which brute force prevails over reason and justice and an underground
current of apostasy easily fractures the narrow layer of ideological
varnish of certain people whose consciences are for sale, I consider it
dignifying and beautiful, although it has been accumulated with the
bitterness of self-abnegation and sacrifice, to be able to exhibit a
clean trajectory, an exemplary activity and an ethical integrity worthy
of the noble and great ideal that we advocate and defend.
That is why I admire and encourage those men whoâalthough they are
undergoing ferocious police persecution; unjust imprisonment in jails
and prisons; the spite of the resentful and the apostates enrolled in
the multicolored ranks of opportunism and the calumny and hatred of
politicians and capitalistsâstand firm, upright and honest, voicing the
imperishable postulates of Anarchy and defending in the domain of labor
the long revolutionary history of the FORs of Argentina and Uruguay,
their tactics of struggle and the ultimate longing for anarchist
communism that is the emancipatory goal of both working class
organizations.
To them, to the committed and brave FORist militants, this book is
dedicated which, without either reticence or euphemisms, its pages
overflowing with the sincerity of my convictions, focuses decisively and
straightforwardly on the urgent problem posed for international
anarchism by the CNT and the FAI, with their errors and their defeats,
and seeks to contribute to their clarification.
Manuel Azaretto
The bloody conflict that unfolded for almost three years in the
countryside of Spain has concluded with the victory of Spanish
militarism, the clergy and the landowners, cynically supported and
backed by international capitalism and the forces of reaction. A woeful
and unjust result, because of the efforts, the sacrifices and the lives
that it cost the Spanish people, but a result that was expected by the
material interests that were in play and by the core groups of
conspirators that turned the political, diplomatic and financial gears
of this war.
For us anarchists, this dramatic event will always be remembered as a
cruel episode in the long Calvary of the peoples enslaved and humiliated
by the authoritarian regimes, even if it had only been restricted to the
bitter clash of political factions for predominance and the assault on
state power. However, because, in this cruel episode, specific working
class organizations and institutions directed by anarchists played a
role, it is justifiably incumbent on us to consider the conflict from
its very beginningâwhen the people and the anarchists surged into the
streets, with arms in hand, to thwart and to crush the military
revoltâas a historical event of a social character, due to the
emancipatory aspect it acquired in some Iberian regions, only in order
to subsequently degenerate into a civil war with the foreign
intervention of military personnel and materiel.
As may logically be assumed, the intervention in this armed struggle on
the part of the workers who were members of the CNT and of the
anarchists organized in the FAI produced great expectations and profound
concerns within the ranks of the militants of the working class
organizations on both banks of the RĂo Plata, the FORU and the FORA,
because of the repercussions that could be expected from their active
participation and due to the lessons that the constructive efforts of
these numerous proletarian forces would contribute to the World of
Labor.
How could the intervention of our Spanish brothers in that vast
insurrectionary movement not produce such expectations, how could it not
cause us to be concerned and plunge us into profound meditations, if
with their action our emancipatory ideal was put to the
testâAnarchyâconsidered as a utopia by tyros and false friends? How
could our hearts not swell with joy and satisfaction if the brave and
tenacious conduct of the comrades of the CNT and the FAI, with the
generous contributions of the Spanish people, would depend on us being
spectators of this felicitous dawning, in one corner of the globe, of a
new social, just, fraternal and solidarity-based dispensation, presented
by a suffering and oppressed people, and propagated and defended by the
anarchists? How could we not be interested in confirming the faithful
interpretation of our ideological concepts, which reject the principle
of authority and of all forms of exploitation, if our comrades in
Spainâeven if they did so with major errorsâcarried out a beautiful
anarchist final judgment that was conquered at the cost of enormous
sacrifices, of bloody state persecutions, of epic revolutionary events
and the heroic deaths of so many people?
This is why the enthusiasm that filled the FORist workers with such
passion is so understandable and so logical, as well as the emergence,
everywhere, of numerous initiatives, all of which were oriented towards
contributing moral and economic support to the militants of the CNT and
the FAI. Material solidarity was impossible, due to the dismantling of
our organizational cadres, as a result of the dissolving action of
opportunism [chameleonism] and the state repression that afflicted all
the South American countries, and especially Argentina, for such a long
time. Nonetheless, we paid very close attention to all the diverse
changes of fortune of this great event.
What we could not have imagined, however, was that we would soon
perceive the first signs of deviations. Then, documentary proof. Later,
deceptive sophistical arguments. The social revolution had been held in
check and thwarted.
Those who had confirmed their history of anarchist militancy with
sublime acts of heroism, generosity and a willingness to risk their
lives in the front ranks of the assault squads in the attacks on the
barracks in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Oviedo, GijĂłn, etc., did not
find imitators, in other aspects of the struggle, among the majority of
the responsible officials in the directive bodies of the CNT and the
FAI, who felt incapable of or afraid to give direction to and channel
the redemptive impulses and the overwhelming passion of an oppressed
population who had found the outlet for their just hatreds, and who
chose instead to divert them and confuse them, recommending ânovelâ
practices of âdirect actionâ, ânovelâ formulas of social coexistence and
ânovelâ ideological conceptions. And what is even worse, they devoted
themselves to discrediting and âpacifyingâ, seeking to neutralize them,
those comrades who, understanding that they faced a confirmed case of
betrayal of principles,[2] had the courage to call attention to it and
to fight this betrayal with the healthy intention of rectifying it. They
were too late; the Marxist inclinations that had been previously kept
under wraps and which, on the other hand, had been revealed on several
occasions in their previous activities and expressed views, came out
into the open.
This made an enormous impression on the anarchist militants of South
America.
The same psychological phenomenon observed as a rebound effect of the
Russian Revolution, was now to be observed among us, although in a less
concentrated form. Those who in the past were obstinate panegyrists of
the âdictatorship of the proletariatââeveryone makes mistakes now and
thenânow see their position justified by the about-face executed and
advised by the Spanish comrades and in order not to deny their past they
devote themselves, with a blind passion, to sowing confusion in the
ranks of the FORist movement.
Fortunately, because the comrades of the FOR have learned their lessons
from previous events, this did not result in the hoped-for effects, and
the calm judgment and sensible understanding of the events that had
taken place prevented passion and bitterness from getting the upper hand
and instead the comrades discerned with precision the serious problems
that were posed to the anarchist movement in South America by the
sell-outs and ânovelâ theories that the CNT and FAI militants had
discovered and implemented.
Time passes. Calm has returned to the FORist milieu. Minds are beginning
to reflect without prejudice on the raw data we receive from impartial
and sincere sources.
The time has come, in our view, to analyze the causes that forced the
comrades of the CNT and the FAI to intervene in the civil war that bled
and continues to bleed the Spanish people; to comment on the activities
of these comrades and their changing policies; to indicate the serious
errors and betrayals for which they were responsible and to thoroughly
analyze the concepts they offered to justify their actions and the
methods they practiced, advised and attempted to bequeath as a legacy to
the international anarchist movement.
Someone said that, âthe truth is the only Venus de Milo that men do not
want to see nakedâ, but this is not possible, in homage to the ideal of
redemption: Anarchy, which we propagate and defend, overcomes this truth
and we provide it without fig leaves, even if we close our eyes to the
bitterness of its reality.
Let us therefore undertake this task, without any claim to having
carried out a meticulous documentary review and without any concern for
the judgment that the sell-outs, those who have succumbed to the disease
of revisionism and the authoritarians, will think that this work
deserves.
The anarchist ideal has had, for many years, intelligent and diligent
champions in the regions of Spain. The First International was
courageously supported by its Spanish Section, which later became the
Spanish Regional Federation of Workers, in 1881.
We have often taken pleasure in reading the beautiful pages of the books
of Prat, Mella, Anselmo Lorenzo, Tarrida del MĂĄrmol. We recall the
restless and exemplary actions of Salvochea. In 1906 we knew, in
Argentina and Uruguay, Antonio Loredo and others whose names we cannot
recall.
And we also know that since the Spanish anarchists appeared on the stage
of the social struggle, they have suffered persecution and many were
shot.
Manuel Buenacasa, in his book, El movimiento obrero español, cites the
famous uprising of Jerez, in January 1892, in which four thousand men,
shouting âViva la AnarquĂaâ, entered the city and held it for several
hours.
But we do not want to stray too far from our subject. It is the National
Confederation of Labor that we are concerned with here.
We would not be honest if we did not say that the characteristics of the
anarchist militants of the CNT in Spain deserve our closest scrutiny.
Moreover, we can say that the enormous amount of propaganda sent to the
Iberian peninsula from South America and the exchange of militants with
the FORist movement of Argentina and Uruguayâan exchange made necessary
by the persecutions and deportations that we have undergone and which
were implemented by ârepublicanâ and âdemocraticâ governments on both
sides of the RĂo Plataâdid not exercise the influence that we would have
desired, since we have noted that activities within the CNT have seldom
manifested the intransigence, courage and convictions that we have
ourselves displayed against all political fractions and the state.
Since the founding of the CNT, in September 1911, up until today, the
CNT has undergone many fluctuations in its ideological orientation and
its practical tactics of struggle, and we are not the only ones who
think so. As Buenacasa, in the book cited above, says:
âI have said and written on more than one occasion, that the CNT of
Spain has experienced periods whose exemplary nature has almost
overshadowed the best moments of the old Spanish Section of the first
International Workingmenâs Association. It cannot be doubted, however,
that this institution, during the period between 1919 and today [1926],
has suffered from the most lamentable mistakes and the most disastrous
deviationsâ.
While relations between the CNT and political elements were never very
cordial, the CNT did remain in contact with them and even tried to
attract them by means of objective alliances. The lessons of the
struggles that had taken place all over the world had no influence on
the minds of the Spanish militants. It would appear that they sought to
reestablish the sincerity, or rather the ingenuousness, that their
anarchist predecessors had displayed for so many years, in their attempt
to maintain the unity of the two tendencies into which the European
proletariat was divided: anarchists and authoritarians, a fact that was
conscientiously described and studied by LĂłpez Arango in his book, El
anarquismo en el movimiento obrero.
So stubborn were our comrades in Spain, in their attempt to attract the
working class multitudes who had been influenced by the Marxists, that
it was not enough to convince them of their error by referring to the
many betrayals for which the Marxists were responsible in all the
conflicts in which the CNT had to confront the capitalists and the
state. And as for the authoritarian mentality that dominated the
Marxists, this is demonstrated, as plain as day, by a very recent
historical fact: the October rebellion in Asturias, where the
impracticality of merging the Marxists with the anarchists was revealed,
to such a degree that the enormous difference of practical orientations
and policies that distinguish both proletarian fractions became clearly
evident, a difference that could have been distinctly appreciated in
Sama and La Felguera, neighboring towns, in which attempts were made to
implement new forms of social existence, which only highlighted the
differences between them; for while in Sama a committee modeled on the
âdictatorship of the proletariatâ was organized, whose âchekaâ arrested
the anarchists in order to put them on trial, in La Felguera the
comrades conducted themselves in a framework of full freedom and
solidarity among its inhabitants.
Let us look back, however, and examine the alliance accepted by the CNT
with the UGT and the âleftistâ politicians like CombĂł and Lerroux, that
was implemented as a prelude to the great strike of August 1917, which,
although it had a real revolutionary character, was betrayed by the
socialists and republicans, and this unfortunate experimental alliance
resulted in countless victims among the members of the CNT.
A little laterâas a result of the elation caused in the anarchist ranks
by the events that were taking place in Russiaâwe observed a process of
Bolshevization in the CNT, which led to a great deal of confusion.
Pestaña, who was a prestigious member of the CNT organization, went to
Moscow to attend the Second Congress of the Communist International.
According to subsequent reports, this same Pestaña was also a signatory
of the founding constitution of the Red Trade Union International.
On the Iberian peninsula, meanwhile, the âconversosâ[3] who had
acknowledged the need for a transitional institutionââthe dictatorship
of the proletariatââcontinued to sow the new seed, and were so
successful that at the famous Congress of the CNT held at the Teatro de
la Comedia in Madrid in 1919, they obtained the approval of the
delegates for the following shocking resolution:
âThat the National Confederation of Labor of Spain declares that it is a
firm supporter of the principles of the First International as advocated
by Bakunin. It declares its provisional adherence to the Communist
International, because of the revolutionary character with which it is
imbued, and in the meantime the National Confederation of Labor will
organize and convoke the worldwide workers congress that will agree upon
and determine the bases upon which the real Workers International must
be founded.â [4]
In the interests of full disclosure and to highlight its contradictions,
we shall point out that at the same congress a motion proposing a merger
with the UGT was rejected and we read the following declaration of
principles:
âTaking into account the fact that the tendency that is most powerfully
manifested in the workers organizations of all countries is the one that
leads towards the complete, total and absolute liberation of humanity on
the moral, economic and political planes, and considering that this goal
cannot be achieved as long as the land and the instruments of production
and exchange have not been socialized and as long as the
all-encompassing power of the state has not disappeared, the proposal is
submitted to the Congress, that in accordance with the essence of the
postulates of the First International, that the Congress should declare
that the goal that is pursued by the National Confederation of Labor of
Spain is Anarchist Communism.â
We have provided these details concerning the way the CNT went about
proposing alliances with politiciansâwhich fully justify Buenacasaâs
statement that the CNT âhas suffered from the most lamentable mistakes
and the most disastrous deviationsââin order to provide the reader with
some background information concerning the later attitudes adopted by
the Spanish labor confederation.
Despite the mistakes committed and the discouraging results obtained in
the various efforts by the CNT to attempt to put its unificationist
slogans into practice, the CNT persisted in its erroneous ways, for at
the Zaragoza Congress of May 1936, it approved a resolution that called
upon the UGT, an avowedly political labor union, to enter a
revolutionary alliance whose purpose would be âthe destruction of the
political regimeâ. This alliance was achieved, with great fanfare among
the members of the CNT, in the year of the outbreak of the military
revolt, and was bitterly criticized by the Uruguayan FORâa critique that
was published in the fifth issue of the International Journal of the
IWAâa critique that we shall subject to further examination, insofar as
it relates to this alliance, since its sensible comments were to be
completely vindicated by the events with which we are now so familiar.
The pro-political tendency in the CNT in this emergency stands opposed
to the brilliant history of the Spanish and international workers
movement, whose passion for the cause of human liberation was
transmitted to it by the first internationalists. The CNT does not act
in accordance with its ârevolutionary experiencesâ from the vantage
point of its positions in the institutions of the state, but rather
advises the international proletariat to follow its example, urging it
to abandon its revolutionary positions, and to set aside the principled
anarchist intransigence against authoritarian currents, in order to thus
embrace the politicians of âantifascismâ, who, as far as the cause of
the workers is concerned, are no better or worse than the politicians of
fascism, since if there is indeed any difference between them, this
would not be a reason for the anarchist-oriented international
revolutionary movement to abandon its revolutionary positions, which are
characterized by direct action, anti-statism and the anarchist goal, in
order to submit to the bourgeoisie represented by âantifascismâ.
The improvement of the lives and the working conditions of the
proletariat and its liberation, can only be obtained by way of the means
of struggle and propaganda that distinguish anarchism, which are solidly
and resolutely opposed to all political, statist and authoritarian
ideas. Any other practice would amount to cooperating with the enemy,
consciously or unconsciously, in order to merely prolong our miserable
existence, to which we are reduced by the iniquitous exploitation of the
employers and the oppression of the state.
Everyone knows the position of the CNT, but, in order to reveal the
pernicious effect that it would have on the world proletariat,
especially on the Spanish proletariat, if the IWA Congress were to
approve of its governmentalist policies, we shall transcribe some of the
points of the âUGT-CNT United Action Programâ which, as we shall see,
contradicts anarchist principles, and which stands in absolute contrast
to the program approved 65 years ago at the Congress of Cordoba that
approved the resolutions of Saint-Imier and rejected those approved at
The Hague and which demonstrate that now the CNT is practicing the
statist theories that were rejected by the Spanish proletariat at that
Congress.
âTHE UGT-CNT UNITED ACTION PROGRAM [5]
âNATIONAL DEFENSE.
âThe UGT and the CNT recognize the great progress achieved in the
creation of the Popular Army with regard to its combat effectiveness and
the technical improvement of its command structure and are determined to
reinforce all the resources that will facilitate the formation of a
regular efficient Army, that will guarantee victory in the war and in
any foreign military contingencies that might result from that victory.
âThe guiding idea of the UGT and the CNT in their collaboration in
seeking to implement these immediate reforms is that of a rapid and
overwhelming victory over fascism, to implement a positive democracy in
all the aspects of organization and action of the war, to reinforce the
Commissariat as a means of purging and strengthening the Popular Army
and TO MAKE A PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTION WITH THEIR EXPERIENCE AND THEIR
FORCES, IN THE WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT BODIES, ASSUMING A LARGE PART OF
THEIR RESPONSIBILITY.
âWAR INDUSTRIES.
â4. Transport, which is by its very nature of the greatest necessity for
the purposes of conducting the war, will be placed at the disposal of
the Government, CENTRALIZED AND MILITARIZED, with the provision that it
should be required by unavoidable necessity and that production and
commerce in the rearguard should not be subject to extortion.
âCOLLECTIVES.
â1. The UGT and the CNT agree that the juridical legalization of the
Collectives is necessary and therefore consider that legislation
concerning the Collectives is also needed that will determine WHICH
COLLECTIVES WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST, rules for their constitution and
operations, and state intervention in their affairs. COLLECTIVES THAT DO
NOT ABIDE BY THIS LEGISLATION MUST DISAPPEAR.
â2. The state will assist the Collectives that comply with this
legislation and whose economic utility is acknowledged.
â3. The legislation concerning the Collectives must be studied and
proposed to the Government by the National Council of the Economy.
âWAGES, PRICES AND PROVISIONS.
â2. The creation of strong Consumersâ Cooperatives at the retail level
and the establishment of Producersâ Cooperatives must be encouraged,
with very restrictive legislation applying to the latter and the
establishment of large wholesale sales outlets for export purposes UNDER
THE RIGOROUS CONTROL OF THE STATE in accordance with the resolutions of
the Council of the Economy.
â3. The UGT and the CNT agree that a minimum wage must be established,
one that is pegged to the cost of living, and that takes into account,
on the one hand, the professional categories, and on the other, the
output of each. In this sense the principle of âfor more and higher
quality production, more payâ will be defended, without any distinction
with regard to gender, or age, as long as the circumstances related to
the needs for national reconstruction should prevail.
âWORKERS CONTROL.
â10. The Government must promulgate a workers control law in which the
responsibilities of the workers with regard to the control of production
and the surveillance of their output, their role in the administration
and determining the distribution of profits, working conditions and the
defense of social legislation, will be established.
âAGRICULTURE.
âThe UGT and the CNT announce their support for the NATIONALIZATION OF
THE LAND, which must be conveyed in usufruct preferentially to the
agricultural Collectives and Cooperatives and, among the latter,
especially to those formed by the UGT and the CNT, respecting the will
of the peasants who prefer to cultivate their land individually, and
also entailing the implementation by the state of a policy of assistance
for the existing Collectives, with preference for the UGT and the CNT
and those which shall be voluntarily constituted, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE
LAW, by the workers in the countryside.
âThe rights of the small-scale landowner, as a direct cultivator of the
soil, will be respected as long as he can prove that his land WAS
LEGALLY ACQUIRED AND AS LONG AS HE ABIDES BY THE RELEVANT LEGISLATION.
âSOCIAL WELFARE.
âThe Government will undertake to study formulas for family
compensation, to be legally implemented.
âThe two Organizations proclaim their commitment to ensure that at the
end of the conflict against fascism the right of the Spanish people and
especially the working class TO ENDOW THEMSELVES WITH THAT FORM OF
GOVERNMENT that responds to the sacrifice that they are now making and
to maintain a true democracy in our country will be guaranteed.â
These passages clearly demonstrate just how deeply implicated the CNT
was in the statist principle. They represent a distinct contrast to the
Congress of Saint-Imier, whose resolutions were approved by the Spanish
proletariat at the Congress of Cordoba 65 years ago and liberated the
international proletariat from falling in chains between the hammers of
politics and the state, thus pointing out to the workers of the world
the revolutionary path that will lead them to their total emancipation.
The CNT practically rejected the intellectual patrimony and efforts of
the most valiant figures of anarchism, represented in the brilliant
history of anarchism in the workers movement, which allowed it to assume
an extremely elevated place among revolutionary positions, acquired in
bloody struggles and from precious lessons.
These passages also show how the Spanish proletariat was forbidden all
independence of action, of free organization and propaganda, of
revolutionary experimentation and any aspiration for a future free from
the oppressor state. And how all its activity, as producer and in terms
of propaganda, was to be controlled and authorized by the state. With
these practices the CNT handcuffed the workers, subjecting them to the
yoke of wage labor, so that they would continue to be victims of
exploitation by private or state capitalism, and rendered all freedom of
action on their part for the defense of their interests and their
liberty impossible.
âThe reign of injustice is thereby perpetuated, by allowing for the
continued existence of the privileges of the drones of the human hive
and an existence full of privation and suffering for the workers, who
are the real producers of social wealth and progress.â (The Federal
Council of the First International)
From what we have seen, it would appear that the anarchist militants of
Spain, due to a lack of coherence in their activity, a confused focus on
social problems and the unstable nature of their anti-state and
anti-political convictions, have allowed certain Marxist methods and
conceptions to take root and flourish among them that openly contradict
the terms that they use in their propaganda.
We shall not follow the Pestañas and the Peirós in their confused
adventures that led to the formation of the âsyndicalistâ political
party, for which the former was to serve as a deputy in the
representative bodies of the âPopular Frontâ. Many others among the CNT
âeliteâ acted and thought in accordance with authoritarian perspectives.
Nothing is more illuminating at this juncture for the purpose of
explaining the deviations that took place during the civil war and that
were endorsed by the leaders of the CNT and the FAI, than the following
article published in May 1936 in Tierra y Libertad, entitled âSlippery
Slopesâ, in which the authoritarian current is identified and which
features the following observations:
âAll the slopes are slippery, and one false step will cause us to fall,
and lead us to tumble headlong into the abyss. If on flat and familiar
terrain one can advance without any concern, without noticing
insignificant obstacles, without paying any attention to the occasional
difficulties, when we have to climb mountains, with high peaks and
dangerous summits, all our senses must be alert in order not to make a
disastrous misstep, in order not to go astray without any way out.
âThe road of the revolution is not flat; it is riddled with dangers,
with difficulties, with well equipped enemies. We have to go forward
calmly, avoiding the obstacles that we are not in a position to destroy,
overcoming difficulties and skirting not a few deadly abysses.
Nonetheless, our friendly hand is always open for those who, aware of
all these dangers, undertake the risk when they can and when they dare,
so that humanity can take a step forward. The revolution implies
sacrifices, energetic struggle, but also a calm and clear view of what
we want and the means that must be employed to achieve our goal.
âOver the course of several decades of existence as an idea and
movement, anarchism has established its trajectory, its ideas and its
methods. By the time that almost all of us were born, anarchism had
already existed, delineated in its aspirations and tactics. This does
not mean that it is complete and perfect, that it will not admit any
more enrichment, or more conclusions derived from experience, and that
we have to bind ourselves in dedication to what our predecessors have
said. We have proven that we are iconoclasts, that we are always ready
to embrace any idea, any initiative and to subject them freely to
evaluation, in order to derive from them the maximum benefit for our
great cause. We are not unalloyed and petrified doctrinaires, enemies of
all innovation, of all bold thinking, of all initiative for action that
disturbs the stagnant and the immobilized. And that is why we are
tolerant; that is why we always oppose everything that cuts off the
freedom of thought in our own camp and everywhere.
âWe cannot, however, cease to be what we want to be; we cannot deny
ourselves in our social meaning, precisely at the moment when all social
and political values have failed and our libertarian solution is the
only remaining hope for human redemption.
âA thesis has often been repeated in public confederal proceedings, by
some of our comrades, one that anarchists no longer discuss, just as we
do not discuss many other matters that have been definitively addressed.
I am speaking of the conquest of Power, of the seizure of Power, of the
creation of revolutionary armies, etc., which amounts to a confession
that anarchism has no reason to exist and that we must return to the
methods of authority, the systematic and reasoned critique of which
distinguishes the position that we have taken.
âThis is not the first time that these attempts to rehabilitate the
authoritarian methods of revolution have taken place. Rebellious passion
causes some to believe that the anarchists are moving too slowly, that
the solution is to take the shortcut of the coup dâĂ©tat, the road to the
conquest of Power. There is talk now of demanding that the current
Government hand over Power to the workers organizations. All of this is
not just a misstep; it is a headlong plunge down a slippery slope! The
fact that these things have always been advocated in the enemy camp, and
that the possibility of carrying out the revolution by decree has been
proposed by these people, is to be expected; but that these things
should be said in the name of anarchism, by anarchist comrades, cannot
be allowed to go unnoticed. Cordially, with all the cordiality of which
we are capable, we invite these comrades to reflect, to stop for a
moment to contemplate the abyss into which they are falling from the
slope on which they find themselves and to return to the good road of
freedom, which is not just an ideal aspiration, but a tactical
instrument, a method of struggle, an interpretation of action.
âThis advocacy of the seizure of Power, regardless of the intentions of
its partisans, can only benefit the parties that pin the hopes of their
revolutionary doctrine on the Conquest of Power. We do not want to seize
Power, we want to destroy it, and not just destroy it, but to prevent it
from ever being reconstructed, and we are not too fastidious about the
means required to achieve this end!; there is only one road that has
proven to be impractical for the destruction of Power: its conquest.
Apart from this means, all roads and all weapons seem to be good as far
as we are concerned.
âWe believe that a brief pause for reflection, outside the impassioned
arena of propaganda, will make these comrades understand, whom we do not
want to lose, and of whose association we do not want to be deprived,
that they have departed from the libertarian channel, from the good road
accepted by the anarchists, to which they should return, avoiding
dangerous confusion. For now that is all.â
Our inclusion of this article here does not mean that we accept all of
its propositions. We have included it for the sole purpose of
demonstrating the existence of a powerful Marxist currentâwhich it
denouncesâthat was undermining and destroying the structure, the
practices and the ideological concepts that up until then had been the
predominant essence of the CNT.
The authoritarian theory that was identified and (ineffectively)
combated by the editorialist of Tierra y Libertad was already a cancer
on the Iberian peninsula and a virulent epidemic that also made itself
felt in our circles, against which, more than once, we have gone on the
offensive, advising the workers to immunize themselves against these
pestilential bacilli.
Nor were we the only ones. With regard to this question it seems most
pertinent to recall the critical concepts advanced, in June 1936, by the
old master Max NettlauâI beg your pardon, iconoclasts against the
venerable bearded onesâwho was logically alarmed by the rapid
propagation of the confusionist virus, which appeared in various
countries under different names.
Here is the passage from Nettlau:
âFor forty years anarchism has been subjected to infiltration, so-called
pure syndicalism, nationalism, dictatorship, transitional period,
platformism, etc., and the current fashion, which is not in itself
anything new, electoral anti-abstentionism, belongs in the same series.
The very distinction between âquestions of principlesâ and âsimple
tactical questionsâ, which implies that, for âtacticalâ reasons, one
should be prepared to trample all over oneâs principles, does not
possess the least resemblance to the anarchist view. The anarchist
principle knows only âoneâ formula, rather than âtwoâ: either one
professes its ideas, or one abandons them âby overcoming oneâs
scruplesâ. These infiltrations inevitably destroy within their victims
any trace of a libertarian sentiment and sooner or later, but generally
quite rapidly, transform them into nationalists, fascists, Bolsheviks,
politicians, or workerists.
âThis unavoidable debris is the result of a kind of auto-purgation of
weak and inconsistent elements, who think they are anarchists without
ever really having been anarchists at all. And just as a big river
cannot be polluted by the harmful substances dumped into it, so, too,
does the long-lived and worldwide current of anarchism automatically
purify itself and continue on its way.
âIt is becoming clearer with each passing day that the final struggle
will be neither economic, nor political, between classes and parties,
but intellectual and ethical, and will take place, under multiple forms,
between the progressive individuals of an ethical bent who possess some
intellectual capacity, and the underdeveloped stragglers. It is
necessary to openly say this: complete Anarchy must issue as the outcome
of this struggle, integral, healthy and robust, and not that miserable
abortion that is engendered by the tireless efforts of the
âinfiltratorsâ whenever they get the chance.â
Max Nettlau (from Solidaridad)
We do not need too many arguments to prove that the environment in which
the Spanish people lived during the period leading up to June 19, 1936,
was one of open insurrection. A population that had endured so many
years of the Bourbon monarchic regime, Alfonso XIII being the last
representative of this centuries-long rule; that had to suffer under the
disastrous influence of the legions of monks and friars, with their
obscurantist and superstitious preaching; that had been the plaything of
the local caciques and political bosses, with their promises and
deceitfulness, and which shed its blood so abundantly in the desolate
regions of Morocco, led by the ambitions and intrigues of the thugs who
staff the highest levels of the royalist military, logically had to wake
up to reality and make themselves capable of conquering their
well-being.
The oppression that they were subjected to under the republican as well
as the monarchical regimes instinctively led them to rebel against those
who were oppressing them. They have often proved that within their ranks
hope and a promising new dawn are being cultivated.
The Spanish people have a glorious history of epic revolutionary
attempts. Few are the cities, towns or villages whose streets are not
stained with the blood of the workers and anarchists. Along the roads in
Spain, like battle flags of rebellion and vengeance, one sees, one after
another, crosses of wood or simple signs indicating that on that spot an
anarchist fighter had fallen, murdered during the merciless
implementation of the âlaw of flightâ.
In July 1909, after an energetic protest campaign against the war in
Morocco, a huge general strike broke out in Barcelona, in which the
general population of the city also took an active part, and the
population surged into the streets and even burned churches and
monasteries. This episode has been given the name of the âTragic Weekâ
because of the enormous number of workers lives that were sacrificed due
to the violent measures of repression adopted by the despotic government
of the clericalist Antonio Maura.
A short time afterwards, the founder of the Modern School, Francisco
Ferrer Guardia, was shot in the dungeons of the ghastly fortress of
Montjuich, by order of the same Maura, and this reprehensible deed
caused not only the people of Spain, but also the people of the whole
world, to pour into the streets in protest against the Spanish
government, considering this crime to be a shameless maneuver of the
Iberian clerical party.
In the regions and the cities of the NorthâAsturias, Vizcaya, Bilbao,
Santander, Oviedo, etc.âthe campaign against the war found fertile soil
and when the government wanted to send the young soldiers of Spain to
the slaughterhouse of the Riff, the mothers, sisters and girlfriends of
the boys rebelled against the military caste, even taking their protest
to the docks where the troops were to embark for Morocco, temporarily
preventing their departure.
In 1911, a bloody incident took place in a town in the vicinity of
Valencia and the Civil Guard immediately carried out vicious repression
against its inhabitants, in the prelude to the famous trial known as the
âCulleraâ, in which the prosecuting attorney called for three
consecutive life sentences for one worker and life imprisonment for
every one of the other 17 workers who were his co-defendants. This trial
had a major impact, for in Buenos Aires and Montevideo a protest
campaign was organized against this judicial outrage.
These incidents, and those that followed during the reign of Alfonso
XIII, led to major massacres of workers and a tenacious and cruel
persecution of anarchists and revolutionary workers.
During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, which lasted seven years,
the men of the CNT were bitterly persecuted, and many of them were
subjected to the dictates of the sadly famous law of flight; the workers
were shot under the pretext that they had attempted to escape. The
bloodstained general MartĂnez Anido, organizer of the free trade unions,
sowed death throughout the streets of Barcelona.
Then came April 14, 1931. The Spanish people, tired of supporting such
despotism and exploitation, turned their attention towards the
politicians who loudly proclaimed their republican views and, hoping for
a radical change, helped these politicians win the municipal elections
on that date. King Alfonso, responsible for so many crimes and
persecutions, was overcome with fear and fled, leaving the government in
the hands of the republicans.
All of this changed nothing with regard to the methods of oppression.
The republic, too, imprisoned, persecuted and shot rebels. During period
of the Azaña government, who presided over a cabinet that included Largo
Caballero, Quiroga, Maura (junior), Prieto and othersâsome of whom were
to later play a prominent role during the civil warâthe crimes continued
to be committed, but now in the name of the republic, and the total
number of dead and prisoners reached into the thousands, many of whom
were militants of the CNT and the FAI.
In the period of the cabinet presided over by Casares Quiroga, bloody
incidents took place and the state reacted with great violence,
culminating in the ignominious event of the tragedy of Casas Viejas,
which had worldwide repercussions, where, under orders to take âneither
wounded nor prisonersâ, a large number of peasants were massacred for
the crime of yearning for more bread and freedom. Then the tragic
Lerroux rose to power, who, determined not to fall short of the efforts
of his predecessors, continued to carry out a ferocious repression
against the most insignificant instances of protest and rebellion,
filling the jails with anarchist militants.
Now we come to the revolution of Asturias, led by the Asturian miners,
in which the affiliates of the CNT and the FAI played an active role.
The bloody repression carried out by General Ochoa is a bitter memory.
It cannot be denied that the Spanish people continued to pay a very high
price for their yearning to be free and to enjoy the fruits of liberty.
The tragedy of the Asturian insurrection devastated their spirits and
the voices that echoed from the prisons would tell a tale of shock and
suffering. More than a thousand dead and many thousands imprisoned was
the result that the Lerroux government could boast of having achieved.
The ambitious so-called leftist politicians, exploiting this sad
situation, used as a rallying point, in the electoral campaign to reform
the representative branch of government, freedom for the prisoners, and
united under the Bolshevik slogan of âpopular frontâ.
