💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › jose-peirats-about-the-iron-column.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 11:28:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: About the Iron Column Author: José Peirats Valls Date: 1971 Language: en Topics: Spanish Civil War Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20120312172244/http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spain/iron_peirats.html Notes: A Translation of the "Iron Column" material from Jose Peirats, La CNT en la Revolucion Espanola, Ruedo Iberico, 1971. v1 p231-3 Trans. by Sean Hale with help from Julie Spencer
With respect to the Levante, the middle of October [1936] produced
serious events. The confederal forces of the garrison at the Teruel
front made a raid against the rearguard to clean it of the parasitic
forces that endangered the revolutionary interests. The "Iron Column," a
confederal and anarchist group, burst into the capital and had bloody
encounters with the forces of the rearguard. With the situation
restored, and before the campaigns of defamation by the communists and
the government, the aforementioned column distributed the following
manifesto:
The "Iron Column" which is made up of elements of the FAI and the CNT,
and by others who, without belonging to either organization, are
identified with the ideas and acts of the anarchists, before the origin
of the events that were acted out in Valencia and faced with the
accusations that certain groups make about it, feel an imperative need
to explain their acts so that no one will make partisan work at our
expense.
The men who under the name "Iron Column" fight against the clerical and
military reaction on the Teruel front, as the Anarchists that we are,
are equally preoccupied by the problems of the front and of the
rearguard. By this, when we saw in Valencia that things hadn't gone as
we would have desired, when we say that the rearguard, far from giving
us security, was a source of worry and doubt, we decided to intervene by
sending to the concerned organization the following requests:
[carabiñeros], security forces, etc.) are sent to the front,
capitalist and state institutions.
We made these requests from two points of view: the revolutionary and
the ideological. As anarchists and as revolutionaries we understood that
the existence of the Civil Guard, clearly a reactionary body, was a
danger that across time and particularly during this movement has so
openly revealed its spirit and its procedures.
The Civil Guard was odious to us and we didn't want to see it because
overwhelming reasons made us distrust it. Because of that we asked for
its disarmament and that is why we disarmed it.
We asked that all armed bodies go to the front, because the front lacked
men and arms. Given the state of things in the city there was more of a
need at the front and their presence in the city was a hindrance. We
have reached the half-way point and we will not stop until it is
complete.
Finally, we asked for the destruction of all those documents that
represented the tyrannical and oppressive past, before which our free
consciousness rebelled. We destroyed the papers and thought to seize for
ourselves those buildings that, like the court [Audiencia], served to
entomb revolutionaries in prisons, which now that we have found
ourselves in the dawn of a free society have no reason to be.
These objectives took us to Valencia, and this was that which we
fulfilled with the procedure that seemed most fitting to us.
Furthermore, during our stay in Valencia, we saw that while negotiations
to buy arms failed, for lack of cash, many institutions had a great
quantity of gold and other precious metals; this was what persuaded us
to seize the gold, the silver, and the platinum of several jewelers,
insignificant amounts of which were handed over to the organization.
We did all that was just explained. Now we will see what we didn't do.
We are accused of sacking buildings. This is a lie. We defy he who would
tell us the worth of our deeds and that would say that our men obeyed
whims or made more disturbances than necessary. We are accused of
assassinating people in disgraceful plots; this is a dirty lie. What
have we done to justify these accusations? What crimes have we
committed? An unfortunate accident, which we were are the first to
lament and condemn seems to be the accusers' proof. The death of the
socialist comrade José Pardo Aracil is positively not our doing. This
was demonstrated the same night by the fact that no member of our column
intervened in this. WE HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OF ATTACKING THE SOCIALIST OR
OTHER ANTI-FASCIST GROUPS, much less in the sly way that Pardo was
assaulted. Without wanting to say that we renounce our purpose, which is
the only reason for our struggle, we know that a fight among us would be
criminal at this time. We have before us a formidable enemy; all our
strengths must be directed to destroying it.
We believe that with this said that our operations will remain clear. We
are revolutionaries and we have behaved as such: with uprightness and
nobility. None but a cretin could see bad intentions or fickleness in
our behavior.
Our position, during these decisive moments in Spain's development, is
clear and final. With all our men, with all our energy, with all our
enthusiasm, we will fight until this vile fascism is squashed forever.
We fight to achieve the SOCIAL REVOLUTION. We are marching towards
anarchism. For this, now and later, we will defend anything that tends
towards living with more liberty, breaking the yokes that would oppress
us, destroying the vestiges of the past.
We say to all workers, revolutionaries, and anarchists: at the front and
in the rear, wherever you are, fight against the enemies of your
liberties, destroy fascism. And also stop, by the fruits of your
endeavors, the return of a dictatorial regime that would be the
continuation, with all its vices and defects, of all those things that
we've been trying to make disappear. Now with arms and later with the
tools of labor learn to live without tyrants, and develop yourselves
along the only road to liberty. This is the feeling of the "Iron Column"
which we expose clearly and plainly.
Brothers [Compañeros], death to fascism! Long live the social
revolution! Viva la Anarquía!