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Title: War & Revolution Author: Conor McLoughlin Date: 1992 Language: en Topics: Spanish Civil War, Spanish Revolution, Friends of Durruti, Workers Solidarity Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20120312171526/http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/ws92/fod34.html Notes: From Workers Solidarity No34, 1992
THE WAR in Spain (1936-1939) has often been portrayed as a simple
struggle between Fascism and democracy. In fact it was anything but. A
military coup launched in July 1936 was defeated by worker's action in
most parts of Spain.
There then followed a wide ranging social revolution (see Worker's
Solidarity 33). As many as 5-7 million were involved in the
collectivisation of agriculture and thousands in worker's control of
industry. About 2 million of these were also members of the oldest union
in Spain the anarcho-syndicalist; CNT.
As with all revolutions a counter-revolution followed quickly on the
Spanish revolution. This was spearheaded by the Spanish Communist party.
These were faithful adherents to Stalin's foreign policy of sucking up
to France and England in the hope of military and economic alliances.
They resisted the revolution at all stages and found willing allies in
the Spanish republican and socialist forces. All took pains to convey to
the world a struggle between fascism and democracy.
They also took steps to try and make it such a struggle by smashing
collectives and factory committees and sabotaging the efforts of
revolutionary forces at the front. However even more worrying is the
fact that the "anarchists" of the CNT made little attempt to combat
these forces. In fact four became government ministers.
One tendency within the CNT; the Friends of Durruti resisted the growing
reformism within the CNT. In this review of their pamphlet; "Towards a
Fresh Revolution" Conor Mc Loughlin outlines their importance to modern
anarchists.
"We are not interested in medals or in general's sashes, we want neither
committees or ministers"
Bueneventura Durruti - Solidaridad Obrera Sept 12 1936
"The government has posthumously granted the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
to the illustrious Libertarian leader Buenaventura Durruti on the
anniversary of his death"
- Solidaridad Obrera April 30 1938
The friends of Durutti were setup in 1937 by rank and file members of
the CNT and members of CNT columns resisting militarisation. "Towards a
fresh revolution" was published in 1938 as "a message of hope and a
determination to renew the fight against an internationalism." It's a
short and relatively easy read at 43 pages. It is obviously aimed at
activists in the CNT and it pulls no punches in it's attacks on the
Spanish bourgeoisie and "colaborationists" in the CNT. However be warned
it does assume a certain amount of background knowledge of the history
of the CNT and the Spanish revolution. It would be useful to read in
conjunction with Vernon Richard's "Lessons of the Spanish Revolution"
The pamphlet begins by recalling the massive gains made by Spanish
workers in areas where they had succeeded in beating the fascist coup.
The coup had been defeated by workers facing down the military often
with their bare hands. It had been defeated without any help from the
popular front government who refused to arm the people. This was to be
repeated throughout the course of the "civil war". The workers
confronted fascism with revolution the government proved more afraid of
revolution then fascism (which is not to knock the many genuine
anti-fascists in some of the government parties.).
The July events triggered a massive social revolution throughout Spain.
(see Workers Solidarity no. 33). Workers took over in the factories and
on the lands and began the creation of a self-managed communist society.
Millions were involved in agricultural communes and worker's self
management in the factories.
The pamphlet however poses the central question. Why, when a clear
majority supported and took part in the building of a social revolution,
wasn't this pushed forward by the CNT; the massive anarcho-syndicalist
union. Their answer is brief: "what happened had to happen"
Why was this sellout inevitable as the FOD maintain? Why did leading
anarchists move on to become leading ministers in the Spanish
government?
In explaining their apparently fatalistic view of the CNT the FOD go on
to show how the CNT was devoid of any revolutionary theory or programme.
They had "Lyricism aplenty" and detailed plans had been laid down as to
how an anarchist Spain would operate at their national conference in
Saragosa in May 1936. But they couldn't get from A to B, from bread and
butter struggle to a future libertarian society.
For this reason they handed the revolution to the tender mercies of the
Socialists, republicans and Communists. These forces which emerged
without a shred of support from the July events were not slow to
rebuild. Instead of destroying it they propped up the Spanish state in
it's hour of need. As the FOD put it: "It breathed a lungfull of Oxygen
into an anemic, terror stricken bourgeoisie."
Garcia Oliver one of the "leading militants" who was shortly to enter
the government without even consulting the Union's members claimed he
had avoided "an anarchist dictatorship". This shows a complete and crass
lack of understanding of the essential tasks of an anarchist
organisation i.e. the smashing of the state and the transfer of power to
worker's and peasants. The CNT and Spanish workers were to pay in blood
for this collaboration.
We acknowledge the great work of the CNT in propagandising anarchism and
the struggle against Franco. But we must stand with the FOD in absolute
condemnation of the deferring of revolutionary politics to class
collaboration.
The FOD had a programme which could have won the support of the Spanish
masses and led them to anarchism and the destruction of Fascism. However
they were too small and too late. The need for such a programme as
outlined in "How anarchists should organise" in this issue has never
been more pressing
By this stage the counter-revolutionaries in the "republican" camp felt
confident enough to provoke a fight with the Barcelona working class.
Police under the command of Rodriguez Salas, the public order commissar,
attacked the telephone exchange. They were strongly resisted by CNT
organised workers inside.
Barricades soon sprang up all over the city. Fighting broke out with the
CNT and POUM (non-Stalinist Marxists) quickly gaining the upper hand
over government and PSUC (Stalinist controlled Catalan "Socialist"
party). After an armed stand off the workers were finally persuaded to
lay down arms by the CNT "leadership".
The FOD strongly urged workers to remain put and were in the thick of
the fighting. They pointed out that the workers had won and now
controlled Barcelona (after a steady erosion of their position since
July 1936). They insisted that workers stayed put. They issued a
manifesto calling for the disbanding of the army and parties which had
supported the coup and the establishment of a revolutionary Junta to
continue the war.
It is worth explaining exactly what they meant by this Junta since the
word has very bad associations. They wanted the Junta to control only
the war effort. It was to be made up of elected, recallable delegates.
The economy was to be under the control of workers through their
syndicates.
For issuing these demands they were attacked as traitors and agent
provocateurs. The CNT brokered peace was an abandonment of the
revolutionary Barcelona workers. Several thousand troops arrived from
Valencia. There were mass arrests, executions and immediate press
censorship. The destruction of the POUM and CNT by Stalin's CHEKA agents
began.
The May events were a vital turning point in the Spanish revolution. The
collectives were crushed throughout republican areas soon afterwards.
Worker's control was smashed and militarisation completed. The "peoples
army" then suffered massive and bloody defeats at the hands of the
fascists.
We would agree with almost all the FOD's positions summarised at the end
of the pamphlet. These include;
democratic worker's army.
(The CNT spent most of the war guarding the government's 2,259 pesatas
in gold! This money which could have aided the revolution was exported
to Russia to buy the arms that helped destroy it.)
To this we could only add the immediate granting of independence to
remaining Spanish colonies.
The FOD were armed with a revolutionary programme that could have
brought Spain towards anarchism and crushed the Fascists. But they were
too small and to late to hope to win workers to it's implementation The
need for anarchists organised with such a programme has never been more
pressing. We are attempting to build one.