The bait they offered was persuasive; the prisoners demanded to be freed
and the sentimental, sincere and always naive workers contributed to the
victory of the leftist electoral slate. The CNT, which was
anti-political due to its trade union structure, and which had led
beautiful campaigns in favor of electoral abstentionism, on this
occasion suspiciously changed its attitude.
SantillĂĄn, who, even though he âhad not set aside certain scruplesâ,
explained this factâwithout the least trace of ironyâin the following
delectable paragraphs:
âWith regard to the elections of February 16, 1936, we were confronted
in Spain with one of the most serious moments of our existence as a
movement. We had the key to the future in our hand. But anti-electoral
propaganda had become a routine that was hard to overcome. Principles
and tactics were capriciously invoked. And everyone remembered the
anti-electoral campaign of November 1933, the most intense such campaign
ever. They were insistently demanding a repetition, almost a carbon
copy. The situation, however, was clear. If we opted for electoral
abstention, as we had always done before, the victory of the right would
have been inevitable. The victory of the right would be fascism with a
legal and popular sanction.
âThere were many militants who did not want to understand this and
raised a clamor against our view. Several extremely tense weeks
followed. If the responsibility was not so great, we would have left the
field open to the demagogues who suddenly transformed themselves into
the fierce guardians of principles and sought to teach us lessons about
Revolution and Anarchy. We resisted. Under no circumstances could we
hand over power to the right, to the forces of Gil Robles, by
abstaining. Nor was it possible, because the lack of understanding would
be even greater, to openly advocate participation in the elections. It
would have been interpreted as a defection from our principles.
Fortunately, the good instincts of the broad masses came to our aid. We
focused on the liberation of the prisoners and, in our press, we set
forth the choices, and carried out a reasonable propaganda campaign that
prevented abstention on the scale of 1933 and consequently made the
victory of the republican left possible.â
No commentaries are necessary with regard to this point, for SantillĂĄn
has spoken quite clearly. He does not understand what he does not want.
Disappointment did not take long to arrive. While some prisoners were
released, other people were imprisoned, because the social problem
continued to become more explosive as the workers organized for the
conquest of economic improvements that Spanish capitalism refused to
concede.
The slogan of the âPopular Frontâ government was: âFirst reinforce the
republic; then concessions.â This slogan was taken so seriously that
strikes were declared to be crimes of lÚse majesté and the leftists
sought to settle strikes led by the CNT in courts of arbitration. The
terrible ordeal of the members of the CNT and the FAI continued. The
reaction was fierce and bloody.
While the revolutionary workers were being persecuted with ferocious
rage, the landowners, the clergy and the disgruntled military officers
were allowed, logically, in the environment of conspiracy in which they
lived, to work in the open light of day in preparation for the moment
when they would attempt to seize power. So visible were the maneuvers of
the reactionaries that the CNT made them public in an announcement
distributed on February 14, 1936, whose crucial paragraphs we reproduce
below:
â⊠With each passing day the suspicion that right-wing elements are
prepared to launch a military uprising becomes more widespread. It is
even a matter of public knowledge, now that left wing newspapers are
constantly publishing articles warning about machinations that are
ostensibly secret, but are in reality shameless and open, carried out by
the reactionary officers in the barracks and in the civil and
ecclesiastical circles of the counterrevolution.
âMorocco appears to be the main focal point and epicenter of the
conspiracy. Whether or not an insurrection takes place is contingent on
the results of the elections. The planned preventive action will be
implemented if the left wins the elections.â
âWe, who do not defend the republic, but who relentlessly fight against
fascism, will contribute all the forces at our disposal in order to
defeat the historical executioners of the Spanish proletariat.â
âIn addition, we do not hesitate to recommend that, wherever the legions
of tyranny may appear, that you unhesitatingly reach an agreement with
the antifascist sectors by energetically attempting to ensure that the
defensive preparations of the masses should follow the paths of the real
social revolution, under the auspices of libertarian communism.
âOnce more: Keep your eyes open, comrades! It is better to take
courageous measures to be safe, even if they are mistaken, than to be
sorry due to negligence.âThe National Committee.â
âEveryone must be vigilant. If the conspirators light the fire we must
pursue the acts of opposition to their maximum consequences without
allowing the liberal bourgeoisie and their Marxist allies to stop the
course of events should the fascist revolt be utterly suppressed in its
very beginnings. If, to the contrary, the struggle is a hard one, such a
recommendation would be superfluous, because no one would stop until one
of the contending powers is eliminated, and over the course of the
peopleâs victory their democratic illusions would be dispelled; if, on
the other hand, the people are defeated, the dictatorial nightmare will
annihilate us. Once someone seriously opens up hostilities, democracy
will perish between two fires, because it is irrelevant and has no place
on the field of battle: either fascism or social revolution. Defeat of
the former is a duty incumbent upon the whole proletariat and all
freedom-lovers, weapons in hand: that the revolution should be social
and libertarian ought to be the most profound preoccupation of members
of the Confederation. It depends upon our intelligence, and the unity of
our thought and our action, whether or not we will be the most
authoritative inspiration for the masses and that they will put into
practice modes of sociability that conform to the spirit of libertarian
ideas, and whether these ideas will be the impregnable defensive shield
against the authoritarian instincts of the whites and the reds.
âOnce more: Keep your eyes open, comrades! It is better to take
courageous measures to be safe, even if they are mistaken, than to be
sorry due to negligence.â
The National Committee.
The politicians of the âPopular Frontâ were not interested in the
activities of the reactionaries. Out of cowardice they would not dare
even to order violent measures against the military conspirators; the
latter, increasingly more arrogant, made use of criminal elements to
provoke disorders, attacks and premeditated crimes. The Spanish public
lived in a state of fear and shock.
The workers of the CNT continued to plan valiant strike movements and
the leftist ministers continued to attempt to destroy the organization.
It was possible to observe, in the prelude to the military uprising,
spectacles such as the one a confederal newspaper described, which took
place in Madrid, during the course of a construction workers strike:
while the workers enrolled in the UGT were trying to return to work, in
accordance with orders issued by the socialist ministers, the workers
who were members of the CNT stood with crossed arms in front of the
construction sites, in protest against this betrayal.
The assassination of the right wing politician Calvo Sotelo hastened the
pace of events. The conspirators gave the order to revolt and on the
dawn of July 19, 1936 there was fighting on the streets of all the
cities in Spain. The great majority of the units of the Spanish army
joined the revolt.
It seems unnecessary for us to describe the harrowing episodes, the
bloody clashes, and the heroic deeds of the Spanish people and the
anarchists that took place during the morning of that hallowed day; we
also lack the skill to depict them in a realistic way that would
immortalize them. The spirit of struggle, sacrifice and heroism was once
again in evidence, recalling the events of past eras. Sublime epics by
acclaimed authors. Another Numantia and another Saguntum.
Once again, the suffering and valiant people took to the streets,
constructed barricades, assaulted the barracks, burned churches and
monasteries and public offices, without any other weapons, in many
cases, than their ideal of redemption and in other cases with antiquated
or useless arms. Bared breasts confronted the machine guns. Men, women
and the elderly, gasping for breath and full of enthusiasm and holy
hatreds, defied death without second thoughts or cowardice.
What was certain was, with the end of the day, news had already arrived
from many cities on the Peninsula. In some, the people had been
massacred and defeated, with countless victims. In others, the people
had overcome the rebel military forces.
Everywhere, the comrades of the CNT and the FAI displayed prodigies of
valor and audacity and risked their precious lives.
We shall allow their leaders to speak for themselves, and describe a few
scenes of the struggle:
âMadrid was like an inferno. The bravery of its children during those
dramatic hours deserves to be inscribed in lines of gold; down the Gran
VĂa came some cavalry troopers towards the barracks at La Montaña. They
are sons of the people who come from VicĂĄlvaro, with a few artillery
pieces. The people do not allow them to pass. They surround them,
embracing them. Many cried for joy. Automobiles, numerous automobiles
were racing down the streets, with people clinging to them on their
running boards!
âLarge columns of smoke rose above the buildings of Madrid into the
skyâŠ.
âAround all the churches and monasteries a beautiful âbuzzâ was heard.
There is not a moment for rest. The people seem to be motivated as if by
a single will. The fever has embraced all of them. One could say that
all of Madrid is out on the streets. As the seriousness of the situation
becomes more apparent, the revolutionary ardor of the people grows. It
is as if they had a single brain and a single will. No power, one
thinks, can defeat this tempest. Those who revolted will have to taste
the dust of defeat.
âLa Montaña barracks has fallen. The CNT fighters in the lead, scornful
of death, with some assault guards and young socialists, entered like a
hurricane and swept away all resistance. It was the power of the people
who were ready to take justice into their own hands. The only creative
and fruitful justice.
âAt that solemn hour (12 a.m. on July 20, 1936), an entire regiment died
at the hands of the people in arms. The bullets that ended the lives of
the officers and commanders of the army in the barracks of La Montaña,
did not just kill a handful of men, but killed a whole societyâŠ.
âA group of comrades arrived in a troop at the headquarters of the
National Committee on Calle de Silva. They came armed with rifles and
machine guns. We took them with our own two hands, they said, crazed
with joy, and they are for the Organization. They were soon mounted on
cars and sent to other locations in search of new rebel strongholds.
âAfter the barracks of La Montaña, the other fascist strongholds in
Madrid fell one after another. The people of Madrid, with an exemplary
heroism, joined the assault on the barracks with their breasts bared,
which made great historical deeds possible.
âOnce the rebellion was defeated in Madrid, reinforcements were
dispatched to the Sierra del Guadarrama, where the troops of the bloody
general Mola were cornered. On the next day, July 21, our forces took
AlcalĂĄ de Henares, breaking the siege of Madrid and forcing the fascists
to flee towards Guadalajara.â
(David Antona)
â⊠things were getting organized. While the struggle continued and the
military uprising was being liquidated, the people in arms, the absolute
masters of Barcelona, the CNT and the FAI; every sector fought against
the rebels, but it was the impulse of our men, it was the unequaled
example of the bravery of our militants, which galvanized the
multitudes, it is necessary to say this loud and clearâthey began to
prepare for the dawning of a new day, now that Barcelona, now that
Catalonia were in the hands of the victorious revolution. The Committee
of Antifascist Militias, formed on the 20^(th) and on which all the
sectors that had joined the fight against fascism were represented, was,
in fact and legally, the real government of Catalonia. The Generalitat
disappeared in the face of the force and the majesty of the new
revolutionary institution that had arisen from the popular willâŠ.
âIn the outlying counties of Catalonia the same thing happened. The
fascist uprising was immediately suppressed; the municipal governments
were in the hands of the workers; Local Committees of Antifascist
Militias were formed, the revolution was now a fait accompli,
unstoppable, imposing and formidable. And if affairs had proceeded in
the rest of the Peninsula as they had in Catalonia, if in the other
parts of Spain the peopleâs victory had been as definitive and as
overwhelming, how soon we would have embarked upon the road to
socialism!
âIn Barcelona, Catalonia, July 19 came to a glorious end amidst the
splendor of the fires, in the revolutionary euphoria of a day of popular
victory. The horns of the cars that were racing all over Barcelona
loaded with workers with rifles in their hands, played the marvelous
symphonyâFAI-CNT!âthat would resound five days later in the chorus of
the ragged yet heroic militias, drunk on illusions and enthusiasm, who
left for Zaragoza with Durruti.
âThe letters âCNT-FAIâ were written on every wall, on every building, on
every door on every house, on cars, and on everything! The red and black
flag flew in the wind, triumphant and fantastic, a marvelous image, that
we contemplated with an enchanted soul and shining eyes, asking
ourselves if we were only dreaming or if this was real! No, we were not
sleeping. We were wide-awake. As we recall the harsh victorious reality,
the great fruitful and tragic reality, then the widows and the orphans
would come. How much noble blood was spilled. How many men fell in
battle, in the heat of the struggle, mixed together in holy anonymity!â
(Federica Montseny)
As we can see, and as we honestly recall, in all the encounters in which
the anarchist militants participated they verified with their dignity
and brave conduct their past as gladiators of an ideal of love, justice
and freedom, and faced death with their usual nobility and heroism.
Furthermore: thanks to their audacity, forged in countless social
conflicts, they led the people, in the principal Iberian cities, to a
resounding victory. Concerning the results obtained and the conduct of
the anarchists, the following paragraphs from an interview conducted
with the President of the Generalitat, the Catalan politician Companys,
are most informative, as recounted by Juan GarcĂa Oliver, later the
Minister of âJusticeâ:
âFirst of all I must say that the CNT and the FAI have never been
treated as they deserve in view of their real importance. They have
always been harshly persecuted; and I, most regretfully, but forced to
do so by political realities, who was once on your side, was later
forced to persecute you. Today you are the masters of the city and
Catalonia, because you alone have defeated the fascist military and I
hope that you will not think it offensive on my part to remind you that
you have not lacked the help of the few or many loyal men from my party
and from the guards and the mozosâŠ.
âBut the truth is that, although harshly persecuted up until just
yesterday, today you have defeated the military and the fascists. I
therefore cannot, knowing you and the kind of people you are, use any
but the most sincere language. You have won and everything is in your
power, if you do not need me or do not want me to continue to serve as
the President of Catalonia, tell me now so that I can join the ranks as
one more soldier in the struggle against fascism. If, on the other hand,
you believe that in this post that only death could have caused me to
yield to victorious fascism, I can, with the men of my party, with my
name and my prestige, be useful in this struggle, which, if it has
turned out so well today in the city, we do not know when or how it will
end in the rest of Spain, you can count on me and on my loyalty as a man
and as a politician, a man who is convinced that today an entire
disgraceful past has perished, and that I sincerely desire that
Catalonia should march at the head of the most advanced countries with
regard to social questions.â
GarcĂa Oliver comments on this interview as follows:
âAt that time, Companys was speaking with an obvious sincerity. A
malleable, more than malleable and realistic man, who profoundly
experienced the tragedy of his people saved from age-long slavery by the
efforts of the anarchists, he used the language demanded by the
circumstances, and rose to the very difficult task of measuring up to
them, in a unique gesture of dignity and understanding, qualities that
have been so sorely lacking among Spanish politicians. Companys, without
yielding to fear of the revolution, logically thinking that the
revolution itself would come to understand what was possible and what
was impossible under the circumstances, made an effort to assume a
dignified position, as a Catalonian who understood that the moment of
truth has arrived for his country, and as a man of advanced liberal
opinions, who did not fear the boldest programs in the social domain, as
long as the latter are based on the living reality of what is possible.â
And SantillĂĄn, in his book, The Revolution and the War in Spain,
discussing the same interview, says:
âOnce the revolt was liquidated in Catalonia, the President of the
Generalitat, Luis Companys, called upon us to attend a conference in
order to hear our proposals on how to facilitate victory. We came to the
Generalitat armed with the weapons of victory, accompanied by a numerous
group that served us as a bodyguard. We could have gone it alone,
imposed our absolute dictatorship, declared the Generalitat to be
abolished and instituted, in its place, the real power of the people;
but we did not believe in dictatorship when it was exercised against us,
nor can we desire it when we can ourselves exercise it to the detriment
of others. The Generalitat continued to function with President Companys
at its head and the popular forces were organized in militias to
continue the struggle for the liberation of Spain, after having
liberated Catalonia from the claws of the military.â
With the bloody scenes that unfolded on July 19, 1936, which are
described in a summary form in the above passages, the shocking tragedy
that the Spanish people endured for more than thirty months began, with
the disastrous results that are now so well known, which I recounted in
my âIntroductionâ aboveâendorsed by the militants who occupied posts of
responsibility in the CNT and the FAI, who vied with each other with
respect to the errors, backroom deals and sellouts they committedâthe
tragedy of one of the most disappointing chapters of the emancipatory
history of the working class masses of Spain.
From the brief descriptions related above, we see that the day-by-day
expectation of the social revolution was a reality imposed by the
circumstances. The oral and written propaganda that had been carried
out; the bloody strikes waged against Iberian capitalism; the
imprisonment and trials and shootings inflicted on the militants of the
CNT and the FAI, over decades throughout Spain, had born their long
awaited fruit.
The people in arms had destroyed a regime of opprobrium, tyranny and
exploitation and had decided to build a new society where everyone would
enjoy liberty and wellbeing.
The anarchist militants, who were the first to man the most dangerous
positions, would also be the first to orient the people towards their
emancipation, taking care that they would not have to experience what
the Russian people had to go through, after November 7, 1919 [sic:
should be 1917], when the politicians took advantage of all the enormous
efforts and so many lives lost: so that now the Russian people live
under the rule of a bloody dictatorship.
We were sure that it could not happen in any other way. That was when we
received a communiqué, which had been sent by the CNT to the members of
the confederation and the Spanish people in general, issuing a warning
with regard to the ongoing events, in the following terms:
âComrades: Compelled by the events and understanding that every hour
that passes requires a different approach, because the great
counterrevolutionary offensive is basically different both in form and
substance, we are issuing this manifesto today, ready as always to
provide orientation and assistance to those who are accessible to our
message, the Spanish revolutionary masses.
âThis is a dangerous time for the interests of the proletarian
community. On the horizon we can observe, with increasingly well-defined
outlines, the implacable unfolding of the bloody maneuvers of the
Spanish bourgeoisie.
âThose who, like us, do not participate in the political leadership of
the country, although with our attitude we have on more than one
occasion caused a change of course in the governmental sphere, must now
set forth, as we have on so many other similar occasions, our position
on the nationâs government.
âEveryone knows about our aversion to participating, we repeat, in the
political fate of the population. Politics is the infectious dunghill
that pollutes the entire body with its miasmas. That is what we have
always thought and now each passing hour reinforces our convictions
about this matter, that the roads of the revolution cannot be squeezed
into the narrow and constraining lanes offered by the despicable
everyday politics. The latter are full of blind alleys and deceptive
crossroads that cause individuals and collectives to lose their proper
features. That is why the National Confederation of Labor, in accordance
with the orientations of the First International, once again says to the
insurrectionary masses: do not trust anyone else to do something for
you; the leaders, in the great turning points of history, always advise
calm and discipline. This is why we now seek, in order to impel the
revolution towards its final goal, to convince the masses to disregard
the appeals of those who turn their backs on the crude and sharply
defined reality, and who prefer a democracy draped in the shroud of
hunger and persecutions, rather than a profound and transformative
revolution. As for fascism, the criminality of the powerful castes
elevated into a system, you can only abolish it by destroying capitalist
society at its roots.â
What a difference there is between the actual positions these
organizations were to adopt and the beautiful concepts proclaimed above!
The breeze of reality left quite a pile of dead leaves behind it!
Those who controlled the fate of an enormous population and an immense
territory, such as is represented by Barcelona and Aragon, within a few
hours of having become aware of their victory committed their first
mistakes and publicized their first acts of betrayal with regard to
matters of principle. They joined a Committee of Militias, in shameful
association with the politicians, and the CNT and the FAI proclaimed
that their organizations were âin favor of collaboration and democracy,
renouncing the revolutionary totalitarianism that would necessarily lead
to the suffocation of the republic by a confederal and anarchist
dictatorshipâ, in the words of GarcĂa Oliver; they ârecognized the
priority of collective responsibilityâ, adding that ânot allowing
ourselves to be swept away by the excitement, nor to be intoxicated by
the rapid, definitive and overwhelming victory that we had wonâ, they
issued the order to âconquer the towns controlled by fascismâ. âThere is
no libertarian communism.â âFirst we have to fight the enemy wherever he
may be foundâ, according to Mariano VĂĄzquez.
They had forgotten, a few days after signing them with their own hands
and publishing them, those lapidary phrases of the CNTâs communiquĂ©: âDo
not trust anyone else to do anything for you; the leaders, at the
turning points of history, always advise calm and disciplineâŠ.â
The Spanish people, who had been the eternal victims of the priests, the
village caciques and political caudillos, were now the victims of the
confederal âcaudillosâ.
The concepts disseminated by the CNT and the FAI in their newspapers and
magazines, which were numerous in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, etc., in
order to justify these first retreats with respect to principle, do not
merit comment, even if they are in their own way emotionally compelling.
They sought to put the brakes on the peopleâs innate yearning for
redemption, the social revolution, so that the Marxist politicians of
Spain and the bourgeois and âproletarianâ democraciesâFrance, England
and Russiaâwould help the Spanish people in their battle against
fascism!!
From then on, everything was disconcerting and shameful. In order to
drive home the nail of their inconsistencies, of their betrayal of their
own ideas, they initiated a spirited campaign in favor of âunified
commandâ, âcontrol and disciplineâ, âall arms to the frontâ, and âwin
the warâ.
They had ceased to be anarchists and instead became plain
âanti-fascistsâ and sought, indeed begged anxiously, for âunityâ with
all the politicians, and positions of âresponsibilityâ in Spainâs
central government.
It is somewhat difficult to piece together in detail the attitudes
adopted and the resolutions approved by the âmajorityâ of the
representatives of the CNT and the FAI in the wake of the revolt. But it
is worth mentioning thatâbecause of their subsequent deleterious effects
on our aspirationsâthat the agreements signed at that âfamousâ session
where the above-mentioned institutions, demonstrating their
ârevolutionary maturityâ, and after the declarations of âcomradeâ
CompanysââYou have defeated the military and the fascists and everything
is in your hands; if you do not want me to be the President of
Catalonia, tell me now, so that I may be one more soldierââwere of an
immense âhistorical significanceâ and also entailed defeatist and
suicidal consequences.
The fact that they decided âfor collaboration, for democracy, and
against any dictatorial revolutionary solutionâ, had the immediate
result of leaving things as they were before the military uprising. The
bourgeois State had suffered a setback, from which it would soon recover
with the cooperation of the âmajorityâ cenetistas and faĂstas. âThey put
their trust in the word of a Catalonian âdemocratâ and maintained and
supported Companys as the President of the Generalitat.â And because
they were âthe majority force upon which the attempt to constitute a
real democracy must fall, and because we do not want to imitate the big
and arrogant fish, who never allow their zeal to devour the little fish
to flagââmost of these phrases that we are transcribing come from GarcĂa
Oliverâthey agreed to join a Committee of Militias together with the
representatives of the political parties.
What we said above, about the militarist slogans proclaimed by the press
and propaganda organs of the CNT and the FAI, is fully justified. Many
âprestigiousâ members of the CNT and the FAI were high-ranking military
officers and managerial office staffâlaterâconnected with the war.
But why were they so enthusiastic about accepting these slogans that
bore such an authoritarian and dictatorial stamp?
At the time, the explanation offered was that many âgood boysâ made use
of deception to reject the taking up of arms. That due to the lack of
military knowledge more lives were sacrificed than necessary and that
actions were not undertaken at the right time and place, and ⊠we have
cultivated many more conjectures. It is, however, undeniable, due to the
events that took place at the time, that these slogans had a different
purpose.
The assurance of the CNT and the FAI, in their conformance to the
âtranscendentalâ resolution of postponing the social revolution, that it
was the âmajorityâ, means that a minority disagreed with this first
deviation. And what about this minority? Did its members quietly accept
this serious error? Did they obey the orders of the âleadersâ of the
militias?
The events that took place at the time inform us that they did not and
that it was not unlikely that the âanti-fascistsâ felt infringed upon in
their hierarchical delusions and in their Marxist and ultimately
authoritarian maneuvers and sought to enclose within the rigid grip of
discipline those who would never accept, as anarchists, such an
overwhelming betrayal of their redemptive ideas.
But the resounding fall of the cenetista and faĂsta theoreticians did
not stop there.
When Francoâs hosts reached the gates of Madrid and the âPopular Frontâ
government had fled to Valencia, an appeal to defend the Capitalâwith
the preconceived purpose of further weakening the Aragon Front, in order
to advantageously pursue reactionary maneuvers that were later
successfully concluded by the authoritarian fractionsâwas made to the
men of the CNT and the FAI; this call was answered by Durruti with a
column of militiamen who performed glorious feats in the trenches of the
Ciudad Universitaria. At the same timeâafter much plaintive
beggingârepresentatives of the CNT and the FAI were allowed to enter
that government that had fled in such a cowardly manner from Madrid.
These representatives then became âministersâ, alongside the politicians
who, before the uprising, had ordered merciless persecutions of
anarchist militants.
But ⊠it was an âimperious necessityâ. âWe joined the government,â
SantillĂĄn said, âbecause we had a single dominant concern: to place all
resources, all energies, all possibilities of the country at the service
of the war, which we considered sacred, because it was a war of the
people against those who had revolted in order to reduce it to a slavery
worse than the one they already suffered.â
Nevertheless, all the dialectics poured out by those who undertook to
implement the new ways cannot possibly cobble together a convincing,
honest and sincere explanation that would justify the sluggishness, the
docility and the indifference demonstrated by the âresponsibleâ members
of the CNT and the FAI in all the shameful and disreputable episodes
that later took placeâŠ. Nor do they explain the tacit collaboration
granted to all the governments that succeeded one another in the period
of the civil war, for they conformed to all the political changes that
took place and were therefore Caballeristas, Prietistas, Negrinistas,
Miajistas, and finally Casadistas; in one word, governmentalists.
It is clear that one does not need to be an especially astute observer
to deduceâwithout any intention to judge what was on their mindsâthat,
besides the satisfactions that they will have enjoyed by breaking into
the circle of the preeminent men of state, especially during such a
cruel period, history must attest that the status of collaborators with
any government grants them certain advantages and prerogatives that were
not enjoyed by those who fought on the battlefields; advantages and
prerogatives thatâperhaps they never entered into their âalliancistâ
calculationsâthey very well availed themselves of in their retreat from
Barcelona to France, escaping in airplanes or other convenient means of
transport and from the central frontâMadrid, Valencia and Andalusiaâin
airplanes and merchant ships and even in English warships while the
militiamen remained in Spain at the mercy of Francoâs mercenaries. Even
in exile they obtained advantages with their high status as âministersâ,
for while the latter were able to find refuge in all the most important
cities of Europe, the tragedy of the âanti-fascistâ soldiers continued
in the unsanitary concentration camps constructed in France.
Let us return to the main trail. It would be a sign of unpardonable
disrespect if we were to refrain from mentioning the names of the
gentlemen âministersâ and some of their revealing initiatives, whose
purpose was to get the state car, which had at the time suffered a
serious âpanneâ [breakdown], back on the road.
We are not interested in the performance of Federica Montseny as
Minister of Health, although it did have some humanitarian aspects; she
had the reward of a great deal of personal satisfaction, since she is
remembered for her meritorious labor as Minister of Health, and the fact
that a wing of the VĂ©lez Rubio Maternity Hospital has been named after
her.
We had originally intended not to mention the Minister of Commerce, Juan
LĂłpez, out of respect for his âlearned reputationâ in Politics and
Sociology, but, quite opportunely, an article of his came into our hands
that had been published in Cultura Proletaria, in which, âsoliloquizing
in favor of the âfamilyââ, he shows his true colors and makes a few
declarations that we just cannot resist quoting.
After telling us about the ânarrow horizonâ of the âideologicalâ family;
âof the demagogy that parades boldly in the streetsâ; of the fact that
his entry into the government âwas the conquest of a revolutionary
strongholdâ; that they were not going âto establish Libertarian
Communism, or realize the integral program of Socialism, but to uphold
the world of the republicââhe then proceeds to a lengthy discussion of
the revolt of May 1937 in Barcelonaârepudiated by the CNT
ministersâagainst which he displays his utmost indignation because it
forced him to resign from his government position, from which he
intended âto ensure the conquests of the working classâ and because âin
a few hours the efforts of so many months of work collapsed and
magnificent positions of all kinds were lostâ.
He concludes his article by saying:
âThe events of May 3 ultimately mean the following:
âThe absence of real discipline in the libertarian movement, which, due
to its irresponsible actions in Catalonia, facilitated the political
maneuver that put an end to the government of Largo Caballero.
âRemoving us from the revolutionary positions we had conquered and the
loss of any chance to consolidate them IS WHAT OUR RESIGNATION FROM THE
GOVERNMENT IMPLIES.â
Juan PeirĂł, in the Ministry of Industry, must have displayed a great
deal of cleverness to deserve the praise of his âsubordinatesâ in that
governmental department when he attendedâregretfully, perhapsâthe
ceremony where he officially stepped down from such an âhonorableâ
position, since, according to PeirĂł himself, upon his departure, they
told him:
âYou may depart with the assurance that the Ministry of Industry has
never been so productive as it was during your incumbency.â
This adulatory praise of these office parasites is explainable and
justified, since they could confirm the enthusiasm and assiduousness
Juan PeirĂł displayed in his âreconstructiveâ labors in order to
ingratiate himself with the bourgeoisie and the politicians and in order
to buttress the power of the State. Further proof of what we said above
can be found in the transcript of a speech PeirĂł delivered at the Gran
Teatro in Valencia, a few days after resigning from his high office, in
order to explain his conduct in the Ministry, from which we shall quote
the following passage:
âNo one can deny the collaboration provided by the CNT and the FAI with
respect to public order. The men of the CNT, the men of the FAI, have
done everything within their power to reestablish order wherever, due to
circumstances that I shall not analyze here, disorder had arisen. No one
will be able to deny this, because of the recent events in Catalonia,
more precisely the events in Barcelona, and the comrades of the UGT
themselves have had an opportunity to see how the elements of the
Confederation behave who have been assigned the job of establishing
order and reestablishing discipline in Barcelona.
âWhen the CNT joined the government of Catalonia and the government of
the Republic, all of us took up our posts having renounced any and all
totalitarian intentions. We knew that we were going to collaborate, and
in collaborating we did so in a sincere, honorable and disinterested
manner.â
Having read the above paragraphs, the reader will be convincedâby
PeirĂłâs toneâof the statist mentality that prevailed among these
bureaucrats and the dubious mission that they were performing. They
assumed responsibilityâwe do not discover by whose ordersâfor
reestablishing âorderâ and âdisciplineâ where they were lacking.
Now all that remains is to discuss Juan GarcĂa Oliver who, representing
the CNT, was to become the Minister of Justice.
We are not in any position to uncover the Machiavellian intentions that
guided the politician Largo Caballero when, yielding to the insistent
petitions of the CNT and the FAI, he gave them four bureaucratic
positions in the government that had fled to Valencia; but we do know
that the fact that a militant who called himself an anarchist occupied
the post of Minister of Justice was most inconceivable and ridiculous
and gives an idea of the statist delirium from which these âleadersâ
suffered.
What is certain is that GarcĂa Oliver, brandishing his action
programââNow there will be justiceââassumed the magistrateâs gown and
with smug satisfaction, âcheerful and contentâ, he decided to represent
the goddess Themis.
In just what manner he performed what appeared to be the most grotesque
acts in the execution, by decrees, of âjusticeâ, is exemplified by the
zeal he displayed in drafting legislation on judicial sentencing (!) and
on the organization of prison life.
GarcĂa Oliver plunged with such unexpected diligence into a
âregenerativeâ labor of such pettifogging magnitude that he did not
allow himself to reflect on his ideological position prior to the
conflict that was taking place, to such an extent that he, in plainly
boastful terms, wrote a meticulous description of the draft legislation
he proposed, the decrees he issued, and the âjusticeâ measures that he
had implemented, especially emphasizing the ones that granted legal
rights to women, that cancelled criminal records for crimes committed
before the uprising, that stipulated the organization of Labor Camps
(i.e., âConcentration Campsâ) and a multitude of other initiatives that
he authorized, expressing himself as follows: âIf the work was hard, the
fruits were magnificentâ. And he fulfilled his obsession: âTo perfect
the justice system.â
But this intensive judicial activity does not exhaust the dynamism of
GarcĂa Oliver.
Having attracted the attention of the Ministry of War because of the
impressive âconstructiveâ qualities he displayed, he was ordered by that
Ministry to create and organize the Peopleâs Military Academies, which
would later graduate thousands of officers whoâwe assumeâwould be the
âproletarianâ officer corps upon which the governmentalist cenetistas
would rely to carry out the âsocial revolutionâ when the civil war
ended. However, in a speech that GarcĂa Oliver delivered to the officers
who graduated from one of these Peopleâs Academies, that of Barcelona,
we may deduce that such an assumption would be a crass error.
This is what he said in this speech:
âYou, the officers of the popular army, must observe an IRON DISCIPLINE
and impose it on your men, who, once they are incorporated in the ranks,
must CEASE TO BE YOUR COMRADES in order to become cogs in the military
machine of our army. Your mission is to assure victory over the invading
fascist forces and maintain, at the moment of victory, a powerful
popular army upon which we can rely to respond to any fascist
provocation, whether open or concealed, of a foreign power, and that
will know how to make the name of Spain respected, which has for so long
been disregarded in international affairs.â
The Minister of Justice, besides being a âMinisterâ, was a rabid
militarist and a fanatical patriot.
One fact of the greatest importance, however, tells us that GarcĂa
Oliver was seriously deranged by his position in the sphere of the
government, that his eyesight and his hearing were severely damaged,
leaving him completely myopic and deaf, for while His Excellency the
Honorable Minister of Justice was legislating about judicial sentencing
standards and was issuing decrees that cancelled punishments, in all the
towns and cities of âloyalistâ Spain the âchekaâ organized by the
communists, with âexpertsâ sent from Russia, was assassinating
anarchists or imprisoning them in torture chambers, without GarcĂa
Oliver ever intervening on their behalf or making use of his exalted
position, which indisputably proves that Juan GarcĂa Oliver, just like
his three comrades in the cabinet, representing the CNT, were playing a
despicable and regrettable role. They were ridiculous puppets disguised
as Ministers and adorned with shining gold braid, giving the impression
that rather than puppets they instead resembled the disreputable clowns
and street performers who travelled the roads of Spain in other times.
In the meantimeâdespite such unfortunate and miserable evidence of their
activitiesâthe CNT Ministers, complying with their statist slogan of
âdisinterest, spirit of sacrifice and love of workâ, were still
distinctly ensconced within the hybrid bloc of the âanti-fascistsâ.
