REMEMBERING SPAIN
Spanish CNT flag
The following is not intended to be a history of the Spanish Civil War; such a topic would fill several web pages. I plan to include several sections for the reader to get some understanding of what the Revolution was about, so that they may learn more about it on their own.
July 18-19, 1996 marked the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the people's insurrection that has come to be called the Spanish Civil War. During this historic event, the people of Spain rose up against a military coup perpetrated in the interests of the wealthy elites and the other reactionary institutions, like the church. The Spanish Civil War lasted from July 1936 until 1939, ending in the triumph of Francisco Franco's Falangists (the Spanish fascist party) and the destruction of the Spanish Republic.
Most people consider this event as the prelude to World War II, a failed battle between democracy and fascism, where many foreign powers contended for Spain. However, it was much more than that.
What made the Spanish Civil War so special, so important, was that it was far more than a political squabble between rival factions--rather, it began as a people's social revolution, the likes of which may never be seen again.
Moreover, what made this revolution a key moment in anarchist history was the pivotal role anarchists themselves played in it. In Spain, anarchism reached its fullest flowering; the Spanish CNT alone at its peak numbered over two million members. During the Revolution, these committed Anarchists and syndicalists actually put their ideas into practice on a variety of levels, in many settings. What is exciting to anarchists of today is that, contrary to the claims of authoritarians regarding anarchism's alledged "utopianism", the Revolution showed that anarchism worked! This is the side of the Spanish Civil War that doesn't get much play, naturally.
We don't pretend that what the CNT/FAI created in Spain during the Civil War was perfect; far from it. Some militants within the movement strayed (in my opinion) from the anarchist movement in their personal desire to exercise power. They barely had two and a half years (and in truth, far less than that...as the revolution had been stopped months after it began) in which to experiment with anarchist ideas, so they made many errors. But anarchists today believe that the Spanish Civil War is valuable as a case study in anarchist ideas, good and bad, in practice.
The Spanish Civil War was a tragedy for a number of reasons:
- The betrayal of the Revolution by reformists and the Communist Party
- The massive military support and funding of the Falangists by Hitler and Mussolini versus the ill-equipped Popular Front forces
- The refusal of the alledged "forces of freedom", the US, Britain, or France to lend equivalent aid to the democratic forces
- The brutal, subversive tactics of the Communist Party and the use of war materiel as a political lever to give power to the Communists at the expense of the populist Anarchists
- The self-destructive coalition of the Popular Front including the Socialist UGT, the Trotskyite POUM, the Anarchist CNT and FAI, the Communist PSUC proved untenable
- The vanguardist tactics of some of the FAI members
- The failure of a genuinely popular uprising to be able to withstand the superior firepower lended to authority by modern technology (e.g., for the first time, modern technological might actually could make right; the forces of oppression had unbelievable firepower at their disposal and used it to decimate the people)
All of these things, and more, led to the ultimate doom of the
single greatest people's uprising in history (also the largest anarchist movement to date).
Yet, anarchists take heart in the example of their Spanish comrades, and look to a time in the future when we can ultimately surpass their own grand and fleeting effort.
Homage to Catalonia is by far the most well-known account of the Spanish Civil War. It came from George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1984), who actually participated in the conflict (as part of the POUM) and was wounded in battle. He made a number of valuable observations in his book, some of which are included below. As an eyewitness to many events, and one not affiliated with the Anarchist cause directly, it is interesting to note his own observations regarding anarchism in practice...
BOOKS ON THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Here are three for starters...
- Bolloten, Burnett. The Grand Camouflage: The Communist Conspiracy in the Spanish Civil War. New York, 1968.
- Borkenau, Franz. The Spanish Cockpit. 1937. Reprint, Ann Arbor, 1965.
- Brenan, Gerald. The Spanish Labyrinth. New York, 1943.
- Broué, Pierre and Témime, Emile. La Révolution et la Guerre d'Espagne. Paris, 1961.
- Chomsky, Noam. "Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship" in American Power and the New Mandarins. New York, 1969.
- Jellinek, Frank. The Civil War in Spain. London, 1938.
- Leval, Gaston. Ne Fanco Ne Stalin. Milan, 1952.
- Leval, Gaston. Social Reconstruction in Spain. London, 1938.
- Maurin, Joaquín. L'Anarcho-Syndicalisme en Espagne. 1924.
- Maurin, Joaquin. Révolution et Contre-Révolution en Espagne. 1937.
- Montseny, Federica. Militant Anarchism and the Reality in Spain. Glasgow, 1937.
- Munis, G. Jalones de Derrota. Mexico, 1946.
- Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia. 1938. Repriint, Boston, 1955.
- Peirats, José. Los Anarquistas en la Crisis Politica Española. Buenos Aires, 1964.
- Pierats, José. La CNT en le Revolucíon Española. 3 vols. Toulouse, 1951.
- Puente, Dr. Isaac. Il Comunismo Libertario. 1932.
- Rabassière, Henri. Espagne Creuset Politique. Nd.
- Richards, Vernon. Lessons of the Spanish Revolution. London, 1953.
- Santillan, D.A. de. After the Revolution. New York, 1937.
- Santillan, D.A. de. La Revolucíon y la Guerra en España. 1938.
RELEVANT LINKS
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