-- by Citizen X--
Of all the anarcho-libertarian movements to be found in continental Europe, the largest and oldest is that of Spain. The Spanish anarchist movement has its roots in the tradition of laissez-faire individualism and belief in individual liberty. The movement has historically been centered in the northeast corner of Spain, a fiercely independent region called Catalonia.
Anarchism and libertarianism go hand-in-hand throughout Spanish political history. The two philosophies are of one accord in opposing all forces of centralized authority and ideological rigidity (especially as represented by the oppressive hold of the Catholic Church on Spanish society), and supporting the causes of equality and liberty. The Spanish Civil War provided them with the opportunity to defend their beliefs.
After the abdication of King Alfonso XIII in 1931 and the founding of the Second Republic, the anarcho-libertarian movement grew swiftly. By the beginning of 1936 the two main Anarchist organizations, the CNT (Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo, National Confederation of Workers) and FAI (Federacion Anarquistica Iberica, Iberian Anarchist Federation) claimed upwards of two million members. In February 1936 the Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing political groups, won a sweeping victory and formed the new Republican government. The leaders of the Spanish Army, under General Francisco Franco, organized a military revolt and tried to seize power. The response to this was immediate and powerful. In most of the big cities of Spain, there was a general strike and workers formed into armed militia units organized by their trade unions, ordinary people built barricades in the streets, and many ordinary soldiers were argued into giving up their weapons and leaving the revolt.
This spontaneous popular reaction not only foiled the Fascist plan, but went much further: it became the beginning of a true revolution. The `normal' authorities -- the military, police, and civic administration -- were thrown into confusion and in several areas the State literally withered away. In many areas of Spain, especially Catalonia, the local committees of the CNT moved in to fill the power vacuum. They did not assume power in order to become a replacement government. Instead, they reorganized the countryside into small agrarian communes and set about defending the province from the Fascists with their own party militia. Government by local committees and regional control of agricultural production were also introduced. For a short time, Catalonia became a living example of that apparent oxymoron, the true Anarchist state.
The Fascists, although they had been defeated in their grab for power, still had control over most of the military. They also had an overseas power base in Morocco (Franco had been leader of the Spanish Foreign Legion, based in that country) and massive military aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. They consolidated control of what areas they occupied and began to expand as the military revolt became a total war. The Republican government, which had control of the majority of the population, was prevented from buying the weapons and supplies they needed by a blockade of the Western capitalist democracies (who claimed to be `enforcing neutrality,' but somehow this resolve did not prevent aid from reaching Franco's troops). Soviet Russia was the only country to give military aid to the Republicans, and this aid came with political strings attached. The government came increasingly under the influence of the Spanish Communist Party, who took the opportunity to lean on the Anarchists. They demanded that the Anarchists disband their militias on the grounds that they were diverting industrial effort from building up the Popular Army (which had started forming behind the front while these same militias stopped the Fascists from overrunning the country).
Matters came to a head in May 1937. Fighting broke out in Barcelona (the capital of Catalonia) when Popular Army troops tried to disarm the militias by force and seize control of the city. Over four hundred people were killed in a week of street battles and many Anarchist leaders were arrested. Although final defeat was still two years away, the Government began to lose the support of the masses from that day forward. Like any other State authority, the Republican government had demonstrated that it was more interested in political deals and its own survival than in a true transformation of society.
The libertarian spirit survived the war and the forty years of Fascist repression that followed it, and Catalonia is an Anarchist outpost to this day (there is also a separatist movement that wants to break away from the central government, similar to the Basque nation in northern Spain but without the association with violent terrorist groups like the ETA). The turmoil and violence of the Spanish Civil War gave us a temporary vision of a society founded on liberty, equality, and voluntary cooperation.
Things to read and see
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (Orwell fought in a Trotskyist militia unit in the Spanish War. This was the first of Orwell's books that examined the question of `truth' under totalitarian systems.)
The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas. A long and detailed but fairly balanced history of the war.
The Spanish Cockpit by Franz Borkenau (written in 1937, but still a balanced account).
Land and Freedom - a 1998 film directed by Ken Loach, is a fictional story of an Englishman fighting with the militia of the POUM, a Trotskyite political party that was suppressed along with the Anarchists after the Barcelona fighting. A little simplistic but a very inspiring and dramatic presentation.
The Spanish Civil War - an excellent six-hour documentary made by the
BBC in the late 1980s. Both video tapes and the accompanying book should be
available from larger city or university libraries.
[back to Texts]