Our bare assertion that there was a âminorityâ that opposed the first
âtranscendentalâ resolutions of the CNT majority and the FAI and
subsequent such proclamations, can be demonstrated by the alarming news
that reached us and recently provided us with an accurate account of
certain arbitrary facts that, in their own fashion, were depicted for us
by the correspondents of the news agencies.
On the basis of these news reports we drew the conclusion that the
authoritarian elements had increased in number and in power, with the
condescension of the âMinisterialistsâ. Censorship was strict. All the
committees of an anarchist origin were dissolved. Marxist nuclei were
increasingly being inserted into the CNT militias and the State extended
its tentacles all the way to the border with France.
The Secretary of the IWA, Besnard, tells us a great deal about these
developments in his report to the IWA:
â1. That the militias were condemned and militarization accepted by the
CNT.
â2. That the free municipalities that emerged from the revolution had
been replaced by state institutions.
â3. That the Council of the Economy passed from the hands of the CNT
into those of the Generalitat.
âI have on many occasions insisted with regard to SantillĂĄn; that he was
responsible for the preservation of the militias. I have explained to
him the dangers that an army in the hands of a government would
represent and the security that workers militias organized by the CNT
would offer to the revolution. Although SantillĂĄn assured me that he
would maintain this instrument of defense of the revolution under his
jurisdiction, on behalf of the CNT, he nonetheless accepted its
disappearance along with all the consequences. From that moment,
however, as he had to write later in Tierra y Libertad, he believed in
the need for a transitional State to represent Spain in foreign affairs,
and in the need for a âdisciplinedâ government army to defeat fascism.
It is of no use emphasizing how foreign this concept is to our doctrine,
and how much it resembles authoritarian communism. It cannot but favor
the development of the latter, marking a considerable retreat of the CNT
and an increasing abandonment of our methods and ideas.â
In the meantime, calamitous events have taken place in Spain, events
that have justified the warning that comrade Besnard expressed in his
report.
The Communist Party, with a tiny membership before the military
uprising, has grown as a result of the affiliation of thousands of petty
bourgeoisie and by the infiltration of âtechniciansâ who came to Spain
from all over the world, especially from Russia, which was the price of
the sale of the arms needed by the âanti-fascistâ soldiers. The
dominance of the Bolsheviks was apparent not only in the army, but also
in the police forces. And the means utilized by the latter to assert
their power involved the commission of certain crimes.
Although the comrades of the CNT and the FAI have not decided to openly
claim this, nonetheless, it is certain that Durruti was killed by the
communists. The press correspondent in Spain for the Buenos Aires
newspaper CrĂtica, JosĂ© Gabriel, accuses the Bolsheviks of being
responsible for his death.
Today this testimony is no longer necessary. After the (all-too belated)
publication of the important ârevelationsâ made by certain governmental
elements affiliated with the CNT, concerning the despicable proceedings
of the authoritarians, it cannot be denied that this dubious
assassination and many others that took place in Spain were the sinister
work of the âanti-fascistâ cheka.
There was the case of YagĂŒe, a communist member of the Madrid Defense
Council, who was wounded by a guard posted on a highway in Aragon. The
Bolsheviks, who by that time were distinguished by their predominance,
used this incident as an excuse to unleash with even more violence their
animosity towards their âalliesâ, and this campaign was waged on such a
large scale that the CNT and the FAI, alarmed by the direction that
these demonstrations of âfriendshipâ had taken, issued this communiquĂ©:
âFaced with the situation of violence that they want to impose on us, we
properly respond that we shall not allow, once again, after comrade
YagĂŒe was wounded, that the comrades of our Organization should be
murdered in the streets of Madrid, thus igniting a bonfire of
uncontainable passions. Three militants of the CNT have been found dead
in the last few days in the vicinity of the Capital.â
The Anarchist Youth, of Madrid, also added the following:
âWe shall not consent for even one more minute to allow the authorities
to beat, insult and arrest our militants and to refuse to recognize the
membership cards of the CNT, the FAI and the Libertarian Youth. We are
prepared to shoot without mercy all those traitors and the new-style
police who try to arrest and beat us.â
Yet the âMinisterialistsâ of the CNT and the FAI continued to serve in
their eminent positions. The maneuvers of the Bolsheviks did not cause
them any grief or concerns. Such was the spirit of âunityâ that
prevailed among these comrades, and the admiration and adulation that
they displayed towards the Stalinist authoritariansâout of expediency or
out of fearâthat comrade A. Schapiro was led to make the following
observations:
âTHE USSR AND THE CNT
âAn unacceptable positionâIt is with growing sadness and a feeling of
acute pain that one now reads, and this has been the case for some time
now, Solidaridad Obrera, the organ of the CNT. We are compelled to come
to this conclusion, that this daily newspaper with a print run of a
quarter million copies a day, has become a semi-official daily newspaper
of the USSR.
âYou need only leaf through the pages of our anti-Bolshevik Soli to see
that it is full of articles that support the USSR and Stalinâs foreign
policy, without the least discordant note that would mitigate this
impression.
âWe need only look through a dozen issues of Soli over the last few
weeks with regard to the attitude of the USSR in Geneva and Nyon.
ââThe world proletariat must definitively support the position of the
USSR,â one article states, dated September 9, while the editorial in the
same issue declares that âall the free people of the world must support
the demands of the USSRâ and to drive home this opinion, another article
proclaims that there is âonly one way to reinforce the decisive position
of the USSR: that is international working class action together with
the Soviet proletariatâ. On the next day Soli claims that âthe attention
of the proletariat is eagerly awaiting a gesture from Russiaâ. By a
coincidence that can only make one laugh, a headline on the same page
says, âMachiavelli, the Inspiration of Italy and Germanyâ ⊠forgetting,
by an oversight, no doubt, to add the USSR, the most accomplished
disciple of the Italian philosopher.
âA day later, on September 11, Soli announced that the National
Committee of the CNT had selected its representative to serve on the
Commission (created by The Friends of the USSR) to commemorate the
20^(th) anniversary of the USSR. A few days later we read that âthe CNT
of Madrid participated in the tribute to the Soviet Unionâ. In the Soli
of September 12, we are pleased to discover that âSpain, kept away from
Nyon by European diplomacy, will have its place there thanks to the
voice of the USSRâ and on September 18, Soli contains a portrait of
âcomradeâ (spare us!) Ovseenko, on the occasion of his appointment to
the post of Minister of Justice of the USSR.
âBut while Soli and the CNT pile up so many proofs of their support for
the USSR, its government and its representatives in Nyon and Barcelona,
neither refrained from engaging in abundant criticism, often quite
bitter, of the PSUC, which is the Communist Party of Catalonia, Section
of the Third International, and entirely subject to the orders of that
same government of the USSR. This is a paradox that shows the whole
tragedy of a situation that obliges the CNT to play this double game: to
simultaneously support Moscow and to attack Moscowâs Spanish organism,
the PSUC.â
âOne is forced to ask: with regard to these positions, in which case are
the CNT and Soli sincere and in which case are they not? Certainly, the
USSR sells its military supplies to republican Spain. We say sell,
because it has been demonstrated that not one kilo of weaponry has ever
been sent by Stalin without receiving payment in money ⊠or in gold.
Concerning this question we shall transcribe the following passages
written by L.V. in Le RĂ©veil, of Geneva:
ââOur friends have invoked the aid provided by Russia. It is impossible
to attack the representatives of Moscow, because the material support of
Moscow, as opposed to the shameful defection of the
democratic-capitalist states and especially the cowardice of the
proletarians of those states who have been deceived by their leaders,
was absolutely indispensable to maintain any chance to defeat the
fascist troops! However, why not come right out and say it: Russia has
sent us arms of such and such a quality and in such and such amounts.
Spain, on the other hand, has given Russia so much ⊠and furthermore,
the Soviet leaders have proposed, in the arena of domestic politics,
such and such conditions and such and such demands. Why, then, should we
acknowledge the aid provided by the Soviets but not admit the price that
Moscow has imposed and that has been accepted by Valencia? The anarchist
organizations have been made fools of, they have been victims and
accomplices of this unacceptable hypocrisy!â
âFor this unacceptable hypocrisy that continues to be displayed each and
every day in Soli and which is manifested in the attitude of the CNT, so
that the USSR can make them direct accomplices of the political
calamities that are afflicting so-called ârepublicanâ Spain, and
especially Catalonia. We ask once again: which of the CNTâs attitudes
are sincere? The justified critique of the PSUC or the so much less
justified admiration for the government of the USSR and its foreign
representatives, Litvinov and Ovseenko? Is the CNT sincere in both
cases? Is it sincere in either one?
âRegardless of how the CNT might respond to these questions, two facts
remain: the government of Moscow is taking marvelous advantage of the
silence of the CNT in order to undermine the CNTâs position,
transforming the latter, willy-nilly, into the accomplice of the
anti-revolutionary and democratic-capitalist policy that Moscow is
constantly pursuing. The CNT, up to its neck in kneejerk support for a
government of assassins, support for which it is paying with its blood
in order to obtain arms deliveries that are used in a war that has
nothing anti-fascist about it, will some day be forced to desist from
its criticism of the Spanish communists.
âFor it is illogical to support a government without also supporting its
political representatives.
âThe Spanish comrades might respond that their support is not for the
government of the USSR, but for the Russian proletariat; that its
participation in the celebrations of the 20^(th) anniversary of the
founding of the USSR implies no more than its expression of appreciation
for the October Revolution. Such a response would be insincere. It has
been a long time since we have heard any news from the Russian
proletariat (which possesses no means of expression). The appreciation
of the October Revolution that all of us have never ceased to celebrate
since 1917, by no means requiresâquite the contraryâany collaboration
with precisely those who strangled that Revolution.
âThis unacceptable hypocrisy must cease. Moscow is in the process of
selling to England, and at a bargain price, what little remains of the
Spanish Revolution of July 19, 1936.
âWe shall not become accomplices in this betrayal, in this moral support
provided by Soli and the CNT to the Stalinist politicians. The PSUC only
carries out the orders of Moscow. Our attitude towards Moscow must be
consistent with this fact. We must publicly condemn those who, one as
much as the other, and under the same aegis, are strangling the Spanish
Revolution.â
(Alexander Schapiroâreproduced by Solidaridad, the journal of the FORU,
second half of December 1937.[6])
We are using the title of a pamphlet by Sebastién Faure as the title for
this section, just as we could have used the title, âTortuous Pathsâ,
which is the title of an article by comrade Juan C. Romero that was
published in the Rosario newspaper, La Fora, or the title, âSlippery
Slopesâ, which is the title of an article published in the Barcelona
journal Tierra y Libertad in May 1936, because it most accurately
summarizes the topic we shall address below.
Once the decision that the militants of the CNT and the FAI should
participate in the government had been made with such great fanfare,
they and their admirers not only did not take into account the
counter-arguments offered in opposition to this treacherous position by
many anarchist comrades from all over the world, but they initiated an
offensive against all those who did not accept the captious arguments
they employed to justify this acclaimed reversal in practice.
The obfuscation and the passion they marshaled in their ineffective
defense, once their Marxist inclinations had become clear, reached such
a point that they copied the style and the very terminology of the
Bolsheviks had used in South America to discredit us. They furiously
rallied around the principle of authority, which had been so severely
maligned by the CNT and the FAI up until recently and they continued to
attack us for considering it to be the basis of the State.
We have read one of these attempts at justification, with a degree of
shock and bitterness, in the Buenos Aires newspaper La Protesta no less,
and we say âno lessâ, because we did not expect that newspaper to
publish such a tactless and insolent piece in a journal that has
defended the anarchist ideal for more than forty years, and which has
paid the price of so many sacrifices and persecutions to give that ideal
life and passion on the part of the committed militants of anarchism in
Argentina and which has today lost its way by carrying out a negative
and confusionist propaganda.
Letâs take a look at a few paragraphs from âThe Hour of Anarchismâ, by
A. Gilabert, published in La Protesta:
âSome of the enemies of anarchism, disguised as comrades, are now
attempting to speak to us about principles, tactics and ideas. They
think that anarchism has gone astray from its normal course, and has
compromised with the bourgeoisie and repudiated its anti-state
principles.
âThis critique is not inspired by very healthy intentions. Its
intentions are two-fold, and must be unmasked. Of course, anarchism in
Spain has undergone a change of course. It has rectified everything that
was negative about it. When anarchism was a movement of permanent
opposition, it explained that it rejected the entire established order.
In Spain, however, we are in the midst of special circumstances. Here,
we have ceased to be an opposition in order to become a determining
force. Anarchism, rather than denying, must make a new reality. Those
who make a new reality will be: those who are victorious.
âWe cannot demand of the Spanish people that they maintain the negative
position that was that of classical international anarchism. The times
are too grave to entertain ourselves by looking to the past. Is there a
positive example, an effective precedent from outside of Spain that can
help guide our conduct? International anarchism is of too little
significance to dictate orders to Spanish anarchism. We must proudly say
that Spain must serve as an example for the anarchists of the entire
world.
â⊠As anarchists we have the obligation and the duty to criticize and to
wage the war against fascism and the revolution against capitalism, not
only from below, from the base, but also by assuming positions of
responsibility in the institutions that rule the destiny of the country.
âThose who criticize the position of the anarchists are enemies in
disguise, agents of the bourgeoisie, individuals who are not very
satisfied by the libertarian influence that radiates from the Spanish
people. This is the hour of anarchism, and we must accept the struggle
in all of its consequences, assuming full responsibility in these
decisive moments!
âBarcelona, November 5, 1936.â
Even more explicit and decisive, displaying just how intoxicated the
cenetistas and faistas are with authoritarianism, is the article
published in the PuigcerdĂĄ newspaper, Sembrador, on December 6, 1936.
This article is full of slander and threats. It reads as follows:
âCONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM.
âWe anarchists are advocates of serene, noble and well-documented
criticism, but we only grant this right to those who are doing
everything in their power to defeat fascism. But we have to be very
careful with this criticism. Now is the time for deeds, for positive
realization, rather than criticism. As a general rule, the latter is a
weapon that is skillfully utilized in the ambushes carried out by the
âfifth columnâ, by those whom we must silence, those whom we must
eliminate.â
This article insinuates that the comrades they are criticizing could
very well be âfascistsâ.
It cannot be denied that a âmajorityâ of the âleadersâ of the CNT and
the FAI have thrown overboard the imperishable anarchist principles,
tactics of direct action and emancipatory concepts, and have striven to
bring the hotspots of the social revolution that have emerged in various
regions to a dead halt, in order to devote themselves, from their posts
in the government, to channeling the activities of the people towards
the sole purpose of âwinning the warâ.
We do not have to follow in detail the course of the many arguments that
have been offered in defense of this serious error.
We cannot understand people who are well-grounded in anarchist theory,
yet who, overnight, change course so suddenly, when they know that this
change of course signifies a betrayal of the postulates that they had
defended, in order to become instead props of the state, and therefore
ridiculous bosses of the Spanish people and of their own comrades in the
cause, until just recently. The definitive proof of this is provided by
Article 15 of the Unity Pact between the CNT and the UGT:
âWe agree to undertake joint action to liquidate the harmful activity of
the groups of uncontrollables, because, due to either a lack of
understanding or bad faith, they are endangering the realization of this
program.â
And not only in the text of this Pact, but in practice, as well, the
passion to give orders and make them obeyed is revealed, since those who
rebelled against these authoritarian policies were punished and
imprisoned.
We must also add that the converts to âministerialismâ conducted their
oral and written propaganda in a distinctly authoritarian tone. What is
regrettable is the fact that they should use our concepts, which are
clearly in opposition to the new ways they have adopted, since it is
surprising that, after having sacrificed their entire glorious past they
should nonetheless speak in a language that does not suit them.
It is logical that some of the comrades who went to Spain to contribute
their efforts to help the social revolution to be victorious, and many
comrades from all parts of Europe and America, should issue warnings and
protests about the precipice upon which the âmajoritariansâ of the CNT
and the FAI are poised.
We believe that it is appropriate to convey some of these opinions.
Sebastién Faure, in the pamphlet entitled, The Fatal Slope, sets forth
his disagreement with the statist position assumed by the cenetistas and
faĂstas, which is summarized in the following paragraphs:
â⊠The fact that a politician who belongs to a political group should
accept a ministerial post in a government cabinet, that he should have
such an ambition, that he should solicit this honor and its advantages,
is very natural; this man plays his cards, he takes his âchanceâ, he
follows the paths that he has embarked upon and takes good care not to
miss his opportunity. But that an anarchosyndicalist, that an anarchist,
should accept a post in a government cabinet, that is altogether a
different matter.
âThe anarchosyndicalist has inscribed on his flag in giant letters:
âDeath to the Stateâ.
âThe anarchist has inscribed, in letters of fire, on his flag: âDeath to
Authorityâ.
âBoth are connected by a clear and precise program, based on clear and
precise principles. Nothing and no one forces them to support these
principles. It is with complete independence and full awareness of the
reasons, deliberately, that he has subscribed to these principles. That
he has upheld, propagated and defended this program.
âThis being so, I maintain that the anarchosyndicalist must prohibit
himself from joining those who have the mission to pilot THE SHIP OF
STATE, since he is convinced that this ship, âthis famous shipâ, must be
absolutely destroyed.
âAnd I say that the anarchist has the duty to reject all authoritarian
positions, since he is fully convinced that all authority must be
destroyed.
âThere will be no lack of those who will object that, by reasoning in
this manner, I am only taking principles into account and that it often
happens that the course of events, the circumstances, the facts, that
is, what is commonly called REALITY, contradicts our principles and
causes those who make a cult of love and respect for principles to
necessarily distance themselves provisionally from their principles, and
that they soon return to their old positions when the new REALITIES make
such a return possible.
âI understand this objection and here is my response:
âFirst: either our principles are false, or THE REALITY THAT CONTRADICTS
THEM is false. In this case we must immediately abandon these
principles. In this case we must have the honesty to publicly confess
the falsehood of these principles and we must have the courage to fight
them with as much passion and activity as we once used to defend them;
we must immediately engage in the search for more solid principles and
this time they must be correct, precise, infallible.
âOr, to the contrary, the principles upon which our ideology and our
tactics is based retain, regardless of the what happens, all its
consistency and are just as valid today as they were yesterday and in
this case we must remain faithful to them. To departâeven in exceptional
circumstances and brieflyâfrom the line of conduct that our principles
have traced for us, to renounce the method of struggle that is in
conformance with these principles, this means committing a mistake and a
dangerous and reckless act. To persist in this error would mean
committing a mistake whose consequences gradually lead to the
provisional abandonment of our principles and from one concession to
another until the definitive abandonment of our principles.
âOnce again: it is the machinery, it is the fatal slope that can lead us
very far.
âSecond: But I think that the experiment undertaken by our comrades in
Catalonia, far from compromising the strength of our principles and
weakening or destroying justice, can and must have as a result, if we
know how to learn the precious lessons that it contains and to avail
ourselves of these lessons, that our principles and their power are
proven to be correct.
â⊠The anarchists have resolutely waged, AGAINST EVERYTHING AND
EVERYBODY, a merciless struggle; they are determined to prosecute this
struggle relentlessly until they achieve victory. This struggle entails,
on the one hand, DOING WHAT IS NECESSARY, REGARDLESS OF THE PRICE, and
on the other, NOT DOING WHAT IS NOT NECESSARY REGARDLESS OF THE
CONDITIONS. I am not unaware of the fact that it is not always possible
to do what it is necessary to do; but I do know that there are things
that it is rigorously necessary to prohibit, and as a result to never do
them.
âThe Spanish experiment can and must serve us as a lesson. This
experiment must serve as a warning against the danger of concessions and
alliances, even under particular conditions and for a limited period of
time. To say that all concessions weaken those who make them and
strengthen those who are their beneficiaries is to merely utter an
indisputable truth. To say that any agreement, even a temporary one,
consented to by the anarchists with a political party that,
theoretically and practically, is anti-anarchist, is a deceit and that
it is always the anarchists who are the victims, is a truth that is
proven by Experience, by History and by simple Reason. Over the course
of the road taken alongside the authoritarians, the loyalty and the
sincerity of the anarchists are always entangled in the perfidy and
cleverness of their provisional and circumstantial alliesâŠ.â
Even more forceful and precise, however, are the arguments set forth by
the French General Confederation of Labor-Revolutionary Syndicalists
[CGT-SR], in an article entitled, âThe Decisive Momentâ, published in
the newspaper, Le Combat Sindicaliste, an article that produced a
sensation among the international circles of anarchist militants and a
great deal of anger among the government collaborators of the CNT and
the FAI. The article contains the following observations:
âWHERE THE CNT IS BEING LED BY ITS LEADERS.
âThe workers of the world want to know. The emotions aroused by the
bombing of the âDeutschlandâ and by the atrocious repression inflicted
on the population of AlmerĂa have spent their fury. After some Platonic
protests whose purpose was to silence the cries of horror that arose
from all sides (keeping in mind that we are only talking about the
common people) the curtain slowly descends on the tragedy, smothering
the moans of the innocent victims.
âDiplomacy has remained impassive, and has now returned to its
traditional âactivityâ. Everyone knows what that means. The foreign
offices of London and Paris, backed by Washington, have not lost all
hope of imposing their peace on Spain. Their plan has not changed and it
is expected, both in London and in Paris, that the last German
resistance will be overcome and that the Russian plan, whose essential
point is a preventive war, will definitely be torpedoed.
âAfter a period of eclipse, mediation is once again the order of the
day.
âThis obliges our international movement to examine as meticulously as
possible the Spanish situation as a whole, both on the domestic as well
as the international arena, to study the position and tactics of the
CNT, the Trade Union Central representing the IWA in Spain, with regard
to the war and the Revolution.
âSuch an examination was already undertaken in November 1936; it
demonstrated that there is total and general disagreement between the
CNT and all the other affiliated trade unions of the IWA in regard to
their points of view. For, whereas the CNT considers it to be its duty
to accept the militarization of the militias, the suppression of the
free municipalities, the replacement of the Trade Union Economic Council
by a Governmental Economic Council, participation in the Barcelona and
Valencia Governments, it also agrees to grant priority to the war, and
thus situates the Revolution on a secondary level, all the other
affiliated Trade Union Central Organizations are of a totally different
opinion.
âNonetheless, in order to preserve intact the unity of our international
movement and having received assurances that the CNT will undertake the
indispensable rectification of this situation when circumstances allow,
the Plenum of the IWA declared that it âunderstoodâ, without endorsing,
the position adopted by the CNT.
âSix months have passed since that time and, unfortunately, all the
fears expressed by the Plenum of the IWA have been realized. The
suppression of the militias has placed a regular army in the hands of
the Central Government, an army that poses a constant danger to the
Revolution. The disappearance of the free municipalities returned all
the countryâs administrative machinery to the hands of the Central
Power. The liquidation of the Trade Union Economic Council has deprived
the workers organizations of their direction and control over the
economy. The CNTâs participation in Power has allowed the Valencia and
Barcelona governments to share their responsibilities with the CNT
without the latter having practically any opportunity to impose its
points of view.
âThe fact that the putsch of May 6 could take place in Barcelona, after
so many other events of the same kind had already taken place in Cerdaña
and Catalonia, demonstrates the nullity of the CNT Ministers in their
government positions.
âFor we must admit that they were completely in the dark, that
everything was prepared and executed without them knowing anything. So
what kind of anti-fascist governments are these, in which some of their
ministers are unaware of what the other ones are plotting, preparing and
executing? What kind of governments are these in which a handful of
people run everything and the others do nothing? And what is the role of
those who are kept in the dark, except that of fools and hostages,
responsible officials upon whom the conspirators pass the buck, when the
time comes, of the weight of their faults and their crimes against the
country and the Revolution?
âSuch a policy is utterly reprehensible. It is precisely what the Plenum
of the IWA declared in November 1936 to be radically false. It has ended
up causing the CNT to lose all the positions conquered in major battles,
with arms in hand.
âIt has permitted the politicians whose power was liquidated on the day
after July 19, to return to take the helm of the destiny of the country.
It has definitively compromised the triumph of the Social Revolution,
subordinating it to a war that can only benefit international capitalism
and its representatives. This policy of the CNT has allowed the Spanish
Communist Party, which was non-existent only recently, to show the claws
of its dictatorship which will do nothing but favor the restoration of
the âDemocratic Republicâ.
âIn short, this policy has ended up facilitating the greatest
revolutionary collapse in History.
âAnd it is at the very moment when all of this is confirmed, when the
corpses of the comrades of the CNT who were assassinated by the
communists, by the Valencia and Barcelona police, are still warm, that
thousands of anarchists have been imprisoned, that the press of the CNT
has been muzzled, that no one can go to Spain or leave it as they
please, that the CNT, once again offers to participate in the
Government, in this Government of capitulation presided over by NegrĂn,
the same NegrĂn who hunted them like animals (Solidaridad Obrera, June
2, 1937). It is at this very moment that the CNT bows down at the feet
of Largo Caballero, that crafty old politician, whose life is nothing
but one long betrayal; at the feet of that Largo Caballero who was,
successively, the right-hand man of Primo de Rivera, of Azaña and of
Stalin; that Largo Caballero who is the author of the laws for the
defense of the âRepublicâ, of Casas Viejas and Villa Cisneros.
âYou might think that you were dreaming as you read so many such things
in the press of the CNT, but it is unfortunately nothing but the truth.
One asks oneself just how far the aberration of the âleadersâ of the
Spanish labor federation will go.
âIt is necessary for this to come to an end. It is necessary for the
General Staff of the CNT to understand its mistake or for the workers to
make it understand.
âOne thing is for sure, in any event. Such a position has given rise to
the indignation of all the sister affiliates of the CNT, those that will
not allow themselves to be dragged into a collapse such as the CNT is
leading the Spanish Revolution.
âIt is indispensable for this to be said, that the whole world should
know it; that judgment should be passed and positions defined.
âHowever sure of themselves these leaders might beâwe will wait for a
moment, but just for one moment!âthey will not be able to uphold their
position on this terrain, in the face of all the workers of the world,
who have supported and assisted the Spanish Revolution. They must be
warned that this Revolution will be defended against them, against their
errors and against their faults.
âIt is necessary for them to understand that there are currents they
cannot resist, however strong they think they are. A great wave has
brought them to where they are, and another, even bigger wave, can drown
them and save the Revolution. It is likely, after all, that this wave
will break with the same power within as it did from without.
âIn any case, one can be sure that we shall not allow them to crush it,
without saying or doing anything in favor of the Spanish Revolution. It
is twice ours. We shall know how to defend it, and how to defend it
against all those who would betray it or abandon it.
âMore than ever: Long live the Spanish Revolution!â
(CGT-SR) [General Confederation of Labor â Revolutionary Syndicalists]
The participation of the representatives of the CNT and the FAI in the
Committee of Militias, in Barcelona, first, and then in the central
government and other government posts, errors, deviationsâbetrayals of
principle, we would call themâwhich come to mind and do not admit of any
justifications, entails, inevitably, besides the resurgence of the
authority principle in those who had rejected and combated it, the
contamination of the microbe of the bureaucracy, inherent in every state
system.
The trade union bureaucracy was among the operational modalities that
the CNT militants were familiar with, but which they scarcely practiced.
Unlike our trade union federations, which fought against and never
allowed the development of a bureaucracy, in Spain the bureaucracy made
headway, but not without a certain amount of resistance.
Thus, they had hardly even been established in their luxurious office
suites when the âministerialistsâ were besieged and surrounded by many
elements who were quite ready to cooperate, from the vantage point of
public offices, not for the triumph of the social revolution, since the
latter had already been stifled, but for the prosecution of the war and
we are sure that we are not mistaken when we claim that these people had
been the most fervent advocates of the new theory of âdirect actionâ, of
the âcollaboration imposed by the supreme and unavoidable necessity of
defeating fascismâ. And like every human being that has any education
and authoritarian sentiments, the brand new bureaucrats would behave
just like bureaucrats, as their positions required, leaving at the door
of the government buildings the disguise that they had worn for so long.
Concerning the question of how these bureaucrats behaved we can get a
vague idea from a few fragmentary concepts that appeared in
âanti-fascistâ newspapers. As we may read in Ruta, the organ of the
Libertarian Youth in Barcelona, of May 18, 1937:
âThere are some âresponsibleâ comrades who, due to the fact that they
have occupied official posts, forget their origins and purpose. We shall
remind them that in the exercise of a temporary function, they should
not renege on the principles that are the heart of our organizations. In
order to remind them we are ready to show them before they imprudently
revalorize the state.â
In support of these concepts we shall recall that SantillĂĄn, when he was
serving as Minister of the Economy in the Generalitat, felt alarmed by
the âpassion displayed in the battle for more portfolios, for more
extensive intervention in government affairsâ and what seemed âstrangeâ
to him was âthe spectacle of our comrades fighting with all the passions
of the politicians of the past to obtain high positions, to be invested
with power âŠâ as well as âthe passion with which they debated and
minutely analyzed the laws and decrees, and even engaged in the most
detailed exegesesâ.
These paragraphs will give us some idea of the grave problem posed by
the new bureaucrats who, besides representing a heavy dead weight for
the Spanish people that was shedding its blood in the struggle, was a
pernicious outcome of the âcircumstantialâ operational methods engaged
in by the cenetista and faĂsta strategists, and offered an opportunity
for a multitude of individuals who did not possess even a shred of
revolutionary commitment, to assume positions as petty little desk
jockey bosses, with all the prerogatives inherent to such an elevated
hierarchy, who, once they were entrenched in these positions, could give
free rein to their most pathological impulses and committed despicable
and unscrupulous deeds.
And what is even more lamentable, many of these elements who came from
such a backgroundâwho were quite well known in the specificist camp and
its derivativesâin order to âorientâ the achievements of the Spanish
people, found a suitable environment to exhibit their acrobatic
qualities, their temperamental interpretations and tranquilly fit right
into the machinery of the bureaucracy. And once they returned from their
experimental laboratory, with no other trophy of war than their
typewriters, they have to continue, without either hard work or glory,
sowing confusionism and justifying their actions to their hierarchical
superiors, since for them the hustle and bustle and the cruelty of life
in the trenches and the clamor of combat were only rumors, painful and
sad, which reached them by indirect routes.
If we were to take account of the abundant rhetoric emitted in the
propaganda written by the CNT and the FAI, in order to keep the foreign
countries in a state of expectant nervousness and impressionism, it
would be very hard for us to discover the tactical reasons that led our
Spanish comrades to shape this rhetoric in accordance with the raw
reality, which deranged their eyesight. Because it is reasonable to
assume that the authors of this propaganda expected it to be read with
eagerness, and that it would then be analyzed and compared with the
facts.
It is true enough that they exercised their rhetorical skills not in
order to conceal their betrayals of their principles, even though they
taxed their ingenuity to find arguments to justify their actions. But it
is inconceivable that they could have striven to distort their phrases
and their concepts to avoid posing the fundamental problem: the
rejection of anarchist principles and tactics of struggle that they had
propagated and practiced up until then.
âWe could have gone it alone, imposed our absolute dictatorship,
declared the Generalitat to be abolished and instituted, in its place,
the real power of the people; but we did not believe in dictatorship
when it was exercised against us, nor can we desire it when we can
ourselves exercise it to the detriment of othersâ, says SantillĂĄn in his
book, The Revolution and the War in Spain. âThe CNT and the FAI decided
in favor of collaboration and democracy by renouncing the revolutionary
totalitarianism that would have led to the strangulation of the
Revolution by a confederal and anarchist dictatorshipâ, GarcĂa Oliver
says in one of his articles.
And if this is how these men justified their actions, with the support
of many others we could name, why did they insist on using, in so many
communiqués, newspaper articles and radical speeches, the phrase,
âsocial revolutionâ? The social revolution had been suppressed by these
very same men; indeed, it had been terminated a few days after July 19.
The honest and sensible response was reflected in the slogan: âFirst the
war; then ⊠the revolutionâ. The latter should be categorized as bait.
If, in the heat of combat; in the spirited assaults led by the
anarchists, together with the people, against the military rebels; if in
these battles no one considered or sought to completely destroy the very
foundations of capitalist societyâto do away with the State; and these
same âchampionsâ of the social revolution acted, during these events, as
âthugsâ, upholding and defending the âhighâ governmental
authoritiesâCompanys and Largo Caballeroâit was logically, the civil war
that had been unleashed. And thus they should have declared this to be
so, tacitly, burying, as they had buried anarchist communism, all the
terms that signified a deception of the workers.
Because it must be acknowledged, now that they are not in their cabinet
offices, in their government departments, in the hustle and bustle of
their desk jobs, that they had lived by daily contradicting themselves.
It is true, however, that not all the âresponsibleâ officials
demonstrated their reluctance to engage in rational arguments and
explanations.
In issue no. 224 of the Information Bulletin of the CNT and FAI, we read
the following editorial statement:
âWe have, in our collaboration, torn our ideological conception to
shreds, we have performed the highest sacrifice, by leaving part of our
ideology behind us in our trade union offices.â So why did they become
so angry and respond with so many obfuscations, when many of us
criticized them for having betrayed their doctrines?
Not even the second part of the slogan, âFirst the war; then the
revolutionâ, conformed with reality. Because the documents that recount
the history of the events prove that we can harbor no illusions that the
cenetistas and faĂstas would have carried out the revolution after the
end of the civil war.
They had been âimpartialâ with regard to the Generalitat. They let the
fighters die at the Aragon front and other fronts without weapons
because these militiamen rejected the Stateâthe central government of
Largo Caballero. These same confederal leaders had allowed the
replacement of the militias by a single unified military force. The
confederal divisions were merged with international brigades, composed
almost exclusively of Marxist elements. The latter advocated and
succeeded in obtaining the establishment of rigid discipline and unified
military command. The anarchists were expelled from the Council of
Defense of Aragon. They were shot throughout âloyalistâ Spain and in the
streets of Barcelona this crime became the norm. The people were
deprived of arms; the cenetistas themselves recommended harsh penalties
for those who concealed weapons. The army was Bolshevized in all its
branches. The prisons were full of âuncontrollableâ anarchists, who were
accused of being spies or of belonging to the âfifth columnâ; but this
entire panorama of setbacks and denials was pursued with the refrain:
âFirst the war; then the revolutionâ.
It cannot be assumed that these geniuses of anti-fascist thought were
the victims of their own ingenuousness. If we cannot make this
assumption, it is because there is copious proof of the enormous
attraction that bureaucratic posts and so many other prerogatives of
bourgeois society exercised on certain minds, we believe that the
intoxication with comfortable jobs in offices was the cause of so much
foolish chatter, so many sophisms, so many contradictions and such grave
betrayals that we had to endure and attest to, that were committed by
the âresponsibleâ leaders of the CNT and the FAI.
âArms to the front!â âGold for the war!â âUnity and discipline!â
âUnified Command!â âWin the war to be free!â And ⊠why go on? They
shredded themselves with slogans.
And if these same individualsâthe direct authors of the powerful
resurgence of the authoritarian systemâfrom within, since they had
proceeded to reinforce the State, âfaced with the overwhelming necessity
of directly intervening in the direction of the war, of politics and of
the economy, with the object of preventing the continuous sabotage waged
against the CNT, the collectives and the militia columns by the central
government âŠâ demonstrated the predominance and power of the Bolsheviks
in every facet of military affairs and politics; if the âchekaâ,
organized by the communists, assassinated and imprisoned many
anarchists; if, day after day, the CNT lost positions and influence; why
did the members of the CNT and the FAI remain in their posts as
ministers and government bureaucrats, or continue to seek appointment to
these posts? Had they become accustomed to this environment?
The documents we interspersed throughout the previous chapters prove,
profusely, that the claims that the âministerialsâ offeredâonce the
civil war was over, with the victory of the âanti-fascistsââimplied that
they would reinforce the state with âvery progressiveâ and wonderful
initiatives and with the creation of new government departments, led and
controlled by the cenetistas, in order to thereby prepare, from above,
for the next revolutionâŠ.
Perhaps the following biographical sketch of one of the most outstanding
representatives of the CNT, responsible for and advocate of all the
mistakes, deviations and betrayals recounted in this same book, will be
interpreted as irreverent. We are referring to Diego Abad de SantillĂĄn.
We shall not deny that he is an excellent writer and we may also say in
his favor that, besides his intellectual training, he is physically
quite photogenic; but all his beautiful qualities do not obviate the
disappointing impression that his life as an anarchist militant has made
on us, a life that is so full of capriciousness, and his sociological
production that is plagued with disturbing contradictions.
It would seem that he possesses a mind that is very susceptible to
suggestion; adaptable to the influences of the environment, the climate
and the men with whom he associates; shaped by an exaggerated
impressionism that makes him lose control over his reflective faculties,
to the point where he denies today what he asserted yesterday, and to
once again say tomorrow what he denied yesterday.
Back in 1925, SantillĂĄn co-wroteâtogether with Emilio LĂłpez Arangoâthe
book, Anarchism in the Workers Movement, in which, relating the history
of the social struggles that took place in Argentina, he valiantly
attacks the Marxist sectors and the opportunist elements that brandished
the banner of âinnovationsâ and âunited frontsâ. Even though SantillĂĄn
was only the co-author of the book, this does not make the concepts set
forth in the book any less his responsibility. In this book, on page
179, SantillĂĄn, combating neutralism and amorphous syndicalism in the
working class organizations, proclaims:
âAre we anarchists or not? If we are, we must be anarchists all the
time, and everywhere; if we are not, it would be wrong of us to
simulate, on certain festival days or among certain drinking companions,
ideas and sentiments that we do not really uphold.
âWe are told that the trade union is for the wage workers who want to
fight against capitalism. Another trite expression! There is the Russian
example of the first order, to demonstrate to those who do not want to
be blind, that capitalism is less fundamental as an enemy than statism,
than the principle of authority. The Russian Revolution destroyed the
old capitalist forms, it plunged private capital into ruin, but it left
the state machine standing and the capitalism that had been thrown out
the window returned two years later, by the door, along with the honors
and obeisance of its alleged enemies of the past, welcomed as the savior
of the country. It is not enough to be an enemy of capitalism to be a
revolutionary, especially after the experience of the Russian
Revolution. And those who exert themselves to suggest to the working
class masses that their main enemy is capitalism are simultaneously
striving to divert the proletariat form its instinctive war against the
State. Furthermore, our everyday struggles do not just cause us to
confront capitalism only once, as if we did not have to reckon with the
host: the intervention of the State in the form of the police, the
soldier, the judge, etc. The interests of the State, even in the
countries that claim to be ruled by âworkersâ governments, are
identified with those of capitalism. Everyone knows this. And all we
need now is for some sophists to come along, and in the name of
syndicalism separate the two things and organize the workers for the
struggle against capitalism, leaving the state, its institutions and the
ideas upon which it is based intact, in praise of an alleged class unity
that is shattered when the anarchists, enemies of the principle of
authority, attack the state and statism.â
Because of the outrageous assassination of comrade LĂłpez Arango, who
during his time was the most faithful interpreter of the finalist
conception of anarchist communism among the trade union organizations
and a valiant defender of the FORA, SantillĂĄn was able to take control
of the anarchist daily newspaper La Protesta and immediately
demonstrated a sudden change in his appreciation of social reality. In
the weekly supplement that he edited, this newspaper, for the most part,
published articles by writers who rejected the polemical and positive
work done by Arango in the columns of this publication for so many
years.
In Argentina, Uriburu staged his military coup. SantillĂĄn became an
enthusiastic propagandist in favor of an alliance between the radical
syndicalists, the Marxist political parties and the specificist
anarchist groups, with the FORA.
In 1932 SantillĂĄn published the pamphlet, The Bankruptcy of the Economic
and Political System of Capitalism, from which we transcribe the
following paragraphs:
âParaphrasing Proudhon and Bakunin we say that any authority principle,
in any form, is incompatible with the dignity and liberty of man and it
is necessary to choose: either the continuation of political authority,
of notions and laws that are above man, and thus the slavery, indignity
and degradation of the individual, or else liberty, dignity, human
affirmation and consequently the suppression in the minds of the people
of all political, divine, economic or moral fantasies that are placed
above man.
âAll political and economic class regimes, all tyrannies are always
based on the annihilation of man.
â⊠we must replace the domination of man by the administration of
things; we must undertake to make the governmental State disappear, the
supreme expression in our time of the authority of man over man, the
most powerful instrument of slavery of the peoples for their fleecing by
a privileged minority. As long as the governmental state exists there
will be rich and poor, masters and slaves, oppressors and oppressed, and
as long as this inequality reigns there can be no peace, solidarity or
agreement among men.
âWithout the suppression of the State and generally of every principle
of politically organized and imposed authority, there will be privileged
and dispossessed, because a government cannot be conceived except as the
expression of the defense of the privileges of a particular category of
men against the demands of the others.â
As a result of some measures taken by the Uriburista police, which
promised retribution against those who used violent language in order to
appear to be revolutionaries, SantillĂĄn had to make his escape to
Montevideo and here we see him in the café circles among the exiled
politicians.
The president of Uruguay, Terra, declared himself to be dictator and
discharged the Blancos, Battlistas, and Colorados from their government
posts. SantillĂĄn insinuated himself into the social circles of those who
passed themselves off as the âoppositionâ and in a shameful amalgam of
Blancos, Battlistas, socialists, Bolsheviks and anarcho-dictatorialists
created the âCommittee for Agitation Against the Dictatorshipsâ,
attempting to drag the FORU onto this confused terrain, which gave it a
reason to openly distance itself from the anarchists of Uruguay.
After his âbrilliantâ activity in Montevideo and after his display of
alliancist conceptsâcompletely at odds with the ideas he advocated in
his writingsâhe made his exit, âhappy and confidentâ, from this
environment, in which it was no longer possible for him to propagandize
successfully on behalf of his ânovelâ âcircumstantialâ theory.
A short time later he made his triumphant appearance on the Iberian
Peninsula. And you can imagine how a man of such intellectual prestige
and such a background of experience in his dealings with the
âdemocraticâ politicians would have been given the welcome he deserved
by the Spanish workers, giving him the chance to test his sociological
âdiscoveriesâ. The environment should have been propitious for him.
He arrived in Spain on July 19, 1936. The military revolt led by Franco
had just broken out.
SantillĂĄn made his dramatic entryâarmed and with an escortâat the palace
of the Generalitat, in order to have an interview with President
Companys, a âsincere democratâ, and at this moment he placed the
official seal of the CNT on the âfirstâ betrayal.
Of his activities, of his flashy ideas and his conduct with regard to
the choices posed by the civil war, we have already provided some
details in the passages transcribed in this book from the report
presented by comrade Besnard to the Extraordinary Congress of the IWA,
and in other chapters.
And in Tiempos Nuevos, a magazine published in Barcelona, in June 1937,
SantillĂĄn, in the article entitled, âAnarchists in the Government or
Governmental Anarchists?â, he ardently bangs on the drum of his apostasy
in order to offer us this discordant musical score:
âRegardless of the correlation and the dependence; regardless of the
harmony that must always reign between what one says and what one does,
between oneâs ideas and the facts recited in their support, between
doctrines and the practical conduct of those who uphold those doctrines,
they do not always go hand in hand, together, general principles, which
are the essence, with the tactical means, which depend on circumstances
and are influenced by them.
âPrinciples, the ideal, are like the compass that guides oneâs steps
towards the goal. They are the straight line traced in our abstractions.
Tactics are the application of these principles, of that course, to the
twisting and changing contingencies and obstacles of the road. If often
happens that it is not the straight line that leads us as rapidly as
possible and most surely to our goal; sometimes one gets there first by
way of zigzags. Sometimes it even happens that one gets there faster by
retracing oneâs steps.
âIn all of this what is important is not to lose sight, even when the
attainment of our ideal becomes less likely for the time being, of the
true north indicated by the compass of our reason for existence. But a
thousand roads lead to Rome and the choice of the best one depends on a
multitude of circumstances and factors of the precise moment when the
choice is made.â
This theory is a faithful copy of the Bolshevik slogan: âAny means is
good, as long as it leads to the end.â And the end that is proposed by
the obsequious servants of Stalin is the State.
The most felicitous aspect of this Santillanist inconsistency is the
fact that, in order to make his pompous litany seem less arrogant, he
claims that to get to Romeâto the Ministry of the Economyâhe had to âset
aside certain scruplesâ, as if he had not already abandoned these
scruples a long time before, with his adventures among the politicians
of our little part of the world.
But that is not all. The worst is yet to come.
Almost at the end of the tragedy experienced by the Spanish people,
SantillĂĄn published his retrospective book, The Revolution and the War
in Spain, in which, while describing the most important events of the
civil war and a lot of quite ignominious backroom goings-on, he asks
himself whether all the betrayals of principles that he endorsed and
implemented with the other leaders of the CNT were beneficial or
detrimental, and he concludes each chapter with a whining commentary
about the insincerity demonstrated by the politicians in the
âanti-fascistâ bloc!
And it is thanks to this book that we have become acquainted with the
last âdiscoveriesâ made by SantillĂĄn. He understands that the social
revolution is a âdictatorship to the detriment of othersâ and for that
reason he preferred to accept the dictatorship of the politicians. Of
course, if he acted as an anarchist, he would not have had the
satisfaction of sitting in a soft easy chair at the Ministry of the
Economy.
He furthermore discovered that the petty bourgeoisie âmust not be
deprived of that minimum of comfort and security of life to which they
have become accustomed ⊠as an essential condition of any victoryâ.
Poor SantillĂĄn! He wasted so many years of his life as a propagandist
for methods of struggle and ideas of a better social way of life for
humanity and suddenly the scales fell from his eyes, and he beheld the
crude reality: the beautiful awakening, the heroic deeds of the Spanish
people, their overwhelming victory, all to understand that the social
revolution that he witnessed was âa dictatorshipâ to the detriment of
the bourgeoisie and the authoritarians.
This brings us back to the acrobatics of a ârevolutionaryâ poet who was
active in our circles in 1906: Ăngel Falco. Having revealed that his
colleague Santos Chocano had performed as a clown for the royal palaces
of Europe, he dedicated the famous sonnet âFrom Fighter to Courtierâ to
Chocano. A short time later, Ăngel Falco accepted a position in the
diplomatic corps and did not write any more revolutionary verses.
SantillĂĄn, on the other hand, in his retrospective workâplagued by
sophistry, inconsistencies and denialsâseems to clench his fist and,
striking himself in his chest, like the catechumens, reciting âMea
culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpaâ.[7]
Despite the appeals for sanity, sense and rectification of their conduct
that were directed from every corner of the world at the cenetistas and
faĂstas, the latter remained unperturbed, implementing their new
doctrines and operational methods and exercising great care not to hurt
âthe feelings of their âanti-fascistâ alliesâ. The term âsocial
revolutionâ was expunged from the Spanish vocabulary. It was replaced by
the phrase âwe must win the warâ, a phrase that was very flattering to
the Marxist politicians, while they publicly declared that they were
fighting for a democratic republic.
In the meantime, there was a hand, invisible only to those who suffered
from an equally âcircumstantialâ myopia, that pulled the strings of the
plan that was hatched by the central government of Largo Caballeroâin
connivance with the diplomacy of the âdemocraticâ nationsâwhose purpose
was to completely eliminate the now greatly diminished influence of the
anarchists in Catalonia and Aragon. The same plan that was later carried
out by NegrĂn, Prieto, etc.
One month before the events that we shall describe below, the
Generalitat had undergone a government âcrisisâ, which was âresolvedâ by
the âdemocratâ Companys in a most capricious wayâaccording to
Souchyâbecause he was seeking to reduce the number of CNT âministersâ.
Since these CNT ministers, however, demonstrated their complacency and a
great capacity for patience, âin order not to break the anti-fascist
front, they also swallowed this bitter pillâ (Souchy).
At the end of April 1937, Antonio MartĂn, an anarchist militant from
PuigcerdĂĄ, along with several of his comrades in that locality, were
assassinated.
The CNT, however, made overtures towards the UGT regarding a joint
celebration of May Day by the two trade union centrals, but its
âunionistâ proposals did not meet with success.
During the first few days of May, comrade Camillo Berneriâalong with his
comrade Giovanni Barbieriâwas found dead, who, already in November 1936,
had engaged in a violent critique of the deviations whose existence he
had confirmed, and said âthat it was a matter for regret, that a certain
process of Bolshevization was underway within the CNTâ and in the
newspaper Guerra di Classe, during the same month, he published a
prophetic article, from which we shall reproduce a few paragraphs full
of evidence that is relevant for our time and for all those who observe
things with the eyes of reality and not with the smoke-tinted lenses of
âspecial circumstancesâ. Berneri said:
âThe republicans, the socialist leadership and the communists are now
united on the âconstitutionalistâ basis. The Executive Committee of the
Spanish Communist Party declared recently that in todayâs struggle, it
called for the defense of democracy and of private property. This is
beginning to smell like Noske. Were Madrid not in flames we would be
forced to think of Kronstadt. But the policy of Madrid will be
victorious. It will not arm or finance revolutionary Catalonia.
âPerhaps this was done only as a message to the USSR that it should send
arms and cadres for the purpose of controlling the revolutionary
struggle and stopping the development of the social revolution, forcing
it into the channel of the armed struggle against fascism? The
blackmail: Madrid or Franco, this is what has paralyzed Spanish
anarchism. Today Barcelona is between Burgos, Rome, Berlin, Madrid and
Moscow. A siege.
âBlack clouds are gathering on the horizon; the haze blinds us.
âWe concentrate our gaze and hold the rudder in a grip of steel. We are
on the high seas and there is a storm. But we know how to perform
miracles. Between the Prussians and Versailles, the Commune set alight a
beacon that illuminated the entire world.
âBetween Burgos and Madrid, lies Barcelona.
âKeep that in mind, Gaudets of Moscow.â[8]
(C. Berneri)
Berneri had signed his own death sentence, which was to be carried out
by the mercenaries working under the orders of the âanti-fascist frontâ,
or more accurately, the emissaries of Stalin.
In order to find out what took place during the May Days and during the
subsequent period in Barcelona, there is no better place to look than
the archives of the CNT and the FAI. We shall read some fragments from
the long report published in the âInformation Bulletinâ of the CNT and
FAI, which we obtained from an issue of Solidaridad of Montevideo
published during the civil war, along with commentary by the editors of
the latter newspaper, in which the editors accurately outline an
explanation of the causes that led to the events of May:
âWe shall take from the âInformation Bulletinâ of the CNT and FAI, of
Barcelona, the communiqué dated May 17, published by the National
Committee of the CNT, relating an account of the events in Catalonia and
their causes. We think this report is interesting because it is the
official statement of the National Committee of the CNT, which provides
the comrades with evidence upon the basis of which they can interpret
the meaning of the events and understand the motives that guided those
who did everything in their power to provoke them.
âWe must, however, emphasize once again, that they are the natural
consequence of that âalliancistâ tendency that sometimes arises in our
movement, enticed by the illusion of numerical growth, without
understanding that from the moment that we make an alliance with an
enemy, we no longer treat him as an enemy, and consequently the workers
who are members of an institution that we are fighting and who have
begun to feel the effect of our preaching, instead of abandoning that
institution because they feel a sense of brotherhood with our
principles, once again feel at peace with their consciences, because our
action has valorized the enemy institution to which they belong, and
much worse, from the moment that, inevitably and by virtue of this
alliance, we no longer say that that institution is bad, they are the
ones who will make sure that we are silent, to preserve UNITY.
âThis is more or less what has happened to our Spanish comrades, with
their alliance in an âanti-fascist frontâ, with the worse, and
unjustifiable aggravating factor of their intervention in the
institutions of the government.
âTHE REPORT OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE:
âEsteemed comrades: the events that have taken place in the Catalonian
region oblige us to provide to the organization a report on the events,
and most especially, concerning the way those who compose this National
Committee have intervened in these events.
âOn Monday we heard the news that something serious had taken place in
Barcelona. We did not decide to intervene, because for several days
abnormal conditions had prevailed there, and we were convinced that it
would not be easy to act in such a way that our intervention would bring
the events to a halt. Aware of the fact that the Organization in
Catalonia was undergoing a stage of experimentation, which consisted in
applying under existing circumstances the same methods that confer life
and consistency to the CNT, without the comrades recalling that today,
in a plan of government interventionism and obligatory collaboration,
these methods require a change, one that coincides with the change from
opposition to intervention. On the other hand, the political adversary
acted in a provocative manner, for the obstinately pursued purpose of
making the Confederal Organization return to its old street fighting
ways. The process was a long one, and we could have intervened but we
saw that our efforts were useless, since the discussions at the plenums
and meetings framed the question in an INOPPORTUNE MANNER.
âOn Tuesday, the 4^(th), the comrades who participated in the Valencia
Government were summoned by the President of the Government, who
informed them that the situation in Barcelona was serious, that decisive
intervention was required, in order to bring a halt to the civil war
that had broken out with such great violence. Largo Caballero explained
that the Councilor of Internal Security of Catalonia had sent a request
to the Minister representing the Central Government for the urgent
dispatch of 1,500 assault guards, a force that was indispensable to
suppress the movement. The Government could not do this because this
would mean sending forces to operate at the service of elements that may
have had something to do with provoking the conflict. Rather than
agreeing to send the assault guards, he proceeded to institute an
emergency draft of the Services of Public Order, as stipulated in the
Constitution. It was necessary for the National Committees of the CNT
and the UGT to immediately proceed to Barcelona in order to attempt to
persuade the fighters to disarm, with assurances that, afterwards, the
causes of the events would be discussed and solutions would be sought.
The National Committee met and decided to go to Barcelona in order to
fulfill its primary mission of bringing about a cease-fire, in order to
prevent the emergency draft of the Services of Public Order by the
Central Government and to carry out as much damage control as possible,
to mitigate the disaster the civil war that had broken out implied with
regard to international and domestic affairs.
âWe appointed comrades Juan GarcĂa Oliver and Mariano VĂĄzquez, directing
them to proceed to Barcelona. On behalf of the Executive Committee of
the UGT, comrades Hernåndez Zancajo and Muñoz were appointed. The
journey was made by airplane.
â⊠The constant PROVOCATIONS had led to the clashes in the streets. The
last provocation was the dispatch of public forces to the Telephone
Building, in order to seize it and thus strike a blow at the UGT-CNT
Control Committee. At the most recent meeting of the Council of the
Generalitat, everyone agreed in acknowledging that Ayguadé had exceeded
his authority as the commander of the public forces. But no one wanted
to accept responsibility for replacing or punishing the responsible
parties, Ayguadé and Rodriguez Salas.
âAt the Generalitat a meeting was convened that was attended by
representatives of all sectors. Once this meeting had begun, we
immediately proposed, as the first issue on the agenda, the benefits
that would come from the representatives of the organizations
broadcasting via radio an address calling for a cease-fire. It was
necessary to gain time, to prevent more victims. And foreseeing that the
discussion could be a long one, we cut our presentation short, and also
made it clear to the attendees that all of us were united and ready to
find a solution to the very serious problem posed in the streets. Our
proposal was accepted by the other representatives. The meeting was
adjourned. We spoke over the radio. And we met once again. After a
comprehensive debate, we proposed the formula that a Provisional Council
should be constituted, with four representatives, to which no individual
who had participated in previous Councils would be admittedâŠ. This
Council would have a provisional character and would be presided over by
Companys. Its mission would last 10 to 15 days, during which time the
organizations would engage in discussions of their points of view and
elaborate action programs that would oblige each organization, in a
responsible way, to fulfill the terms of their action programs and not
to repeat what had been the usual case up to that time, i.e., the fact
that pacts and agreements were a dead letter. This proposal was also
accepted, after extensive debate. We defended the view that this Council
should be constituted immediately in order to make public the fact that
the conflict has been resolved, and to impose the condition that
everyone should go home. The representatives of the UGTâthe Communists
in Cataloniaâexpressed their opposition to this proposal, claiming that
it was first necessary to immediately achieve a cease-fire in the
streets; it was better, according to them, to allow some time for the
situation to normalizeâŠ. We exhausted all the arguments in defense of
our position. We thought it was necessary to gain time, in order to
prevent the Government from being obliged to draft the Services of
Public Order. But there was no way to make them understand. The Ezquerra
and the Rabassaires, although they did not participate in the debate,
supported the Commuinist position. Finally, at two in the morning, the
meeting concluded with the decision to make another speech on the radio,
emphasizing the fact that we had to make ourselves understood and that
it was necessary to bring about a total cease fire, and to normalize the
situation. The next morning Companys announced the constitution of the
new Council of the Generalitat, a provisional Council for pacification.
At the end of the meeting, we notified the Government that things were
going well. The Government had been meeting in permanent session,
addressing the problem of Catalonia and debating whether or not to issue
a Decree to draft the Services of Public Order. Comrade Federica
Montseny led the opposition for four hours against the Communists and
Republicans who advocated the drafting of the Services of Public Order
and Defense. This was a heated debate; when it came up for a vote, we
lost, the draft was ordered with the stipulation that the Government
would wait until the last possible moment to dispatch the troops. The
Council remained in session until two in the morning when we were
informed that the situation was returning to normal.
â⊠In Barcelona, early in the morning, we observed that the situation
had gotten worse. Our first radio address had an impact. But in a few
hours the fighting resumed. And at dawn on Wednesday, the situation in
Barcelona presented a very grim panorama.
â⊠We could clearly observe the concealed satisfaction with which
everyone had welcomed the decision of the Government. The news soon
reached the Generalitat that several French and English warships had
anchored in the port of Barcelona. In spite of everything we were still
trying to put out the fire.
â⊠On Wednesday night, in agreement with all the comrades who were at
the Generalitat, we decided to speak over the radio together with
Vidiella from the UGT in order to issue one last appeal making it clear
that the CNT was ready to expel from its ranks any persons who continued
to bear arms in the streets after the passage of one more hour.
âThe Federation of Trade Unions, in agreement with the Local Federation
of the UGT, drafted the order to return to work. We agreed that the
directors of the daily newspapers of the CNT and the UGT would order
that the Thursday editions of their papers would issue an appeal for
concord. Thursday dawned relatively peacefully on the streets; people
began to go about their daily business. The transport union issued the
order to return to work; but since the transit lines were not
operational, it was necessary to dispatch repair teams. These teams
departed in train cars from the repair shops, but as the morning
progressed they had to return to their shops because snipers were
shooting at them. Any trolley car that tried to depart from the stations
was shot at. The metro had to suspend operations because at some
entrances the Communist police and police from the Estat CatalĂĄ assailed
the passengers. At the checkpoints and barricades manned by the other
sectors that were members of the front arrayed against us, people were
detained and searched, and membership cards of the CNT were torn up. At
some locations, large quantities of destroyed Confederal membership
cards were found. In other places, our comrades were attacked. Our
offices were attacked. Our enemies seized strong points, taking
advantage of the truce voluntarily complied with by our comrades, who
were anxious to put an end to the fratricidal struggle. This situation
had the result that by mid-day the situation had gotten worse and the
fighting had once again become generalized. That evening, the Secretary
of the National Committee arrived at the headquarters of the Regional
Committee, where a meeting was held. We were immediately informed that
the situation had become worse than ever. The comrades were ready for
anythingâŠ.
âRegardless of how many provocations were aimed at us, and no matter
what we did, it was not possible for us to close our eyes and decide to
wage the final battleâŠ. We could not forget that a glance at the facts
proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that we would thus be playing the
enemyâs game. They wanted us to surge into the streets, they wanted
responsibility for Public Order to pass into the hands of the
Government, convinced that the latter, in the interest of prosecuting
the war, and of domestic and international necessities, would have to
crush the movement. In this way, the Central Government would fight
against us and afterwards they would appear, once the CNT had been
eliminated and if foreign intervention did not take place first, washing
their hands and masters of the situation in Catalonia, since no one
would be able to say that they were responsible for the repressionâŠ. We
understand perfectly well the tragedy of the comrades who felt they had
been driven into a corner and provoked. The fact is that they
contemplated the downfall of their friends and comrades. But ABOVE ALL
ELSE there is the need to prevent the resounding collapse of everything
that the Spanish proletariat had achieved since July 19, handing victory
to Franco on a platter, on the one hand, and playing the enemyâs game on
the otherâŠ.
âThe National Committee immediately departed, together with a
Commission, for the Generalitat, in order to contact the Government by
telephone. Upon speaking with the Minister, we explained as clearly as
possible just how serious the situation was. We denounced the attitude
of the commanders of the Service of Public Order. We pointed out that
Rodriguez Salas was still the chief of the Commissariat of Public Order,
which justified the provocations of the public forces, since they were
still under his command. We clearly suggested that the problem of
Barcelona was not a problem to be resolved with public force, but with
tact. In order to put an end to the fighting, the establishment of a
truce was indispensable. Three hours would be enough. It was of urgent
importance that during this period of time the public forces must not
intervene at all; that they must not conduct searches; that they must
not arrest anyone; that they must do absolutely nothing. Then those who
are armed can abandon the barricades, the buildings they seized and any
other places they have occupied. Galarza accepted our suggestion. It was
agreed that from six to nine in the morning on Thursday the public
forces would not interfere with anyone. And that as of that moment final
orders would be issued for a cease-fire. As for the commanders, we were
told that the next day the new officers would arrive by airplane with
written orders that would be issued ⊠so that we would be assured that
they were engaging in a plan of pacification rather than repression. As
for the Commissariat of Public Order, it was ordered that RodrĂguez
Salas should be IMMEDIATELY discharged. It was necessary, according to
Galarza, that the public forces that were coming from Valencia must be
allowed to pass unhindered to Barcelona. Their presence in Barcelona was
essential, since the guards that were on duty were a partisan, biased
force, and represented a danger for pacification. Under these conditions
we came to an agreement with the Minister of the Government. But we
specified, because it was of such importance, that the public forces
should not enter Barcelona until after nine in the morning, in order to
avoid incidents. Galarza accepted this idea and promised to see to it
that it was observed.
âWe informed the Catalonian organization of the conclusions we had
reached, ordering the comrades to be prepared to withdraw from their
positions at six in the morning.
âThe Local Federation of Trade Unions, together with the Local Committee
of the UGT, drafted another notice ordering a return to work.
Furthermore, we spoke with Arrando, in order to iron out the details
concerning the orders issued by the Minister of the Government. At the
same time we suggested, and Arrando concurred, that the control patrols,
a public force that had been placed under the orders of the Delegate of
Public Order, and which had not been involved in the events, should
leave their barracks at six in the morning in order to patrol the
streets of Barcelona, in order to prevent any incidents.
âThis was a hard blow to their calculations. The whole plan collapsed,
at the very moment we reached an agreement with the central government.
âThat morning, the comrades, having read the orders, immediately
withdrew to their homes. Long before the expiration of the three hour
truce, none of our comrades remained armed at barricades. However, the
other contending parties took advantage of every opportunity to carry
out provocations. In some cases it was difficult to contain the outrage
of the comrades who were the targets of machine gun fire, despite the
orders that were issued. This constituted yet more evidence that our
enemies did not want a truce. They sought to continue the fighting at
any price. That was their premeditated plan. But they failed because
good sense was inculcated into our comrades and they did not respond to
the provocations. In this way a serious problem was liquidated in
Barcelona.
âIn the outlying towns, the comrades allowed the forces coming from
Valencia to have free passage; in some places, however, our enemies,
always acting according to their plan of provocation and revenge, took
advantage of the withdrawal of our armed comrades as soon as the problem
of Barcelona was resolved. In other places they engaged in repression.
This was due to the fact that the commanders of the public forces acted
in the towns under the orders of the Party that had brought the war to
Barcelona, against the CNT. No provocations were enough to overcome the
sense of responsibility and the good sense that our movement exhibited.
â⊠This is the situation. Now all that is necessary is for the
Organization to engage in profound reflection on what has taken place.
It is one more experience that clearly indicates that good will is not
enough. It specifies the need for us to never situate ourselves on the
plane of playing our enemyâs game. The political situation is
increasingly more complex. Only a careful analysis, carried out by those
of us who know the complications and hidden characteristics of these
situations, can help guide us by the road that is in the interest of the
movement, to progress and victory in the war. Above all, so that we must
never proceed unconsciously to the place that we want to reach, a place
that we have to reach and which is to our benefit.
âWe restrained our impulses. And now we can attend to what really
matters.
âAnd now they are all acting like idiots; the parties have lost their
sense of direction, especially the communist party, amidst the
overwhelming failure of their maneuver. We shall orient the offensive on
the plane of good sense and an orderly explanation of the facts,
abandoning an aggressive tone and letting them all shout and cry as much
as they want. Give them enough rope. And the libertarian movement will
clear the way with its ability and great sense of objective reality.â
With carefully chosen words and without any kind of precautions, this
report of the National Committee of the CNT expresses as clearly as
possible the most absolute negation of its anarchist roots and the
suicidal proposals of surrender that the governmental cenetistas and
faĂstas cherished and continued to implement in a cowardly and
incompetent manner, going so far as not only to disavow the armed
resistance of the anarchist comrades, which was so bravely displayed on
the barricades built on the streets of Barcelona, but even, availing
themselves of the unjustified prestige and influence they had among our
comrades, undertook by means of underhanded maneuvers, to cause them to
desist from their dignified attitude and surrender themselves to the
mercy of the authoritarian bloc that, with its outrages had provoked the
indignation of the anarchists and the people of Barcelona.
â⊠the comrades were ready for anythingâŠ.â âRegardless of how many
provocations were aimed at us, and no matter what we did, it was not
possible for us to close our eyes and decide to wage the final battleâŠ.â
âWe restrained our impulses. And now we can attend to what really
matters.â This is what the âministerialistsâ have the nerve to say. âThe
barricades must be torn downâŠ. One stone for each citizen, and down with
the barricades, which are memorials to a tragic time, memories that must
disappear, that it is necessary for them to disappear as a sacrifice to
the unity and fraternity that we have to preserve, arm in armâŠ.â That is
what they broadcast over Radio CNT-FAI.
And in this way, with speeches on the radio and leaflets saturated with
words of the same kind, once again, the redemptive impulses and the just
indignation of the anarchists and a sensible part of the Spanish people
were suppressed, who, reacting most energetically against the deception
by which they had been victimized by the cenetistas and faĂstas, and
seeking to prevent their own comrades from being murdered and wanting to
resist the authoritarian arrogance of all the politicians, had poured
into the streets to risk their lives for freedom. And even more
importantly: if it were possible for us to devote more space to
recounting other unfortunate and disagreeable episodes that occurred
during this short period, we could fully expose the treasonous cancer
that had undermined the morale, the courage and the goodness of the
Spanish people. And if you have the opportunity to read the pamphlet by
the fence-sitter A. Souchy, The Tragic Week in May: The May Days,
Barcelona, 1937,[9] you will be able to appreciate just how cowardly the
behavior of the âministerialistsâ really was; how shamelessly they
concluded their adventures and flirtations with the âanti-fascistâ
politicians and to what extent they betrayed the noble cause of human
emancipation.
International opportunism was never offered such ideal opportunities
amidst the thick undergrowth of labelsâanarcho-dictators, faquistas,
syndicalists, aliancistas, âanti-fascistsâ and other âismsââthan those
that were afforded, by the handful, to the men who held positions of
responsibility in the CNT and the FAI.
And not only did they provide evidence of their obsequiousness with the
example of their activities during the entire period of the civil war in
Spain, but, with stubbornness worthy of a better cause, initiated a
radio, journalistic and telegraphic offensive with the suicidal goal of
spreading the contagion of their âcircumstantialâ operational strategies
and concepts to those environments of the international workers movement
that were yet uncontaminated by the confusionist virus and promising
their solidarity and association for those who are always ready to
imitate their capriciousness with words or a gestures.
Let us take a look at some of the concepts they transmitted, the fruit
of their circumstantial offensive:
âWe must achieve, regardless of the cost, unity of opinion in
anti-fascist struggles, and the coordination of all efforts. We must
achieve these goals, circumventing, if necessary, any number of blind,
obstinate, unconscious or criminal elements, who are opposed to these
goals and place obstacles in our path,â we are told by Federica
Montseny.
âThe former enemies of the fatherland have now become its defendersâŠ. We
accept militarization and with it we set aside, we demote to a secondary
matter, our struggle against military discipline. We have recognized the
authority of the State, temporarily suspending our old struggle against
all state institutions. We have participated in the government and we
are collaborating with it, in the tasks related to winning the war
against fascismâ, writes A. Souchy.
âWe are getting closer to reality. And we are moving away a little,
although only a little, from the venerable beardsâŠ. They have already
fulfilled their mission. We now have to fulfill ours. And if they were
to return, they would accuse us of incompetence, sectarianism,
stupidity, if we were to have remained rigidly stuck in the past,
regardless of how much circumstances have changed,â proclaimed, in his
capacity as Secretary General of the CNT, Mariano R. VĂĄzquez.
âThe CNT did not want to become separated from reality. Without
renouncing its final goals, it adapted its tactics to the demands of the
timeâ, Manuel Villar tells us.
âFor the first time in the history of the social movement, we, the
anarchists, have joined a government with all the responsibilities
inherent to that function. But this is not because we have forgotten our
fundamental postulatesâ, Diego Abad de SantillĂĄn expostulated.
âTherefore, welcome to the cenetista ministers!â, Luis Heredia told
them, in the journal La Protesta of Chile. âOur fatherland, the
fatherland of all the workers, is the patrimony that we hold in our
hands today.â âThe fatherland is in danger,â the Minister of âJusticeâ,
Juan GarcĂa Oliver said in one of his public addresses. âFortunately,
the action of the Spanish anarchists has had a profound influence on the
people of this countryâŠ. The fact that Largo Caballero has adopted a
revolutionary position by acknowledging the desires of the vast
multitudes, who are tired of, and disappointed with, parliamentarism,
and with bourgeois legality, signifies one of the greatest victories for
the position of the CNT and the FAIâ, as one of the faquistas of
Argentina put it in AcciĂłn Libertaria.
âThe anarchists have changed nothing, absolutely nothing; neither with
regard to theory nor with regard to practiceâŠ. The CNT joined the
government under the compulsion of a special situation and circumstances
created by a revolution that was not entirely in its handsâŠ.â, stated
the Uruguayan opportunists via their organ, the journal Esfuerzo.
âAnarchismânot the old masters, but contemporary anarchismâlacks a
historical vision and cultivates an abstract ideology that must always
be sterile. The solemn declamation of eternal principles which cannot be
altered at all, does not make the world changeâŠ. We have to study the
possibility of escaping, in many countries, sectarian isolationâŠ.â, H.
Rudiger blurted out.
âI have both faith and hope in the CNT and the FAI and their militants
when I say that once the war is over, Spain, despite the fact that the
confederal organization intervened in the official management of the
government, in order to save the country from the invasion of world
fascism, will continue to be the cradle of anarchism and
anarchosyndicalismâ, said Mascarell.
âWe, the anarchists, still have our representatives in this provisional
government, in order to diplomatically represent outside of Spain the
right of self-defense, of independence and freedomâŠ.â, argues Cultura
Proletaria of New York.
Many other messages and proclamations of the same or similar kind were
scattered to the four winds and the opportunists applauded loudly. And
that was not all.
The incompetent and treasonous activity of the cenetistas and faĂstas in
the various bureaucratic positions in the Spanish government caused them
to grow up; their entire âinnovativeâ, capricious, confusionist and
whimsical past was officially vindicated. They can go on with their
hobnobbing and associating, more openly, âincorporating valuable
revolutionary tacticsâ, even without the presence of the âspecial
circumstanceâ, with all the right wing or left wing politicians. In
Spain, with republicans, socialists, communists. In Argentina, with the
radicals, conservatives, etc. And here, in Uruguay, with battlistas,
blancos, frugonianos and Bolsheviks. With all those who will speak of
âdemocracyâ. To extend the âanti-fascistâ front across every ocean.
This explains the unanimity of the applause, in defense and
justification, that arose from the opportunist ranks, for the cenetistas
and the faĂstas. This was the voice of their consciousness that broke
out in joyful celebration upon confirming that one more âismâ can be
added to long list of âismsâ: âanarcho-governmentalismâ.
It was the realization of their prophetic ideas. The cracking of the old
âprinciplistâ eggshell, which opened up new horizons for the
overwhelming âunionistâ unrest.
With the reinforcement of such variegated and plentiful âcircumstantialâ
conceptions, opportunism was rejuvenated in body and soul to attempt to
carry out new incursions into the camp of the working class, in the
meantime hoping to reincorporate those who had gone to Spain and to
prove the goodness and the efficacy of their âtacticsâ and their
ideological interpretations.
Fortunately, after some initial outbreaks of confusion, the working
class and anarchist milieus have witnessed a rapid and salutary reaction
which has made it very difficult for the new tactics and new operational
methods transmitted from the Iberian Peninsula to prosper, after the
setback they experienced.
It is undeniable that the Secretariat of the International Workingmenâs
Association, the institution to which the FORU and the FORA belong,
underwent some anxious and difficult moments as it attempted to defend
the ideological orientation and the practices of struggle approved at
the IWAâs founding congress.
In the interests of fairness, we must declare that comrade Pierre
Besnard, who was the Secretary of the IWA since the period before the
war until quite recently, tried to maintain a line of conduct that
accords with the IWAâs declaration of principles and tirelessly fought
to prevent any deviations from arising and to attempt to convince the
cenetistas to rectify their treasonous governmental policies.
This statement, which actually represents a sincere eulogy for the work
of comrade Besnard in that emergency, does not mean that we agree with
his way of thinking with respect to the workers movement, since we
accept neither the term anarchosyndicalism nor the final goal that he
attributes to the trade unions.
It would be of interest to the workers to become fully acquainted with
the terribly difficult task of the Secretariat of the IWA, but since
this would mean making this text even longer than it already is, we
shall limit ourselves to describing in what may be referred to as a
summary form some of his interventions with regard to the Spanish CNT.
Most of the quotations in this section are taken from the report
presented by comrade Besnard at the Extraordinary Congress of the IWA
held in Paris in December 1937.
In his first visit to Spain he was able to observe the animosity and the
malicious intentions exhibited by the central government of Largo
Caballero towards the cenetista militia columns, going so far as to deny
them weapons for the defense of the Aragon front, which they were
responsible for defending. The Secretariat informed the responsible
officials of the CNT and the FAI of this serious anomaly and encouraged
them to attempt to obtain the necessary arms. This was why the CNT and
the FAI began negotiations with an arms dealer, but the deal fell
through and Besnard said:
âTherefore, Spain did not receive the arms it immediately needed, and
Russia supplied to the Madrid government, for cash, arms of a debatable
quality, and only a little at a time, with the promise that they would
not be distributed to the CNT columns and that the communist party would
be able to carry out its activities and expand in particularly favorable
conditions. I noted how Russian influence was gaining ground. GarcĂa
Oliver and SantillĂĄn, and especially the former, only saw everything
through the eyes of Antonov Ovseenko, the Consul General of Russia in
BarcelonaâŠ. Faced with such submission to Russia, the Secretariat of the
IWA could do nothing but return without further discussions to Paris.â
In the meantime, the CNT, âembarkingâ on the tortuous path of betrayals,
convened a Plenum of Regional Federations on October 23, 1936, and
passed the following resolutions:
â1. The appointment of a Plenum Committee, composed of the Levant, the
Center and Catalonia, to conduct an interview in Barcelona with the
President of the Republic, Azaña, in order to explain to him the need to
precipitate a government crisis so that the CNT can join the government
for the purposes and under the conditions approved at the Plenum of
Regional Federations held on September 15. This Committee must require
an answer from Azaña within 48 hours.
â2. Should the proposal be rejected, we shall take measures of a
military kind to ensure communications between Madrid, Levant, Aragon,
Andalusia and Catalonia and to control the passage of men and supplies
from these regions towards Madrid. In order to implement this resolution
the National Committee will appoint a National War Committee. By means
of this Committee, the fronts of Catalonia, Aragon, Levant and Andalusia
will be unified.
â3. The CNT must proceed to mobilize 100,000 men from its confederal
forces. This mobilization will be carried out in conjunction with the
Regional Committees and the National War Committee.
â4. Organize joint action with all our regional forces in order to
achieve control over the economy and to coordinate reserves.
â5. Expedite the negotiations that are currently underway with the
diplomatic representatives of Russia, in order to achieve the measures
necessary for the implementation of the resolutions adopted by our
Plenum.
â6. Revise any prior resolutions and intensify the public campaign in
favor of the resolutions approved at the Plenum of September 15.â
The most important resolution of September 15, mentioned in the text
quoted above, reads as follows:
âThe constitution in Madrid of a National Defense Council composed of
elements from all the political forces that are fighting fascism, in the
following proportions: five delegates from the UGT, five from the CNT
and four republicans. Presidency of the National Council: Largo
Caballero. The constitution of this National Defense Council proposes
that the current president should continue to hold office and that he
should govern the republic in the same manner as he has done up until
this date.â
It must be noted that, concerning the request made to the central
government for the formation of the National Defense Council and the
resolutions approved at the Plenum of October 23, 1936, that it was all
nothing but cheap pyrotechnics, and that none of the resolutions were
implemented, but, despite the fact that the wonderful effect that was
expected from these âfearsomeâ positions did not materialize, a little
later they entered the central government anyway, and the CNT and the
FAI explained this fact in the following terms:
âThe National Plenum of Regional Federations held in Madrid on September
28, 1936, informed of the negotiations carried out by the National
Committee in order to obtain the formation of the National Defense
Council, in view of the many obstacles encountered in these
negotiations, and faced with the imperious necessity of directly
intervening in the direction of the war, politics and the economy, for
the purpose of preventing the continuous sabotage that has been directed
against our Organization, our collectives and our militia columns, gave
an overwhelming vote of confidence to the National Committee so that,
faced with the impossibility of forming the National Defense Council as
resolved at the Plenum of this past September 15, the participation of
the CNT in the government may be obtained.â
It must be emphasized thatâwith regard to the question of the militiasâa
few days after July 19, the CNT and the FAI committed their first
obvious âblunderâ, by joining the Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias,
which soon disappeared in order to be reorganized as the Council of the
Generalitat, justifying their participation in the following manner:
âIt was considered that, in order to avoid the duplication of powers
that would be implied by the existence of both the Committee of
Anti-fascist Militias and the Government of the Generalitat, the former
would have to disappear and that the Council of the Generalitat of
Catalonia must be formed, carrying out more positive activities, without
the impediments of a clash of powers and in order nullify the pretext of
the democracies that they will not help us because the anarchists are in
control.â
The Secretariat criticized this doubletalk and said in his report that:
âThe Spanish comrades of the CNT became very angry, and would accept
neither advice nor criticism from anyone.â
Alarmed by the direction that the dreadful conduct of the CNT was
taking, the Secretariat convoked a Plenum of the member organizations of
the IWA, which was held from September 15 to 17, 1936.
The resolution adopted at this meeting, with respect to the deviations
of the CNT, was quite frivolous and confused, indicating, at this stage
of the events, the influence of the cenetistas in the IWA.
Later in his report, comrade Besnard continued as follows:
âDespite the assurance displayed by the CNT delegation and the
confidence manifested by the vote of the conciliatory resolution adopted
by the Plenum, the Spanish Confederation did not modify its line of
conduct at all. To the contrary, its policy of conciliation and
collaboration with the government became a little more accentuated with
each passing day. I had an opportunity to become acquainted with the
fact that the retreat from revolutionary positions had been considerably
accelerated. During the course of my visit to Spain, which lasted 26
days, I traveled through Catalonia, Cerdaña and Aragon.
âEverywhere I noted that the action of the masses on the economic and
social terrain tended to maintain and develop the revolutionary
conquests, despite the increasingly more dangerous concessions made to
the political parties in order to preserve intact an anti-fascist front
that was never anything but a ruse ⊠whose victim was the CNT. It was
clear that despite the fact that the CNT was represented in the
governments of Valencia and Barcelona, it was losing influence and this
had an immediate impact on the political plane.
âAt that time, the foreign comrades were already, in December 1936,
being persecuted and arrested, and Ovseenko was imposing his
censorship.â
In June 1937, another Plenum of the member organizations of the IWA was
held, whose essential resolution was the following:
âThat the conduct of the revolutionary war, as well as the
implementation of social policies, are tending to be carried out without
any direct participation of the CNT as well as without any indirect
intelligence in conjunction with the governments of Valencia and
Barcelona, and that it will be necessary for the CNT to abandon all
concessions of a political, economic or doctrinal kind made to these
governments that were made in order to preserve intact an alleged
anti-fascist front composed of sectors that are working for the class
enemy to liquidate the war and crush the revolution. It is considered
that the official withdrawal of the CNT from the anti-fascist front is
becoming more and more imperative, but that it should nonetheless
reserve the right to accept or initiate circumstantial agreements with
truly anti-fascist elements of that front, which want the war to be
ended by an emancipatory revolution of the Spanish proletariat, a
revolution directed against fascism and also against the so-called
republican democracy.â [10]
Another resolution of fundamental importance was approved at this
Plenum, which called for the containment of the ârevolutionary
Leninistsâ, the same ones who brought us Kronstadt and the Ukraine, who
by this time were flirting with elements of the CNT. The resolution
reads as follows:
âThat the opposition of the revolutionary proletariat of all countries,
united within the IWA, to Marxism in all its forms, should be as firm as
before, in view of the fact that social democracy, as well as the
dictatorial Bolshevism of the school of Stalin or Trotsky, with all
their ramifications and subdivisions, whether the PSUC or the POUM, are
equally harmful and dangerous for the realization of the revolution.â
These resolutions would exacerbate yet more the differences and disputes
between the IWA and the CNT, which were further aggravated when the CNT
was informed of the resolution of the Plenum with respect to the
International Solidarity Fund of the IWA, which earmarked 80% of its
proceeds for support for the Spanish Revolution and 20% to assist the
comrades in other countries.
The CNT did not accept this perspective and, now in open rebellion and
breaking with the organic rules and solidarity agreements of the
International, founded another institution with goals that appeared to
be similar to those of the International Solidarity Fund, but one that
was independent of the IWA, or, which amounts to the same thing, one
that was not under the authority of the international institutionâŠ. It
was heterogeneous, since it was run by individual âpersonalitiesâ and
specific committees and institutions, some of which acted to sabotage
the regional workers federations that were members of our International.
But rather than attempt to explain this ourselves, it is better to let
the following letter speak for itself:
âValencia, July 3, 1937.
âTo the Secretariat of the IWA, Paris.
âEsteemed comrades:
âIn response to your letters dated June 15 and 17, I am conveying the
following accords which, as you will be able to see, do not emanate from
this Committee, but from our entire Organization. During the course of
the National Plenum of Regional Federations held on April 15 and the
following days, it was resolved that there was a need to create an
institution to compete with International Red Aid, which is nothing but
a vehicle not only for funds subsequently utilized by the communist
party for its own propaganda, but also a method of recruitment, of
proselytism and propaganda.
âIt was stipulated that this institution should not have a partisan and
closed nature, but that it would have to have as much room for maneuver
as possible, that it should contain some prestigious national and
international figures, it being understood that it must always be
oriented by the libertarian movement. In short, this was the genesis of
âInternational Anti-fascist Solidarityâ (IAS). You will therefore
understand that the IAS cannot be a part of the IWA, in order not to cut
off the immense possibilities for expansion that are open to it. You
will have to admit that the CNT is recognized in places where no one has
ever heard of the IWA. And this will be even more true of the IAS since
the latter is, or at least will appear to be, an institution outside of
any working class party or organization, displaying the character of an
organization for anti-fascist solidarity.
âAs a result, we must inform you that we cannot accept the agreement of
the Plenum of the IWA. We shall therefore pursue, with the IAS and its
General Committee based in Spain, the creation of sections in every
country, and in order to do this we will rely on individual comrades
rather than on organizations, since this is the only way to carry out a
serious project of this kind and to achieve the sought-after objective.
Nor do we doubt that it will also be a field that is open to our
propaganda and a means for us to create certain favorable positions
among certain sectors of the proletariat that could be of benefit to the
IWA in its further development.
âIt is very important to point out that the IAS will have the duty of
assisting the refugee comrades and others; this is the purpose of the
IAS and solidarity of this kind requires substantial funds. This is why
we consider that the IWA should not undermine our decision but quite the
contrary: the IWA has the obligation to request that its member
federations support the progress of the IAS on the one hand and also
assist in its creation.
âThis is, in our view, what must be done. Beyond all of this, when the
IWA needs funds, it will have to come to us, and depending on its
possibilities we shall contribute the necessary funds.
âTo summarize: it is essential that the funds in the control of the
Secretariat of the IWA that are earmarked for the CNT and the FAI should
be sent to our comrade Nemesio Galve, our delegate in Paris. That is all
for now.
âWith fraternal greetings, On behalf of the National Committee of the
CNT,
âMARIANO VĂZQUEZ, secretary.â
The IAS central committee was legally registered, and its statutes were
approved and signed by the governor of Valencia. As for how this
institution operated in Spain, and still does in other countries, we can
offer few comments. We shall only say that the Uruguayan Section, acting
strictly in accordance with Article 2 of its statutesââIn the pursuit of
the aforementioned objectives, the IAS will carry out its activity on
the purest terrain of human solidarity, renouncing all political and
religious interferenceââpossessed, in June 1938, a General Council
composed of conceited intellectuals who were active in the blanco and
colorado parties, various socialists and an assortment of many other
elements of variable or colorless affiliations.
Furthermore, a few months ago a fundraiser organized by the
IAS-Uruguayan Section was held in Montevideo, and we could observe, as
if it was the result of some kind of oversight, that in the vicinity of
the building where the fundraiser was held there were two long lines of
parked automobiles. They were not âproletarianâ automobiles. We will let
the readers draw their own conclusions from this observation.
And, to top it all off, and to demonstrate the arrogance and the real
intentions of the CNT, read the following communiqué from the CNT that
signals its complete separation from the IWA and exposes its attempt to
divert the funds earmarked for the International in order to seize them
for its own purposes:
âWe are advising all the organizations, committees, social centers,
cultural societies and individuals in foreign countries who want to help
the anarchosyndicalist movement that they must not send any more funds
to the address of A.G. in Paris, as they have done up until now. The
funds sent to that address are not remitted to the CNT. We request that,
until further notice, you send funds to the following address: N. Galve,
30 Rue St. Augustine, Paris.â (From the Information Bulletin of the CNT,
dated August 13.)
This incident was followed by a campaign of slander and intrigue
directed against the Secretariat, and when the latter asked for an
explanation he was answered with silence.
With regard to the serious and shameful events of May 1937 in Barcelona,
Besnard said:
âThe events in Barcelona, the rise to power of the NegrĂn government,
the agent of Anglo-French, and consequently Russian, will, entailed a
radical change in the attitude towards the confederal masses, the
militants of the CNT-FAI and the foreigners. The predominance of the
central power in Catalonia caused one to note the extreme degree to
which all security was abolished for our comrades, especially those who
had come from other countries to help the Spanish revolution. It could
soon be observed that the NegrĂn government was acting completely under
the orders of the communists and their elements were taking control,
quietly but surely, of all the leading positions of the State: police,
army, public administration. The police of the Cheka carried out its
investigations of our comrades, alongside the Spanish police who were
only there in order to preserve appearances. In a few weeks, 60
militants of the CNT disappeared, 2,000 were arrested and hundreds of
foreigners were imprisoned or expelled from Spain.
âThe expulsion of the Italian comrades from Barcelona was carried out
with the collaboration of the Argentine consul, who was responsible for
the defense of the interests of the fascist governments of Rome and
Berlin. This consul had the audacity to recommend to Italian and German
anti-fascists that they should present themselves to his colleagues, the
representatives of Hitler and Mussolini in France, so that they could be
repatriated to their countries of origin.
âTo me it seems impossible to go any lower than the NegrĂn government.â
(Paris, July 19, 1937.)
Immediately afterwards he sent a note to the member organizations of the
IWA, informing them of these events and attaching a copy of a letter
from various prisoners, advising that the organizations request that the
CNT should resolve the situation. The prisoners said:
âValencia, January 21, 1937 [sic: this should read June 21, 1937].
âEsteemed H.
âI am writing to you in the name of seven comrades who have been
illegally imprisoned in the Convent of Saint UrsulaâŠ. Here, in the
dungeon, are H.K., E.I., F.H., H.L., M. and G., all in the same cell. L.
and G. are currently being held in the provincial hospital of Valencia.
H. is very ill. I have pneumonia. The jail is very filthy and unhealthy.
We need soap, towels, and clothing and they will not give us our money.
They have refused to allow us to contact our organization (DAS) and our
families. They have interrogated us. Some have been interrogated twice.
âThey have accused of being spies, of having been in contact with the
Gestapo during the May events in Barcelona. This is absurd and it is not
surprising that they needed months in order to fabricate this abominable
accusation.
âIn the Convent of Saint Ursula there are 150 prisoners, 60% of them
foreigners, mostly Germans. This jail is a real concentration camp. If
we do not get help from outside, we will be buried alive for a very long
time. Do everything possible to help us. You have to think of coming to
see us, or else getting a Spanish comrade to work energetically for our
release. On July 29 we are going to begin a hunger strike. We are
interrogated by Spaniards, but the Commissars are always Russians and
GermansâŠ.
âDear comrades, do not forget us. Health to all.
X.X.â
The Secretariat informed the CNT of the contents of the letter from
these prisoners and the text of an urgent telegram sent by the Regional
Committee of Catalonia, in which it is requested that negotiations be
undertaken to prevent the German anarchists from being deported to
Marseilles by the NegrĂn government and handed over to the Nazi consuls,
since the latter possessed documents supplied to them by the Argentine
consul who was responsible for German and Italian affairs in Spain.
Keeping all these facts in mind, the following two notes from the CNT
will be of interest:
âNational Confederation of Labor.
âNational Committee. Valencia, September 22, 1937.
âTo the Secretariat of the IWA, Paris.
âIn response to your note dated August 23 with reference to the
negotiations in connection with the telegram sent by the Regional
Committee of Catalonia regarding the deportations of foreign
anti-fascist comrades, we are quite satisfied with the negotiations
carried out with L.J. and the League for the Rights of Man. As for the
two specific demands you made, we shall also inform you that the CNT has
since July 19, 1936 looked after the interests of the foreign comrades
who have come to Spain and continues to do so whenever possible. But you
will understand that this is a problem that also involves the political
situation and that this compels us to conclude that any more or less
efficacious action that the CNT might be able to undertake in defense of
the foreign comrades depends on the greater or lesser effectiveness of
the CNTâs participation in the Spanish government. It is of great
importance to request the right of asylum for the foreign comrades, but
it is also much more importantâyou will understand thisâto work to
resolve the domestic problem, to put an end to the repression and to
undertake joint, solidarity-based action to win the war and defend the
conquests of the people.
âThe problem of the foreigners is very important, but compared to the
continued prosecution of this bloody and terrible war that we are waging
against fascism it is a VERY INSIGNIFICANT DETAIL.
âWe will also tell you that the problem of the foreigners is very
complex because fascism has been very diligent and has its agents in
Spain. We shall draft specific requests to obtain the release of the
foreign comrades who are really anti-fascists, and who are worthy of the
confidence of the libertarian movement, as a result of their long
history of activity as militants.
âAs for your second question, our answer is that we acknowledge the good
intentions of the IWA to help defend us against counterrevolutionary
attacks, but the truth is that as long as the IWA is not properly
organized, and until it puts an end to its internal disagreements and
resolves to work actively to support the anti-fascist and revolutionary
war in Spain, it can accomplish little despite its good intentions. The
decisive support that we desire and need for now to fight against the
counterrevolution in Spain, is the support that the world proletariat
can give us by engaging in effective action against the fascist invader.
If our war goes well this will change and our situation will improve,
and the attacks and the predominance of the counterrevolution will be
diminished. You have to take all of this into account.
âWith revolutionary greetings.
âM.R. VĂĄzquez, Sec.â
âNational Confederation of Labor.
âNational Committee. Valencia, September 22, 1937.
âTo the Secretariat of the IWA, Paris.
âRespected comrade:
âWe receive your circular No. 8 dated August 23. We regret that the
Secretariat of the IWA, upon receiving a telegram from a Regional
Federation of our Section and noting its content, would brandish it as a
red flag, giving the member Sections of the IWA the impression that the
CNT is neglectful of the affair of the foreign comrades. We think that
the Secretariat of the IWA, in accordance with federative norms, is
obliged to recognize that he cannot attend to any report from Spain that
does not proceed from the National Committee of the CNT, as it is the
mission of the latter to maintain relations with the Secretariat of the
IWA.
âAfter expressing our position on this conduct, we shall proceed to
formulate our protest against the heedless decision to orient the
Sections towards the formation of Committees of Aid and Assistance for
the Victims of the Counterrevolution in Spain. This gives us the
impression that the Secretariat of the IWA is using an incident to
undermine the creation and operations of the groups of International
Anti-fascist Solidarity, which were created by the Spanish libertarian
movement.
âWe cannot accept the last paragraph of your circular which says: âAnd,
finally, to intervene with the CNT in order to combine your protest and
your activities with ours.â This implies a reproach directed against
this National Committee that we energetically reject, because we have
always attended to the foreign comrades who have been persecuted in
Spain and because we do not need to be pressured to do our duty. But
also because the National Committee cannot intervene against the
outrages that have been inflicted on the foreign comrades IF IT IS NOT
INFORMED of the facts. The National Committee has always devoted due
attention to all the affairs of which it has been informed and has
addressed them directly.
âWe do not doubt that in the future the Secretariat of the IWA will
conform to the norms of our movement and that he will only pay due
attention to the official reports from our National Committee.
âOnce again we must protest against your circular and the insinuations
that it contains because they are insults to the REVOLUTIONARY VIEWS and
solidarity of the CNT that at all times is vigilant and pays proper
attention to the foreign comrades who have come to Spain to fight.
âWith anarchosyndicalist greetings.
âFor the National Committee,
âMariano R. VĂĄzquez, secretary.â
We must notify the reader that we have transcribed some phrases from
these notes in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, because they reveal the passionate
concern of the CNT to once again occupy the ministerial posts that it
lost and the minor importance it concedes to the miserable situation of
those who are persecuted by the communist reaction, presided over by the
figurehead, NegrĂn.
In view of the serious problem the IWA faced because of its intention to
help the anarchists who fled from the bloody repression that was
unleashed in Barcelona after the May events, and those anarchists who
were deported by the NegrĂn government, via Perpignan, to Marseilles,
the Secretariatâtaking account of the fact that the representatives of
the CNT in Paris had reneged on their commitment to help the wounded
militiamen and the families of the combatants, despite having received
1,400,000 francs from the IWA treasurerâlogically appealed to the member
organizations of the IWA to send more money and at the same time he also
suggested that they should organize âCommittees for Aid and Assistance
to the Victims of the Spanish Counterrevolutionâ in their respective
regions.
We know that the IWA affiliates in Argentina and Uruguay formed such a
Committee. Here, in Montevideo, the FORU publicized the formation of
this Committee with a notice in Solidaridad, but did not take its guest
into consideration. The cenetista plenipotentiary in Uruguayâthe CNT had
them in many countriesâattempted to discredit the Committee by claiming
that it was not authorized by the CNT, and also expressed contemptuous
and offensive views with regard to the anarchists who were persecuted,
imprisoned or shot by NegrĂnâs thugs. We cannot state with certainty
whether or not he had received official reports to that effect, but it
is almost certain that his manner of speaking about this issue was based
on his personal impressions from life in the rearguard, since he had
lived for a few months in Spain, as a member of several delegations.
To conclude this chapter, we will say that the cenetistas, not satisfied
with their clearly demonstrated betrayals and backroom machinations,
dedicated themselves to preparing the international working class to
obtain its support for a Motion to be proposed at the Ordinary Congress
of the IWA that would modify the principles and practices of that
institution, adapting them to the practical modalities and concepts
advocated by the âministerialistsâ of the CNT and the FAI.
At this Congress, held in November 1938âwithout the presence of the
delegations of the FORA and the FORU, due to insurmountable
obstaclesâthe âcircumstantialâ theory of the cenetistas, which had
already been elaborated prior to the Congress, was overwhelmingly
approved.
In the journal of the IWA, No. 6, a cenetistaânow deceasedâsaid:
â⊠we have to operate in every country, in accordance with the
circumstances, psychology, possibilities and characteristicsâ. âIn the
declaration of principles, we cannot continue to uphold the thesis of
rabid apoliticism. We do not have to include support for politics in our
declaration. But we must not close and seal off the door, and
excommunicate any Section that in particular circumstances works
politically, with the clear understanding that politics means for us
collaboration with other sectors in the political-social-economic
leadership of a country.â
Unfortunately, in the modifications introduced in the Declaration of
Principles of the IWA, we must point outâwe do not have the complete
text at our disposalâthat they leave the door open to working in
accordance to the âcircumstancesâ, even in politics. Thus, the new
Secretariat of the IWA said, in a somewhat vague way, in his report to
the member organizations, that it was established that, âthe goal and
tendency of anarchosyndicalism remains faithful to federalismâ, and
that, as a result, âthe IWA concedes to its Sections the greatest
possible freedom of action in the struggle for the final goalâ.
The anxious moments now being experienced by the world proletariat do
not allow one to expect that the IWA can continue to develop in a normal
way. It is therefore to be hoped that when circumstances allow the
exchange of opinions, the FORA and the FORU must attack these
collaborationist reforms and will work to see to it that these
âinnovationsâ are not included in the Declaration of Principles, but
rather that the anarchist concept that is proudly upheld by both
organizations is reaffirmed.
Given the jargon that has infected some political and working class
sectors, entirely contrary to the views of the FORist movement in
Argentina and Uruguay, and in view of the persistent use of the word,
âanti-fascistâ by the Spanish and international âministerialistsâ, we
believe that it is necessary to offer a few reflections on what we
understand by the term, âfascismâ, and by its negation by its seeming
antithesis, âanti-fascismâ.
Fascism, or more precisely, its essence, is nothing new in the history
of the peoples. It is the maximum, the most refined, cruel and brutal
manifestation of the authoritarian system; oppressive and domineering
from top to bottom. All the coercive means have been employed in order
to give the State the power of domination that is necessary; to fully
centralize brute force in the governmental mechanism. All the means of
âpersuasionâ have been regimented in order to silence the public
conscience and slogans are recited with an absolute âunanimityâ,
âmoldingâ the most diverse opinions according to the political needs of
the State.
The same procedures used to silence the voices of the heretics that were
put into practice by the executioners at the orders of the inquisitors
ArbuĂ©s and Torquemada, adapted to the âprogressâ of our century, have
been utilized by the totalitarian regimes imposed in Italy, Russia,
Germany, and now in Spain.
The saying of the Uruguayan politician they call âRasputinâââCalm down
and live, or rebel and dieââis the norm of the way of life imposed on
the peoples so that they will silently endure the state monstrosity. I
am the State, I give the orders and you must obey me, say the dictators,
and the peoples obey, smiling, with applause and tranquility in order to
avoid the consequences of the anger or the suspicion of the henchmen of
authority.
Human consciousness is becoming mechanized. Speech has been
standardized. Gestures, stereotyped. People fall silent when they are
not mouthing words of conformity and servility. The inhabitants of the
world have been regimented, and they know when, where and how to work or
refrain from working, what to think, etc.; where they can gather
together and relate to one another. The State knows everything due to
its legions of spies or informers and has its âsolutionâ for everything.
Shootings, the gibbet, decapitations, the despicable garrote, the
guillotine and the electric chair, are the final, âquite convincingâ
arguments that its âdevoteesâ engage in and that become more frequent
with each passing dayâŠ.
In Germany, they cut off heads. In Russia, they âpurgeâ the opposition
and the people. In Italy, they prescribe castor oil; then the garrote or
the firing squad. In Spain, at the present time, they are setting a
rather high standard; without any trial, they shoot âconvictsâ at the
rate of up to â800 murdered âŠâ at a time.
And this only refers to the totalitarian regimes; regarding which one
could say that fascism is becoming generalized.
Now let us take a look at the âdemocraciesâ. In France they use the
guillotine. In the United States human beings are eliminated by means of
electrocution or hanging. In the other countries, the same or similar
procedures are utilized âfor setting an exampleâ. Torture is also
employed by means of rubber truncheons or cattle prods, with which we
are familiar in our part of the world.
In some countries there has been an attenuation in the suffering, an
attractive label, a disguise with plebian gilding, but always based on
violence, audacity, inhumanity and crime: the shell of the state.
Fascism, Nazism, state communism, nationalism, democracy, socialism, are
all different names but all are based on one thing: the authority
principle; and one goal: the state.
The goal does not change, then, whether you call it dictatorship,
empire, kingdom, parliamentary republic, or even if you give it the
pompous title of: republic of the âworkersâ or of the
sovietsââproletarianâ dictatorshipâor any other âtransitional bridgeâ,
as is insinuated by the âanti-fascistsâ of the CNT-FAI.
Now that we have expressed these very simple deductions concerning what
is often calledâbecause of snobbismâa fascist regime, we should point
out that the word âanti-fascismâ has an identical origin, because the
powers that, calling themselves democratic, claim to fight the fascist
regime cannot be differentiated from the latter, nor can the political
fractions that are its opponents, using demagogy, deny their
authoritarian essence.
Who presents themselves to the workers as anti-fascists?
The socialists, who adore, uphold and advocate the statist structure! In
France, the socialist Briand was in power, and the army and the police
at his orders liquidated the French railroad workers strike,
persecuting, imprisoning and massacring the striking workers. In
Germany, a socialist cabinet presided over by Noske ordered the massacre
of the people of Bavaria, murdering, in addition, outstanding anarchist
militants, among other people, comrade Landauer. In Spain, before the
military revolt, the socialists dominated republican cabinets, and Casas
Viejas is still fresh in our memories: Arnedo, the shack of Seisdedos
where a peasant family of eight was burned alive and the members of the
CNT and the FAI and the Spanish people were persecuted and murdered.
The communists! In Russiaâwhose mystical and stoic people know the
rigors and the omnipotence of the dictatorship imposed by the ruling
party: Lenin yesterday, and now Stalinâthe âredâ army at the orders of
the âgeneralissimoâ Trotskyâtoday a âvoluntaryâ exile from the country
of his âgreat deedsââmercilessly massacred the sailors of Kronstadt,
which had been, during the period of Czarism, a beacon of freedom and
rebellion, and whose garrison had been the spearhead of the revolution
during that disastrous regime. The brave Maknovist guerrillas were
exterminated, who had expelled the mercenary armies from the Ukraine.
The anarchists and opponents of the dictatorship were shot or hidden
away in the prisons of inhospitable regions, and more recently there
have been repeated âpurgesâ of the members of the ruling party, shooting
as âtraitors and Nazi spiesâ some of the intellectual figures who were
comrades of Lenin.
The radicals of Argentina! We recall the strike in the metallurgical
plant of Vasena, where violent clashes with the Irigoyenista police took
place, in which many comrades died, an episode that led to what we call
the âWeek of Januaryâ and which the bourgeois journalist Juan J. de
Soiza Reillyâwithout going into the distinctly proletarian aspect, which
was anxious and cruelâdescribed, vaguely reflecting some scenes, in
these paragraphs:
âI just came back from an sorrowful journey. I visited some of the homes
of the Israelites where they shed tears of blood. I have seen innocent
old people being dragged by their beards. I have seen a pale and smiling
little old man who lifted up his shirt to show us two of his ribs. They
stuck out of his skin like sticks, bleedingâŠ. I have seen hard-working
and humble laborersâlike all the Jewish workersâwith both legs broken,
in casts. Piled up like firewood on the sidewalks. I have seen
scientific libraries burnedâŠ. I have seen a heroic woman who was forced
to eat her own excrement. I have seen houses looted and pockets emptied
by robbers. I have seen poor little girls of 14 and 15 years of age
crying on the street corners. They covered their faces with their hands.
They were ashamed. They had lost the holy treasure of their innocence
among the claws of the beastsâŠ. One of them showed me her right hand,
cut by an axe, âbecause I tried to defend myself from the bruteââŠ. I
have seen, in additionâŠ. But, why reproduce the horrors that I have
seen, the revulsion that I felt?
âIf I dip my pen into this revulsion, I would write this chronicle with
rageâŠ.â
And the sorrowful episodes of Patagonia, where the soldiers under the
command of colonel Varela made the strikers dig their own graves before
shooting them? And the massacres of the Chaco, the persecutions and
deportations of FORist militants?
The battlistas, government colorados and the blancos! The streets of
Montevideo and some of the towns of the interior have been drenched in
the blood of the workers; those who went on strike were beaten and the
jails swallowed many anarchists.
Why do the political fractions that formed the âPopular Frontâ in Spain
call themselves âanti-fascistsâ, when, prior to July 19 and during the
civil war, they murdered the anarchists who refused to obey the
authoritarians?
All of this is villainy, arrogance, violence and criminality, even if
the perpetrators call themselves socialists, communists, radicals,
blancos, colorados or anti-fascists, and they cannot by any means be
distinguished from the ways of the fascists. It is always the State.
Therefore, the alliance made by the âresponsibleâ leaders of the CNT and
the FAI with the authoritarian elements of Spain is entirely illogical,
and cannot be justified by any valid, convincing argument, any more than
such an alliance with the Marxists of our part of the world would have.
A recent political event, which caused a âsensationâ in certain statist
spheres and among some simple-minded people will reinforce our argument:
the embrace of Hitler and Stalin. They have brought together, in one
solid bundle, rabid anti-communism and cynical anti-nazism.
This event will not have been surprising to sensible people, because
while they are political ideologies that seemingly repel each other,
with regard to their methods, the regimes and their interests are
identical and cannot remain separated.
The embrace of Stalin with Hitler might impress those who, concealing
their authoritarian inclinations and ways, had taken up as a rallying
banner a meaningless, deceitful and puerile label, but this has no
importance for those who, like us anarchists, do not allow ourselves to
differentiate between the regimes and consider the actions, the
maneuvers and the falsehoods of those who rule over the peoples to be a
logical consequence of the corruption that engulfs the capitalist
system. One thing is certain: anti-nazism and anti-communism signed a
military pact and then gorged themselves on the bloody spoils of the
Polish people, sharing out, in addition, the land, the wealth and the
inhabitants living in the framework of the borders that the map assigned
to Poland, just as previouslyâthe same or other Statesâhad divided up
the lands of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Ethiopia, The Transvaal, India,
Morocco, etc., and are still assailing these peoples.
This acronym stands for the Iberian Anarchist Federation, a specifically
anarchist institution of Spain, which played an outstanding role in the
guerrilla activities that took place in Spain, but a negative one with
regard to the valorization of the ideological postulates that correspond
with its name.
It was first active in 1927, with a definite programâaccording to
declarations published to justify its existence as a specifically
anarchist organizationâof working in the CNT in order to reinforce the
anarchist orientation that was instilled in the workers who were members
of this working class trade union confederation and to win support for
the cause of emancipation.
It is undeniable that the work of training and expression of our ideas
that was undertaken by the FAI was beneficial and that its members had
to endure the harsh persecution directed at them by the right and left
wing governments that succeeded each other in Spain, over the last few
years. But this acknowledgement does not prevent us from explaining,
with all frankness, our opinion of opposition to the contagious way of
operating that has appeared over the last few years among the
anarchists, in that they organize a specifically [separate] anarchist
organization, because this brings in its wake a dual focus of activity,
a groundless pride in appearing to be âguidesâ and a dangerous
âinnovativeâ tendency for the workers movement with an anarchist goal.
In South America we are very familiar with the ârestless spiritsâ and
the activities of some similar institutions: the Argentine Libertarian
Alliance, now reborn as the FACA, in Argentina, and the Anarchist
Federation of Uruguay, in this countryânow defunctâinstitutions that
have been a breeding ground for deviations and more than one split among
anarchist militants. Instead of helping to develop the FORist working
class federations, they have impeded their normal federalist development
and have sowed confusion within many working class organizations,
facilitating their absorption by Marxist elements.
However, because it is not our purpose to conduct an in-depth analysis
of the problem of âSpecificismâ, we shall return to our examination of
the various facets presented by the FAI in its disconcerting pilgrimage
between theory and practice.
The contradictions are many and the regressions of such a magnitude that
they deserve to be highlighted in order to erase from the feverish minds
of the panegyrists of the FAI the following definition of what these
three letters mean: âa sun that shines on those who suffer persecution
and a force that encourages those who hunger for justice; a torch for
the pariahs and a promise for the oppressedâ, as the Barcelona journal
Tierra y Libertad proclaimed.
When the ghastly birds of ill omen, of pillage and destruction,
nourished by Spanish militarism, the clergy and capitalism, began to
circle over the soil of Spain, the FAI felt spurred onâfor the last
timeâby the spirit of its ideological patrimony to hammer its alert,
filled with redemptive concepts, into the consciousness of the Spanish
people, urging them to fight in defense of their rights, under assault
by statist arrogance, and of their freedom that was under threat from
the reactionaries.
Here is the resolution approved at the FAI Plenum of Regional
Federations, held on February 1, 1936:
âConsidering the extreme gravity of the current conjuncture in Spain,
due as much to economic difficulties and domestic policies, as to the
influence and impact of the international situation, and having learned
from the experience of other countries and from the very logic of the
events and issues;
âConsidering that, because of the size of the revolutionary proletariat
in Spain, the latter has more responsibility than in other countries
with regard to confronting any reactionary attempts;
âThat the phenomenon of fascism, embodied in the totalitarian State, is
a system of reaction, of which the street violence and the bestial
attacks of the reactionaries constitute merely one aspect of a vast
complex of ideas and liberticidal aspirations, which are manifested in
the absolute suppression of all rights of criticism and all human
dignity and which tend, furthermore, to persist by recruitment from the
very beginning. That the fascist reaction is the direct result of the
bankruptcy of the economic system of capitalism, that it can be resisted
only on the terrain of the suppression of capitalism and in the
establishment of a regime of life that will render impossible the
monstrous contradictions of the economy, of privilege and of monopoly.
âThat the world historical experiences have demonstrated the impotence
and the deception of so-called democracy, an alleged political equality
grafted onto the most obnoxious economic inequality, in order to modify
the essence of the established order.
âThe Regional Federations of the Iberian Anarchist Federation set forth
their position in the following manner:
âa) They deplore the fact that working class institutions which had
blazed a frankly revolutionary and proletarian path in October 1934,
should align themselves with the democratic-bourgeois parties in order
to find a solution where no such solution exists.
âb) They advocate a total break by the proletariat with all the statist
democratic illusions, and its concentration around the working class and
peasant solution, which implies the possession of the social and natural
wealth by the producers themselves.
âc) They maintain that only in the world of labor, in the workplaces,
can an effective and definitive remedy be found for all forms of
reaction.
âThey state that the agreement of the producers is possible under the
following conditions:
â1. The exclusion from the workplace of elements affiliated with fascist
institutions, by way of the joint action of the anti-capitalist trade
union organizations.
â2. Employment of the insurrectionary method for the conquest of the
social wealth usurped by privileged minorities, and its administration
by the producers themselves.
â3. Establishment of a regime of life, of labor and of consumption that
responds to the common needs of the population and does not allow
exploitation and the domination of man over man to exist in any form.
â4. The defense of this new regime of life cannot be entrusted to
professional armies or political bodies, but must be in the hands of all
the workers, without the latter losing contact with their workplaces.
â5. Respect and toleration for the diverse proletarian and revolutionary
social conceptions and guarantees for their free exercise.
â6. The struggle against fascism, an international phenomenon, must be
carried out internationally, by the working class and revolutionary
institutions, to the exclusion of all nationalist ideas and sentiments.â
As one can see from the document presented above, one may now observe
what is essentially a surrender to âalliancismâ and the use of the term
âanti-fascismâ; but this backsliding seems quite insignificant when we
compare it to the later treasonous positions.
Let us see how the FAI presented its views after it had already fallen
some way down the âfatal slopeâ:
âAll the propaganda and all the action of anarchism are based on
anti-capitalism and anti-statism. These two forms of economic and
political domination imply the negation of the rights of the producer
and of the freedom of the individual.
âIn the State, capitalism finds its weapon of defense. The exploitation
of the workers, of the peasants, of the technicians, allows the
accumulation of wealth and economic powerâthe force majeure to which the
disinherited are subjectedâin the hands of an unproductive minority. By
means of the laws that assure the bourgeoisie the right of property with
all its repressive system, with its armed force, the State constitutes
the most solid bastion of the capitalist system. As opposed to the
Marxist position that attributes to the State transitional functions in
the creation of a new society, and which maintains that the State will
gradually wither away until it disappears when class differences will
have disappeared, anarchism proclaims the uselessness of the State and
states that its presence after the revolutionary events would signify
the resurgence of a new power, of a new dictatorship, with the
consequent emergence of a privileged bureaucracy and the logical
establishment of a party government or preferentially one based on the
leaders of the ruling party.
âEconomic organization upon socialist foundation, being practicable,
causes the new economic order to require a new political form. The
anti-capitalist and anti-statist position of anarchism is confirmed by
historical experience and by the certainty of being able to organize
collective life, providing everyone with the possibility to satisfy
their own needs, in exchange for their labor in a regime based on the
socialization of the means of production.
âFederative organization, from the bottom upâfrom the base to the
summitâwill take the place of the state system. This reaffirmation of
principles is fully justified at the present time. Constrained by the
circumstances that accompany the war, the FAI and the CNT have had to
participate in the governmental machinery. The collaboration imposed by
the supreme and unavoidable necessity of defeating fascism and
coexistence alongside the anti-fascist sectors led us to reluctantly
abandon our ideological position. But this does not mean that we have
renounced the anarchist ideal and tactics. The occupation of posts of
responsibility in the departments of the central government and of the
Generalitat, posts that we had to occupy, being compelled by the
circumstances of the war, by no means implies a change in our
theoretical conceptions. No; we shall continue to be anarchists as
before, and we shall always have the same opinion of the State and the
dictatorial solution (regardless of what name it is given).
âBefore the entire world, before our comrades in the anarchist movement,
before those who have deliberately distorted the interpretation of the
events in Spain and our temporary participation in the government, we
can state without any exaggeration that this resolution of the FAI has
an incalculable historical value.â
The concepts expounded by the FAI, apart from many inconsistencies and
contradictions, break all records for arrogance.
We could reproduce, in order to support our view, a sensible commentary
written by comrade A. Schapiro in response to the pathetic appeal issued
by the FAI to the international anarchist movement calling upon the
latter to imitate the FAI, and to enter into âalliancesâ with the
political sectors of the different regions, but we shall refrain from
doing so because the text is already so well known.
We shall, however, transcribe the resolutions approved by the Congress
of the French Language Anarchist Federation at its congress held on
August 14â15, 1937, concerning the delicate and ridiculous position of
the FAI and the CNT, together with the commentary by the editors of
Solidaridad (No. 143, April 1938), the official organ of the FORU, on
these resolutions, because they will save us the trouble of elucidating
fundamental objections and because the text containing them is a
lapidary counterstroke:
âWe shall transcribe some resolutions of the French Language Anarchist
Federation, approved at the Congress held on August 14â15, 1937 in the
city of Clermont-Ferrand. In view of the chaos that prevails in
international anarchism, caused by the Spanish events, which brought
confusionism to a large part of our movement, the firm position of the
anarchists of the French Language Anarchist Federation merits our
attention, who, with great courage, made a firm stand against
revolutionary mystifications, sallying forth in defense of the
propaganda and of the practices of struggle that are consistent with the
principles of anarchism. Even when we do not totally agree with the
interpretation they offer regarding the practical application of
anarchism in the workers movementâsince while they seek to instill the
latter with an anarchist character from the outside, from the groups,
we, based on the experience of a long revolutionary history, which
demonstrates the superiority of the FORist interpretation, opt for the
system that recommends that the anarchists must not act in the trade
union sections as members of other groups outside of them, but as
members of these same trade unions, and by this means successfully
impress upon the workers movement a definitely anarchist orientation,
adopting in advance the practices of struggle of direct action, a
federalist system of organization by trade and anarchist principles and
goalsâdespite this, we say, we consider it to be of great importance
that the French anarchists have returned to activity within the trade
unions, which will allow them to gain the influence among the workers
that they have lacked until now, due to the erroneous practice of
organizing in specific groups outside the working class organization.
âSomething else that deserves emphasis, is the fact they have broken
with the prejudice of alliances with politicians and the trade union
mergers that advocate the absurdity of attempting to amalgamate all the
workers in a single bloc, âoutside of all ideologyâ, when they openly
declare that they are working for the growth of the CGT-SR (affiliated
with the IWA), providing it with increasingly greater material and
ideological power, which could counteract the emasculating work of the
reformist CGT, saving the proletariat from opportunistic ambiguities and
political demagogy and liberating it from all obstacles that could
hinder it in its progress towards its emancipation.
âWe attribute the highest importance to these resolutions, both with
regard to the position against âstatist anarchismâ, as well as with
regard to militant action in the working class movement, since it is to
be hoped that this attitude will be at least imitated, if not surpassed,
by the anarchists of the other countries, which are losing their sense
of direction or vegetating in the vicious circle of âspecificismâ, and
that those revolutionary aberrations should be abandoned and the
comrades should resolve to create a real trade union movement, in which
the activity of the anarchists who, for one reason or another do not
belong to the trade unions, will not only be allowed but encouraged, on
the basis of which one can work freely to forge anarchist consciousness,
for the purpose of being able to expose the entire population to the
details of our ideal, leading it to conceive the possibility of the
existence of a society without a State, based on free agreement and
mutual aid, which will lead it to fight consciously for the destruction
of the authoritarian regimes and for the establishment of Anarchist
Communism.â
Resolutions of the Congress of the French Language Anarchist Federation:
âConsidering that, faced with the situation in which a part of the
CNT-FAI has committed, from the very beginning, deplorable errors with
respect to their positions, this Congress deems that the only way to
rectify the situation in Spain, both from the anarchist point of view as
well as from the perspective of our final victory, is to immediately
abandon all governmental, political, militarist and diplomatic activity
and return to revolutionary methods of struggle. That all the
non-conformist elements of both organizations are the only ones who can
accomplish this, but that the international anarchist movement finds
itself obliged to break with the political and politicizing elements of
the CNT-FAI, who still speak in the name of the organization and the
revolution.
âThe Congress declares that it is profoundly saddened and angry because
of the official lack of concern on the part of the CNT-FAI regarding the
persecution of the anarchists in Spain, and calls for a campaign of
energetic protest in every country.
âIn favor of the anarchist prisoners and victims of the Stalinist
repressionâThe odious repression underway in Spain must be denounced
before the international workers movement and the defamatory campaign
waged by the Third International against those who devote themselves
totally to the struggle against fascism and who have for more than a
year carried out prodigies of heroism to crush the mercenary gangs of
Franco, Mussolini and Hitler, must be repudiated.
âWe call upon the organizations of the CNT-FAI to respond with firmness
and to provide the material and moral solidarity that is owed to the
foreign comrades arrested after the May Days of 1937 in Barcelona, to
energetically defend them and to attempt by all means to prevent them
from being executed, and decide to undertake a campaign to break the
code of silence around the âanti-fascistâ and âpopularâ fronts, in order
to denounce the organized murder of the best revolutionaries by the
lackeys under the orders of Moscow.â
It has been demonstrated that, in the name of the FAI, the âenlightenedâ
ones have been sent to govern the Spanish people. Moreover; when the
Marxist politicians did not need their good services and they were
âdismissedâ from their posts, the FAI attempted to transform itself into
a political party in order to prepare itself to once again occupy
certain ministerial posts, in case they are summonedâthey thought they
were indispensableâby the âanti-fascistsâ.
Despite the fact that they so earnestly desired such positions, the
ministerial âcrisesâ that subsequently took place did not provide the
faĂstas with an opportunity to continue to demonstrate their great
abilities as statesmen, diplomats and sociologists.
We have already said elsewhere in this book that the CNT pressured the
International Workingmenâs Association to accept the âcircumstantialâ
governmental operational practices tested in Spain and to transmit them
to the rest of the international workers movement.
We possess perfect proof of what we are claiming in the resolution
approved by the IWA at the Extraordinary Congress held in December 1937,
insofar as it called for âunity of actionâ with the reformist
international in order to jointly adopt measures of defense in favor of
the Spanish people.
Fortunately, the initiativeââtranscending all the ideological
differences that separate our movement from the International of the
reformist trade unionsâ according to the Secretariat of the
IWAâexperienced the most resounding fiasco because the reformists
refused to comply with the requested unity program, but the ridicule
that consequently attached to the IWA, thanks to the obvious pressure of
the CNT, is worth noting.
Another slogan that was supposed to be translated into practice, at the
insistence of the CNT, was that of âunifying the effortsâ of the FOR of
Argentina with the FACA, a specificist institution whose members are
declared enemies of the FORist workers movement and who are active in
the trade unions of the yellow trade union federation of Argentina, the
CGT, and in the independent trade unions, instilling them with the
anti-FORist orientation wherever they attain prominence.
Also, in Montevideo, some anarchists who have withdrawn from militant
activityâperhaps with sincerity and in good faith, we shall not presume
to judge themâinitiated negotiations to unify the FORU with the group of
anarcho-dictators who organized and still call themselves the UniĂłn
Sindical Uruguaya, negotiations that did not succeed because it was
understood that those who split from the mother entity of the Uruguayan
proletariat do not identify with the practices and goals of the FORist
movement.
But that is now a thing of the past. What remains is the disseminating
of frankly authoritarian slogans and practices throughout the World of
Labor, a crop that is now ripe for harvest. It was logical to assume
that the âministerialistsâ of the CNT and the FAI would have to find, in
addition to enthusiastic panegyrists, many advanced disciples ready to
honor or even surpass their masters and to prescribe as infallible the
âanti-fascistâ panaceas that were tested with so much tenacity and
stubbornness by their âministerialistâ masters, and the text that we
shall now read, from El Andamio, of Chile, proves what we said above.
Mariano VĂĄzquez claimed that we must not âbury ourselves in dogmatismâ
and that we should âoperate in every country, in accordance with the
circumstances, psychology, possibilities and characteristicsâ. But his
words were not heeded, and the cenetista and faĂsta modes of operation
tend to be generalized, and to be translated into the local idiom. In
any event, opportunism has long practice them.
Let us see what Juan Pinto D. says in his recent article that appeared
in El Andamio on May 26, 1939:
âDISCIPLINE IN THE LIBERTARIAN MOVEMENT. The various theories and
doctrines that seek to solve the economic, political and social problems
that are affecting humanity have over the last few years undergone such
profound changes of position that in some casesâthe Bolshevik
movementâthey have signified an overwhelming negation of their past. The
libertarian movementâanarchosyndicalist and anarchistâhas also felt the
effects of the confrontation with reality. Spain has been the scene of
experimentation where the FAI and the CNT found themselves facing the
unavoidable necessity of going beyond sacred principles once held to be
invariable. It is clear that the position of these institutions has been
criticized by a minority of militants and supported by a majority.
âSo: we do not want to engage in an in-depth analysis of the
international problem, we shall restrict our attention to our own
problems.
âIn Chile there have been several libertarian federations; these have
organized heterogeneous masses and small groups of militants, their
revolutionary activity has been restricted to sporadic actions that have
not benefited from a process of preparation and training of their own
forces.
âTheir interventions, then, in the political and social affairs of the
country have not influenced the broader course of events. They have not
been influential nor do I think they will have an impact in the future
if they continue to operate in the same way they have for the last
fifteen years. The revolutionary process is complex and requires the
intervention of the militants not only on the restricted plane upon
which the trade union operates, but in every aspect that is presented.
âA revolutionary movement that wants to have a decisive impact on
events, needs a specific organization that has support throughout the
entire country, one that presents a single face, which has DISCIPLINE,
and above all one that is not afraid of words and the NEW MODALITIES,
especially the ones that represented such an innovation in Spain.
âA specific organization. The political apparatus of the revolution;
this is the overwhelming necessity in our movement and to satisfy it we
must mobilize the enthusiasm of all those who do not want to see the
emancipatory hope of humanity symbolized in the anarchosyndicalist
movement disappear.â
We have set forth in detail, with excessive redundancy, the betrayals
that the responsible leaders of the CNT and the FAI endorsed and
implemented. There is one other aspect: the economic, which must be
addressed and to which we shall devote a few brief comments.
The cenetistas and faĂstas, having lost their way with regard to
ideology and slipped down the chute of apostasy, dedicated themselves
with tenacious zeal to the task of plugging the holes in the ship of
stateâwhich they had saved from sinkingâengaging in initiatives directed
towards restoring it to its former condition. They still were not
satisfied, however, with having put the brakes on the social revolution;
they entered into alliances of every kind with the political factions;
they collaborated with the central government from the ministries. They
had to complement their disastrous activities by addressing, for
âconstructiveâ purposes, the complex economic problems the country faced
because of the civil war, seeking, preferentially, a possibilist
solution.
The policies approved at the Extended National Economic Plenum of the
CNT, held in January 1938, exhibitâby virtue of their structure and
essenceâa passionate appetite for reformism, a multiplication of the
governmental bureaucracy and, even more importantly, a mistaken
operational conception of state syndicalism.
We must take into account the abnormal situation that prevailed at the
time, in order to affirm that the organization and functioning of this
Plenum suffered from many defects and shortcomings, which deprive its
resolutions of any moral authority. Even more important than these
defects and shortcomings are the assumptions and the mentality that
informed the conceptual motor force that would make possible the
realization of and conferred dynamism to these activities. It could be
argued, with powerful logic, that the delegations were not the faithful
representatives of the workers organized in confederal cadres, nor did
they convey the precise expression of those workers concerning these
economic panaceas, since many workers were at the front and did not
participate in the preliminary debates.
What is undeniable is the fact that the initiative to convoke the
Economic Plenum arose from the highest levels of the organizationâfrom
the top downâand that the delegationsâexcept for a few exceptions, let
us addâwere monopolized by nattily dressed governmentalist bureaucrats.
It would not be appropriate to say that this fact constitutes evidence
of malfeasance, because that would be a platitude and besides, it would
mean that that we would have to minutely examine all the political and
legalistic loopholes and fine points of the whole process. We can say,
however, that it was an indecency whose purpose was to sow confusion
among the workers.
The CNT, exuding optimism, proposedâaccording to the text of the
approved resolutionsâthe creation of powerful state-syndicalist
bodiesâwith their respective legions of parasitesâto control and direct
the industries under their jurisdiction; legislation concerning the
various manifestations of human effort, measuring their quality and
quantity in order to establish pay scales and to create files for each
category; the centralization or trustification of written propaganda and
managing the funds of the organizations. It was a reconstructive plan on
a vast scale, which would have left the most prestigious statists
awestruck and would have made those States that boast of having
âadvancedâ social and economic legislation look ridiculous.
Let us take a look at the concerns of the CNT and the general tenor of
the resolutions of the Economic Plenum.
âLABOR INSPECTORSâ
In the introductory section of this particular proposal, the CNT asserts
that it is not guided by any proselytizing ends. We cannot confirm the
veracity of this assertion. We can say, however, that those of us who
live in these little republics [in South America] are inured to
incredulity. When a political party, whether or not it is in power,
proposes the creation of a new government body or inspectorate, besides
the proselytizing motive what is of much greater interest to it is to be
able to find jobs for its friends.
By calling attention to this example it is not our intention to
reprimand the cenetistas by cataloguing them under the heading of
politics. They acted with and like the politicians, because of
âimperious circumstantial necessitiesâ.
Here is the text of the Articles on the Labor Inspectorate:
â1. The National Industrial Federations, at the proposal of the Trade
Unions as conveyed through the Regional, County and Local Federations,
will appoint the Technical Delegates needed to inspect and direct the
Economic units under their jurisdiction.
â2. These Delegates will propose the norms to be implemented in order to
effectively direct the different Industrial units for the purpose of
improving their efficiency and administration. They will not operate on
their own account; they will be responsible for complying with and
enforcing compliance with the directives issued by the Councils, to
which they will be answerable.
â3. To achieve greater efficiency and operational improvements and in
such cases where it will be necessary, they will propose to the Councils
that have appointed them the application of sanctions against those
Institutions or individuals who, as a result of the non-fulfillment of
their duties, have merited such sanctions.
âThe Organization will agree to the extension of the corresponding
coercive means to the Institutions which must avail themselves of this
right, establishing the Rules that will determine how these coercive
means may be applied. These directives are undertaken exclusively by and
refer only to the Industries that are in the hands of the workers.â
âPAY SCALESâ
The humanist and just anarchist conceptââFrom each according to his
abilitiesââhad no place in the statist plans of the CNT. Its plans
seemed to be oriented in accordance with the standard type established
by capitalism. The CNT planned to recompense the efforts of the workers
according to their outputs and skill levels, thus preserving privileged
categories.
It soughtâaccording to the CNTââto correct those deficiencies and
inequalities that so often sow discord and apathy among the workers, to
the detriment of the economyâ and therefore the Plenum resolved:
âFirst. The acceptance of pay according to job categories, and we
propose that the National Industrial Federations adopt, while adapting
them to their economic possibilities, the following scales of payment,
taking X as the initial indispensable quantity necessary to cover the
needs of the producer:
âBase Category. Assistant laborerâŠ. X 1a superior category. Skilled
worker 20% of increase 2a superior category. Specialist 40% of increase
3a superior category. Assistant Technician 70% of increase 4a superior
category. Technical Director 100% of increase.
âThe above percentages are to be understood as being applicable to the
base category.â
The schedule of pay scales approved at this Plenum was a ârevolutionary
innovationâ. It is very similar to the one established in Russia. We are
not saying that the CNTâs version is an exact copy of the Bolshevist
system.
âIBERIAN TRADE UNION BANKâ
One can very well imagine that, if the CNT was proceeding in the
direction of a statist orientation, regulating and controlling the
economy of the country, then it logically should create a Trade Union
Bank to âincrease productionâ, to ârebuild industryâ, âoffer loans to
the peasantsâ, etc. Thus it was that, while at the Congress of the
Agricultural Collectives of Aragon the delegates were trying to abolish
money, creating in its stead a rationing card, the CNT gave money the
same exchange value that capitalism assigned to it. This was deliberate.
We should point out that in order to arrive at these paradoxical
positions, or more accurately, these aberrations, of the CNT, eminent
academics had previously come forth to hold conferences on economic,
financial, monetary, commercial and statistical topicsâamong others,
FĂĄbregas, SantillĂĄn, Leval, LĂłpez, Carsi, Cardona Rosell, etc.âwho
oriented the cenetista approach in this sense. We are going to read a
fragment of the article signed by Amezcua, published in Solidaridad
Obrera while the CNTâs Economic Plenum was in session, which will help
us to evaluate the state syndicalist mentality that predominated among
the cenetistas. Let us begin by getting one thing straight:
âThe ideal ⊠the suppression of money; unquestionable. But until we get
there, we have to go through stages, overcome very prominent obstacles
and climb the slopes of the social economic topography.â And he
continues as follows:
âMONEY. ITS NATURAL FUNCTION, UNDERMINED BY THE PLUTOCRACY.
âIn the liquidated economy, it was the function of the Bank to store the
money, to look after its circulation, to ensure its fictitious
multiplication, its investment or assignment, constituting with the
individual and voluntary deposits of this money, masses of capital with
which it decisively influenced the industrial and even the moral life of
the country, leading to the hegemony of the possessors of the largest
quantity of monetary symbols to the detriment of the more modest
possessors, who never obtained more than a sparse and always miserable
return on their deposits. The capitalist imagination invented, to the
detriment of the non-capitalists and for its profit, the theory of
credit and of the loaning of money, and on this basis the greatest
immoralities have been committed, giving way to usury, to the abuse of
confidentiality and to fraud, which CAUSED THE DISCREDITING OF MONEYâan
element of exchange and circulation of natural and industrial
productsâby employing it as just another commodity. Naturally, the
producers, who did not participate in all the permutations and dishonest
games played with money by the bankers, but possessing an instinctive
understanding of all this chicanery, and in part understanding it
because of its practical repercussions (the price of bread, clothing and
other necessities of life), have repudiated money as the cause of the
misery of the working class, and had no objection against the proposal
that money be purely and simply ABOLISHED, imagining that it could be
replaced by the direct exchange of products. It was the specific and
precise function of money, however, to regulate this exchange, since it
made possible the establishment of a standard of exchange between
diverse productsâa common denominator for knowing, for example, how much
wheat must be delivered by a Peasant Organization in order to obtain a
pair of shoesâand to the extent that money performs and is limited to
performing this function and is not the object of speculation that would
disturb its NATURAL ROLE AS REGULATOR OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND, of
production and consumption, THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT ITS NECESSITY
within an economic complex, much less in a regime whose nature, with the
suppression of the capricious and inorganic activity of the individual,
and within the structural framework of the Trade Union, will have
entailed the disappearance of even the possibility of any deviation of
the use of money from its exclusive role as regulator of exchange as
well as obviating any danger that it would ever serve as an object of
speculation and exploitation of the worker. Once the MONETARY SYMBOL HAS
BEEN PURIFIED AND RECOVERED from the grip of the plutocracy THAT HAD
DISTORTED IT AND EVEN PROSTITUTED IT, it must perform its natural role
in the collectivized Economy, as will that economic sector which, as we
pointed out above, has the SPECIFIC TASK OF STORING, CIRCULATING AND
INVESTING THE SYMBOL OF EXCHANGE.â
As you can see, in the last paragraph the author argues in favor of the
creation of the Trade Union Bank. And not only does he endorse the
creation of such a bank, but he also extends the initiative to the
creation of two other banks: the Producersâ Bank and the Bank of Foreign
Trade. It is unnecessary to point out that the creation of the Iberian
Trade Union Bank implies the appointing of a president, vice president,
director general and many other employees.
âTHE TRADE UNION INSURANCE ADMINISTRATION AGENCYâ
The purpose of this institution is to administer the insurance program
for illness, workplace accidents, pensions, maternity leave, etc.; in
short, what is called social welfare in the âdemocraciesâ. The essence
of this project is contained in this paragraph:
âa) To demand the representation of the CNT in each an every one of the
official State institutions, Autonomous Regional Governments, and
Provincial and Municipal Councils in Loyalist Spain, whose mission is to
regulate, direct, or provide consultative services with regard to the
management and implementation of national, regional, provincial and
local, or county policies relating to insurance and social welfare in
all of its dimensions. This representation must not be inferior to that
already possessed, or which may be granted in the future, to the other
trade union central organization.â
CONCERNING THE ADVISABILITY OF REDUCING THE NUMBER OF CONFEDERAL
PUBLICATIONS AND HOW THIS ISSUE WAS ADDRESSED
We have noted that in Spain, during the war, it was hard to obtain the
raw materials for manufacturing paper. At first sight, this would seem
to justify the proposal to impose restrictions on the press. However, of
the three âcompellingâ reasons that the CNT offered, the third one is
the one that best expresses its views regarding and its interest in such
restrictions:
âThe last reason is the necessity of conferring homogeneity to the
orientation of our publications, which is the only way to obtain
benefits from the powerful weapon known as the press. We have to put an
end to the public disagreements in the Movement. Up until now, this has
been largely achieved in the Bulletin of Internal Orientation, published
by the Secretary of the National Committee, but its effectiveness is
cancelled out by the small publications that, although of little
importance in themselves, produce no small effect by disorienting
instead of orienting opinion and the militants, because they do not
abide by the ESTABLISHED LINE of the national order for propaganda.â
It is obvious that the CNT wanted to centralize control over written
propaganda, in order to silence those who criticized the statist
orientation that was expressed by the unfolding events.
This is proven by these two paragraphs of the proposal:
âWith this plan for the publication of newspapers, the propaganda of our
Movement is absolutely guaranteed, with regard to both aspects. The
major publications with a large circulation and the smaller papers in
the provinces that fulfill the need to provide guidance that is in
concordance with the psychology and the customs of each town.
âAll the newspapers that do not abide by this plan must disappear as a
result of their being contrary to economic efficiency and unnecessary.â
We have already mentioned that the CNT, dominated by a feverish zeal for
planning, was passionately preoccupied with âreconstructingâ the economy
that was destroyed by the war and establishing certain âcreationsâ
tested during the subsequent months. This is proven by our summary
commentary on the work of the Economic Plenum. There is much more
evidence, however, which we cannot provide because of considerations of
space. We shall merely proceed, then, by providing the names of the
institutions that it sought to create and the rules that it sought to
impose, which were approved at the Plenum.
The proposal recommended the creation and further development of
âConsumers Cooperativesâ. It called for âresearch on how to carry out
the implementation of effective planning of Industry, without waiting
for the creation of the National Council of the Economy, a government
organization with a mixed state-trade union composition, which would be
called upon to fulfill this obvious economic necessityâ. We shall add
that this government body was insistently advocated by the CNT in its
petitions to the central government. The proposal furthermore advised
the âadministrative Centralization of the Confederal Economyâ, and that
within the resulting administrative body many other sections would be
formed. And, finally, it proposed regulations concerning âgeneral labor
standardsâ, by means of which human labor power could be controlled;
these norms would specify the quality and quantity of production and
would apply moral sanctions against those workers who failed to comply
with their standards, those who came to work late, those who did not
carry out the type of production indicated, etc.
So far we have described, in broad strokes, the results of the
deliberations of the Extended Economic Plenum of the CNT. By virtue of
its contents and its proposals for the future, it may be deduced that
the cenetistasâhaving reneged on their ideological patrimonyâwere
concerned, directly and indirectly, with reinforcing the prestige of
bourgeois institutions, giving them a trade union character and
denomination. We say this because the reader will have noticed that
these institutions would, in order to function normally, have to be
legalized by the State; that is, the State would have to approve their
statutes and participate in their control and supervision. Even
assuming, however, that all the proposed initiatives were to be
implemented under the aegis of the revolution, what perspectives and
what basis did the CNT possess that would lead it to believe that the
State would not destroy these creations in the same wayâwith a military
incursionâthat the Collectives of Aragon were destroyed? According to
the CNT, these proposals were based on the solid purpose of helping to
win the war. Furthermore, in the text of the regulations and in the
appeals issued by the Plenum, after its adjournment, to the confederal
organizations, all language of a revolutionary character is eliminated,
with the intention, of course, that no obstacles should be interposed by
the authoritarians to the implementation of these plans. This appeal
concludes with these words: âHail to all the anti-fascists, regardless
of their other views!â
We are convinced that the Spanish workers movement must be reborn, like
the Phoenix, in order to once again take up its post in the struggle for
emancipation. Many seeds have been sown and the germination of rebellion
and the expression of the anarchist ideal must soon break out with
greater force. The Spanish people are indomitable and preserve in their
hearts the hope for freedom. They are spurred on by their yearning for
redemption and the moral force of their glorious revolutionary history,
that moral force that our comrade P. Minotti recalls in an article that
we read a short time ago and in one of its paragraphs he says:
âWe therefore grant to these moral forces all their splendor and
character, due to the elevated significance they imply in the struggles
for liberty, in the vehicles of our anarchist propaganda. It can never
be the offspring of mere words or of the more or less brilliant demagogy
of leaders, of politicians of every stripe and color, because as opposed
to the ephemeral and traitorous words, in the conscience of men there
must be, firm in anarchist ideals, ideas of social transformation; the
more dismal the present time, the more firm must be the moral forces of
the anarchists. They have not been destroyed, nor have they been
replaced by the negativism of historical materialism. We need to know
how to give the fecund passions of the people their true function in the
process of social transformation, which, according to the words of
Mikhail Bakunin, will create a new world from the old.â
And when this mission is resumedâthe creation of a new worldâthe Spanish
workers will, with their great revolutionary achievements, erase from
history all the aberrations and betrayals of the CNT, in order to affirm
anarchist communism.
No one can deny that, once the first alarming news of the developments
in Spain had been received, the two sister organizations on both sides
of the RĂo Plata, the FORA and the FORU, affiliates of the International
Workingmenâs Association, were filled with enthusiasm and activity in
order to reaffirm their moral solidarity with their Spanish comrades.
Economic support was contributed in accordance with their means and as
the circumstance allowed.
But it is also true that once they became aware of the deviations
endorsed by the âmajorityâ of the representatives of the CNT, and
subsequently, the pressure exerted by the latter on the IWA to convince
the latter to accept and bestow its imprimatur on these deviations, they
clearly expressed their disagreements with these developments in both
organizations.
This is demonstrated by the resolutions approved on questions pertaining
to the CNT which, because of the impossibility of sending delegates in
person who would represent both the FORA and the FORU at the
Extraordinary Congress of the IWA held in Paris in December 1937, were
transmitted in writing. From the texts of these resolutions concerning
the problem of the CNT and its âattitude and positions after July 19â,
we shall quote some excerpts from a text of the FORU:
âThe FORU understands that the Congress of the IWA must clearly set
forth its position on the Spanish events. The FORU draws attention to
the fact that there is a difference between the terms, WAR and
REVOLUTION. With respect to the war, the IWA must affirm its traditional
mission of opposing all wars and combating the militarist spirit,
understanding by WAR the struggle for the seizure of Power among the
various capitalist fractions, represented in the various factions in the
government, known as monarchists, republicans, socialists, communists,
and any other âismsâ that are currently polarized around these two
poles, apparently opposed, but both of which are distinctly reactionary,
and inveterate enemies of Proletarian emancipation: FASCISM and
ANTI-FASCISM.
âWith regard to the revolution, on the other hand, that is, with regard
to the work carried out from below, outside of and against all
governmental institutions, expropriating property without any hesitation
at all, abolishing the entire system of exploitation and the regime of
wage labor, the IWA must cooperate to the fullest extent of its
abilities, for the purpose helping the revolution to advance as far as
the circumstances allow.â
Concerning the delicate problem posed by the CNT, which was engendering
conflict within the movement of the IWA by engendering circumstantially
sympathetic nuclei, given the deviationist position of the CNT, the FORU
expressed its views in the following manner:
âWith regard to the nuclei that are âsympatheticâ to the IWA, which
exist in various countries, and which the CNT is currently encouraging
to intervene in the Congress (except for those which have maintained a
connection with the Association as member organizations), this is not
the time to give them rights, when they have forgotten their most
essential duties, by combating or sabotaging the organizations that are
working among the rank and file of the movement, in their attempt to
infect the sections of the IWA with authoritarianism, and which on this
occasion, taking advantage of our liberality, maneuvered to form a
majority, one that approves of participation in the institutions of the
State, whether âtemporarilyâ or permanently, and therefore distorting
the principled course of the international movement represented in the
IWA. Rather, the attendance at the Congress, like all the acts and
labors of the International, of nuclei with an organic character which
act, even temporarily, within or outside the countries that are
currently experiencing emergency situations, but in conformance with the
traditional foundation of anarchist militancy, which confers upon the
workers movement its transformative idealism, we consider that they must
take a position in the entity, since in most cases their disorganized
condition is the result of attacks launched by the reactionaries and the
opportunists, often concealed behind reformist or dictatorial workers
movements. As a result, and convinced that it is a meeting of delegates
of member organizations affiliated with the Association, devoted to the
task of elucidating the problems that affect the movement, interested in
strengthening and affirming its fundamental principles, with the
elevated morality of men who are guided by a higher ideal rather than
base passions, capable of admitting an error if they have committed one,
we have engaged in an examination of the current position of the CNT,
and the points that are proposed as the basis for discussion at the
Congress.â
The position of the FORU at the Extraordinary Congress is summarized as
follows:
âConcretizing the thoughts of the FORU concerning the points that have
come to our attention, which were proposed by the CNT to be included on
the agenda for the Congress, and also concerning those whose contents
are unknown to us, which were proposed by comrades Galvé and Rudiger,
which make reference, according to the synopsis of the Secretariat of
the IWA, to a âreexamination of the Declaration of Principles and of the
Statutes of the Associationâ, we consider it advisable to set forth a
summary of our views, in order to inform the comrade delegates attending
this Congress, and concerning which we would very much desire to reach a
free agreement. Our views are:
â1. Fraternal acceptance by the CNT of the critiques of its
governmentalist activities, reaffirming its adherence to the Declaration
of Principles of the IWA and its commitment to act in accordance with
themâŠ.
â3. A Position Statement by the IWA concerning the Spanish events,
expressing the deepest solidarity with the revolutionary achievements,
manifested in the armed struggle and in the social experiments that have
been carried out, or are in the process of being implemented, based on
free agreement and direct action. Reaffirmation of its spirit of
rejection of all wars, which essentially involve contention for
dominance over systems of government, in the game of political disputes,
to obtain hegemony over the âres-publicaâ.
â4. Rejection of any ârevisionâ of the Declaration of Principles of the
IWA, and affirmation of the current structure of the Secretariat,
proposing that should any changes be contemplated, they must first be
submitted to the review of the member organizations, and they must be
given enough time to issue their reports.
âFor the Federal Council, the Secretary.â
Later, for the Ordinary Congress, also held in Paris in 1938, where
particular attention was devoted to debating the topics, âExamination
and Clarification of the Principles of the IWA Statutesâ, and
âInternational Practical Norms of Anarchosyndicalismâ, the FORU
condensed its views in the following statements:
âRegarding the Examination of the Statutes and the Declaration of
Principles of the IWA, the FORU understands the need to affirm the
existing Pact and its Declaration of Principles, its anti-state norms
and practices and direct action, and if any modification is appropriate
it would be for the purpose of making it more consistent with the
federalist character of the movement upon which the International
Workingmenâs Association is based and in which the anarchist goal of the
IWA is embodied.
âSixteen years after the founding of the IWA, the heir of the First
International that Bakunin, ReclĂșs, Lorenzo and so many other comrades
worked to create, and which at the Congress of Saint-Imier in 1872
acquired its own distinctive character with the approval of an
anti-statist, anti-political and revolutionary declaration during its
proceedings, all of which was reaffirmed at the founding Congress of the
current IWA that took place in 1922 in Berlin, which ranged us against
the reformism of social democracy, the master of the Amsterdam
International, the latter therefore being subordinated to the ebb and
flow of its statist and legal action, and also against the Red Trade
Union International of Moscow, an obligatory appendage of the Bolshevik
Party, victorious in Russia, thus distinguishing the IWA as the only
libertarian and emancipatory International, diametrically opposed to the
centralizing mechanism of these corporate bodies, which are subject to
the directives of political Marxism and to its materialist concept of
the struggles of the proletariat, our Association, although it has
recently experienced a decline in the number of its adherents, due to
the persecutions endured by its affiliated organizations in various
countries, its prestige and its possibilities have been greatly
increased, because the workers, tired of legal agitation, which only
serves to bolster the strength of capitalism and the State, are turning
towards the methods and practices advocated by the IWA, and that is why
it is so essential to intensify propaganda among all the workers, about
the meaning of its tactics of struggle, and the content of its
Declaration of Principles, putting more emphasis on its syndicalist
dimension to influence their activities, positing Anarchist Communism as
the final goal, highlighting the comprehensive human meaning that
inspires the member organizations of the Association, to advocate forms
of social life based on mutual aid and free agreement, outside of the
political and economic systems whose reason for existence is based on
capitalist exploitation and on the tyranny of the State, regardless of
the form of the latter, bourgeois or proletarian, since both are upheld
by the Authority of bayonets.â
The FOR of Argentina sent the following proposed resolutions concerning
the question of the CNT mentioned above to the Ordinary Congress of the
CNT held in Paris in December 1938:
âFOURTH POINT. Every declaration of principles has, of course, a
theoretical meaning, since its purpose is to articulate aspirations or
proposals for the fulfillment of any particular movement; declarations
of principles, however, no matter how brilliant and relevant they may
be, are absolutely worthless if the institution or the movement that
adopts them is content to restrict them to an existence on paper but
does not seek to realize them to the greatest possible extent, adjusting
its development and its tactics to their meaning. It is for this reason
that, from the point of view of the FORA, which tries to always remain
faithful to the message of its principles, declarations of principles do
not represent a purely theoretical exposition, but rather a line, a
point of perspective that fixes the course of a movement; a line and a
point of perspective from which one cannot deviate without falling into
irresponsibility, and to which it is necessary to adapt the meaning of
tactics and militancy.
âWithout this zeal and this faithfulness to which the declaration of
principles appeals, it is to be understood that principles can be set
aside and that the militancy and daily activities of the movements would
follow the path of possibilism and contingency. When the declaration of
principles upheld by the IWA was drafted, the FORA took the opportunity
to express its opinions and to make proposals through its delegates, and
we can today express with satisfaction that the meaning of the
principled positions which informed those opinions and proposals of
ours, have not changed in the least. Rather to the contrary, the events
of the last few years have contributed to the reaffirmation of the
concept advocated by the FORA regarding this matter. This is why,
confronted with an invitation like this one that calls for a
clarification and examination of the declaration of principles of the
IWA, we understand that everything that might be done in this respect
can only be accepted when it reaffirms the postulates of emancipation
that constitute the direction and goal of our struggles; and also in
view of the fact that in this sense there is nothing superior to the
declaration of principles of the FORA, or to its methods of struggle and
its system of organization, we reject any attempt that is directed in
the sense of introducing modifications that would tend to diminish the
anti-state, anti-political and anti-collaborationist position that must
be the guiding beacon for all the actions and activities of the IWA.
âFIFTH POINT. Considering that every statute is always incompatible with
the federalist principle and with the free agreement that we have a duty
to practice in all dimensions of our activities in order to enable the
workers to exercise these same principles, and also for the purpose
that, as a result of this consequence, they will be instilled with the
faith in the ideals of the movement, it is our opinion that there should
be no other statutes for the IWA other than those agreements and
decisions made by its congresses and assemblies.
âSIXTH POINT. With regard to the issue discussed in our Fourth Point,
the FORA cannot conceive of a tactic that would not be conditioned by
its theory, that is, by its declaration of principles. That is why,
since the first meeting of the revolutionary syndicalists that led to
the founding of the IWA, the FORA has placed special emphasis on its
declaration of principles and on its concept of syndicalism,
understanding that the latter must necessarily be conditioned by the
former. The FORA set forth its conception concerning this matter in the
minutes that it presented to the meeting, and it has reaffirmed this
concept at all the congresses or meetings that have taken place since
then. Today our opinion has not changed. We still think that working
class syndicalism with its tactic of direct struggle, conditioned by a
superior declaration of principles, constitutes an invincible weapon in
the hands of the proletariat; we think that this weapon cannot be
abandoned as long as the regime of exploitation and tyranny that weighs
upon the peoples endures; but we consider that, with regard to the
interpretation of a regime of equality and social justice, our hopes for
working class syndicalism can only be embodied in a declaration of
principles such as we advocate, which assures for the future an era of
economic equality and freedom of expression through the establishment of
Communism and Anarchy. This is the social goal of the FORA and it is
also the social goal of the IWA if we take into account the fact that in
its declaration of principles Libertarian Communism figures as the
leading aspiration of its struggles. We consider that all of this is
well known to all those who have had the opportunity to get to know the
nature of the FORA within the IWA. We therefore do not think it is
necessary to insist on this. We shall only say specifically and even at
the price of succumbing to the vice of redundancy, that syndicalism must
adapt its tactics of struggle as well as its system of organization to
the social goal that has been set forth in its declaration of
principles.â
One of the most fruitful experiments conducted by the anarchists during
the first months of the war in Spain was undoubtedly the Federation of
Collectives of Aragon, where the transformation of capitalist society
into a system of social life characterized by solidarity and justice was
to some extent actually realized.
Despite all the compromises and backroom deals with the Marxist
politicians, a life of freedom, mutual aid and communal labor was
assayed in Aragon. The peasants of Aragon, who had a long history of
rebellion, were rapidly able to appreciate the difference of the
methods, the practicality of the anarchist ideas and the nobility of the
social structure without masters, local political bosses, priests or
exploiters.
It is true that in Aragon, the authority principle was not totally
eliminated, since the anarchists, in their suicidal offer of cooperation
and alliance with the politicians, allowed the preservation of disguised
state forms in the Council of Defense, but it must be acknowledged that
they made the landlords and feudal lords disappear in order to
collectivize the land for those who worked on it.
As we said previously, however, the healthy contentment and satisfaction
of the Aragonese peasants would not last very long, because the
government that had fled to [sic: âfromâ] Madrid and was reborn with the
participation of the âministerialistsâ of the CNT and the FAI in
Valencia, whose president, under the circumstancesâby order of Russia,
which was pressured to do so by the âdemocraticâ powersâwas the puppet
NegrĂn, decided to abolish the last vestiges of the social revolution,
the Collectives of Aragon, and dispatched an expeditionary force under
the command of the communist Lister to do the bidding of international
capitalism and the âanti-fascistâ powers.
This maneuver, which was urgently implemented, is described, with real
bitterness, by comrade Ascaso, in an interview with a journalist for Le
Reveil, of Geneva, excerpts from which we reproduce below:
âNaturally, we held discussions, we examined the danger, we met more
than once, but moderation and a wait and see attitude, and a desire to
find a compromise solution, always prevailed. It was necessary to hold
discussions, to conciliate, to make a deal with NegrĂn, to go to
Valencia, to meet with the various ministers, etc. And then always to
wait, not to become alarmed, not to respond to provocations, in order to
experience a debacle, which was the inevitable result of such methods.
â⊠As I already told you, I and the five comrades who, with me, formed
the majority of the Council of Aragon, all agreed. We would have
resisted, we would have remained at our posts and assumed responsibility
for whatever would have happened. Regardless of the defeatist position
of the CNT, we would have defended our Council with arms in hand,
because that is how we understood the revolution and we are still to
this day the same anarchists and revolutionaries that we were in the
past. And I will tell you even more, so you will understand the refined
Jesuitism of the politicians. While I was in Valencia on an urgent
mission, having been given assurances that we could come to an
agreement, the division commanded by the sinister Lister, the communist,
marched on Caspe, and I was arrested at the gates of Valencia, after
having spoken to the ministers. I am sure that if I had been able to
reach Caspe, Lister would not have been able to dissolve our Council,
since all the confederal divisions were at our disposal.â
That is how the experiment of the Aragonese collectives ended, which,
while they may have suffered from serious operational defects, set the
standard that showed that the anarchist ideal had ceased to be a utopia
in order to instill in the minds of the peasants the conviction that the
capitalist system had denied them the right to Life.
The cenetista and faĂsta bureaucracy, in its clumsy and ridiculous
attempt to justify its betrayals and its collaboration with the State,
conceived the argument that it was necessary to support Companys in
Catalonia and therefore to obey and uphold the power of the central
government as wellâwhose President was Azañaâso that, on the surface,
Spain would give the appearance to the diplomats of the democratic
governments of a country ruled in accordance with the legal and
political norms inherent to any well constituted State, so that these
countries would make weapons, munitions and other urgently needed
materiel available to the âanti-fascistâ alliance.
It is not necessary to open the book that tells the story of the obscure
diplomatic plots and machinations of the anti-fascist powers against
republican Spain, which were so clearly revealed by the grave events
that took place in those 30 months of fratricidal war, in order to
affirm that the âtranscendentalâ resolution of the CNT and the FAI to
allow the whole dilapidated structure of the Spanish state to remain
standing, in order to obtain moral support and arms from the
âdemocraciesâ, was merely a crude pretext to conceal their absolute lack
of anarchist convictions; their cowardice in the face of the shocking
spectacle of the awakening of the Iberian proletarian multitudes; their
well-dissimulated ambitious fantasies and their boundless authoritarian
careerism. For it is not possible to suppose that during those moments
they had forgotten the past of opprobrium and despotism that these
nations had behind them, one that is identical with regard to violent
methods and servile ends to the behavior currently manifested by the
totalitarian statesâas the prize of conquestâby imposing humiliation on
the Czech, Ethiopian, Austrian, Albanian and other peoples.
France has used the guillotine on its rebels. It has enslaved the
peoples of Africa, where it imposes, by force of arms, European
âcivilizationâ.
England has demonstrated its barbarous procedures of âadaptationâ in the
bloody war against the Boers, in Transvaal, and rules over India,
Palestine, and other vast, and wealthy, regions.
The United States flaunts, in its long reactionary history, the red
blemish of the Chicago Martyrs. It electrocuted Sacco and Vanzetti and
it has imposed its military and economic dominance on various little
republics in South America. Russia, which, by an irony of language, is
denominated by its paid panegyrists as the âvanguard of democracyâ, has
a rigid and cruel dictatorship of the âproletariatâ; there is no freedom
of assembly or speech and the only press is the official state press.
However, even if we were to assume that their memories had proven to be
unreliable, the suspicious events that were taking placeâthe refusal to
deliver the train cars full of ammunition in IrĂșn; the initiative of the
leader of the French cabinet, the socialist Blum, to form the famous
Non-Intervention Committee, which resulted in a tight blockade on the
coasts of âloyalistâ Spain; the fall of the cabinet presided over by
Largo Caballero, ordered by Russia with the acquiescence of France and
England; the surrender of MĂĄlaga, Bilbao, Santander, etc., without a
fight, without destroying the machinery of the mines or the armaments
factories; the presence in the port of Barcelona of English and French
warships during the May Days of 1937, when the Marxists were murdering
the anarchists in order to impose their complete domination over the
âworkers Republicâ; the refusal to send arms to the Aragon front; the
Bolshevization of the anti-fascist army, and its infiltration by large
numbers of âtechniciansâ, all communists; the control exercised by the
communists over the frontier with France; the dissolution of the Defense
Committee and the agrarian collectives of Aragon; the intervention of
the army of Portugalâan ally of Englandâalongside Francoâs hordes; the
transport, right under the noses of the English and the French, of
thousands of âvolunteersâ sent by Mussolini and Hitler, without their
âknowledgeâ and without them being detected; the bombing of Spanish
cities and towns by German and Italian airplanes, fueled with Russian
gasoline; and many other grave and symptomatic eventsâdid it never occur
to the brilliant minds of the men of responsibility of the CNT and the
FAI to be concerned with investigating just where their âingenuousnessâ,
âgood faithâ and zeal to make alliances with the authoritarian
politicians united in the anti-fascist bloc and with the democratic
nations had led and was leading them?
The machinations and backdoor plots being hatched in the chancelleries
of the âanti-fascistâ countries were no mystery, maneuvers tending to
eliminate the danger that was represented, for the governments and
capitalists of the totalitarian nations as well as all the other ones,
by the revolutionary wave spearheaded by the anarchists of the Iberian
Peninsula. Tierra y Libertad, of Barcelona, in its issue of March 20,
1937, said:
âInternational capitalism has no wall that divides the fascist
capitalists from the democratic capitalists, or the monarchists from the
liberals, the rightists from the leftists. It has its great centers in
London and in New York, in Berlin and in Paris, in Rome and in Buenos
Aires, in Tokyo and in Geneva, in all the great capitals of the globe.â
SantillĂĄn claimed:
âSo-called loyalist Spain collapsed as a result of our victory of July
19, under the influence of the imperialist constellation of the
allegedly democratic powers. England and France, with the diplomatic
alliance of Russia, were not very concerned, or not at all concerned,
with the prospect of a fascist Spain; but they were very concerned about
the possibility of a revolutionary Spain.â
Furthermore, the âpacifistâ initiatives of the English politician Mr.
Eden were very well known in Spain, initiatives which entailed the
restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. The results of the grotesque Munich
Conference were also known, where, with the mutual agreement of the four
great powers, the disappearance of Czechoslovakia was decided. The
efforts of the English prime minister on behalf of âpacificationâ were
also well known, whom some humorists depicted with an open umbrella; and
no one was unaware of the fact that English diplomacyâby dividing
countries up or surrendering themâdominates the world; which helped
transform Mussolini into a Napoleon; which preferred and helped bring
about Francoâs victory; which received the protest of Portugal âagainst
fascist interferenceâ and ⊠that is already enough. The democratic and
totalitarian powersâseemingly at loggerheadsâthus fulfilled their
mission to âsave humanityâ, providing the means to make possible the
stabbing in the back, the imprisonment and the shooting of the
anarchists of Spain and today, they must be savoring, satisfied and in
unison, the tragic task they accomplished in the Iberian regions, by
means of the hosts of Franco.
Now that the echo of the military bugles, the roar of the cannons, the
staccato tapping of the machine guns, the buzz of the bombers, the
heartrending cries of the wounded and the thump of human bodies hitting
the Spanish soil, never to rise again, has just recently been silenced,
once again the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping over the
fields of Europe. Attila returns in the form of Mars.
Once again, the brutal and destructive argument of combat weapons is
employed: tanks, planes, gas, armor, flamethrowers and toxic liquids,
etc., in order to determine the political and economic pecking order
among the capitalist powers. It is thus that the madmen of absolutist
sensualism, the unbalanced and dangerous agents of international
diplomacy and the arms manufacturers have once again led the peoples of
old Europe, after having intoxicated them with the opium of patriotism,
to a hecatomb that is even greater than the one that started in 1914,
which cost millions of lives and left in its wake millions of invalids,
orphans and insane people. In all oral and written propaganda we note
the fateful duoâCapital and the Stateâas the factors that are
responsible for the painful and Dantesque spectacle that we behold as
spectators from a distance, although the irrefutable arguments that we
have always made to the workers in order to point with the finger of
accusation at the causal factors of this collective crime and of our
misfortunes, sacrifices and miseries, will not at the present time
produce any greater reflective effect in the minds of the people, since
the latter are dominated by war fever, which the bourgeois press injects
into them on a daily basis. We must repeat, however, that those who
today unleash the whirlwind of passions, of hatred and of limitless
cruelty on the European peoples, are still hiding behind false
appearances, seeking to appear as messengers of peace and saviors of
humanity.
It is logical to state, then, that every person with an altruistic
spirit and noble sentiments must feel despondent in the face of the
impressive scene of cruelty, martyrdom and destruction that is currently
taking shape in Europe, and must unite their reproach with our anathema
against this crime against humanity signified by the war, joining the
outcries of the mothers, sisters, children and elderly parents who will
be the sacrificial victims of the current madness of war.
That, then, is the anathema we pronounce against all wars.
When I refer to âour pressâ, in South America, in order to call
attention to the preaching of anarchist doctrines that is tenaciously
being carried out by the newspapers, OrganizaciĂłn Obrera, the organ of
the FOR of Argentina, and Solidaridad, that of the FOR of Uruguay, we
are not guided by a sense of closed-minded exclusivism. The reason why
we express it this way is the fact that these newspapers have been able
to keep abreast of the circumstances and events, fearlessly criticizing
the cenetistas and faĂstas at first for their deviations, and then for
their ideological betrayals, keeping the proletarian ranks and the
anarchist militants informed of these trends, so that they should not be
infected with the confusionist virus that the disastrous actions of
those comrades has disseminated and so that the proletarians and the
anarchist militants should concern themselves as a matter of the
greatest importance with learning all the details about these
developments, in order to breach the cordon sanitaire that has been
organized on an international scale by the anarchists who have
implemented these âconstructiveâ and âinnovativeâ experiments.
It is true, of course, that this worthy and noble attitude of our press
has induced enormous discontent in the ranks of opportunism and that it
has âearnedâ bitter reproaches and much antipathy. Some other
newspapersâonly a very fewâpublished by other anarchist groups have also
confronted the confused situation brought about by these events and
criticized from an elevated vantage point the cenetista and faĂsta
âdiscoveriesâ.
We shall reproduce the following excerpts from two articles from our
press, which demonstrate the clear and plainly anarchist orientation of
the editorial policy of the newspapers mentioned above:
In issue no. 55 of OrganizaciĂłn Obrera the following thoughtful article
appeared:
âThe feeble hopes that were nourished concerning a possible favorable
change in the situation of the Spanish republic are totally dissipating
in a most spectacular fashion. In reality, considering the way things
are going and in view of how the peace process is being prepared, one
might say that the destiny of Spain, although not finally determined,
has now been cast, since the events of the last few days, both regard to
the political as well as the military aspect, leave no room for doubt.
Spain, although it is painful for us to say this, will definitely be
sacrificed to the caprice of the dictators and to the interest of big
international capitalism.
âHowever, and despite such a sorrowful conclusion, we must point out
that none of the great events of this century, including the Russian
Revolution, have contributed a greater mass of experiences than the
Spanish conflict, since apart from the deep social significance it
acquired during its very first moments, the civil war that is now coming
to an end has been rich in facts and examples of every kind and
magnitude.
âIndeed. In Spain, to an extent seen nowhere else in the world, we have
witnessed the degree to which people are capable of sacrifice and
heroism. Alongside this, however, we have also witnessed the extent to
which the suffering and sacrifice of the people, whose fate is now being
sealed, was cynically manipulated. For apart from the betrayals that
pertain to this case, the deception has in this instance been so real
that it will be difficult for its perpetrators to vindicate themselves
before the serene judgment of history, much less before the harsh
justice of the peoples of the world who might demand on a
not-too-distant future date that those who are now its leaders should
provide an explanation for their actions. The truth is that the drama of
Spain is now coming to an end with the greatest betrayal of our time and
that this unprecedented betrayal is the responsibility of all those who
helped to cause this valiant people to set aside their revolutionary
impulses of the first few moments of the civil war and instead entrust
their destinies to the democratic policy that all their leaders were
advising them to adopt.
âWe will not say anything new, at least not for those comrades who have
tried to keep informed and to study the unfolding events of this
conflict. If we say, however, that the people who fought on the side of
the republican government have not been defeated, we are only shedding
light on a reality that nothing or no one can refute or deny. And we
shall also mention an incontrovertible truth when we say that the
Spanish people, after having been suitably pacified and domesticated,
has been miserably surrendered: by means of the deception practiced by
all those who led it, first in order to conceal, and then later to
annihilate their revolution out of fear of losing the good will of the
great democratic nations ⊠which are now paying them back for their
sacrifices by surrendering them unconditionally to fascism. Is it not
clear that the betrayal from the outside caused this and made possible
this deliberate domestication of the people? Yes, that is the truth, the
truth that cannot be concealed with phrases or talk of circumstancesâŠ.
âThe Spanish people lost their naive confidence in their leaders.
Although they were heroic and self-abnegating like no other people, the
Spanish people were still too childlike. They trusted too much in the
old statist and political lies. They were told that it was necessary to
uphold democracy and the fiction of the State, but by reestablishing the
democracy and once again putting the state back on its feet, both turned
against them and stabbed them in the back.
âIf, instead of suppressing its impulses of the first moments, it had
encouraged the people to continue to engage in the destruction of
everything that stood in the way of its desires for a rapid defeat of
the rebels and in the process radically transform life throughout Spain;
if it had taught the people that its revolutionary conquests could only
be defended by undertaking new and more advanced conquests; if it had
taught the people that the ânewâ legislation of justice, even if it was
promulgated by a working class minister, was nothing but a skillful
maneuver intended to inject new life in the regime that was in its death
throes; in short, if it had told the Spanish people that by transforming
its revolutionary struggle into a simple war for national
independenceâan outrageous maneuver that only brought the unitary
military command and the militarization of the army in the old
styleâmeant the beginning of the end of all their emancipatory efforts,
it is certain that the fate of Spain would have been different than what
is now in the offing, despite the fact that at this time there is talk
of an âhonorableâ peace.
âNot all, however, is lost in Spain. The old promises of anarchism both
with regard to its conception of the revolutionary struggle, as well as
in relation to its classical position against the State and everything
that helps to uphold the present regime, has not suffered any kind of
setback. To the contrary, reality has assumed responsibility for once
again confirming that everything the people have done that is not in
accordance with those principles has been in vain, and produced negative
results, although, as in the case of Spain, the people performed
prodigies of glory in the greatest struggle of our times.
âIt is a terrible lesson that Spain has taught us at the cost of
enormous sacrifices. Let us hope that this lesson is heeded by the
peoples of the world!â
In the issue of the FORUâs Solidaridad for the first two weeks of
October 1937, we read:
âAlthough it might seem surprising to many comrades who view these
problems from an objective standpoint, the entry of the CNT-FAI into the
government ministries of Valencia and Barcelona, as well as the
alliances with the anti-anarchist movements, were not really the
consequences of the need to deal with âspecial circumstancesâ, but
resulted from the lack of anarchist convictions among the principal
architects of these policies; from the fact that they were not
completely liberated from the statist principle, and the essential
function that by their very nature the organs of the State perform; from
the very fact that they even admitted the possibility that the
emancipatory project could be served from the institutions of the State,
if only these institutions were to be composed of men of good faith, of
anarchists, thus denying the essential principles of anarchism,
elaborated on the indestructible basis of the conclusions arrived at
from the undeniable facts that history has provided us.
âIn brief, we shall not resort to claiming that the misnamed
governmental âanarchistsâ and the men who sought to justify their
policies, even if they say it was all an experiment, are basically
totally lacking in any anarchist beliefsâquite the contrary: they are
basically authoritarians, they deny the creative capacity of the people,
from below (the basis of anarchism) and attribute more liberatory
capacity to action from above, by means of committees or other
institutions that, without or even against the will of the workers,
dictate, not initiatives to be studied by all with equal conditions and
rights, but indisputable orders, which must be obeyed, regardless of
whether or not they respond to the needs of the oppressed, concerning
whichâand this is the other basis of anarchismâit cannot be conceived
that there is any genius who can regulate the needs and aspirations of
the people, but that the latter will realize their needs and aspirations
only by way of the exercise of their complete liberty; when this
exercise of liberty is lacking, then the creative initiative and
capacity of the people to struggle against the oppressors and to
organize life in such a way as to satisfy their material and spiritual
needs, then, we repeat, this capacity will be emasculated, because it
will be suspended in expectation of deeds that are to be carried out by
saviors. This anti-libertarian labor, unfortunately, is what has been
accomplished by those âanarchistsâ who joined the government, supported
by those who placed more faith in the âindispensableâ men than they did
in the working people.
âThe argument that joining the government was done for the purpose of
preventing the intervention of the governments of other countries, so
that it would appear to international capitalism that its interests were
being safeguarded, but that what they were really doing was safeguarding
the revolution, could not be more puerile, since it cannot be assumed,
much less by the capable men who joined the government, that
international capitalism is so stupid as to not know how to distinguish
whether a government was fictitious or real; if it was fictitious then
the intervention of armed force that everyone indisputably sought to
prevent would have taken place, until the âfictitiousâ government should
either become a real one, or until it is replaced by another that really
guarantees its interests and those of the Spanish capitalists, for which
both will work in unison, due to the identity of their interests and
ideas of social organization, establishing regimes that were
fundamentally based, although their outward forms varied, on the
subjection of the workers to the exploitation of the employers, thus
assuring the existence of their iniquities and obnoxious privileges.
âTo understand this question in any other way reflects intellectual
shortsightedness, regardless of how intellectual its proponents may
consider themselvesâand you will pardon us for the heresy that
semi-literate workers would be so irreverent towards the âeliteâ of
revolutionary intellectualismâor else bespeaks of a lack of courage that
is needed by men to confront the consequences that every revolution
brings in its wake and there should not be any revolutionaries who have
not studied this problem in advance.
âAnyone who, for many years, has carried out propaganda in favor of the
revolution and does not expect this propaganda to bear fruit, would be
like a parrot who automatically speaks words without the least
understanding of what they mean.
âIt is possible that these men have suffered from those two great
misfortunes for the revolution: a lack of anarchist convictions and the
simultaneous lack of personal fortitude to assume the responsibility
that the outbreak of a profound social revolution entails.
âWe think, however, that it is the first of these shortcomings, which
determined the anti-revolutionary position that these men have assumed
and still support. Our view is based on the fact that we understand that
there is no such thing as spontaneous generation, but that everything
that happens has its developmental process, until it reaches its
culmination, when circumstantial factors contribute to its full
emergence.
âAssuming this is the case, it is logical to expect that at the moment
when the Spanish events compelled these men to take a definite attitude,
anarchist or statist, they placed themselves on the terrain that
conformed most closely with the social conception that existed in the
deepest recesses of their souls. They therefore demonstrated that the
idea of liberty that they had disseminated for so many years was only a
thin veneer that concealed the authoritarian soul that existed in the
depths of their being.
âThis assertion is corroborated by the fact that the âspecial
circumstancesâ they invoked became permanent circumstances, and neither
the crimes committed with impunity against large contingents of
self-sacrificing libertarians by the so-called anti-fascists, nor the
reflux of the revolution due to the work openly carried out to strangle
the revolution by the left wing political parties, even while they
persisted in their obstinate or dishonest attempts to be admitted to the
government, so that from their posts ⊠they could continue to support
the progress of the revolution, without noting that the work of the
âanarchistâ ministers in the government actually contributed to the
effectiveness of the current justice system in its program of
imprisoning and executing a multitude of our comrades.
âWe shall help the cause of the Spanish revolution with all our
abilities, but we shall do so without abandoning our positions, meaning
the revolutionary cause, the efforts of the people who are fighting on
the basis of direct action, on the openly anti-state terrain, always
working from the bottom up, a struggle that is directed towards the
complete destruction of all bureaucracy and privileges, establishing
forms of social life that will guarantee integral emancipation from
every kind of exploitation and tyranny.â
It is not our intention to exalt to the heavens the actions of courage
and heroism carried out by the anonymous militiamen of the Spanish
people and especially, the actions of the anarchists during the epic
assaults against the reactionary forces of Franco, reinforced by the
âvolunteersâ sent by the totalitarian States and Portugal, because this
would only serve to bolster the war fever that was inoculated clumsily
and with irresponsible stubbornness by the supermen of the CNT and the
FAI into the ranks of the âanti-fascistâ combatants.
There have already been many books published by writers of acknowledged
intellectual prestige, and many more are on the wayâwith the visible
signs of having surrendered to the dictates of profitâthat contain a
chronological and exuberant description of this disagreeable and
heartrending aspect of the Spanish problem, and most of them are
narratives, saccharine and sentimental, instead of polemical or critical
works.
Despite this circumstance, it is our duty to sincerely render a just
homage to record the valiant and self-sacrificing conduct of so many
hundreds of thousands of anarchist militants who, led by their rebel
spirit and spurred on by the noble and compassionate ideal of redemption
that they expressed by their words and which beats in their proletarian
hearts, faced the emissaries of Mars with bared breasts, in order to
offer up their lives in sacrifice for the emancipation of the human
species.
In the assaults on the Montana Barracks in Madrid and on the Atarazanas
Barracks in Barcelona, at the international bridge in IrĂșn, in San
SebastiĂĄn, in the siege of AlcĂĄzar in Toledo, on the parapets of the
Ciudad Universitaria, in Guadalajara, in the reconquest of Teruel,
Belchite and Quinto, in the mountains of Asturias, in GijĂłn and Oviedo,
in the generous deeds of the âsuicideâ battalions, in the epic
resistance of PuigcerdĂĄ and finally, in all the regions of Spain,
falling silent forever, cut down by the mercenariesâ machine guns, many
good and valiant anarchist comrades died.
Our sense of honor also obliges us to acknowledge the enormous
sacrifices and countless sufferings undergone by children, women and the
elderly, who had to endureâduring the dreadful inferno that thirty
months of a harsh conflict meant for themâthe shocking aerial
bombardments, the roar of artillery and the lamentable scenes of
pillage, arson and destruction that the viciousness and barbarism that
possessed the hordes of Moors, Carlists, Nazis and fascists inflicted on
them. We empathize with the pain of these innocent victims of the war in
order to anathemize those who, out of crude ambitions for power, rapine
and exploitation, unleashed, participated in and prolonged this crime
against humanity, this hurricane of passions, which raged with an
infernal fury, with hatred and the urge for vengeance.
However, with the same sincerity with which we render homage to the
memory of the comrades immolated in that tragic conflict and as much as
we are horrified by the Dantesque vision of the scenes of suffering, the
vicissitudes of the struggle and massacres that the Spanish people
experienced, we must also affirm that all those titanic efforts, the
indelible deeds of heroism carried out by the anarchists, the lives that
were lost, the via crucis endured by the elderly, women and children
and, as a final sorrow, the heartrending tragedy experienced in the
concentration camps of France, were all completely fruitless and sterile
for the noble cause of emancipation of the Spanish people, because when
the latter awakened from their torpor, clenched their fists and surged
into the streets for revolutionary action, ready to destroy a regime of
opprobrium and tyranny, they found themselves surrounded by traitors to
the anarchist ideal and politicians, profiteers and reactionaries, who
instead of crying, âForward!â, assumed the task of pacifying the holy
rebellion of the vengeful crowds and corralled them in the enclosure of
treason with the accursed tentacles of political chicanery and
authoritarianism.
The grave, suicidal and outrageous betrayals that we believe have been
clearly exposed in the preceding chapters, cannot be understood to be
based on and must not be attributed to fortuitous events, circumstantial
necessities or imperatives of the war that began on July 19, 1936, but
must rather be understood as previously existing, very deeply rooted
methods of activity and conceptions, or, more precisely, a pernicious
characteristic that had contaminated the highest ranks of the Spanish
workers movement, a characteristic which certain âcelebrityâ elements,
who at that time occupied responsible positions in the CNT and the FAI,
further accentuated with their shameful activities.
We must not commit the absurdity or the injustice of accusing all the
anarchist militants of complicity in this treasonous surrender, because
we know that many good comrades were swept aside by the authoritarian
avalanche and those who were not shot as âuncontrollablesâ were
imprisoned in the jails of âloyalistâ Spain; but we are not exaggerating
when we say that the failure and the stifling of the social
revolutionâwhich had such an auspicious beginningâwas argued and decided
in advance, in the secret meetings, held behind the backs of the
majority of the working class and anarchist militants, in the halls of
the government palaces. This assertion has its indisputable source in
the political machinations that had been underway for quite some time;
in the âreasonable propagandaââas SantillĂĄn called itâthat had been
disseminated by the cenetista and faĂsta press in advance of the
elections of 1936 that made it possible for the leftists to win, and
even more distinctly in the liaison committee formed by the National
Confederation of Labor and the Generalitat of Catalonia even before the
military uprising.
It is therefore not the fruit of âcircumstantial necessitiesââa concept
that was abusively conceived in self-defenseâbut the work of apostate
and careerist elements who, basking in their literary reputation and in
the posts that they filled, waited hypocritically for their chance to
victoriously participate in the privileged legion of bureaucrats and
thus to obtain the much sought after reward for their authoritarian
ambitions and sentiments. These men had no anarchist roots at all. They
were dominated by scepticism with regard to the possibility of a
successful social revolution. They never wanted it and they opposed any
attempt to make it happen, out of fear or convenience. They had already
established their position on this question. It was a risky enterprise
and far beyond their collaborationist convictions.
Taking a closer look at the analysis of their activities and the
concepts that they revealed over the course of the events that we have
commented on, we come to the conclusion that they have a particular
tendency, which translates a faithful copy of other events and the
activity of other men from now distant but not forgotten epochs. History
repeats itself.
Let us take a look back in time. Let us go back to the year 1870 and
there we shall see identical episodes, men, phrases, slogans and
consequences.
A pioneer, an active militant and a valiant propagandist of
anarchismâBakuninâdescribes for us in the beautiful pages of his
booksâpages that we must re-read to refresh our memories, strengthen our
spirit and reaffirm our convictionsâthe events that took place in France
during that year, which are the same events that took place in Spain
just recently.
Change the names, the date and the country and you will have a picture
of Spain, with its personalities, its passions, its intrigues, its
betrayals and the strangulation of the social revolution.
Let us see what Bakunin tells us in his letters to âa Frenchmanâ,
published in the book, The Social Revolution in France:[11]
âAll of them are sincere patriots of the State. Separated on so many
points, they are completely united on only one issue: they are all
equally political, all men of the state.
âAs such, they only have faith in the regular means, in the forces
organized by the State, and are all equally horrified by the prospect of
the downfall, that is, in effect, the dishonor of the State, not of the
nation, not of the people; a horror towards uprisings, towards
anarchistic movements of the popular masses, which are the end of
bourgeois civilization and the certain dissolution of the State.
âThey want, then, to save France by the regular means only and by the
organized forces of the State, only resorting as little as possible to
the savage instincts of the multitudes, which becloud the exquisite
delicacy of their feelings, of their tastes, and what is even more
serious, that threaten their position and the very existence of the
society of the fortunate and the privileged.
âThey are forced, however, to resort to it, because the situation is
very serious and their responsibility immense. A formidable and
magnificently organized power has no other means of resistance than an
army that is half-destroyed and an incompetent, brutalized and corrupt
administrative apparatus, which only barely functions and is incapable
of creating in a few days a force that it was not capable of producing
in twenty years. It is therefore incapable of undertaking any serious
effort, if it is not supported by the public confidence and assisted by
popular sacrifices.
âThey were forced to appeal to this sense of sacrifice. They proclaimed
the reestablishment of the National Guard throughout the country, the
incorporation of the Mobile Guards in the army and the arming of the
whole nation. If all of this was sincere, they would have ordered the
immediate distribution of arms to the people throughout all of France.
But this would mean the abdication of the State, the social revolution
in fact as well as in theory, and they by no means wanted to do that.
âThis was so unappealing to them that if they had to choose between the
triumphal entrance of the Prussians in Paris and the salvation of France
by the revolution, there is no doubt that all of them, except for
Gambetta and company, would opt for the former. For them the social
revolution is the death of all civilization, the end of the world and
therefore of France as well. And it would be better, they would think,
to have a dishonored, dismembered France, momentarily subject to the
insolent will of the Prussians, but with the sure hope of rising again,
than a France that is forever dead as a State, killed by the social
revolution.
âAs politicians they had to face, then, the following problem: to issue
a call to arms to the people without arming the people, but taking
advantage of the popular enthusiasm in order to attract, under different
names, many voluntary recruits to the army; under the pretext of
reestablishing the National Guard, they wanted to arm the bourgeoisie,
excluding the proletarians, and especially the former soldiers, in order
to have a force powerful enough to oppose the revolts of the
proletariat, who would be emboldened by the absence of the troops; to
incorporate into the army the Mobile Guards, who are sufficiently
disciplined, and to dissolve or leave unarmed those who were not
disciplined enough and who displayed sentiments that were too red. Not
to allow the formation of free military units except on the condition
that they would be organized and led only by commanders belonging to the
privileged classes: the Jockey Club, noble landowners and bourgeoisie,
in a word, men of means.
âLacking the coercive power to contain the population, they used its
patriotic enthusiasm, provoked as much by the events as by their
declarations and compulsory decrees, to preserve âpublic orderâ,
disseminating among the population âthat false and disastrous
convictionâ that in order to save France from the abyss, from the
annihilation and slavery posed by the Prussian threat, the people must,
at the same time that they remain sufficiently enthusiastic to feel
capable of the extraordinary sacrifices that would be demanded of them,
for the salvation of the State, âremain calm, inactive, and place
themselves in a completely passive way into the hands of the Stateââand
of the provisional government that has now taken control of the
latterâand to consider as an enemy of France, and as an agent of
Prussia, anyone who attempts to disturb this confidence and this popular
tranquility, anyone who wants to provoke the nation to engage in
spontaneous acts of public salvation, in a word, anyone who, not having
complete confidence in the capacity and good faith of its current
rulers, wants to save France by way of the revolution.
âAs a result, there are today among all the parties, without excepting
the red Jacobins and naturally also the bourgeois socialists, those who
are intimidated and paralyzed by the fear that the really popular
socialist revolutionaries inspire in themâthe anarchists or, so to
speak, the Hebertistes of socialism, who are also profoundly detested by
the authoritarian communists, by the State communists, as well as by the
Jacobins and the bourgeois socialistsâamong all these parties, without
excepting the State communists, âthere is a tacit agreement to prevent
the revolution as long as the enemy is in Franceâ, for the following two
reasons:
âThe first reason is that, since all of them can only perceive the
salvation of France as coming from the action of the State and in the
excessive exaggeration of all its powers and capabilities, they are all
sincerely convinced that if the revolution were to break out now, it
would have the immediate effect, naturally, of destroying the present
State, since the Jacobins and the authoritarian communists would
necessarily lack the time and all the indispensable means to immediately
rebuild a new revolutionary State, it, that is, the revolution, would
hand over France to the Prussians, âby first handing it over to the
socialist republicansâ.
âThe second reason is merely an explanation and a further consequence of
the first reason. They fear and detest equally the revolutionary
socialists and the workers of the International, and, understanding that
in the present conditions the revolution would inevitably triumph, they
want at all costs to prevent the revolution.
âThis position is uniquely balanced between two enemies, one of
whichâthe monarchistsâis condemned to disappear, and the otherâthe
socialist revolutionariesâwhich threatens to be victorious, imposes on
the Jacobins, the bourgeois socialists and the State communists the
harsh necessity of secretly and tacitly making an alliance from above
with the reaction against the revolution from below. They do not fear
the reaction as much as they fear this revolution. For they see that the
former is excessively weakened, up to the point of not being able to
exist any longer without their consent, so they temporarily associate
with it and use it in a very disguised way against the latterâŠ.
âWhat is the result? The radical opposition, doubly constrained by the
instinctive repugnance that it has for revolutionary socialism and by
its patriotism, completely nullifies itself and marches against its will
behind this government which it reinforces and sanctions with its
presence, with its silence, and sometimes even with its deeds and
hypocritical expressions of sympathy.
âThis forced agreement between the Bonapartists, the Orleanists, the
bourgeois republicans, the red Jacobins and the authoritarian
socialists, naturally redounds to the benefit of the first two parties
and to the detriment of the latter three. If there were ever republicans
working on behalf of the monarchist reaction, they are certainly the
French Jacobins led by Gambetta. The reactionaries, driven into a
corner, no longer feeling the ground under their feet, seeing all the
old means broken in their hands, all the necessary instruments for
imposing the tyranny of the State, have at this time become excessively
humane and courteous, Palikao and Jerome David himself, so insolent
yesterday, are today extremely affable. They shower the radicals, and
especially Gambetta, with all their praise and with every kind of
expression of respect. But in exchange for these courtesies, they obtain
power. And the radical left is completely excluded from power.
âBasically, all these men who are todayâs leadership in power: Palikao,
Crevreau [Crémieux?] and Jerome David on the one side, Trochu and Thiers
on the other, and finally Gambetta, that semi-official intermediary
between the government and the radical left, cordially detest one
another and consider each other to be mortal enemies, and profoundly
mistrust each other, but, all of them are engaged in plotting together,
they are forced to march alongside each other, or rather âare forced to
give the appearanceâ that they are going forward in agreement. All the
power of this government is exclusively based today on the faith of the
popular masses in their harmonious, complete and iron unity.
âSince this government could only survive as a result of the faith of
the public, it is absolutely necessary that the people should have, so
to speak, an absolute faith in that unity of action and in that identity
of opinions of all the members of the government; for if the salvation
of France must be achieved by the State, this unity and this identity is
the only thing that can save it. It is therefore necessary for the
people to be convinced that all the members of the government, putting
aside all their differences and all their past ambitions, and absolutely
setting aside all party interests, should frankly be concerned about
nothing but the salvation of France. The instinct of the people is
perfectly well aware of the fact that a divided government, pulled apart
in every way, in which all its members are conspiring against all the
others, is incapable of serious energetic action; that such a government
would surrender the country instead of saving it. And if they knew
everything that was really taking place within the current government,
they would overthrow it.
âGambetta and company know everything that takes place in this
government, they are intelligent enough to understand that the
government is too disunited and is too reactionary to deploy all the
energy required by the situation and to take the necessary measures for
the salvation of the country, and remain silentâbecause if they were to
say what they know they would provoke the revolution, and because âtheir
patriotism as well as their bourgeois sympathies reject the
revolutionâ.â
All the posturing, innovative ideas and the fireworks of bellicose
slogans that are being disseminated by the collaborators of
âanti-fascismâ were the logical consequence of the compromises made in
the vicious circle of the political mania they had succumbed to
voluntarily and in a premeditated way, and of all the crude
justifications that reflected the simple fairy tales of minds dominated
by confusion and by a demeaning passion, once they felt that they had
failed in their role as rulers and once they knew that they had been
transformed into reprehensible scum in the eyes of international
anarchism.
Now that they are tumbling down the fatal slope of their betrayals, they
do not feel the least trace of remorse, nor do they have any scruples
about sowing confusion in all directions in order to find allies. They
are not worried about the future. It was the present that offered them
praise for their superman pedantry. Not only the connections and the
bowing and scraping with and before the powerful, the politicians and
the military staff but their performances as statesmen, diplomats, petty
bosses and, at the same time, as lapdogs of those same individuals.
The most notable aspect of the activities and speeches of the
âministerialistsâ that deserves to be highlighted is the ease with which
they enshrouded in obscurity an entire past of glorious and honorable
revolutionary history that the Spanish proletariat could boast of and
how they emphatically disseminated capricious theories and sophistical
conceptions.
It is not possible to grasp the scalpel of critique to dissect the
complex range of practices and ideas offered by the geniuses of
âanti-fascismâ and âdemocracyâ, meticulously examining its
ineffectiveness and its contents. The output of slogans and excuses was
so copious that it would be a most daunting task to provide a
chronological account of them. We must, however, make a special
allowance for the thesis that was simultaneously upheld by Oliver,
SantillĂĄn, PeirĂł and others, which can be summarized as follows: âthe
social revolution meant an anarchist dictatorshipâ or ârevolutionary
totalitarianismâ. It might be said that once the activity of the authors
of these ridiculous phrases became known, they were bereft of any value.
However, since there are many people who find it easy to identify with
the acrobatics of the ideal and model their thoughts and their words on
the latest fashionsâespecially if the latter support their eccentric
interpretationsâwe shall undertake a refutation of this notion.
It would be sufficient to offer some opinions from the prestigious
pioneers and theoreticians of anarchism who addressed and resolved the
social problem in all its enormous range. But we already know that for
the âministerialistsâ it is a heresy to feel admiration and respect for
the âvenerable beardsâ and the many years that they spent in study and
research mean nothing to them, nor do they value the enormous amount of
oral and written propaganda they produced; their outstanding activity in
various popular insurrections; their cruel pilgrimage from one country
to another and from one prison to another and their beleaguered life as
militants.
According to the thesis of the âministerialistsâ, the fact, once the
social revolution breaks out, the capitalist monstrosity is completely
destroyed; the population of a region, a city or a town then declares
the complete equality of economic conditions; all the privileges that a
small minority enjoyed by virtue of the imperative of the brute force of
arms are repudiated and annulled; it is proclaimed that there is no more
exploitation of man by man; the coercive means that the bourgeoisie
today possesses are seized and the proletarian multitudes are encouraged
to fully realize their well being and to defend their freedom and their
right to Lifeâall of this signifies, according to the âministerialistsâ,
âanarchist dictatorshipâ, âconfederal totalitarianismâ, or âtyrannical
ambitionsâ.
Captious and sensationalist arguments are crafted in order to disorient
the workers, seeking to draw a parallel between the opprobrious reigning
system, with its shocking economic and social inequalityâwhere any fool
who becomes rich by means of bold robbery or mental derangement and who
dreams of surpassing Napoleon becomes, overnight, the master of the
lives and the wealth of the peopleâwith the structural harmony that
would emanate from a system based on mutual aid, understanding and
reason, justice and love for oneâs fellow man.
An attempt was made to make the common people feel inferior who, having
staged a revolt in favor of a complete social transformation, were
supposed to adopt certain precautionary measures against the possible
reactions of the drones of the human hive, who, if they would only
grudgingly give up the lavish habits that they practice today at the
cost of other peopleâs sweat and blood, would thus give themselves the
opportunity to dignify their existence with honorable labor, for the
benefit of the collective.
And in accordance with this sophistry, the âministerialistsâ put the
brakes on the events and chose to submit to those who tyrannized over,
exploited and humiliated the people in the name of the principle of
authorityâthe Stateâsaying, with complete glibness, that they adopted
this tactic âwithout considering themselves to be outside the mainstream
of anarchism and without having abandoned their principlesâ.
The cruel consequences of the sudden initial reversal and of the
betrayals executed by the cenetistas and the faĂstas during the Spanish
conflict are now well known, since besides besmirching, with their
maneuvers and shady deals and alliances, the greatest emancipatory epic
of all time, they also led the Iberian masses to a senseless sacrifice
and betrayed them by surrendering them to the authoritarian fiends.
It will be objected that this opinion of ours is the result of our
âsectarian isolationâ.
If, as Companys told them, âYou have won and everything is in your
powerâ; if, as SantillĂĄn confirmed in his book, The Revolution and the
War in Spain, âthe dissolution of the defeated army gave us a quantity
of arms that made it impossible for the enemy to carry out any attempt
to recover its lost positionsâŠ. we could have single-handedly imposed
our absolute dictatorship, declared the dissolution of the Generalitat
and established, in its place, the real power of the peopleâ; if, during
the events of May in Barcelona, when the people erected barricades and
immediately dominated the entire city and, furthermore, could rely on
approximately 100,000 armed militiamen in nearby provinces, the leaders
of the CNT and the FAI had been men of integrity and anarchist
convictions, there can be no doubt that in that particular region of
Spain, encompassing Barcelona and Aragon, within a few months, days or
hours, a system of social life based on the most sublime accord,
solidarity and the just ideal of redemption would have been
establishedâAnarchyâand the red and black flag would have flown above
many buildings, the symbol of liberty and love for suffering and
exploited humanity.
This is not just a dream. The veteran anarchist fighter, Emma Goldman,
who was an eyewitness of the events in Spain, declared, several months
after the beginning of the civil war:
âI am profoundly convinced, indeed I am certain, that if the CNT-FAI,
taking into its hands and under its control, had blockaded the banks,
dissolved and eliminated the assault guards and the civil guards,
padlocked the Generalitat instead of entering it to collaborate, given a
moral blow to the entire old bureaucracy, swept away its enemies near
and far, today, one may be certain of this, we would not be suffering
from the situation that so humiliates and insults us, because the
revolution would have had to consolidate its logical course of
development. Having said this, I do not mean to say that the comrades
could have realized anarchy, but they would have been able to move in
that direction, coming as close as possible to the anarchist communism
they talk about here.â
We shall be told in response that if this had been attempted and carried
out, all the powersâtotalitarian and âdemocraticââwould have blockaded
the emancipated territories and populations by land and by sea and, in
addition, the âanti-fascistâ political factions would have united to
fight them and to suppress this revolutionary experiment.
However, did anything different happen? Were the anarchists not
persecuted, massacred and imprisoned by all their enemies? Was there not
an agreement between the totalitarian and the other powers to eliminate
the hotspot of rebellion represented principally by Barcelona? And as
for the âanti-fascistsâ of âloyalistâ Spain, everyone knows about the
outrageous personal intrigues carried out by all the wolves of politics,
playing the game, some with the totalitarian countries and others with
the âdemocraticâ countries, but all of them with international
capitalism.
It would have been more dignified, more heroic and more exemplary to
devote their lives, all the lives that were lost, for the realization of
the system of life that we anarchists yearn for, rather than diligently
choosing to deceive the workers and volunteer to collaborate with the
State.
R. GonzĂĄlez Pacheco was right when he wrote, upon his return from Spain,
his leaflet, âTodoâ [Everything], whose final paragraph reads as
follows:
âAt that instant of the world, whether yes or no, good or bad, only
those who were cowards or weaklings could not contribute something. They
are the ones who always take advantage of the defeats of the courageous
and the strong. Those who, between the two extremes of the virile
everything or nothing, of the leap towards the infinite or the return to
the caves, remain in the middle, between two bold stances, which, for
them, are two fearsâŠ. The people want everything. Anarchy is everything.
Now and always, the anarchists for everything!â
The anarchist ideal has not suffered any kind of setback, nor has it
been devalued with regard to its social greatness with the unfortunate
and disastrous activity of the comrades of the CNT and the FAI during
the course of the thirty months of the civil war in Spain. It is these
comrades who have rejected its ideological conceptions, cast a shadow
upon its beautiful revolutionary history and have demonstrated their
incomprehension or their lack of knowledge with regard to the
emancipatory basis that the anarchist idea encompasses.
Anarchy is virile action, creative unrest, responsibility, altruistic
thought and goodness and complete freedom. It destroys prejudices, stirs
the hearts of the faltering, wipes out border posts and capacitates men
and makes them able to live together in an environment of frank
camaraderie, mutual aid and fraternal affection.
To the extent to which historical events compel us to compare it with
all the sociological doctrines that combat it and reject it, the
brilliance of its structure and principles distinctly stands out, and it
is perceived that as a product of the human mind it cannot be surpassed.
The anarchist ideal still radiatesâwith exhilarating flashesâbeautiful
rays of love and hope upon the consciousness of the beleaguered,
sorrowful and downtrodden peoples, and these flashes merely represent
the first glimmer of the red dawn of its redemptive dreams.
As for the collaborationist practices engaged in and policies advocated
by the cenetistas and faĂstas, we are determined to see to it that they
will neither flourish nor be instilled into the marrow of the FORist
workers movement or in the milieu of the anarchist militantsâon both
banks of the Plataâwhich provide the FORist movement with direction and
defend it, because both the former as well as the latter have been
tested by experience and have learned lessons from the vast,
imperishable economic conflicts and solidarity struggles which, by
virtue of more than 40 years of organic federalist existence and
energetic efforts to keep the banner of revolt and direct action aloft
against Capital and the State, have affirmed, with a cherished optimism
and an immense spirit of sacrifice, the true north of the Anarchist
Communist goal.
State repression has often wreaked havoc among the proletarian FORist
ranks; the confusionist current has often arisen to display its
practice-oriented âinnovationsâ, but the FORists have always been able
to weather the reactionary tempest and neutralize the authoritarian
inroads in their organizations. So, too, on this occasion, we must
emerge victorious from the confrontation with the serious problems that
the Iberian events have posed for the international proletariat.
In spite of the bitterness and skepticism that now characterize the
attitudes of many proletarians, after becoming acquainted with all the
details of the tragedy the brave Spanish people experienced and are
still undergoing, we must not throw ourselves into the arms of
desperation and inertia, or declare that we are defeated. There are
defeats that are victories.
The facts, the red shafts of light that streak the panorama of the
social struggle, which becomes more cruel and bloody the more intense it
becomes, regardless of how discouraging and unfavorable they may seem,
always leave a resplendent wake that illuminates the path that must be
followed to reach the redemptive goal and prepare the peoples to trust
more in their own efforts than in the promises of the parasites of
politics who, with revolutionary posturing, lower themselves to the
level of the multitudes in order to take advantage of their sincerity
and generous natures in order to increase their own prestige, which they
need in order to make the deals that will give them a better position
among the privileged castes. Capitalism has its coffers well filled, in
order to buy those who might disturb their plans for dominance and
exploitation.
Thus, the anarchists face an enormous labor of training and sowing the
seeds of rebellion in the consciousness of the working masses.
In order to destroy the confusionism that is being injected into the
working class milieu by the betrayers of our ideal, it is necessary to
become more active, to devote ourselves more tenaciously and more
passionately to trade union actions. The FORist cadres must be on the
lookout for the revisionist virus and must reinforce their ranks with
new revolutionary contingents.
If the violent repression unleashed by the âdemocraticâ States against
our militants has not made a dent in our anarchist consciousness, the
disaster undergone by the Spanish proletariat must spur us on to fight
with more zeal for the emancipation of the human species. The future
belongs to us and we must advance towards the future for Anarchy.
Manuel Azaretto
1939
[1] The FOR, Regional Workers Federation; FORU= Regional Workers
Federation of Uruguay; FORA=Regional Workers Federation of Argentina
[Translatorâs Note].
[2] The Spanish word used in the original, âclaudicaciĂłnâ, is translated
in this text as âbetrayalâ or âbetrayal of principlesâ, and occasionally
as âsell-out[s]â or âbackslidingâ, depending on the context
[Translatorâs Note].
[3] A historical term referring to Jewish or Moslem inhabitants of Spain
who converted to Catholicism during the conquest of Spain by the
Christian monarchy, especially during the 14^(th) and 15^(th) centuries
[Translatorâs Note].
[4] These resolutions were translated into English and published in the
IWWâs Industrial Pioneer, March 1921, p. 53, as follows: âFIRST: That
the ConfederaciĂłn Nacional del Trabajo declares itself the firm defender
of the principles which gave form to the First International, sustained
by Bakounine; SECOND: That it declares its provisional adherence to the
Third International, because of the revolutionary character of its
present directorate, and until the organization and holding of the
International Congress in Spain, which is to lay the basis upon which
will be founded the real International of the workers.â [Translatorâs
Note.]
[5] Excerpts from the text of the March 1938 UGT-CNT Unity Pact
[Translatorâs Note].
[6] Another English translation of this letter may be consulted online
at the website of the Kate Sharpley Library:
http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/pk0q0r [Translatorâs Note].
[7] The refrain of the confessional prayer of the Roman Catholic Mass,
âMy fault, my fault, my most grievous faultâ, which is supposed to be
recited while striking oneâs chest with oneâs fist three times
[Translatorâs Note].
[8] Another English translation of this passage may be consulted at
online at the Website of the Kate Sharpley Library:
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/camillo-berneri-war-and-revolution
[Translatorâs Note].
[9] An English translation of Souchyâs pamphlet may be consulted online
at: http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spain/souchy_may.html [Translatorâs
Note].
[10] The reader may wish to consult a substantially different
translation of this resolution that may be found in José Peirats, The
CNT in the Spanish Revolution, Volume 2, edited and revised by Chris
Ealham, translated by Paul Sharkey and Chris Ealham, ChristieBooks,
Hastings, 2005, pp. 196â197; the book is also available online at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=vcauoD75eBMC&pg=PA196&lpg=PA196&dq=June+1937+regional+plenum+cnt&source=bl&ots=VZwFVKrI7P&sig=BP9TfZomlTcIi6lcMmPjXPbK94A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GLKZU8rtKIKKyATB8ICgAw&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=June%201937%20regional%20plenum%20cnt&f=false
[Translatorâs Note].
[11] The text that follows is composed of excerpts from Letters to a
Frenchman on the Present Crisis (written in September 1870), as it is
known in English. A selection of excerpts from this pamphlet, which does
not however include the passages translated from the Spanish below, may
be found online at:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1870/letter-frenchman.htm
[Translatorâs Note].